_Hobbes_, Thomas (1588-1679), the English philosopher. His chief work is
"Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth,
Ecclesiastical and Civil" (1651). Hazlitt vindicated the superiority of
Hobbes as a thinker at a time when his fame was overshadowed by other
reputations. He calls him the founder of the modern material philosophy
and maintains that "the true reason of the fate which this author's
writings met with was that his views of things were too original and
comprehensive to be immediately understood, without passing through the
hands of several successive generations of commentators and interpreters.
Ignorance of another's meaning is a sufficient cause of fear, and fear
produces hatred." Works, XI, 25-48.
_Jonathan Edwards_ (1703-1758). In writing "On the Tendency of Sects" in
the "Round Table," Hazlitt had alluded to Edwards as an Englishman and had
spoken of his work on the Will as "written with as much power of logic,
and more in the true spirit of philosophy, than any other metaphysical
work in the language."
P. 327, n. _Lord Bacon_, Francis (1561-1626), statesman, scientist, and
man of letters. His chief works are the "Essays" (1597), the "Advancement
of Learning" (1604), "Novum Organum" (1620), "History of Henry VII"
(1622).
P. 328. _Dugald Stewart_ (1753-1828), Scotch philosopher.
_Duchess of Bolton_. Lavinia Fenton (1708-1760), the original Polly in
Gay's "Beggar's Opera," married the Duke of Bolton in 1751.
P. 329. _Raphael_, Sanzio (1483-1520), the greatest of all the Italian
painters.
_Lucretia Borgia with calm golden locks_. This sounds like a striking
anticipation of Landor's fine line, "Calm hair meandering in pellucid
gold" in his poem "On Lucretia Borgia's Hair." Or had Hazlitt seen the
poem before it was published?
_Michael Angelo_ (1475-1564), poet, painter, architect, and sculptor, the
most famous of the great Italian artists.
_Correggio_ (1494-1534), _Giorgione_ (1477-1510), _Guido_ (1575-1642),
_Cimabue_ (1240-1302), _Vandyke_ (1599-1641). The other painters are
mentioned elsewhere in this volume.
_whose names on earth_. In his review of Sismondi's "Literature of the
South" (Works, X, 62) Hazlitt cites among the proofs of Dante's poetic
power "his description of the poets and great men of antiquity, whom he
represents 'serene and smiling,' though in the shades of death, 'because
on earth their names in fame's eternal records shine for aye.'" As these
lines have not been located in Dante, they have been ascribed to the lying
memory of Lamb, from whose lips Hazlitt learned them.
P. 330. _Mrs. Hutchinson_, Lucy (b. 1620), whose life of her Puritan
husband, Colonel Hutchinson, had appeared in 1806, presumably shortly
before the conversation recorded in this essay.
_one in the room_. Mary Lamb, the sister of the essayist.
_Ninon de Lenclos_ (1615-1705), for a long time the leader of fashion in
Paris and the patroness of poets.
_Voltaire_ (1694-1778), the sceptical philosopher of the Enlightenment;
_Rabelais_ (1490-1553), the greatest French humorist, author of "Gargantua
and Pantagruel"; _Moliere_ (1622-1673), the master of French comedy;
_Racine_ (1639-1699), the master of French classic tragedy; _La Fontaine_
(1621-1695), author of the "Fables"; _La Rochefoucauld_ (1613-1680),
celebrated for his book of cynical "Maxims" which Hazlitt imitated in his
"Characteristics"; _St. Evremont_ (1610-1703), a critic.
P. 331. _Your most exquisite reason_. Cf. "Twelfth Night," ii, 3, 155.
_Oh, ever right_. "Coriolanus," ii, 1, 208.
_H----_. This speech is attributed to Lamb in "Literary Remains," but
wrongly so according to Waller and Glover "because, in the first place,
the speech seems more characteristic of Hunt than of Lamb, and, secondly,
because the volume of the New Monthly in which the essay appeared contains
a list of errata in which two corrections (one of them relating to
initials) are made in the essay and yet this 'H----' is left uncorrected."