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

THE FIGHT

First republished in Literary Remains, vol. II. p. 193. For another account of the fight and, more particularly, of the journey home, see P. G. Patmore’s My Friends and Acquaintance, III. 41, et seq. The fight (between Hickman, the ‘Gas-man’ and Bill Neat) took place on Dec. 11, 1821. For an account of Tom Hickman (who was thrown from a chaise and killed in the following December) see Pierce Egan’s Boxiana, where particulars will be found of all the ‘Fancy’ heroes referred to by Hazlitt in this essay.

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1.

‘The fight,’ etc. Cf. Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 2.

 

Jack Randall’s. Cf. vol. VI. (Table-Talk), note to p. 202.

 

‘The proverb ... musty.’ Cf. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

2.

Jo. Toms. Joseph Parkes (1796–1865), the Radical politician, at that time articled to a London solicitor.

 

‘So carelessly,’ etc. As You Like It, Act I. Sc. 1.

 

Jack Pigott. P. G. Patmore.

 

‘What more felicity,’ etc. Spenser, Muiopotmos, st. 27.

 

Tom Belcher’s. Tom Belcher (1783–1854), a younger brother of the better known prizefighter, James Belcher, kept the ‘Castle’ tavern in Holborn.

 

‘Well, we meet at Philippi.’ Cf. Julius Cæsar, Act IV. Sc. 3.

3.

‘I follow Fate,’ etc. Cf. Dryden, The Indian Emperor, IV. 3.

4.

Tom Turtle. According to the author’s son (see Literary Remains, II. 201) this was John Thurtell (1794–1824), afterwards notorious as the murderer of Weare.

 

‘Quite chap-fallen.’ Hamlet, Act V. Sc. 1.

 

Martin. Jack Martin, known as ‘The Master of the Rolls.’

 

Mr. Richmond. Bill Richmond, presumably, the veteran coloured hero, who had recently taken to teaching the art of boxing.

 

‘Where good digestion,’ etc. Macbeth, Act III. Sc. 4.

5.

‘Follows so,’ etc. Henry V., Act IV. Sc. 1.

 

‘More figures,’ etc. Cf. Julius Cæsar, Act II. Sc. 1.

 

‘His dream,’ etc. Cf. Othello, Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Seriously inclined.’ Cf. Ibid. Act I. Sc. 3.

6.

‘A lusty man,’ etc. Cf. Canterbury Tales, Prologue, 167.

7.

‘Standing,’ etc. Henry V., Act III. Sc. 1.

 

‘He moralised,’ etc. Cf. As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 1.

 

‘A firebrand like Bardolph’s.’ 1 Henry IV., Act II. Sc. 2.

 

‘Loud and furious fun.’ Cf. ‘The mirth and fun grew fast and furious.’ Burns, Tam O’Shanter.

7.

Cribb’s beating Jem, etc. Cribb defeated Jem Belcher twice, in 1807 and 1809. Belcher had lost an eye in 1803 through an accident when playing at rackets.

8.

Gully. John Gully (1783–1863), afterwards well known in the racing world, had retired from the ring in 1808 after two victories over Bob Gregson.

 

‘Alas!’ etc. Cf. ‘Alas! Leviathan is not so tamed.’ Cowper, The Task, II. 322.

9.

The Game Chicken. Henry Pearce (1777–1809).

 

‘That man was made to mourn.’ The title and refrain of ‘A Dirge’ by Burns.

10.

‘Between the acting,’ etc. Julius Cæsar, Act II. Sc. 1.

 

With Atlantean shoulders,’ etc. Paradise Lost, II. 306.

11.

‘Grinned horrible,’ etc. Ibid. II. 846.

 

‘Like two clouds,’ etc. Cf. Ibid. II. 714–716.

12.

Jackson. Presumably John Jackson (1769–1845), the well-known pugilist (retired 1803), known as ‘Gentleman Jackson.’

 

Note. Scroggins. Jack Scroggins, another well-known prizefighter.

 

Note. ‘In doleful dumps,’ etc. Chevy-Chace, st. 50.

13.

Procul este profani. Æneid, VI. 258.

14.

Ned Turner. Ned Turner (1791–1826), the conqueror of Scroggins.

 

Broughton and George Stevenson. Jack Broughton’s (1704–1789) fight with George Stevenson ‘The Coachman,’ took place, not in 1770, but in 1741.

MERRY ENGLAND

First republished in Sketches and Essays.

 

16. ‘I have been merry,’ etc. Cf. 2 Henry IV., Act V. Sc. 3.

 

‘He chirped over his cups.’ Rabelais. See vol. I. (The Round Table), p. 52.

 

‘There were pippins,’ etc. Sir Hugh Evans in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I. Sc. 2.

 

‘Continents,’ etc. Hobbes, Human Nature (Works, ed. Molesworth, IV. 50).

 

‘They ... amused themselves,’ etc. Cf. vol. I. (The Round Table), note to p. 100.

 

‘Eat,’ etc. S. Luke XII. 19.

17.

‘Hair-breadth ‘scapes.’ Othello, Act I. Sc. 3.

 

Old Lord’s cricket-ground. Hazlitt refers to the original ‘Lord’s,’ established about 1782 by Thomas Lord, on the site now occupied by Dorset Square, where the game continued to be played till 1810. The present ‘Lord’s,’ dates from 1814.

18.

‘A cry more tuneable,’ etc. Cf. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act IV. Sc. 1.

 

Note. ‘The gentle and free passage of arms at Ashby.’ Described by Scott in Ivanhoe, chap. viii.

19.

‘Brothers of the angle.’ The Compleat Angler, part I. chap. i.

 

‘The Cockney character,’ etc. This sentence was omitted in Sketches and Essays.

20.

‘Book of Sports.’ James I.’s declaration (1618) authorising certain forms of recreation after divine service on Sundays. The declaration was republished by Charles I. in 1633.

 

‘And e’en on Sunday,’ etc. Burns, Tam O’Shanter.

 

Gilray’s shop-window. Miss Humphrey’s shop, 29 St. James’s Street, where James Gilray (1757–1815), the caricaturist, spent the last years of his life, and where his works were on view. Sketches and Essays prints ‘Fore’s shop-window.’

22.

‘Merry and wise.’ ’Tis good to be merry and wise,’ a frequently quoted old proverb.

 

‘That under Heav’n,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, I. vii. 32. Cf. also Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great, Part II. Act IV. Sc. 4.

24.

Nell, etc. Nell in The Devil to Pay; Little Pickle in The Spoil’d Child, a part created by Mrs. Jordan, March 22, 1790; Lingo in The Agreeable Surprise; Nipperkin in Sprigs of Laurel, a part created by Munden, May 11, 1793; old Dornton in The Road to Ruin; Ranger in The Suspicious Husband; the Copper Captain in Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, one of Lewis’s great parts; Filch in The Beggar’s Opera; Hodge in Love in a Village; Flora in The Wonder; Lady Grace in The Provoked Husband.

 

‘Tut!’ etc. Cf. Cymbeline, Act III. Sc. 4.

 

‘What’s our Britain,’ etc. Ibid.

25.

As I write this, etc. See vol. IX. (Notes of a Journey through France and Italy), pp. 281 et seq.

 

‘And gaudy butterflies,’ etc. Cf. Gay, The Beggar’s Opera, Act I. Sc. 1.

 

‘All appliances,’ etc. 2 Henry IV., Act III. Sc. 1.

ON PERSONS ONE WOULD WISH TO HAVE SEEN

Republished in Literary Remains and Winterslow.

 

26. ‘Come like shadows,’ etc. Macbeth, Act IV. Sc. 1.

 

B——. B—— here and throughout the essay is Lamb. The essay professes to describe a conversation which took place at one of Lamb’s ‘Wednesdays’ at 16 Mitre Court Buildings, where Lamb resided from 1801 to 1809. Hazlitt (p. 27) describes the conversation as having taken place ‘twenty years ago.’

 

The defence of Guy Faux. See vol. XI. pp. 317 et seq. and notes.

 

‘Never so sure,’ etc. Cf. Pope, Moral Essays, II. 51–2.

 

A——. Here and throughout the essay William Ayrton (1777–1858), the musician.

27.

‘In his habit,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 4.

 

Fulke Greville. See vol. V. (Lectures on the Age of Elizabeth), p. 231 and note, and Lamb’s Specimens of English Dramatic Poets.

 

‘And call up him,’ etc. Il Penseroso, 109–110.

28.

Wished that mankind, etc. Religio Medici, Part II. Sec. ix.

 

The portrait prefixed to the old edition. Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, in Memoirs, etc. (1867), vol. I. p. 276 note, suggests that Hazlitt refers to the 12mo edition of 1669 which Lamb possessed.

 

‘Here lies a She-Sun,’ etc. Poems (‘Muses Library’) I. 86, Epithalamion on the Lady Elizabeth and Count Palatine.

29.

‘Lisped in numbers,’ etc. Pope, Prologue to the Satires, 128.

30.

His interview with Petrarch, etc. The editor of The New Monthly Magazine adds a footnote: ‘Query, did they ever meet?’ Chaucer was in Italy in 1372–3, and may have met Petrarch. Cf. The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Prologue, to which Hazlitt no doubt refers. Chaucer may have met Boccaccio also.

 

A fine portrait of Ariosto. Hazlitt possibly refers to the ‘Portrait of a Poet’ in the National Gallery, now ascribed to Palma. Titian’s portrait of Aretine is in the Pitti Gallery.

 

‘The mighty dead.’ Thomson, The Seasons, Winter, 432.

 

‘A creature,’ etc. Cf. Comus, 299–301.

 

‘That was Arion,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 23.

 

Captain C. Captain Burney; M. C., Martin Burney. See vol. VI. Table-Talk, note to p. 209.

31.

Miss D——. In Literary Remains this name is given as ‘Mrs. Reynolds,’ presumably the lady who had been Lamb’s schoolmistress. See Lamb’s Letters, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, I. 121.

 

A harsh, croaking voice. Not to be identified. As to Johnson’s life during 1745–6 see Boswell’s Life (ed. G. B. Hill), I. 176 and notes.

 

‘With lack-lustre eye.’ As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 7.

 

‘Despise low joys,’ etc. Imitations of Horace, Epistles, I. vi. (to Mr. Murray), 60–62.

 

‘Conspicuous scene,’ etc. Ibid. 50–53.

 

‘Why rail they then,’ etc. Epilogue to the Satires, II. 138–9.

32.

‘But why then publish,’ etc. Prologue to the Satires, 135–146.

 

E——. In Literary Remains and Winterslow this blank is filled with the name of ‘Erasmus Phillips,’ but Hazlitt must refer to Lamb’s lifelong friend, Edward Phillips, secretary to Speaker Abbott (see Lamb’s Letters, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, I. 76; II. 346), or, possibly, to Colonel Phillips (Ibid. II. 148, 346).

33.

‘Nigh-sphered in Heaven.’ Collins, Ode, On the Poetical Character, 66.

 

J. F——. According to Literary Remains this was Barron Field (1786–1846).

34.

‘A vast species alone.’ Cowley, The Praise of Pindar, l. 2.

 

G——. Godwin, according to Literary Remains.

 

Eugene Aram. Eugene Aram (1704–1759), hanged in 1759 for the murder of Daniel Clark several years earlier at Knaresborough.

 

H——. Literary Remains reads ‘Hunt.’

35.

The Duchess of Bolton. Lavinia Fenton (1708–1760), the original Polly, married the third Duke of Bolton in 1751.

 

Captain Sentry. See The Spectator, No. 2.

36.

Giotto, etc. Giotto di Bondone (d. 1337), Giovanni Cimabue (? 1240–? 1302), and Domenico Bigardi (1449–1494), known as Ghirlandaio—three of the most famous early Florentine masters.

 

‘Whose names,’ etc. See vol. X. (Contributions to the Edinburgh Review), note to p. 63.

37.

The Duchess of Newcastle. Lamb is never tired of praising her. See, e.g., The Two Races of Men (Elia).

 

Mrs. Hutchinson. Lucy Hutchinson (b. 1620). Her Life of her husband, Colonel Hutchinson, was first published in 1806.

 

One in the room, etc. Mary Lamb.

 

Ninon de l’Enclos. Ninon de Lenclos (1616–1706), the famous beauty.

 

‘Your most exquisite reason.’ Cf. Twelfth Night, Act II. Sc. 3.

 

G——. Godwin, according to Literary Remains.

 

‘Oh! ever right,’ etc. Cf. Coriolanus, Act II. Sc. 1.

 

‘There is only one other person,’ etc. It should be noted that Literary Remains and Winterslow wrongly attribute this speech to Lamb. The Magazine clearly gives it to H——, that is, to Leigh Hunt. It is, of course, conceivable that the editor of Literary Remains silently corrected an error in the Magazine, but that does not seem likely, because, in the first place, the speech seems more characteristic of Hunt than of Lamb, and, secondly, because the volume of the New Monthly (XVI.) in which the essay appeared contains a list of errata in which two corrections (one of them relating to initials) are made in the essay and yet this ‘H——’ is left uncorrected.

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38.

‘An infinite deal of nothing.’ The Merchant of Venice, Act I. Sc. 1.

39.

‘The wish,’ etc. 2 Henry IV., Act IV. Sc. 5.

40.

‘Bestow his tediousness.’ Cf. Much Ado About Nothing, Act III. Sc. 5.

41.

‘Treatise on Horsemanship.’ The Duke of Newcastle (1592–1676), husband of Lamb’s favourite (see ante, note to p. 37), wrote two works on horsemanship, (i) La Methode et Invention Nouvelle de dresser les Chevaux (Antwerp, 1657), and (ii) A New Method and Extraordinary Invention to Dress Horses, etc. (1667). Hazlitt probably refers to the first, which was published in English with 43 plates in vol. I. of A General System of Horsemanship (1743).

 

‘A question,’ etc. 1 Henry IV., Act II. Sc. 4.

 

‘The act’ [art], etc. Henry V., Act I. Sc. 1.

42.

‘The feast of reason,’ etc. Pope, Imitations of Horace, Satire I. l. 128.

 

‘Catch glimpses,’ etc. Cf. Wordsworth’s sonnet ‘The world is too much with us,’ etc.

43.

‘Face to face,’ etc. Cf. 1 Corinthians xiii. 12.

 

‘With jealous leer malign.’ Paradise Lost, IV. 503.

 

‘Best can feel them,’ etc. ‘He best can paint them who shall feel them most.’ Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, 366.

 

The Roxburgh Club. Founded in 1812 to celebrate the sale of the third Duke of Roxburgh’s great library.

 

‘With sparkling eyes,’ etc. Cf. Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book II. Hymn 65.

44.

‘Pure in the last recesses,’ etc. Cf. Dryden, Translations from Persius, Sat. II. l. 133.

 

‘Or write,’ etc. Cf. Pope, Epilogue to the Satires, I. 137.

45.

‘Held on their way,’ etc. See vol. IV. (Reply to Malthus), note to p. 42.

 

‘The labour’ etc. Macbeth, Act II. Sc. 3.

46.

‘From every work,’ etc. The Faerie Queen, I. iv. 20.

 

Otium cum dignitate. Cicero, Pro P. Sestio, c. 45.

 

N——. Probably Northcote.

 

A celebrated critic. ? Jeffrey, whom Hazlitt had visited at Craigcrook.

47.

‘That there are powers,’ etc. Wordsworth, Expostulation and Reply, 21–24.

50.

‘A man’s mind,’ etc. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, III. 13.

 

The Letter to Sir William Wyndham. Published by Mallet in 1753.

 

Lord Bolingbroke had, it seems, etc. This cannot be true, though Chatham’s admiration of Bolingbroke’s eloquence is well known.

 

‘As if a man,’ etc. Coriolanus, v. 3.

ON A SUN-DIAL

First republished in Sketches and Essays, where it is said to have been written in Italy in 1825.

51.

‘To carve out dials,’ etc. 3 Henry VI., Act II. Sc. 5.

52.

‘Morals on the time.’ Cf. As You Like it, Act II. Sc. 7.

54.

‘How sweet the moonlight,’ etc. The Merchant of Venice, Act V. Sc. 1.

 

The account given by Rousseau, etc. Hazlitt is probably referring to a somewhat similar story told in Les Confessions, Partie II. Livre XI.

55.

‘Allons, mon fils,’ etc. Les Confessions, Partie I. Livre I.

 

‘Lend it,’ etc. Cf. Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 2.

 

‘With its brazen throat,’ etc. Cf. King John, Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Swinging slow,’ etc. Il Penseroso, 76.

56.

Even George IV., etc. This sentence is omitted in Sketches and Essays.

 

‘The poor man’s only music.’ Coleridge, Frost at Midnight, 29.

57.

Goes to church, etc. Cf. Twelfth Night, Act I. Sc. 3.

 

‘Sing those witty rhymes,’ etc. Cf. Wordsworth, The Fountain, 13–15.

58.

‘As in a map,’ etc. Cowper, The Task, VI. 17.

 

‘With light-winged toys,’ etc. Cf. Othello, Act I. Sc. 3.

 

‘Diana and her fawn,’ etc. Hazlitt seems to be quoting from himself. See vol. IX. p. 107.

59.

‘With lack-lustre eye.’ As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 7.

 

I have done something of the kind before. Hazlitt probably refers to the sketch of his father in ‘My First Acquaintance with Poets’ (post, pp. 262–3). Cf. also vol. III. (Political Essays), pp. 265–6.

WHY THE HEROES OF ROMANCE ARE INSIPID

Published in Sketches and Essays.

60.

‘To gild refined gold,’ etc. King John, Act IV. Sc. 2.

 

‘Faultless monsters.’ John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, Essay on Poetry.

61.

The grand Cyruses, the Artamenes. Mlle. de Scudéry’s Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus was published in 10 vols., 1649–53.

 

Oroondates. In La Calprenède’s Cassandra.

 

‘Mistress’ eyebrow.’ As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 7.

62.

‘Be mine,’ etc. Gray, Letters (ed. Tovey), I. 97.

 

‘The Princess of Cleves.’ By Madame de la Fayette (1678).

 

The Duke de Nemours. In La Princesse de Clèves.

 

‘Ugly all over,’ etc. See vol. II. (Life of Holcroft), note to p. 130.

64.

Narcissa and Emily Gauntlet. Narcissa in Roderick Random; Emily Gauntlet in Peregrine Pickle; Winifred Jenkins in Humphry Clinker.

 

‘Her heroes,’ etc. Cf. ‘Most women have no characters at all.’ Pope, Moral Essays, II. 2.

 

Theodore, Valancourt. Theodore in The Romance of the Forest; Valancourt in The Mysteries of Udolpho.

65.

Miss Milner. Miss Milner and Dorriforth in A Simple Story (1791); Lord Norwynne in Nature and Art (1796).

67.

‘All germins,’ etc. King Lear, Act III. Sc. 2.

 

‘Tears such as angels shed [weep].’ Paradise Lost, I. 620.

THE SHYNESS OF SCHOLARS

Republished in Literary Remains.

68.

‘And of his port,’ etc. The Canterbury Tales. The Prologue, 69.

 

‘If you have not seen,’ etc. Cf. As You Like It, Act III. Sc. 2.

70.

‘Fools rush in,’ etc. Pope, An Essay on Criticism, III. 625.

71.

‘In peace,’ etc. Henry V., Act III. Sc. 1.

72.

‘Gods of his idolatry.’ Cf. Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. 2.

73.

‘Will not have,’ etc. Cf. Coriolanus, Act II. Sc. 2.

 

‘Vix ea nostra voco.’ Ovid, Metam. XIII. 141.

75.

‘Scholar’s melancholy.’ As You Like It, Act IV. Sc. 1.

 

‘He held,’ etc. Cf. Gray’s Elegy, Stanza III., which Hazlitt seems to have had in mind.

 

‘From humble porter [port],’ etc. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, II. 1.

76.

‘Modest as morning,’ etc. Troilus and Cressida, Act I. Sc. 3.

 

‘Deprived of its natural patrons,’ etc. Cf. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 93).

THE MAIN-CHANCE

Published in Literary Remains with omissions and a few additions. The additions are printed in the text within square brackets. In other respects the Essay is printed verbatim from the Magazine.

78.

‘Search then,’ etc. Pope, Moral Essays, III. 174–179.

82.

‘Sown,’ etc. Cf. Middleton, The Witch, Act I. Sc. 2.

83.

Mr. F. Beckford sold Fonthill to John Farquhar in 1822.

86.

Note. ‘Men act from calculation,’ etc. Cf. Principles of Morals and Legislation, Ch. XIV. Sec. xxviii.

 

Note. ‘A Mad World.’ etc. John Taylor, Wandering to see the Wonders of the West (1649).

88.

‘Now all ye ladies,’ etc. These lines by Scott form the motto of chap. xii. of The Betrothed, where they are entitled ‘Family Quarrels.’

 

Note. ‘Have I not seen,’ etc. The Betrothed, chap. XII.

 

Note. ‘I would take,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. II.

 

Note. Dr. Jamieson. John Jamieson (1759–1838), whose Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language appeared in 1808.

90.

‘Some trick,’ etc. Coriolanus, Act IV. Sc. 4.

91.

Mr. Bartholine Saddletree. In The Heart of Midlothian.

 

Peter Peebles. In Redgauntlet.

 

The Baron of Bradwardine, etc. In Waverley.

 

‘The age of chivalry,’ etc. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 89).

 

‘Smack of honour.’ Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 2.

93.

‘An ounce,’ etc. Cf. The Faerie Queene, I. iii. 30.

95.

‘Masterless passion,’ etc. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, Act IV. Sc. 1.

SELF-LOVE AND BENEVOLENCE

These two papers were republished in Sketches and Essays (1839), but were omitted in the second edition (1852). Mr. W. C. Hazlitt restored them in his edition in Bohn’s Standard Library, where he states that they were written in Italy in 1825, and represent a conversation between the author, Landor and Captain Medwin.

PAGE

 

96.

‘Sound significant.’ Hazlitt was perhaps thinking of Milton’s words, ‘the sound symphonious.’ Paradise Lost, VII. 558.

 

‘These needs,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 5.

99.

‘Nihil humani,’ etc. Terence, Heauton-Timoroumenos, I. 1. ‘Greater love,’ etc. Cf. St. John XV. 13.

102.

‘Letting I should not,’ etc. Cf. Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 7.

104.

‘Throw honour,’ etc. Cf. Ibid. Act V. Sc. 3.

104.

Very’s. A well-known restaurant in Paris. Cf. Moore’s The Fudge Family in Paris, Letter III.

 

The Count de Stutt-Tracy. See Vol. VII. (The Plain Speaker), p. 323 and note.

105.

‘This one entire,’ etc. Othello, Act V. Sc. 2.

 

‘Precious jewel,’ etc. Cf. Ibid. Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Plain truth,’ etc. Cf. Pope, Imitations of Horace, Epistles, I. 6, l. 3.

 

C. D. See post, note to p. 119.

 

‘I shall be ever,’ etc. Cf. Garrick’s verses in reply to Dr. John Hill. They are quoted in Doran’s Annals of the English Stage, II. 326.

106.

‘No more of that,’ etc. 1 Henry IV., Act II. Sc. 4.

108.

‘Come, but no farther,’ Job xxxviii. 11.

112.

‘Come, let me clutch thee.’ Macbeth, Act II. Sc. 1.

113.

‘And coming events,’ etc. Campbell, Lochiel’s Warning.

115.

‘Made and moulded of things past.’ Troilus and Cressida, Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Thou art to continue,’ etc. Measure for Measure, Act II. Sc. 1.

 

‘Here and hereafter,’ etc. Byron, Sardanapalus, Act IV. Sc. 1.

116.

‘I do not think,’ etc. See vol. VII. (Essay on the Principles of Human Action), pp. 430–3.

119.

J. D. Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, in his edition of Sketches and Essays, states that on a folio leaf in his possession, the initials are J. L. and C. L., and that Lamb and his brother are evidently the persons intended. If that be so, A. and C. can hardly be Landor and Medwin. Possibly A. represents Ayrton and Captain C. Captain Burney, but all the initials are merely matter for conjecture, and it is extremely unlikely that the dialogue ever took place in anything like its present form.

 

‘This is the strangest tale,’ etc. 1 Henry IV., Act V. Sc. 4.

THE FREE ADMISSION

Now republished for the first time. See Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s Memoirs, etc., I. xxx.

120.

‘Loop-holes of retreat.’ Cowper, The Task, IV. 88.

121.

‘He is all ear and eye,’ etc. Cf. Comus, 560–2.

 

‘The fly,’ etc. The Beggar’s Opera, Act II. Sc. 2.

 

‘Oh! leave me,’ etc. Cf. Gray, The Vegtam’s Kivitha.

 

My beloved corner. See Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s Memoirs, etc., I. 205.

 

‘The arm-chair at an inn. ‘A tavern chair is the throne of human felicity.’ Johnson (Boswell’s Life, ed. G. B. Hill, II. 452, note 1).

 

‘Witching time of night.’ Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

 

‘Like bees in spring-time,’ etc. Paradise Lost, I. 768–9.

122.

‘A discipline of humanity.’ Bacon (Essays, ‘Of Marriage and Single Life’) applies the phrase to wife and children. Hazlitt himself applies it to books (vol. I. The Round Table, p. 123).

 

‘Retire, the world shut out,’ etc. Young, Night Thoughts, IX.

 

‘Still, small voice.’ 1 Kings xix. 12.

 

Miss Ford. Hazlitt refers to Miss Forde as Cherry in The Beaux Stratagem (revived Covent Garden, Dec. 31, 1828). In Lectures on the Comic Writers (VIII. 88) he refers to the dialogue in Act III. Sc. 2 as a ‘love catechism.’

 

Mrs. Humby. Mrs. Humby (fl. 1817–1849) played Luise in Planché’s The Green-eyed Monster at the Haymarket, Aug. 18, 1828. Wilkinson played Krout.

 

Mrs. Goodall’s Rosalind. Charlotte Goodall, after acting at Bath, made her first appearance in London (Drury Lane, Oct. 2, 1788) as Rosalind. Nothing is known of her after 1813, when she was divorced.

122.

‘Blow, blow,’ etc. As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 7.

 

‘Strut and fret,’ etc. Macbeth, Act V. Sc. 5.

123.

‘See o’er the stage,’ etc. Cf. Thomson, The Seasons, Winter, 646–8.

 

‘Takes his ease.’ Cf. 1 Henry IV., Act III. Sc. 3.

124.

‘All that mighty heart,’ etc. Cf. Wordsworth’s Sonnet, Earth has not anything to shew more fair, etc.

 

‘Thy freedom,’ etc. Cf. ‘Thy beauty hath made me effeminate.’ Romeo and Juliet, Act III. Sc. 1.

 

‘Teddy the Tiler.’ A farce by G. H. B. Rodwell (1800–1852), produced at Covent Garden, Feb. 8, 1830.

 

‘Robert the Devil.’ A ‘Musical Romance’ by Raymond, produced at Covent Garden, Feb. 2, 1830.

 

‘What avails,’ etc. The Rev. Sneyd Davies, To the Honourable and Reverend F. C. (Dodsley, A Collection of Poems, VI. 138).

 

‘The frozen winter,’ etc. Hazlitt is quoting loosely from Paradise Lost, IV. 267–8.

 

Cowley’s Gallery. The reference is to Cowley’s The Chronicle.

THE SICK CHAMBER

First republished in the volume of Selections edited by Mr. Ireland, who states, apparently upon the evidence of dates and the nature of the subject, that this was the last essay which Hazlitt wrote. This cannot be certainly known, and it seems more likely that the essay on ‘Personal Politics’ (post, pp. 456–61) was written later. The essay on ‘Footmen’ appeared in a later number of the New Monthly. Hazlitt died on Sept. 18, 1830.

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125.

‘The body of this death.’ Romans vii. 24.

 

‘Cooped and cabined in.’ Cf. Macbeth, Act III. Sc. 4.

 

‘Peep through the blanket,’ etc. Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 5.

 

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

126.

Hoc erat in votis. Horace, Satires, II. vi. 1.

 

‘Our very gorge,’ etc. Cf. Hamlet, Act V. Sc. 1.

 

‘Hermit poor,’ etc. These lines are quoted in Lamb’s John Woodvil, Act V.

 

‘Vows made in pain’ etc. Paradise Lost, IV. 97.

 

‘The Devil,’ etc. This old proverb is quoted by Rabelais, Liv. IV. Chap. 24.

127.

‘Like life and death,’ etc. Cf. Lamb, John Woodvil, Act II.

 

‘Trouble deaf Heaven,’ etc. Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnets, No. XXIX.

 

‘Moralise our complaints,’ etc. Cf. As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 1.

 

‘They have drugged,’ etc. Cf. Macbeth, Act II. Sc. 2.

 

‘Puzzling o’er the doubt.’ Cf. Cowper, The Needless Alarm, 77–78.

128.

‘Like Samson,’ etc. Cowper, The Task, V. 737.

 

‘The worst of every evil,’ etc. Cf. Temistocle, Act III. Sc. 2.

129.

‘A world,’ etc. Cf. Wordsworth, Personal Talk, l. 34.

 

‘A foregone conclusion.’ Othello, Act III. Sc. 3.

130.

‘We see the children,’ etc. Cf. Wordsworth, Ode, Intimations of Immortality, 170–1.

 

Paul Clifford. Bulwer’s Paul Clifford appeared in 1830.

 

‘Lively,’ etc. Coriolanus, Act IV. Sc. 5.

 

‘The true pathos,’ etc. Burns, Epistle to Dr. Blacklock.