Book I

. iv. 5.

‘_The soul of goodness_,’ _Henry V._, Act IV. Sc. 1.

324. ‘_According to knowledge_,’ _Romans_ x. 2.

‘_A consummation_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 1.

‘_A king is but a king_ [man],’ _etc._ _Reflections on the Revolution in France_ (_Select Works_, ed. Payne, II. 90).

‘_As the vine_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, IV. 307.

325. ‘_Through the airy region_,’ _etc._ _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II. Sc. 2.

326. Note. ‘_As men should serve a cucumber_,’ _etc._ _The Beggar’s Opera_, Act I. Sc. 1.

327. ‘_Bears a charmed life._’ _Macbeth_, Act V. Sc. 8.

‘_All mortal consequences._’ _Ibid._ Act V. Sc. 3.

‘_Set duty in one eye_,’ _etc._ _Julius Cæsar_, Act I. Sc. 2.

‘_Set but a Scotsman_,’ _etc._ Burns, _The Author’s Earnest Cry and Prayer_, _etc._, Postscript.

‘_Happy warrior._’ See Wordsworth’s _Character of a Happy Warrior_ (1807).

THE SAME SUBJECT CONCLUDED

328. _The Cid._ Southey’s translation of the _Chronicle of the Cid_ was published in 1808.

332. _Mr. Kean._ An American lion was presented to Kean by Sir Edward Tucker. Barry Cornwall (_Life of Edmund Kean_, II. 135) says that ‘it amused the tragedian (who was fond of simple pleasures) to allure his acquaintance into the room, and set them face to face with the beast.’

‘_Masterless passion_,’ _etc._ Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_, Act IV. Sc. 1.

‘_The shot of accident_,’ _etc._ _Othello_, Act IV. Sc. 1.

333. _Like Hotspur._ _1 Henry IV._, Act II. Sc. 4.

_Regnault de St. Jean Angely._ Michel Louis Étienne, Comte Regnaud de Saint Jean D’Angely (1762–1819), a well-known politician of the Revolution and under Buonaparte. The reference seems to be to his conduct in 1814 when in command of the National Guard at Paris.

333. ‘_Be mine to read_,’ _etc._ Gray, Letter to West (_Letters_, ed. Tovey, I. 97).

‘_From worldly care_,’ _etc._ _The Faerie Queene_, I. IV. 20.

CHARACTER OF MR. CANNING

This essay was included in the Paris edition (1825) and subsequent editions of _The Spirit of the Age_. See vol. IV. p. 186.

334. ‘_The child_,’ _etc._ Wordsworth, ‘My heart leaps up,’ etc.

‘_Like as the sun-burnt Indians_,’ _etc._ _The Faerie Queene_, III. XII. 8.

336. ‘_Like the morn_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, V. 310–311.

‘_Scylla heard_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Comus_, 257–259.

‘_The nation’s Great Divan._’ Cf. ‘August divan of the British Senate.’ H. Walpole, Letters (1857), IV. 130.

337. _Reply to Sir John Coxe Hippesley._ On March 11, 1813. _Speeches_, ed. Therry, III. 396.

338. ‘_The worse the better reason._’ _Paradise Lost_, II. 113–4.

‘_That makes these odds all even._’ _Measure for Measure_, Act III. Sc. 1.

‘_He aggravates_,’ _etc._ _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Act I. Sc. 2.

‘_Quite chopfallen._’ Cf. _Hamlet_, Act V. Sc. 1.

339. ‘_The inimitable satire of Cervantes._’ See Canning’s Plymouth speech, October 1823.

340. ‘_Pluck out the heart_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 2.

‘_The deliverance of mankind._’ Cf. Southey, _Carmen Triumphale_.

‘_Of his port_,’ _etc._ Chaucer, _The Canterbury Tales_, Prologue, 69.

‘_Freezes his spirits up_,’ _etc._ Cf. _2 Henry IV._, Act I. Sc. 1.

341. _Described so well_, _etc._ In his speech on receiving the freedom of Plymouth, October 1823.

‘_The golden round_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Richard II._, Act III. Sc. 2.

‘_And to call evil good_,’ etc. _Isaiah_ v. 20.

‘_Revered and ruptured Ogden._’ For this famous phrase, used during the debates on the Indemnity Bill, 1818, see _Hansard_, XXXVII. 1026, and Stapleton’s _Political Life of Canning_, I. 86.

_Rejected Addresses._ By James and Horace Smith, published in 1812.

‘_Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin._’ Republished (1801) from _The Anti-Jacobin_.

342. ‘_To turn what is serious_,’ _etc._ Cf. ‘What should be great, you turn to farce.’ Prior, _The Ladle_, 139.

Note. See _The Three Trials of William Hone_ (1818, First Trial, pp. 38–9), where a verse of Jekyll’s parody is quoted from _The Spirit of the Journals_.

Note. ‘_A wit’s a feather_,’ _etc._ Pope, _An Essay on Man_, IV. 247–8.

THE DANDY SCHOOL

This essay, now republished for the first time, is attributed to Hazlitt by Mr. W. C. Hazlitt (_Memoirs_, _etc._, I. xxix) and by Ireland (_List of the Writings of William Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt_, p. 76). The MS., in Hazlitt’s hand-writing, is still in existence.

343. _Vivian Grey._ Disraeli’s first novel, published 1826–7. The dedication was as follows: ‘To the best and greatest of men I dedicate these volumes. He, for whom it is intended, will accept and appreciate the compliment: those, for whom it is not intended, will—do the same.’

344. _Long’s._ A well-known hotel in Bond Street.

_Almack’s._ Assembly Rooms (now known as ‘Willis’s Rooms’), in King Street, St. James’s.

_Mr. Martin’s bill_, _etc._ Richard Martin’s (1754–1834) efforts on behalf of animals were bitterly opposed on all sides.

_Mr. Croker_, _etc._ ‘The Dulwich collection ... was quite as distant as Russell Square, though he did not profess to know exactly where Russell Square was.’ March 28, 1825. _Hansard_, New Series, XII. 1266.

345. _Sir Sedley Clarendels_, _etc._ In _Camilla_.

_Meadowses._ In _The Wanderer_.

346. ‘_The Court_,’ _etc._ Cf. _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Act III. Sc. 2.

_Sayings and Doings._ The first series appeared in 1824, the second in 1825 and the third in 1828.

348. _Mr. Vivacity Dull._ A character in _Vivian Grey_, said to represent Horace Twiss.

ACTORS AND THE PUBLIC

This and the eleven following papers from _The Examiner_ of 1828 have been included in the text mainly on account of the strong internal evidence they bear of Hazlitt’s authorship. One of the papers is signed ‘W. H.,’ the rest are unsigned. During the period covered by these essays other _Theatrical Examiners_ appeared, signed ‘X’ or ‘Q.’ So far as the editors are aware, it has not been hitherto known that Hazlitt resumed regular theatrical criticism so late as 1828, but they feel that no reasonable doubt can exist with regard to his authorship of these twelve essays.

349. _Bate Dudley._ Sir Henry Bate Dudley (1745–1824), the notorious clergyman and journalist discussed by Johnson and Boswell (_Life_, ed. G. B. Hill, IV. 296). He was for a time editor of _The Morning Post_.

‘_Fall into misfortune._’ Cf. _post_, note to p. 533.

‘_To tatters_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 2.

350. _Who has praised Sir Walter_, _etc._ The failure of Constable and of Ballantyne and Co., involving Scott’s financial ruin, had occurred in 1826.

_A vulgar crim. con._ In January 1825, a verdict of £800 was given against Kean in an action, Cox v. Kean, for criminal conversation. In consequence of this he was for a time ‘hooted from the stage.’

‘_The spells_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Othello_, Act I. Sc. 3.

_If an actor is indeed six feet high_, _etc._ Hazlitt probably refers to Conway. See vol. VIII. p. 200, and _post_, p. 361.

351. ‘_The fiery soul_,’ _etc._ Dryden _Absalom and Achitophel_, 156–8.

‘_The envy_,’ _etc._ _Richard II._, Act II. Sc. 1.

_Madame Catalani._ Angelica Catalani had retired from the stage in 1827.

_It was some time since we had seen Mr. Kean’s Shylock_, _etc._ This paragraph makes Hazlitt’s authorship of this _Theatrical Examiner_ quite certain. Cf. vol. VIII. p. 179.

FRENCH PLAYS

352. _Monsieur Perlet._ Adrien Perlet (1795–1850), a well-known French comedian, who had made his first appearance in 1814.

‘_Upturned eyes_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II. Sc. 2.

352. _Madame Pasta._ Cf. vol. VII. (_The Plain Speaker_), pp. 324 _et seq._

‘_A friend of ours_,’ _etc._ See Patmore’s _My Friends and Acquaintance_ (vol. III. pp. 32–5). According to Patmore, the following passage was intended by Hazlitt to form part of the _Conversations with Northcote_ in _The New Monthly Magazine_, but was suppressed by the editor:—

‘He then asked me if I had seen anything of H——?[78] I said, yes; and that he had vexed me; for I had shown him some fine heads from the Cartoons, done about a hundred years ago (which appeared to me to prove that since that period those noble remains have fallen into a state of considerable decay), and when I went out of the room for a moment, I found the prints thrown carelessly on the table, and that he had got out a volume of Tasso, which he was spouting, as I supposed, to let me understand that I knew nothing of art, and that he knew a great deal about poetry.

‘I said I never heard him speak with enthusiasm of any painter or work of merit, nor show any love of art, except as a puffing-machine for him to get up into to blow a trumpet in his own praise. Instead of falling down and worshipping such names as Raphael and Michael Angelo, he is only considering how he may, by storm or stratagem, place himself beside them, on the loftiest seats of Parnassus, as ignorant country squires affect to sit with judges on the bench. He told me he had had a letter from Wilkie, dated Rome, with three marks of admiration, and that he had dated his answer “Babylon the Great,” with four marks of admiration. Stuff! Why must he always “out-Herod Herod?”[79] Why must the place where he is always have one note of admiration more than any other? He gave as his reasons, indeed, our river, our bridges, the Cartoons, and the Elgin Marbles—the two last of which, however, are not our own. H. should have been the boatswain of a man-of-war: he has no other ideas of glory than those which belong to a naval victory, or to vulgar noise and insolence; not at all as something in which the whole world may participate alike. I hate “this stamp exclusive and professional.”[80] He added that Wilkie gave a poor account of Rome, and seemed, on the whole, disappointed. He (Haydon) should not be disappointed when he went, for his expectations were but moderate. “Ay,” said Northcote, “that is like the speech of a little, crooked, conceited painter of the name of Edwards, who went to Italy with Romney and Humphreys, and when they looked round the Vatican, he turned round to Romney and said, ‘Egad, George, we’re bit.’”

‘I said that when I heard stories of this kind, of even clever men who seemed to have no idea or to take no interest except in what they themselves could do, it almost inclined me to be of Peter Pindar’s opinion, who pretended to prefer taste to genius: “Give me,” said he, “one man of taste, and I will find you twenty men of genius.” N. replied, “It is a pity you should be of that opinion, for all your acquaintances are great geniuses; and yet, I fancy, they have no admiration for anybody but themselves.’”

352. _Sir William Curtis’s._ Sir William Curtis (1752–1829), Lord Mayor of London (1795) and for long M.P. for the City.

353. ‘_Our Cupid_,’ _etc._ Cf. The Earl of Dorset’s song, _Dorinda_.

354. _The age of Louis XIV._, _etc._ Cf. a passage in vol. IX. (_Notes of a Journey_, _etc._), p. 150.

354. ‘_New manners_,’ _etc._ Thomas Warton, Sonnet ‘Written in a Blank Leaf of Dugdale’s Monasticon.’

355. ‘_Unmixed with baser matter._’ _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 5.

_A certain happy-spirited writer._ Leigh Hunt, no doubt, whose recently published _Lord Byron and Some of his Contemporaries_ had created some sensation.

FRENCH PLAYS (_continued_)

This article in _The Examiner_ begins with a long editorial passage written in a chaffing spirit and praising the former notice of the French Plays.

356. ‘_That soul of pleasure_,’ _etc._ Cf. Pope, _Moral Essays_, III. 306.

357. l. 15. _Ariste._ This should be Valère.

358. _There is a credulous and unqualified assent_, _etc._ Cf. a passage in vol. VIII. (_English Comic Writers_), p. 29, where almost the same words are used.

‘_To the woods_,’ _etc._ Quoted elsewhere by Hazlitt.

THE THEATRES AND PASSION WEEK

This paper is signed ‘W. H.’

358. ‘_Because thou art virtuous_,’ _etc._ _Twelfth Night_, Act II. Sc. 3.

359. ‘_Seizing_ [tear] _their pleasures_,’ _etc._ Marvell, _To his Coy Mistress_.

360. _Ranting Croly._ The Rev. George Croly (1780–1860), a contributor to _Blackwood’s Magazine_, and to Jerdan’s _Literary Gazette_.

‘_Stretched upon the rack_,’ _etc._ Cf.

‘Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy.’ _Macbeth_, Act III. Sc. 2.

‘_All the natural ills_ [shocks], _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 1.

‘_To jest_,’ _etc._ _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, Act V. Sc. 2.

361. ‘_What is set down for them._’ _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 2.

CHARLES KEAN

362. _Young Mr. Kean._ Charles John Kean (1811?–1868), second son of Edmund Kean. He had made his first appearance at the opening of the Drury Lane season, October 1, 1827.

_Lovers’ Vows._ Mrs. Inchbald’s adaptation from Kotzebue (1798).

_The Marquis of Douro._ Arthur Richard (1807–1884), eldest son of the Duke of Wellington, afterwards second Duke.

363. _We do not presume_, _etc._ This adaptation of a passage from Burke’s _A Letter to a Noble Lord_ (_Works_, Bohn, V. 114) is quoted elsewhere by Hazlitt.

_The Dumb Savoyard._ By Thompson, acted thirty-eight times.

364. _Mrs. W. West._ Mrs. W. West (1790–1876) who first appeared (as Miss Cooke) in London in 1812. She married William West in 1815.

_Meggy Macgilpin._ Maggy Macgilpin in O’Keeffe’s _Highland Reel_ (1788).

_Keeley._ Robert Keeley (1793–1869). His height was five feet two inches.

365. ‘_A man made after supper_,’ _etc._ _2 Henry IV._, Act III. Sc. 2.

‘_Vice to be hated_,’ _etc._ Cf. Pope, _Essay on Man_, II. 217–18.

366. _Ecole des Veillards._ By Casimir Delavigne (1823).

SOME OF THE OLD ACTORS

This notice is full of favourite quotations and of sentiments which Hazlitt had expressed elsewhere. See specially the Dramatic Essays in vol. VIII.

366. ‘_Warbles_,’ _etc._ _L’ Allegro_, 134.

‘_Fierce extremes._’ _Paradise Lost_, II. 599.

_The Invincibles._ A musical farce, acted 34 times.

‘_Our mind’s eye._’ Cf. _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 2.

‘_Our heart’s core._’ Cf. _Ibid._ Act III. Sc. 2.

367. ‘_Fancy’s midwife._’ Cf. ‘The fairies’ midwife.’ _Romeo and Juliet_, Act I. Sc. 4.

‘_Gay creatures_,’ _etc._ Comus, 299–301.

‘_Tears_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, I. 620.

368. ‘_Mr. Kean’s Othello_,’ _etc._ From The _Times_. See _post_, p. 406, and vol. VIII. p. 414 and notes.

‘_With kindliest change._’ _Paradise Lost_, V. 336.

THE COMPANY AT THE OPERA

369. _Mr. Peake._ Richard Brinsley Peake (1792–1847). The farce here noticed is called by Genest ‘Little Offerings.’

‘_Crabbed age_,’ _etc._ _The Passionate Pilgrim_, Stanza XII.

_Miss Goward._ Mary Ann Goward (1805?–1899), who afterwards became so well known as Mrs. Keeley. She married Keeley in 1829.

370. _Madame Caradori._ Madame Caradori-Allan (1800–1865), who made her début at the Italian Opera in London in 1822.

_Mademoiselle Sontag._ Henriette Sontag (1806–1854). She married Count Rossi in 1828 and retired from the stage till near the end of her life.

371. _Brocard._ Suzanne Brocard (1798–1855), whose first appearance at the Comédie Française was in 1817 and who retired in 1839.

372. _Lord Byron and his Contemporaries._ Cf. _ante_, note to p. 355.

‘_The mob_,’ _etc._ Pope, _Imitations of Horace_,