72. _the part of Bardolph_, and the two following quotations. ‘I King
Henry IV.’ II. 4, and III. 1.
75. _Dr. Last in his Chariot._ 1769. By Bickerstaffe.
76. _Weston._ Thomas Weston (1737–1776).
Note. _the Theatrical Recorder._ A monthly publication, conducted
by Holcroft for 2 vols. (1805–6).
Note. _Jerry Sneak._ In Foote’s ‘The Mayor of Garratt’ (1763).
_Abel Drugger._ In Ben Jonson’s ‘The Alchemist’ (1610).
_Scrub._ In ‘The Beaux’ Stratagem’ (1707), by George
Farquhar (1678–1707).
_Sharp._ In David Garrick’s ‘The Lying Valet’ (1741).
77. Note. _Bartholomew Fair._ A famous ground for shows and theatrical
exhibitions. The fair was held at West Smithfield from 1133 to
1855, and centred round the festival of St. Bartholomew, Aug.
24.
_Shuter._ Edward Shuter (?1728–1776).
_Mrs. Clive._ Catherine Clive (1711–1785).
_Kitty Pry._ In Garrick’s ‘The Lying Valet.’
_The reason has often been asked._ Cf. a similar passage in ‘The
Round Table,’
_On Actors and Acting_.
78. _Patie and Peggy._ In ‘The Gentle Shepherd’ (1725), by Allan
Ramsay (1686–1758).
_Mrs. Inchbald._ Elizabeth Inchbald (1753–1821), novelist,
dramatist and actress.
_the polygraphic art._ See p. 103.
79. _Bates’s company._ Joah Bates (1741–1799).
_Mr Shield._ William Shield, musical composer (1748–1829). He
wrote the music for ‘The Flitch of Bacon,’ the success of which
obtained for him the post of composer to Covent Garden Theatre;
and he composed many popular songs.
_Lowth’s Grammar._ ‘A Short Introduction to English Grammar’
(1762), by Robert Lowth (1710–1787).
_the character of Atticus._ Pope’s ‘Epis. to Arbuthnot.’
_Dance._ ? William Dance (1755–1840), one of the founders of the
Philharmonic Society.
_Miss Harrop._ Sarah Harrop (d. 1811). She married Joah Bates.
_the commemoration of Handel._ 1784.
_Bundle, in the Waterman._ 1774. By Charles Dibdin (1745–1814).
_Ritson ... the Treatise on Animal Food._ Joseph Ritson
(1752–1803), the antiquarian. ‘An Essay on Abstinence from
Animal Food as a Moral Duty’ (1802).
80. _the poet Cunningham._ John Cunningham (1729–1773), Irish poet and
strolling actor.
_Miss in her Teens._ 1747.
81. _Bensley._ Robert Bensley (?1738–?1817).
82. _there are in this very profession._ Cf. a similar passage in ‘The
Round Table,’
_On Actors and Acting_.
83. _I have oft be-dimm’d._ I have be-dimm’d, etc.—‘The Tempest,’ Act
v. 1.
_The Crisis._ May 1, 1778. Genest (‘Some Account of the English
Stage,’ vol. vi. p. 12) says it was acted for the benefit of the
Misses Hopkins. See p. 84.
_Kind Impostor._ ‘She Would and She Would Not, or the Kind
Impostor’ (1702), by Colley Cibber (1671–1757).
_Love in a Village._ 1762. By Bickerstaffe.
_Maid of the Mill._ 1765. By Bickerstaffe.
_School for Wives._ 1773. By Hugh Kelly (1739–1777).
_Faithless Lover._ The Fashionable Lover (1772). By Richard
Cumberland (1732–1811).
_Brothers._ 1769. By Cumberland.
_West Indian._ 1771. By Cumberland.
_Lionel and Clarissa._ 1768. By Bickerstaffe.
84. _Mr Greville._ Richard Fulke Greville, author of ‘Maxims,
Characters, and Reflections’ (1756), and grandfather of the
diarists, Charles and Henry Greville. See ‘The Early Diary of
Frances Burney’ (ed. Annie Raine Ellis, 2 vols., 1889), and
Boswell’s _Life_ (ed. G. B. Hill, iv. 304). Mrs. Greville
(Frances Macartney) was Fanny Burney’s godmother. She and her
daughter (Mrs., afterwards Lady, Crewe) were ‘the two greatest
beauties in England.’ ‘Early Diary,’ etc., 1. p. 23.
_the part of Mungo._ In ‘The Padlock’ (1768), by Bickerstaffe.
_Love for Love._ 1695. By Congreve.
_Mawworm._ In ‘The Hypocrite’ (1768), a comedy by Bickerstaffe,
based (through Cibber’s ‘Nonjuror’) on Molière’s ‘Tartuffe.’
85. _Who’s the Dupe?_ 1779. By Mrs. Hannah Cowley (1743–1809).
_The Flitch of Bacon._ 1778. Composed by Henry Bate, afterwards
the Rev. Sir Henry Bate Dudley (1745–1824), with music by
Shield. For Bate, see Boswell (ed. G. B. Hill), iv. 296.
_the Camp._ 1778. By Richard Tickell (1751–1793).
86. _the Shepherdess of the Alps._ Covent Garden, Jan. 18, 1780.
_Mr Arne._ Michael Arne (1741?–1786).
87. _Mr King._ Thomas King (1730–1805), actor and dramatist, was
three-fourths owner of Sadlers Wells Theatre, 1771–78.
_The Noble Peasant._ Aug. 2, 1784.
_Elegy on his Death._ ‘On the death of S. Foote, Esq.,’ and ‘On
Age’ (1777).
_Bath Easton Vase._ ‘Lady Miller’s collection of verses by
fashionable people, which were put into her Vase at Batheaston
Villa, near Bath, in competition for honorary prizes, being
mentioned, he held them very cheap: “_Boutsrimés_ (said he) is
a mere conceit, and an _old_ conceit _now_; I wonder how
people were persuaded to write in that manner for this
lady.”’—Boswell’s
_Life of Johnson_ (ed. G. B. Hill, ii. 336).
88. _White-Conduit House._ The tea-gardens formerly on the east side
of Penton Street, Pentonville, a resort of Goldsmith’s.
_Nan Catley._ Ann Catley (1745–1789).
89. _Duplicity._ Holcroft’s first comedy, Covent Garden, Oct. 13,
1781. See p. 100.
_P——._ James Perry (1756–1821) political writer and joint editor
and proprietor (with James Gray) of ‘The Morning Chronicle,’
‘the only constitutional paper,’ referred to on p. 94.
91. _Nicholson._ William Nicholson (1753–1815), writer on chemistry.
95. _Mrs. Whitelocke._ Mrs. Whitelocke (1761–1836) was a sister of
Mrs. Siddons. Her husband was part proprietor of the Newcastle
Theatre and of others in the North. She was an excellent
tragédienne, though her fame has been eclipsed by that of her
sister,
_his friend N——._ Nicholson.
98. _a pamphlet._ A Plain ... Narrative of the late Riots in London
... Westminster, and ... Southwark ... with an Account of the
Commitment of Lord G. Gordon to the Tower, etc.... By William
Vincent of Gray’s Inn (1780).
99. _Loughborough._ Alexander Wedderburn, 1st Baron Loughborough
(1733–1805), Lord Chancellor (1793–1801).
100. _Mr Harris._ Thomas Harris (d. 1820) was associated with Colman
and others in the proprietorship and management of Covent Garden
Theatre.
102. _King Arthur._ Probably Dryden’s (1691).
_Mr Linley._ Thomas Linley (1732–1795) was associated with
Sheridan in Drury Lane Theatre. He superintended the music.
Sheridan married his daughter Elizabeth Ann.
_Mr Wewitzer._ Ralph Wewitzer (1748–1825).
103. _Mr Colman._ George Colman (1732–1794) took over the Haymarket
from Foote in 1776.
104. _the Sceptic._ ‘Human Happiness, or the Sceptic,’ poem in six
cantos (1783).
_the Family Picture_, or Domestic Dialogues on Amiable Subjects
(1783), 2 vols.
_Prematur nonum in annum._
‘nonumque prematur in annum.’
Hor. De Arte Poet., 388.
Note. _Tales of the Castle_, or Stories of Instruction and
Delight, being Les Veillées du Chateau, written in French by
Madame la Comtesse de Genlis (1784). Translated into English
(1785). 5 vols. An eighth edition was published in 1806.
105. _Duchess of Devonshire._ The celebrated Georgiana (1757–1806), who
married in 1774 the 5th Duke of Devonshire.
106. _Mr John Rivington._ See Hazlitt’s note on p. 108. The publisher’s
(1720–1792) name was also John.
107. _Caroline of Litchfield._ Translated from the French of J. I. P.
de Bottens, Baroness de Montolieu.
_The Amours of Peter the Long._ ‘An Amourous Tale of the Chaste
Loves of Peter the Long and the History of the Lover’s Well.
Imitated from the original French’ (L. E. Billardson de
Sauvigny, 1786).
_Memoirs of De Tott._ ‘Memoirs of the Baron de Tott on the Turks
and Tartars. Translated from the French by an English Gentleman
at Paris, under the immediate inspection of the Baron’ (1785). 2
vols.
_Savary’s Travels in Egypt._ Nicholas Savary’s Letters on Egypt,
translated from the French (1786). 2 vols.
_An Account of the Manners and Treatment of Animals, by
D’Obsonville._ Philosophic Essays on the manners of various
foreign animals. By Foucher D’Obsonville (1784).
_the Robinsons._ George Robinson (1737–1801). His son and his
brother joined and succeeded him in his business as a
bookseller.
_Mercier._ Louis Sébastien Mercier (1740–1814), author of many
dramas. His ‘The Year 2500’ (2440 in French) was published in
1772. He was a supporter of the Revolution.
_Mr Bonneville._ Nicholas de Bonneville, a poet of the Revolution
(1760–1828) and a student of German literature. ‘Nouveau Théâtre
Allemand’ (12 vols.), 1782–5.
109. _The Connoisseurs._ Possibly a confusion for some other play of
Colman’s. ‘The Connoisseur’ was a journal of the ‘Spectator’
type, conducted by G. Colman and Bonnell Thornton, Jan. 31,
1754, to Sept. 30, 1756.
_Battle of Hexham._ 1789. By George Colman the younger
(1762–1836).
_The Mountaineers._ 1793. By Colman the younger.
_The Venetian Outlaw._ 1805. By Robert William Elliston
(1774–1831), comedian and dramatist.
Note. _The Man of Business._ 1774. By Colman the elder.
111. _Parsons._ Wm. Parsons (1736–1795).
_Edwin._ John Edwin the elder (1749–1790).
_The Choleric Fathers._ Nov. 10, 1785.
113. _The Follies of a Day._ Dec. 14, 1784. Published 1785.
_Mr Bonner._ Charles Bonnor (fl. 1777–1829?).
114. _M. Berquin._ Arnauld Berquin (1749–1791), a writer for children.
115. _Seduction._ March 12, Drury Lane.
_Les Liaisons Dangereux._ ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ (1782), a
novel, by P. A. F. Ch. de Laclos (1741–1803).
_the King of Prussia’s works._ Posthumous works of Frederic II.,
King of Prussia (translated from the French) (1789), 13 vols.
_Essays of Lavater._ ‘Essays on Physiognomy; for the Promotion of
the Knowledge and Love of Mankind’ (1793), 3 vols.
116. _the German Hotel._ Nov. 11, 1790.
_The School for Arrogance._ Feb. 4, 1791, Covent Garden. ‘As
Holcroft imagined that Harris was prejudiced against him,
Marshall at first avowed himself as the author of the
piece.’—Genest, vol. vii. p. 27. The play was founded on ‘Le
Glorieux’ (1732) of Destouches (1680–1754).
121. _The Road to Ruin._ Covent Garden, Feb. 18, 1792. See ‘Lectures on
the English Comic Writers,’ viii. Some ‘Remarks’ signed ‘William
Hazlitt’ are prefixed to French’s (late Lacy’s) Acting Edition
of the play; see ‘Memoirs of Hazlitt,’ vol. ii. p. 272, for the
probable source of these ‘Remarks.’ They will be found in the
Notes to the volume of the present edition containing the bulk
of Hazlitt’s dramatic criticism.
122. _Lewis._ Wm. Thomas Lewis (1748?–1811).
_Castle Rackrent._ 1800. By Maria Edgeworth (1767–1849).
129. _‘A faultless monster, which the world ne’er saw.’_ From the
_Essay on Poetry_ of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham
(1648–1721).
_quod sic mihi ostendis, incredulus odi._ Hor. de Arte Poet., 188.
130. _ugly all over with affectation._ Cf. ‘He is ugly all over with
the affectation of the fine gentleman.’ Quoted by Steele from
Wycherley, _The Tatler_, No. 38.
‘A reasoning, self-sufficient [self-sufficing] thing.’—Wordsworth.
‘A Poet’s Epitaph.’ Poems: Sentiment, etc., viii.
_in so questionable a shape._ ‘In such a questionable
shape.’—Hamlet, I. 4.
133. _Mr Locke’s Essay._ The Essay was published in 1690.
136. _the very head and front of his offending._ Othello, I. 3.
139. _Mr Holcroft’s own ‘Narrative of Facts.’_ ‘A Narrative of Facts
relating to a Prosecution for High Treason, including the
Address to the Jury which the Court refused to hear; with
Letters to the Attorney-General ... and Vicary Gibbs, Esq., and
the Defence the Author had prepared if he had been brought to
trial’ (1795).
141. _the proclamation._ ‘For preventing seditious meetings and
writings.’
142. _Mr Reeves’s Association._ John Reeves (1752–1829), founder of the
Association for Preserving liberty and property against
Levellers and Republicans. He himself was prosecuted by order of
the House of Commons for a supposed libellous passage in
‘Thoughts on the English Government’ (1795), but acquitted.
142. _The late John Hunter._ Anatomist and surgeon (1728–1793).
145. _Hickes’s Hall._ Hicks Hall, formerly in St. John Street,
Clerkenwell. It was built in 1612 by Sir Baptist Hicks as a
sessions house, and abandoned in 1779. The milestones on the
Great North Road were measured from here.
146. _Lord Chief Justice Eyre._ Sir James Eyre (1734–1799),
Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas.
_Attorney-General._ Sir John Scott, Attorney-General, afterwards
Lord Eldon, was Counsel for the prosecution.
147. _Erskine._ Thomas Erskine (1750–1823), advocate and Lord
Chancellor. He eloquently defended many prosecuted for political
offences in 1793–4.
_Gibbs._ Vicary Gibbs (1751–1820), afterwards Sir Vicary
Gibbs, otherwise ‘Vinegar Gibbs’ from his caustic manner,
Attorney-General (1807–1812), and Chief-Justice of the
Common Pleas (1814–1818). He was a shrewd and learned lawyer
and had been complimented by the Attorney-General on his
successful defence of Thomas Hardy and Horne Tooke.
_Mr Munden._ Joseph Shepherd Munden (1758–1832), comic actor. He
was a favourite actor for the part of Dornton in ‘The Road to
Ruin.’ See Lamb’s ‘Elia,’ ed. Ainger, p. 201, ‘On the Acting of
Munden.’
149. _‘an acquitted felon.’_ A phrase of Windham’s. William Windham
(1750–1810) was a member of Pitt’s government, and heartily
supported measures for the repression of ‘sedition.’
151. _Thomas Hardy_ (1752–1832), radical politician. He was brought to
trial for high treason, Oct. 28, 1794, and found not guilty on
Nov. 5.
_the trial of Mr Tooke._ John Horne Tooke (1736–1812) had been
acquitted on Nov. 22, 1794.
_Mr Kyd, etc._ Stewart Kyd (d. 1811), political and legal writer.
Jeremiah Joyce (1763–1816), miscellaneous writer. He was tutor
to the sons of Lord Stanhope, at whose house, Chevening, Kent,
May 4, 1794, he was arrested for treason. See Note to p. 222.
152. _Sharp._ William Sharp (1749–1824), engraver, republican and
enthusiast. See p. 226.
_Mr Symmonds._ H. D. Symmonds, of 20 Paternoster Row, publisher of
Holcroft’s ‘Narrative of Facts’ and ‘Letter to Mr Windham.’
153. _Mr Thelwall’s lectures._ John Thelwall (1764–1834), reformer,
disseminated political views by means of lectures on Roman
history. Later, he was a popular lecturer on elocution.
154. Note. _The Borough of Gatton._ A ‘pocket-borough’ between Merstham
and Reigate, Surrey.
156. _Letter to Mr Windham._ ‘A Letter to the Right Hon. W. Windham on
the intemperance and dangerous tendency of his public conduct’
(1795).
158. _Dundas._ Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville (1742–1811), a
trusted friend of Pitt’s, and a member of his government. He
practically ruled Scotland for thirty years. Cf. Cockburn’s
‘Life of Francis Jeffrey,’ pp. 74, _et seq._, and Sir H. Craik’s
‘A Century of Scottish History,’ vol. ii. p. 91.
159. _‘Love’s Frailties,’_ or Precept against Practice. Feb. 5.
_‘The Deserted Daughter.’_ May 2. Owing to the political prejudice
against Holcroft many of his plays appeared under assumed names
or anonymously.
_‘The Man of Ten Thousand.’_ Jan. 23.
_‘The Force of Ridicule.’_ Dec. 6, 1796.
_‘Knave or Not.’_ Jan. 25.
_‘He’s much to blame.’_ Feb. 13, 1798. See p. 190.
160. _Bannister._ John Bannister (1760–1836).
_Miss Farren._ Elizabeth Farren (1759?–1829), actress and, later,
Countess of Derby.
162. _the tragedy of Cato._ 1713. By Addison.
_Miss Jordan._ Dorothea Jordan (1762–1816).
_o’erstepping the modesty of nature._ Hamlet, III. 2.
163. _the Clavigo of Goethe._ 1774.
_‘The Inquisitor.’_ June 23, 1798.
_‘The Old Clothesman.’_ 1799 (music by Thomas Attwood, 1765–1838).
Genest (vol. vii. p. 434) speaks of its being acted a second
time on April 3.
163. _Mr Godwin._ Wm. Godwin (1756–1836). Mr Kegan Paul’s ‘William
Godwin, His Friends and Contemporaries’ (1876) contains many of
Holcroft’s letters, and much of interest to readers of the
‘Memoirs.’ It seems to have been at Godwin’s house, Holcroft and
Coleridge also present, that Hazlitt first met Lamb. See
‘Memoirs of Hazlitt,’ vol. i. p. 126.
_Political Justice._ ‘Enquiry concerning Political Justice and its
influence on Morals and Happiness’ (1793).
_Griffiths._ Ralph Griffiths (1720–1803), LL.D., founder,
proprietor and publisher of ‘The Monthly Review.’
164. _the Review of Mr Malthus’s publication._ The ‘Essay on the
Principle of Population’ (Thomas Robert Malthus, 1766–1834) was
published in 1798.
_Colonel Harwood._ ? Col. Harwood, nephew of William Tooke, Horne
Tooke’s friend.
165. _the Fratres Poloni._ Polonorum Fratrum Bibliotheca quos Unitarios
vocant, etc., 1656, 5 vols. folio. See ‘Memoirs of Hazlitt,’
vol. i. p. 33.
_the original picture of Sion House, painted by Wilson._ ‘A view
of Sion House from Richmond Gardens’ (1776), by Richard Wilson
(1714–1782), one of the greatest of English landscape painters.
166. _Gresset._ Jean Baptiste Louis Gresset (1709–1777), French poet
and dramatist.
167. _prison-bars._ See note to p. 19.
169. _Mr and Mrs. Opie._ John Opie (1761–1807), historical painter. One
of his portraits of Holcroft forms the frontispiece to the
present volume. His wife, Amelia, was a writer of ability.
_Debrett’s._ The shop of John Debrett (d. 1822), opposite
Burlington House, Piccadilly, a Whig resort.
_R. Ad——._ Sir Robert Adair (1763–1855), the friend of Charles
James Fox.
_Lord Fitz——._ William Wentworth, 2nd Earl Fitzwilliam
(1748–1833).
_D—— P——._ William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland
(1738–1809).
_Professor Porson._ Richard Porson (1759–1808), Greek scholar and
critic.
_Middleton’s preface._ Conyers Middleton’s (1683–1750) ‘History of
the Life of M. Tullius Cicero’ (1741). A book which enjoyed a
great reputation, and which reached a fourth edition in 1750.
170. _the letters to Travis._ ‘Letters to Mr Archdeacon Travis [George,
1741– 1797] in answer to his Defence of the three heavenly
witnesses’ [1 John v. 7], published by Porson in ‘The
Gentleman’s Magazine,’ 1788–89, and in a volume in 1790;
described by Gibbon as ‘the most acute and accurate piece of
criticism since the days of Bentley.’
_the Minor._ 1760. By Foote.
_Pennant’s tour in Scotland._ Thomas Pennant’s (1726–1798) ‘Tours
in Scotland’ were published in 1771–75. ‘He’s a _Whig_, Sir; a
_sad dog_ ... but he’s the best traveller I ever read.’—Johnson.
See Boswell’s Life (ed. G. B. Hill), iii. 274.
_Carlisle._ Sir Anthony Carlisle (1768–1840), comparative
anatomist, who was associated in 1800 with Holcroft’s friend
Nicholson in his electrical researches.
_Mr Waldron._ Francis Godolphin Waldron (1744–1818), writer and
actor.
171. _Perry._ See note to p. 89. Perry was sent to Newgate by the House
of Lords, 22nd March 1798, for three months, and fined £50, for
a ‘libel’ on that assembly.
_Wakefield’s pamphlet._ Gilbert Wakefield (1756–1801),
pamphleteer, scholar, and critic, was sentenced to two years’
imprisonment, in May 1799, for remarks in a pamphlet addressed
to the Bishop of Llandaff. His publisher (Cuthell) and printer
were also convicted. Erskine defended Cuthell, whose punishment
was remitted. See also p. 202.
And Note. _Mr Fawcett._ Dissenting minister and poet (?1758–1804).
Mrs. Siddons and the Kembles were often amongst his listeners.
‘The Art of War’ was published in 1795. See ‘Memoirs of
Hazlitt,’ vol. i. pp. 75–79, for a collection of Hazlitt’s
notices of Mr Fawcett. See also sundry references to him in ‘The
Spirit of the Age.’ Godwin says: ‘The four principal oral
instructors to whom I feel my mind indebted for improvement were
Joseph Fawcet, Thomas Holcroft, George Dyson, and Samuel Taylor
Coleridge’ (Kegan Paul’s ‘Godwin,’ i. p. 17).
172. _Lord Townshend._ George, 4th Viscount and 1st Marquis
(1724–1807).
_St. John._ ? John St. John (1746–1793), dramatist and M.P.
_Bower’s Life of Pope Alexander the Sixth._ Probably Archibald
Bower’s (1686–1766) ‘History of the Popes,’ the first volume of
which was published in 1748, and the sixth and seventh just
before his death.
173. _‘First Elements.’_ ‘Elements of Natural History and Chemistry’
(1788) and Chaptal’s ‘Elements’ (1795), both translations or
adaptations.
_Fenwick’s publication._ A pamphlet on behalf of the Rev. James
O’Coigly. The ‘late trial’ would be that of Arthur (referred to
on the next page) O’Connor (1763–1852) and Coigly at Maidstone
for high treason. Coigly was found guilty on May 22, 1798, and
executed on June 7. Although O’Connor was found Not Guilty, he
was not liberated until 1803. See also Note to p. 186.
174. _Mr Stodart._ Sir John Stoddart (1773–1856), whose only sister,
Sarah, married W. Hazlitt.
_Mrs. Revely._ Maria Reveley (_née_ James), a friend of Godwin’s.
(See Kegan Paul’s ‘Godwin,’ vol. i. p. 81 _et seq._).
_Warren._ Richard Warren (1731–1797), the head of the medical
practice of his day. Mrs. Inchbald composed memorial verses on
his death.
_Sir George Baker_ (1722–1809).
175. _Reynold’s._ For Reynold’s read Reynolds’s.
_the following assertion of Johnson._ See Life (ed. G. B. Hill),
vol. ii. p. 198.
_C——._ Carlisle. See note to p. 170.
176. _Ireland’s Hogarth Illustrated._ John Ireland’s (d. 1808) edition,
in 3 vols., roy. 8vo, 1791–98.
_Boyd and Benfield._ Walter Boyd (1754?–1837), financier, and Paul
Benfield (d. 1810), Indian trader. They were bankers,
established in London in 1793 and ruined in 1799. See Lockhart’s
‘Scott,’ chap. lxxvi.
_Law._ John Law (1681–1729), financial projector and Parisian
banker.
_Purcel._ Henry Purcell (1658?–1695).
_as Boswell affirms._ See Life (ed. G. B. Hill), ii. 342. The
statement was made by Tom Davies. Dr. Burney says, in a note,
that Corelli never was in England.
_Corelli._ Archangelo Corelli, Italian musician (1653–1713).
177. _Phillips._ Sir Richard Phillips (1767–1840), author, bookseller,
and publisher. He established the ‘Monthly Magazine’ in 1796,
which was edited by John Aikin.
_F. the Cambridge man._ Flower. See Note to p. 190.
_Pinkerton (Heron’s Letters)._ John Pinkerton (1758–1826),
Scottish historian and antiquarian. His ‘Letters of Literature’
(Robert Heron, 1785) introduced him to Walpole. See De Quincey’s
‘Orthographic Mutineers.’ Works, ed. Masson, xi. pp. 443–44.
_the wife of Petion._ Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve (1756–1794) of
the French Revolution. He was proscribed in 1793 and escaped,
but he and his companions shot themselves.
_George Dyer_ (1755–1841), miscellaneous writer. See Lamb’s
‘Amicus Redivivus.’ ‘Elia,’ ed. Ainger, p. 281.
178. _Don Carlos._ Schiller (1787). Stoddart (see note to p. 174)
published a translation of ‘Don Carlos’ with G. H. Noehden in
1798.
_Pitt ... duel._ Pitt fought a duel with Tierney, 27th May, 1798,
on Putney Heath. Pitt had accused Tierney of wilful obstruction.
Neither shot took effect.
_Count Rumford’s experiments on heat._ Sir Benjamin Thompson
(1753–1814), created Count von Rumford by the Elector of
Bavaria for his services to that State. He founded the Royal
Institution.
_Dalrymple._ Alexander Dalrymple (1737–1808), hydrographer to the
Admiralty.
_Sir Joseph Banks_ (1743–1820), naturalist and companion of
Captain Cook in a voyage round the world.
_C——_, _G——_, _O——_. Probably Carlisle, Godwin, and Opie.
_Laudohn._ Gideon Ernest Laudohn (1716–1790). Because of the
intrigues of his rivals he was not created Field-Marshal until
1778.
179. _Crebillon._ Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (1674–1762), dramatic
poet.
180. _Garat._ Dominique Joseph Comte Garat (1749–1833) of the French
Revolution.
_Sir William B——._ Sir William Beechey (1753–1839).
_his picture of the dying Cardinal._ ‘The Death of Cardinal
Beaufort.’ A drawing by Fuseli of the same subject had appeared
at the Royal Academy in 1774.
_a picture by Fuseli for Comus._ Henry Fuseli (1741–1825). The
picture would be one of his forty for the ‘Milton Gallery,’
opened May 20, 1799, in Pall Mall.
181. _Sir F. Bourgeois._ Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois (1756–1811),
landscape painter to George III. His collection was bequeathed
to Dulwich College.
_Mr P——._ Mr Pinkerton. Is this the ‘tragedy’ spoken of by Sir
Walter Scott? See Lockhart’s ‘Life,’ Letter to Miss Joanna
Baillie, March 21, 1813.
_Wolcott._ John Wolcot, ‘Peter Pindar’ (1738–1819), physician,
satirist, and poet.
_Steevens._ George Steevens (1736–1800), Shakespearian
commentator.
_the two Sheares’s._ John (1766–1798), and Henry (1753–1798), of
the ‘United Irishmen.’ They were executed for high treason. See
Lady Wilde’s poem, ‘The Brothers.’
182. _a philippic by Francis ... against Thurlow._ Sir Philip Francis
(1740–1818), reputed author of the ‘Letters of Junius,’ and
Edward Thurlow (1731–1806), Lord Chancellor (1778–83 and
1784–92). The speech by Francis was delivered on July 16, 1784
(_Parl. Hist._ xxiv. pp. 1102–22).
182. _Sastres._ To whom Johnson bequeathed five pounds, ‘to be laid out
in books of piety for his own use’ (ed. G. B. Hill, iv. 403).
Boswell had perhaps annoyed him by a passage (ed. G. B. Hill,
iii. 21), in which, speaking of the widely different persons
with whom Johnson associated, he joined Lord Thurlow’s name with
that of ‘Mr Sastres, the Italian master.’
183. _Johnson complains in one of his letters._ ‘The best night I have
had these twenty years was at Fort Augustus.’ Letter to Boswell
(Life, ed. G. B. Hill, iii. 369).
184. _the new edition of Pilkington._ ‘The Gentleman’s and
Connoisseur’s Dictionary of Painters’ (1770), by Matthew
Pilkington (1700?–1784). A new edition, edited by Dr. Wolcot,
appeared in 1799.
_Malone._ Edmund Malone (1741–1812), commentator on Shakespeare
and the friend and editor of Boswell.
_Read._ Isaac Reed (1742–1807), critic and Shakespearian
commentator.
_Boswell likewise prates._ See Life (ed. G. B. Hill, iv. 40–41).
_Dr. Towers._ Joseph Towers (1737–1799), political writer. See p.
202.
_the late Dr. Kippis._ Andrew Kippis (1725–1795), dissenting
divine.
_P——’s tragedy._ See note to p. 181.
185. _Loutherbourg._ Philip James Loutherbourg (1740–1812), landscape
painter.
_Gilleray._ James Gillray (1757–1815), caricaturist.
_Mr E——._ Erskine.
186. _Lord Thanet._ Sackville Tufton, 9th Earl of Thanet (1767–1825). A
Whig sympathiser of Arthur O’Connor’s. He was tried April 25,
1799, for attempting to rescue O’Connor at Maidstone. See note
to p. 173. He was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, fined
£1000, and ordered to find security for 7 years in £20,000.
_Judge Buller._ Sir Francis Buller (1746–1800). He presided at the
trial of Arthur O’Connor.
_Garrow._ Sir William Garrow (1760–1840), successively
Solicitor-General (1812–13) and Attorney-General (1813–17).
_Fullarton._ ? William Fullarton (1754–1808), Anglo-Indian
Commander, and Member of Parliament.
188. _the respite of Bond._ Oliver Bond (1760?–1798), Irish republican,
was tried, July 1798, and sentenced to be hanged for high
treason. He was respited by the Viceroy, the Marquis Cornwallis,
on the entreaty of his fellow-prisoners, who, to spare him,
agreed to turn informers. See p. 190.
_Farmer’s library._ Richard Farmer (1735–1797), Master of Emmanuel
College, Cambridge, and author of ‘An Essay on the Learning of
Shakspeare’ (1767). The Catalogue ran to nearly 400 pages,
concerning over 8000 books. The library had cost £500 to
collect, and sold for over £2000. The comment in the ‘Annual
Register’ is ‘such is the rage for musty literature.’
_Dr. Gosset._ Isaac Gosset the younger (1735?–1812),
bibliographer. He was a well-known figure at London auction
sales.
189. _B——._ Sir William Beechey.
_Desenfans._ Noel Joseph Desenfans (1745–1807), picture-dealer.
_Farrington._ Joseph Farington (1747–1821), landscape painter.
_Hodges._ William Hodges (1744–1797), Royal Academician.
190. _the Cambridge paper._ ‘The Cambridge Intelligencer,’ edited by
Benjamin Flower (1755–1829). He was imprisoned for libel in due
course. His paper was a rare example of a provincial paper,
advocating religious liberty and condemning the French war.
191. _Lowe (mentioned by Kim in his life of Johnson)._ Mauritius Lowe
(1746–1793), the painter. For Boswell’s version of the story
referred to in the text, see Life (ed. G. B. Hill, IV. 201–2).
_N——._ Nicholson. His ‘Journal [see pp. 192, 212] of Natural
Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts,’ etc., appeared in
1797–1802 and 1802–15.
192. _the voyage of Perouse._ John Francis Galoup de la Perouse (b.
1741), French circumnavigator. He perished off the New Hebrides
after March 1788. Translations of ‘A Voyage round the World
1785–88’ were published 1798 (8vo), and 1799 (4to).
194. _Wild Oats_, or the Strolling Gentleman. 1791. By John O’Keeffe.
In 1798 his Works were published by Subscription in 4 vols.
_Mr Ramsey._ James Ramsey, divine and philanthropist (1733–1789).
His ‘An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves
in the British Sugar Colonies’ was published in 1784.
195. _Emery and Mrs. Mills._ John Emery (1777–1822). See Hazlitt’s note
on p. 70. Genest (vol. vii. p. 426) says Mrs. Mills from York
made her second appearance on Oct. 10 (Covent Garden). She acted
Sophia in ‘The Road to Ruin,’ and Little Pickle in ‘The Spoil’d
Child.’
196. _Dr. Parr._ Samuel Parr (1747–1825), ‘the Whig Johnson.’ His
‘Præfatio ad Bellendenum de Statu’ was published in 1787.
_Macintosh._ ? Sir James Mackintosh (1765–1832). He was associated
with the Society for Constitutional Information.
_Lovers’ Vows._ 1798. By Mrs. Inchbald, adapted from Kotzebue.
197. _J. Aickin._ James Aickin or Aikin (d. 1803), actor.
_Cumberland sent his Tiberius_ [in Capreæ].
198. _Dr. A——_? Dr. John Aikin (1747–1822), physician and editor of
‘The Monthly Magazine.’ He was the father of Mrs. Barbauld.
_Palmer._ Thomas Palmer. See Genest (vol. vii. p. 427).
_Edelinck._ Gerard Edelinck (1649–1707), engraver.
199. _Boaden._ James Boaden (1762–1839), the biographer of Mrs.
Inchbald.
_Bosville._ William Bosville (1745–1813), bon vivant and friend of
Horne Tooke. See the latter’s ‘Diversions of Purley.’
_Tobin._ John Tobin (1770–1804), dramatic writer.
200. _Grenville._ William Wyndham, Baron Grenville (1759–1834).
_Cornwallis._ Charles, 1st Marquis and 2nd Earl Cornwallis
(1738–1805). Governor-General of India, and Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland.
201. _School for Ingratitude._ A comedy by Fisher (1798).
_Mr Reynolds._ Frederick Reynolds (1764–1841). ‘Cheap Living’
appeared in 1797, but ‘The School for Ingratitude’ had been
submitted at Drury Lane and rejected before its publication in
1798. See Genest (vol. vii. p. 329).
_Tierney._ George Tierney (1761–1830), statesman and political
writer, Whig and duellist (with Pitt). Probably the T—— referred
to on p. 199.
_Walpole’s Painters._ Anecdotes of Painting in England
(1762–1771). Issued from Strawberry Hill.
_the Narrative, etc._ See notes to pp. 139 and 156.
_Fittler._ James Fittler (1758–1835), engraver.
_the Exiles._ A translation or adaptation of Kotzebue’s
(1761–1819) play. See p. 196.
_Platonist Taylor._ Thomas Taylor (1758–1835), lecturer on, and
translator of, Plato.
202. _Tone._ Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–1798), Irish revolutionist. He
committed suicide in prison while under sentence of death.
_Wakefield’s pamphlet._ See note to p. 171.
_Morland._ George Morland (1763–1804), painter of country scenes
and humble life.
203. _Dr. Franklin._ Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790).
_Dr. Solander._ Daniel Charles Solander (1736–1782). Swedish
naturalist, and companion of Sir Joseph Banks and Captain Cook
in a voyage round the world.
_Bentley._ Thomas Bentley (1731–1780), entered into partnership
with Wedgwood, 1768.
_Wedgewood._ Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795), the potter.
_Sir Francis Burdett_ (1770–1844), radical politician.
204. _King’s ... speech._ At the opening of Parliament, Nov. 20.
_Brown, the Egyptian traveller._ William George Browne
(1768–1813), whose ‘Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria 1792–98’
appeared in 1800.
_S——’s._ Symmonds’s. See p. 205 and Note to p. 152.
205. _Ward, the pugilist._ Ould Joe Ward, the father of the prize ring
(b. 1751). See Pierce Egan’s ‘Boxiana,’ vol. i. p. 424, and vol.
iii. p. 496.
_Jew K——._ John King. See a letter from Godwin to him, Jan. 24,
1796, concerning ‘the frequency of my visits’ (Kegan Paul’s
‘Godwin,’ 1. 155).
206. _the daughters of Horne Tooke._ Mary and Charlotte Hart, his
illegitimate daughters.
_the Wheel of Fortune._ 1795. By Cumberland.
208. _Canning’s fine speech._ Tierney had moved a peace proposal on
Dec. 11. Canning’s speech against the motion (which was
negatived) occupies thirty-eight columns in the ‘Parliamentary
History.’
209. _Northcote._ James Northcote (1746–1831).
_West._ Benjamin West (1738–1820), painter.
212. _Dr. Beddoes._ Thomas Beddoes (1760–1808). He was the father of
Thomas Lovell Beddoes.
_Wedgewood._ Thomas Wedgwood (1771–1805), the friend of Coleridge.
_Parkinson, jun. ... Parkinson, sen._ James Parkinson (1730?–1813)
won Sir Ashton Lever’s Museum (1784) by lottery. Placed in a
building erected for it at the Surrey side of Blackfriars Bridge
(later the home of the Surrey Institution), it was one of the
sights of London. It was sold by auction in 1806. Joseph
Parkinson, son of the above (1783–1855), was an architect, and
designed the Library of the Leverian Museum.
_Lillo’s Fatal Curiosity._ 1736. By George Lillo (1693–1739).
213. _L——._ Willoughby Lacy, Garrick’s partner at Drury Lane.
214. _Brueys._ François Paul Brueys d’Aigaïlliers (1753–1798), the
French admiral who commanded the fleet in the Egyptian
expedition. He was killed at the battle of Aboukir.
_Serres._ Dominic Serres (1722–1793), of Gascon birth, was marine
painter to the king; he was succeeded in that office by his son,
John Thomas Serres (1759–1825).
215. _‘the Jew and the Doctor.’_ 1798. By Thomas J. Dibdin (1771–1841).
216. _Le Bon._ Joseph Le Bon (1765–1795); his acts against the
opponents of the Revolution were very harsh, and they led to his
being guillotined.
217. _Tierney’s motion._ Tierney complained on the 27th against the
‘Times’ for misrepresenting speeches of members. The motion was
withdrawn on the 31st after satisfactory assurances from the
editor to Tierney.
_Lord Holland._ Henry Richard Vassall Fox, 3rd Lord Holland
(1773–1840). He is referred to later as Lord H——.
_N——’s ... academy._ Nicholson opened a school in Soho, but it had
only a brief career.
218. _His speech in the Lords._ The third reading of the Bill for the
Suspension of the Habeas Corpus came up in the Lords on Jan. 3.
After it was carried Lord Holland entered a protest on the
Journals.
219. _‘The Votary of Wealth.’_ 1799. By Joseph George Holman
(1764–1817), the original Harry Dornton in Holcroft’s ‘Road to
Ruin.’
_Belsham from Davenant._ Probably William Belsham (1752–1827), a
writer on the Whig side, and brother of the Unitarian divine.
_Davenant_: Dr. Charles D. (1656–1714), political economist.
220. _as the lion, etc._ ‘Troilus and Cressida,’ III. 3.
221. _Lord Camelford’s attempt._ Thomas Pitt, 2nd Baron Camelford
(1775–1804), naval commander, tried to go to France to procure a
set of French charts, using a French refugee’s letter of
introduction to Barras, in which he was set forth as one ready
to serve the French Government. The suspicions of the boatmen,
however, were aroused, and he was handed over to the English
Government officials. He was examined by the Privy Council, and,
although set at liberty, the Admiralty disapproved of his action
and relieved him of the command of his ship.
_Girton._ Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), water-colour painter, of whom
Turner said, ‘Had Tom Girtin lived, I should have starved.’
_Artois._ Jacques d’Artois, Flemish painter of rural scenes
(1613?–1678).
_Barry, the painter._ James Barry (1741–1806), painter of the
large pictures ‘Human Culture’ for the Society of Arts.
222. _his verses on young statesmen._ A political _jeu d’esprit_ ‘On
the Young Statesmen’ attributed to Dryden.
_Paul Benfield._ See note to p. 176.
_C. Grey, M.P._ (1764–1845), afterwards the 2nd Earl Grey.
_Lord S——’s Address._ Charles, 3rd Earl Stanhope (1753–1816), of
revolutionary sympathies, issued an ‘address to the Nations of
Great Britain and Ireland’ against the proposed Union.
_‘the Sorcerer’ ... Veil Weber._ An edition of _The Sorcerer_, a
Tale, from the German of Veit Weber, was published in London in
1795.
_Knight._ Thomas Knight (d. 1820).
224. _S——, a painter._ Probably John Smart (1741–1811), miniature
painter, who was in India for some years between 1788 and 1797.
_Dr. Drennan._ William Drennan (1754–1820), M.D., Irish poet, and
a leader of the United Irishmen.
225. _Metzu._ Gabriel Metzu (1615–1658), Dutch painter.
226. _Incledon._ Charles Incledon (1763–1826), vocalist.
_Master Field._ John Field (1782–1837). After his _début_ as an
infant prodigy (he had played at a public concert with Clementi
in 1794 or–95) he went on a continental tour with Clementi, and
finally settled down in Russia, where his music was much
appreciated.
_Brothers._ Richard Brothers (1757–1824), fanatic, who set forth
in 1793 as the nephew of the Almighty.
227. _R. A._ R. Adair. See note to p. 169.
228. _Mr Drummond._ Samuel Drummond (1765–1844), portrait and
historical painter.
_Cadell._ Thomas Cadell the younger (1773–1836).
_Brown’s travels._ See note to p. 204.
_Secret._ 1799. By Edward Morris.
_Feudal Times._ 1799. By George Colman the younger.
230 _Deaf and Dumb_, or the Orphan protected, an historical drama
taken from the French of J. N. Bouilly (under the name of
Herbert Hill). 1801.
232. _Travels in France._ Travels from Hamburg, through Westphalia,
Holland, and the Netherlands, to Paris. 1804. 2 vols.
235. _The Escapes_, or the Water-Carrier. Covent Garden, Oct. 14, 1801.
_A Tale of Mystery._ Covent Garden, Nov. 13, 1802.
_The Lady of the Rock._ Feb. 12, 1805, Drury Lane.
_The Vindictive Man._ A Comedy, 1806, Drury Lane.
236. _the Theatrical Recorder._ See note to p. 76.
_‘Tales in Verse.’_ Critical, Satirical, and Humorous, 1806. 2
vols.
_‘Brian Perdue.’_ Memoirs of Bryan Perdue, 1805. 3 vols.?
242. _our worthy and liberal friend G._ Godwin.
245. _snows._ Brig-like vessels.
_Pocock._ Robert Pocock of Gravesend. His ‘Gravesend Water
Companion, describing all the towns, churches, villages,
parishes, and gentlemen’s seats, as seen from the River Thames,
between London Bridge and Gravesend Town,’ was published in
1798.
_traject._ Passage.
246. _The potentate of the North ... Peter ... Paul._ Probably the
Czars Paul (1754–1801) and Peter the Great (1672–1725) are
intended. Paul, an imperious and capricious Emperor, reigned
1796–1801.
251. _Culpepper._ Nicholas Culpeper (1616–1654), herbalist.
252. _Pontoppidan._ Eric Pontoppidan (1698–1764), author of ‘The
Natural History of Norway.’
255. _ancient Pistol._ ‘Merry Wives of Windsor’ and ‘Henry IV.’
267. _Mr Professor Dugald Stewart_, philosopher and metaphysician
(1753–1828).
268. _Les Veillées du Chateau._ See note to p. 104.
_Madame de Genlis._ Stephanie Félicité du Crest de Saint-Aubin,
Countess de Genlis (1746–1830), a voluminous writer.
270. _Theatre d’Education._ ‘Théâtre à l’usage des jeunes personnes’
(1779–80). ‘Théâtre de Société’ (1781).
271. _Lord Kaimes’s Sketches of Man._ Henry Home, Lord Kames
(1696–1782). ‘Sketches of the History of Man’ (1774).
273. _Mrs. Colles._ ? Mrs. Cole, Holcroft’s daughter, see p. 143, note.
278. Note. _The Pantisocrasy Scheme._ The Utopian ‘all men are equal’
scheme, advocated by Southey, Coleridge, and Lovell (c. 1794).
279. _Mr Dermody._ Thomas Dermody (1775–1802).
_Robert Lovell_ (1770?–1796). The associate of Southey and
Coleridge in their plan for an ideal life on the banks of the
Susquehanna. The three friends married three sisters.
280. _Mergées._ Mr W. C. Hazlitt writes that this name should be
Merger.
281. _From Madame de Genlis._ This letter would seem to be the one to
which Holcroft replied. See p. 268.
LIBER AMORIS
The facts relating to the episode in Hazlitt’s life which is the subject
of this book are referred to in the General Introduction to the present
edition (see vol. i. pp. xviii, xix), but it may be useful to give here
a brief summary of them, and to refer shortly to the few later books
which throw further light upon the matter.
Before the autumn of 1819 Hazlitt and his wife had ceased to live
together, and in 1820 Hazlitt went to lodge in the house of a tailor
named Walker, at No. 9 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, where, on
August 16, he first saw the heroine of this book, Sarah Walker, the
elder of his landlord’s two unmarried daughters. Some time in the same
year (1820), or in the following year, Mrs. Hazlitt agreed, or rather,
as we must assume (since she afterwards took the Oath of Calumny),
decided to take proceedings for divorce under the Scottish law, for
which purpose it was necessary for both parties to go to Scotland.
Hazlitt accordingly started for Edinburgh early in 1822, and reached
Scotland in February, after having been detained for a time at Stamford,
where he began ‘a book of our conversations (I mean mine and the
statue’s), which I call LIBER AMORIS.’ Mrs. Hazlitt did not arrive in
Edinburgh till April 21, and the business of the divorce was not finally
settled till July. Hazlitt spent the greater part of the time between
March and July either in Edinburgh or at Renton Inn, Berwickshire,
whence he addressed several of his letters to his friend, P. G. Patmore,
and where he wrote some of the essays which subsequently appeared in
vol. ii. of _Table Talk_. In May he delivered two lectures at Glasgow,
one (May 6) on Milton and Shakespeare, the other (May 13) on Thomson and
Burns. From Glasgow he seems to have gone for a short trip to the
Highlands with his friend Sheridan Knowles, to whom he afterwards
addressed the concluding letters of _Liber Amoris_. Towards the end of
May he paid a hurried visit to London, returning to Scotland early in
June. The book itself was published anonymously by John Hunt in 1823,
the copyright being purchased from Hazlitt by C. H. Reynell for £100.
It is unnecessary to refer to the many merely critical comments on the
book and its story, and it remains only to mention the works which may
be regarded as additional and authoritative sources of information. P.
G. Patmore devoted to the subject one chapter (vol. iii. pp. 171–188) of
his lengthy recollections of Hazlitt in _My Friends and Acquaintance_ (3
vols., 1854), and published extracts from some of the letters he had
received from Hazlitt. Further extracts from the same correspondence and
extracts from the journal kept by Mrs. Hazlitt in Scotland appeared in
Mr W. C. Hazlitt’s _Memoirs of William Hazlitt_ (2 vols., 1867). All
these letters (with a few trifling exceptions) and the whole of Mrs.
Hazlitt’s journal were printed from the original MSS. in Mr Le
Gallienne’s edition of _Liber Amoris_, published in 1894 (see
Bibliographical Note, _ante_, p. 284). This edition contains also a
transcript of the original MS. of _Liber Amoris_ (Part 1.) (believed to
be in the handwriting of Patmore with additions written by Hazlitt), and
(besides Mr Le Gallienne’s introduction) an unsigned essay by Mr W. C.
Hazlitt, entitled ‘Hazlitt from another point of view.’ B. W. Procter
(Barry Cornwall), who visited Hazlitt at Southampton Buildings, referred
to the subject in his Recollections of Men of Letters (see _Bryan Waller
Procter, An Autobiographical Fragment_, 1877, pp. 180–82). Finally, in
_Lamb and Hazlitt_ (1900), Mr W. C. Hazlitt published for the first time
a MS. which contains Hazlitt’s comment on the experiences of Patmore
(recorded in the form of a Diary), from March 4 to March 16, 1822,
during which time he appears to have been (at Hazlitt’s request) a
lodger at No. 9 Southampton Buildings. This MS. is entirely in Hazlitt’s
handwriting.
PAGE
288. _‘with looks,’ etc._ _Il Penseroso_, l. 38.
290. _‘But I will come again, my love,’ etc._ Burns’s song, ‘O, my luve
is like a red, red rose.’
_‘Pensive nun,’ etc._ _Il Penseroso_, l. 31.
294. _Mr M——._ Sarah Walker’s elder sister had married a man called
Roscoe, who is referred to in the _Liber Amoris_ as ‘Mr M——.’
300. _‘What is this world,’ etc._ Chaucer’s _Canterbury Tales_ (_The
Knightes Tale_, ll. 2777–79).
301. _‘So shalt thou find me,’ etc._ Byron’s _Sardanapalus_, Act IV.
Scene 1.
_Rosetta._ In Bickerstaffe’s _Love in a Village_, one of the most
successful parts played by Catherine Stephens (1794–1882). See
Hazlitt’s Dramatic Essays.
302. _Mr Macready._ William Charles Macready (1793–1873) appears to
have played Romeo at Covent Garden on Jan. 24, 1822.
303. _‘Oh! if I thought,’ etc._ _Troilus and Cressida_, Act III. Scene
2.
304. _C. P——, Esq._ Peter George Patmore (1786–1855), journalist, and
author of _Imitations of Celebrated Authors_, _etc._ (1826),
_Chatsworth, or the Romance of a Week_ (1844), _The Mirror of
the Months_ (1826), and other works. His recollections of
Hazlitt in _My Friends and Acquaintance_ (3 vols., 1854) are
interesting and even valuable if allowance is made for some
exaggeration. He was the father of Coventry Patmore. See B.
Champney’s, _Memoirs and Correspondence of Coventry Patmore_
(1900), chap. ii.
_Bees-Inn._ Renton Inn, on the London Road, near Grant’s House in
Berwickshire, forty-one miles from Edinburgh.
306. ‘_Of such sweet breath composed._’ Hamlet, Act III. Scene 1.
‘_Answer me that, Master Brook._’
‘Think of that, Master Brook.’
_Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act III. Scene 5.
_Letter III._ From Edinburgh, March 30, 1822.
307. _Letter IV._ From Edinburgh, April 21, 1822.
308. _‘To lip a chaste one,’ etc._
‘To lip a wanton in a secure couch,
And to suppose her chaste.’
_Othello_, Act IV. Scene 1.
_Strike my forehead against the stars._
‘Quod si me lyricis vatibus inseris,
Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.’
Horace, Odes, I. 1. 35–36.
_As Rousseau said._ ‘Ce fut dans ce bosquet qu’assis avec elle sur
un banc de gazon, sous un acacia tout chargé de fleurs, je
trouvai, pour rendre les mouvements de mon cœur, un langage
vraiment digne d’eux.’—_Confessions_, Liv. IX., p. 393 (édit.
Garnier).
_Letter V._ From Edinburgh, April 7, 1822.
_From Montrose._ This is of course fiction, like Hazlitt’s
statement in the advertisement that the author was a native of
North Britain (see _ante_, p. 285).
309. _‘Treason domestic,’ etc._ _Macbeth_, Act III. Scene 2.
311. _Letter VII._ From Edinburgh, June 20–21, 1822.
_‘And carved on every tree,’ etc._ _As You Like It_, Act III.
Scene 2.
312. _Letter VIII._ From Renton Inn, June 9, 1822.
314. _Its mighty heart, etc._ Cf. ‘And all that mighty heart was lying
still’ in Wordsworth’s Sonnet ‘Composed upon Westminster
Bridge.’
_The Prince of Critics, etc._ Francis Jeffrey (1773–1850) had
lived at Craigcrook (on the north-eastern slope of Corstorphine
Hill, not on ‘the far-off Pentland Hills’) since 1815. Hazlitt
had already contributed several articles to the _Edinburgh
Review_, and had met Jeffrey during his visit to Scotland.
314. _As I read of Amy and her love._ _Kenilworth_ had been published
in the preceding year (1821).
315. _Letter IX._ From Edinburgh, July 3, 1822.
316. ‘_Made my wedded wife yestreen._’ Burns’s _Lament for James, Earl
of Glencairn_, st. 10.
_Like Lady Bellaston._ _Tom Jones_, Book XV. Chap. ix.
_The old song._ Hazlitt refers perhaps to Richard Hewitt’s ‘Roslin
Castle,’ beginning ‘’Twas in that season of the year,’ published
in Johnson’s _The Scots Musical Museum_ (1787–1803), and praised
by Burns.
317. _Letter X._ From Renton Inn, June 18, 1822.
‘_All below was not the fiend’s._’ _King Lear_, Act IV. Scene 6.
319. _Hysterica passio._ Cf. _King Lear_, Act II. Scene 4.
_Letter XI._ From Edinburgh (?), June 25, 1822.
320. _‘She’s gone,’ etc._
‘She’s gone; I am abused, and my relief
Must be to loathe her.’
_Othello_, Act III. Scene 3.
321. _Letter XII._ This is merely a postscript to the former letter
(XI.).
‘_Love is not love,’ etc._ Shakespeare’s Sonnets, No. CXVI.
325. _Letter XIII._ July 8, 1822.
_‘I have mistook,’ etc._
‘I do mistake my person all this while:
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper man.’
_Richard III_, Act. I. Scene 2.
328. _Addressed to J. S. K——._ Hazlitt’s friend, James Sheridan Knowles
(1784–1862), the dramatist, who at this time lived at Glasgow.
There is a reference to him in Hazlitt’s _Spirit of the Age_, at
the end of the essay on Elia and Geoffrey Crayon.
_Smollett’s monument._ Erected by James Smollett, the novelist’s
cousin, whom Johnson and Boswell visited on their way from the
Highlands. The Latin inscription for the monument was partly the
work of Johnson (Boswell’s _Life, etc._, ed. G. B. Hill, v.
366–68).
_Logan’s beautiful verses to the cuckoo._ Published originally by
John Logan (1748–1788) in a volume entitled ‘Poems on Several
Occasions, by Michael Bruce’ (1770). It appeared again in 1781,
with a few alterations, in ‘Poems, by the Rev. Mr Logan, one of
the ministers of Leith.’ Some difference of opinion still exists
as to the authorship, which is claimed by some for Michael Bruce
(1746–1767), a fellow-student of Logan’s at Edinburgh
University. See _Notes and Queries_, 9th Ser., vii. 466; viii.
70, 148, 312, 388, 527.
Note. The verses begin, ‘Hail, beauteous stranger of the grove.’
The stanza quoted by Hazlitt is the sixth.
329. _The Trossacs._ Whatever the ‘blue ridges’ may have been which
Hazlitt saw, they were certainly nowhere near the Trossachs.
‘_Italiam, Italiam._’ Possibly from Filicaja’s Sonnet (LXXXVII.)
to Italy, beginning ‘Italia, Italia, o tu cui feo la sorte,’ and
translated by Byron in _Childe Harold_ (Canto IV., St. 42).
330. _Heaved her name, etc._ _King Lear_, Act IV. Scene 3.
_How near am I, etc._ Quoted, with omissions, from Middleton’s
_Women beware Women_ (_Works_, ed. Dyce, iv. 569–70).
331. _‘Quicquid agit,’ etc._
‘Illam quidquid agit, quoquo vestigia movit
Componit furtim subsequiturque decor.’
From the first of the Sulpicia poems (not the work of Tibullus) in
the fourth book of the Elegies.
334. _‘See with what a waving air,’ etc._ B. W. Procter’s (Barry
Cornwall’s) _Mirandola_ (Act I. Scene 3).
335. _‘What conjurations,’ etc._ _Othello_, Act I. Scene 3.
336. ‘_Nature and Art._’ By Mrs. Inchbald, published in 1796.
337. ‘_Ugly all over with hypocrisy._’ See _ante_, note to p. 130.
340. _At once he took, etc._
‘Then took his Muse at once and dipt her
Full in the middle of the Scripture.’
Gay, ‘Verses to be placed under the Picture of Sir Richard Blackmore,
England’s Arch-Poet, etc.’
341. ‘_Drugged this posset._’ _Macbeth_, Act II. Scene 2.
342. ‘_Bestow some of my tediousness upon you._’
‘_Dogberry._ But truly, for mine own part, if I were tedious as a
king, I could find it in my heart to bestow it all of your
worship.
_Leonato._ All thy tediousness on me, ah?’
_Much Ado About Nothing_, Act III. Scene 5.
343. _‘Of tears which sacred pity,’ etc._ _As You Like It_, Act II.
Scene 7.
347. _The False Florimel._ _The Faerie Queene_, Book III. Canto viii.
_The man in the Arabian Nights._ See The History of Sidi Nouman.
350. ‘_Turned all to favour and to prettiness._’ _Hamlet_, Act IV.
Scene 5.
356. _Heroes, according to Rousseau._ Cf. ‘Le brave ne fait ses preuves
qu’aux jours de bataille: le vrai héros fait les siennes tous
les jours; et ses vertus, pour se montrer quelquefois en pompe,
n’en sont pas d’un usage moins fréquent sous un extérieur plus
modeste.’ _Discours sur la vertu la plus nécessaire aux héros._
CHARACTERISTICS
360. _The wish is often ‘father to the thought.’_ _Henry IV._, Part II.
Act IV. Scene 5.
364. ‘_Some trick not worth an egg._’ _Coriolanus_, Act IV. Scene 4.
365. ‘_Spy abuses._’ ‘It is my nature’s plague to spy into abuses.’
_Othello_, Act III. Scene 3.
_Emery’s acting._ John Emery (1777–1822). See Hazlitt’s Dramatic
Essays, where he speaks of Emery in similar terms.
366. ‘_Fools rush in where angels fear to tread._’ Pope’s _Essay on
Criticism_, l. 625.
367. _‘A jest’s prosperity,’ etc._ _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, Act V. Scene
2.
‘_Quite chop-fallen._’ _Hamlet_, Act V. Scene 1.
368. _Russell._ Samuel Thomas Russell (1769?–1845), famous for his
acting of Jerry Sneak in Foote’s _Mayor of Garratt_ (1763), a
part created by Thomas Weston (1737–1776). Edward Shuter
(1728?–1776), whom Garrick described as the greatest comic
genius he had ever seen. For Joseph Shepherd Munden (1758–1832),
John Bannister (1760–1836), and John Liston (1776?–1846), see
the volume containing Hazlitt’s Dramatic Criticisms.
368. ‘_Men of no mark or likelihood._’ _Henry IV._, Part I. Act III.
Scene 2.
369. ‘_Bare to weather._’ _Cymbeline_, Act III. Scene 3.
‘_Poison in jest._’ _Hamlet_, Act III. Scene 2.
370. ‘_A soul supreme_,’ _etc._ _Epistle to Robert, Earl of Oxford_,
ll. 23–26.
‘_Lay the flattering unction to their souls._’ _Hamlet_, Act III.
Scene 4.
_The author of ‘Waverley.’_ Scott publicly acknowledged his
authorship at a dinner on behalf of the Theatrical Fund on Feb.
23, 1827. See Lockhart (ix. 79–84).
371. ‘_In conscience and tender heart._’ ‘Al was conscience and tendre
heart.’—Chaucer,
_Prologue_, 150.
372. _Mandeville._ Bernard Mandeville (1670?–1733), author of ‘The
Fable of the Bees’ (1714).
377. ‘_To snatch a grace_,’ _etc._ Pope’s _Essay on Criticism_, l. 153.
378. _Video meliora, etc._ Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_, 7, 21.
382. ‘_Minute drops from off the eaves._’
Cf. ‘His tears run down his beard, like winter’s drops
From eaves of reeds.’ _Tempest_, Act V. Scene 1.
383. _Lord Egmont._ John Perceval (1711–1770), 2nd Earl of Egmont (in
the peerage of Ireland). The passage quoted is from a speech
delivered in the House of Commons, against the Bill for the
Naturalisation of Jews, on May 22, 1753 (not 1750). See _Parl.
Hist._, XIV., 1366–1430. Hazlitt included a part of the speech
in his _Eloquence of the British Senate_ (ii. 519–21), where the
year is also wrongly given. In a note on the passage quoted in
the text he says: ‘This passage discovers more real depth of
thought than any thing else I have met with in the course of
these debates. There may be observations of equal value in
Burke, but there is no single observation in any part of his
works more profound, original, acute, and comprehensive: it may
indeed be said to contain the germ of all his political
reasoning. (See his French Revolution, etc.) In this speech we
find the first denunciation of the intrusion of abstract
theorems and metaphysical generalities into the science of
politics.’
391. ‘_My wife! I have no wife._’ _Othello_, Act V. Scene 2.
_Huckman._ James Hackman (1752–1779) shot Martha Ray, mistress of
the 4th Earl of Sandwich, on April 7, 1779, as she was leaving
Covent Garden Theatre. According to his own story, he intended
to kill neither Miss Ray nor Lord Sandwich, but himself. He had
two pistols, a circumstance which led to a violent dispute
between Dr. Johnson and Topham Beauclerk. See Boswell’s _Life_
(ed. G. B. Hill, iii. 383–85). Boswell accompanied him to
Tyburn. Sir Herbert Croft in 1780 published an account of the
tragedy in a series of fictitious letters entitled _Love and
Madness_. Johnson disapproved of this ‘mingling real facts with
fiction’ (_ibid._ iv. 287).
392. ‘_Where we must live_,’ _etc._ _Othello_, Act IV. Scene 2.
‘_Age cannot wither_,’ _etc._ _Antony and Cleopatra_, Act II.
Scene 2.
393. _Fontenelle said._ ‘Si je tenais toutes les vérités dans ma main,
je me donnerais bien de garde de l’ouvrir aux hommes.’
395. _A second divorced his wife, etc._ Hazlitt here sums up the story
of _Liber Amoris_.
398. _Mr Opie._ John Opie (1761–1807).
400. _And vindicates, etc._ Pope’s _Essay on Man_, Ep. 1. l. 16.
402. _Denner’s._ Balthasar Denner, a mechanical German painter
(1685–1749).
405. ‘_Baited with the rabble’s curse._’ _Macbeth_, Act V. Scene 8.
‘_Monstrum ingens, biforme._’
‘Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum.’
_Aeneid_, III. 658.
409. ‘_Men’s judgments_,’ _etc._ _Antony and Cleopatra_, Act III. Scene
13.
413. _The Pleasures of Hope._ Thomas Campbell’s _The Pleasures of Hope_
was published in 1799; _The Pleasures of Memory_, by Samuel
Rogers, in 1792.
415. _The Blacks, etc._ Joseph Black (1728–1799), Professor of Medicine
and Chemistry in Edinburgh University; Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
(1743–1799); Joseph Priestley (1733–1804); Charles Davenant
(1656–1714), son of the poet; John De Witt (1625–1672); Jean
Baptiste Say (1767–1832); David Ricardo (1772–1823), and his
disciple John Ramsay M’Culloch (1789–1864); Thomas Robert
Malthus (1766–1834), author of the famous
_Essay on the Principle of Population_, etc. (1798).
416. _Rochefoucault observes._ Maxims, No. 261.
417. _The picture of ‘The Misers.’_ _Les deux Avares_ of Quentin Metzys
or Massys (1466–1531). Hazlitt describes the picture in his
_Sketches of the Principal Picture Galleries in England_
(Pictures at Windsor Castle).
Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, (late) Printers to Her Majesty at the
Edinburgh University Press
-----
Footnote 1:
Mr Holcroft has made use of this incident in the first Volume of Hugh
Trevor, see p. 40.
Footnote 2:
One Keys, who was also a contemporary of Mr H. in Stanton’s company,
and has since been a dancing-master, was the father of Mrs. Mills, who
played the Spoiled Child, Sophia, in The Road to Ruin, etc.
Footnote 3:
Weston is celebrated for his unrivalled power of face, for looking the
fool more naturally than any one else. Mr Holcroft speaks of him in
the following manner in the Theatrical Recorder.—‘As an actor, I
remember him well: to think of a few unrivalled performers, and to
forget Weston, is impossible. The range of characters that he
personated was confined. The parts in which he excited such uncommon
emotion, were those of low humour. He was the most irresistible in
those of perfect simplicity: his peculiar talent was the pure
personification of nature. I do not think it possible for an actor to
be less conscious than Weston appeared to be, that he was acting.
While the audience was convulsed with laughter, he was perfectly
unmoved: no look, no motion of the body, ever gave the least
intimation that he knew himself to be Thomas Weston. Never for a
moment was Thomas Weston present: it was always either Jerry Sneak,
Doctor Last, Abel Drugger, Scrub, Sharp, or the very character,
whatever it was, he stood there to perform; and it was performed with
such a consistent and peculiar humour, it was so entirely distinct
from any thing we call acting, and so perfect a resemblance of the
person whom the pencil of the poet had depicted, that not only was the
laughter excessive, nay sometimes almost painful, but the most
critical mind was entirely satisfied. I doubt if Garrick, or any other
actor, had so complete a power of disguising himself, and of assuming
a character with so little deviation from the conception he had
previously formed. It was not only a perfect whole, but it was also
unique.
‘He first appeared in tragedy, which he always considered as his
forte, though he was utterly unqualified for it. It was much against
his will that he was accidentally forced to play Scrub in the Beaux’
Stratagem, when he threw every one into raptures, except himself. Even
the very boys followed him in the streets, exclaiming, “There—that’s
he that played Scrub!” His first appearance in London was at a booth
in Bartholomew Fair. He was afterwards engaged by Foote, who was the
first person who introduced him to public notice, and who wrote the
part of Jerry Sneak expressly for him. Several stories are told of the
readiness of his wit, and presence of mind.
‘Shuter had long been the favourite of the galleries; and Weston,
before he was well known, appeared as a substitute for Shuter, in the
part of Sharp. Shuter’s name was in the play-bills; and when Weston
appeared, the galleries vociferated, “Shuter, Shuter!” Mrs. Clive
played the part of Kitty Pry, and was no less a favourite than the
other. The uproar continued, and nothing could be heard but “Shuter,
Shuter!” As soon as it was possible to be heard, Weston, in his own
inimitable and humourous manner, asked aloud, in a seriously stupid
amazement, and pointing to Mrs. Clive,—“Shoot her! Shoot her! Why
should I shoot her? I am sure she plays her part very well!” The
apparent earnestness and simplicity with which he asked this question,
were so inimitable, and it so truly applied to the excellent acting of
Mrs. Clive, that the burst of laughter was universal, and the applause
which Weston deserved, attended him through the part.
‘Weston was no less remarkable for his dissipation and poverty, than
for his comic excellence. It happened on a day that his name was in
the play-bills, that he was arrested for a small sum, which he applied
to the managers to discharge, which request they refused. Being known
to the bailiff, Weston prevailed on him and his follower to go with
him to the play, where he placed himself and them in the front of the
two-shilling gallery.—Before the curtain drew up, an apology was made,
that Mr Weston, being ill, could not possibly attend; and it was
therefore hoped, another performer might supply his place. Weston
rose, as he intended, and declared aloud, the apology was entirely
false; he was there, well, and ready to do his part, but that he was
in custody for a small debt, for which, though entreated, the managers
had refused to give security. Weston had well foreseen the
consequences: the managers were obliged to set him free. Another actor
would have immediately been expelled the theatre; but for Weston no
substitute could be found.’—Vol. ii. p. 112.
The reason has often been asked, why actors are imprudent and
extravagant. An answer may be found in the very nature of their
profession. They live in a world of fancy, of artificial life and
gaiety, and necessarily become careless of the real consequences of
their actions. They make realities of imaginary things, and very
naturally turn realities into a jest. Besides, all persons are so, who
have no settled prospects in life before them.
Footnote 4:
_Hugh Trevor_, vol. iii.
Footnote 5:
The Family Picture, I think, from memory, was published by Lockyer
Davis, in 1781, and the Sceptic a year or more afterwards. The latter
work has no plan, but in some parts it shews a more extensive power of
imagination and strength of general induction, than he had before
exhibited in any of his writings.—The colloquial language of the
connecting parts of his Family Picture, is poor and inelegant; and has
none of that easy, clear, and unaffected spirit which characterizes
his Tales of the Castle, and still more his Hugh Trevor.
Footnote 6:
To dance attendance on the great seems, at this period of his life, to
have been very much Mr Holcroft’s fate; but it certainly was an office
for which he was by nature but indifferently fitted. In the present
instance, his chief solicitude was to obtain an insight into the
character and pursuits of the fashionable world. The ordeal he went
thro’ for this purpose, must frequently have been a severe one to his
feelings. But as far as his present object was concerned, even the
repulses he met with, or the distance at which he was kept, would
still in some measure advance him towards the end he had in view. He
seems to have profited by his experience, and has left several lively
sketches of that part of the manners of the great, which relates to
their intercourse with men of letters. I do not know that the
following picture is true in all its particulars, but the general
feelings it describes, were suggested to him by the reception he met
with on his application to the Duchess of Devonshire.
‘On another occasion, an actress, who, strange to tell, happened, very
deservedly, to be popular; and whom, before she arrived at the dignity
of a London theatre, I had known in the country, recommended me to a
duchess. To this duchess I went day after day; and day after day was
subjected for hours to the prying, unmannered insolence of her
countless lacqueys. This time she was not yet stirring, though it was
two o’clock in the afternoon; the next, she was engaged with an
Italian vender of artificial flowers; the day after, the prince, and
the devil does not know who beside, were with her; and so on, till
patience and spleen were at daggers drawn. At last, from the hall I
was introduced to the drawing-room, where I was half amazed to find
myself. Could it be real? Should I, after all, see a creature so
elevated; so unlike the poor compendium of flesh and blood with which
I crawled about the earth? Why, it was to be hoped that I should!
Still she did not come; and I stood fixed, gazing at the objects
around me, longer perhaps than I can now well guess. The carpet was so
rich, that I was afraid my shoes would disgrace it! The chairs were so
superb, that I should insult them by sitting down! The sofas swelled
in such luxurious state, that for an author to breathe upon them would
be contamination! I made the daring experiment of pressing with a
single finger upon the proud cushion, and the moment the pressure was
removed, it rose again with elastic arrogance; an apt prototype of the
dignity it was meant to sustain. Though alone, I blushed at my own
littleness! Two or three times the familiars of the mansion skipped
and glided by me; in at this door, and out at that; seeing, yet not
noticing me. It was well they did not, or I should have sunk with the
dread of being mistaken for a thief, that had gained a furtive
entrance, to load himself with some parcel of the magnificence, that
to poverty appeared so tempting! This time, however, I was not wholly
disappointed: I had a sight of the duchess, or rather a glimpse. “Her
carriage was waiting. She had been so infinitely delayed by my lord
and my lady, and his highness, and Signora!—Was exceedingly
sorry!—Would speak to me another time, to-morrow at three o’clock, but
had not a moment to spare at present, and so vanished!” Shall I say
she treated me proudly, and made me feel my insignificance? No; the
little that she did say was affable; the tone was conciliating, the
eye encouraging, and the countenance expressed the habitual desire of
conferring kindness. But these were only aggravating circumstances,
that shewed the desirableness of that intercourse which to me was
unattainable. I say to me, for those who had a less delicate sense of
propriety, who were more importunate, more intruding, and whose
forehead was proof against repulse, were more successful. By such
people she was besieged; on such she lavished her favours, till report
said that she impoverished herself; for a tale of distress, whether
feigned or real, if obtruded upon her, she knew not how to
resist.’—Hugh Trevor, Vol. iii.
Footnote 7:
The Count was at the head of that party in France, who either did, or
affected to admire Shakspeare.
Footnote 8:
It was not Rivington the Bookseller, but John Rivington, the Printer,
of St. John’s Square, who died about the time of Mr Holcroft’s return,
or (I believe) before it. He was one of the sons of Mr Rivington, then
bookseller of St. Paul’s Church Yard, whose other sons still carry on
the business of book-selling. Mr John Rivington engaged in an
agreement, or adventure with Mr Holcroft, that works were to be
selected, and translated by him, and published for their joint and
equal account, he (Mr Rivington,) advancing money to Mr Holcroft, as a
loan for his expenses.—The reason why he was not punctual in his
remittances was, that he was much distressed for money to carry on his
own extensive business of printing. John Rivington was a good-natured,
worthy man, much esteemed by his friends. He died before the middle
period of life, of a typhous fever, some time about the year 1785, or
1786.
Footnote 9:
I believe it is in The Connoisseurs, that a yawning scene was
introduced by the author, who being also the manager, found great
difficulty in getting it acted to his mind. He was met one morning by
Macklin, coming out from a rehearsal, and looking rather discontented,
the other asked what was the matter? ‘I can’t get these fellows to
yawn,’ was the answer. ‘Oh if that’s all, said Macklin, you have only
to read them the first act of The Man of Business’; a dull play of
that name, by Colman.
Footnote 10:
Mr Holcroft, as it appears from this letter, had brought his son
William with him from France.
Footnote 11:
Mr Holcroft long projected a work, of which Frederick II. was to have
been the hero, and the subject the effects of war and despotism. He
made considerable preparations for this work; for he had completely
lined a large closet with books, which were to furnish the materials,
direct or collateral, for writing his history of _bad_ governments.
Footnote 12:
Sophy, Mr Holcroft’s second daughter, had a little before been married
to Mr Cole, a merchant at Exeter.
Footnote 13:
The remainder of Mr Holcroft’s pamphlet is taken up with Letters to
different persons concerned in the prosecution, and the larger defence
which he had prepared in case he should be brought to a trial. They
evidently shew more virtue, firmness, and honesty, than prudence or
management, and denote something of the raised tone of the public
mind. In the letter to Erskine, which is a truly eloquent composition,
the following _trait_ is mentioned. While Erskine was examining the
spy Alexander, who, had he not been detected, might have sworn away
the life of Hardy; this eminent barrister, observing his downcast
countenance, and suddenly interrupting him, exclaimed—‘Look at the
jury, Sir! Don’t look at me. I have seen enough of you.’
Mr Holcroft, in the second part of his defence, labours the point of a
parliamentary reform; and among other proofs of the corrupt state of
representation, cites the following curious one.
‘The Borough of Gatton, within these two years, was publicly
advertised for sale by auction: not sold for a single parliament; but
the fee-simple of the Borough, with the power of nominating the two
representatives for ever. On the day of sale, the celebrated
auctioneer scarcely noticed the value of the estate. The rental, the
mansion, the views, the woods and waters, were unworthy regard,
compared to what he called _an elegant contingency_! Yes, the right of
nominating two members to parliament, without the embarrassment of
voters, was _an elegant contingency_! “Need I tell you, gentlemen,”
said he, glancing round the room with ineffable self-satisfaction, and
exulting in what he called “the jewel, the unique, which was under his
hammer; need I tell you, gentlemen, that this _elegant contingency_ is
the only infallible source of fortune, titles, and honours, in this
happy country? That it leads to the highest situations in the state?
And that, meandering through the tempting sinuosities of ambition, the
purchaser will find the margin strewed with roses, and his head
quickly crowned with those precious garlands that flourish in full
vigour round the fountain of honour? On this halcyon sea, if any
gentleman who has made his fortune in either of the Indies chooses
once more to embark, he may repose in perfect quiet. No hurricanes to
dread; no tempestuous passions to allay; no tormenting claims of
insolent electors to evade; no tinkers’ wives to kiss; no impossible
promises to make; none of the toilsome and not very clean paths of
canvassing to drudge through: but, his mind at ease and his conscience
clear, with this elegant contingency in his pocket, the honours of the
state await his plucking, and with its emoluments his purse will
overflow.”
Footnote 14:
The above passage was written in a state of perfect security against
the return of that pleasant phrase, _divine right_. Every thing is by
comparison.
Footnote 15:
Though the character of Mr Windham, as a statesman and orator, was
less developed at that time, than it has been since, it seems to have
been justly appreciated by our author. He considered him as the
disciple of Mr Burke; and it is certainly some distinction to be able
to understand the arguments, and follow the enthusiastic flights of
that great, but irregular mind. He is at present (with one exception)
the ablest speaker in the House of Commons: but he is still, and ever
will be nothing more than an imitator of Burke. There is in all his
speeches, an infinite fund of wit, of information, of reading, of
ingenuity, of taste, of refinement, of every thing but force and
originality: but of these last, there is a total absence. All is
borrowed, artificial, cast like plaster figures in a mould. The
creations of his mind are as multiplied, and they are as brittle.
Perhaps it may be thought that the want of originality is the last
thing which should be objected to this delightful speaker, all whose
sentences sparkle with singularity and paradox. But this effect is
equally mechanical with the rest. Real originality produces
occasional, not systematic paradox. He who always waits to contradict
others, has no opinion of his own. It is as easy to predict the side
which Mr Windham will take on any question as to guess what the first
old woman you meet, would think on the same subject; for you may be
sure that his opinion will be the contrary of hers. His creed is a
sort of antithesis to common sense, and he is as much the slave of
vulgar prejudices in always opposing, as if he always yielded to them.
Originality consists in considering things as they are, independently
of what others think, singularity is mere common-place transposed. The
one requires the utmost exercise of the judgment, the other suspends
the use of it altogether. [These remarks were written in 1810, before
Mr Windham’s death.]
Footnote 16:
The late Rev. Joseph Fawcett, author of The Art of War, &c. It was he
who delivered the Sunday evening lectures at the Old Jewry, which were
so popular about twenty years ago. He afterwards retired to Hedgegrove
in Hertfordshire. It was here that I first became acquainted with him,
and passed some of the pleasantest days of my life. He was the friend
of my early youth. He was the first person of literary eminence, whom
I had then known; and the conversations I had with him on subjects of
taste and philosophy, (for his taste was as refined as his powers of
reasoning were profound and subtle) gave me a delight, such as I can
never feel again.
The writings of Sterne, Fielding, Cervantes, Richardson, Rousseau,
Godwin, Goethe, &c. were the usual subjects of our discourse, and the
pleasure I had had, in reading these authors, seemed more than
doubled. Of all the persons I have ever known, he was the most
perfectly free from every taint of jealousy or narrowness. Never did a
mean or sinister motive come near his heart. He was one of the most
enthusiastic admirers of the French Revolution; and I believe that the
disappointment of the hopes he had cherished of the freedom and
happiness of mankind, preyed upon his mind, and hastened his death.
EDITOR.
Footnote 17:
The Pantisocrasy Scheme.
Footnote 18:
The Marquis de Dampierre, with whom I was very intimate at Paris in
1783. He received a mortal wound on the 8th of May, 1793, of which he
died on the 10th, when he was Commander in Chief, and which battle the
French gained.
T. H.
Footnote 19:
This letter is a translation from the French.
Footnote 20:
‘Sweet bird, thy bower is ever green,
Thy sky is ever clear;
Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year.’
So they begin. It was the month of May; the cuckoo sang shrouded in
some woody copse; the showers fell between whiles; my friend repeated
the lines with native enthusiasm in a clear manly voice, still
resonant of youth and hope. Mr Wordsworth will excuse me, if in these
circumstances I declined entering the field with his profounder
metaphysical strain, and kept my preference to myself.
Footnote 21:
There is a pleasant instance of this mentioned in the Tatler. There
was an actor of that day who could play nothing but the Apothecary in
Romeo and Juliet. He succeeded so well in this, that he grew fat upon
it, when he was set aside; and having then nothing to do, pined away
till he become qualified for the part again, and had another run in
it.
Footnote 22:
Milton was a beautiful youth, and yet he wrote Paradise Lost.
Footnote 23:
‘Leviathan.’
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
2. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as
printed.
3. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together
at the end of the last chapter.
4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
5. Enclosed bold font in =equals=.
6. Superscripts are denoted by a caret before a single superscript
character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in
curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.