Deaf the praised ear. Pope’s Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady.
The Four P’s. ? 1530–3.
John Heywood. (c. 1497–c. 1575). He was responsible for various collections of Epigrams, containing six hundred proverbs.
276. False knaves. Much Ado about Nothing, IV. 2.
277. Count Fathom. Chap. XXI.
Friar John. Rabelais’ Gargantua, I. 27.
278. L. 5 from foot. Take [taste].
279. Which I was born to introduce. Swift’s lines On the Death of Dr. Swift.
As a liar of the first magnitude. Congreve’s Love for Love, Act II. 5.
280. Mighty stream of Tendency. The Excursion, IX. 87.
Full of wise saws. As You Like It, Act II. 7.
The Return from Parnassus. 1606.
Like the Edinburgh Review. Only two numbers were published, which were reprinted (8vo) 1818.
Read the names. The Return from Parnassus, Act I. 2.
282. Kempe the actor. William Kempe, fl. c. 1600.
Burbage. Richard Burbage (c. 1567–1618), the builder of the Globe Theatre, and a great actor therein.
Few (of the University). Act IV. 3.
283. Felt them knowingly. Cymbeline, III. 3.
Philomusus and Studioso. Act II. 1, Act III. 5.
Out of our proof we speak. Cymbeline, III. 3.
I was not train’d. Charles Lamb’s Sonnet, written at Cambridge, August 15, 1819.
284. Made desperate. The Excursion, VI. 532–3, quoted from Jeremy Taylor’s Holy Dying, Chap. 1, § V.
A mere scholar. Return from Parnassus, II. 6.
The examination of Signor Immerito. Act III. 1.
286. Gammer Gurton’s Needle. Printed 1575. John Still (1543–1607), afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells, is supposed to be its author.
287. Gog’s crosse, and the following quotations. Act I. 5.
289. Such very poor spelling. Cf. Lamb’s story of Randal Norris, who once remarked after trying to read a black-letter Chaucer, ‘in those old books, Charley, there is sometimes a deal of very indifferent spelling.’ See
Lamb’s Letter to H. Crabb Robinson, Jan. 20, 1827; Hone’s Table Book, Feb. 10, 1827; and the first edition of the Last Essays of Elia, 1833. A Death-Bed.
The Yorkshire Tragedy. 1604 (attributed to Shakespeare); Sir John Oldcastle, 1600, (? by Munday and Drayton); The Widow of Watling Street, [The Puritan, or The Widow, etc.], 1607 (? by Wentworth Smith). See The Round Table, vol. I. p. 353, et seq., for Schlegel and Hazlitt on these.
Green’s Tu Quoque, by George Cook. Greene’s ‘Tu Quoque,’ 1614, by Joseph Cooke (fl. c. 1600). Greene, the comedian, after whom the play is called, died 1612.
290. Suckling’s melancholy hat. Cf. p. 270 ante.
Microcosmus, by Thomas Nabbes. 1637. Thomas Nabbes flourished in the time of Charles I.
291. What do I see? Act IV.
292. Antony Brewer’s Lingua. 1607. This play is now said to be by John Tomkins, Scholar of Trinity, Cambridge (1594–8).
Mr. Lamb has quoted two passages. Specimens, vol. I. pp. 99–100.
292. Why, good father. Act II. 4.
293. Thou, boy. Act II. 1.
The Merry Devil of Edmonton. 1608. The author is unknown.
Sound silver sweet. Romeo and Juliet, II. 2.
The deer-stealing scenes. The Merry Devil of Edmonton, Act V. 1, etc.
294. Very honest knaveries. Merry Wives of Windsor, IV. 4.
The way lies right. The Merry Devil of Edmonton, Act IV. 1.
The Pinner of Wakefield. By Robert Greene (1560–1592). His works have been edited by Dr. Grosart, and by Mr. Churton Collins.
Hail-fellow well met. Cf. Swift’s My Lady’s Lamentation.
Jeronymo. 1588. The Spanish Tragedy (? 1583–5), licensed and performed 1592. See Prof. Schick’s edition in ‘The Temple Dramatists.’ Thomas Kyd, baptised November 6, 1558, died before 1601.
Which have all the melancholy madness of poetry. Junius: Letter No 7. to Sir W. Draper.
295. The False One. 1619.
Valentinian. Produced before 1619. ‘Now the lusty spring is seen,’ Act II. 5.
The Nice Valour, or Passionate Madman. Published 1647.
Most musical. Il Penseroso, 62.
296. The silver foam. Cowper’s Winter’s Walk at Noon, ll. 155–6—
Grim-visaged, comfortless despair. Cf. ‘grim visag’d war.’ Richard III., I. 1; and ‘grim and comfortless despair.’ Comedy of Errors, V. 1.
Beaumont died. His years were thirty-two (1584–1616).
’Tis not a life. Philaster, Act V. 2. See p. 262.
The lily on its stalk green. Chaucer, The Knighte’s Tale, 1036.
Lapt in Elysium. Comus, 257.
Raphael. Raphael’s years were thirty-seven (1483–1520).
297. Now that his task. Comus, 1012.
Rymer’s abuse. See Thomas Rymer’s (1641–1713) The Tragedies of the Last Age Considered (1678). He was called by Pope ‘the best’ and by Macaulay ‘the worst’ English critic.
The sons of memory. Milton’s Sonnet on Shakespeare, 1630.
Sir John Beaumont (1582–1628), the author of Bosworth Field.
Fleeted the time carelessly. As You Like It, I. 1. [‘golden world.’]
298. Walton’s Complete Angler. Third Day, chap. iv.
Note. Rochester’s Epigram. Sternhold and Hopkins were the joint authors of the greater number of the metrical versions of the Psalms (1547–62) which used to form part of the Book of Common Prayer.
299–300. Drummond of Hawthornden. William Drummond (1585–1649). His Conversations with Ben Jonson were written of a visit paid him by Jonson in 1618. Mention might be made of Mr. W. C. Ware’s edition of his Poems (1894), wherein many variations from Hazlitt’s text of the sonnets may be noted, too numerous to detail here.
Note. I was all ear. Comus, 560.
301. The fly that sips treacle. Gay’s Beggar’s Opera, II. 2.
Sugar’d sonnetting. Cf. Francis Meres’ Palladis Tamia, 1598, concerning Shakespeare’s ‘sugred Sonnets,’ and Judicio in The Return from Parnassus (see p. 281 ante), ‘sugar’d sonnetting.’
302. The gentle craft. The sub-title of a play of T. Dekker’s: The Shoemaker’s Holiday, or the Gentle Craft (1600). The phrase has long been associated with that handicraft.
A Phœnix gazed by all. Paradise Lost, V. 272.
Give a reason for the faith that was in me. Cf. Sydney Smith’s—‘It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason for the faith that is within him.’
303. Oh, how despised. Act I. 1.
304. The Triumph of his Mistress. The Triumph of Charis.
Nest of spicery. Richard III., IV. 4.
Oh, I could still. Cynthia’s Revels, I. 1.
306. A celebrated line. See Coleridge’s Tragedy Osorio, Act iv., Sc. 1., written 1797, but not published in its original form until 1873. Coleridge’s Poetical Works, ed. Dykes Campbell, p. 498.
Recast and entitled Remorse, the tragedy was performed at Drury Lane, Jan. 23, 1813, and published in pamphlet form. In the Preface Coleridge relates the story of Sheridan reading the play to a large company, and turning it into ridicule by saying—
Hazlitt’s quotation is taken, of course, from this Preface to Remorse.
307. The milk of human kindness. Macbeth, I. 5.
309. Daniel. Samuel Daniel, 1562–1619.
311. Michael Drayton (1563–1631). His Polyolbion, or ‘chorographicall’ description of England in thirty books was issued in 1612–22. See the Spenser Society’s editions of Drayton’s works.
P. Fletcher’s Purple Island. Phineas Fletcher (1582–1650). The Purple Island, 1633. The poem has been topographically catalogued under ‘Man, Isle of’!
Brown. William Browne (1591–c. 1643). Britannia’s Pastorals, 1613–16; a third book (in MSS.) was printed in 1852.
Carew. Thomas Carew (c. 1594–c. 1639).
Herrick. Robert Herrick (1591–1674). His poems were edited by Dr. Grosart in 1876.
Crashaw. Richard Crashaw (? 1612–1649), the English Mystic. See Dr. Grosart’s edition, 1872.
Marvell. Andrew Marvell (1621–1678). See Dr. Grosart’s edition, 1872–74.
312. Like the motes. ‘The gay motes that people the sunbeams.’ Milton’s Il Penseroso, 8.
313. On another occasion. See ante p. 83.
315. Clamour grew dumb. Pastorals, Book II. Song 1.
The squirrel. Book I. Song 5.
The hues of the rainbow. Book II. Song 3.
The Shepherd’s Pipe, 1614.
The Inner Temple Mask, 1620.
Marino. Giambattista Marini (1569–1625).
His form had not yet lost. Paradise Lost, I. 591.
Sir Philip Sidney (1554–86). See Grosart’s edition of the Poems and Arber’s editions of the Apologie and Astrophel and Stella.
318. Ford’s Version. See Act I. 1. The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia was published in 1690.
On compulsion. I. Henry IV. II. 4.
The soldier’s. Hamlet, III. 1.
Like a gate of steel. Troilus and Cressida III. 3. [‘receives and renders’].
320. With centric. Paradise Lost, VIII. 83.
321. So that the third day. Book I. chap. ii. [‘delightful prospects’].
Georgioni, i.e. Giorgione, or Giorgio Barbarella (1477–1511), the great Venetian painter.
322. Like two grains of wheat. The Merchant of Venice, I. 1. [‘hid in two bushels’].
Have you felt the wool. In The Triumph of Charis.
323. As Mr. Burke said of nobility. Cf. Reflections on the Revolution in France, ed. Payne, vol. II. p. 163. ‘To be honoured and even privileged by the laws, opinions and inveterate usages of our country, growing out of the prejudice of ages, has nothing to provoke horror and indignation in any man.’
The shipwreck of Pyrochles. Book I. chap. i.
324. Certainly, as her eyelids. Book I. chap. i.
Adriano de Armada, in Love’s Labour Lost. See the two characteristic letters of Don Adriano de Armado, in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act I. 1., and IV. 1.
325. The reason of their unreasonableness. Don Quixote, l. 1.
Pamelas and Philocleas. Heroines of the Arcadia.
326. Defence of Poetry. An Apologie for Poetry, 1595.
One of the wisest. Pope’s Essay on Man, Epis. iv. 282.
As in a map. Cowper’s Task, vi. 17.
327. Large discourse. Hamlet, IV. 4.
331. Sir Thomas Brown. Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682).
333. The bosoms and businesses. Dedication to Bacon’s Essays.
Find no end. Paradise Lost, II. 561.
Oh altitudo. Religio Medici, Part I. ‘I love to lose myself in a mystery, to pursue my reason to an O altitudo!’
334. Differences himself by. Religio Medici, Part I. ‘But (to difference my self nearer, and draw into a lesser Circle).’
He could be content if the species were continued like trees. Religio Medici, Part II.
335. Walks gowned. Lamb’s Sonnet, written at Cambridge, August 15, 1819.
As it has been said. Cf. the passage quoted later (p. 340) from Coleridge.
339. Mr. Coleridge. See Coleridge’s Literary Remains, vol. II. 1836. On p. 340, l. 4 the phrase, as written by Coleridge, should be ‘Sir-Thomas-Brownness.’
341. Stuff of the conscience. Othello, I. 2.
To give us pause. Hamlet, III. I.
Cloys with sameness. Cf. Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, XIX., ‘cloy thy lips with loathed satiety.’
Note. One of no mark. 1 Henry IV., III. 2.
Without form and void. Genesis, I. 2.
He saw nature in the elements of its chaos. Religio Medici, Part I.
342. Where pure Niemi’s faery banks [mountains]. Thomson’s Winter, 875–6.
Rains sacrificial roses [whisperings]. Timon of Athens, I. 1.
Some are called at age. Chap. i. § 3.
343. It is the same. Chap. iii. § 7.
I have read, and the next two quotations. Chap. i. § 2.
345. The Apostate and Evadne. The Apostate (1817) by Richard Lalor Sheil (1791–1851), Evadne (1819).
The Traitor by old Shirley. James Shirley’s (1596–1666) The Traitor (1637).
The last of those fair clouds.
Mr. Tobin. John Tobin (1770–1804). The Honey-Moon was produced at Drury Lane, Jan. 31, 1805. See Characters of Shakespear’s Plays, vol. I. p. 344.
The Curfew. Tobin’s play was produced at Drury Lane, Feb. 19, 1807.
346. Mr. Lamb’s John Woodvil. Published 1802.
There where we have treasured. Cf. St. Matt. vi. 21.
The tall [and elegant stag] deer that paints a dancing shadow of his horns in the swift brook [in the water, where he drinks].
But fools rush in. Pope’s Essay on Criticism, III. 66.
To say that he has written better. Lamb’s articles in Leigh Hunt’s Reflector on Hogarth and Shakespeare’s tragedies, appeared in 1811.
A gentleman of the name of Cornwall. Bryan Waller Procter’s (Barry Cornwall 1787–1874), Dramatic Scenes were published in 1819.
347. The Falcon. Boccaccio’s Decameron, 5th day, 9th story. See Characters of Shakespear’s Plays, vol. I. p. 331, and The Round Table, vol. I. p. 163.
348. A late number of the Edinburgh Review. The article is by Hazlitt himself, in the number for Feb. 1816, vol. 26, pp. 68, et seq.
Florimel in Spenser. Book III. 7.
There was magic. Othello, III. 4.
349. Schlegel somewhere compares. Cf. Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature (Bohn, 1846) p. 407.
So withered. Macbeth, I. 3.
The description of Belphœbe. The Faerie Queene, II. iii. 21 et seq.
350. All plumed like estriches. Cf. 1 King Henry IV. IV. 1.
352. Antres vast. Othello, I. 3.
Orlando ... Rogero. In Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso.
353. New-lighted. Hamlet, III. 4.
The evidence of things unseen. Hebrews, xi. 1.
Broods over the immense [vast] abyss. Paradise Lost, I. 21.
The ignorant present time. Macbeth, I. 5.
355. See o’er the stage. Thomson’s Winter, ll. 646–8.
The Orphan. By Otway, 1680.
Arabian trees. Othello, V. 2.
That sacred pity. As You Like It, II. 7.
Miss O’Neill. Eliza O’Neill (1791–1872).
356. Hog hath lost his Pearl. 1613.
Addison’s Cato. 1713.
Dennis’s Criticism. John Dennis’s (1657–1734) Remarks on Cato, 1713.
Don Sebastian. 1690.
The mask of Arthur and Emmeline. King Arthur, or the British Worthy 1691, a Dramatic Opera with music by Purcell.
357. Alexander the Great ... Lee. The Rival Queens (1677) by Nathaniel Lee (1655–92).
Œdipus. 1679.
Relieve the killing languor. Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 120).
Leave then the luggage, and the two following quotations. Don Sebastian, Act II. 1.
359. The Hughes. John Hughes (1677–1720) author of The Siege of Damascus 1720, and one of the contributors to The Spectator.
The Hills. Aaron Hill (1684–1749) poet and dramatist.
The Murphys. Arthur Murphy (1727–1805) dramatist and biographer.
Fine by degrees. Matthew Prior’s Henry and Emma.
Southern. Thomas Southerne (1660/1–1746), who wrote Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave (1696).
Lillo. George Lillo (1693–1739), Fatal Curiosity, 1737.
Moore. Edward Moore (1712–1757), The Gamester, 1753.
In one of his Letters. See the letter dated September, 1737.
Sent us weeping. Richard II. V. 1.
Rise sadder. Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner.
Douglas. A tragedy by John Home (1724–1808), first played at Edinburgh in 1756.
360. Decorum is the principal thing. ‘What Decorum is, which is the grand Master-piece to observe.’ Milton on Education, Works, 1738, I. p. 140.
Aristotle’s definition of tragedy. In the Poetics.
Lovers’ Vows. Mrs. Inchbald’s adaptation from Kotzebue, 1800.
Pizarro. Sheridan’s adaptation from Kotzebue’s The Spaniard in Peru, 1799.
Shews the very age. Hamlet, III. 2.
361. Orson. In the fifteenth century romance, Valentine and Orson.
Pure in the last recesses. Dryden’s translation from the Second Satire of Persius, 133.
There is some soul of goodness. Henry V., IV. 1.
There’s something rotten. Hamlet, I. 4.
362. The Sorrows of Werter. Goethe’s Sorrows of Werther was finished in 1774.
The Robbers. By Schiller, 1781.
It was my wish. Act III. 2.
363. Don Carlos. 1787.
His Wallenstein. Schiller’s, 1799; Coleridge’s, 1800.
Cumberland’s imitation. Richard Cumberland’s (1732–1811) Wheel of Fortune (1779).
Goethe’s tragedies. Count Egmont, 1788; Stella, 1776; Iphigenia, 1786.
Memoirs of Anastasius the Greek. Thomas Hope’s (1770–1831) Eastern romance was published in 1819 and was received with enthusiasm by the Edinburgh Review.
When in the fine summer evenings. Werther (ed. Bohn), p. 337.
364. As often got without merit. Othello, II. 3.
Dates, etc., are not given of those writers mentioned earlier in the present volume.
See W. C. Hazlitt’s Memoirs of William Hazlitt, II. 197–8, for the few details that are known concerning the origin of this work. It was the opinion of Edward Fitzgerald that ‘Hazlitt’s Poets is the best selection I have ever seen.’
367. Dr. Knox. Vicesimus Knox, D.D. (1752–1821), a voluminous and able author, preacher, and compiler. See Boswell’s Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill, iv. 390–1.
368. Baser matter. Hamlet, I. 5.
Taken him. Romeo and Juliet, III. 2.
369. Perpetual feast. Comus, 480.
Rich and rare. Cf. Pope, Prologue to Satires, 171.
371. Daniel. Samuel Daniel, 1562–1619.
372. Cowley. Abraham Cowley, 1618–1667.
Roscommon. Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon, 1634–1685. His translation of Horace’s Art of Poetry was published in 1680.
Pomfret. John Pomfret, 1667–1703. The Choice, 1699.
Lord Dorset. Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset (c. 1536–1608), author of the Induction to a Mirror for Magistrates, and joint-author with Thomas Norton of the tragedy Ferrex and Porrex (Gorboduc). See p. 193, et seq.
J. Philips. John Philips, 1676–1708. The Splendid Shilling, 1705.
Halifax. Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax, 1661–1715, joint-author with Matthew Prior of the parody on Dryden’s Hind and Panther, entitled The Town and Country Mouse.
373. The mob of gentlemen. Pope, Epis. Hor. Ep. I. Book II. 108.
Parnell. Thomas Parnell, 1679–1717. He was a friend of Swift and of Pope.
Prior. Matthew Prior, 1664–1721.
374. Blair. Robert Blair, 1699–1746. The Grave, 1743.
Ambrose Philips’s Pastorals. These appeared in Tonson’s Miscellany (1709). Ambrose Philips’s dates are ? 1675–1749. He has his place in The Dunciad.
375. Mallet. David Mallet, 1700–1765, is best remembered for his fusion of two old ballads into his William and Margaret, and for his possible authorship of Rule Britannia.
Less is meant. Cf. Milton’s Il Penseroso, 120.
378. Thoughts that glow [breathe]. Gray’s Progress of Poesy, 110.
Lord Thurlow. Edward, second Lord Thurlow (1781–1829), a nephew of the Lord Chancellor, published Verses on Several Occasions (1812), Ariadne (1814), and other volumes of poems.
379. Mr. Milman. Henry Hart Milman, 1791–1868, of Latin Christianity fame was also the author of several dramas and dramatic poems, and of several well-known hymns.
Bowles. William Lisle Bowles, 1762–1850.
Mr. Barry Cornwall. Bryan Waller Procter (1787–1874).
1. Burke’s writings are not poetry, notwithstanding the vividness of the fancy, because the subject matter is abstruse and dry, not natural, but artificial. The difference between poetry and eloquence is, that the one is the eloquence of the imagination, and the other of the understanding. Eloquence tries to persuade the will, and convince the reason: poetry produces its effect by instantaneous sympathy. Nothing is a subject for poetry that admits of a dispute. Poets are in general bad prose-writers, because their images, though fine in themselves, are not to the purpose, and do not carry on the argument. The French poetry wants the forms of the imagination. It is didactic more than dramatic. And some of our own poetry which has been most admired, is only poetry in the rhyme, and in the studied use of poetic diction.
2. Taken from Tasso.
3. This word is an instance of those unwarrantable freedoms which Spenser sometimes took with language.
4. .sp 1