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

MY FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH POETS

Republished in Literary Remains and Winterslow. The germ of the essay appeared in a short letter to The Examiner, reprinted in Political Essays. See vol. III. pp. 152–3 and notes.

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259.: W——m. Wem.
: ‘Dreaded name,’ etc. Paradise Lost, II. 964–5.
: ‘Fluttering,’ etc. Cf. Coriolanus, Act V. Sc. 6.
260.: ‘High-born Hoel’s harp,’ etc. Gray, The Bard, 28.
: ‘Bound them,’ etc. Pope, Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day, 90–91.
: The fires in the Agamemnon. Cf. ante, p. 240 and note.
: It was in January, etc. This paragraph and the next are from The Examiner. See the notes to vol. III. (Political Essays), pp. 152–3.
262.: ‘As are the children,’ etc. Cf. Thomson, The Castle of Indolence, II. xxxiii.
: ‘A certain tender bloom,’ etc. Cf. ante, p. 207 and note.
: ‘Somewhat fat and pursy.’ Cf. ‘He’s fat and scant of breath’ (Hamlet, Act V. Sc. 2), and ‘For in the fatness of these pursy times,’ etc. (Ibid. Act III. Sc. 4).
263.: ‘No figures,’ etc. Julius Cæsar, Act II. Sc. 1.
264.: Note 1. For an account of the Rev. William Hazlitt, see Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s Four Generations of a Literary Family, The First Generation.
265.: T. Wedgwood. A Life of Tom Wedgwood was published recently (1903) by the late Mr. R. B. Litchfield.
: ‘Sounding on his way.’ See vol. IV. (The Spirit of the Age), note to p. 214.
266.: Credat Judæus Apella! Horace, Satires, I. v. 100.
: ‘Thus I refute him, Sir.’ See Boswell’s Life (ed. G. B. Hill), I. 471.
267.: ‘Kind and affable,’ etc. Cf. Paradise Lost, VIII. 648–50.
: He has somewhere told himself. See Biographia Literaria, chap. x.
: That other Vision of Judgment. Byron’s, first published in The Liberal, No. 1.
: Bridge-street junto. Cf. vol. VI. (Table-Talk), p. 190 and note.
268.: Tom Jones and the adventure of the muff. See Tom Jones, Book X. chap. v. et seq.
: At Tewkesbury. According to the essay ‘On Going a Journey,’ it was at Bridgwater. See vol. VI. (Table-Talk), p. 186.
269.: A friend of the poet’s. This is a mistake. Wordsworth paid £23 a year for Alfoxden. The agreement is given in Mrs. Henry Sandford’s Thomas Poole and his Friends, I. 225.
270.: ‘In spite of pride,’ etc. Pope, An Essay on Man, I. 293.
: ‘While yet,’ etc. Cf. Thomson, The Seasons, Spring, 18.
: ‘Of Providence,’ etc. Paradise Lost, II. 559–560.
271.: Chantry’s bust. Sir Francis Chantrey’s bust, now at Coleorton.
: Castle Spectre. Originally produced (at Drury Lane) December 14, 1797.
: ‘His face,’ etc. Cf. Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 5.
272.: Tom Poole. Thomas Poole (1765–1837), for an account of whom see Mrs. Sandford’s Thomas Poole and his Friends.
: ‘Followed in the chase,’ etc. Cf. Othello, Act II. Sc. 3.
: Sir Walter Scott’s, etc. Hazlitt probably refers to the banquet given to George IV. by the Magistrates of Edinburgh, August 24, 1822.
273.: The Death of Abel. Solomon Gessner’s Tod Abels (1758).
274.: ‘Ribbed sea-sands.’ The Ancient Mariner, 227. This was one of the lines for which Coleridge was indebted to Wordsworth.
275.: ‘But there is matter,’ etc. Wordsworth, Hart-leap Well, 95–96.

PULPIT ORATORY, ETC.

Now reprinted for the first time. See Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s Memoirs, etc., I. xxvii. Cf. the essay on Edward Irving in The Spirit of the Age (vol. IV. pp. 222–231). After Hazlitt’s essay there follows a savage attack on Irving (? by T. J. Hogg), as to which the editor says: ‘The following has also lost its way to us. We take it in as a foundling, but without adopting all its sentiments.’

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: ‘Got the start,’ etc. Cf. Julius Cæsar, Act I. Sc. 2.
: ‘Kingly Kensington.’ Swift’s Ballad, Duke Upon Duke, St. 14.
276.: Lady Bluemount. Lady Beaumont presumably, the wife of Wordsworth’s friend, Sir George Howland Beaumont.
: Mr. Botherby.? William Sotheby (1757–1833), whose persistent attempts as a dramatic author may explain the nickname.
: Mr. Theodore Flash. Theodore Hook, no doubt, who afterwards denounced Irving as a humbug. See John Bull, July 20, 1823.
: Note. Mr. Dubois. Edward Dubois (1774–1850), wit and journalist.
: Note. ‘Rose,’ etc. Cf. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 1.
277.: ‘His foot mercurial,’ etc. Cymbeline, Act IV. Sc. 2.
: ‘The iron,’ etc. The Psalter, Psalm CV. 18.
: ‘Come, let me clutch thee.’ Macbeth, Act II. Sc. 1.
280.: ‘Spins,’ etc. Cf. Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act V. Sc. 1.
: ‘Loop or peg,’ etc. Cf. Othello, Act III. Sc. 3.
281.: ‘Fire hot from Hell.’ Cf. Julius Cæsar, Act III. Sc. 1.
282.: The swimmer. See this passage quoted by Hazlitt in vol. V. (Lectures on the Age of Elizabeth), pp. 323–4.
283.: Mr. Croly. George Croly (1780–1860), a regular contributor to Blackwood’s Magazine, had published Paris in 1815 (1817).
284.: ‘Best virtue.’ Cf. All’s Well That Ends Well, Act IV. Sc. 3.
: ‘We pause for a reply.’ Cf. Julius Cæsar, Act III. Sc. 2.
285.: Daniel Wilson. Daniel Wilson (1778–1858), at this time incumbent of St. John’s Chapel, Bedford Row, Bloomsbury, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta.
: ‘Oh! for an eulogy,’ etc. Cf. ‘Oh, for a curse to kill with.’ Otway, Venice Preserved, Act II. Sc. 2.

ARGUING IN A CIRCLE

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

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285.: ‘Fancies and good-nights.’ Cf. 2 Henry IV., Act III. Sc. 2.
: ‘Base cullionly fellow.’ Cf. 2 Henry VI., Act I. Sc. 3.
: ‘Beggarly, unmannered corse.’ Cf. 1 Henry IV. Act I. Sc. 3.
: ‘The age of chivalry,’ etc. Cf. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 89).
: ‘The melancholy Jacques,’ etc. As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 1.
286.: The present Duke of Buckingham. Richard Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos, created Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Feb. 1822.
: ‘New manners,’ etc. Thomas Warton, Sonnet, Written in a Blank Leaf of Dugdale’s Monasticon.
: ‘Submits,’ etc. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 90).
287.: ‘Long insulted,’ etc. Quoted elsewhere. See vol. III. (Political Essays), pp. 13 and 100.
: ‘With jealous leer malign.’ Paradise Lost, IV. 503.
288.: ‘Cause was hearted.’ Cf. Othello, Act I. Sc. 3.
: ‘The open,’ etc. Cf. Paradise Lost, X. 112–113.
: ‘The shame,’ etc. Cf. 2 Samuel i. 16.
289.: The Editor of the New Times. Dr. Stoddart.
: ‘Make the worse,’ etc. Paradise Lost, II. 114.
: ‘So musical,’ etc. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, IV. 1.
290.: ‘So well,’ etc. Cf. Paradise Lost, IX. 549.
: Mr. Canning’s present ... situation. Canning had become Foreign Secretary in 1822, and had shortly afterwards acknowledged the independence of the Spanish American Colonies.
291.: ‘Turnspit of the king’s kitchen.’ See Burke’s ‘Speech on Economical Reform,’ (Works, Bohn, II. 85–86), and cf. vol. I. (The Round Table), p. 427.
: ‘Undoing all,’ etc. 2 Henry VI., Act I. Sc. 1.
: ‘Though that their joy,’ etc. Cf. Othello, Act I. Sc. 1.
292.: ‘Like an exhalation,’ etc. Cf. Comus, 556.
: ‘Ride in the whirlwind,’ etc. Addison, The Campaign, and Pope, The Dunciad, III. 264.
293.: Noctes, etc. Horace, Satires, II. vi. 65.
: ‘The beautiful,’ etc. Coleridge, The Death of Wallenstein, Act V. Sc. 1.
294.: ‘A thick scarf.’ See ante, note to p. 82.
: ‘Sweet smelling gums.’ Paradise Lost, XI. 327.
: ‘Dews of Castalie.’ Cf. Spenser, The Ruines of Time, 431.
295.: The Six Acts. Passed by Lord Sidmouth in 1819 after the Manchester reform meeting.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS; OR THE RULE OF CONTRARY

Now republished for the first time. See Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s Memoirs, etc. (1867), I. xxix.

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297.: Thimble. Cf. a passage, ante, at the foot of p. 39. The editors have not been able to identify the person here referred to as ‘Thimble.’

ON KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD

This paper and the two following ones were republished in Sketches and Essays.

: ‘Who shall go about,’ etc. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, Act II. Sc. 9.
298.: ‘Subtle,’ etc. Cf. Cymbeline, Act III. Sc. 3.
: ‘The children,’ etc. Cf. S. Luke xvi. 8.
299.: ‘To see ourselves,’ etc. Burns, To a Louse, St. 8.
: ‘No figures,’ etc. Cf. Julius Cæsar, Act II. Sc. 1.
: ‘His soul,’ etc. Pope, An Essay on Man, I. 101–2.
300.: ‘What shall it profit,’ etc. S. Mark viii. 36.
301.: Non ex quovis, etc. Erasmus, Adagiorum Chiliades, ‘Munus aptum.’
: ‘No mark,’ etc. 1 Henry IV., Act III. Sc. 2.
: ‘The soul,’ etc. Cf. Othello, Act I. Sc. 3.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

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301.: Bub Doddington said, etc. Cf. vol. VI. (Table-Talk), p. 100 and note.
: Salus populi, etc. The Twelve Tables, De Officio Consulis.
: The upstart, etc. This sentence was omitted in Sketches and Essays.
302.: Mr. Cobbett seemed disappointed, etc. The reference is probably to The Weekly Political Register for Oct. 29, 1825, where Cobbett deplores the fact that Baron Maseres (1731–1824), who had visited him in prison, had left the bulk of his large property to a ‘little Protestant parson.’
: ‘His patron’s ghost,’ etc. Cf. Thomson, The Castle of Indolence, I. St. 51.
303.: ‘Never standing upright,’ etc. See Macklin’s The Man of the World, II. 1.
: ‘In large heart enclosed.’ Cf. Paradise Lost, VII. 486.
304.: ‘The world,’ etc. Thomson, The Seasons, Autumn, 233.
: ‘The heart of man,’ etc. Cf. Jeremiah xvii. 9.
: ‘As the flesh,’ etc. Cf. Measure for Measure, Act II. Sc. 1.
: ‘Tread,’ etc. Cf. Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 3.
305.: ‘If thine eye,’ etc. Cf. S. Matthew v. 29.
: ‘The little chapel-bell,’ etc. Hazlitt refers to The Chapel Bell, an early poem of Southey’s (1793), and The Book of the Church, published by Southey in 1824.
: Camille-Desmoulins, etc. Camille Desmoulins (1760–1794), the well-known Revolutionary pamphleteer; Camille Jordan (1771–1821), called ‘Jordan Carillon,’ from a speech (July 4, 1797) in which he proposed to restore the use of bells to the clergy. See Hazlitt’s Life of Napoleon, chap. 15.
: ‘His own miniature-picture,’ etc. ‘On my own Miniature Picture’ (1796).

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

306.: ‘Give us pause.’ Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 1.
: ‘Does somewhat smack.’ Cf. The Merchant of Venice, Act II. Sc. 2.
307.: Peter Finnerty. Peter Finnerty (1766?–1822) at one time on the staff of The Morning Chronicle with Hazlitt.
308.: J——. Jeffrey.
: ‘In some sort handled.’ Cf. Henry V. Act II. Sc. 3.
: ‘The high and palmy state.’ Cf. Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 1.
309.: ‘Keep this dreadful pudder,’ etc. King Lear, Act III. Sc. 2.
: ‘When a great wheel,’ etc. Cf. Ibid. Act II. Sc. 4.
310.: ‘Will be,’ etc. Dr. Johnson, Preface to Shakespeare (Works, Oxford, 1825, vol. V., p. 118).

ON PUBLIC OPINION

Published (together with the next essay) in Winterslow.

311.: ‘Scared,’ etc. Cf. Collins’s Ode, The Passions, 20.
312.: ‘The world rings,’ etc. Cowper, The Task, III. 129–30.
313.: ‘No man knoweth,’ etc. Cf. S. John iii. 8.
314.: ‘Casting,’ etc. Il Penseroso, 160.
315.: ‘Wink,’ etc. Cf. Marston, Antonio’s Revenge, Prologue.
: ‘Fed fat,’ etc. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, Act I. Sc. 3.

ON THE CAUSES OF POPULAR OPINION

Published (with preceding essay) in Winterslow.

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316.: The Editors of the Edinburgh Encyclopædia. The Edinburgh Encyclopædia (18 vols., 1810–30) was edited by Sir David Brewster.
: ‘Among the rocks,’ etc. Cf. Michael, 455–7.
317.: ‘A man of ten thousand.’ Cf. Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 2.
318.: ‘Who loved,’ etc. Othello, Act V. Sc. 2.
320.: J——. Jeffrey.

A FAREWELL TO ESSAY-WRITING

Republished in an imperfect form in Winterslow. In the Magazine the essay is dated ‘Winterslow, Feb. 20, 1828.’

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321.: ‘This life is best,’ etc. Cymbeline, Act III. Sc. 3.
: ‘A friend,’ etc. Cf. Cowper, Retirement, 741–2.
: ‘Done its spiriting gently.’ Cf. The Tempest, Act I. Sc. 2.
: ‘The spring,’ etc. Coleridge, Christabel, 22.
: ‘Fields are dank,’ etc. Milton’s Sonnet (XX.), ‘Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son.’
322.: ‘Peep,’ etc. Cf. Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 5.
: ‘Open,’ etc. Cowper, The Task, VI. 11–12.
323.: ‘Of all the cities,’ etc. Dryden, Theodore and Honoria, 1–2.
: ‘Which when Honoria view’d,’ etc. Ibid. 342–3.
: ‘And made th’ insult,’ etc. Dryden, Sigismonda and Guiscardo, 668–9.
: I am much pleased, etc. This sentence (to the end of the paragraph) was omitted in Winterslow.
324.: ‘Fall’n,’ etc. Scott, Glenfinlas, last stanza.
: Mr. Gifford once said, etc. See vol. IV. (The Spirit of the Age) p. 307.
: I am rather disappointed, etc. This sentence was omitted in Winterslow.
325.: ‘The admired,’ etc. Cf. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 1.
: What I have here stated, etc. This paragraph and the next two were omitted in Winterslow.
: ‘I know not seems.’ Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 2.
326.: L——. Lamb, no doubt.
: Antonio. Godwin’s Antonio was produced at Drury Lane and damned Dec. 13, 1800.
: ‘Nor can I think,’ etc. Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, I. 315.
327.: Chaucer’s Flower and Leaf. See vol. V. (Lectures on the English Poets) p. 27 and note.
: ‘And ayen,’ etc. The Flower and the Leaf, St. 15.
: Mr. and Miss L——. Charles and Mary Lamb.
328.: ‘And curtain close,’ etc. Cf. Collins’s Ode, On the Poetical Character, 76.

BYRON AND WORDSWORTH

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

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328.: Lord Byron’s haste, etc. See Leigh Hunt’s Lord Byron and his Contemporaries, I. 77.
: ‘A cure,’ etc. Cf. Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 164).
329.: ‘Ah! voila,’ etc. Confessions, Part I. Liv. VI.
: ‘Slow,’ etc. Cf. As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 7.
: Note. Ada Reis; a Tale, by Lady Caroline Lamb (1785–1828), published in 1823.

ON CANT AND HYPOCRISY

This essay and the next were published with some omissions in Sketches and Essays.

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330.: ‘If to do,’ etc. The Merchant of Venice, Act I. Sc. 2.
: Curl. Edmund Curll (1675–1747).
: ‘The spirit,’ etc. S. Matthew xxvi. 41.
331.: ‘Most easily,’ etc. Cf. Hebrews xii. 1.
: Video, etc. Ovid, Metam., VII. 20–1.
332.: ‘Duenna.’ See Act III. Sc. 5.
: ‘A little round,’ etc. The Castle of Indolence, I. St. 69.
333.: Lord Shaftesbury. See Characteristicks, An Inquiry concerning Virtue, or Merit, Part I. Sect. II.
: ‘Upon this bank,’ etc. Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 7.
335.: ‘Mighty coil,’ etc. Cf. King Lear, Act III. Sc. 2.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

337.: ‘Eremites,’ etc. Paradise Lost, III. 474–5.
338.: ‘Cant religious,’ etc. See Byron’s Letter to Murray on Bowles’s Strictures on the Life and Writings of Pope. Letters, etc., ed. Prothero, v. 536.
339.: Mr. Coleridge, etc. Nearly the whole of this passage from this point to the end was omitted in Sketches and Essays. In the Magazine the essay concludes with the words ‘Cetera desunt.’
: Mr. Liberal Snake. See Disraeli’s Vivian Grey.

POETRY

Now republished for the first time. Some of the essays now first republished from The Atlas are identified as Hazlitt’s in Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s Memoirs, etc. (see I. xxix. and xxx.). The others have been included on the strength of the internal evidence of authorship. A short paper, attributed to Hazlitt by Mr. W. C. Hazlitt (Memoirs, I. xxix.), and entitled ‘Richesse de la Langue,’ had appeared in The Atlas for Jan. 25, 1829. It runs as follows:—

‘How should one convey by a single word an expression of face which having arisen from some strong passion, uneasiness or emotion, is converted into an habitual character, and remains without any immediate object to excite it? In the English language there are above thirty ways of doing this, or else approaching to, and hovering round the point. As for instance, we may express this look by the following epithets, more or less pointedly, and with various inflections of meaning attached to them:—wild, scared, startled, haggard, harassed, hunted, nervous, agitated, apprehensive, terrified, dismayed, abstracted, stunned, panick-struck, odd, strange, wayward, flighty, uncouth, unaccountable, eccentric, embarrassed, unsettled, uneasy, overconscious, morbid, careworn, blighted, scare-crow, hang-dog, ghastly, wilful, dogged, staring, fierce, etc. All these come tolerably near the mark, and differ from each other; yet none of them is the very word that is wanted to express the thing in question, though we have no doubt there is such a word in the English language, and that it might be suggested by some one who has a greater command of its resources. The above remarks may serve to guard the student of English, whether a foreigner or merely a stranger to his native tongue, against unmeaning synonymes or monotonous common-place.’

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339.: ‘Daffodils,’ etc. A Winter’s Tale, Act IV. Sc. 4.
340.: ‘That fine madness,’ etc. Cf. Drayton, Elegy, To Henry Reynolds, Esq.
341.: ‘Cowslips wan,’ etc. Lycidas, 147.
: Lowly children, etc. Cf. ‘With all the lowly children of the shade.’ Thomson, The Seasons, Spring, 450.
342.: ‘To elevate and surprise.’ The Duke of Buckingham, The Rehearsal, Act I. Sc. 1.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Now republished for the first time. Cf. vol. IV. pp. 231 et seq. and 389 et seq.

: ‘Foregone conclusion.’ Othello, Act III. Sc. 3.
343.: ‘A man of Ind.’ Cf. The Tempest, Act II. Sc. 2.
: ‘Wise,’ etc. Cf. 1 Corinthians iv. 6.
344.: A standard book. Lindley Murray’s English Grammar, no doubt, the later editions of which were published by Longmans.
345.: Mr. Fearn. Hazlitt’s friend. Anti-Tooke was published in 1824. Cf. vol. VI. (Table-Talk), 63–4.
: ‘Still, small.’ 1 Kings xix. 12.

MEMORABILIA OF MR. COLERIDGE

Now republished for the first time. Many of the opinions expressed are referred to by Hazlitt elsewhere.

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346.: Barrow. Cf. ante, p. 266, where Hume is said to have borrowed from South.
347.: ‘More was meant,’ etc. Cf. Il Penseroso, 120.
348.: Dr. Dodd. William Dodd (1729–1777), executed for forgery in 1777. His Thoughts in Prison appeared in the same year.