The present selection of Hazlitt's critical essays has been planned to
serve two important purposes. In the first place it provides the materials
for an estimate of the character and scope of Hazlitt's contributions to
criticism and so acquaints students with one of the greatest of English
critics. And in the second place, what is perhaps more important, such a
selection, embodying a series of appreciations of the great English
writers, should prove helpful in the college teaching of literature. There
is no great critic who by his readableness and comprehensiveness is as
well qualified as Hazlitt to aid in bringing home to students the power
and the beauty of the essential things in literature. There is, in him a
splendid stimulating energy which has not yet been sufficiently utilized.
The contents have been selected and arranged to present a chronological
and almost continuous account of English literature from its beginning in
the age of Elizabeth down to Hazlitt's own day, the period of the romantic
revival. To the more strictly critical essays there have been added a few
which reveal Hazlitt's intimate intercourse with books and also with their
writers, whether he knew them in the flesh or only through the printed
page. Such vivid revelations of personal contact contribute much to
further the chief aim of this volume, which is to introduce the reader to
a direct and spontaneous view of literature.
The editor's introduction, in trying to fix formally Hazlitt's position as
a critic, of necessity takes account of his personality, which cannot be
dissociated from his critical practice. The notes, in addition to
identifying quotations and explaining allusions, indicate the nature of
Hazlitt's obligations to earlier and contemporary critics. They contain a
body of detailed information, which may be used, if so desired, for
disciplinary purposes. The text here employed is that of the last form
published in Hazlitt's own lifetime, namely, that of the second edition in
the case of the Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, the lectures on the
poets and on the age of Elizabeth, and the Spirit of the Age, and the
first edition of the Comic Writers, the Plain Speaker, and the Political
Essays. A slight departure from this procedure in the case of the essay on
"Elia" is explained in the notes. "My First Acquaintance with Poets," and
"Of Persons One Would Wish to Have Seen" are taken from the periodicals in
which they first appeared, as they were not republished in book-form till
after Hazlitt's death. Hazlitt's own spellings and punctuation are
retained.
To all who have contributed to the study and appreciation of Hazlitt, the
present editor desires to make general acknowledgement--to Alexander
Ireland, Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, Mr. Birrell, and Mr. Saintsbury. Mention
should also be made of Mr. Nichol Smith's little volume of Hazlitt's
Essays on Poetry (Blackwood's), and of the excellent treatment of Hazlitt
in Professor Oliver Elton's Survey of English Literature from 1780 to
1830, which came to hand after this edition had been completed. A debt of
special gratitude is owing to Mr. Glover and Mr. Waller for their splendid
edition of Hazlitt's Collected Works (in twelve volumes with an index,
Dent 1902-1906). All of Hazlitt's quotations have been identified with the
help of this edition. References to Hazlitt's own writings, when cited by
volume and page, apply to the edition of Glover and Waller.
Finally I wish to express my sincere thanks to Professor G. P. Krapp for
his friendly cooperation in the planning and carrying out of this volume,
and to him and to my colleague, Professor S. P. Sherman, for helpful
criticism of the introduction.