Chapter 1

P. 103. _The noble heart_. "Faërie Queene," I, v, 1.

P. 104. _makes Ossa like a wart_. "Hamlet," v, 1, 306.

_Him followed Rimmon_. "Paradise Lost," I, 467.

_As when a vulture_. III, 431.

P. 105. _the pilot_. I, 204.

_It has been indeed objected to Milton_. Cf. Coleridge (Works, ed. Shedd, IV, 304): "Milton is not a picturesque, but a musical, poet"; also Coleridge's "Table Talk," August 7, 1832: "It is very remarkable that in no part of his writings does Milton take any notice of the great painters of Italy, nor, indeed, of painting as an art; while every other page breathes his love and taste for music.... Adam bending over the sleeping Eve, in Paradise Lost, and Dalilah approaching Samson, in the Agonistes, are the only two proper pictures I remember in Milton."

_Like a steam_. "Comus," 556.

P. 106. _He soon saw_. "Paradise Lost," III, 621.

P. 107. _With Atlantean shoulders_. II, 306.

_Lay floating_. I, 296.

_Dr. Johnson condemns the Paradise Lost._ See the conclusion of his "Life of Milton."

P. 108. _His hand was known_. "Paradise Lost," I, 732.

_But chief the spacious hall_. I, 762.

P. 109. _Round he surveys_. III, 555.

_Such as the meeting soul_. "L'Allegro."

_the hidden soul_. Ibid.

P. 110. _as Pope justly observes_. "First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace," 102.

P. 111. _As when Heaven's fire_. "Paradise Lost," I, 612.

_All is not lost_. I, 206.

_that intellectual being_. II, 147.

_being swallowed up_. II, 149.

P. 112. _Fallen cherub_. I, 157.

_rising aloft_. I, 225.

_the mystic German critics_. Cf. p. 344.

P. 113. _Is this the region_. "Paradise Lost," I, 242.

P. 114. _Salmasius_. At the request of Charles II, Claude de Saumaise (Claudius Salmasius), professor at Leyden, had written a vindication of Charles I, "Defensio pro Carolo I" (1649), to which Milton replied with the "Defensio pro Populo Anglicano" (1651). The controversy between the two is noted for the virulency of the personal invective.

_with hideous ruin_. "Paradise Lost," I, 46.

_retreated in a silent valley_. II, 547.

_a noted political writer_. Dr. Stoddart, editor of the Times and brother-in-law of Hazlitt, whom the critic bitterly hated, and Napoleon are here referred to. Cf. "Political Essays," III, 158-159.

P. 115. _Longinus preferred the Iliad._ "Whereas in the _Iliad_, which was written when his genius was in its prime, the whole structure of the poem is founded on action and struggle, in the _Odyssey_ he generally prefers the narrative style, which is proper to old age. Hence Homer in his _Odyssey_ may be compared to the setting sun; he is still as great as ever, but he has lost his fervent heat. The strain is now pitched in a lower key than in the 'Tale of Troy Divine': we begin to miss that high and equable sublimity which never flags or sinks, that continuous current of moving incidents, those rapid transitions, that force of eloquence, that opulence of imagery which is ever true to Nature. Like the sea when it retires upon itself and leaves its shores waste and bare, henceforth the tide of sublimity begins to ebb, and draws us away into the dim region of myth and legend. In saying this I am not forgetting the fine storm-pieces in the _Odyssey_, the story of the Cyclops, and other striking passages. It is Homer grown old I am discussing, but still it is Homer." On the Sublime, IX, trans. Havell.

_no kind of traffic_. Cf. "Tempest," ii, 1, 148.

_The generations were prepared_. Wordsworth's "Excursion," VI, 554.

_the unapparent deep_. "Paradise Lost," VII, 103.

P. 116. _know to know no more_. Cowper's "Truth," 327.

_They toiled not_. Matthew, vi, 28.

_In them the burthen_. Wordsworth's "Lines Composed above Tintern Abbey."

_such as angels weep_. "Paradise Lost," I, 620.

P. 117. _In either hand_. XII, 637.

POPE

This selection begins with the second paragraph of the fourth lecture on the "English Poets."

P. 118. _The question whether Pope was a poet_. Hazlitt had written a paper in answer to this question in the Edinburgh Magazine for February, 1818 (Works, XII, 430-432), from which the following paragraphs down to "Such at least is the best account" are copied. The question had been previously answered by Dr. Johnson with the same common sense as by Hazlitt: "It is surely superfluous to answer the question that has once been asked, Whether Pope was a poet? otherwise than by asking in return, If Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found? To circumscribe poetry by a definition will only shew the narrowness of the definer, though a definition which shall exclude Pope will not easily be made." ("Life of Pope," ed. B. Hill, III, 251). In their edition of Pope (II, 140), Elwin and Courthope express the opinion that the doubt which both Johnson and Hazlitt felt called upon to refute "was never maintained by a single person of reputation." Yet there is something very close to such a doubt implied in the utterances of Coleridge: "If we consider great exquisiteness of language and sweetness of metre alone, it is impossible to deny to Pope the character of a delightful writer; but whether he was a poet, must depend upon our definition of the word.... This, I must say, that poetry, as distinguished from other modes of composition, does not rest in metre, and that it is not poetry, if it make no appeal to our passions or our imagination." (Works, ed. Shedd, IV, 56.) Pope's verse was made the occasion of a long-winded controversy as to the relative value of the natural and artificial in poetry, lasting from 1819 to 1825, with William Bowles and Lord Byron as the principal combatants. Hazlitt contributed an article to the London Magazine for June, 1821, "Pope, Lord Byron and Mr. Bowles" (Works, XII, 486-508), in which he pointed out the fallacies in Byron's position and censured the clerical priggishness of Bowles in treating of Pope's life. The chief points in the discussion are best summed up in Prothero's edition of Byron's "Letters and Journals," Vol. V, Appendix III.

_If indeed by a great poet we mean_. Cf. Introduction, p. 1.

P. 120. _the pale reflex_. "Romeo and Juliet," iii, 5, 20.

P. 121. _Martha Blount_ (1690-1762), the object of Pope's sentimental attachment throughout his life.

_In Fortune's ray_. "Troilus and Cressida," i, 3, 47.

_the gnarled oak ... the soft myrtle_. "Faërie Qu.," II, ii, 116-117.

_calm contemplation_. Thomson's "Autumn," 1275.

P. 122. _More subtle web_. "Faërie Queene," II, xii, 77.

P. 123. _from her fair head_. "Rape of the Lock," III, 154.

_Now meet thy fate_. Ibid., V, 87-96.

P. 124. _Lutrin_. The "Lutrin" was a mock-heroic poem (1674-1683) of the French poet and critic, Nicolas Boileau Despreaux (1636-1711), the literary dictator of the age of Louis XIV.

_'Tis with our judgments_. "Essay on Criticism," I, 9.

_Still green with bays_. Ibid., I, 181.

P. 125. _the writer's despair_. Cf. Ibid., II, 278:

"No longer now that Golden Age appears, When Patriarch-wits survived a thousand years: Now length of fame (our second life) is lost, And bare threescore is all ev'n that can boast: Our sons their fathers' failing language see, And such as Chaucer is shall Dryden be."

_with theirs should sail_, "attendant sail." "Essay on Man," IV, 383-6.

P. 126. _There died_. "Eloisa to Abelard," 40.

P. 127. _If ever chance_. Ibid., 347.

_Bolingbroke_. Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751). "The Essay plainly appears the fabric of a poet: what Bolingbroke supplied could be only the first principles; the order, illustration, and embellishments must be all Pope's." Pope's Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, II, 264.

P. 128. _he spins_, "draweth out." "Love's Labour's Lost," v, 1, 18.

_the very words_. Cf. "Macbeth," i, 3, 88: "the selfsame tune and words."

_Now night descending_. "Dunciad," I, 89.

_Virtue may choose_. "Epilogue to the Satires," Dialogue I, 137.

P. 129. _character of Chartres_. "Moral Essays, Epistle III."

_his compliments_. See p. 322.

_Where Murray_. "Imitations of Horace, Epistle VI," 52. William Murray (1705-1793), Chief Justice of England, created Lord Mansfield in 1776.

_Why rail_. "Epilogue to Satires," Dialogue II, 138.

_Despise low joys_. "Epistle to Mr. Murray," 60.

P. 130. _character of Addison_. "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot," 193-214.

_Buckingham_. George Villiers, second duke of Buckingham (1628-1687), statesman, wit, and poet.

_Alas! how changed_. "Moral Essays," III, 305.

_Arbuthnot_, John (1667-1735), physician and man of letters, whom Thackeray introduced in attendance at the death-bed of Francis Esmond. "He had a very notable share in the immortal History of John Bull, and the inimitable and praiseworthy Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus.... Arbuthnot's style is distinguished from that of his contemporaries, even by a greater degree of terseness and conciseness. He leaves out every superfluous word; is sparing of connecting particles, and introductory phrases; uses always the simplest forms of construction; and is more a master of the idiomatic peculiarities and internal resources of the language than almost any other writer." "English Poets," Lecture VI.

_Charles Jervas_ (1675-1739) gave Pope lessons in painting. He is also known as a translator of "Don Quixote."

_Why did I write_. "Epistle to Arbuthnot," 125.

P. 131. _Oh, lasting as those colours_. "Epistle to Mr. Jervas," 63.

_who have eyes_. Psalms, cxv, 5; cxxxv, 16, etc.

_It will never do._ Hazlitt was fond of mimicking this phrase with which Jeffrey so unfortunately opened his well-known review of Wordsworth's "Excursion."

_I lisp'd in numbers._ "Epistle to Arbuthnot," 128.

_Et quum conabar scribere_. Cf. Ovid's "Tristia," IV, x, 26: "Et, quod tentabam dicere, versus erat."

PERIODICAL ESSAYISTS

The fifth lecture on the "Comic Writers."

P. 133. _the proper study_. Pope's "Essay on Man," II, 2.

_comes home_. Bacon's dedication of the Essays.

_Quicquid agunt homines_. "Whatever things men do form the mixed substance of our book." Juvenal's "Satires," I, 85. With occasional exceptions, this appears as the motto of the first 78 number of the Tatler.

_holds the mirror_. "Hamlet," iii, 2, 24.

_the act and practic_. Cf. "Henry V," i, 1, 51: "So that the art and practic part of life Must be the mistress to this theoric."

P. 134. _the web of our life_. "All's Well That Ends Well," iv, 3, 83.

_Quid sit pulchrum_. "It tells us what is fair, what foul, what is useful, what not, more amply and better than Chrysippus and Crantor." Horace's "Epistles," I, ii, 3-4.

_Montaigne_, Michel (1533-1592). "Essays," Books I and II, 1580; 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,' Book III), 'Went sounding on a dim and perilous way,' but it seems clear that Hazlitt thought he was quoting Chaucer." Waller-Glover, IV, 412.

P. 208. _his own nothings_. "Coriolanus," ii, 2, 81.

_letting contemplation_. Cf. Dyer's "Grongar Hill," 26: "till contemplation have its fill."

_Sailing with supreme dominion_. Gray's "Progress of Poesy."

_He lisped_. Pope's "Prologue to the Satires," 128.

_Ode on Chatterton_. "Monody on the Death of Chatterton," written by Coleridge in 1790, at the age of eighteen.

P. 209. _gained several prizes_. "At Cambridge Coleridge won the Browne Gold Medal for a Greek Ode in 1792." Waller-Glover.

_At Christ's Hospital_, a London school which Leigh Hunt and Lamb attended about the same time as Coleridge. The former has left a record of its life in his "Autobiography," and Lamb has written of it, with special reference to Coleridge, in his "Recollections of Christ's Hospital" and "Christ's Hospital Five-and-Thirty Years Ago."

_Struggling in vain_. "Excursion," VI, 557.

P. 210. _Hartley_, David (1705-1757), author of "Observations on Man" (1749), and identified chiefly with the theory of association. Cf. Coleridge's "Religious Musings," 368: "and he of mortal kind Wisest, he first who marked the ideal tribes Up the fine fibres through the sentient brain."

_Dr. Priestley_, Joseph (1733-1804), scientist and philosopher of the materialistic school, author of "The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity Illustrated" (1777). "See! Priestley there, patriot, and saint, and sage." "Religious Musings," 371.

_Bishop Berkeley's fairy-world_. George Berkeley (1685-1753), idealistic philosopher. Cf. p. 287.

_Malebranche_, Nicholas (1638-1715), author of "De la Recherche de la Vérité" (1674).

_Cudworth_, Ralph (1617-1688), author of "The True Intellectual System of the Universe" (1678).

_Lord Brook's hieroglyphical theories_. Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke (1554-1628), friend and biographer of Sir Philip Sidney.

_Bishop Butler's Sermons_. Joseph Butler (1692-1752), author of "Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel" (1726), and "The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature" (1736).

_Duchess of Newcastle_. Margaret Cavendish (1624?-1674), published about a dozen folio volumes of philosophical fancies, poems, and plays. In "Mackery End in Hertfordshire" Lamb refers to her as "the thrice noble, chaste, and virtuous, but again somewhat fantastical and original-brained, generous Margaret Newcastle."

_Clarke_, Samuel (1675-1729), English theologian of latitudinarian principles.

_South_, Robert (1634-1716), controversial writer and preacher.

_Tillotson_, John (1630-1694), a popular theological writer of rationalistic tendency.

_Leibnitz's Pre-established Harmony_. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646-1716), a German philosopher, represented the world as consisting of an infinite number of independent substances or monads related to each other in such a way (by the pre-established harmony) as to form one universe. Cf. Coleridge's "Destiny of Nations," 38 ff.:

"Others boldlier think That as one body seems the aggregate Of atoms numberless, each organized; So by a strange and dim similitude Infinite myriads of self-conscious minds Are an all-conscious spirit, which informs With absolute ubiquity of thought (His own eternal self-affirming act!) All his involved Monads, that yet seem With various province and apt agency Each to pursue its own self-centering end."

P. 210, n. _And so by many_. "Two Gentlemen of Verona," ii, 7, 30.

P. 211. _hortus siccus_ [dry garden] _of Dissent_. Burke's "Reflections on the French Revolution," Works, ed. Bohn, II, 287.

_John Huss_ (1373?-1415), Bohemian reformer and martyr.

_Jerome of Prague_, a follower of Huss who was burnt for heresy in 1416.

_Socinus_. Fausto Paulo Sozzini (1539-1604), an Italian theologian who sought to simplify the doctrine of the Trinity.

_John Zisca_ (1370?-1424), a leader of the extreme Hussite party.

_Neal's History_. Daniel Neal (1648-1743) published his "History of the Puritans" 1732-38.

_Calamy_, Edmund (1671-1732) published an "Account of the Ministers, Lecturers, Masters and Fellows of Colleges, and Schoolmasters who were Ejected or Silenced after the Restoration of 1660" (1702 and 1713).

_Spinoza_, Baruch (1632-1677), a Dutch philosopher of Jewish parentage, the chief representative of Pantheism, "the doctrine of one infinite substance, of which all finite existences are modes or limitations."

_When he saw_. Cf. Coleridge's "Remorse," iv, 2, 100:

"When we saw nought but beauty; when we heard The voice of that Almighty One who loved us In every gale that breathed, and wave that murmur'd!"

_Proclus_ (410-485) and _Plotinus_ (204-270), philosophers of the Neo-Platonic school. In "Biographia Literaria" (chap. 9) Coleridge refers to his "early study of Plato and of Plotinus, with the commentaries and the 'Theologia Platonica' of the illustrious Florentine; of Proclus, and Gemistius Pletho."

_Duns Scotus_ (1265 or 1275-1308) and _Thomas Aquinas_ (1227-1274), two great theologians of the Catholic Church.

_Jacob Behmen_ or Böhme (1575-1624), a German religious mystic who exerted considerable influence on English religious thought in the eighteenth century. In the "Biographia Literaria" (chap. 9) Coleridge writes: "A meek and shy quietist, his intellectual powers were never stimulated into feverous energy by crowds of proselytes, or by the ambition of proselyting. Jacob Behmen was an enthusiast in the strictest sense, as not merely distinguished, but as contradistinguished from a fanatic.... The writings of these Mystics acted in no slight degree to prevent my mind from being imprisoned within the outline of any single dogmatic system."

_Swedenborg_, Emanuel (1688-1772), the Swedish scientist and mystic from whom have sprung some of the modern theosophical cults.

_Religious Musings_, published in his "Poems on Various Subjects" (1796).

_the glad prose of Jeremy Taylor_. Cf. "Literature of the Age of Elizabeth," Lecture VII: "In his writings, the frail stalk of human life reclines on the bosom of eternity. His Holy Living and Dying is a divine pastoral. He writes to the faithful followers of Christ, as the shepherd pipes to his flock. He introduces touching and heartfelt appeals to familiar life; condescends to men of low estate; and his pious page blushes with modesty and beauty. His style is prismatic. It unfolds the colours of the rainbow; it floats like the bubble through the air; it is like innumerable dew-drops that glitter on the face of morning, and tremble as they glitter. He does not dig his way underground, but slides upon ice, borne on the winged car of fancy. The dancing light he throws upon objects is like an Aurora Borealis, playing betwixt heaven and earth.... In a word, his writings are more like fine poetry than any other prose whatever; they are a choral song in praise of virtue, and a hymn to the Spirit of the Universe."

_Bowles_, William Lisle (1762-1850), published "Fourteen Sonnets" in 1789, and a second edition containing twenty-one in the same year. In the first chapter of the "Biographia Literaria," Coleridge credits the sonnets of Bowles with saving him from a premature absorption in metaphysics and theology and with introducing him to the excellences of the new school of poetry. In his enthusiasm he went about making proselytes for Bowles and "as my school finances did not permit me to purchase copies, I made, within less than a year and a half, more than forty transcriptions, as the best presents I could offer to those, who had in any way won my regard. And with almost equal delight did I receive the three or four following publications of the same author." Coleridge also addressed a "Sonnet to Bowles," opening

"My heart hath thanked thee, Bowles! for those soft strains, That on the still air floating tremblingly, Wak'd in me Fancy, Love, and Sympathy!"

P. 212. _John Bull_. Croker's John Bull was a scurrilous newspaper edited by Theodore Hook, the first number of which appeared December 17, 1820.

_Mr. Croker_, John Wilson (1780-1857), politician and man of letters, one of Hazlitt's pet aversions, and the same who comes in for such a severe chastisement in Macaulay's review of his edition of Boswell's "Johnson."

_Junius_, the mysterious author of a famous series of political letters which appeared in the London Public Advertiser from January 21, 1769, to January 21, 1772, collected as the "Letters of Junius" in 1772. The name of Sir Philip Francis is the one most persistently associated with the composition of these letters.

_Godwin_, William (1756-1836), leader of the philosophical radicals in England and a believer in the perfectibility of man, wrote "An Enquiry concerning Political Justice" (1793), "Caleb Williams" (1794), and other novels and miscellaneous works. Godwin was the husband of Mary Wolstonecraft, and the father-in-law of Shelley. Hazlitt wrote a sketch of him in the "Spirit of the Age" and reviewed his last novel, "Cloudesley," in the Edinburgh Review. Coleridge has a Sonnet to William Godwin:

"Nor will I not thy holy guidance bless, And hymn thee, Godwin! with an ardent lay; For that thy voice, in Passion's stormy day When wild I roam'd the bleak Heath of Distress, Bade the bright form of Justice meet my way-- And told me that her name was Happiness."

_Sorrows of Werter_, a sentimental novel of Goethe's, the work by which he was most generally known to English readers in Hazlitt's day.

_laugh'd with Rabelais_. Cf. Pope's "Dunciad," I, 22: "Or laugh and shake in Rab'lais easy chair."

_spoke with rapture of Raphael_. Coleridge had visited Italy in 1806 on his return from a stay in Malta, and had devoted his time there to a study of Italian art. See p. 298 n.

_Giotto_ (d. 1337), _Ghirlandaio_, whose real name was Domenico Bigardi (1449-1494), and _Massaccio_ (1402-1429) were early Florentine painters.

_wandered into Germany_. Coleridge's visit to Germany and his introduction to the leading German philosophers dates back to 1798-99.

_Kantean philosophy_. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was the leader of modern philosophy. "The writings of the illustrious sage of Königsberg, the founder of the Critical Philosophy, more than any other work, at once invigorated and disciplined my understanding. The originality, the depth, and the compression of the thoughts; the novelty and subtlety, yet solidity and importance of the distinctions; the adamantine chain of the logic; and I will venture to add--(paradox as it will appear to those who have taken their notion of Immanuel Kant from Reviewers and Frenchmen)--the clearness and evidence, of the Critique of Pure Reason; and Critique of the Judgment; of the Metaphysical Elements of Natural Philosophy; and of his Religion within the bounds of Pure Reason, took possession of me as with a giant's hand. After fifteen years' familiarity with them, I still read these and all his other productions with undiminished delight and increasing admiration." "Biographia Literaria," chap. IX.

_Fichte_, J. Gottlieb (1762-1814). "Fichte's _Wissenschaftslehre_, or Lore of Ultimate Science, was to add the key-stone of the arch" of Kant's system. Ibid.

_Schelling_, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph (1775-1829). "In Schelling's _Natur-Philosophie_, and the _System des Transcendentalen Idealismus_, I first found a genial coincidence with much that I had toiled out for myself, and a powerful assistance in what I had yet to do.... Many of the most striking resemblances, indeed all the main and fundamental ideas, were born and matured in my mind before I had ever seen a single page of the German Philosopher; and I might indeed affirm with truth, before the most important works of Schelling had been written, or at least made public. Nor is this coincidence at all to be wondered at. We had studied in the same school; been disciplined by the same preparatory philosophy, namely, the writings of Kant; we had both equal obligations to the polar logic and dynamic philosophy of Giordano Bruno; and Schelling has lately, and, as of recent acquisition, avowed that same affectionate reverence for the labors of Behmen, and other mystics, which I had formed at a much earlier period." Ibid.

_Lessing_, Gotthold Ephraim (1729-1781), German dramatist and critic.

_sang for joy_. Coleridge had in 1789 composed some stanzas "On the Destruction of the Bastille," but these were not published till 1834.

_would have floated his bark_. Coleridge and Southey with some other friends had in 1794 formed a plan for an ideal colony, the Pantisocracy, on the banks of the Susquehanna.

_In Philharmonia's_. Cf. Coleridge's "Monody on the Death of Chatterton," 140: "O'er peaceful Freedom's undivided dale."

P. 213. _Frailty_. Cf. "Hamlet," i, 2, 146: "thy name is woman."

_writing paragraphs_. Coleridge was connected with the staff of the Courier as a sort of assistant-editor for five months in 1811. His contributions during this period appeared as the "Essays on His Own Times" in 1850.

_poet-laureate_ and _stamp-distributor_ are references respectively to Southey and Wordsworth.

_bourne from whence_. "Hamlet," iii, 1, 79.

_tantalized by useless resources_. Compare this with Coleridge's own lines of bitter self-reproach addressed "To a Gentleman":

"Sense of past youth, and manhood come in vain, And genius given, and knowledge won in vain."

P. 214. _one splendid passage_. The lines beginning "Alas! they had been friends in youth" (408-426). The same passage had been singled out for praise by Hazlitt in his lecture "On the Living Poets" and in the review of "Christabel" which had appeared in the Examiner of June 2, 1816. The authorship of this review has been disputed but should on internal evidence, despite its failure in appreciation, be ascribed to Hazlitt. See Works, XI, 580-582.

_Translation of Schiller's Wallenstein_, made by Coleridge in 1799-1800.

_Remorse_. This tragedy was played at the Drury Lane Theatre with considerable popular success in 1813. It was a recast of an early play entitled "Osorio," composed in 1797.

P. 215. _The Friend_; a literary, moral, and political weekly paper, excluding personal and party politics and the events of the day (1809-1810), was reissued in one volume in 1812, and with additions and alterations (rather a rifacimento than a new edition) in 1818.

The sketch in the Spirit of the Age concludes with a contrast between Coleridge and William Godwin.

MR. SOUTHEY

This selection forms the conclusion of a sketch of Southey in the "Spirit of the Age." It illustrates, even more strikingly than the "Character of Burke," Hazlitt's power of dissociating his judgments from his prejudices, inasmuch as there had been exchanges of rancorous personalities between the two men.

P. 216. _Like the high leaves_. Southey's "The Holly Tree."

_of any poet_. In an essay in the "Plain Speaker" "On the Prose Style of Poets," Hazlitt elaborates his theory that poets turned out inferior prose. "I have but an indifferent opinion of the prose-style of poets: not that it is not sometimes good, nay, excellent; but it is never the better, and generally the worse from the habit of writing verse."

_full of wise saws_. "As You Like It," ii, 7, 156.

P. 217. _historian and prose-translator_. Southey wrote the "History of Brazil," the "History of the Peninsular War," the "Book of the Church," and lives of Wesley, Cowper, and Nelson. He translated from the Spanish the romances of "Amadis of Gaul," "Palmerin of England," and "The Cid."

P. 219. _Pindaric or Shandean_, i.e., whimsical. Pindaric should of course be understood as a reference to Peter Pindar, the name under which John Wolcot (1738-1819) wrote his coarse and whimsical satires. Hazlitt mentions him at the end of his lectures "On the Comic Writers": "The bard in whom the nation and the king delighted, is old and blind, but still merry and wise:--remembering how he has made the world laugh in his time, and not repenting of the mirth he has given; with an involuntary smile lighted up at the mad pranks of his Muse, and the lucky hits of his pen." Shandean is derived from Sterne's novel, "Tristram Shandy."

_And follows so_. "Henry V," iv, 1, 293.

_his political inconsistency_. This is the subject of Hazlitt's attacks on Southey. See "Political Essays" (Works, III, 109-120, 192-232).

ELIA

The last essay in the "Spirit of the Age" is entitled "Elia and Geoffrey Crayon." An edition published at Paris by Galignani in 1825 omits the account of Washington Irving, and this text, as it is in all respects unexceptionable, has been here adopted for the sake of coherence. In a letter to Bernard Barton, February 10, 1825, Lamb refers to Hazlitt's sketch: "He has laid too many colours on my likeness, but I have had so much injustice done me in my own name, that I make a rule of accepting as much over-measure to 'Elia' as Gentlemen think proper to bestow."

P. 221. _shuffle off_. "Hamlet," iii, 1, 67.

_The self-applauding bird_. Cowper's "Truth," 58.

P. 222. _New-born gauds_ and _give to dust_. "Troilus and Cressida," iii, 3, 176-79.

_do not in broad rumor lie_, and the two following quotations are free renderings of "Lycidas," 78-82.

_Mr. Lamb rather affects_. Hazlitt had Lamb in his eye when he described the Occult School in the essay "On Criticism" ("Table Talk"): "There is another race of critics who might be designated as the _Occult School--verè adepti_. They discern no beauties but what are concealed from superficial eyes, and overlook all that are obvious to the vulgar part of mankind. Their art is the transmutation of styles. By happy alchemy of mind they convert dross into gold--and gold into tinsel. They see farther into a millstone than most others. If an author is utterly unreadable, they can read him for ever: his intricacies are their delight, his mysteries are their study. They prefer Sir Thomas Brown to the Rambler by Dr. Johnson, and Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy to all the writers of the Georgian Age. They judge of works of genius as misers do of hid treasure--it is of no value unless they have it all to themselves. They will no more share a book than a mistress with a friend. If they suspected their favourite volumes of delighting any eyes but their own, they would immediately discard them from the list. Theirs are superannuated beauties that every one else has left off intriguing with, bed-ridden hags, a 'stud of night-mares.' This is not envy or affectation, but a natural proneness to singularity, a love of what is odd and out of the way. They must come at their pleasures with difficulty, and support admiration by an uneasy sense of ridicule and opposition. They despise those qualities in a work which are cheap and obvious. They like a monopoly of taste, and are shocked at the prostitution of intellect implied in popular productions. In like manner, they would chuse a friend or recommend a mistress for gross defects; and tolerate the sweetness of an actress's voice only for the ugliness of her face. Pure pleasures are in their judgment cloying and insipid--

'An ounce of sour is worth a pound of sweet!'

Nothing goes down with them but what is _caviare_ to the multitude. They are eaters of olives and readers of black-letter. Yet they smack of genius, and would be worth any money, were it only for the rarity of the thing!"

P. 223. _fine fretwork_. "Essays of Elia," "The South-Sea House."

_the chimes at midnight_. 2 "Henry IV," iii, 2, 228.

P. 224. _cheese and pippins_. Ibid., v, 3.

_inns and courts of law_. "The Old Benchers of the Inner Temple," in "Essays of Elia."

_a certain writer_. Hazlitt himself. It is known to everybody that the friendship of Lamb for Hazlitt suffered certain strains, and various attempts have been made to guess at the provocations. Mutual recriminations in regard to literary borrowings have been thought to be responsible for more than one breach. So Mr. Bertram Dobell, in his "Sidelights on Lamb," 212-14, imagines that the mystery is solved in a letter of Hazlitt's to the editor of the London Magazine (April 12, 1820) charging Lamb with appropriating his ideas: "Do you keep the Past and Future? You see Lamb argues the same view of the subject. That 'young master' will anticipate all my discoveries if I don't mind." The similarity of idea between Hazlitt's "Past and Future" and Lamb's "New Year's Eve," and the appearance in Lamb's essay of the phrase "young masters" makes it clear enough what Hazlitt is referring to, but that either man should have taken the matter very seriously is hard to believe. It is easier to look upon Hazlitt's expression as banter of the same kind that Lamb allowed himself in connection with the essay on "Guy Faux" alluded to in the present sketch. This subject had been proposed by Lamb, as we are informed in "Of Persons One Would Wish to Have Seen," and had been written up by Hazlitt in the Examiner in 1821 (Works, XI, 317-334). Two years later Lamb contributed a paper on the same subject to the London Magazine, founded partly on an essay in the Reflector (1811), entitled "On the Probable Effects of the Gunpowder Treason." The essay in the London Magazine (Lamb's Works, ed. Lucas, I, 236 ff.) opens with a facetious thrust at Hazlitt: "A very ingenious and subtle writer, whom there is good reason for suspecting to be an ex-Jesuit, not unknown at Douay some five-and-twenty years since (he will not obtrude himself at M--th again in a hurry), about a twelvemonth back, set himself to prove the character of the Powder Plot conspirators to have been that of heroic self-devotedness and true Christian martyrdom. Under the mask of Protestant candour, he actually gained admission for his treatise into a London weekly paper, not particularly distinguished for its zeal towards either religion. But, admitting Catholic principles, his arguments are shrewd and incontrovertible. [Then follows a quotation from Hazlitt setting forth the Catholic standpoint.] It is impossible, upon Catholic principles, not to admit the force of this reasoning; we can only not help smiling (with the writer) at the simplicity of the gulled editor, swallowing the dregs of Loyola for the very quintessence of sublimated reason in England at the commencement of the nineteenth century. We will just, as a contrast, show what we Protestants (who are a party concerned) thought upon the same subject, at a period rather nearer to the heroic project in question." This is the kind of resentment we would expect Lamb to show at the appropriation of his ideas. That there were not wanting grounds for real grievance against Hazlitt may be gathered from a letter to Wordsworth, September 23, 1816 (Lamb's Works, ed. Lucas, VI, 491): "There was a cut at me a few months back by the same hand.... It was a pretty compendium of observation, which the author has collected in my disparagement, from some hundred of social evenings which we had spent together,--however in spite of all, there is something tough in my attachment to H---- which these violent strainings cannot quite dislocate or sever asunder. I get no conversation in London that is absolutely worth attending to but his." To one of his quarrels with Lamb Hazlitt owes the finest compliment he ever received, and happily it marks the termination of all differences between them. It occurs in the well-known "Letter of Elia to Robert Southey" which Lamb published in the London Magazine when Southey reproached him with his friendship for Hazlitt (Works, I, 233): "I stood well with him for fifteen years (the proudest of my life), and have ever spoke my full mind of him to some, to whom his panegyric must naturally be least tasteful. I never in thought swerved from him, I never betrayed him, I never slackened in my admiration for him, I was the same to him (neither better nor worse) though he could not see it, as in the days when he thought fit to trust me. At this instant, he may be preparing for me some compliment, above my deserts, as he has sprinkled many such among his admirable books, for which I rest his debtor; or, for any thing I know, or can guess to the contrary, he may be about to read a lecture on my weaknesses. He is welcome to them (as he was to my humble hearth), if they can divert a spleen, or ventilate a fit of sullenness. I wish he would not quarrel with the world at the rate he does; but the reconciliation must be effected by himself, and I despair of living to see that day. But, protesting against much that he has written, and some things he chooses to do; judging him by his conversation which I enjoyed so long, and relished so deeply; or by his books, in those places where no clouding passion intervenes--I should belie my own conscience, if I said less, than that I think W. H. to be, in his natural and healthy state, one of the wisest and finest spirits breathing. So far from being ashamed of that intimacy, which was betwixt us, it is my boast that I was able for so many years to have preserved it entire; and I think I shall go to my grave without finding, or expecting to find, such another companion."

_Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy_ was published in 1621. Its quaint prose was often imitated by Lamb and had a direct effect on his style.

_Sir Thomas Browne_ (1605-1682), physician and essayist, author of "Religio Medici" (1642), "Pseudodoxia Epidemica" (1646), and "Hydriotaphia or Urn Burial" (1658).

_Fuller's Worthies_. The "History of the Worthies of England" (1662) is the best known work of Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), an English divine and writer on church history.

_does not make him despise Pope_. See p. 322.

_Parnell_, Thomas (1679-1717). In the sixth lecture on the "English Poets" Hazlitt says: "Parnell, though a good-natured, easy man, and a friend to poets and the Muses, was himself little more than an occasional versifier."

_Gay_, John (1685-1732), is best known by his "Beggar's Opera" (1728) and "Fables" (1727 and 1738). Hazlitt writes of Gay in the sixth lecture on the "English Poets" and has a paper on "The Beggar's Opera" in the "Round Table."

_His taste in French and German_. Cf. "On Old English Writers and Speakers" in the "Plain Speaker": "Mr. Lamb has lately taken it into his head to read St. Evremont, and works of that stamp. I neither praise nor blame him for it. He observed, that St. Evremont was a writer half-way between Montaigne and Voltaire, with a spice of the wit of the one and the sense of the other. I said I was always of the opinion that there had been a great many clever people in the world, both in France and England, but I had been sometimes rebuked for it. Lamb took this as a slight reproach; for he had been a little exclusive and national in his tastes."

P. 225. _His admiration of Hogarth_. See note to p. 158.

_Leonardo da Vinci_ (1452-1519). Italian painter, sculptor, architect.

_fine Titian head_. Hazlitt painted a portrait of Lamb in the costume of a Venetian senator. This portrait now hangs in the National Gallery.

P. 226. _to have coined_. Cf. "Julius Cæsar," iv, 3, 72: "I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas."

_Mr. Waithman_, Robert (1764-1833), was Lord Mayor in 1823.

_Rosamond Gray_, a tale, was published in 1798 and "John Woodvill," a tragedy, in 1802. The lines in the footnote are from the second act of "John Woodvill."

SIR WALTER SCOTT

This selection forms the latter half of the sketch of Scott in the "Spirit of the Age." The following dialogue between Northcote and Hazlitt, "Conversations of Northcote," XVI, represents Hazlitt's feelings for Scott: "N. 'You don't know him, do you? He'd be a pattern to you. Oh! he has a very fine manner. You would learn to rub off some of your asperities. But you admire him, I believe.' H. 'Yes; on this side of idolatry and Toryism.' N. 'That is your prejudice.' H. 'Nay, it rather shows my liberality, if I am a devoted enthusiast notwithstanding. There are two things I admire in Sir Walter, his capacity and his simplicity; which indeed I am apt to think are much the same.'"

P. 227. _more lively_. Cf. "Coriolanus," iv, 5, 237; "it's spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent."

_their habits_. "Hamlet," iii, 4, 135.

P. 228. _Baron of Bradwardine_ and the others mentioned in this sentence appear in "Waverley."

_Paul Veronese_ (1528-1588), a painter of the Venetian school.

_Balfour of Burley_ and the others in this sentence appear in "Old Mortality." The quotation is from chapter 38.

_Meg Merilees_ to _Dominie Sampson_, in "Guy Mannering."

P. 229. _her head to the east_. Cf. "Guy Mannering," chap. 15; "Na, na! not that way, the feet to the east."

_Rob Roy_ to _Die Vernon_, in "Rob Roy."

_thick coming_. Cf. "Macbeth," v, 3, 38: "thick-coming fancies."

_Earl of Glenallan_, in "The Antiquary."

_Black Dwarf_ to _Grace Armstrong_, in the "Black Dwarf."

_Children of the Mist_, in "Legend of Montrose."

_Amy_ (Robsart) and _Varney_, in "Kenilworth."

_George of Douglas_, in "The Abbot."

P. 229, n. _the finest scene_. "Guy Mannering," chap. 51.

P. 231. _a consummation_. "Hamlet," iii, 1, 63.

_by referring to the authentic history_. At this point Hazlitt reproduces in a footnote one of Scott's historical quotations in "Ivanhoe."

_flints and dungs_. See "Ivanhoe," chap. 43.

P. 232. _calls backing_. 1 "Henry IV," ii, 4, 165.

_Mr. MacAdam_, John Loudon (1756-1836).

_Sixty years since_. The sub-title of "Waverley" was "'Tis Sixty Years Since."

_Wickliff_, John (c. 1320-1384), an important English forerunner of the Protestant Reformation, the first translator of the Bible into English.

_Luther_, Martin (1483-1546), led the first successful revolt against the authority of the Catholic Church.

_Hampden_, John (c. 1595-1643), an English patriot who by his refusal to pay ship-money precipitated the rebellion against Charles I which ended in the beheading of that monarch.

_Sidney_, Algernon (1622-1683), an English patriot who fought on the side of Parliament against Charles I, and who, in the reign of Charles II, was tried for treason by Jeffreys, the hanging judge, and condemned to execution without proof. Sidney is the author of "Discourses Concerning Government" in which he vindicates the right of resistance to the misrule of kings.

_Somers_, John (1651-1716), took an important part in bringing about the bloodless Revolution which drove James II from England in 1688.

P. 233. _Red Reiver_, in "The Black Dwarf."

_Claverhouse_, in "Old Mortality."

_Tristan the Hermit_ and _Petit André_, in "Quentin Durward."

_but himself_. Though Scott composed many of his own mottoes, he never quoted his own previous verse but pretended to be using an Old Play or an Old Poem.

P. 234. _born for the universe_. Goldsmith's "Retaliation," 31.

_winked and shut_. Marston's "Antonio's Revenge," Prologue.

P. 235. _Who would not grieve_. Cf. Pope's "Prologue to the Satires," 213:

"Who but must laugh, if such a man there be? Who would not weep if Atticus were he?"

LORD BYRON

From the "Spirit of the Age." Discussions of Byron's poetry are also to be found in the review of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (Works, XI, 420-426) and in "Pope, Lord Byron and Mr. Bowles" (XI, 486-508).

P. 236. _As if a man_. "Coriolanus," v, 3, 36.

_cloud-capt_. "Tempest," iv, I, 152.

P. 237. _prouder than_. Cf. Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida," i, 3, 380: "His crest that prouder than blue Iris bends."

_silly sooth_. "Twelfth Night," ii, 4, 47.

P. 239. _denotes a foregone conclusion_. "Othello." iii, 3, 428.

P. 240. _in cell monastic_. Cf. "As You Like It," iii, 2, 441: "To live in a nook merely monastic."

P. 241. _thoughts that breathe_. Gray's "Progress of Poesy," 110.

P. 242. _Lord Byron does not exhibit a new view of nature._ In the paper on "Pope, Lord Byron and Mr. Bowles," Hazlitt's tone is more generous: "His Lordship likes the poetry, the imaginative part of art, and so do we.... He likes the _sombre_ part of it, the thoughtful, the decayed, the ideal, the spectral shadow of human greatness, the departed spirit of human power. He sympathizes not with art as a display of ingenuity, as the triumph of vanity or luxury, as it is connected with the idiot, superficial, petty self-complacency of the individual and the moment (these are to him not 'luscious as locusts, but bitter as coloquintida'); but he sympathizes with the triumphs of Time and Fate over the proudest works of man--with the crumbling monuments of human glory--with the dim vestiges and countless generations of men--with that which claims alliance with the grave, or kindred with the elements of nature." Works, XI, 496.

_poor men's cottages_. "Merchant of Venice," i, 2, 14.

_reasons high_. "Paradise Lost," II, 558.

P. 243. _Till Contemplation_. Dyer's "Grongar Hill," 26.

_this bank_. "Macbeth," i, 7, 6.

P. 244. _The Liberal_: Verse and Prose from the South, a quarterly published in Italy by Leigh Hunt and Byron, 1822-23, to which Hazlitt also contributed. In the second of its four numbers appeared Byron's "Heaven and Earth: A Mystery."

_the deluge_, in "Heaven and Earth."

_his aversion_. See "Don Juan," III, stanza 94:

"A drowsy frowzy poem, called the Excursion, Writ in a manner which is my aversion."

_born in a garret_. In the "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," Byron, speaking of Jeffrey, refers to "the sixteenth story, where himself was born."

_Letter to the Editor_. The Letter to William Roberts, editor of the British Review, appeared in the first number of the Liberal.

_Long's_, a restaurant in Bond Street.

P. 245. _the controversy about Pope_. See note to p. 118.

_Scrub_, in Farquhar's "Beaux' Stratagem."

_very tolerable_. "Much Ado About Nothing," iii, 3, 37.

P. 246. _a chartered libertine_. "Henry V," i, 1, 48.

P. 247. _Like proud seas_. "Two Noble Kinsmen," ii, 2, 23.

_Did the latter ever acknowledge the obligation?_ Scott wrote to Byron's publisher, John Murray, December 17, 1821: "I accept with feelings of great obligation, the flattering proposal of Lord Byron to prefix my name to the very grand and tremendous drama of 'Cain.' I may be partial to it, and you will allow I have cause; but I do not think that his Muse has ever taken so lofty a flight amid her former soarings."

_Farthest from them_. "Paradise Lost," I, 247.

P. 248. _the first Vision of Judgment_, the one composed by Southey on the occasion of the death of George III, celebrating that monarch's entry into heaven and provoking a spirited travesty from Byron.

_None but itself_. This line is quoted by Burke in the "Letters on a Regicide Peace," from a play written or adapted by Lewis Theobald, "The Double Falsehood" (1727). Waller-Glover.

_the tenth transmitter_. Richard Savage's "The Bastard."

P. 250. _Nothing can cover_. Beaumont and Fletcher's "The False One," ii, 1.

ON POETRY IN GENERAL

This is the first of the "Lectures on the English Poets."

P. 251. _spreads its sweet leaves_. "Romeo and Juliet," i, 1, 158.

P. 252. _the stuff_. "Tempest," iv, 1, 156.

_mere oblivion_. "As You Like It," ii, 7, 166.

_man's life_. "King Lear," ii, 4, 270.

P. 253. _There is warrant_. "Richard III," i, 4, 112.

_such seething brains_. "Midsummer Night's Dream," v, 1, 4.

_Angelica and Medoro_. Characters in "Orlando Furioso."

P. 254. _which ecstacy is very cunning in_. "Hamlet," iii, 4, 138.

_Poetry, according to Lord Bacon_. Cf. Bacon's "Advancement of Learning,"