A VIEW OF THE ENGLISH STAGE

In this work, published in 1818, Hazlitt collected the greater part of the theatrical criticisms which he had contributed successively to The Morning Chronicle, The Champion, The Examiner, and The Times. His first article in The Morning Chronicle appeared on October 18, 1813 (see ante, p. 192), and the last on May 27, 1814 (see ante, p. 195). In his essay, ‘On Patronage and Puffing’ (Table Talk, vol. V. pp. 292, et seq.), Hazlitt gives an account of his theatrical criticisms in the Chronicle. He thought himself that they were the best articles in the series (see ante, p. 174), and they are at any rate of exceptional interest inasmuch as they deal for the most part with the first appearances of Edmund Kean in London. His first article in The Champion, then edited by John Scott, appeared on August 14, 1814 (see p. 196), and the last on January 8, 1815 (see p. 208). Early in 1815 he became the regular dramatic critic of The Examiner. Leigh Hunt, the editor, had intended to resume theatrical criticism after his release from prison in February, but his attention was diverted to politics by the return of Buonaparte from Elba. Hazlitt’s first article (except for two notices of Kean’s Iago, July 24 and August 7, 1814) appeared on March 19, 1815 (see p. 221), the last on June 8, 1817 (see p. 373). By far the greater part of Hazlitt’s articles in The Morning Chronicle, The Champion, and The Examiner were included by him in A View of the English Stage. Some passages, however, and, we think, some articles, he did omit (especially from The Examiner of 1817). In the following notes passages omitted from articles included in A View are printed in full; articles omitted from A View are shortly summarised, if it is pretty clear from internal evidence that they were written by Hazlitt. Owing to want of space these articles cannot be printed in the present volume, but those which are clearly Hazlitt’s will be found among fugitive writings in a later volume, together with some notices (deemed certainly his) from The Times. Hazlitt seems to have been the dramatic critic, or one of the dramatic critics, of The Times from the summer of 1817 till the spring of 1818, but only two of his articles (pp. 374, et seq.) were included in A View of the English Stage. These appeared in September 1817, near the beginning of his term of office. Hazlitt’s reason for including so few of his Times articles is not known. An examination of the dramatic notices in The Times during the period in question suggests (1) that there were at least two regular dramatic critics on the staff, (2) that Hazlitt chiefly confined himself to Shakespearian and other plays of established reputation, and (3) that he practically ceased to write at the end of 1817. The following may be mentioned among the more important articles, which may, with varying degrees of probability, be ascribed to Hazlitt:— School for Scandal (Munden as Sir Peter Teazle), September 8, 1817; Young’s Hamlet, September 9; As You Like It (Miss Brunton as Rosalind), September 20; Maywood’s Zanga, October 3; Cibber’s The Refusal, or The Ladies’ Philosophy, October 6; Kean’s Richard III., October 7; The Wonder, or A Woman Keeps a Secret, October 9; Venice Preserved, October 10; Kean’s Macbeth, October 21; Othello (Kean as Othello, Maywood as Iago), October 27; Venice Preserved (Miss O’Neill as Belvidera), December 2; The Honey Moon, December 3; Fisher’s Hamlet, December 11; Kean’s Macbeth, December 16; King John (Miss O’Neill as Constance), December 18.

Reference should be made (1) to Mr. William Archer’s Introduction to a Selection of Hazlitt’s Dramatic Essays (ed. Archer and Lowe, 1895), and (2) to the companion-volume of Leigh Hunt’s Dramatic Essays (ed. Archer and Lowe, 1894).

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173.

Rochefoucault, etc. Maximes et Réflexions Morales, cccxii.

 

‘The brief chronicles of the time.’ Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 2.

 

‘Hold the mirror,’ etc. Ibid. Act. III. Sc. 2.

 

‘Imitate humanity,’ etc. Ibid.

 

Zoffany’s pictures. John Zoffany (1733-1810), a native of Ratisbon, came to England in 1758, and soon became noted for his pictures of Garrick and other actors in character. Several of these are preserved at the Garrick Club.

 

Colley Cibber’s Life. Cf. ante, pp. 160-1.

174.

A perverse caricature. Hazlitt refers to the character of Marmozet in Peregrine Pickle (1751). The quarrel between Garrick and Smollett was afterwards made up.

 

In different newspapers. See ante, introductory note to p. 169.

 

‘The secrets of the prison-house.’ Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 5.

 

The editor of which, etc. Thomas Barnes was editor of The Times when Hazlitt was theatrical critic, but the reference is probably to the proprietor, John Walter the Second.

 

Too prolix on the subject of the Bourbons. Hazlitt probably refers to his brother-in-law, Dr., afterwards Sir John Stoddart, who was dismissed from the editorship of The Times early in 1817, in consequence of the violence of his writings on French affairs. Stoddart immediately started The Day and New Times, the title of which was altered in 1818 to The New Times.

 

‘One who loved, etc. Othello, Act V. Sc. 2.

175.

‘‘Some quantity,’ etc. A composite quotation from Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2, and Romeo and Juliet, Act V. Sc. 1.

 

Mr. Perry. James Perry (1756-1821), proprietor and editor of The Morning Chronicle.

 

‘Screw the courage,’ etc. Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 7.

176.

‘Pritchard’s genteel,’ etc. Churchill, The Rosciad, 852, the reference being to Hannah Pritchard (1711-1768), the actress who played Johnson’s Irene.

 

Swiss bodyguards. The famous corps, constituted in 1616, who had shown such fidelity to Louis XVI. during the attack on the Tuileries on August 10, 1792.

 

‘Pigmy body,’ etc. Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, I. 157-8.

 

The Fudge family in Paris (1818), Letter II. 116-123.

177.

‘A master of scholars.’ Cf. ante, p. 167.

178.

The Characters of Shakespear’s Plays. A second edition had just been published. Hazlitt certainly availed himself to the full of the license which he frankly claims in this paragraph. An attempt has been made in the present edition to indicate the source of his essays and criticisms, and also the various publications into which they were afterwards transferred.

179.

Mr. Kean’s Shylock. Edmund Kean (1787-1833) had already acted many important parts in the provinces. At Dorchester one of his performances had been witnessed by Arnold, the stage manager of Drury Lane, through whom an engagement was made with the management of that theatre. Kean insisted on playing Shylock, and though the management and his fellow-actors were incredulous as to his powers, his success was undisputed. Henceforward his many triumphs in London were associated with the Drury Lane Theatre, except for a short period from 1827 to 1829, when his services were transferred to Covent Garden. For a later account of his Shylock, see ante, pp. 294-6.

180.

l. 8. In The Morning Chronicle Hazlitt adds: ‘After the play we were rejoiced to see the sterling farce of The Apprentice^[57] revived, in which Mr. Bannister was eminently successful.’

 

Miss Smith. The assumed maiden name of the actress who married George Bartley, the actor, on August 24, 1814. She made her first appearance in London in 1805. She suffered by comparison with Mrs. Siddons, and later with Miss O’Neill.

 

Rae. Alexander Rae (1782-1820), after acting for a season at the Haymarket in 1806, made his first appearance at Drury Lane on November 12, 1812. Kean quickly eclipsed him in tragedy, though he maintained the reputation of being a good Hamlet.

 

‘Far-darting’ eye.

‘And covetous of Shakspeare’s beauty seen

In every flash of his far-beaming eye.’

Cowper, The Task, III. 601-2.

181.

‘But I was born so high,’ etc. Richard III., Act I. Sc. 3.

 

The miserable medley acted for Richard III. The work chiefly of Colley Cibber, published in 1700.

 

Cooke. George Frederick Cooke (1756-1811). His first appearance in London (Covent Garden, October 31, 1801) was in this part, which remained one of his best impersonations.

 

‘Stand all apart,’ etc. Richard III. (Cibber’s version).

182.

‘The golden rigol,’ etc. Ibid. Interpolated from Henry IV., Part II. Act IV. Sc. 5:

‘—— ——This is a sleep

That from this golden rigol hath divorced

So many English kings.’

 

‘Chop off his head.’ See post, note to p. 201.

 

last line. In The Morning Chronicle Hazlitt proceeds: ‘His fall, however, was too rapid. Nothing but a sword passed through the heart could occasion such a fall. With his innate spirit of Richard he would struggle with his fate to the last moment of ebbing life. But on the whole the performance was the most perfect of any thing that has been witnessed since the days of Garrick. The play was got up with great skill. The scenes were all painted with strict regard to historic truth. There had evidently been research as to identity of place, for the views of the Tower, of Crosby House, etc. were, in the eye of the best judges, considered as faithful representations according to the descriptions handed down to us. The cast of the play was also good. Green-room report says that Miss Smith refused the part of the Queen, as not great enough forsooth for her superior talents, although Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Pope,^[58] Mrs. Crauford^[59] and others felt it to their honour to display their powers in the character. In the present case the absence of Miss Smith was not a misfortune, for Mrs. Glover^[60] gave to the fine scene with her children, a force and feeling that drew from the audience the most sympathetic testimonies of applause. Miss Boyce made a very interesting and elegant representative of Lady Anne. We sincerely congratulate the public on the great accession to the theatrical art which they have obtained in the talents of Mr. Kean. The experience of Saturday night convinces us that he acts from his own mental resources, and that he has organs to give effect to his comprehension of character. We never saw such admirable use made of the eye, of the lip, and generally of the muscles. We could judge of what he would have been if his voice had been clear from hoarseness; and we trust he will not repeat the difficult part till he has overcome his cold. We understand, he is shortly to appear in Don John, in The Chances. We know no character so exactly suited to his powers.’

183.

‘I am myself alone.’ Richard III. (Cibber’s version).

 

‘I am not i’ the vein.’ Richard III. Act IV. Sc. 2.

 

‘His grace looks cheerfully,’ etc. Ibid. Act III. Sc. 4.

184.

‘Take him for all in all,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 2.

 

Mr. Wroughton. Richard Wroughton (1748-1822), the main part of whose career closed in 1798. He returned to the stage two years later, and continued to act till 1815.

 

Mrs. Glover. Julia Glover (1779-1850), the daughter of an actor named Betterton, a favourite actress who had made her first appearance in London in 1797.

 

‘For in the very torrent,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

 

Shakespeare Gallery. Hazlitt refers to the well known Shakespeare Gallery projected and carried out by Alderman Boydell between 1786 and 1802.

185.

Mr. Kean’s Hamlet. Drury Lane, March 12, 1814.

 

‘A young and princely novice.’ Richard III., Act I. Sc. 4.

186.

‘That has no relish,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘That noble and liberal casuist.’ Charles Lamb refers to the old English Dramatists as ‘those noble and liberal casuists.’ Poems, Plays and Essays (ed. Ainger), p. 248.

 

‘Out of joint.’ Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 5.

 

‘Come then,’ etc. Pope, Moral Essays, II. 17-20.

187.

‘A wave of the sea.’ A Winter’s Tale, Act IV. Sc. 4.

 

‘That within,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 2.

 

‘Weakness and melancholy.’ Ibid. Act II. Sc. 2.

 

‘’Tis I, Hamlet the Dane.’ Ibid. Act V. Sc. 1.

188.

‘I’ll call thee,’ etc. Ibid. Act I. Sc. 4.

 

‘The rugged Pyrrhus.’ Ibid. Act II. Sc. 2.

 

‘Bordered on the verge,’ etc. Cf. Pope, Moral Essays, II. 51-2.

189.

Mr. Raymond’s Representation, etc. For Raymond, at this time acting manager at Drury Lane, see Leigh Hunt’s Critical Essays (1807), pp. 29-32.

 

Mr. Dowton. William Dowton (1764-1851), one of the chief comedians of the Drury Lane company, made his first appearance in London in 1796 and retired in 1840.

 

‘Flows on to the Propontic,’ etc. This and the other quotations in this notice are from Othello, Act III. Sc. 3.

 

The rest of the play, etc. Pope played Iago, Miss Smith Desdemona and Mrs. Glover Emilia.

190.

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

 

Antony and Cleopatra. This version was attributed to Kemble.

191.

‘The barge,’ etc. Antony and Cleopatra, Act II. Sc. 2.

192.

‘He’s speaking now,’ etc. Ibid. Act I. Sc. 5.

 

‘It is my birth-day,’ etc. Ibid. Act III. Sc. 13.

 

Mrs. Faucit. Harriet Faucit, the mother of Helen Faucit, had made her first appearance, on October 7, as Desdemona.

 

Mr. Terry. Daniel Terry (1780?-1829), who appeared in Edinburgh in 1809 and in London in 1813. He is chiefly remembered as an intimate friend and correspondent of Sir Walter Scott, many of whose novels he adapted for the stage.

 

Artaxerxes. By Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778), originally produced in 1762. The words were translated from Metastasio’s ‘Artaserse.’

 

Miss Stephens. Catherine Stephens (1794-1882), a great favourite with Hazlitt who here notices her first important appearance on the stage. She was popular not only on the stage but in the concert-room. She retired in 1835 and in 1838 married the fifth earl of Essex.

193.

Catalani. Angelica Catalani (1779-1849), the greatest prima donna of her time.

 

Mr. Liston’s acting, etc. See ante, pp. 159-60.

 

The Beggar’s Opera. See the essay ‘On Patronage and Puffing’ in Table-Talk (Vol. VI. pp. 292-3), where Hazlitt gives an interesting account of the writing of this article, ‘the last,’ he says, ‘I ever wrote with any pleasure to myself.’ Cf. also The Round Table, (Vol. I. pp. 65-6) for an account of The Beggar’s Opera, which Hazlitt was never tired of praising.

 

‘O’erstepping,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

194.

‘Woman is [Virgins are] like,’ etc. The Beggar’s Opera, Act I.

 

‘There is some soul,’ etc. Henry V., Act IV. Sc. 1.

 

‘Hussey, hussey,’ etc. The Beggar’s Opera, Act I.

 

‘Cease your funning.’ Ibid. Act II. Sc. 2.

195.

Described by Molière. In La Critique de l’École des Femmes, Sc. 6.

 

Mrs. Liston’s person. Miss Tyer (d. 1854), who married Liston in 1807, was of diminutive stature. She retired from the stage when her husband left Covent Garden in 1822.

 

Richard Cœur de Lion. The version (1786) by General Burgoyne of Sedaine’s Richard Cœur de Lion, produced in Paris in 1784.

 

Oh, Richard! etc. This song in the original opera ‘O Richard! O mon Roi!’ had enjoyed great popularity in France before the Revolution.

196.

Miss Foote. Maria Foote (1797?-1867), ‘a very pretty woman and a very pleasing actress,’ according to Genest. Some circumstances of her private life, alluded to by Hazlitt elsewhere, increased her popularity with the public. She retired in 1831, and in the same year married the fourth Earl of Harrington.

 

Amanthus. In Mrs. Inchbald’s Child of Nature. ‘Youthful poet’s fancy,’ etc. Rowe, The Fair Penitent, Act III. Sc. 1.

197.

Madame Grassini. Josephina Grassini (1773-1850), a contralto singer who first appeared in London in 1803. Cf. De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium Eater (Works, ed. Masson, III. 389).

 

Signor Tramezzani. A favourite Italian tenor. ‘To a beautiful voice he joined delicate apprehension, intense feeling and rich expression.’ (Dictionary of Musicians, 1824.)

 

‘Might create,’ etc. Comus, 562.

198.

The Genius of Scotland. Hazlitt is perhaps thinking of Sir Pertinax Macsycophant in Macklin’s The Man of the World, who ‘always booed, and booed, and booed, as it were by instinct.’ (Act III. Sc. 1.)

 

M. Vestris. The Champion reads: ‘M. Vestris, who made an able-bodied representative of Zephyr in the ballet, appears to us to be the Conway among dancers.’

 

Miss O’Neill’s Juliet. For Eliza O’Neill (1791-1872), afterwards Lady Becher, see The Round Table, vol. I., note to p. 156, and many references in the present volume.

 

The Gamester, etc. Edward Moore’s tragedy, first produced in 1753.

199.

Palmer. John Palmer (1742?-1798), ‘Plausible Jack,’ the original Joseph Surface. See Lamb’s Essay ‘On Some of the Old Actors.’

 

Isabella. In Isabella; or the Fatal Marriage (1758), Garrick’s version of Thomas Southerne’s The Fatal Marriage (1694).

 

‘Sweet is the dew,’ etc. Cf. vol. I. p. 91 (The Round Table).

200.

‘And Romeo banished.’ Romeo and Juliet, Act III. Sc. 2.

 

‘Festering in his shroud.’ Ibid. Act IV. Sc. 3.

 

‘The last scene,’ etc. In Garrick’s version (1750) of Romeo and Juliet.

 

‘I have forgot,’ etc. Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. 2.

 

Mr. Jones’s Mercutio. Richard Jones (1779-1851), known as ‘Gentleman Jones,’ a good actor of farces.

 

Mr. Conway’s Romeo. William Augustus Conway (1789-1828) first appeared in London in 1813, when he captivated Mrs. Piozzi, who is said to have offered to marry him. He continued to act in London and at Bath (sometimes playing important parts) till 1821, when he was driven from the English stage by an anonymous attack. In 1823 he went to America where, after acting with success and delivering religious discourses, he drowned himself in 1828. Hazlitt has somewhat softened the asperities of this paragraph. See The Champion, October 16, 1814.

 

‘The very beadle,’ etc. ‘A very beadle to a humorous sigh.’ Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act III. Sc. 1.

 

Mr. Coates’s absurdities. Robert Coates (1772-1848), the wealthy ‘Amateur of Fashion,’ who was known as ‘Romeo Coates’ from his representations of Romeo, the first of which took place at Bath in 1810.

 

Mr. Kean’s Richard. Drury Lane, October 3, 1814.

201.

‘Chop off his head.’ ‘Off with his head! So much for Buckingham!’ Act IV. Sc. 3 of Cibber’s ‘miserable medley.’ See ante, p. 181.

 

‘I fear no uncles,’ etc. Richard III., Act III. Sc. 1.

203.

‘Inexplicable dumb show and noise.’ Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

 

Captain Barclay. Robert Barclay Allardice (1779-1854), generally known as ‘Captain Barclay,’ famous for his feats of pedestrianism, the most remarkable of which was walking one mile in each of 1000 successive hours, which he accomplished in the summer of 1809 at Newmarket. Bets amounting in the aggregate to £100,000 are said to have been made in connection with this feat.

204.

‘With her best nurse,’ etc. Comus, 377-80.

 

Mr. Kean’s Macbeth. November 5, 1814.

205.

‘Real hearts,’ etc. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 101).

 

‘Fate and metaphysical aid.’ Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 5.

206.

‘Direness is thus,’ etc. Ibid. Act V. Sc. 5.

 

‘Troubled with thick-coming fancies.’ Ibid. Act V. Sc. 3.

 

‘Subject [servile] to all the skyey influences.’ Measure for Measure, Act III. Sc. 1.

207.

‘Lost too poorly in himself.’ Macbeth, Act II. Sc. 2.

 

‘My way of life,’ etc. Ibid. Act V. Sc. 3.

 

‘Then, oh farewell,’ etc. Othello, Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘To consider too curiously.’ Hamlet, Act V. Sc. 1.

208.

Mr. Kean’s Romeo. January 2, 1815.

 

‘Added a cubit,’ etc. St. Matthew, VI. 27.

 

‘As musical,’ etc. Comus, 477.

 

Luke. In Sir James Bland Burgess’s Riches; or, The Wife and Brother, founded on Massinger’s The City Madam, and produced in 1810.

209.

Garrick and Barry. Garrick and Spranger Barry (1719-1777) were rival Romeos. In 1750 the play was acted twelve consecutive nights both at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. See Dr. Doran’s Annals of the English Stage (ed. Lowe), II. 122-3, where the remark quoted by Hazlitt is attributed to ‘a lady who did not pretend to be a critic, and who was guided by her feelings.’

 

‘The silver sound,’ etc. ‘How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night,’ Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. 2.

210.

‘What said my man,’ etc. Ibid. Act V. Sc. 3.

211.

Mrs. Beverley. In Edward Moore’s The Gamester.

 

‘As one,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

 

l. 36. In The Champion Hazlitt proceeded as follows: ‘To return to Mr. Kean. We would, if we had any influence with him, advise him to give one thorough reading to Shakspeare, without any regard to the promptbook, or to his own cue, or to the effect he is likely to produce on the pit or gallery. If he does this, not with a view to his profession, but as a study of human nature in general, he will, we trust, find his account in it, quite as much as in keeping company with “the great vulgar, or the small.”^[61] He will find there all that he wants, as well as all that he has:—sunshine and gloom, repose as well as energy, pleasure mixed up with pain, love and hatred, thought, feeling, and action, lofty imagination, with point and accuracy, general character with particular traits, and all that distinguishes the infinite variety of nature. He will then find that the interest of Macbeth does not end with the dagger scene, and that Hamlet is a fine character in the closet, and might be made so on the stage, by being understood. He may then hope to do justice to Shakspeare, and when he does this, he need not fear but that his fame will last.’

 

Mr. Kean’s Iago. Cf. ante, p. 190.

212.

‘Hedged in,’ etc. Adapted from Hamlet, Act IV. Sc. 5.

 

In contempt of mankind. Hazlitt refers to a passage of Burke’s. See Political Essays, vol. III. p. 32 and note.

213.

‘Play the dog,’ etc. Henry VI., Part III., Act V. Sc. 6.

214.

Plausibility of a confessor. The Examiner has the following note on this passage: ‘Iago is a Jesuit out of orders, and ought to wear black. Mr. Kean had on a red coat (certainly not “the costume of his crime,” which is hypocrisy), and conducted the whole affair with the easy intrepidity of a young volunteer officer, who undertakes to seduce a bar-maid at an inn.’

214.

‘His cue,’ etc. King Lear, Act I. Sc. 2.

215.

‘Who has that heart so pure,’ etc. Othello, Act III. Sc. 3.

216.

‘What a full fortune,’ etc. Othello, Act I. Sc. 1.

 

‘Here is her father’s house,’ etc. Ibid. Act I. Sc. 1.

 

Ode to Indifference. By Mrs. Frances Greville, Fanny Burney’s godmother.

 

‘What is the reason,’ etc. Othello, Act I. Sc. 1.

217.

‘I cannot believe,’ etc. Ibid. Act II. Sc. 1.

 

‘And yet how nature,’ etc. Ibid. Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Nearly are allied,’ etc. Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, I. 163-4.

 

‘Who knows all quantities [qualities], etc. Othello, Act III. Sc. 3. In The Examiner the following note is appended to this passage:—

 

‘If Desdemona really “saw her husband’s visage in his mind,”^[62] or fell in love with the abstract idea of “his virtues and his valiant parts,”^[63] she was the only woman on record, either before or since, who ever did so. Shakespeare’s want of penetration in supposing that those are the sort of things that gain the affections, might perhaps have drawn a smile from the ladies, if honest Iago had not checked it by suggesting a different explanation. It should seem by this, as if the rankness and gross impropriety of the personal connection, the difference in age, features, colour, constitution, instead of being the obstacle, had been the motive of the refinement of her choice, and had, by beginning at the wrong end, subdued her to the amiable qualities of her lord. Iago is indeed a most learned and irrefragable doctor on the subject of love, which he defines to be “merely a lust of the blood, and a permission of the will.”^[64] The idea that love has its source in moral or intellectual excellence, in good nature or good sense, or has any connection with sentiment or refinement of any kind, is one of those preposterous and wilful errors, which ought to be extirpated for the sake of those few persons who alone are likely to suffer by it, whose romantic generosity and delicacy ought not to be sacrificed to the baseness of their nature, but who treading securely the flowery path, marked out for them by poets and moralists, the licensed artificers of fraud and lies, are dashed to pieces down the precipice, and perish without help.’ In the following number of The Examiner (August 14, 1814) Leigh Hunt, then in Surrey Gaol, wrote a long reply to this characteristic passage. In the number for September 4, the dramatic critic of The Examiner replied to Hazlitt’s article on the character of Iago. A letter from Hazlitt by way of rejoinder appeared on September 11 (see Appendix to these notes). The critic replied (closing the controversy) on September 18.

218.

‘Oh gentle lady,’ etc. Othello, Act II. Sc. 1.

 

‘The milk of human kindness.’ Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 5.

 

‘Least relish of salvation,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Oh, you are well tuned now,’ etc. Othello, Act II. Sc. 1.

 

‘Though in the trade of war,’ etc. Ibid. Act I. Sc. 2.

219.

‘My noble lord,’ etc. Ibid. Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘It is not written in the bond.’ The Merchant of Venice, Act IV. Sc. 1.

220.

‘Though I perchance,’ etc. Othello, Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘O grace,’ etc. Ibid.

 

‘This may do something,’ etc. Ibid.

 

‘I did say so,’ etc. Ibid.

221.

‘Work on,’ etc. Ibid. Act IV. Sc. 1.

 

‘How is it, General,’ etc. Ibid.

 

‘Look on the tragic loading,’ etc. Ibid. Act V. Sc. 2.

 

Mr. Kean’s Richard II. Shakespeare’s play with considerable alterations and additions (by Wroughton), produced March 9, 1815, and acted thirteen times. This is the first paper which Hazlitt wrote as regular dramatic critic of The Examiner. Leigh Hunt, the editor, who was released from prison in February 1815, had intended to take up this work, and had begun the year (while still in Surrey gaol) by contributing a series of articles on the principal actors and actresses of the day. He had also written one ‘Theatrical Examiner’ (February 26, on Kean’s Richard III.) before he was compelled by the stirring events of the ‘hundred days’ to devote all his attention to politics. Thus the work of dramatic critic, as well as the carrying out of the ‘Round Table’ scheme, fell to Hazlitt. Cf. the advertisement to The Round Table (Vol I. p. xxxi.).

 

We are in the number, etc. Cf. Lamb’s essay ‘On the tragedies of Shakspeare considered with reference to their fitness for stage representation,’ originally published in The Reflector (1811).

222.

‘Inexpressible [inexplicable] dumb-show and noise.’ Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

 

‘Segnius per aures,’ etc. Horace, Ars Poetica, 180.

 

Mr. Kean ... in very many passages, etc. Cf. Coleridge’s well-known saying (Table Talk, April 27, 1823): ‘To see him [Kean] act, is like reading Shakspeare by flashes of lightning.’

223.

‘Overdone or come tardy of [off]’ Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

224.

‘Why on thy knee,’ etc. Richard II., Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Oh that I were a mockery king,’ etc. Ibid. Act IV. Sc. 1.

 

The Editor of this Paper. Leigh Hunt first saw Kean as Richard III., and wrote a criticism in The Examiner (February 26, 1815) to which Hazlitt refers.

 

Mr. Pope. Alexander Pope (1763-1835) from 1785 till 1827 acted an immense number of parts both at Drury Lane and Covent Garden.

 

Mr. Holland. Charles Holland (1768-1849?), nephew of the better known Charles Holland (1733-1769), Garrick’s friend, first appeared at Drury Lane in 1796.

 

Idly tacked on to the conclusion. ‘For Mrs. Bartley to rant and whine in,’ The Examiner adds.

 

The Unknown Guest. Produced on March 29, 1815, and attributed to Arnold, the manager.

 

Mr. Arnold. Samuel James Arnold (1774-1852) in 1809 opened the Lyceum Theatre as the English Opera House, of which he was manager for many years. He was manager at Drury Lane from 1812 to 1815.

225.

‘More honoured,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 4.

 

Mr. Kelly. Michael Kelly (1764?-1826), after singing abroad chiefly in Italy and Vienna, first appeared in 1787 at Drury Lane of which he became musical director.

 

Mr. Braham. See vol. VII., note to p. 70.

226.

Mr. Phillips. Thomas Phillipps (1774-1841), the composer, who first appeared in London in 1796.

 

Mrs. Dickons. Maria Dickons (1770?-1833) appeared at Covent Garden as Miss Poole (her maiden name) in 1793. She joined the Drury Lane company in 1811 and retired about 1820.

 

Miss Kelly. Frances Maria Kelly (1790-1882), a niece of Michael Kelly, appeared at Drury Lane as early as 1798 and was chiefly associated with that theatre during her long career as an actress. She retired in 1835 and devoted herself to the training of young actresses. She was a great friend of the Lambs and the heroine of Elia’s Barbara S——. The present volume shows how greatly Hazlitt admired her acting.

 

Mr. Knight. Edward Knight (1774-1826), ‘Little Knight,’ a regular member of the Drury Lane company from 1812.

227.

Love in Limbo. Attributed to Millingen.

 

Zembuca. Zembuca, or the Net-Maker and his Wife, by Pocock.

 

Mr. Kean’s Zanga. At Drury Lane, May 24, 1815.

 

The Revenge. By Edward Young, produced in 1721.

228.

‘I knew you could not bear it.’ Act IV. Sc. 1.

 

‘And so is my revenge.’ Act V. Sc. 2.

 

Oxberry. William Oxberry (1784-1824), one of the regular Drury Lane comedians. His Dramatic Biography (5 vols. 1820-1826) was edited after his death by his widow.

229.

Mr. Bannister’s Farewell. June 1, 1815. Hazlitt had already published part of this article in The Round Table, (vol. I. p. 155).

 

The World. By James Kenney, produced in 1808.

 

The Children in the Wood. By Thomas Morton, music by Dr. Samuel Arnold, produced in 1793.

 

Mr. Gattie. Henry Gattie (1774-1844), a member of the Drury Lane company from 1813 till his retirement in 1833.

 

The Honey-Moon. By John Tobin (1770-1804), produced in 1805.

 

Mrs. Davison. Maria Rebecca Davison (1780?-1858) appeared at Drury Lane (as Miss Duncan) in 1804, and was chiefly associated with that theatre for a number of years.

 

Decamp. See post, note to p. 247.

 

We do not wonder, etc. This passage to the end is in The Round Table. See vol. I. pp. 155-6 and notes.

230.

Comus. Produced April 28, 1815, and acted fourteen times.

231.

‘Of mask and antique pageantry.’ L’Allegro, 128.

 

‘A marvellous proper man.’ Richard III., Act I. Sc. 2.

 

Mr. Duruset. J. B. Durusett, ‘an agreeable tenor singer’ at Covent Garden. He was regarded as the principal male singer during the absence of John Sinclair from that theatre.

 

‘Magic circle.’

Cf. ‘But Shakespear’s magic could not copied be;

Within that circle none durst walk but he.’

Dryden, Prologue to The Tempest, 19-20.

 

‘This evening late,’ etc. Comus, 540 et seq.

232.

‘Two such I saw,’ etc. Ibid. 291 et seq.

233.

‘Royal fortitude.’

‘—— ——whose mind ensued,

Through perilous war, with regal fortitude.’

 

Wordsworth’s Sonnet, ‘November, 1813,’ published in 1815. In the note Hazlitt probably refers to the omission of The Evening Walk (1793), which was not republished till 1837.

 

Mr. Kean’s Leon. June 20, 1815.

 

Leon. In Fletcher’s Rule a Wife and Have a Wife.

234.

Mr. Bartley. George Bartley (1782?-1858) first appeared at Drury Lane in 1802, and became manager of Covent Garden in 1829.

 

‘Double deafness.’ Cf. ‘But yield to double darkness nigh at hand,’ Samson Agonistes, 593.

 

The Shakespeare Gallery. Cf. ante, note to p. 184.

235.

‘The gay creatures,’ etc. Comus, 299.

 

Messrs. Young, etc. Charles Mayne Young (1777-1856), who succeeded Kemble as the chief tragedian at Covent Garden, and retired in 1832; William Abbott (1789-1843), a member of the Covent Garden company for many years from 1812; John Emery (1777-1822), one of the best actors of his time, especially in rustic parts, associated almost entirely with Covent Garden from 1798 till his death; Sarah Booth (1793-1867), who first appeared at Covent Garden in 1810.

 

’Tis much.’ Cymbeline, Act I. Sc. 6.

236.

Airy shapes, etc. Cf. Paradise Lost, I. 775 et seq.

 

Mr. Grimaldi’s Orson. In Valentine and Orson, the part in which Joseph Grimaldi (1779-1837) made his first appearance (1806) at Covent Garden.

 

‘Tricksy spirit.’ The Tempest, Act V. Sc. 1.

237.

Mrs. Bland. Maria Theresa Bland (1769-1838), who made her first appearance at Drury Lane (as Miss Romanzini) in 1786. Hazlitt heard her in Liverpool in 1792. See vol. vii. p. 193.

 

‘After the songs of Apollo.’ Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act V. Sc. 2.

 

My Wife! What Wife? By Barrett, produced July 25, 1815.

 

‘Keep such a dreadful pudder [pother].’ etc. King Lear, Act III. Sc. 2.

238.

‘Good Mr. Tokely [Master Brook],’ etc. The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II. Sc. 2.

 

‘In the likeness of a sigh.’ Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. 1.

239.

Mr. Meggett. This actor from Edinburgh made his first appearance at the Haymarket on July 19, 1815. Genest (VIII. 486) says that he was ‘cruelly used by the bigotted admirers of Kean.’

 

The Mountaineers. By George Colman the younger, produced in 1795.

 

Mr. Harley’s Fidget. In The Boarding House, a musical farce by Samuel Beazley (1786-1851), first produced on August 26, 1811.

 

Mr. Harley. John Pritt Harley (1786-1858) made his first appearance in London at the English Opera House in July, 1815. Soon afterwards he joined the company at Drury Lane, where he remained till 1835, and made a great reputation as a comic actor and singer.

 

The Blue Stocking. Moore’s M.P., or the Blue-Stocking (1811).

240.

Mr. Wallack. James William Wallack (1791?-1864), a versatile actor well known for many years both in London and America.

 

Mrs. Harlowe. Sarah Harlowe (1765-1852), a low comedy actress who first appeared at Covent Garden in 1790.

 

‘Warbled, etc. Cf. ‘In amorous ditties all a summer’s day.’ Paradise Lost, I. 449.

 

‘As one incapable,’ etc. Hamlet, Act IV. Sc. 7.

 

The Iron Chest. By George Colman the younger, produced by Kemble in 1796.

241.

The Squire of Dames. The Faerie Queene, Book III. Canto VII. The giantess was Argante.

 

Mr. Capel Lofft. Capell Lofft (1751-1824), a well-known politician and miscellaneous writer, the patron of the poet Bloomfield and Napoleon. The letter referred to by Hazlitt appeared in The Morning Chronicle, August 3, 1815.

 

Mr. Foote. An actor from Edinburgh who had made his first appearance in London on July 18, 1815.

242.

Mr. Gyngell. Gyngell’s ‘Exhibition of the original Fantoccini, the Microcosm, the Moving Panorama,’ etc. was on view at this time at the theatre in Catherine Street.

 

Living in London. Attributed to Jameson, produced August 5, 1815.

 

‘Want of decency,’ etc. The Earl of Roscommon’s Essay on Translated Verse,

114.

 

243.

Quod sit, etc. Horace, Ars Poetica, 188.

 

The King’s Proxy. By Samuel James Arnold.

 

Plato. The Republic, Book VII.

244.

Mr. and Mrs. T. Cooke. Thomas Simpson Cooke (1782-1848), who composed the music for The King’s Proxy.

 

l. 23. The Examiner proceeds to quote from The Morning Chronicle a favourable notice of a new musical farce (by E. P. Knight) entitled A Chip of the Old Block, or, The Village Festival, and adds: ‘This account is from the Chronicle. It is much too favourable. The piece is one of the most wretched we have seen. A statute fair would be more entertaining. The political claptraps were so barefaced as to be hissed. Matthews sung a song with that kind of humour and effect of which our readers will easily form an idea.’

 

The Maid and the Magpie. Arnold’s version, produced August 21, 1815.

245.

The Hypocrite. By Isaac Bickerstaffe, first produced in 1768.

246.

‘Sleek o’er his rugged looks.’ Macbeth, Act III. Sc. 2.

 

Major Sturgeon. In Foote’s The Mayor of Garratt.

 

Mrs. Sparks. See Leigh Hunt’s Dramatic Essays (ed. Archer and Lowe), p. 177.

 

Mrs. Orger. Mary Ann Orger (1788-1849) appeared at Drury Lane in 1808. She was the wife of Thomas Orger, a Quaker.

247.

‘Has honours,’ etc. Cf. ‘Some have greatness thrust upon ’em.’ Twelfth Night, Act II. Sc. 5.

 

Mr. Decamp. De Camp (Mrs. Charles Kemble’s brother) had played Isidore in Coleridge’s Remorse (January 23, 1813). For another failure of his see Lamb’s Letters (ed. W. C. Hazlitt), I. 377.

 

Mr. Edwards’s Richard III. September 25, 1815.

 

‘Sole sway and sovereignty.’ Cf. ‘Give solely sovereign sway.’ Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 5.

248.

Mr. Incledon. Charles Incledon (1763-1826), the tenor, a good singer but a bad actor, appeared at Covent Garden from 1790 till 1815.

249.

Lovers’ Vows. Mrs. Inchbald’s version of Kotzebue’s Natural Son, first produced at Covent Garden, 1798, revived at Drury Lane, September 26, 1815.

 

Mrs. Mardyn. Mrs. Mardyn had been very successful in Dublin. A false report was afterwards spread that she had eloped with Byron. See Byron’s Letters and Journals (ed. Prothero), III. 217, and Mrs. Baron Wilson’s Our Actresses, I. 198-207.

 

Mr. Dowton ... for the first time. October 5, 1815.

 

‘Merry jest.’ Titus Andronicus, Act V. Sc. 2.

250.

Mr. Lovegrove. William Lovegrove (1778-1816), who made his reputation at Bath, and appeared in London in 1810.

 

Wewitzer. Ralph Wewitzer (1748-1825), who had had a long career, chiefly in secondary parts. This was one of his last appearances.

 

l. 18. The Examiner article continues: ‘The new farce [at Covent Garden, October 5, 1815], called The Farce-Writer, has been very successful; we wish we could add deservedly so. It is a happy instance of lively dulness. The wit consists entirely in the loco-motion of the actors. It is a very badly written pantomime.’

250.

The School for Scandal. September 27, 1815.

 

Little Simmons. Samuel Simmons (1777?-1819), a regular member of the Covent Garden company from 1796, and very successful as a comedian. Moses in The School for Scandal was one of his parts.

 

‘Cast some longing,’ etc. Gray’s Elegy, St. 22.

251.

Fawcett. John Fawcett (1768-1837), for many years manager of Covent Garden.

 

Mrs. Gibbs. For an account of this actress, said to have been the wife of George Colman the younger, see Mrs. Baron Wilson’s Our Actresses, I. 83-90.

 

Mr. Blanchard. William Blanchard (1769-1835), one of the Covent Garden comedians. See Leigh Hunt’s Critical Essays, p. 122.

 

Mr. Farley. Charles Farley (1771-1859), actor, dramatist, and stage-manager.

 

last line. The Examiner continues: ‘Miss O’Neill has resumed her engagement at this house, and plays her usual characters to crowded audiences with even increased effect. We should attempt to describe her excellency in some of them, but that we feel ourselves unable to do her even tolerable justice.’

252.

Mrs. Alsop’s Rosalind. Covent Garden, October 18, 1815. Mrs. Alsop did not continue long on the stage. She was the daughter of Mrs. Jordan and Richard Daly, the Irish theatrical manager.

 

‘No more like,’ etc. Cf. Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 2.

 

Her Nell. In The Devil to Pay.

 

The Will. By F. Reynolds, produced in 1797.

253.

John Du Bart. October 25, 1815. The piece, attributed to Pocock, seems to have been founded on an exploit of the French naval hero, Jean Barth (1651-1702).

 

That which took place in Hyde Park. Hazlitt refers to the extraordinary thanksgiving jubilee, which took place in London on August 1, 1814, and following days. Part of the programme consisted of a sham fight on the Serpentine.

254.

Mr. Bishop. Afterwards Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (1786-1855), the composer.

 

‘Guns, drums,’ etc. Pope, Satires, I. 26.

 

The Beggar’s Opera. October 28, 1815. Cf. ante, pp. 193-5.

 

Miss Nash. Miss Nash had played Polly at Bath, November 4, 1813, a performance described by Genest as ‘very good.’

255.

Mrs. Davenport. Mary Ann Davenport (1765?-1843) first appeared at Covent Garden in 1794.

256.

l. 15. The Examiner adds: ‘A new farce has been brought out at Drury-Lane in the course of the week, called Twenty per Cent. It has succeeded very well. A voluble lying knave of a servant in it by Mr. Harley, who plays this class of characters well, is its chief attraction. It is deficient in plot, but not without pleasantry. It is improbable, lively, and short.’ The farce was by T. Dibdin.

 

Miss O’Neill’s Elwina. Covent Garden, November 11. Hannah More’s Percy was produced in 1778.

 

l. 15. The Theatrical Examiner for November 12, 1815, on Kean’s Bajazet, and Mrs. Mardyn and Mrs. Alsop in The Country Girl, is clearly Hazlitt’s.

257.

There is one short word, etc. ‘Fudge.’ See The Vicar of Wakefield, chap. xi.

258.

l. 24. The Examiner continues: ‘Miss Stephens has appeared twice in Polly, and once in Rosetta. She looks better than she did last year, and, if possible, sings better. Of the new Farce at Drury-Lane [Who’s Who? or The Double Imposture], we have only room to add, that there is one good scene in it, in which Munden and Harley made a very grotesque contrast, with some tolerable equivoques; all the rest is a tissue of the most tedious and gross improbabilities. The author’s wit appeared to have been elicited and expended in the same moment.’

 

Where to Find a Friend. By Leigh, produced at Drury Lane November 23, 1815.

260.

Johnstone. John Henry Johnstone (1749-1828), a member of the Drury Lane company from 1803 to 1820. He began his career as a singer.

 

‘The milk of human kindness.’ Macbeth, Act I. Sc. v.

261.

Cymon. Garrick’s play was produced in 1767.

 

‘Sweet Passion of Love,’ Act III. Sc. 2.

 

‘It is silly sooth,’ etc. Twelfth Night, Act II. Sc. 4.

 

‘Now I am seventy-two.’ Cymon, Act II. Sc. 3.

 

‘Split the ears,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

262.

What’s a Man of Fashion? ‘An indifferent farce’ (according to Genest) by Reynolds.

263.

‘With pleased attention,’ etc. Collins, Epistle to Sir Thomas Hanmer, 59-63. Collins is referring to Fletcher.

 

‘Where did you rest last night?’ The Orphan, Act IV. Sc. 3.

 

‘A cubit from his stature.’ Cf. St. Matthew, vi. 27.

 

The Honey-Moon. By John Tobin (1805).

 

‘He still plays the dog.’ Cf. Henry VI., Part III. Act V. Sc. 6.

 

last line. The Examiner adds: ‘Mrs. Marden [Mardyn] played Miss Hoyden on Wednesday in the admirable comedy of the Trip to Scarborough. She seemed to consult her own genius in it less than the admonitions of some critics. There was accordingly less to find fault with, but we like her better when she takes her full swing.

‘If to her share some trifling errors fall,

Look in her face, and you’ll forget them all.’^[65]

 

Mr. Penley’s Lord Foppington had very considerable merit.

264.

The Merchant of Bruges. A version by Douglas Kinnaird, Byron’s friend, of Fletcher’s comedy, The Beggar’s Bush.

 

‘That every petty lord,’ etc. For this and the other passages quoted see The Beggar’s Bush, Act II. Sc. 3.

266.

l. 17. In The Examiner the article continued as follows: ‘The new musical farce, My Spouse and I, continues to be acted with deserved applause. It is by much the best thing brought out this season. It has a great deal of all that is necessary to a good farce, point, character, humour, and incident. It was admirably supported. Harley played a lively character of the bustling Fawcett-cast very happily. He may now stick very comfortably in the skirts of public favour, if he does not chuse to fling himself out of them. The only faults of this piece are, that it is too long in the second act, and that Miss Kelly continues somewhat too long in breeches, for the purposes of decorum. Mr. Barnard, as a country lad, played very well, and was deservedly encored in a song, “But not for me the merry bells.” This piece is described by Genest as “an indifferent musical farce by C. Dibdin, Jun.”’

 

Smiles and Tears. By Mrs. Charles Kemble (Maria Theresa De Camp, 1774-1838), produced December 12, 1815.

268.

Lucy Lockitt. In The Beggar’s Opera.

 

Deaf and Dumb. A version (1801) of Bouilly’s Abbé de l’Épée.

 

Father and Daughter. Mrs. Opie’s (1769-1853) first publication (1801).

 

l. 29. In The Examiner Hazlitt adds: ‘Mr. Liston spoke an indifferent epilogue inimitably well.’

 

George Barnwell. Cf. The Round Table, vol. I. p. 154.

 

‘A custom more honoured,’ etc. Hamlet, Act. I. Sc. 4.

269.

‘These odds more even.’ Cf. Measure for Measure, Act III. Sc. 1.

 

‘A good hater.’ See Boswell’s Life of Johnson (ed. G. B. Hill), I. 190, u. 1.

 

‘He is the fitter for heaven.’ George Barnwell, Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Could he lay,’ etc. Ibid. Act IV. Sc. 1.

270.

l. 10. The Examiner concludes: ‘Both Pantomimes are indifferent. That at Drury-Lane consists in endless flights of magpies up to the ceiling, and that at Covent-Garden stays too long in China. The latter part was better where Mr. Grimaldi comes in, and lets off a culverin at his enemies, and sings a serenade to his mistress in concert with Grimalkin. We were glad, right glad, to see Mr. Grimaldi again. There was (some weeks back) an ugly report that Mr. Grimaldi was dead. We would not believe it; we did not like to ask any one the question, but we watched the public countenance for the intimation of an event which “would have eclipsed the gaiety of nations.”^[66] We looked at the faces we met in the street, but there were no signs of general sadness; no one stopped his acquaintance to say, that a man of genius was no more. Here indeed he is again, safe and sound, and as pleasant as ever. As without the gentleman at St. Helena, there is an end of politics in Europe; so without the clown at Sadler’s Wells, there must be an end of pantomimes in this country!’

 

The Busy Body. Mrs. Centlivre’s comedy (1709).

 

‘His voice,’ etc. As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 7.

271.

Barnes. ‘Mrs. Barnes from Exeter.’ December 29, 1815.

 

‘The divine Desdemona.’ Othello, Act II. Sc. 1.

 

‘That flows on,’ etc. Ibid. Act III. Sc. 3.

 

Zanga or Bajazet. In Young’s The Revenge and Rowe’s Tamerlane respectively.

272.

‘Then, oh, farewell!’ For this and the other Othello quotations see ante, p. 189.

 

A New Way to Pay Old Debts. Sir Giles Overreach was one of Kean’s greatest parts. See Doran’s Annals of the English Stage (ed. Lowe), III. 390-1.

 

It has been considered, etc. Part of this passage was repeated in The Round Table. See vol. I. pp. 156-7, and notes.

273.

‘Two at a time,’ etc. The Beggar’s Opera, Act III. Sc. 4.

 

Edwin. John Edwin, the elder (1749-1790), one of the great comedians of his day.

274.

‘His fortune swells him,’ etc. A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Act V. Sc. 1.

 

‘Come hither, Marall,’ etc. Ibid., Act II. Sc. 1.

 

‘I’m feeble,’ etc. Ibid.

 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As altered by Reynolds, and produced January 17, 1816.

 

We hope we have not been, etc. Hazlitt probably refers to the concluding paragraph of one of his Round Table essays. See vol. I. p. 64.

275.

‘Injurious Hermia,’ etc. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III. Sc. 2.

277.

‘Is he not moved,’ etc. A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Act IV. Sc. 1.

 

‘Lord,—Right Honourable Lord.’ Ibid. Act II. Sc. 1, and Act III. Sc. 2.

 

‘Do themselves homage.’ Othello, Act I. Sc. 1.

 

‘It came twanging off.’ A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Act III. Sc. 2.

278.

Love for Love. January 23, 1816.

 

Munden’s Foresight. Cf. ante, p. 71.

 

Parsons. William Parsons (1736-1795), ‘the comic Roscius.’ Foresight was one of his best parts.

 

‘School’s up,’ etc. An interpolation apparently.

279.

‘A great sea-porpoise.’ ‘You great sea-calf,’ Miss Prue says to him (Act III. Sc. 7).

 

‘And pray sister,’ etc. Act II. Sc. 9.

 

The Anglade Family. Accusation, or The Family of D’Anglade, adapted from the French by J. H. Payne, and produced February 1, 1816.

 

The Maid and the Magpye. Cf. ante, p. 244.

280.

note. Lavalette, after the second Bourbon restoration in 1815, was, along with Ney, condemned to death, but escaped by changing clothes with his wife. Cf. vol. III. p. 157 and note.

281.

The same drama. The Covent Garden version (February 1) was by James Kenney.

 

Mathews. Charles Mathews (1776-1835), one of the best comedians, and the greatest mimic of his time. Hazlitt’s admiration of him was not enthusiastic.

 

Charles Kemble. Charles Kemble (1775-1854), the younger brother of Mrs. Siddons and John Philip Kemble, first appeared in London in 1794, and retired in 1840.

 

Measure for Measure. Covent Garden, February 8, 1816.

 

Lectures on Dramatic Literature, etc. Cf. vol. I. (Characters of Shakespear’s Plays), p. 346 and note.

282.

‘The cowl,’ etc. Cf. ‘All hoods make not monks.’ Henry VIII., Act III. Sc. 1.

 

‘If I do lose thee,’ etc. Measure for Measure, Act III. Sc. 1.

283.

‘To lie in cold obstruction,’ etc. Ibid.

 

‘Careless,’ etc. Ibid. Act IV. Sc. 2.

 

‘He has been drinking hard,’ etc. Ibid. Act IV. Sc. 3.

 

‘A dish of some three-pence.’ Ibid. Act II. Sc. 1.

 

‘There is some soul,’ etc. Henry V., Act IV. Sc. 1.

 

Society for the Suppression of Vice. See vol. I. p. 60, and note.

284.

‘The enemies of the human race.’ The phrase was applied to Buonaparte. Cf. vol. IX. p. 321.

 

‘Oh fie, fie.’ Measure for Measure, Act III. Sc. 1.

 

Vetus. See vol. III. pp. 57 et seq., and notes.

 

‘Marall, come hither, Marall.’ See ante, note to p. 274.

285.

l. 35. In The Examiner the article concludes: ‘Rosina has been acted at this theatre to introduce the two Miss Halfords in the characters of Rosina and Phœbe. They have both of them succeeded, and equally well. If they are not a pair of Sirens, they are very pretty singers. Miss E. Halford is the tallest, and Miss S. Halford the fattest of the two.’

286.

‘The mob are so pleased,’ etc. The Recruiting Officer, Act I. Sc. 1.

 

‘Oh, the wonderful works of Nature.’ Ibid. Act II. Sc. 3.

 

‘Well, Tummy.’ Ibid.

287.

l. 6. In The Examiner the article concludes as follows: ‘The new farce of What Next? is very broad, very improbable, but if better managed, might have been made very laughable. The plot turns entirely on the disguise assumed by a nephew to personate his uncle, which leads to several ridiculous surprises and blunders, and the carrying on and the disentangling of the plot is effected with much more violence than art. It was once or twice in danger, but it hurried on so rapidly from absurdity to absurdity, that it at last distanced the critics. Even as a farce, it is too crude and coarse ever to become a very great favourite.’ ‘A moderate Farce by T. Dibdin’ (Genest), produced at Drury Lane, Feb. 29.

287.

The Fair Penitent. By Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718), produced in 1703. On the present occasion Charles Kemble played Lothario.

 

‘A Muse of fire,’ etc. Henry V., Prologue.

 

‘An awkward imitator of Shakespear.’ See Tom Jones, Book IX. chap. 1.

288.

‘Which to be hated,’ etc. Pope’s Essay on Man, II. 218.

 

‘It was the day,’ etc. The Fair Penitent, Act III. Sc. 1.

 

Last line. The article in The Examiner concludes with a brief reference to the re-appearance of Braham in Israel in Egypt, and gives the speech addressed by him to the audience, who had received him with some signs of disapprobation.

289.

The Duke of Milan. Published in 1623.

 

‘Which felt a stain,’ etc. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 89).

290.

‘Proud to die,’ etc. The Duke of Milan, Act V. Sc. 2.

 

‘Some widow’s curse,’ etc. See ante, note to p. 274.

 

‘By orphans’ tears.’ See ante, note to p. 277.

291.

l. 5. Add: ‘Mr. Bartley spoke a new prologue on the occasion, which was well received.’

 

Miss O’Neill’s Lady Teazle. In The Examiner this article begins as follows: ‘Miss O’Neill [we beg pardon of the Board of Green Cloth, and are almost afraid that this style of theatrical criticism may not be quite consistent with the principles of subordination and the scale of respectability about to be established in Europe; for we read in the Examiner of last week the following paragraph: “At Berlin, orders have been given by the police to leave out the titles of Mr., Mrs., and Miss, prefixed to the names of public actors. The females are to take the name of frou. Accordingly we see the part of Desdemona, in Shakespeare’s tragedy of Othello, is given out to be played by frou (woman) Schrok.” This is as it should be, and legitimate. But to proceed till further orders in the usual style].’

 

Miss Farren. Elizabeth Farren (1759-1829), who first played in London in 1777, retired in 1797, and in the same year married the 12th Earl of Derby. Cf. ante, p. 389. Her last appearance was in the character of Lady Teazle.

292.

Mrs. Egerton. Sarah Egerton (1782-1847) first appeared in London in 1811, and retired in 1835. Mrs. Baron Wilson (Our Actresses, I. 79) relates that on the occasion here referred to by Hazlitt she played Meg Merrilies in place of Emery, who ‘refused to put on petticoats.’

 

The late Mr. Cooke. George Frederick Cooke (1756-1811) was frequently too intoxicated to appear on the stage. See ante, note to p. 207.

293.

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

 

‘Like the giddy sailor,’ etc. Misquoted from Richard III., Act III. Sc. 4.

294.

‘Deep than loud.’ Cf. ‘Curses, not loud, but deep.’ Macbeth, Act V. Sc. 3.

295.

The following account. See ante, pp. 179-80.

296.

‘I would not have parted with it,’ etc. The Merchant of Venice, Act III. Sc. 1.

297.

‘Exhaling to the sky.’ Cf. ‘No natural exhalation in the sky.’ King John, Act III. Sc. 4.

 

Madame Mainville Fodor. Josephine Fodor-Mainvielle (b. 1793). This was her first, or one of her first appearances in London. She retired from the stage in 1833.

 

‘Has her exits,’ etc. As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 7.

298.

‘Till the moon,’ etc. Paradise Lost, IV. 607 et seq.

 

‘Hope told a flattering tale.’ An anonymous song set to music by Paisiello.

 

Mons. Drouet. Louis François Philippe Drouet (1792-1873).

 

l. 29. The Examiner continues: ‘Drury-Lane.—A young lady has appeared at this theatre in the character of Cecilia in the Chapter of Accidents: but from the insipidity of the character in which she chose to appear, we know no more of her powers of acting than before we saw her. Both her face and voice are pleasing.’ The lady was Miss Murray. Sophia Lee’s comedy The Chapter of Accidents was produced in 1780.

 

Mr. Cobham. April 15, 1816. Thomas Cobham (1786-1842) failed on this occasion, but became ‘a hero to transpontine audiences.’

 

‘Made of penetrable stuff.’ Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 4.

299.

‘Unhousell’d,’ etc. Ibid. Act I. Sc. 5.

 

Sir Pertinax MacSycophant. In Macklin’s The Man of the World (1781). Bibby appeared on April 16, 1816.

 

Egerton. Daniel Egerton (1772-1835), ‘long the performer of “cruel uncles” and “flinty-hearted fathers”’ at Covent Garden. He married Sarah Fisher, for whom see ante, p. 292.

300.

Miss Grimani. Miss Grimani from Bath played Juliet, April 23, 1816.

 

‘How silver sweet,’ etc. Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. 2.

 

‘The midnight bell,’ etc. King John, Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Gentle tassel.’ ‘To lure this tassel-gentle back again.’ Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. 2.

301.

Garrick’s Ode on Shakespear. Written for the famous Shakespeare Jubilee at Stratford in 1769.

 

‘Vesuvius in an eruption,’ etc. Gray, Letter to Warton, August 8, 1749. See Letters (ed. Tovey), I. 201.

 

‘I was ready to sink for him,’ etc. Ibid.

302.

l. 20. In The Examiner Hazlitt continues as follows: ‘But any one who chuses may see the celebration of the centenary of Shakspeare’s death to-day, (which is Thursday) on Saturday or on Tuesday next, at Covent-Garden Theatre. They kill him there as often as the town pleases.——We cannot speak favourably of either of the new after-pieces, Who wants a Wife? and Pitcairn’s Island. The one is contrived for Mr. Liston to make foolish love in; and the other for Mr. Smith to play that land-monster, a singing, swaggering, good-natured, honest, blackguard English Jack Tar, a sort of animal that ought never to come ashore, or as soon as it does, ought to go to sea again.’

 

‘Doubtless the pleasure,’ etc. Hudibras, Part II., Canto III., 1-2.

 

‘Full volly home.’ Cf. ‘But rattling nonsense in full volleys breaks,’ Pope, An Essay on Criticism, 628. Cf. King Lear, Act V. Sc. 3, l. 174.

303.

Madame Sacchi. Madame Sacchi’s ‘astonishing performances’ on the tight rope were introduced ‘for the accommodation of the crowds of applicants’ who desired to witness them.

 

‘So fails,’ etc. See The Excursion, Book VII., 975 et seq.

 

‘Affecting a virtue.’ ‘Assume a virtue, if you have it not.’ Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 4.

 

‘They two can be made one flesh.’ Cf. Genesis ii. 24.

 

Dame Hellenore. The Faerie Queene, Book III. Canto X.

 

‘Aggravated,’ etc. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I. Sc. 2.

304.

‘There is some fury,’ etc. A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Act IV. Sc. 1.

 

‘A word of naught.’ Cf. ‘You must say “paragon”; a paramour is, God bless us, a thing of naught.’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act IV. Sc. 2.

 

‘So stands the statue,’ etc. Thomson, The Seasons, Summer, 1347.

 

l. 24. Hazlitt concluded his article in The Examiner as follows: ‘He must be sent to Coventry or St. Helena!’

305.

Bertram. By the Rev. Charles Robert Maturin (1782-1824), author of Melmoth the Wanderer (1820). Bertram had previously been recommended by Scott to Kemble who declined it. Coleridge attacked it in The Courier and in Biographia Literaria. See Dykes Campbell’s Samuel Taylor Coleridge, p. 223, note 1.

 

Aristotle, etc. Part of the famous definition of tragedy in the Poetics.

 

‘Yes, the limner’s art,’ etc. Bertram, Act I. Sc. 5.

306.

‘And yet some sorcery,’ etc. Ibid.

307.

‘Yea, thus they live,’ etc. Ibid. Act III. Sc. 2.

 

‘By heaven,’ etc. Ibid. Act IV. Sc. 2.

 

The speech of Bertram. Ibid. Act V. Sc. 2.

 

‘The wretched have no country.’ Ibid. Act II. Sc. 3.

 

Miss Somerville. Margaret Agnes Somerville (1799-1883), whose first appearance Hazlitt notices here. In 1819 she married Alfred Bunn, the theatrical manager. Her subsequent appearances were fitful, and she retired at an early age.

308.

‘Decked in purple,’ etc. Ibid. Act I. Sc. 5.

 

‘Beholds that lady,’ etc. Ibid.

 

l. 13. In The Examiner Hazlitt adds: ‘Covent-Garden. We have seen Miss O’Neill’s Mrs. Oakley. It is much better than her Lady Teazle, and yet it is not good. Her comedy is only tragedy diluted. It wants the true spirit.’

 

Adelaide, or the Emigrants. The first play of Richard Lalor Sheil (1791-1851). It had been brought out at Dublin in 1814.

309.

‘Throw it to the dogs,’ etc. Macbeth, Act V. Sc. 3.

 

Mr. Murray. Charles Murray (1754-1821), after acquiring considerable reputation in the provinces, appeared at Covent Garden in 1796.

310.

‘Where did you rest last night.’ See ante, note to p. 263.

 

l. 22. In The Examiner the article concludes with a long account of the plot of Bertram.

 

It has been observed of Ben Jonson, etc. Cf. ante, note to p. 42.

311.

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

 

‘Like a man,’ etc. Henry IV., Part II., Act III. Sc. 2.

312.

‘The baby of a girl.’ Macbeth, Act III. Sc. 4.

 

‘Rather than so,’ etc. Ibid. Act III. Sc. 1.

313.

The Princess Charlotte. The only daughter of the Prince Regent, and a great favourite of the nation’s. She married (May 2, 1816) Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, and died November 5, 1817.

 

‘Leave me to my repose.’ ‘Leave me, leave me to repose.’ Gray. The Vegtam’s Kivitha; or the Descent of Odin.

 

‘The line too labours,’ etc. Pope, An Essay on Criticism, 371.

 

‘I tell you,’ etc. Macbeth, Act V. Sc. 1.

314.

‘Go, go.’ In the banquet scene presumably, Act III. Sc. 4.

 

Mr. Horace Twiss. Horace Twiss (1787-1849), the biographer of Lord Eldon, was a nephew of Mrs. Siddons and wrote for her an address which she delivered on taking her farewell of the stage, June 29, 1812.

 

‘Himself again.’ Richard III. (Cibber’s version).

 

‘Tomorrow and tomorrow.’ Macbeth, Act V. Sc. 5.

 

Printed by a steam-engine. See vol. III., p. 158 (Political Essays).

315.

Up all Night, or the Smuggler’s Cave. By Matthew Peter King (1773-1823) first produced in 1809 (words by S. J. Arnold).

 

Mr. Russell from Edinburgh. Hazlitt distinguishes him from Samuel Thomas Russell (1769?-1845), great as Jerry Sneak.

 

The Beehive. A musical farce by John Gideon Millingen (1782-1862), produced in 1811.

 

Wrench. Benjamin Wrench (1778-1843), after playing at Bath and York, appeared in London in 1809 and became a well-known comedian at Drury Lane, The Lyceum and Covent Garden.

 

The School of Reform. By Thomas Morton, produced in 1805.

316.

The Irish Widow. By Garrick, produced in 1772.

 

l. 10. Hazlitt, in concluding his article in The Examiner, declares his disbelief of the rumours relating to Mrs. Mardyn (see ante, note to p. 249), and publishes a long letter from her addressed to the editor of the Morning Chronicle, indignantly denying them.

 

The Jealous Wife. By George Colman the elder, produced in 1761.

 

Sylvester Daggerwood. By George Colman the younger, first acted in 1795 as ‘New Hay at the Old Market.’

 

‘Like angels’ visits,’ etc. See vol. IV., note to p. 346 (The Spirit of the Age).

 

Wild Oats. O’Keeffe’s comedy, produced in 1794.

317.

The acting of Dowton and Russell. This paragraph is repeated in Lectures on the Comic Writers. See ante, pp. 167-8.

319.

The Poor Gentleman. By George Colman the younger, produced in 1802.

 

The Agreeable Surprise. Cf. Hazlitt’s account of this farce, ante, pp. 166-7.

320.

l. 4. Hazlitt continues in The Examiner: ‘We saw Miss Matthews’s name in the bills, but as it was her benefit night at Covent-Garden, her entrance in the afterpiece was an agreeable surprise to us.—English Opera. A gentleman of the name of Horn has re-appeared with much and deserved applause at this Theatre, in the part of the Seraskier. His voice and style of singing are good, and his action spirited and superior to that of singers in general. We hope soon to say more of him.’ Charles Edward Horn (1786-1849), the composer of ‘Cherry Ripe,’ ‘I know a bank,’ etc.

 

Artaxerxes. Cf. ante, pp. 192-3.

321.

Exit by Mistake. ‘A pretty good comedy in 3 acts, by Jameson’ (Genest).

322.

John Dennis. Hazlitt probably refers to John Dennis’s ‘Remarks upon Cato.’ 1713.

 

The editor of a modern journal. Probably Hazlitt’s brother-in-law, Dr., afterwards Sir John Stoddart.

323.

The Beggar’s Opera. Cf. ante, pp. 193-5. Polly’s famous song, ‘Oh, ponder well! be not severe,’ etc. (Act I.), is said to have turned the tide in favour of the opera at its first representation, January 29, 1728.

324.

Schlegel’s work on the Drama. See Lecture IV. Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature (trans. John Black, ed. 1900), p. 64.

325.

Selon la coutume de notre pays. See vol. I. note to p. 100.

 

Cosi fan Tutti. Mozart’s Opera, 1788.

 

Dansomanie. By Étienne Nicolas Méhul (1763-1817), produced in Paris, 1800.

326.

‘To draw three souls,’ etc. Twelfth Night, Act II. Sc. 3.

 

Mr. Naldi. Giuseppe Naldi (1770-1820), who first appeared in London in 1806.

 

Pandarus. In Troilus and Cressida.

 

Signor Begri. Presumably Pierre Ignace Begrey (1783-1863), who appeared in London, 1815-1822.

 

‘Floats upon the air,’ etc. Loosely quoted from Comus, 249-251.

 

‘And silence,’ etc. Ibid. 557-560.

327.

Madame Vestris. Lucia Elizabeth Bartolozzi (1797-1856), granddaughter of the engraver, and the wife, first (1813) of Armand Vestris, a dancer at the King’s Theatre, and second (1838), of Charles James Mathews. She first appeared in London in 1815, and retired in 1854. Mrs. Baron Wilson (Our Actresses, II. 184) describes her as ‘the fair Syren, who, for nearly a quarter of a century, has fascinated the whole kingdom by her talent and beauty.’

 

Miss L. Kelly. The younger sister of Frances Maria Kelly, born 1795.

328.

l. 13. In The Examiner the article concludes as follows: ‘Love in a Village is put off till Thursday next, and Mr. Incledon is to perform in Artaxerxes on Tuesday. Mr. Horn played the Seraskier in the Siege of Belgrade on Friday, and sung the songs, particularly ‘My heart with love is beating’ with great truth and effect. Mr. Russell’s Leopold was very lively. It is not necessary to say that Miss Kelly’s Lilla was good, for all that she does is so. The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were present, and were very cordially greeted by the audience. After the play, God save the King was repeatedly called for, and at length sung, with an additional, occasional, and complimentary verse by Mr. Arnold:—

“Long may the Royal Line,

Proud Star of Brunswick shine;

While thus we sing,

Joy may thy Daughter share,

Blest by a Nation’s pray’r,

Blest be the Royal Pair;

God save the King.”

 

‘At the Haymarket, where the same Illustrious Personages appeared for the first time in public (since their marriage) the night before, the following stanza was introduced:—

‘“Great George! thy people’s voice

Now hails thy daughter’s choice

Till echoes ring:

This shout still rends the air,

May she prove blest as fair!

Long live the noble pair!

God save the King.”’

 

My Landlady’s Night-Gown. My Landlady’s Gown (August 10, 1816), by Walley Chamberlain Oulton (1770?-1820?).

 

‘Its own place.’ Paradise Lost, 1. 254.

329.

l. 4. In The Examiner Hazlitt proceeds: ‘A Miss Ives played a little plump chambermaid prettily enough. The Jealous Wife was acted at this Theatre on Monday. Mr. Meggett played Mr. Oakley but indifferently. He seemed to be at hawk and buzzard between insipid comedy and pompous tragedy. It was not the thing. Mr. Terry’s Major Oakley we like very much. Mrs. Glover, who played Mrs. Oakley, is really too big for this little theatre. The stage cannot contain her, and her violent airs. Miss Taylor was Miss Russet, and looked like a very nice, runaway school-girl. Barnard played her lover, and got through the part very well.’

 

Rosetta. In Bickerstaffe’s Love in a Village.

 

Mr. Chatterley. William Symonds Chatterley (1787-1822). Justice Woodcock was his best character.

 

Castle of Andalusia. A comic opera by O’Keeffe, produced in 1782.

330.

l. 36. The article in The Examiner continues: ‘Haymarket-Theatre. The new farce in one act, called The Fair Deserter, succeeds very well here. It preserves the unities of time, place, and action, with the most perfect regularity. The merit of it is confined to the plot, and to the pretended changes of character by the changes of dress, which succeed one another with the rapidity and with something of the ingenuity of a pantomime. Mr. Duruset, a young officer of musical habits, wishes to release Miss MacAlpine from the power of her guardian, who is determined to marry her the next day. The young lady is kept under lock and key, and the difficulty is to get her out of the house. For this purpose Tokely, servant to Duruset, contrives to make the cook of the family drunk at an alehouse, where he leaves him, and carries off his official paraphernalia, his night-cap, apron, and long knife, in a bundle to his master. The old guardian (Watkinson) comes out with his lawyer from the house, and Tokely, presenting himself as the drunken cook, is let in. He, however, takes the key of the street door with him, which he shuts to, and as this intercepts the return of the old gentleman to his house, Tokely is forced to get out of the window by a ladder to fetch a blacksmith. He presently returns himself, in the character of the blacksmith, unlocks the door, but on the other’s refusing him a guinea for his trouble, locks it again, and walks off in spite of all remonstrances. The guardian is now compelled to ascend the ladder himself as well as he can: and while he is engaged in this ticklish adventure, the young Gallant and his mischievous Valet return with a couple of sentries whom Duruset orders to seize the poor old Guardian as a robber, and upon his declaring who and what he is, he is immediately charged by the lover with concealing a Deserter in his house, who is presently brought out, and is in fact his ward, disguised in a young officer’s uniform, which Tokely had given to her for that purpose. Tokely now returns dressed as an officer, and pretending to be the father of the young gentleman, with much blustering and little probability, persuades the guardian to consent to the match between his (adopted) son and the young lady, who has just been arrested as the Deserter, and who, upon this, throwing aside her disguise, the affair is concluded, to the satisfaction of every body but the old guardian, and the curtain drops. The bustle of this little piece keeps it alive: there is nothing good either in the writing or the acting of it.’

331.

‘Gone like a crab,’ etc. Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 2.

 

Mr. Terry last week, etc. At the Haymarket, on August 27, 1816.

 

The Surrender of Calais. By George Colman the younger (1791).

 

‘The line too labours,’ etc. Cf. ante, note to p. 313.

 

‘He resembles a person,’ etc. Schlegel on Dryden. See Lectures on Dramatic Literature (trans. John Black, ed. 1900), p. 479.

332.

‘Not to be hated.’ Cf. ante, note to p. 288.

 

The Wonder. Mrs. Centlivre’s (1714), Covent Garden, Sep. 13, 1816.

 

The Busy Body. 1709.

333.

‘Trippingly from [on] the tongue.’ Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

 

‘A Scotsman is not ashamed,’ etc. The Wonder, Act V. Sc. 1.

334.

The Distressed Mother. Originally produced in 1712. Hazlitt here notices the first appearance in London of William Charles Macready (1793-1873), Covent Garden, Sep. 16, 1816.

335.

The epithet in Homer. Κάρη κομδωντες Ἀξαϡολ.

 

Lovers’ Vows. Sep. 14, 1816. Cf. ante, p. 249.

 

Writer in the Courier. Coleridge. See ante, note to p. 305.

336.

‘Pointing to [at] the skies.’ Pope, Moral Essays, III. 339.

 

‘A vaporous drop profound.’ Macbeth, Act III. Sc. 5.

 

Miss Boyle’s Rosalind. October 2, 1816.

 

‘How silver sweet,’ etc. Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. 2.

 

Lady Townley. In Vanbrugh and Cibber’s The Provoked Husband.

337.

‘Our poesy,’ etc. Timon of Athens, Act I. Sc. 1.

 

The Italian Lover. Robert Jephson’s (1736-1803) Julia, or the Italian Lover (1787), revived at Covent Garden, Sep. 30, 1816.

338.

l. 10. In The Examiner the article concludes as follows: ‘Drury Lane.—O’Keeffe’s farce of the Blacksmith of Antwerp was brought out here on Thursday [Oct. 3, 1816], Mr. Munden being sufficiently recovered from his indisposition. It is founded on the old story of Quintin Matsys and the Citizen of Antwerp, who would marry his daughter to no one but a painter. It is full of pleasant incidents and situations, which succeed one another with careless rapidity, without fatiguing the attention or exciting much interest. It is one of the least striking of O’Keeffe’s productions. It however went off very well, and we dare say will have a run. The music is pleasing enough.’

 

Mr. Macready’s Othello. October 10, 1816.

 

‘Let Afric,’ etc. Young, The Revenge, Act V. Sc. 2.

339.

‘I do agnise,’ etc. Othello, Act I. Sc. 3.

 

‘No, not much moved.’ Ibid. Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Othello’s occupation’s gone.’ Ibid. Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Yet, oh the pity of it,’ etc. Ibid. Act IV. Sc. 1.

 

‘Swell, bosom,’ etc. Ibid. Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Like to the Pontic sea,’ etc. Ibid. Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Horror on horror’s head,’ etc. Ibid. Act III. Sc. 3.

 

‘Pride, pomp,’ etc. Ibid. Act III. Sc. 3.

340.

Mr. Stephen Kemble. Stephen Kemble (1758-1822), brother of Mrs. Siddons and John Kemble.

 

Sir John Falstaff. The Merry Wives of Windsor was played at Drury Lane, October 10, 1816.

 

‘Had guts in his brains.’ Cf. ‘Who wears his wit in his belly and his guts in his head.’ Troilus and Cressida, Act II. Sc. 1.

 

‘How he cuts up,’ etc. Burke, A Letter to a Noble Lord (Works, Bohn, V. 145).

 

‘The gods have not made,’ etc. Cf. As You Like It, Act III. Sc. 3.

 

The writer in the Courier. Hazlitt is plainly referring to Coleridge. The poet’s contributions to The Courier during 1816 have not been republished. Cf. ante, notes to pp. 305 and 335.

 

Sir Richard Steele tells us, etc. See a paper ‘On the Death of Peer, the Property Man,’ in The Guardian (No. 82), June 15, 1713.

342.

Mr. Kemble’s Cato. October 25, 1816.

 

l. 5. In The Examiner Hazlitt continues: ‘Owing to the early filling of the house, we were prevented from seeing Othello on Tuesday; but we understand that Mr. Young played Othello like a great humming-top, “full of sound, but signifying nothing,”^[67] and that Mr. Macready in Iago was like a mischievous boy whipping him; and that Miss Boyle did not play Desdemona as unaffectedly as she ought. But we hope we have been misinformed: and shall be glad to say so, if possible, in our next.’ The article concludes with an account of Kean quoted from The Edinburgh Courant.

342.

‘Being mortal.’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II. Sc. 1.

 

l. 27. In The Examiner the article continues as follows: ‘After the play, we saw the Broken Sword, which is a melodrame of some interest, for it has a dumb boy, a murderer, and an innocent person suspected of being the perpetrator of the crime, in it: but it is a very ill-digested and ill-conducted piece. The introduction to the principal events is very tedious and round about, and the incidents themselves, when they arrive, come in very great disorder, and shock from their improbability and want of necessary connection as much as from their own nature. Mr. Terry played the part of a murderer with considerable gravity. We do not know at all how he came to get into so awkward a situation. The piece is, we understand, from common report, by Mr. Dimond.^[68] It is by no means one of his best. For he is a very impressive as well as a prolific writer in this way, and would do still better, if he would mind his fine writing less, and get on faster to the business of the story. Mr. Farley was highly interesting as Estevan, the servant who is unjustly accused of the murder of his master; in fact, he always plays this class of characters admirably, both as to feeling and effect; and Miss Lupino played the dumb Florio very prettily. In the first act, there was a dance by the Miss Dennetts.^[69] If our readers have not seen this dance, we hope they will, and that they will encore it, which is the etiquette. Certainly, it is the prettiest thing in the world, except the performers in it. They are quite charming. They are three kindred Graces cast in the same mould: a little Trinity of innocent delights, dancing in their “trinal simplicities below.”^[70] They are like “three red roses on a stalk;”^[71] and in the pas de trois which they dance twice over, they are as it were twined and woven into garlands and festoons of blushing flowers, such as “Proserpine let fall from Dis’s waggon.”^[72] You can hardly distinguish them from one another, they are at first so alike in shape, age, air, look: so that the pleasure you receive from one is blended with the delight you receive from the other two, in a sort of provoking, pleasing confusion. Milton was thinking of them when he wrote the lines:—

‘Whom lovely Venus at a birth,

With two Sister Graces more,

To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore.”^[73]

 

Yet after all we have a preference, but we will not say which it is, whether the tallest or the shortest, the fairest or the darkest, of this lovely, laughing trio, more gay and joyous than Mozart’s.—“But pray, dear sir, could you not give us a little bit of a hint which of us it is you like the very, very best?”—Yes, yes, you rogue, you know very well it’s you, but don’t say a word of it to either of your sisters.’ The theatrical criticisms during November were written by Leigh Hunt.

 

The Iron Chest. By George Colman the younger (1796), revived at Drury Lane, November 23, 1816.

343.

Adam Winterton. A character in The Iron Chest.

 

Mr. Colman was enraged, etc. He wrote an angry preface which was suppressed after the first edition.

344.

‘Wears his heart,’ etc. Adapted from Othello, Act I. Sc. 1.

 

‘The fiery soul,’ etc. Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, Part I., 156-8.

345.

l. 5. In The Examiner the article concludes as follows: ‘The new farce, Laugh to Day and Cry Tomorrow [by E. P. Knight], met as it deserved a very indifferent reception. It was a series of awkward clap-traps about the glory of Old England, and the good-nature of English audiences. Munden was the only thing in it not damnable.’

 

Mr. Kemble’s King John. December 3, 1816.

 

‘When we waked,’ etc. The Tempest, Act III. Sc. 2.

346.

According to the book of arithmetic. More commonly ‘according to Cocker.’

 

‘Man delight’ [delights], etc. Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 2.

347.

‘Bulk, the thews,’ etc. Misquoted from Henry IV., Part II., Act III. Sc. 2.

 

‘Could Sir Robert,’ etc. King John, Act I. Sc. 1.

 

Coriolanus. November 28 and 30, 1816. For the rest of this article, except the last paragraph, see vol. i. pp. 214-6 (Characters of Shakespear’s Plays) and notes thereon.

350.

l. 21. In The Examiner the article concludes as follows: ‘There have been two new farces this week: one at each house. One was saved and one was damned. One was justly damned, and the other unjustly saved. Nota Bene, or The Two Dr. Fungus’s, shot up and disappeared in one night, notwithstanding the inimitable acting and well-oiled humour of Oxberry in one scene, where he makes bumpkin forward love to Mrs. Orger in a style equal to Liston. Love and Toothache, though there is neither Love nor Toothache in it, is as disagreeable as the one and as foolish as the other. One farce consists of a succession of low incidents without a plot, and the other is one tedious and improbable incident without a plot. The changing of the two signs, or Nota Benes of the two Fungus’s, barber and doctor, in the first, is better than anything in the last. The only difference is, that at the one house they contrive to have their pieces cast, and get them condemned at the other. Yet this is a saying without any meaning; for in the present case they were both got up as well as they could be.—We almost despair of ever seeing another good farce. Mr. H——, thou wert damned. Bright shone the morning on the play-bills that announced thy appearance, and the streets were filled with the buzz of persons asking one another if they would go to see Mr. H——, and answering that they would certainly; but before night the gaiety, not of the author, but of his friends and the town, was eclipsed, for thou wert damned! Hadst thou been anonymous, thou mightst have been immortal! But thou didst come to an untimely end, for thy tricks and for want of a better name to pass them off (as the old joke of Divine Right passes current under the alias of Legitimacy)—and since that time nothing worth naming has been offered to the stage!’ Hazlitt refers again to Lamb’s farce ‘Mr. H——’ in his essay ‘On Great and Little Things.’ See vol. VI. p. 232 and notes. The passage above, beginning ‘Mr. H——, thou wert damned’ down to ‘for want of a better name to pass them off’ was prefixed to the farce by Lamb, when he published it in 1818.

 

The Man of the World. Revived December 27, 1816.

 

Mr. Henry Johnston. Henry Erskine Johnston, (1777-1830?), the ‘Scottish Roscius.’

 

Sir Archy Mac Sarcasm. In Macklin’s Love à-la-Mode (1793) revived at Covent Garden, with Johnston as Sir Archy, on December 10, 1816.

351.

‘Die and leave,’ etc. Twelfth Night, Act I. Sc. 5.

352.

‘Ever charming,’ etc. Dyer, Grongar Hill, l. 103.

 

Jane Shore. January 2, 1817. Rowe’s tragedy was first produced in 1713. In The Examiner Hazlitt concludes this article as follows:—‘We think the tragedy of Jane Shore, which is founded on the dreadful calamity of hunger, is hardly proper to be represented in these starving times; and it ought to be prohibited by the Lord Chamberlain, on a principle of decorum. Of Mrs. Alsop, who is said to have an engagement at this theatre, we have spoken at the time when she appeared at the other house. Those who have before not witnessed her performance, will now probably have an opportunity of seeing her in company with Mrs. Mardyn, and may judge whether the laborious comparison we attempted between her and that lady was well or ill-founded. We see little alteration or improvement in her. Her figure and face are against her; otherwise she is certainly a very spirited little actress, and her voice is excellent. Her singing, however, does not correspond with what you would expect from her speaking tones. It wants volume and clearness. Mrs. Alsop’s laugh sometimes puts us a little in mind of her mother: and those parts of the character of Violante in which she succeeded best were the most joyous and exulting ones: her expression of distress is truly distressing. Miss Kelly played Flora; and it was the only time we ever saw her fail. She seemed to be playing tricks with the chambermaid: now those kind of people are as much in earnest in their absurdities as any other class of people in the world, and the great beauty of Miss Kelly’s acting in all other instances is, that it is more in downright earnest than any other acting in the world. We hope she does not think of growing fantastical, and operatic. The new pantomime is very poor.’

 

The Theatrical Examiners of January 12 and January 19, 1817 are clearly Hazlitt’s. The first is a notice of Cherry’s The Soldier’s Daughter, revived at Covent Garden, January 8, and contains a severe criticism of Miss O’Neill as a comic actress. The second is a notice of Cimarosa’s Penelope and the comic Ballet Dansomanie at the King’s Theatre, and concludes with a long quotation from Colley Cibber’s Life on the introduction of opera into England.

353.

The Humorous Lieutenant. In The Examiner the article from which this notice is taken begins with a long account (probably by Hazlitt) of Southerne’s Oroonoko revived at Drury Lane January 20, 1817 with Kean as Oroonoko and Miss Somerville as Imoinda. The Humorous Lieutenant (January 18) was ‘a bad alteration’ by Frederic Reynolds. Celia was played by ‘a Young Lady, 1st appearance on any stage.’

 

‘Whose utmost skirts,’ etc. Paradise Lost, XI. 332-3.

 

l. 20. The Theatrical Examiner of February 2, 1817 in which are noticed John Philip Kemble’s farce The Pannel, revived at Drury Lane January 29, 1816 and a melodrama (attributed to Pocock) The Ravens, or the Force of Conscience, acted at Covent Garden January 24, 1817, is clearly Hazlitt’s. The article contains a comparison between the Drury Lane and Covent Garden companies.

 

Two New Ballets. From a Theatrical Examiner which begins with an account of Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro not at all in Hazlitt’s manner.

 

Like Virgil’s wood. Æneid, III. 37-40.

 

‘Whom lovely Venus,’ etc. L’Allegro, 14 et seq.

354.

‘When you do dance,’ etc. A Winter’s Tale, Act IV. Sc. 4.

 

Booth. Junius Brutus Booth (1796-1852), whose first important appearances in London are noticed in this and the two following articles. The last years of his life were spent in America.

 

‘What does he [do they] in the north.’ Richard III., Act IV. Sc. 4.

355.

‘A weak invention,’ etc. Cf. ‘A thing devised by the enemy.’ Richard III., Act V. Sc. 3.

 

Figaro. Holcroft’s The Follies of a Day; or, the Marriage of Figaro (1784).

356.

‘The fell opposite.’ Vaguely Shakesperian. Cf. Twelfth Night, Act III. Sc. 4, and Hamlet, Act V. Sc. 2.

 

‘I know my price no less.’ Othello, Act I. Sc. 1.

 

‘Give the world,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 4.

 

‘My wit comes,’ etc. Misquoted from Othello, Act II. Sc. 1.

357.

The O. P. rows. The old price riots at the new Covent Garden Theatre in 1809.

358.

Frightened to Death. A musical farce by Oulton.

359.

‘From which,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 1.

 

l. 19. The Theatrical Examiner for the following week (March 9, 1817) contains a notice (possibly by Hazlitt) of The Heir of Vironi, or Honesty the Best Policy (Covent Garden, February 27), and of ‘Mr. Booth’s imitations of Mr. Kean.’ With this exception The Theatrical Examiners down to March 13 are by Leigh Hunt.

 

Cibber. Cf. ante, pp. 160-2.

360.

‘In hidden mazes,’ etc. Misquoted from L’Allegro, 141-2.

361.

‘Frontlet.’ King Lear, Act I. Sc. 4.

362.

The Inn-Keeper’s Daughter. By George Soane (1790-1860).

363.

‘Airs from heaven,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 4.

364.

‘And when she spake,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, II. iii. 24.

365.

Signor Ambrogetti. Giuseppe Ambrogetti was in London 1817-1821.

 

‘Sense of amorous delight.’ ‘The spirit of love and amorous delight.’ Paradise Lost, VIII. 477.

 

Signor Crivelli, etc. Gaetano Crivelli (1774-1836), a tenor; Violante Camporese (b. 1785), a soprano; Carlo Angrisani (b. circa 1760), a bass.

366.

l. 6. The Theatrical Examiner concludes with an ‘Anecdote relating to the Overture of Don Giovanni’ and a reference to Elphi Bey, ‘a tedious and insipid’ romantic drama (Drury Lane, April 17).

 

Ex uno omnes. ‘Ab uno disce omnes.’ Æneid, II. 65-6.

367.

‘With all appliances,’ etc. Henry IV., Part II. Act III. Sc. 1.

 

‘The golden cadences,’ etc. ‘Golden cadence of poesy.’ Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act IV. Sc. 2.

368.

l. 29. The Theatrical Examiner of May 4, 1817, clearly by Hazlitt, contains a notice of Johnny Gilpin (Drury Lane, April 28), and a brief reference to Mrs. Hill’s Lady Macbeth (April 29). Johnny Gilpin is described as ‘very poorly got up.’

369.

Holland. Charles Holland (1768-1849?) played at Drury Lane 1796-1820.

370.

l. 14. The Theatrical Examiner concludes as follows: ‘We have not room to say much of the new tragedy of The Apostate,^[74] for which we are not sorry, as we should have little good to say of it. The poetry does not rise to the merit of common-place, and the tragic situations are too violent, frequent, and improbable. It is full of a succession of self-inflicted horrors. Miss O’Neill played the heroine of the piece, whose affectation and meddling imbecility occasion all the mischief, and played it shockingly well. Mr. Young’s Malec was in his best and most imposing manner. The best things in The Apostate were the palpable hits at the Inquisition and Ferdinand the Beloved, which were taken loudly and tumultuously by the house, a circumstance which occasioned more horror in that wretched infatuated devoted tool of despotism, the Editor of The New Times,^[75] than all the other horrors of the piece. The Dungeons of the Holy Inquisition, whips, racks, and slow fires, kindled by legitimate hands, excite no horror in his breast; but that a British public still revolt at these things, that that fine word Legitimacy has not polluted their souls and poisoned their very senses with the slime and filth of slavery and superstition, this writhes his brain and plants scorpions in his mind, and makes his flesh crawl and shrink in agony from the last expression of manhood and humanity in an English audience, as if a serpent had wound round his heart!’

 

The Theatrical Examiner of May 18, 1817, in which is described a second visit to Don Giovanni, and Kean’s Eustace de St. Pierre in The Surrender of Calais, is clearly Hazlitt’s.

370.

‘Something rotten,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 4.

 

Mr. Sinclair. John Sinclair (1791-1857), tenor singer.

 

‘To split the ears,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

371.

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

372.

‘None but himself,’ etc. Lewis Theobald, The Double Falsehood.

 

l. 9. The article in The Examiner concludes: ‘Drury Lane. The farce of The Romp^[76] was revived here, and we hope will be continued, for we like to laugh when we can. Mrs. Alsop does the part of Priscilla Tomboy, and is all but her mother in it. Knight is clever enough as Watty Cockney; and the piece, upon the whole, went off with great éclat, allowing for the badness of the times, for our want of genius for comedy, and of taste for farce.’

 

Barbarossa. By John Brown (1715-1766), author of An Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times (1757). Barbarossa was produced in 1754, Athelstane, the author’s other tragedy, in 1756.

 

Paul and Virginia. A musical drama by James Cobb (1756-1818), produced in 1800.

 

‘And when your song,’ etc. The Tatler, No. 163 (by Addison).

 

‘In our heart’s core,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

 

last line. The Theatrical Examiner concludes as follows:—‘Covent Garden. Mr. Kemble played Posthumus here on Friday. At present, to use a favourite pun, all his characters are posthumous; he plays them repeatedly after the last time. We hate all suspense: and we therefore wish Mr. Kemble would go, or let it alone. We had much rather, for ourselves, that he staid; for there is no one to fill his place on the stage. The mould is broken in which he was cast. His Posthumus is a very successful piece of acting. It alternately displays that repulsive stately dignity of manner, or that intense vehemence of action, in which the body and the mind strain with eager impotence after a certain object of disappointed passion, for which Mr. Kemble is peculiarly distinguished. In the scenes with Iachimo he was particularly happy, and threw from him the imputations and even the proofs of Imogen’s inconstancy with a fine manly graceful scorn. The burst of inconsolable passion when the conviction of his treacherous rival’s success is forced upon him, was nearly as fine as his smothered indignation and impatience of the least suggestion against his mistress’s purity of character, had before been. In the concluding scene he failed. When he comes forward to brave Iachimo, and as it were to sink him to the earth by his very presence—‘Behold him here’—his voice and manner wanted force and impetuosity. Mr. Kemble executes a surprise in the most premeditated and least unexpected manner possible. What was said the other day in praise of this accomplished actor, might be converted into an objection to him: he has been too much used to figure “on tesselated pavements, when a fall would be fatal” to himself as well as others. He therefore manages the movements of his person with as much care as if he were a marble statue, and as if the least trip in his gait, or discomposure of his balance, would be sure to fracture some of his limbs. Mr. Terry was Bellarius, and recited some of the most beautiful passages in the world like the bellman’s verses. His voice is not “musical as is Apollo’s lute,” but “harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose.”^[77] Mr. Young made a very respectable Iachimo, and Miss Foote lisped through the part of Imogen very prettily. The rest of the characters were very poorly cast.—Oh! we had forgot Mr. Liston’s Cloten: a sign that it is not so good as his Lord Grizzle, or Lubin Log, or a dozen more exquisite characters that he plays. It would, however, have been very well, if he had not whisked off the stage at the end of each scene, “to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh.”^[78] The serenade at Imogen’s window was very beautiful, and was encored,—we suspect, contrary to the etiquette of the regular drama. But we take a greater delight in fine music than in etiquette.’

373.

Mrs. Siddons’s Lady Macbeth. The Theatrical Examiner, from which this notice is taken, opens with a notice (possibly by Hazlitt) of Paer’s opera Agnese, at the King’s Theatre. Mrs. Siddons played Lady Macbeth on June 5, 1817, with J. P. Kemble as Macbeth and Charles Kemble as Macduff. After this date the theatrical criticism of The Examiner was taken over by Leigh Hunt, and Hazlitt began to write for The Times.

374.

‘Thank God,’ etc. The Merchant of Venice, Act III. Sc. 1.

 

Mr. Kemble’s retirement. Covent Garden, June 23, 1817.

375.

‘Like an eagle,’ etc. Coriolanus, Act V. Sc. 6.

 

‘My mother bows,’ etc. Ibid. Act V. Sc. 3.

376.

‘Nothing extenuate,’ etc. Othello, Act V. Sc. 2.

377.

‘Is whispering,’ etc. A Winter’s Tale, Act I. Sc. 2.

 

‘Every [each] corporal agent.’ Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 7.

 

‘There was neither variableness,’ etc. St. James, i. 17.

 

‘The fire i’ th’ flint,’ etc. Timon of Athens, Act I. Sc. 1.

378.

‘My way of life,’ etc. Macbeth, Act V. Sc. 3.

 

‘The fiery soul,’ etc. Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, 1. 156-8.

 

‘You shall relish,’ etc. Cf. Othello, Act II. Sc. 1.

379.

‘The tug and war.’ Cf. ‘Then was the tug of war.’ Lee, Alexander the Great, Act IV. Sc. 2.

 

‘Fate and metaphysical aid.’ Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 5.

 

Invita Minerva. Horace, Ars Poetica, 385.