APHORISMS ON MAN
Now republished for the first time. In _The Monthly Magazine_ they
appeared as follows: I.–XI. October 1830; XII.–XXXVI. November 1830;
XXXVII.–XLVII. December 1830; XLVIII.–LV. April 1831; LVI.–LXVI. May
1831; LXVII.–LXX. June 1831. They are described as ‘by the late William
Hazlitt.’
PAGE
210. _Monmouth-street._ In St. Giles’s, now partly occupied by
Shaftesbury Avenue. Allusions to its old-clothes shops are very
frequent in eighteenth-century literature.
211. ‘_In the deep bosom_,’ _etc._ _Richard III._, Act I. Sc. 1.
‘_At one fell swoop._’ _Macbeth_, Act IV. Sc. 3.
214. _O’Connell._ Hazlitt no doubt refers to the proceedings of
O’Connell after his election for Co. Clare in 1828.
215. ‘_The soft collar_,’ _etc._ Burke, _Reflections on the Revolution
in France_ (_Select Works_, ed. Payne, II. 90).
‘_The iron rod_,’ _etc._ Cf.
‘When the scourge inexorably, and the torturing hour,
Calls us to penance.’ _Paradise Lost_, II. 90–2.
217. _An editor._ Cf. _ante_, p. 136.
218. ‘_There goes my wicked self._’ Hazlitt was perhaps thinking of
the saying attributed to John Bradford (1510?–1555), who, on
seeing some criminals going to execution, is said to have
exclaimed: ‘But for the grace of God, there goes John
Bradford.’
‘_To be honest_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act II. Sc. 2.
_L——._? Lamb.
219. ‘_Leave others poor indeed._’ Cf. _Othello_, Act III. Sc. 3.
‘_To be direct_,’ _etc._ _Othello_, Act III. Sc. 3.
220. ‘_Tout homme_,’ _etc._ Cf. vol. I. (_The Round Table_), note to
p. 117.
221. _A popular author._ Scott, no doubt.
‘_Writes himself_,’ _etc._ Cf. _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act
I. Sc. 1.
223. ‘_To triumph_,’ _etc._ Gray, _The Bard_, 142.
224. _A certain bookseller._ Sir Richard Phillips. See vol. VI. (_Mr.
Northcote’s Conversations_), p. 418.
225. ‘_From every work_,’ _etc._ _The Faerie Queene_, I. IV. 20.
226. ‘_Melted_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 2.
_Beau Didapper._ See _Joseph Andrews_, Book IV. chap. IX.
228. ‘_Damned spot._’ _Macbeth_, Act V. Sc. 1.
229. ‘_The web_,’ _etc._ _All’s Well that Ends Well_, Act IV. Sc. 3.
_The Devil’s Elixir_, _etc._ _The Devil’s Elixir, or the
Shadowless Man_, a musical romance by Edward Fitzball
(1792–1873), produced at Covent Garden, April 20, 1829; _The
Bottle Imp_, a melodrama by Richard Brinsley Peake (1792–1847),
produced at the Lyceum, July 7, 1828, and at Covent Garden,
Oct. 17, 1828.
_Mr. Farley._ Charles Farley (1771–1859), the actor, to whose
skill as a theatrical machinist at Covent Garden Hazlitt here
refers.
230. ‘_La Belle Assemblée’s dresses for May._’ Cf. ‘In the manner
of—Ackerman’s dresses for May’ (Moore, _Horace_, XI. ii.),
quoted elsewhere by Hazlitt.
_M. Stultz._ M. Stulz, the well-known tailor, referred to by
Bulwer in _Pelham_ and (more than once) by Thackeray.
A CHAPTER ON EDITORS
Republished with some omissions in _Sketches and Essays_. In the
Magazine there is the following note by the Editor:—‘We give insertion
to this article, one of the posthumous papers of Mr. Hazlitt, to shew
that we do not consider ourselves implicated in the abuses complained
of; and that we have no right to any share of indignation so whimsically
lavished upon our fraternity. Ed.’
PAGE
230. ‘_Our withers_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 2.
‘_Tittle-tattle._’ The phrase is so printed in the Magazine and
in _Sketches and Essays_, but Hazlitt probably wrote ‘kittle
cattle,’ a distinctively Scots expression for what he meant to
say.
‘_Lay the flattering unction_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc.
4.
231. _As Mr. Horne Tooke said_, _etc._ See vol. IV. (_The Spirit of
the Age_), p. 236 and note.
232. _We only know one Editor._ Hazlitt possibly refers to the Editor
of _Blackwood’s Magazine_.
_We will not mention names_, _etc._ This sentence was omitted in
_Sketches and Essays_.
‘_More subtle web_,’ _etc._ _The Faerie Queene_, II. xii. 77.
233. _The conductor_, _etc._ This sentence and the next but one were
omitted in _Sketches and Essays_.
‘_Here’s the rub._’ Cf. _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 1.
THE LETTER-BELL
Reprinted with considerable omissions in _Sketches and Essays_.
235 ‘_One entire_,’ _etc._ _Othello_, Act V. Sc. 2
_Blue hills._ Cf. vol. VI. (_Table-Talk_), p. 256.
236. ‘_I should notice_,’ _etc._ A long passage from this point to
‘accumulate to a tolerable sum’ (p. 237) was omitted from
_Sketches and Essays_.
_From —— to ——._ _Sketches and Essays_ reads ‘From Wem to
Shrewsbury.’ Cf. _My First Acquaintance with Poets_, _post_, p.
260.
‘_And by the vision splendid_,’ _etc._ Cf. Wordsworth’s Ode,
_Intimations of Immortality_, 73–74.
‘_What though the radiance_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._ 179–82.
‘_Like morn_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Paradise Lost_, v. 310–11.
_And may he not yet greet the yellow light_, _etc._ Cf. _post_,
p. 271.
‘_And from his neck so free_,’ _etc._ _The Ancient Mariner_,
289–91.
238. _Vangoyen._ Jan Van Goyen (1596–1666), one of whose landscapes,
it would seem, Hazlitt had copied.
‘_The slow canal_,’ _etc._ Goldsmith, _The Traveller_, 293–4.
‘_While with an eye_,’ _etc._ Wordsworth, _Lines composed a few
miles above Tintern Abbey_, 47–49.
‘_The secrets_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 5.
‘_Entire affection_,’ _etc._ Cf. _The Faerie Queene_, I. viii.
40.
‘_His shame_,’ _etc._ Cf. Goldsmith, _The Deserted Village_, 412.
‘_Made good digestion_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Macbeth_, Act III. Sc. 4.
239. _An ingenious friend and arch-critic._ ? Jeffrey.
‘_More germain_ [germane],’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act V. Sc. 2.
240. ‘_Hark!_’ _etc._ Cowper, _The Task_, IV. 1, _et seq._
_Lord Byron denies_, _etc._ See vol. VI. (_Table-Talk_), p. 210
and note, and vol. XI. (_Fugitive Writings_), p. 492.
240. _The telegraphs._ A system of semaphores, presumably. Electric
telegraphs belong to a later date.
_The new revolution._ The Revolution of July 1830. Cf. _post_,
pp. 456, _et seq._
_The beacon-fires._ See the _Agamemnon_ of Æschylus, ll. 281–316.
ON THE SPIRIT OF MONARCHY
Republished in _Literary Remains_. The essay was published (? 1835) as a
pamphlet (together with ‘The Moral Effects of Aristocracy,’ by Godwin).
PAGE
242. ‘_And by the vision_,’ _etc._ See _ante_, note to p. 236.
_The madman in Hogarth._ _The Rake’s Progress_, Plate VIII.
‘_There goes_,’ _etc._ Cf. _ante_, p. 218.
_We once heard_, _etc._ In vol. VI. (_Mr. Northcote’s
Conversations_), p. 387, this sentiment is attributed to a ‘Mr.
R——.’ It is clear from the present passage that this person was
not Mr. Railton, but William Roscoe (1753–1831), the well-known
historian, and that therefore the reading of _The London Weekly
Review_ was correct. See note to vol. VI. p. 387.
243. ‘_That within_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 2.
‘_To fear_,’ _etc._ _Othello_, Act I. Sc. 2.
244. ‘_Peep through_,’ _etc._ _Macbeth_, Act I. Sc. 5.
‘_Great is Diana_,’ _etc._ _Acts_ xix. 28.
‘_Your gods_,’ _etc._ Cf. _S. Matthew_ xiii. 13.
_In contempt of their worshippers._ Cf. Burke’s _Reflections on
the Revolution in France_ (_Select Works_, ed. Payne, II. 17).
Note. Dryden, _Absalom and Achitophel_, I. 100–3.
245. ‘_Gods partial_,’ _etc._ Pope, _An Essay on Man_, III. 257–8.
‘_Any mark_,’ _etc._ Cf. I _Henry IV._ Act III. Sc. 2.
246. Note. See vol. III. (_Political Essays_), p. 298 and notes.
247. ‘_From the crown_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Isaiah_ i. 6.
_Virtue, says Montesquieu_, _etc._ _Esprit des Lois_, III. 6.
‘_Honour dishonourable._’ _Paradise Lost_, IV. 314–15.
‘_Of outward shew_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Ibid._ VIII. 538–9.
248. ‘_To tread_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 3.
‘_Nice customs_,’ _etc._ _Henry V._ Act V. Sc. 2.
‘_In form and motion_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Hamlet_, Act II. Sc. 2.
‘_Vice is undone_,’ _etc._ Pope, _Epilogue to the Satires_, I.
142–9.
249. _A Coronation-day._ The coronation of George IV. had taken place
on July 19, 1821.
250. _Prince Leopold._ Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (1790–1865), who
had married the Princess Charlotte, and afterwards (1831)
became King of the Belgians.
_Castlereagh ... unstained_, _etc._ Castlereagh committed suicide
on Aug. 12, 1822.
‘_A present deity_,’ _etc._ Dryden, _Alexander’s Feast_, 35–6.
251. ‘_Worth makes the man_,’ _etc._ Pope, _An Essay on Man_, IV.
203–4.
‘_The only amaranthine flower_,’ _etc._ Cowper, _The Task_, III.
268–9.
252. ‘_A man may read_,’ _etc._ _Holy Dying_, chap. i. § 2.
ON THE SCOTCH CHARACTER
Now republished for the first time. See Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s _Memoirs,
etc._ (1867), I. xxvii.
PAGE
253. ‘_Edina’s darling seat._’ ‘Edina! Scotia’s darling seat!’ Burns,
_Address to Edinburgh_.
253. _Lismahago._ In _Humphry Clinker_.
254. _Lord Erskine._ Lord Erskine was entertained at a banquet in
Edinburgh on Feb. 21, 1820. He had not been in Scotland for
more than fifty years.
255. _Teres et_ [atque] _rotundus_. Horace, _Satires_, II. vii. 86.
_A very learned man._ (?) Sir David Brewster, editor of _The
Edinburgh Encyclopædia_. Cf. _post_, p. 316.
_Mr. Macvey Napier._ Macvey Napier (1776–1847), editor of a
supplement to the 4th, 5th, and 6th editions and of the 7th
edition of _The Encyclopædia Britannica_, and Jeffrey’s
successor as editor of _The Edinburgh Review_. Hazlitt had
contributed to the Supplement. See vol. IX. (_Essays on the
Fine Arts_), p. 377 and note. In _A Selection from the
Correspondence of the late Macvey Napier, Esq._ (1879), p. 21,
there is the following letter from Hazlitt to Napier:—
‘Winterslow Hut, near Salisbury,
‘_August 26, 1818_.
‘MY DEAR SIR,—I am sorry to be obliged, from want of health and a
number of other engagements, which I am little able to perform,
to decline the flattering offer you make me. I have got to
write, between this and the end of October, an octavo volume or
a set of lectures on the Comic Drama of this country for the
Surrey Institution, which I am anxious not to slur over, and it
will be as much as I can do to get it ready in time. I am also
afraid that I should not be able to do the article in question,
or yourself, justice, for I am not only without books, but
without knowledge of what books are necessary to be consulted
on the subject. To get up an article in a Review on any subject
of general literature is quite as much as I can do without
exposing myself. The object of an Encyclopædia is, I take it,
to condense and combine all the facts relating to a subject,
and all the theories of any consequence already known or
advanced. Now, where the business of such a work ends, is just
where I begin, that is, I might perhaps throw in an idle
speculation or two of my own, not contained in former accounts
of the subject, and which would have very little pretensions to
rank as scientific. I know something about Congreve, but
nothing at all of Aristophanes, and yet I conceive that the
writer of an article on the _Drama_ ought to be as well
acquainted with the one as the other. If you should see Mr.
Constable, will you tell him I am writing _nonsense_ for him as
fast as I can?—Your very humble servant,
W. HAZLITT.’
It is difficult to know what ‘nonsense’ Hazlitt was writing for
Constable.
256. ‘_Damnable iteration._’ _1 Henry IV._, Act I. Sc. 2.
_Not like La Fleur_, _etc._ See Sterne, _The Sentimental
Journey_, The Passport, Paris.
Note 1. _Cockney School of Poetry._ See vol. VI. (_Table-Talk_),
99 and note.
Note 1. ‘_Kernes and Gallowglasses._’ _Macbeth_, Act I. Sc. 2.
258. ‘_Sins_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Hebrews_ xii. 1.
_A much-talked-of publication._ Hazlitt no doubt refers to _The
Beacon_, which, like _John Bull_, was intended to counteract
the progress of Radical doctrine during the period of the
Queen’s trial. For an account of it and of Scott’s connection
with it, see Lockhart’s _Life of Scott_, v. 152–3.
‘_Leaning_,’ _etc._ Cf. _The Faerie Queene_, I. vi. 14.
259. _The editor._ Theodore Hook, the editor of _John Bull_, was an
Englishman.
‘_Entire affection_,’ _etc._ Cf. _The Faerie Queene_, I. viii.
40.
MY FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH POETS
Republished in _Literary Remains_ and _Winterslow_. The germ of the
essay appeared in a short letter to _The Examiner_, reprinted in
_Political Essays_. See vol. III. pp. 152–3 and notes.
PAGE
259. _W——m._ Wem.
‘_Dreaded name_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, II. 964–5.
‘_Fluttering_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Coriolanus_, Act V. Sc. 6.
260. ‘_High-born Hoel’s harp_,’ _etc._ Gray, _The Bard_, 28.
‘_Bound them_,’ _etc._ Pope, _Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day_, 90–91.
_The fires in the Agamemnon._ Cf. _ante_, p. 240 and note.
_It was in January_, _etc._ This paragraph and the next are from
_The Examiner_. See the notes to vol. III. (_Political
Essays_), pp. 152–3.
262. ‘_As are the children_,’ _etc._ Cf. Thomson, _The Castle of
Indolence_, II. xxxiii.
‘_A certain tender bloom_,’ _etc._ Cf. _ante_, p. 207 and note.
‘_Somewhat fat and pursy._’ Cf. ‘He’s fat and scant of breath’
(_Hamlet_, Act V. Sc. 2), and ‘For in the fatness of these
pursy times,’ etc. (_Ibid._ Act III. Sc. 4).
263. ‘_No figures_,’ _etc._ _Julius Cæsar_, Act II. Sc. 1.
264. Note 1. For an account of the Rev. William Hazlitt, see Mr. W. C.
Hazlitt’s _Four Generations of a Literary Family_, The First
Generation.
265. _T. Wedgwood._ A Life of Tom Wedgwood was published recently
(1903) by the late Mr. R. B. Litchfield.
‘_Sounding on his way._’ See vol. IV. (_The Spirit of the Age_),
note to p. 214.
266. _Credat Judæus Apella!_ Horace, _Satires_, I. v. 100.
‘_Thus I refute him, Sir._’ See Boswell’s _Life_ (ed. G. B.
Hill), I. 471.
267. ‘_Kind and affable_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Paradise Lost_, VIII. 648–50.
_He has somewhere told himself._ See _Biographia Literaria_,
chap. x.
_That other Vision of Judgment._ Byron’s, first published in _The
Liberal_, No. 1.
_Bridge-street junto._ Cf. vol. VI. (_Table-Talk_), p. 190 and
note.
268. _Tom Jones and the adventure of the muff._ See _Tom Jones_, Book
X. chap. v. _et seq._
_At Tewkesbury._ According to the essay ‘On Going a Journey,’ it
was at Bridgwater. See vol. VI. (_Table-Talk_), p. 186.
269. _A friend of the poet’s._ This is a mistake. Wordsworth paid £23
a year for Alfoxden. The agreement is given in Mrs. Henry
Sandford’s _Thomas Poole and his Friends_, I. 225.
270. ‘_In spite of pride_,’ _etc._ Pope, _An Essay on Man_, I. 293.
‘_While yet_,’ _etc._ Cf. Thomson, _The Seasons_, Spring, 18.
‘_Of Providence_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, II. 559–560.
271. _Chantry’s bust._ Sir Francis Chantrey’s bust, now at Coleorton.
_Castle Spectre._ Originally produced (at Drury Lane) December
14, 1797.
‘_His face_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Macbeth_, Act I. Sc. 5.
272. _Tom Poole._ Thomas Poole (1765–1837), for an account of whom see
Mrs. Sandford’s _Thomas Poole and his Friends_.
‘_Followed in the chase_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Othello_, Act II. Sc. 3.
_Sir Walter Scott’s_, _etc._ Hazlitt probably refers to the
banquet given to George IV. by the Magistrates of Edinburgh,
August 24, 1822.
273. _The Death of Abel._ Solomon Gessner’s _Tod Abels_ (1758).
274. ‘_Ribbed sea-sands._’ _The Ancient Mariner_, 227. This was one of
the lines for which Coleridge was indebted to Wordsworth.
275. ‘_But there is matter_,’ _etc._ Wordsworth, _Hart-leap Well_,
95–96.
PULPIT ORATORY, ETC.
Now reprinted for the first time. See Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s _Memoirs,
etc._, I. xxvii. Cf. the essay on Edward Irving in _The Spirit of the
Age_ (vol. IV. pp. 222–231). After Hazlitt’s essay there follows a
savage attack on Irving (? by T. J. Hogg), as to which the editor says:
‘The following has also lost its way to us. We take it in as a
foundling, but without adopting all its sentiments.’
PAGE
‘_Got the start_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Julius Cæsar_, Act I. Sc. 2.
‘_Kingly Kensington._’ Swift’s Ballad, _Duke Upon Duke_, St. 14.
276. _Lady Bluemount._ Lady Beaumont presumably, the wife of
Wordsworth’s friend, Sir George Howland Beaumont.
_Mr. Botherby._? William Sotheby (1757–1833), whose persistent
attempts as a dramatic author may explain the nickname.
_Mr. Theodore Flash._ Theodore Hook, no doubt, who afterwards
denounced Irving as a humbug. See _John Bull_, July 20, 1823.
Note. _Mr. Dubois._ Edward Dubois (1774–1850), wit and
journalist.
Note. ‘_Rose_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 1.
277. ‘_His foot mercurial_,’ _etc._ _Cymbeline_, Act IV. Sc. 2.
‘_The iron_,’ _etc._ _The Psalter_, Psalm CV. 18.
‘_Come, let me clutch thee._’ _Macbeth_, Act II. Sc. 1.
280. ‘_Spins_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, Act V. Sc. 1.
‘_Loop or peg_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Othello_, Act III. Sc. 3.
281. ‘_Fire hot from Hell._’ Cf. _Julius Cæsar_, Act III. Sc. 1.
282. _The swimmer._ See this passage quoted by Hazlitt in vol. V.
(_Lectures on the Age of Elizabeth_), pp. 323–4.
283. _Mr. Croly._ George Croly (1780–1860), a regular contributor to
_Blackwood’s Magazine_, had published _Paris in 1815_ (1817).
284. ‘_Best virtue._’ Cf. _All’s Well That Ends Well_, Act IV. Sc. 3.
‘_We pause for a reply._’ Cf. _Julius Cæsar_, Act III. Sc. 2.
285. _Daniel Wilson._ Daniel Wilson (1778–1858), at this time
incumbent of St. John’s Chapel, Bedford Row, Bloomsbury,
afterwards Bishop of Calcutta.
‘_Oh! for an eulogy_,’ _etc._ Cf. ‘Oh, for a curse to kill with.’
Otway, _Venice Preserved_, Act II. Sc. 2.
ARGUING IN A CIRCLE
Now reprinted for the first time. See Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s _Memoirs,
etc._, I. xxvii.
PAGE
285. ‘_Fancies and good-nights._’ Cf. _2 Henry IV._, Act III. Sc. 2.
‘_Base cullionly fellow._’ Cf. _2 Henry VI._, Act I. Sc. 3.
‘_Beggarly, unmannered corse._’ Cf. _1 Henry IV._ Act I. Sc. 3.
‘_The age of chivalry_,’ _etc._ Cf. Burke, _Reflections on the
Revolution in France_ (_Select Works_, ed. Payne, II. 89).
‘_The melancholy Jacques_,’ _etc._ _As You Like It_, Act II. Sc.
1.
286. _The present Duke of Buckingham._ Richard Temple Nugent Brydges
Chandos, created Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Feb. 1822.
‘_New manners_,’ _etc._ Thomas Warton, Sonnet, _Written in a
Blank Leaf of Dugdale’s Monasticon_.
‘_Submits_,’ _etc._ Burke, _Reflections on the Revolution in
France_ (_Select Works_, ed. Payne, II. 90).
287. ‘_Long insulted_,’ _etc._ Quoted elsewhere. See vol. III.
(_Political Essays_), pp. 13 and 100.
‘_With jealous leer malign._’ _Paradise Lost_, IV. 503.
288. ‘_Cause was hearted._’ Cf. _Othello_, Act I. Sc. 3.
‘_The open_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Paradise Lost_, X. 112–113.
‘_The shame_,’ _etc._ Cf. _2 Samuel_ i. 16.
289. _The Editor of the New Times._ Dr. Stoddart.
‘_Make the worse_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, II. 114.
‘_So musical_,’ _etc._ _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, IV. 1.
290. ‘_So well_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Paradise Lost_, IX. 549.
_Mr. Canning’s present ... situation._ Canning had become Foreign
Secretary in 1822, and had shortly afterwards acknowledged the
independence of the Spanish American Colonies.
291. ‘_Turnspit of the king’s kitchen._’ See Burke’s ‘Speech on
Economical Reform,’ (_Works_, Bohn, II. 85–86), and cf. vol. I.
(_The Round Table_), p. 427.
‘_Undoing all_,’ _etc._ _2 Henry VI._, Act I. Sc. 1.
‘_Though that their joy_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Othello_, Act I. Sc. 1.
292. ‘_Like an exhalation_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Comus_, 556.
‘_Ride in the whirlwind_,’ _etc._ Addison, _The Campaign_, and
Pope, _The Dunciad_, III. 264.
293. _Noctes_, _etc._ Horace, _Satires_, II. vi. 65.
‘_The beautiful_,’ _etc._ Coleridge, _The Death of Wallenstein_,