The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 01 (of 12)

No. 47 of the Round Table series.

PAGE

 

136.

Tout homme réfléchi, etc. See note to p. 117.

 

‘Nor can I think what thoughts they can conceive.’ Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, Part I. l. 315.

 

We have already. In a paper (by Leigh Hunt) On Commonplace People (Examiner, March 19, 1815).

138.

The music which has been since introduced, etc. The famous ‘Macbeth music’ written for D’Avenant’s version produced, according to Genest, in 1672. This music, traditionally assigned to Matthew Locke, is now attributed to Purcell.

139.

Mr. Westall’s drawings. Richard Westall (1765–1836).

 

Horne Tooke’s account, etc. See The Diversions of Purley and Hazlitt’s essay on Horne Tooke in The Spirit of the Age.

 

‘For true no-meaning puzzles more than wit.’ Pope’s Moral Essays, II. 114.

 

The new Schools for all. For the famous educational schemes of Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster and for Bentham’s Panopticon, see Leslie Stephen’s English Utilitarians.

 

The Penitentiary. Millbank Prison, formerly known as the Penitentiary, was the ultimate result of Bentham’s Panopticon scheme and was opened in 1816.

 

The new Bedlam. The new Bedlam Hospital was opened in 1815.

 

The new steamboats. The first steamboat had been launched on the Clyde in 1812.

 

The gaslights. The Chartered Gas Company obtained its Act of Parliament in 1810.

 

The Bible Society. The British and Foreign Bible Society was established in 1804.

 

The Society for the Suppression of Vice. See ante, note to p. 60.

ON THE CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ OF THE BRITISH INSTITUTION

These two papers are taken (with considerable variations) from the two last of three ‘Literary Notices,’ dealing with the Catalogue, which Hazlitt contributed to The Examiner on Nov. 3, Nov. 10, and Nov. 17, 1816. The first of these ‘Literary Notices’ was never republished by Hazlitt. All three were republished in their Examiner form in the second volume of Criticisms on Art, etc. (2 vols., 1843–44), edited by the author’s son, who omitted from his edition of The Round Table the two essays in the present text. All three essays will be included in a later volume of the present edition.

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140.

Our former remarks. In The Examiner, Nov. 3, 1816.

141.

The Prince Regent’s new sewer. Presumably the Regent’s Canal, part of which was opened in 1814.

142.

‘The scale by which,’ etc. Paradise Lost, VIII. 591.

 

Mrs. Peachum’s coloured handkerchiefs. Beggar’s Opera, Act 1.

143.

‘A name great above all names.’ Philippians, ii. 9.

143.

Mr. Payne Knight. Richard Payne Knight gave evidence in 1816 before a Select Committee of the House of Commons upon the value of the Elgin Marbles. He placed them in the second rank of art, and valued them at £25,000. They were bought by the nation for £35,000. Haydon the artist wrote a long letter to The Examiner (March 17, 1816) on the subject, entitled ‘On the Judgment of Connoisseurs being preferred to that of Professional Men, Elgin Marbles, etc.’

144.

Mr. Soane. John Soane (1753–1837), knighted in 1831. His house and its contents, presented by him to the nation in 1833, now form the Soane Museum.

 

‘With riches fineless.’ Othello, Act III. Scene 3.

 

‘Beastly; subtle as the fox,’ etc. Cymbeline, Act. III. Scene 3.

 

‘The link,’ etc. Troilus and Cressida, Act I. Scene 3.

 

It is many years ago, etc. Apparently, says Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, about 1798, at St. Neot’s, Huntingdonshire. See The English Comic Writers, where this passage is repeated in the Lecture on the Works of Hogarth.

145.

‘How were we then uplifted.’ Troilus and Cressida, Act III. Scene 2.

 

‘Temples not made with hands‘, etc. Acts, vii. 48.

 

E. O. Tables. A new game introduced shortly before 1782, when a Bill was brought in prohibiting it under severe penalties. The Bill was lost in the House of Lords. See Parl. Hist., vol. xxiii. pp. 110–113.

 

‘Cutpurses of the art,’ etc.

‘A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,

That from a shelf the precious diadem stole

And put it in his pocket!’

Hamlet, Act III. Scene 4.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

146.

‘That a great man’s memory,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2.

 

Their late President. Sir Joshua Reynolds.

147.

‘Feel the future in the instant.’ Macbeth, Act I. Scene 5.

148.

‘Depend upon it,’ etc. This letter was not avowed by Burke, but was attributed to him by Barry himself and by Sir James Prior in his Life of Burke, (Bohn, p. 227).

149.

‘Playing at will,’ etc.

‘——and played at will

Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet,

Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss.’

Paradise Lost, v. 294–296.

 

Highmore, etc. Joseph Highmore (1692–1780); Francis Hayman (1708–1776), one of the founders of the Royal Academy; Thomas Hudson (1701–1779), portrait painter; Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723).

 

‘Like flowers in men’s caps,’ etc. Macbeth, Act IV. Scene 3.

 

Hoppner, etc. John Hoppner (1758–1810), the portrait painter; John Opie (1761–1807); Sir Martin Archer Shee (1769–1850), President of the Royal Academy from 1830 to 1845; Philip James Loutherbourg (1740–1812), scene painter to Garrick; John Francis Rigaud (1742–1810); George Romney (1734–1802). Alderman John Boydell’s (1719–1804) famous Shakespeare Gallery comprised one hundred and seventy pictures. The engravings were published in 1802.

150.

‘Gone to the vault,’ etc. A favourite quotation of Burke’s from the lines in Shakespeare:—

‘To that same ancient vault

Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.’

Romeo and Juliet, Act IV. Scene 1.

 

The picture ... of Charles I. In Hazlitt’s time this picture was at Blenheim, and he referred to it in his Sketches of the Principal Picture Galleries in England (Pictures at Oxford and Blenheim). It was bought by Parliament from the Duke of Marlborough in 1885, and is now in the National Gallery.

 

The Waterloo Exhibition. The Waterloo Museum in Pall Mall ‘which now (according to the advertisement) presents to public view upwards of 1000 mementos of the late extraordinary events upon the Continent.’

 

‘From this time forth,’ etc. Othello, Act V. Scene 2.

 

The English are a shopkeeping nation. Hazlitt probably refers to the exclamation of Barère said to have been repeated by Napoleon. The expression seems to have been first used by Dean Tucker of Gloucester in a Tract of 1766.

 

‘Balm of hurt minds,’ etc. Macbeth, Act II. Scene 2.

151.

‘Smoothing the raven down,’ etc. Comus, 251–252.

ON POETICAL VERSATILITY

This fragment is taken from the third of a series of four ‘Illustrations of the Times Newspaper,’ which Hazlitt contributed to The Examiner under the heading of ‘Literary Notices.’ The first of these four papers (Dec. 1, 1816) has not been republished; the other three, dated respectively December 15, 1816, December 22, 1816, and January 12, 1817, were published in Political Essays.

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151.

‘Heaven’s own tinct.’ Cymbeline, Act II. Scene 2.

 

‘Being so majestical,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Scene 1.

152.

Poets, it has been said. See Political Essays (Mr. Southey’s New Year’s Ode).

 

They do not like, etc. The reference is to Southey, Poet Laureate, and Wordsworth, distributor of stamps for the county of Westmoreland.

ON ACTORS AND ACTING

This essay and the next are based upon the last (No. 48) of the Round Table series, which appeared in The Examiner for Jan. 5, 1817. Hazlitt has, however, interpolated into both essays various passages from former theatrical criticisms. The paper in the Round Table appears to have been inspired by Colley Cibber’s Apology for his Life. A general reference may here be made to that work, to the volume in the present edition containing Hazlitt’s dramatic criticisms, and to Lamb’s and Leigh Hunt’s essays on the stage.

PAGE

 

153.

‘The abstracts,’ etc. Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2.

154.

George Barnwell. By George Lillo (1693–1739), produced at Drury Lane Theatre on June 22, 1731. The play was frequently revived, and was in some places acted annually as a moral lesson to apprentices.

 

The Inconstant. Farquhar’s comedy (1702). Orinda should be Oriana.

 

Mr. Liston. John Liston (1776?-1846),the comic actor, who made his first appearance in 1805 and retired in 1837.

155.

Sir George Etherege (1635?-1691), the dramatist. See English Comic Writers, where a part of this passage is repeated.

 

John Kemble. John Philip Kemble (1757–1823). Hazlitt wrote an account of his retirement from the stage, which took place at Covent Garden on June 23, 1817.

 

Pierre. In Otway’s Venice Preserved (1682), ‘one of the happiest and most spirited of all Mr. Kemble’s performances’ (A View of the English Stage).

 

The Stranger. Benjamin Thompson’s (1776?-1816) play, ‘The Stranger,’ translated from Kotzebue, was produced in 1798, Kemble playing the title-rôle. See Hazlitt’s essay on ‘Mr. Kemble’s Retirement.’

 

‘A tale of other times.’ ‘A tale of the times of old!’ the opening words of Macpherson’s Ossian.

 

One of the most affecting things, etc. This paragraph is taken from a ‘Theatrical Examiner’ (June 4, 1815) on the retirement of John Bannister (1760–1836) from the stage. For Bannister and Richard Suett (1755–1805) see Hazlitt’s essay ‘On Play-Going and on Some of our old Actors,’ and Lamb’s ‘On Some of the old Actors.’

 

The Prize. By Prince Hoare (1755–1834), originally produced in 1793.

 

Mrs. Storace. Anna Selina Storace or Storache (1766–1817), the singer and actress, played in ‘The Prize’ in 1793.

 

My Grandmother. By Prince Hoare, produced in 1793.

 

The Son-in-Law. A comic opera by John O’Keeffe (1747–1833), produced in 1779.

 

Scrub. In The Beaux’ Stratagem of Farquhar.

 

Thomas King (1730–1805), the original Sir Peter Teazle; William Parsons (1736–1795); James William Dodd (1740–1796); John Quick (1748–1831), who made his last appearance in 1813; and John Edwin the elder (1749–1790). See Hazlitt’s essay ‘On Play-Going and Some of our old Actors.’

156.

‘All the world’s a stage’ etc. As You Like It, Act II. Scene 7.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

A large part of the first paragraph of this essay appeared originally in a notice of Kean’s Sir Giles Overreach (‘Theatrical Examiner,’ Jan. 14, 1816). See A View of the English Stage.

PAGE

 

156.

‘Leaving the world no copy.’ Twelfth Night, Act I. Scene 5.

 

Colley Cibber’s account. See Chap. iv. of Cibber’s Apology.

 

Miss O’Neill. Eliza O’Neill (1791–1872) made her last appearance on the stage on July 13, 1819, shortly before her marriage with Mr. Becher, who afterwards became a baronet. Hazlitt in an article on her retirement (see A View of the English Stage) said that ‘her excellence (unrivalled by any actress since Mrs. Siddons) consisted in truth of nature and force of passion.’

 

Mrs. Siddons. Sarah Siddons (1755–1831) appeared without success in London in 1775 and 1776, gained a great reputation in Manchester and Bath, and reappeared in London on October 10, 1782 in Garrick’s Isabella, a version of Southerne’s Fatal Marriage. After a long series of triumphs she made her farewell appearance on June 29, 1812, as Lady Macbeth. Hazlitt’s notices of her are confined to two of the occasional benefit performances which she gave before she finally retired in June 1819. See A View of the English Stage (June 15, 1816, and June 7, 1817).

157.

‘We have seen what a ferment,’ etc. See the essays above, ‘On the Catalogue Raisonné of the British Institution.’

 

Betterton, etc. Thomas Betterton (1635?-1710); Barton Booth (1681–1733); Robert Wilks (1665?-1732); Samuel Sandford, a well-known actor on the Restoration stage, who died early in the eighteenth century; James Nokes (d. 1692); Anthony Leigh (d. 1692); William Pinkethman (d. 1724); William Bullock (d. 1740?); Richard Estcourt (1668–1712); Thomas Dogget (d. 1721): Elizabeth Barry (1658–1713); Susanna Mountfort, the daughter of William Mountfort, the actor and dramatist, who was murdered by Captain Hill and Lord Mohun in 1692; Anne Oldfield (1683–1730); Anne Bracegirdle (1663?-1748), who retired from the stage in 1707 after being defeated in a competition with Mrs. Oldfield; Susannah Maria Cibber (1714–1766), sister of Arne the composer, and wife of Theophilus Cibber, famous first as a singer (especially of Handel’s music), and later as an actress of tragedy.

 

Cibber himself. Colley Cibber (1671–1757), actor and dramatist, Poet Laureate from 1730 till his death. For a very entertaining account of himself and of nearly all the well-known actors and actresses whose names appear in the preceding note see his Apology for his Life (1740).

 

Macklin, etc. Charles Macklin (1697?-1797), actor and dramatist, whose great part was Shylock; James Quin (1693–1766); John Rich (1682–1761), the originator of pantomime in England (his name is substituted by Hazlitt for that of Peg Woffington, which appeared in the original Round Table paper); Catherine or Kitty Clive (1711–1785), whose acting and ‘sprightliness of humour’ were admired by Dr. Johnson, and Hannah Pritchard (1711–1768), who created the part of Irene in Johnson’s play, and Frances Abington (1737–1815), well-known members of Garrick’s company; Thomas Weston (1737–1776), and Edward Shuter (1728–1776), two of the best comic actors of their time.

 

‘Gladdened life,’ etc. A composite quotation from Johnson’s well-known reference to Garrick (Lives of the Poets, Edmund Smith). See Boswell’s Life of Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill, iii. 387.

 

Our hundred days. The reference is a characteristic one to Buonaparte’s hundred days in Europe in 1815.

 

Betterton’s Hamlet or his Brutus, etc. Colley Cibber (Apology, Chap, iv.) refers particularly to these two impersonations, describes (Chap. xiv.) Booth’s performance of Cato in 1713, and specially eulogises Mrs. Barry’s Monimia and Belvidera in Otway’s plays, The Orphan and Venice Preserved. (Chap. v.). See Hazlitt’s lecture ‘On the Spirit of Ancient and Modern Literature’ in his Lectures on the Literature of the Age of Elizabeth for a criticism of these plays. He saw and reviewed Miss O’Neill’s performances in both these characters. See A View of the English Stage.

 

Penkethman’s manner, etc. See The Tatler, No. 188.

 

Dowton. Hazlitt spoke of William Dowton (1764–1851) as ‘a genuine and excellent comedian’ (‘On Play-Going and on Some of the old Actors’). There are frequent notices of him in A View of the English Stage.

157.

Note. Marriage à la mode. By Dryden, first produced in 1672. In The Examiner this note forms part of the text. At the end of the passage quoted Hazlitt proceeds: ‘The whole of Colley Cibber’s work is very amusing to a dramatic amateur. It gives an interesting account of the progress of the stage, which in his time appears to have been in a state militant. Two actors, Kynaston and Montfort were run through the body in disputes with gentlemen, with impunity; and the Master of the Revels arrested any of the two companies who was refractory to the managers, at his pleasure. Dogget was brought up in this manner from Norwich, by two constables: but Dogget being a whig, and a surly fellow, got a Habeas Corpus, and the Master of the Revels was driven from the field.’ Edward Kynaston (1640–1706) was beaten more than once at the instance of Sir Charles Sedley whom he impersonated on the stage. For the story of the Lord Chamberlain and Dogget, see Cibber’s Apology (Chap. x.).

158.

Sir Harry Wildair. Farquhar’s Sir Harry Wildair, a continuation of The Constant Couple, was produced in 1701.

 

‘The Jew that Shakespeare drew.’ This is an exclamation (attributed to Pope) overheard at one of Macklin’s representations of Shylock.

 

As often as we are pleased. The following passage from The Examiner is omitted by Hazlitt: ‘We have no curiosity about things or persons that we never heard of. Mr. Coleridge professes in his Lay Sermon to have discovered a new faculty, by which he can divine the future. This is lucky for himself and his friends, who seem to have lost all recollection of the past.’ Hazlitt here refers to The Statesman’s Manual; or, The Bible the best guide to political skill and foresight: A Lay Sermon, addressed to the Higher Classes of Society (1816), known as the first Lay Sermon. Hazlitt wrote two notices of it in The Examiner, one of which (September 8, 1816) was based merely on newspaper announcements of its forthcoming appearance (see Political Essays); and probably, as Coleridge believed, reviewed it in the Edinburgh Review for December 1816.

 

Players, after all, etc. This passage to the end of the paragraph is from a ‘Theatrical Examiner,’ January 14, 1816.

 

Actors have been accused, etc. The whole of this paragraph is taken from a ‘Theatrical Examiner,’ March 31, 1816.

 

‘The web of our life,’ etc. All’s Well that Ends Well, Act IV. Scene 3.

159.

‘Like the giddy sailor,’ etc. Richard III., Act III. Scene 4.

 

A neighbouring country. Hazlitt probably refers to France where the disqualifications of actors had only recently been removed by the Revolution government. For an account of ecclesiastical intolerance towards actors, especially in France, see Lecky’s The Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe, II. 316 et seq.

 

‘A consummation,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Scene 1.

 

‘The wine of life,’ etc. Macbeth, Act II. Scene 3.

160.

‘Hurried from fierce extremes,’ etc.

‘——and feel by turns the bitter change

Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,’ etc.

Paradise Lost, II. 599 et seq.

 

The strolling player in ‘Gil Blas.’ Gil Blas, Liv. II. Chap. viii.

WHY THE ARTS ARE NOT PROGRESSIVE: A FRAGMENT

In The Morning Chronicle for January 11 and 15, 1814, Hazlitt published two papers entitled ‘Fragments on Art. Why the Arts are not progressive?’ Later in the year he contributed two papers to The Champion (August 28, 1814, and September 11, 1814) under the heading ‘Fine Arts. Whether they are promoted by Academies and Public Institutions?’ and in a letter (October 2) replied to the criticisms of a correspondent. The present ‘Fragment’ is composed of (1) the first of the articles in The Morning Chronicle and part of the second, and (2) part of the second article in The Champion. Much of the matter of the present essay is embodied in Hazlitt’s article on the Fine Arts, contributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica.

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160.

‘It is often made a subject,’ etc. The first three paragraphs are taken from The Morning Chronicle, January 11, 1814. In The Champion for August 28, 1814, the first two paragraphs appear as a quotation from a ‘contemporary critic.’

 

Antæus. The story of Antæus the giant is referred to by Milton (Paradise Regained, IV. 563 et seq.).

161.

Nothing is more contrary, etc. This paragraph and part of the next are repeated at the beginning of the Lecture on Shakspeare and Milton in Lectures on the English Poets.

162.

Guido. Substituted for Claude Lorraine, upon whom, in The Morning Chronicle, Hazlitt has the following note: ‘In speaking thus of Claude, we yield rather to common opinion than to our own. However inferior the style of his best landscapes may be, there is something in the execution that redeems all defects. In taste and grace nothing can ever go beyond them. He might be called, if not the perfect, the faultless painter. Sir Joshua Reynolds used to say, that there would be another Raphael, before there was another Claude. In Mr. Northcote’s Dream of a Painter (see his Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds), there is an account of Claude Lorraine, so full of feeling, so picturesque, so truly classical, so like Claude, that we cannot resist this opportunity of copying it out.’ The passage quoted from Northcote is the paragraph beginning, ‘Now tired with pomp and splendid shew.’ See Northcote’s Varieties on Art (The Dream of a Painter) in his Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds, etc. (1813–1815) p. xvi.

 

‘The human face divine.’ Paradise Lost, III. 44.

 

‘Circled Una’s angel face,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, Book I. Canto iii. st. 4.

 

Griselda. See The Canterbury Tales (The Clerk’s Tale).

 

The Flower and the Leaf. This poem, a great favourite of Hazlitt’s, is not now attributed to Chaucer.

163.

The divine story of the Hawk. The Decameron (Fifth Day, Novel IX.). Hazlitt continually refers to the story.

 

Isabella. The Decameron (Fourth Day, Novel V.).

 

So Lear, etc. King Lear, Act II. Scene 4.

 

Titian. The picture referred to is one of those which Hazlitt copied while he was studying in the Louvre in 1802. See Memoirs of William Hazlitt, I. 88. He frequently mentions it.

 

Nicolas Poussin. ‘But, above all, who shall celebrate, in terms of fit praise, his picture of the shepherds in the Vale of Tempe going out in a fine morning of the spring, and coming to a tomb with this inscription:—Et ego in Arcadia vixi!’ (Table Talk, ‘On a Landscape of Nicolas Poussin.’)

 

In general, it must happen, etc. The two concluding paragraphs are taken from The Champion, September 11, 1814.

 

Current with the world. The following passage in The Champion is here omitted: ‘Common sense, which has been sometimes appealed to as the criterion of taste, is nothing but the common capacity, applied to common facts and feelings; but it neither is nor pretends to be, the judge of anything else. To suppose that it can really appreciate the excellence of works of high art, is as absurd as to suppose that it could produce them.’

 

Count Castiglione. Baldassare Count Castiglione (1478–1529), whose famous Il Cortegiano was translated into English by Sir Thomas Hoby under the title of ‘The Courtyer’ (1561).

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171.

It is observed by Mr. Pope. Ed. Elwin and Courthope, vol. X. pp. 534–535.

 

A gentleman of the name of Mason. Neither George Mason (1735–1806), author of An Essay on Design in Gardening, 1768, nor John Monck Mason (1726–1809), Shakespearian commentator, is the author of the work alluded to by Hazlitt, but Thomas Whately (d. 1772) whose Remarks on some of the Characters of Shakespere was published after Thomas Whately’s death by his brother, the Rev. Jos. Whately, in 1785, as ‘by the author of Observations on Modern Gardening’ [1770]; a second edition was published in 1808 with the author’s name on the title-page, and a third in 1839, edited by Archbishop Whately, Thomas Whately’s nephew.

 

Richardson’s Essays. Essays on Shakespeare’s Dramatic Characters. 1774–1812. By William Richardson (1743–1814).

 

Schlegel’s Lectures on the Drama. A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. By A. W. von Schlegel. Delivered at Vienna in 1808. English translation, by John Black, in 1815. The quotation which follows will be found in Bohn’s one vol. edition, 1846, pp. 363–371, and the further references given in these notes are to the same edition.

174.

‘to do a great right.’ Mer. Ven. IV. 1.

 

‘alone is high fantastical.’ Twelfth Night, I. 1.

175.

Dr. Johnson’s Preface to his Edition of Shakespear. 1765.

 

‘swelling figures.’ Dr. Johnson’s Preface. See Malone’s Shakespeare, 1821, vol. i. p. 75.

176.

Dover cliff in Lear, Act IV. 6.

 

flowers in The Winter’s Tale, Act IV. 4.

 

Congreve’s description of a ruin in the Mourning Bride, Act II. 1.

177.

the sleepy eye of love. Cf. ‘The sleepy eye that spoke the melting soul.’ Pope, Imit. 1st Epis. 2nd. Bk. Horace, l. 150.

 

In his tragic scenes. Dr. Johnson’s Preface, p. 71.

 

His declamations, etc. Ibid., p. 75.

 

But the admirers, etc. Ibid., p. 75.

178.

in another work, The Round Table. See pp. 61–64.

CYMBELINE

When the name of the Play is not given it is to be understood that the reference is to the Play under discussion. Differences between the text quoted by Hazlitt and the text of the Globe Shakespeare which seem worth pointing out are indicated in square brackets.

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179.

Dr. Johnson is of opinion. Dr. Johnson’s Preface, p. 73.

180.

Cibber, in speaking of the early English stage. Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740), vol. i. chap. iv.

181.

My lord, Act I. 6.

 

What cheer, Act III. 4. The six following quotations in the text are in the same scene.

182.

My dear lord, Act III. 6.

 

And when with wild wood-leaves and with fairest flowers, Act IV. 2.

183.

Cytherea, how bravely, Act II. 2.

 

Me of my lawful pleasure, Act II. 5.

 

Whose love-suit, Act III. 4.

 

the ancient critic, Aristophanes of Byzantium.

184.

Out of your proof, Act III. 3.

185.

The game’s a-foot [is up], Act III. 3.

 

under the shade. As You Like It, Act II. 7.

 

See, boys! Act III. 3.

 

Nay, Cadwell, Act IV. 2.

186.

Stick to your journal course, Act IV. 2.

 

creatures and Your Highness, Act I. 5.

MACBETH

186.

The poet’s eye. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V. 1.

 

your only tragedy-maker. It would be better to italicise only ‘tragedy’; the reference is probably to Hamlet, III. 2, ‘your only jig-maker.’

 

the air [heaven’s breath] smells wooingly and the temple-haunting martlet builds [does approve by his loved mansionry], Act I. 6.

187.

the blasted heath, Act I. 3.

 

air-drawn dagger, Act III. 4.

 

gracious Duncan, Act III. 1.

 

blood-boultered Banquo, Act IV. 1.

 

What are these, Act I. 3.

 

bends up, Act I. 7.

 

The deed [The attempt and not the deed confounds us], Act II. 2.

 

preter [super] natural solicitings, Act I. 3.

188.

Bring forth and screw his courage, Act I. 7.

 

lost so poorly and a little water, Act II. 2.

 

the sides of his intent, Act I. 7.

 

for their future days and his fatal entrance, Act I. 5.

 

Come all you spirits, Act I. 5.

189.

Duncan comes there, Act I. 5. The two following quotations in the text are in the same scene.

 

Mrs. Siddons. Sarah Siddons (1755–1831). It was as Lady Macbeth that Mrs. Siddons made her ‘last’ appearance on the stage, June 29, 1812. She returned occasionally, and Hazlitt saw her act the part at Covent Garden, June 7, 1817. See note to p. 156, and also Hazlitt’s A View of the English Stage.

190.

There is no art, Act I. 4.

 

How goes the night, Act II. 1.

 

Light thickens, Act III. 2–3.

191.

So fair and foul, Act I. 3.

 

Such welcome and unwelcome news together [things at once] and Men’s lives, Act IV. 3.

 

Look like the innocent flower, Act I. 5.

 

To him and all [all and him], Avaunt, and himself again, Act III. 4.

 

he may sleep, Act IV. 1.

 

Then be thou jocund, Act III. 2.

 

Had he not resembled, Act II. 2.

 

they should be women, and in deeper consequence, Act I. 3.

192.

Why stands Macbeth, Act IV. 1.

 

the milk of human kindness, Act I. 5.

 

himself alone. The Third Part of King Henry VI., Act V. 6.

 

For Banquo’s issue, Act III. 1.

193.

Duncan is in his grave, Act III. 2.

 

direness is thus rendered familiar, Act V. 5.

 

is troubled, Act V. 3.

 

subject [servile] to all the skyey influences. Measure for Measure, Act III. 1.

 

My way of life, Act V. 3.

194.

the ‘Beggar’s Opera,’ by John Gay (1685–1732), first acted January 29, 1728. See The Round Table, pp. 65–66.

 

Lillo’s murders. George Lillo, dramatist (1693–1739), author of Fatal Curiosity and George Barnwell. See note to p. 154.

 

Lamb’s Specimens of Early [English] Dramatic Poets, 1808. See Gollancz’s edition, 2 vols., 1893, vol. I. pp. 271–272.

 

the Witch of Middleton. Thomas Middleton (?1570–1627). It is not known whether the date of the Witch is earlier or later than that of Macbeth.

JULIUS CÆSAR

195.

the celebrated Earl of Hallifax. Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax (1661–1715), poet and statesman. King and no King, licensed 1611, printed 1619; Secret Love, or, the Maiden Queen, first acted 1667, printed the following year.

 

Thou art a cobler [but with awl. I] and Wherefore rejoice, Act I. 1.

196.

once upon a raw and The games are done, Act I. 2.

197.

And for Mark Antony, and O, name him not, Act II. 1.

198.

This disturbed sky, Act I. 3.

 

All the conspirators, Act V. 5.

 

How ‘scaped I killing, Act IV. 3.

 

You are my true, Act II. 1.

199.

They are all welcome and It is no matter, Act II. 1.

OTHELLO

200.

tragedy purifies the affections by terror and pity, Aristotle’s Poetics.

 

It comes directly home, Dedication to Bacon’s Essays.

 

The picturesque contrasts. The germ of this paragraph may be found in The Examiner (The Round Table, No. 38), May 12th, 1816. The paper there indexed as Shakespeare’s exact discrimination of nearly similar characters was used in the preparation of Othello, Henry IV. and Henry VI. in the Characters of Shakespear’s Plays.

202.

flows on to the Propontic, Act III. 3.

 

the spells, Act I. 3.

 

What! Michael Cassio? and If she be false, Act III. 3.

203.

Look where he comes, Act III. 3. The four following quotations in the text and footnote are in the same scene.

[I found not Cassio’s kisses

... thy hollow cell.]

 

Yet, oh the pity of it, Act IV. 2.

 

My wife! Act V. 2.

204.

his whole course of love, Act I. 3.

 

’Tis not to make me jealous, Act III. 3.

 

Believe me, Act III. 4.

 

I will, my Lord, Act IV. 3.

205.

her visage. Cf. ‘I saw Othello’s visage in his mind,’ Act I. 3.

 

A maiden never bold, Act I. 3.

 

Tempests themselves, Act II. 1.

205.

She is subdued and honours and his valiant parts, Act I. 3.

 

Ay, too gentle, Act IV. 1.

 

remained at home, Act I. 3.

 

Alas, Iago, Act IV. 2.

206.

Would you had never seen him, Act IV. 3.

 

Some persons. See The Round Table, p. 15.

207.

Our ancient, Dram. Per. ‘Iago, his ancient.’

 

What a full fortune, and Here is her father’s house, Act I. 1.

208.

I cannot believe, Act II. 1.

 

And yet how nature, Act III. 3.

 

the milk of human kindness. Macbeth, Act I. 5.

 

relish of salvation. Hamlet, Act III. 3.

 

Oh, you are well tuned now, Act II. 1.

 

My noble lord, Act III. 3.

209.

O grace! O Heaven forgive [defend] me, Act III. 3.

 

How is it, General, Act IV. 1.

 

Zanga. See The Revenge, by Edward Young (1683–1765), first acted 1721.

TIMON OF ATHENS

210.

Follow his strides, Act I. 1.

211.

What, think’st thou, Act IV. 3 [moss’d trees].

 

A thing slipt, Act I. 1.

 

Ugly all over with hypocrisy. Cf. ‘He is ugly all over with the affectation of the fine gentleman.’ Quoted by Steele from Wycherley, The Tatler, No. 38.

212.

This yellow slave, Act IV. 3.

 

Let me look, Act IV. 1.

213.

What things in the world, Act IV. 3.

 

loved few things better, Act I. 1.

 

Come not to me, Act V. 1.

 

These well express, Act V. 4.

CORIOLANUS

214.

no jutting frieze and to make its pendant bed. Macbeth, Act I. 6.

 

it carries noise, Act II. 1.

 

Carnage is its daughter. See Wordsworth’s Ode, No. XLV. of Poems dedicated to National Independence and Liberty, ed. Hutchinson, 1895. The line was altered by Wordsworth in 1845. See also Byron’s Don Juan, Canto viii. Stanza 9.

215.

poor [these] rats, Act I. 1.

 

as if he were a God, Act II. 1.

 

Mark you and cares, Act III. 1.

216.

Now the red pestilence, Act IV. 1.

217.

Methinks I hither hear, Act I. 3 [At Grecian sword, contemning].

 

These are the ushers, Act II. 1.

 

Pray now, no more, Act I. 9.

218.

The whole history. The sentence quoted is by Pope. See Malone’s Shakespeare, 1821, vol. xiv.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA

221.

Troy, yet upon her basis, Act I. 3.

222.

without o’erflowing full. Said of the Thames in Cooper’s Hill, by Sir John Denham (1615–1669).

222.

of losing distinction in his thoughts [joys] and As doth a battle, Act III. 2.

223.

Time hath, my lord, Act. III. 3.

224.

Why there you touch’d, Act II. 2.

 

Come here about me, Act V. 7.

 

Go thy way, Act I. 2.

 

It is the prettiest villain, Act III. 2.

225.

the web of our lives. All’s Well that Ends Well, Act IV. 3.

 

He hath done, Act V. 5.

226.

Prouder than when, Act I. 3.

 

like the eye of vassalage, Act III. 2 [like vassalage at unawares encountering the eye of majesty].

 

And as the new abashed nightingale, Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, Book III. 177.

227.

Her armes small. Ibid., 179.

 

O that I thought, Act III. 2.

 

Rouse yourself, Act III. 3.

 

What proffer’st thou, Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, Book III. 209.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

228.

like the swan’s down-feather, Act III. 2.

 

If it be love indeed, Act I. 1.

229.

The barge she sat in, Act II. 2.

 

like a doating mallard, Act III. 10.

 

He’s speaking now, Act I. 5.

 

It is my birthday and To let a fellow, Act. III. 13.

 

Age cannot wither, Act. II. 2 [stale].

 

There’s gold, Act. II. 5.

230.

Dost thou not see, Act V. 2.

 

Antony, leave thy lascivious wassels, Act I. 4. [For Mutina read Modena.]

 

Yes, yes, Act III. 11.

231.

Eros, thou yet behold’st me, Act IV. 14.

 

I see men’s judgments, Act III. 13.

232.

a master-leaver, Act IV. 9.

HAMLET

232.

this goodly frame and man delighted not, Act II. 2.

 

too much i’ th’ sun. Cf. Act II. 2.

 

the pangs of despised love, Act III. 1.

233.

the outward pageants. Cf. the trappings and the suits of woe, Act I. 2.

 

we have that within, Act I. 2.

234.

that has no relish of salvation and He kneels and prays [now might I do it pat, now he is praying], Act III. 3.

 

How all occasions, Act IV. 4 [fust in us].

235.

Whole Duty of Man, 1659, a once-popular ethical treatise of unknown authorship.

 

Academy of Compliments, or the whole Art of Courtship, being the rarest and most exact way of wooing a Maid or Widow, by the way of Dialogue or complimental Expressions. London, 12mo. Academies of Compliments were also published in 1655 and 1669.

236.

his father’s spirit, Act I. 2.

 

I loved Ophelia and Sweets to the sweet, Act V. 1.

 

Oh rose of May, Act IV. 5.

 

There is a willow, Act IV. 7 [grows aslant].

237.

a wave o’ th’ sea. The Winter’s Tale, Act IV. 4.

THE TEMPEST

238.

Either for tragedy. Hamlet, Act II. 2. Hazlitt alters the words of Polonius to apply them to Shakespeare.

 

a deed without a name. Macbeth, Act IV. 1.

 

does his spiriting gently, Act I. 2.

 

to airy nothing. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V. 1.

 

semblably. The Second Part of King Henry VI., Act V. 1.

 

worthy of that name. Cf. Act III. 1.

239.

like the dyer’s hand. Sonnet CXI.

 

‘the liberty of wit’ ... ‘the law’ of the understanding. Cf. Hamlet, Act II. 2 [the law of writ and the liberty].

 

of the earth, earthy. St. John, iii. 31.

 

always speaks in blank verse, Schlegel, p. 395.

 

As wicked dew, Act I. 2.

240.

I’ll shew thee, Act II. 2.

 

Be not afraid, Act III. 2.

241.

I drink the air, Act V. 1.

 

I’ll put a girdle, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II. 2.

 

Your charm, Act V. 1.

 

Come unto these yellow sands, Act I. 2.

242.

The cloud-capp’d towers, Act IV. 1.

 

Ye elves of hills, Act V. 1.

243.

Shakespear has anticipated. The passage quoted is based on Florio’s translation of Montaigne. See Chapter XXX. Book 1. Of the Caniballes.

 

Had I the plantation, Act II. 1.

THE MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

See The Round Table, pp. 61–64.

244.

This crew of patches, Act III. 2.

 

He will roar, Act I. 2. The two following quotations in the text are in the same scene.

 

I believe we must leave, Act III. 1.

245.

Write me a prologue, Act III. 1.

 

with amiable cheeks and Monsieur Cobweb, Act IV. 1.

 

Lord, what fools, Act III. 2.

 

the human mortals, Act II. 1.

 

gorgons and hydras. Paradise Lost, Book II. l. 628.

 

regarded him rather as a metaphysician. Cf. ‘No man was ever yet a great poet, without being at the same time a profound philosopher.’ Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria, Chap. XV.

246.

Be kind, Act III. 1.

 

Go, one of you, Act IV. 1.

247.

the most fearful wild-fowl, Act III. 1.

247.

Liston acted in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Covent Garden, January 17, 1816. See Genest’s Some Account of the English Stage, VIII. 545–549. See also Hazlitt’s A View of the English Stage, where a few of the same sentences used here also occur.

ROMEO AND JULIET

248.

whatever is most intoxicating, Schlegel, p. 400.

 

fancies [cowslips] wan. Lycidas, l. 147.

249.

We have heard it objected. By Curran. See post, p. 393.

 

too unripe and crude. Cf. Lycidas, l. 3, ‘harsh and crude.’

 

the Stranger. Menschenhass und Reue, by A.F.F. von Kotzebue (1761–1819), adapted for the English stage under the title of The Stranger. See note to p. 155.

 

gather grapes. St. Matthew, vii. 16.

 

My bounty, Act II. 2.

250.

they fade by degrees, Wordsworth’s Ode, Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of early Childhood, V. [fade into the light].

 

that lies about us. Ibid.

251.

the purple light of love, Gray’s Progress of Poesy, l. 41.

 

another morn risen on mid-day [mid-noon], Paradise Lost, V. 310–311.

 

in utter nakedness, Wordsworth’s Ode (see above), V.

 

I’ve seen the day, Act I. 5.

 

At my poor house, Act I. 2.

 

But he, Act I. 1.

252.

the white wonder, Act III. 3.

 

What lady’s that, Act I. 5.

 

But stronger Shakespear felt for man alone, Collins’s Epistle to Sir Thomas Hanmer.

 

Thou know’st the mask, Act II. 2.

253.

calls [think] true love spoken [acted] and Gallop apace, Act III. 2.

 

It was reserved, Schlegel, p. 400.

254.

Here comes the lady, Act II. 6.

 

Ancient damnation, Act III. 5.

 

frail thoughts. Lycidas, 153 [false surmise].

 

the flatteries, Act V. 1.

 

What said my man, Act V. 3.

 

If I may trust, Act V. 1 [flattering truth of sleep].

255.

Shame come to Romeo and Blister’d be thy tongue, Act III. 2.

256.

father, mother, Act III. 2.

 

Let me peruse, Act V. 3.

257.

as she would take [catch]. Antony and Cleopatra, Act V. 2.

 

The Beauties of Shakespear. By Dr. Wm. Dodd (1729–1777), 1753.

LEAR

258.

Be Kent unmannerly and Prescribe not, Act I. 1.

259.

This is the excellent foppery, Act I. 2.

 

the dazzling fence of controversy. Cf. the ‘dazzling fence’ of rhetoric, Comus, 790–791.

260.

beat at the gate, he has made and Let me not stay, Act I. 4.

 

How now, daughter. Ibid. [much o’ the savour].

263.

O let me not be mad, Act I. 5.

264.

Vengeance and Good-morrow to you both, Act II. 4 [how this becomes the house].

268.

See the little dogs, Act III. 6.

 

Let them anatomise Regan, Act III. 6.

 

Nothing but his unkind daughters, Act III. 4.

 

whether a madman, Act III. 6.

 

Come on, sir, Act IV. 6.

 

full circle home, Act V. 3.

269.

Shame, ladies, Act IV. 3.

 

Alack, ’tis he, Act IV. 4.

 

How does my royal lord, Act IV. 7.

 

We are not the first, Act V. 3.

270.

And my poor fool, Act V. 3.

 

Vex not his ghost, Act V. 3 [this tough world].

 

Approved of by Dr. Johnson. See Malone’s Shakespeare, vol. X. p. 290.

 

condemned by Schlegel. See Schlegel, p. 413.

 

The Lear of Shakespear. See Lamb’s Miscellaneous Essays, ed. Ainger, 1884, p. 233.

271.

[For that rich sea read that sea.]

RICHARD II.

273.

How long a time, Act I. 3.

 

sighed his English breath, Act III. 1.

 

The language I have learnt, Act I. 3.

 

is hung armour, Wordsworth’s Sonnet, It is not to be thought of (1802).

 

keen encounters. King Richard III., Act I. 2.

 

If that thy valour, Act IV. 1 [Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do lie].

275.

This royal throne of kings, Act II. 1 [fear’d by their breed and famous by their birth ... the envious siege].

276.

Ourself and Bushy, Act I. 4.

 

I thank thee, Act II. 3.

 

O that I were a mockery king, Act IV. 1.

 

it yearned his heart, Act V. 5.

 

My lord, you told me, Act V. 2 [scowl on gentle Richard].

HENRY IV.

278.

we behold the fulness. Cf. Col. ii. 9.

 

lards the lean earth. 1 King Henry IV., Act II. 2.

 

into thin air. The Tempest, Act IV. 1.

 

three fingers [omit deep], Act IV. 2.

 

it snows of meat and drink. Canterbury Tales, Prologue, 345.

 

ascends me into the brain, Part II. Act IV. 3.

 

a sun of man, Part I. Act II. 4.

279.

open, palpable, Part I. Act II. 4 [like their father that begets them; gross as a mountain, open, palpable].

 

By the lord, Part I. Act I. 2.

280.

But Hal, Part I. Act I. 2.

 

who grew from four [two] men, Part I. Act II. 4.

281.

Harry, I do not only marvel, Part I. Act II. 4 [purses? a question to be asked].

282.

What is the gross sum and Marry, if thou wert an honest man, Part II. Act II. 1.

283.

Would I were with him. Henry V., Act II. 3.

 

turning his vices [diseases], Part II. Act I. 2.

 

their legs, Part II. Act II. 4.

 

a man made after supper and Would, cousin Silence, Part II. Act III. 2.

 

I did not think Master Silence, in some authority, and You have here, Part II. Act V. 3.

284.

When on the gentle Severn’s sedgy bank and By heaven [honour from the pale-faced moon], Part I. Act I. 3.

 

Had my sweet Harry, Part II. Act II. 3.

HENRY V.

PAGE

 

285.

the [best] king of good fellows, Act V. 2.

 

plume up their wills. Othello, Act I. 3.

 

the right divine, Pope’s Dunciad, Book IV. 1. 188.

286.

when France is his, Act I. 2.

 

O for a muse of fire, Prologue.

287.

the reformation and which is a wonder, Act I. 1.

 

And God forbid, Act I. 2.

288.

the ill neighbourhood, For once the eagle England, and For government [the act of order], Act I. 2.

289.

rich with [omit his] praise, Act I. 2.

 

O hard condition, Act IV. 1.

290.

The Duke of York, Act IV. 6.

291.

some disputations, Act III. 2.

HENRY VI.

292.

flat and unraised. King Henry V., Act I., Chorus.

 

Glory is like a circle, Part I. Act I. 2.

 

yet tell’st thou not, Part I. Act I. 4.

293.

Aye, Edward will use women honourably, Part III. Act III. 2.

 

We have already observed. See note to p. 200 for the source of this paragraph.

294.

The characters and situations. The material between these words and disappointed ambition (p. 297) formed part of an article by Hazlitt in The Examiner (see note to p. 200).

 

Edward Plantagenet, Part III. Act II. 2.

 

mock not my senseless conjuration. Richard II., Act III. 2 [foul rebellion’s arms ... lift shrewd steel ... God for his Richard].

295.

But now the blood. Richard II., Act III. 2.

 

cheap defence. Cf. Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France, ‘the cheap defence of nations.’

 

Awake, thou coward majesty [twenty thousand names] and Where is the duke. Richard II., Act III. 2.

296.

what must the king do now. Richard II., Act III. 3.

 

This battle fares, Part III. Act II. 5.

297.

had staggered his royal person. Richard II., Act V. 5.