Book III
, 1588.
P. 135. _not one of the angles_. Sterne's "Tristram Shandy," Bk. III, Ch. 12.
P. 136. _pour out_. "Imitation of Horace, Satire I," 51.
P. 136, n. _more wise Charron_. See Pope's "Moral Essays," I, 87. Pierre Charron (1541-1603), a friend of Montaigne, author of "De la Sagesse" (1601).
P. 137. _Pereant isti_. Ælius Donatus: St. Jerome's _Commentary on the Eucharist_, ch. 1. Mr. Carr's translation of the sentence is "Confound the fellows who have said our good things before us." (Camelot Hazlitt.)
P. 138. _Charles Cotton's_ (1630-1687) translation of Montaigne was published in 1685. It was dedicated to George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633-1695), who spoke of the essays as "the book in the world I am best entertained with."
_Cowley_, Abraham (1618-1667). "Several Discourses by way of Essays in Prose and Verse" appeared in the edition of his works in 1668.
_Sir William Temple_ (1628-1699). His essays, entitled "Miscellanea," were published in 1680 and 1692.
_Lord Shaftesbury_ (1671-1713), author of "Characteristics" (1711).
P. 139. _the perfect spy_. "Macbeth," iii, 1, 130.
_The Tatler_ ran from April 12, 1709, to June 2, 1711. This paragraph and the larger portion of the next are substantially reproduced from the paper "On the Tatler" in the "Round Table."
_Isaac Bickerstaff_. Under the disguise of this name Swift had perpetrated an amusing hoax on an almanac-maker of the name of Partridge, and in launching his new periodical Steele availed himself of the notoriety of Bickerstaff's name and feigned his identity with that personage.
P. 140. _the disastrous stroke_. Cf. "Othello," i, 3, 157: "some distressful stroke that my youth suffered."
_the recollection of one of his mistresses_. Tatler, No. 107.
_the club at the Trumpet_. 132.
_the cavalcade_. 86.
_the upholsterer_. 155, 160, 178.
_If he walks out_, etc. 238.
P. 141. _Charles Lillie_, perfumer, at the corner of Beaufort Buildings in the Strand, was agent for the sale of the Tatler and Spectator and is several times mentioned in those periodicals.
_Betterton_, Thomas (1635?-1710), _Anne Oldfield_ (1683-1730), _Will_ [Richard] _Estcourt_ (1668-1712), were popular actors of the day.
_Tom Durfey_ (1653-1723) was a dramatist and song writer.
_Duke of Marlborough_ (1650-1722), and _Marshal Turenne_ (1611-1675).
_The Spectator_ ran from March 1, 1711, to December 6, 1712, with an additional series from June 18 to December 20, 1714.
_the first sprightly runnings_. Dryden's "Aurengzebe," iv, 1.
P. 142. _Addison_, Joseph (1672-1719).
_the whiteness of her hand_. Cf. Spectator. No. 113. "She certainly has the finest hand of any woman in the world."
_the havoc he makes_. Spectator, 116, by Budgell.
_his speech from the bench and his unwillingness_. 122.
_his gentle reproof_. 130.
_his doubts_. 117.
P. 143. _his account of the family pictures_. 109, by Steele.
_his choice of a chaplain_. 106.
_his falling asleep at church and his reproof of John Williams_, i.e., John Matthews. 112.
_I once thought I knew_. Cf. "On the Conversation of Authors," where A---- (William Ayrton) is introduced as "the Will Honeycomb of our set."
_The Court of Honour_. Addison created the court in Tatler, 250. Its proceedings are recorded by himself and Steele in Nos. 253, 256, 259, 262, 265.
_Personification of Musical Instruments_. Tatler, 153, 157.
_the picture of the family_. Tatler, 95, of unknown authorship.
P. 144. _the account of the two sisters_. 151.
_the married lady_. 104.
_the lover and his mistress_. 94.
_the bridegroom_. 82.
_Mr. Eustace and his wife_. 172.
_the fine dream_. 117.
_Mandeville_, Bernard (d. 1733), author of the satirical "Fable of the Bees."
_reflections on cheerfulness_. Spectator, 381, 387, 393.
_those in Westminster Abbey_. 26.
_Royal Exchange_. 69.
P. 145. _the best criticism_. 226.
_Mr. Fuseli_, Henry (1741-1825), painter and art critic.
_an original copy_. Probably the octavo edition of 1711.
_The Guardian_ ran from March 12, 1713, to October 1, 1713.
_The Rambler_ ran from March 20, 1749-50, to March 14, 1752.
_Dr. Johnson_, Samuel (1709-1784).
P. 146. _give us pause_. "Hamlet," iii, 1, 68.
P. 147. _All his periods_, etc. See the "Character of Burke" and the preface to "The Characters of Shakespeare's Plays."
P. 148. _the elephant_. "Paradise Lost," IV, 345.
_If he were to write_. Boswell's "Johnson," ed. Birkbeck Hill, II, 231.
P. 149. _Rasselas_, an Oriental tale, published in 1759.
_abused Milton and patronised Lauder_. See Boswell's "Johnson," I, 228-231.
P. 150. _Boswell_, James (1740-1795), made his literary reputation by his "Life of Johnson."
_the king of good fellows_. Burns's "Auld Rab Morris."
_inventory of all he said_. Cf. Ben Jonson's "Alchemist," iii, 2: "And ta'en an inventory of what they are."
_Goldsmith asked_. Boswell's "Johnson," II, 260.
_If that fellow Burke_. II, 450.
_What, is it you_. I, 250.
P. 151. _with some unidead girls_. I, 251.
_Now, I think_. II, 362.
_his quitting the society_. I, 201.
_his dining with Wilkes_. III, 64.
_his sitting with the young ladies_. II, 120.
_his carrying the unfortunate victim_. IV, 321.
_an act which realises the parable_. Talfourd, who heard this lecture, reports that on Hazlitt's allusion to this incident "a titter arose from some who were struck by the picture as ludicrous, and a murmur from others who deemed the allusion unfit for ears polite: he paused for an instant, and then added, in his sturdiest and most impressive manner--'an act which realizes the parable of the Good Samaritan'--at which his moral, and his delicate hearers shrank, rebuked, into deep silence."
_where they_. Gray's "Elegy."
P. 152. _The Adventurer_ ran from November 7, 1752, to March 9, 1754. John Hawkesworth (1715-1773) was its chief contributor.
_The World_ ran from January 4, 1753, to December 30, 1756.
_The Connoisseur_ ran from January 31, 1754, to September 30, 1756.
_one good idea_. The paper referred to is No. 176 of The World, by Edward Moore, the dramatist.
_Citizen of the World_, in two volumes, 1762.
_go about to cozen_. Cf. "Merchant of Venice," ii, 9, 37: "To cozen fortune and be honorable Without the stamp of merit."
_Persian Letters_. "Letters from a Persian in England to his Friend at Ispahan" (1735), by Lord Lyttleton.
P. 153. _The bonzes_. "Citizen of the World," Letter X.
_Edinburgh. We are positive_. Ibid., Letter V.
_Beau Tibbs_. Letters XXIX, LIV, LV, LXXXI.
_Lounger_ ran from February 5, 1785, to January 6, 1786, _The Mirror_ from January 23, 1779, to May 27, 1780. The chief contributor to both was Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831), author of the celebrated sentimental novels: "The Man of Feeling" (1771), "The Man of the World" (1773), "Julia de Roubigné" (1777).
_the story of La Roche_. Mirror, 42, 43, 44.
_the story of Le Fevre_. "Tristram Shandy," Bk. VI, ch. 6.
P. 154. _author of Rosamond Gray_. Charles Lamb.
THE ENGLISH NOVELISTS
From the sixth lecture on the "Comic Writers." Most of the matter had appeared in the Edinburgh Review for February, 1815, as a review of Madame D'Arblay's "Wanderer." (See Works, X, 25-44.) In "A Farewell to Essay-Writing" (Works, XII, 327) Hazlitt harks back to his days with Charles and Mary Lamb: "I will not compare our hashed mutton with Amelia's; but it put us in mind of it, and led to a discussion, sharply seasoned and well sustained, till midnight, the result of which appeared some years after in the Edinburgh Review."
P. 155. _Be mine to read_. To Richard West, April, 1742.
_Marivaux_, Pierre (1688-1763), and _Crebillon_, Claude Prosper (1707-1777), French novelists.
_something more divine_. Cf. p. 254.
P. 156. _Fielding ... says_. "Joseph Andrews," Bk. III, ch. 1.
_description somewhere given_. "Reflections on the French Revolution," ed. Bohn, II, 351-352.
P. 157. _Echard_. John Eachard (1636-1697), author of "The Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion Enquired into." (1670.)
_worthy of all acceptation_. 1 Timothy, i, 15.
_the lecture_. "Joseph Andrews," Bk. IV, ch. 3.
_Blackstone_, Sir William (1723-1780), author of "Commentaries on the Laws of England" (1765-69).
_De Lolme_, John. Louis (1740?-1807), author of "The Constitution of England" (1771).
_Cervantes_, Miguel (1547-1616), Spanish novelist whose most famous work is "Don Quixote."
_Le Sage_, Alain René (1668-1747), French novelist, author of "Gil Blas."
_Fielding_, Henry (1707-1754). His most important novels are "Joseph Andrews" (1742), "Tom Jones" (1749), "Amelia" (1751), "Jonathan Wild" (1743).
_Smollett_, Tobias (1721-1771), wrote "Roderick Random" (1748), "Peregrine Pickle" (1751), "Ferdinand Count Fathom" (1753), "Launcelot Greaves" (1762), "Humphrey Clinker" (1771).
_Richardson_, Samuel (1689-1761), wrote "Pamela" (1740), "Clarissa Harlowe" (1747-48), "Sir Richard Grandison" (1753).
_Sterne_, Laurence (1713-1768), wrote "Tristram Shandy" (1759-67), "A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy" (1768).
P. 158. _in these several writers_. A few paragraphs are here omitted treating of "Don Quixote," "Lazarillo de Tormes" (1553), "Guzman d'Alfarache" by Mateo Aleman (1599), and "Gil Blas."
_They are thoroughly English._ In the review of Walpole's Letters (Works, X, 168), Hazlitt says: "There is nothing of a tea inspiration in any of his [Fielding's] novels. They are assuredly the finest thing of the kind in the language; and we are Englishmen enough to consider them the best in any language. They are indubitably the most English of all the works of Englishmen."
_Hogarth_, William (1697-1764), painter and engraver of moral and satirical subjects. His two most famous series of paintings are "The Rake's Progress" and "Marriage à la Mode." Lamb in his "Essay on the Genius and Character of Hogarth" observes: "Other pictures we look at,--his prints we read." Hazlitt, sharing this view, includes an account of Hogarth in the seventh lecture of the "Comic Writers," which opens as follows: "If the quantity of amusement, or of matter for more serious reflection which their works have afforded, is that by which we are to judge of precedence among the intellectual benefactors of mankind, there are, perhaps, few persons who can put in a stronger claim to our gratitude than Hogarth. It is not hazarding too much to assert, that he was one of the greatest comic geniuses that ever lived."
P. 159. _the gratitude of the elder Blifil_. Bk. I, ch. 13.
_the Latin dialogues_, etc. Bk. II, chs. 3-4.
P. 160. _honesty of Black George_. Bk. VI, ch. 13.
_I was never so handsome_. Bk. XVII, ch. 4.
_the adventure with the highwayman_. Bk. VII, ch. 9.
_Sophia and her muff_. Bk. V, ch. 4.
_coquetry of her cousin_. Bk. XVI, ch. 9.
_the modest overtures_. Bk. XV, ch. 11.
_the story of Tom Jones_. Cf. Coleridge's "Table Talk," July 5, 1834: "I think the OEdipus Tyrannus, the Alchemist, and Tom Jones, the three most perfect plots ever planned."
_account of Miss Matthews and Ensign Hibbert_ [Hebbers]. Bk. I, chs. 7-9.
P. 161. _the story of the miniature picture_. Bk. XI, ch. 6.
_the hashed mutton_. Bk. X, ch. 6.
_the masquerade_. Bk. X, ch. 2.
_the interview_. Bk. X, chs. 2, 8.
P. 162. _His declaring_. Bk. III, ch. 3.
_his consoling himself_. Bk. III, ch. 2.
_the night-adventures_. Bk. IV, ch. 14.
_that with the huntsman_. Bk. III, ch. 6.
_Wilson's account_. Bk. III, ch. 3.
P. 163. _Roderick Random's carroty locks_. ch. 13.
_Strap's ignorance_. ch. 14.
_intus et in cute_. Persius' "Satires," III, 30.
P. 164. _scene on ship-board_. ch. 24.
_profligate French friar_. chs. 42-43.
P. 165. _the Count's address_. ch. 27.
_the robber-scene_. chs. 20-21.
_the Parisian swindler_. ch. 24.
_the seduction_. ch. 34.
P. 166. _the long description_. The allusions to Miss Byron's dress in Vol. VII, Letter III, can scarcely be called a long description.
P. 167. _Dr. Johnson seems to have preferred_. Cf. Boswell's "Johnson," ed. Hill, II, 174: "Sir, there is more knowledge of the heart in one letter of Richardson's, than in all Tom Jones."
P. 168. _reproaches to her "lumpish heart"_. "Pamela," ed. Dobson and Phelps, I, 268.
_its lightness_. I, 276.
_the joy_. II, 7-25.
_the artifice of the stuff-gown_. I, 51.
_the meeting with Lady Davers_. II, 145 ff.
_the trial-scene with her husband_. IV, 122 ff.
P. 169. _her long dying-scene_. "Clarissa Harlowe," ed. Dobson and Phelps, Vol. VIII, Letter 29.
_the closing of the coffin-lid_. VIII, Letter 50.
_the heart-breaking reflections_. VI, Letter 29.
_Books are a real world._ Wordsworth's "Personal Talk."
_Lovelace's reception and description of Hickman_. VI, Letter 80.
_the scene at the glove-shop_. VII, Letter 70.
_Belton, so pert_. I, Letter 31.
_his systematically preferring_. Cf. "Why the Heroes of Romances are Insipid" (Works, XII, 62): "There is not a single thing that Sir Charles Grandison does or says all through the book from liking to any person or object but himself, and with a view to answer to a certain standard of perfection for which he pragmatically sets up. He is always thinking of himself, and trying to show that he is the wisest, happiest, and most virtuous person in the whole world. He is (or would be thought) a code of Christian ethics; a compilation and abstract of all gentlemanly accomplishments. There is nothing, I conceive, that excites so little sympathy as this inordinate egotism; or so much disgust as this everlasting self-complacency. Yet this self-admiration, brought forward on every occasion as the incentive to every action and reflected from all around him, is the burden and pivot of the story."
P. 170. _a dull fellow_. Boswell's "Johnson," ed. Birkbeck Hill, II, 222.
_the tale of Maria_. Bk. IX, ch. 24.
_the apostrophe to the recording angel_. Bk. VI, ch. 8.
_the story of Le Fevre_. Bk. VI, ch. 6.
The rest of the lecture treats of Fanny Burney, Anne Radcliffe, Elizabeth Inchbald, William Godwin, and Sir Walter Scott.
CHARACTER OF MR. BURKE
First published in the "Eloquence of the British Senate" and republished in "Political Essays."
P. 172. _The following speech_. Hazlitt refers to the speech On the Economic Reform (February 11, 1780). See Burke's Works, ed. Bohn, II, 55-126.
P. 174. _the elephant to make them sport_. "Paradise Lost" IV, 345.
_native and endued_. "Hamlet," iv, 7, 180.
_Lord Chatham_. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1708-1778), the great English statesman.
P. 176. _a new creation_. Goldsmith's "Traveler," 296.
P. 178. _All the great changes_. Cf. Morley's "Life of Burke," ch. 8: "All really profound speculation about society comes in time to touch the heart of every other object of speculation, not by directly contributing new truths or directly corroborating old ones, but by setting men to consider the consequences to life of different opinions on these abstract subjects, and their relations to the great paramount interests of society, however those interests may happen at the time to be conceived. Burke's book marks a turning-point in literary history, because it was the signal for that reaction over the whole field of thought, into which the Revolution drove many of the finest minds of the next generation, by showing the supposed consequences of pure individualistic rationalism."
P. 179. _Alas! Leviathan_. Cowper's "Task," II, 322.
_the corner stone_. Psalms, cxvii, 22.
_to the Jews_. 1 Corinthians, i, 23.
P. 183. _the consequences of his writings_. In this view Hazlitt has the full support of Lord Morley.
P. 184. _How charming_. Milton's "Comus," 476.
_He was one of the severest writers we have._ The description of Burke's style which follows should be compared with that given on pp. 344-5 and with the splendid passage in the "Plain Speaker" essay "On the Prose Style of Poets," beginning: "It has always appeared to me that the most perfect prose-style, the most powerful, the most dazzling, the most daring, that which went the nearest to the verge of poetry, and yet never fell over, was Burke's. It has the solidity, and sparkling effect of the diamond; all other _fine writing_ is like French paste or Bristol-stones in the comparison. Burke's style is airy, flighty, adventurous, but it never loses sight of the subject; nay, is always in contact with, and derives its increased or varying impulse from it. It may be said to pass yawning gulfs 'on the unsteadfast footing of a spear:' still it has an actual resting-place and tangible support under it--it is not suspended on nothing. It differs from poetry, as I conceive, like the chamois from the eagle: it climbs to an almost equal height, touches upon a cloud, overlooks a precipice, is picturesque, sublime--but all the while, instead of soaring through the air, it stands upon a rocky cliff, clambers up by abrupt and intricate ways, and browzes on the roughest bark, or crops the tender flower."
P. 186. _the set or formal style_. See pp. 147-8.
P. 187. _Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents_ (1770), a criticism of the ministerial policy of the English government under George III.
_Reflections on the Revolution in France_ (1790), a severe arraignment of the principles which inspired the revolution and a prophetic warning of its consequences.
_Letter to the Duke of Bedford_. A Letter from the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, to a Noble Lord, on the attacks made upon him and his pension, in the House of Lords, by the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lauderdale, early in the present session of Parliament. (1706.)
_Regicide Peace_. Three Letters addressed to a Member of the Present Parliament, on the proposals for peace with the regicide Directory of France. (1796.)
P. 188. _Fox_, Charles James (1749-1806), the famous Whig statesman who was frequently the opponent of Burke and of the younger Pitt.
P. 189. _Dr. Johnson observed_, in his "Life of Pope" (ed. Birkbeck Hill, III, 230): "In their similes the greatest writers have sometimes failed; the ship-race, compared with the chariot-race, is neither illustrated nor aggrandised; land and water make all the difference: when Apollo running after Daphne is likened to a greyhound chasing a hare, there is nothing gained; the ideas of pursuit and flight are too plain to be made plainer, and a god and the daughter of a god are not represented much to their advantage by a hare and a dog."
_a person_. Conjecturally Joseph Fawcett. In the essay "On Criticism" ("Table Talk") Hazlitt says: "The person of the most refined and least contracted taste I ever knew was the late Joseph Fawcett, the friend of my youth. He was almost the first literary acquaintance I ever made, and I think the most candid and unsophisticated. He had a masterly perception of all styles and of every kind and degree of excellence, sublime or beautiful, from Milton's Paradise Lost to Shenstone's Pastoral Ballad, from Butler's Analogy down to Humphrey Clinker."
P. 189, n. _the comparison of the British Constitution_. "Letter to a Noble Lord," Works, ed. Bohn, V, 137.
MR. WORDSWORTH
From "The Spirit of the Age." Characterizations of Wordsworth also occur in the lecture "On the Living Poets" and in the Essay "On Genius and Common Sense" in "Table Talk."
P. 191. _lowliness is young ambition's ladder_. "Julius Cæsar," ii, 1, 22.
_no figures_. Cf. "Julius Cæsar," ii, 1, 231: " Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies Which busy care draws in the brains of men."
_skyey influences_. "Measure for Measure," iii, 1, 9.
P. 192. _nihil humani_. Terence: "Heautontimoroumenos." i, 1, 25.
_the cloud-capt towers_. "Tempest," iv, 1, 151.
P. 193. _the judge's robe_. Cf. "Measure for Measure," ii, 2, 59;
"No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe."
_Pindar and Alcæus_. Greek lyric poets.
_a sense of joy_. Wordsworth's "To My Sister."
P. 194. _Beneath the hills_. Cf. Wordsworth's "Excursion," VI, 531:
"Amid the groves, under the shadowy hills The generations are prepared...."
P. 195. _To him the meanest flower_. "Ode on the Intimations of Immortality."
P. 196. _Grasmere_ was the residence of Wordsworth between 1799 and 1813.
_Cole-Orton_ was the residence of Wordsworth's friend, Sir George Beaumont, to whom he dedicated the 1815 edition of his poems: "Some of the best pieces were composed under the shade of your own groves, upon the classic ground of Cole-Orton."
P. 197. _Calm contemplation_. Cf. "Laodamia": "Calm pleasures there abide, majestic pains."
_Fall blunted_ "from each indurated heart." Goldsmith's "Traveler," 232.
_and fit audience_. Wordsworth quotes this line from "Paradise Lost," VII, 31, in "The Recluse," 776:
"'Fit audience let me find though few!' So prayed, more gaining than he asked, the Bard-- In holiest mood."
P. 198. _The Excursion_. Hazlitt wrote a review of this poem for the Examiner which not only aroused Wordsworth's resentment but led to one of his disagreements with Lamb. The review appears in the "Round Table."
_toujours perdrix_, "always partridges," alluding to a story of a French king, who, on being reproved by his confessor for faithlessness to his wife, punished the offender by causing him to be fed on nothing but his favorite dish, which was partridge. See Notes and Queries, Series IV, Vol. III, p. 336.
_In his person_. In 1803, while on a visit to the Lake Country, Hazlitt had painted a portrait of Wordsworth. "He has painted Wordsworth," writes Southey, "but so dismally, though Wordsworth's face is his idea of physiognomical perfection, that one of his friends, on seeing it, exclaimed, 'At the gallows--deeply affected by his deserved fate--yet determined to die like a man;' and if you saw the picture, you would admire the criticism." "Life and Correspondence," II, 238.
_His manner of reading_. See p. 295.
_a man of no mark_. 1 "Henry IV," iii, 2, 45.
P. 199. _He finds fault with Dryden's description._ Hazlitt adopted this criticism in his lecture "On Pope and Dryden."
P. 200. _Titian_ (c. 1477-1576), the great Venetian painter.
_Chaucer_. Wordsworth's modernizations of Chaucer are "The Prioress's Tale," "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale," and a part of "Troilus and Cressida."
_a tragedy_. "The Borderers" was written in 1795-96 but not published till 1842. The quotation which follows is from Act iii, 1, 405, and should read:
"Action is transitory--a step, a blow, The motion of a muscle--this way or that-- 'Tis done, and in the after-vacancy We wonder at ourselves like men betrayed; Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark, And shares the nature of infinity."
Wordsworth quoted these lines after the dedication to "The White Doe of Rylstone" and later added a note: "This and the five lines that follow were either read or recited by me more than thirty years since, to the late Mr. Hazlitt, who quoted some expressions in them (imperfectly remembered) in a work of his published several years ago."
P. 201. _Let observation_. Cf. De Quincey's "Rhetoric" (Works, ed. Masson, X, 128): "We recollect a little biographic sketch of Dr. Johnson, published immediately after his death, in which, among other instances of desperate tautology, the author quotes the well-known lines from the Doctor's imitation of Juvenal--'Let observation,' etc., and contends with some reason that this is saying in effect,--_'Let observation with extensive observation observe mankind extensively.'_" Coleridge somewhere makes the same remark.
_Drawcansir_. A character in "The Rehearsal" by the Duke of Buckingham.
"Let petty kings the names of Parties know: Where'er I am, I slay both friend and foe." v, 1.
_Walton's Angler_. In the fifth lecture of the "English Poets" Hazlitt writes: "Perhaps the best pastoral in the language is that prose-poem, Walton's Complete Angler. That well-known work has a beauty and romantic interest equal to its simplicity, and arising out of it. In the description of a fishing-tackle, you perceive the piety and humanity of the author's mind. It is to be doubted whether Sannazarius's Piscatory Eclogues are equal to the scenes described by Walton on the banks of the river Lea. He gives the feeling of the open air: we walk with him along the dusty roadside, or repose on the banks of a river under a shady tree; and in watching for the finny prey, imbibe what he beautifully calls 'the patience and simplicity of poor honest fishermen.' We accompany them to their inn at night, and partake of their simple, but delicious fare; while Maud, the pretty milkmaid, at her mother's desire, sings the classical ditties of the poet Marlow; 'Come live with me, and be my love.'"
_Paley_, William (1743-1805), a noted theologian. Cf. "On the Clerical Character" in "Political Essays" (Works, III, 276): "This same shuffling divine is the same Dr. Paley, who afterwards employed the whole of his life, and his moderate second-hand abilities, in tampering with religion, morality, and politics,--in trimming between his convenience and his conscience,--in crawling between heaven and earth, and trying to cajole both. His celebrated and popular work on Moral Philosophy, is celebrated and popular for no other reason, than that it is a somewhat ingenious and amusing apology for existing abuses of any description, by which any thing is to be got. It is a very elaborate and consolatory elucidation of the text, _that men should not quarrel with their bread and butter_. It is not an attempt to show what is right, but to palliate and find out plausible excuses for what is wrong. It is a work without the least value, except as a convenient commonplace book or _vade mecum_, for tyro politicians and young divines, to smooth their progress in the Church or the State. This work is a text-book in the University: its morality is the acknowledged morality of the House of Commons." See also Coleridge's opinion of Paley on p. 288.
_Bewick_, Thomas (1753-1828), a well-known wood-engraver.
_Waterloo_, Antoine (1609?-1676?), a French engraver, painter, and etcher.
_Rembrandt_, Harmans van Rijn (1606-1669.), Dutch painter, whose mastery of light and shade was the object of Hazlitt's special admiration.
P. 202. _He hates conchology_, etc. See the lecture "On the Living Poets": "He hates all science and all art; he hates chemistry, he hates conchology; he hates Voltaire; he hates Sir Isaac Newton; he hates wisdom; he hates wit; he hates metaphysics, which he says are unintelligible, and yet he would be thought to understand them; he hates prose; he hates all poetry but his own; he hates the dialogues in Shakespeare; he hates music, dancing, and painting; he hates Rubens, he hates Rembrandt; he hates Raphael, he hates Titian; he hates Vandyke; he hates the antique; he hates the Apollo Belvidere; he hates the Venus of Medicis."
_Where one for sense_. Butler's "Hudibras," II, 29.
P. 203. _take the good_. Plautus's "Rudens," iv, 7.
MR. COLERIDGE
From the "Spirit of the Age."
P. 205. _and thank_. Cf. "Comus," 176: "In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan."
_a mind reflecting_. See p. 35 and n.
_dark rearward_. Cf. "Tempest," i, 2, 50: "In the dark backward and abysm of time."
P. 206. _That which was_. "Antony and Cleopatra," iv, 14, 9.
_quick, forgetive_. 2 "Henry IV," iv, 3, 107.
_what in him is weak_. Cf. "Paradise Lost," I, 22: "What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support."
P. 207. _and by the force_. Cf. "Macbeth," iii, 5, 28: "As by the strength of their illusion Shalt draw him on to his confusion."
_rich strond_. "Faërie Queene," III, iv, 18, 29, 34.
_goes sounding_. "Hazlitt seems to have had a hazy recollection of two passages in Chaucer's _Prologue_. In his essay on 'My First Acquaintance with Poets,' he says, 'the scholar in Chaucer is described as going "sounding on his way,"' and in his _Lectures on the English Poets_ he says, 'the merchant, as described in Chaucer, went on his way "sounding always the increase of his winning."' The scholar is not described as 'sounding on his way,' but Chaucer says of him, 'Souninge in moral vertu was his speche,' while the merchant, though 'souninge alway th' encrees of his winning,' is not described as going on his way. Wordsworth has a line ('Excursion,'