Chapter XXIX: Book IV

116. ‘_Poor gentleman_,’ _etc._ Wycherley’s _Love in a Wood_, Act III.
Scene 1.

_Dull._ Wordsworth speaks of _Candide_ as ‘this dull product of a
scoffer’s pen’ (_Excursion_, Book II.) and refers to it again
in Book IV.:—

‘Him I mean
Who penned, to ridicule confiding faith,
This sorry Legend.’

See _ante_, p. 102.

117. _Tout homme reflechi_, _etc._ Cf. ‘J’ose presque assurer que
l’état de réflexion est un état contre nature, et que l’homme
qui médite est un animal dépravé.’ Rousseau’s _Discours sur
l’origine de l’inégalité parmi les hommes_ (édit. Firmin-Didot,
p. 52).

‘_From that abstraction I was roused_,’ _etc._ _Excursion_, Book
III.

118. ‘_For that other loss_,’ _etc._ _Excursion_, Book IV.

119. ‘_What though the radiance_,’ _etc._ _Intimations of
Immortality_, stanza 10.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

From _The Examiner_, October 2, 1814.

PAGE

120. ‘_With glistering spires_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, III. 550.

‘_The great vision of the guarded mount._’ _Lycidas_, l. 161.

121. ‘_A sudden illness_,’ _etc._ _Excursion_, Book VI.

123. _Aristotle observed._ In _The Poetics_.

_Bells or Lancaster’s._ Andrew Bell (1753–1832) founder of the
Madras system of education, and Joseph Lancaster (1770–1838).
For an account of these two rival reformers of education see
Leslie Stephen’s _The English Utilitarians_, II. 17–19.

_Guzman d’Alfarache._ Hazlitt discussed this novel by Mateo
Aleman, published in 1599, in his _English Comic Writers_
(Lecture on the English Novelists).

_A discipline of humanity._ Bacon’s _Essays_, ‘Of Marriage and
Single Life.’

124. _The Whig and Jacobite friends._ _Excursion_, Book VI.

_Sir Alfred Irthing._ _Excursion_, Book VII.

‘_Have proved a monument._’ From the sonnet in which Wordsworth
dedicated _The Excursion_ to Lord Lonsdale.

CHARACTER OF THE LATE MR. PITT

This ‘character’ originally appeared in _Free Thoughts on Public Affairs_, _etc._ (1806). It must have been a favourite with the author, for he afterwards reprinted it in _The Eloquence of the British Senate_, _etc._ (1807), in _The Round Table_ (1817), and in _Political Essays_ (1819). It also appeared in the posthumous _Winterslow_ (1839). See note on p. 383, _ante_.

PAGE

127. ‘_They had learned the trick_,’ _etc._ Hobbes’s _Behemoth_
(_Works_, ed. Molesworth, vi. 240).

128. ‘_Not matchless_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, VI. 341–2.

_And in its liquid texture_, _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, VI. 148–149.

ON RELIGIOUS HYPOCRISY

From _The Examiner_, October 9, 1814, ‘Common-places,’ No. 1.

PAGE

129. ‘_But ’tis not so above._’ Hamlet, Act III. Scene 3.

‘_Compelled to give in evidence_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._

130. ‘_Open and apparent shame._’ _1 Henry IV._, Act II. Scene 4.

131. _Elymas the sorcerer._ See _Sketches of the Principal Picture
Galleries in England_ (the Pictures at Hampton Court) where
Hazlitt describes this cartoon.

ON THE LITERARY CHARACTER

Reprinted with some omissions from a letter which appeared in _The Morning Chronicle_ for October 28, 1813, entitled ‘Baron Grimm and the Edinburgh Reviewers.’

PAGE

131. _A late number_, _etc._ _Edinburgh Review_, vol. xxi. July 1813.
The _Correspondance_ of Friedrich Melchior, Baron Grimm
(1723–1807) was published in 1812–14. The article in the
_Edinburgh_ is by Jeffrey. Hazlitt, in _The Examiner_, quotes
from it at greater length, and proceeds: ‘These remarks,
however shrewd and ingenious in themselves, are somewhat
irrelevant to the literary and philosophical character of Mr.
Grimm and his friends. There seems to have been an odd
transposition of ideas in the writer’s mind; for the whole of
his reasoning relates to the manners of fashionable life, or
the tendency of mixed and agreeable society in general, to
produce levity and insensibility, and does not at all apply to
the peculiar defects of the literary character, or account for
that hard-heartedness, which Mr. Burke attributes, by way of
emphasis, to the _thorough-bred metaphysician_.[112] The two
characters are evidently distinct, and proceed from very
different and even opposite causes, which ought not to have
been confounded. It would have been a task worthy of the
Edinburgh Reviewers to have pointed out the sources of each,
and to have shewn how both appear to have united in the present
instance with the natural levity of the French character, to
produce that “faultless monster which the world ne’er saw”
before.[113] Much is undoubtedly to be given to accidental and
local circumstances. Boswell’s Life of Johnson presents a very
different picture of men and manners from Grimm’s Memoirs,
though in the circle described by the former there were men who
at least rivalled M. Grimm in literature, and in politeness and
knowledge of mankind might vie with Baron d’Holbach. The
profligacy of the French court, and the mummeries of the
established religion might naturally produce an almost satiric
license and impudence among the enlightened partisans of the
new order of things, and lead them to regard all religion as a
barefaced cheat, and every pretension to virtue as hypocrisy.
The peculiar intelligible features of the philosophical and
literary character are, however, stamped on every page of M.
Grimm’s correspondence; and as they do not seem to have been
very well distinguished by the Reviewer, I shall venture to
throw out a few hints on the subject, in the hope that they may
be taken up and embodied in an authentic form in some future
supplementary volume.’

133. _Multiplicity of persons and things._ Hazlitt quotes with
characteristic inaccuracy the _Edinburgh_ article on Grimm (see
p. 131). A few lines further on he speaks of a ‘_succession_ of
persons and things.’

_Rocks of Meillerie._ _La Nouvelle Héloïse_, Part IV. 17.

135. _Mr. Shandy._ _Tristram Shandy_, V. Chap, iii., where Sterne
tells the story of Cicero and his daughter referred to in the
text.

‘_Hæret lateri_,’ _etc._ Virgil, _Aeneid_, V. 73.

‘_Clad in flesh and blood._’ From Burke, _Reflections on the
Revolution in France_ (_Select Works_, ed. Payne, ii. 101).

_The ghosts of Homer’s heroes._ _Odyssey_, Book XI.

‘_Play round the head, but never reach the heart._’

‘All fame is foreign, but of true desert;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.’

Pope’s _Essay on Man_, IV. 254.

Hazlitt’s letter in _The Morning Chronicle_ concluded as
follows: ‘There is another very striking distinction between
the indifference and insensibility to moral good and evil, to
be met with in the philosopher or the man of the world, which
the Reviewer has not pointed out. In the one, it is the
effect of “frivolity, dissipation, and familiarity with
vice”; in the other, it is oftener the effect of disappointed
hope and early enthusiasm. The aversion of the philosopher to
moral speculations has almost always the same source as the
exclamation of Brutus, “Oh Virtue! I embraced thee as a
substance, and I find thou art a shadow!” There is hardly any
one of the persons who figure in these memoirs who did not
set out with some panacea for the salvation of mankind, with
as much sanguine extravagance as ever knight-errants indulged
to conquer giants and rescue distressed damsels. The wounds
received in the conflict might close, but the scar would
remain. Indeed, the practical knowledge of vice and misery
makes a stronger impression on the mind, when it has once
imbibed a habit of abstract reasoning. Evil thus becomes
embodied in a general principle, and shews its happy form in
all things. It is a fatal, inevitable necessity hanging over
us. It follows us wherever we go—if we fly into the uttermost
parts of the earth, it is there; whether we turn to the right
or the left, we cannot escape from it.

‘This, it is true, is the disease of philosophy; but it is one to
which it is liable in minds of a certain cast, after the first
ardour of expectation has been disabused by experience, and the
finer feelings have received an irrecoverable shock from the
jarring of the world.

‘There seems a peculiar tenaciousness in the French character in
this respect, an unfortunate aptitude to cling to every vice
and catch at every folly, or else a want of freshness of
feeling, of that elastic force about the heart which repels the
approach of moral or intellectual depravity.

‘What is said of the tone of the literary society of Paris, is
equally misunderstood. The Reviewers hardly mean to represent
the exclusion of tediousness and pertinacious wrangling, as the
general character of assemblies of wits, and philosophers in
all ages and nations. If so, their opinion differs from that of
the Sage. The fact is, that the men of letters at this period,
by mixing in the fashionable circles, took the tone of good
company, as the people of fashion, by their familiarity with
men of letters, received the tincture of philosophy. The two
characters were blended together in real life, and are
confounded in the Edinburgh Review.’

135. Note. _Plato’s Cave._ _Republic_, Book VII.

ON COMMON-PLACE CRITICS

No. 47 of the Round Table series.

PAGE

136. _Tout homme réfléchi_, _etc._ See note to p. 117.

‘_Nor can I think what thoughts they can conceive._’ Dryden, _The
Hind and the Panther_, Part I. l. 315.

_We have already._ In a paper (by Leigh Hunt) _On Commonplace
People_ (_Examiner_, March 19, 1815).

138. _The music which has been since introduced_, _etc._ The famous
‘Macbeth music’ written for D’Avenant’s version produced,
according to Genest, in 1672. This music, traditionally
assigned to Matthew Locke, is now attributed to Purcell.

139. _Mr. Westall’s drawings._ Richard Westall (1765–1836).

_Horne Tooke’s account_, _etc._ See _The Diversions of Purley_
and Hazlitt’s essay on Horne Tooke in _The Spirit of the Age_.

‘_For true no-meaning puzzles more than wit._’ Pope’s _Moral
Essays_, II. 114.

_The new Schools for all._ For the famous educational schemes
of Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster and for Bentham’s
_Panopticon_, see Leslie Stephen’s _English Utilitarians_.

_The Penitentiary._ Millbank Prison, formerly known as the
Penitentiary, was the ultimate result of Bentham’s _Panopticon_
scheme and was opened in 1816.

_The new Bedlam._ The new Bedlam Hospital was opened in 1815.

_The new steamboats._ The first steamboat had been launched on
the Clyde in 1812.

_The gaslights._ The Chartered Gas Company obtained its Act of
Parliament in 1810.

_The Bible Society._ The British and Foreign Bible Society was
established in 1804.

_The Society for the Suppression of Vice._ See _ante_, note to p.
60.

ON THE CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ OF THE BRITISH INSTITUTION

These two papers are taken (with considerable variations) from the two last of three ‘Literary Notices,’ dealing with the Catalogue, which Hazlitt contributed to _The Examiner_ on Nov. 3, Nov. 10, and Nov. 17, 1816. The first of these ‘Literary Notices’ was never republished by Hazlitt. All three were republished in their _Examiner_ form in the second volume of _Criticisms on Art_, _etc._ (2 vols., 1843–44), edited by the author’s son, who omitted from his edition of _The Round Table_ the two essays in the present text. All three essays will be included in a later volume of the present edition.

PAGE

140. _Our former remarks._ In _The Examiner_, Nov. 3, 1816.

141. _The Prince Regent’s new sewer._ Presumably the Regent’s Canal,
part of which was opened in 1814.

142. ‘_The scale by which_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, VIII. 591.

_Mrs. Peachum’s coloured handkerchiefs._ _Beggar’s Opera_, Act 1.

143. ‘_A name great above all names._’ _Philippians_, ii. 9.

143. _Mr. Payne Knight._ Richard Payne Knight gave evidence in 1816
before a Select Committee of the House of Commons upon the
value of the Elgin Marbles. He placed them in the second rank
of art, and valued them at £25,000. They were bought by the
nation for £35,000. Haydon the artist wrote a long letter to
_The Examiner_ (March 17, 1816) on the subject, entitled ‘On
the Judgment of Connoisseurs being preferred to that of
Professional Men, Elgin Marbles, etc.’

144. _Mr. Soane._ John Soane (1753–1837), knighted in 1831. His house
and its contents, presented by him to the nation in 1833, now
form the Soane Museum.

‘_With riches fineless._’ _Othello_, Act III. Scene 3.

‘_Beastly; subtle as the fox_,’ _etc._ _Cymbeline_, Act. III.
Scene 3.

‘_The link_,’ _etc._ _Troilus and Cressida_, Act I. Scene 3.

_It is many years ago_, _etc._ Apparently, says Mr. W. C.
Hazlitt, about 1798, at St. Neot’s, Huntingdonshire. See _The
English Comic Writers_, where this passage is repeated in the
Lecture on the Works of Hogarth.

145. ‘_How were we then uplifted._’ _Troilus and Cressida_, Act III.
Scene 2.

‘_Temples not made with hands_‘, _etc._ _Acts_, vii. 48.

_E. O. Tables._ A new game introduced shortly before 1782, when a
Bill was brought in prohibiting it under severe penalties. The
Bill was lost in the House of Lords. See _Parl. Hist._, vol.
xxiii. pp. 110–113.

‘_Cutpurses of the art_,’ _etc._

‘A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole
And put it in his pocket!’

_Hamlet_, Act III. Scene 4.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

146. ‘_That a great man’s memory_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Scene 2.

_Their late President._ Sir Joshua Reynolds.

147. ‘_Feel the future in the instant._’ _Macbeth_, Act I. Scene 5.

148. ‘_Depend upon it_,’ _etc._ This letter was not avowed by Burke,
but was attributed to him by Barry himself and by Sir James
Prior in his _Life of Burke_, (Bohn, p. 227).

149. ‘_Playing at will_,’ _etc._

‘——and played at will
Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet,
Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss.’

_Paradise Lost_, v. 294–296.

_Highmore_, _etc._ Joseph Highmore (1692–1780); Francis Hayman
(1708–1776), one of the founders of the Royal Academy; Thomas
Hudson (1701–1779), portrait painter; Sir Godfrey Kneller
(1646–1723).

‘_Like flowers in men’s caps_,’ _etc._ _Macbeth_, Act IV. Scene
3.

_Hoppner_, _etc._ John Hoppner (1758–1810), the portrait painter;
John Opie (1761–1807); Sir Martin Archer Shee (1769–1850),
President of the Royal Academy from 1830 to 1845; Philip James
Loutherbourg (1740–1812), scene painter to Garrick; John
Francis Rigaud (1742–1810); George Romney (1734–1802). Alderman
John Boydell’s (1719–1804) famous Shakespeare Gallery comprised
one hundred and seventy pictures. The engravings were published
in 1802.

150. ‘_Gone to the vault_,’ _etc._ A favourite quotation of Burke’s
from the lines in Shakespeare:—

‘To that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.’

_Romeo and Juliet_, Act IV. Scene 1.

_The picture ... of Charles I._ In Hazlitt’s time this picture
was at Blenheim, and he referred to it in his _Sketches of the
Principal Picture Galleries in England_ (Pictures at Oxford and
Blenheim). It was bought by Parliament from the Duke of
Marlborough in 1885, and is now in the National Gallery.

_The Waterloo Exhibition._ The Waterloo Museum in Pall Mall
‘which now (according to the advertisement) presents to public
view upwards of 1000 mementos of the late extraordinary events
upon the Continent.’

‘_From this time forth_,’ _etc._ _Othello_, Act V. Scene 2.

_The English are a shopkeeping nation._ Hazlitt probably refers
to the exclamation of Barère said to have been repeated by
Napoleon. The expression seems to have been first used by Dean
Tucker of Gloucester in a _Tract_ of 1766.

‘_Balm of hurt minds_,’ _etc._ _Macbeth_, Act II. Scene 2.

151. ‘_Smoothing the raven down_,’ _etc._ _Comus_, 251–252.

ON POETICAL VERSATILITY

This fragment is taken from the third of a series of four ‘Illustrations of the Times Newspaper,’ which Hazlitt contributed to _The Examiner_ under the heading of ‘Literary Notices.’ The first of these four papers (Dec. 1, 1816) has not been republished; the other three, dated respectively December 15, 1816, December 22, 1816, and January 12, 1817, were published in _Political Essays_.

PAGE

151. ‘_Heaven’s own tinct._’ _Cymbeline_, Act II. Scene 2.

‘_Being so majestical_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act I. Scene 1.

152. _Poets, it has been said._ See _Political Essays_ (Mr. Southey’s
New Year’s Ode).

_They do not like_, _etc._ The reference is to Southey, Poet
Laureate, and Wordsworth, distributor of stamps for the county
of Westmoreland.

ON ACTORS AND ACTING

This essay and the next are based upon the last (No. 48) of the Round Table series, which appeared in _The Examiner_ for Jan. 5, 1817. Hazlitt has, however, interpolated into both essays various passages from former theatrical criticisms. The paper in the _Round Table_ appears to have been inspired by Colley Cibber’s _Apology for his Life_. A general reference may here be made to that work, to the volume in the present edition containing Hazlitt’s dramatic criticisms, and to Lamb’s and Leigh Hunt’s essays on the stage.

PAGE

153. ‘_The abstracts_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act II. Scene 2.

154. _George Barnwell._ By George Lillo (1693–1739), produced at Drury
Lane Theatre on June 22, 1731. The play was frequently revived,
and was in some places acted annually as a moral lesson to
apprentices.

_The Inconstant._ Farquhar’s comedy (1702). _Orinda_ should be
_Oriana_.

_Mr. Liston._ John Liston (1776?-1846),the comic actor, who made
his first appearance in 1805 and retired in 1837.

155. _Sir George Etherege_ (1635?-1691), the dramatist. See _English
Comic Writers_, where a part of this passage is repeated.

_John Kemble._ John Philip Kemble (1757–1823). Hazlitt wrote an
account of his retirement from the stage, which took place at
Covent Garden on June 23, 1817.

_Pierre._ In Otway’s _Venice Preserved_ (1682), ‘one of the
happiest and most spirited of all Mr. Kemble’s performances’
(_A View of the English Stage_).

_The Stranger._ Benjamin Thompson’s (1776?-1816) play, ‘The
Stranger,’ translated from Kotzebue, was produced in 1798,
Kemble playing the title-rôle. See Hazlitt’s essay on ‘Mr.
Kemble’s Retirement.’

‘_A tale of other times._’ ‘A tale of the times of old!’ the
opening words of Macpherson’s _Ossian_.

_One of the most affecting things_, _etc._ This paragraph is
taken from a ‘Theatrical Examiner’ (June 4, 1815) on the
retirement of John Bannister (1760–1836) from the stage. For
Bannister and Richard Suett (1755–1805) see Hazlitt’s essay ‘On
Play-Going and on Some of our old Actors,’ and Lamb’s ‘On Some
of the old Actors.’

_The Prize._ By Prince Hoare (1755–1834), originally produced in
1793.

_Mrs. Storace._ Anna Selina Storace or Storache (1766–1817), the
singer and actress, played in ‘The Prize’ in 1793.

_My Grandmother._ By Prince Hoare, produced in 1793.

_The Son-in-Law._ A comic opera by John O’Keeffe (1747–1833),
produced in 1779.

_Scrub._ In _The Beaux’ Stratagem_ of Farquhar.

Thomas King (1730–1805), the original Sir Peter Teazle; William
Parsons (1736–1795); James William Dodd (1740–1796); John Quick
(1748–1831), who made his last appearance in 1813; and John
Edwin the elder (1749–1790). See Hazlitt’s essay ‘On Play-Going
and Some of our old Actors.’

156. ‘_All the world’s a stage_’ _etc._ _As You Like It_, Act II.
Scene 7.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

A large part of the first paragraph of this essay appeared originally in a notice of Kean’s Sir Giles Overreach (‘Theatrical Examiner,’ Jan. 14, 1816). See _A View of the English Stage_.

PAGE

156. ‘_Leaving the world no copy._’ _Twelfth Night_, Act I. Scene 5.

_Colley Cibber’s account._ See Chap. iv. of Cibber’s _Apology_.

_Miss O’Neill._ Eliza O’Neill (1791–1872) made her last
appearance on the stage on July 13, 1819, shortly before her
marriage with Mr. Becher, who afterwards became a baronet.
Hazlitt in an article on her retirement (see _A View of the
English Stage_) said that ‘her excellence (unrivalled by any
actress since Mrs. Siddons) consisted in truth of nature and
force of passion.’

_Mrs. Siddons._ Sarah Siddons (1755–1831) appeared without
success in London in 1775 and 1776, gained a great reputation
in Manchester and Bath, and reappeared in London on October 10,
1782 in Garrick’s _Isabella_, a version of Southerne’s _Fatal
Marriage_. After a long series of triumphs she made her
farewell appearance on June 29, 1812, as Lady Macbeth.
Hazlitt’s notices of her are confined to two of the occasional
benefit performances which she gave before she finally retired
in June 1819. See _A View of the English Stage_ (June 15, 1816,
and June 7, 1817).

157. ‘_We have seen what a ferment_,’ _etc._ See the essays above, ‘On
the Catalogue Raisonné of the British Institution.’

_Betterton_, _etc._ Thomas Betterton (1635?-1710); Barton Booth
(1681–1733); Robert Wilks (1665?-1732); Samuel Sandford, a
well-known actor on the Restoration stage, who died early in
the eighteenth century; James Nokes (_d._ 1692); Anthony Leigh
(_d._ 1692); William Pinkethman (_d._ 1724); William Bullock
(_d._ 1740?); Richard Estcourt (1668–1712); Thomas Dogget (_d._
1721): Elizabeth Barry (1658–1713); Susanna Mountfort, the
daughter of William Mountfort, the actor and dramatist, who was
murdered by Captain Hill and Lord Mohun in 1692; Anne Oldfield
(1683–1730); Anne Bracegirdle (1663?-1748), who retired from
the stage in 1707 after being defeated in a competition with
Mrs. Oldfield; Susannah Maria Cibber (1714–1766), sister of
Arne the composer, and wife of Theophilus Cibber, famous first
as a singer (especially of Handel’s music), and later as an
actress of tragedy.

_Cibber himself._ Colley Cibber (1671–1757), actor and dramatist,
Poet Laureate from 1730 till his death. For a very entertaining
account of himself and of nearly all the well-known actors and
actresses whose names appear in the preceding note see his
_Apology for his Life_ (1740).

_Macklin_, _etc._ Charles Macklin (1697?-1797), actor and
dramatist, whose great part was Shylock; James Quin
(1693–1766); John Rich (1682–1761), the originator of pantomime
in England (his name is substituted by Hazlitt for that of Peg
Woffington, which appeared in the original _Round Table_
paper); Catherine or Kitty Clive (1711–1785), whose acting and
‘sprightliness of humour’ were admired by Dr. Johnson, and
Hannah Pritchard (1711–1768), who created the part of Irene in
Johnson’s play, and Frances Abington (1737–1815), well-known
members of Garrick’s company; Thomas Weston (1737–1776), and
Edward Shuter (1728–1776), two of the best comic actors of
their time.

‘_Gladdened life_,’ _etc._ A composite quotation from Johnson’s
well-known reference to Garrick (_Lives of the Poets_, Edmund
Smith). See Boswell’s _Life of Johnson_, ed. G. B. Hill, iii.
387.

_Our hundred days._ The reference is a characteristic one to
Buonaparte’s hundred days in Europe in 1815.

_Betterton’s Hamlet or his Brutus_, _etc._ Colley Cibber
(_Apology_, Chap, iv.) refers particularly to these two
impersonations, describes (Chap. xiv.) Booth’s performance of
Cato in 1713, and specially eulogises Mrs. Barry’s Monimia
and Belvidera in Otway’s plays, _The Orphan_ and _Venice
Preserved_. (Chap. v.). See Hazlitt’s lecture ‘On the Spirit
of Ancient and Modern Literature’ in his _Lectures on the
Literature of the Age of Elizabeth_ for a criticism of these
plays. He saw and reviewed Miss O’Neill’s performances in
both these characters. See _A View of the English Stage_.

_Penkethman’s manner_, _etc._ See _The Tatler_, No. 188.

_Dowton._ Hazlitt spoke of William Dowton (1764–1851) as ‘a
genuine and excellent comedian’ (‘On Play-Going and on Some of
the old Actors’). There are frequent notices of him in _A View
of the English Stage_.

157. Note. _Marriage à la mode._ By Dryden, first produced in 1672. In
_The Examiner_ this note forms part of the text. At the end of
the passage quoted Hazlitt proceeds: ‘The whole of Colley
Cibber’s work is very amusing to a dramatic amateur. It gives
an interesting account of the progress of the stage, which in
his time appears to have been in a state _militant_. Two
actors, _Kynaston_ and _Montfort_ were run through the body in
disputes with gentlemen, with impunity; and the Master of the
Revels arrested any of the two companies who was refractory to
the managers, at his pleasure. _Dogget_ was brought up in this
manner from Norwich, by two constables: but _Dogget_ being a
whig, and a surly fellow, got a _Habeas Corpus_, and the Master
of the Revels was driven from the field.’ Edward Kynaston
(1640–1706) was beaten more than once at the instance of Sir
Charles Sedley whom he impersonated on the stage. For the story
of the Lord Chamberlain and Dogget, see Cibber’s _Apology_
(Chap. x.).

158. _Sir Harry Wildair._ Farquhar’s _Sir Harry Wildair_, a
continuation of _The Constant Couple_, was produced in 1701.

‘_The Jew that Shakespeare drew._’ This is an exclamation
(attributed to Pope) overheard at one of Macklin’s
representations of Shylock.

_As often as we are pleased._ The following passage from _The
Examiner_ is omitted by Hazlitt: ‘We have no curiosity about
things or persons that we never heard of. Mr. Coleridge
professes in his Lay Sermon to have discovered a new faculty,
by which he can divine the future. This is lucky for himself
and his friends, who seem to have lost all recollection of the
past.’ Hazlitt here refers to _The Statesman’s Manual; or, The
Bible the best guide to political skill and foresight: A Lay
Sermon, addressed to the Higher Classes of Society_ (1816),
known as the first Lay Sermon. Hazlitt wrote two notices of it
in _The Examiner_, one of which (September 8, 1816) was based
merely on newspaper announcements of its forthcoming appearance
(see _Political Essays_); and probably, as Coleridge believed,
reviewed it in the _Edinburgh Review_ for December 1816.

_Players, after all_, _etc._ This passage to the end of the
paragraph is from a ‘Theatrical Examiner,’ January 14, 1816.

_Actors have been accused_, _etc._ The whole of this paragraph is
taken from a ‘Theatrical Examiner,’ March 31, 1816.

‘_The web of our life_,’ _etc._ _All’s Well that Ends Well_, Act
IV. Scene 3.

159. ‘_Like the giddy sailor_,’ _etc._ _Richard III._, Act III. Scene
4.

_A neighbouring country._ Hazlitt probably refers to France where
the disqualifications of actors had only recently been removed
by the Revolution government. For an account of ecclesiastical
intolerance towards actors, especially in France, see Lecky’s
_The Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe_, II. 316 _et
seq._

‘_A consummation_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Scene 1.

‘_The wine of life_,’ _etc._ _Macbeth_, Act II. Scene 3.

160. ‘_Hurried from fierce extremes_,’ _etc._

‘——and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,’ etc.

_Paradise Lost_, II. 599 _et seq._

_The strolling player in ‘Gil Blas.’_ _Gil Blas_, Liv. II. Chap.
viii.

WHY THE ARTS ARE NOT PROGRESSIVE: A FRAGMENT

In _The Morning Chronicle_ for January 11 and 15, 1814, Hazlitt published two papers entitled ‘Fragments on Art. Why the Arts are not progressive?’ Later in the year he contributed two papers to _The Champion_ (August 28, 1814, and September 11, 1814) under the heading ‘Fine Arts. Whether they are promoted by Academies and Public Institutions?’ and in a letter (October 2) replied to the criticisms of a correspondent. The present ‘Fragment’ is composed of (1) the first of the articles in _The Morning Chronicle_ and part of the second, and (2) part of the second article in _The Champion_. Much of the matter of the present essay is embodied in Hazlitt’s article on the Fine Arts, contributed to the _Encyclopædia Britannica_.

PAGE

160. ‘_It is often made a subject_,’ _etc._ The first three paragraphs
are taken from _The Morning Chronicle_, January 11, 1814. In
_The Champion_ for August 28, 1814, the first two paragraphs
appear as a quotation from a ‘contemporary critic.’

_Antæus._ The story of Antæus the giant is referred to by Milton
(_Paradise Regained_, IV. 563 _et seq._).

161. _Nothing is more contrary_, _etc._ This paragraph and part of the
next are repeated at the beginning of the Lecture on Shakspeare
and Milton in _Lectures on the English Poets_.

162. _Guido._ Substituted for Claude Lorraine, upon whom, in _The
Morning Chronicle_, Hazlitt has the following note: ‘In
speaking thus of Claude, we yield rather to common opinion than
to our own. However inferior the style of his best landscapes
may be, there is something in the execution that redeems all
defects. In taste and grace nothing can ever go beyond them. He
might be called, if not the perfect, the faultless painter. Sir
Joshua Reynolds used to say, that there would be another
Raphael, before there was another Claude. In Mr. Northcote’s
Dream of a Painter (see his _Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds_),
there is an account of Claude Lorraine, so full of feeling, so
picturesque, so truly classical, so like Claude, that we cannot
resist this opportunity of copying it out.’ The passage quoted
from Northcote is the paragraph beginning, ‘Now tired with pomp
and splendid shew.’ See Northcote’s Varieties on Art (The Dream
of a Painter) in his _Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds_, _etc._
(1813–1815) p. xvi.

‘_The human face divine._’ _Paradise Lost_, III. 44.

‘_Circled Una’s angel face_,’ _etc._ _The Faerie Queene_, Book I.
Canto iii. st. 4.

_Griselda._ See _The Canterbury Tales_ (The Clerk’s Tale).

_The Flower and the Leaf._ This poem, a great favourite of
Hazlitt’s, is not now attributed to Chaucer.

163. _The divine story of the Hawk._ _The Decameron_ (Fifth Day, Novel
IX.). Hazlitt continually refers to the story.

_Isabella._ _The Decameron_ (Fourth Day, Novel V.).

_So Lear_, _etc._ _King Lear_, Act II. Scene 4.

_Titian._ The picture referred to is one of those which Hazlitt
copied while he was studying in the Louvre in 1802. See
_Memoirs of William Hazlitt_, I. 88. He frequently mentions it.

_Nicolas Poussin._ ‘But, above all, who shall celebrate, in terms
of fit praise, his picture of the shepherds in the Vale of
Tempe going out in a fine morning of the spring, and coming to
a tomb with this inscription:—Et ego in Arcadia vixi!’ (_Table
Talk_, ‘On a Landscape of Nicolas Poussin.’)

_In general, it must happen_, _etc._ The two concluding
paragraphs are taken from _The Champion_, September 11, 1814.

_Current with the world._ The following passage in _The Champion_
is here omitted: ‘Common sense, which has been sometimes
appealed to as the criterion of taste, is nothing but the
common capacity, applied to common facts and feelings; but it
neither is nor pretends to be, the judge of anything else. To
suppose that it can really appreciate the excellence of works
of high art, is as absurd as to suppose that it could produce
them.’

_Count Castiglione._ Baldassare Count Castiglione (1478–1529),
whose famous _Il Cortegiano_ was translated into English by Sir
Thomas Hoby under the title of ‘The Courtyer’ (1561).

CHARACTERS OF SHAKESPEAR’S PLAYS

PAGE

171. _It is observed by Mr. Pope._ Ed. Elwin and Courthope, vol. X.
pp. 534–535.

_A gentleman of the name of Mason._ Neither George Mason
(1735–1806), author of _An Essay on Design in Gardening_, 1768,
nor John Monck Mason (1726–1809), Shakespearian commentator, is
the author of the work alluded to by Hazlitt, but Thomas
Whately (_d._ 1772) whose _Remarks on some of the Characters of
Shakespere_ was published after Thomas Whately’s death by his
brother, the Rev. Jos. Whately, in 1785, as ‘by the author of
_Observations on Modern Gardening_’ [1770]; a second edition
was published in 1808 with the author’s name on the title-page,
and a third in 1839, edited by Archbishop Whately, Thomas
Whately’s nephew.

_Richardson’s Essays._ _Essays on Shakespeare’s Dramatic
Characters._ 1774–1812. By William Richardson (1743–1814).

_Schlegel’s Lectures on the Drama._ _A Course of Lectures on
Dramatic Art and Literature._ By A. W. von Schlegel. Delivered
at Vienna in 1808. English translation, by John Black, in 1815.
The quotation which follows will be found in Bohn’s one vol.
edition, 1846, pp. 363–371, and the further references given in
these notes are to the same edition.

174. ‘_to do a great right._’ _Mer. Ven._ IV. 1.

‘_alone is high fantastical._’ _Twelfth Night_, I. 1.

175. _Dr. Johnson’s Preface to his Edition of Shakespear._ 1765.

‘_swelling figures._’ Dr. Johnson’s _Preface_. See Malone’s
_Shakespeare_, 1821, vol. i. p. 75.

176. _Dover cliff in_ LEAR, Act IV. 6.

_flowers in_ THE WINTER’S TALE, Act IV. 4.

_Congreve’s description of a ruin in the_ MOURNING BRIDE, Act II.
1.

177. _the sleepy eye of love._ Cf. ‘The sleepy eye that spoke the
melting soul.’ Pope, _Imit. 1st Epis. 2nd. Bk. Horace_, l. 150.

_In his tragic scenes._ Dr. Johnson’s _Preface_, p. 71.

_His declamations_, _etc._ _Ibid._, p. 75.

_But the admirers_, _etc._ _Ibid._, p. 75.

178. _in another work, The Round Table._ See pp. 61–64.

CYMBELINE

When the name of the Play is not given it is to be understood that the reference is to the Play under discussion. Differences between the text quoted by Hazlitt and the text of the _Globe_ Shakespeare which seem worth pointing out are indicated in square brackets.

PAGE

179. _Dr. Johnson is of opinion._ Dr. Johnson’s _Preface_, p. 73.

180. _Cibber, in speaking of the early English stage._ _Apology for
the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber_ (1740), vol. i. chap. iv.

181. _My lord_, Act I. 6.

_What cheer_, Act III. 4. The six following quotations in the
text are in the same scene.

182. _My dear lord_, Act III. 6.

_And when with wild wood-leaves_ and _with fairest flowers_, Act
IV. 2.

183. _Cytherea, how bravely_, Act II. 2.

_Me of my lawful pleasure_, Act II. 5.

_Whose love-suit_, Act III. 4.

_the ancient critic_, Aristophanes of Byzantium.

184. _Out of your proof_, Act III. 3.

185. _The game’s a-foot_ [is up], Act III. 3.

_under the shade._ _As You Like It_, Act II. 7.

_See, boys!_ Act III. 3.

_Nay, Cadwell_, Act IV. 2.

186. _Stick to your journal course_, Act IV. 2.

_creatures_ and _Your Highness_, Act I. 5.

MACBETH

186. _The poet’s eye._ _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Act V. 1.

your only _tragedy-maker_. It would be better to italicise only
‘tragedy’; the reference is probably to _Hamlet_, III. 2, ‘your
only jig-maker.’

_the air_ [heaven’s breath] _smells wooingly_ and _the
temple-haunting martlet builds_ [does approve by his loved
mansionry], Act I. 6.

187. _the blasted heath_, Act I. 3.

_air-drawn dagger_, Act III. 4.

_gracious Duncan_, Act III. 1.

_blood-boultered Banquo_, Act IV. 1.

_What are these_, Act I. 3.

_bends up_, Act I. 7.

_The deed_ [The attempt and not the deed confounds us], Act II.
2.

_preter_ [super] _natural solicitings_, Act I. 3.

188. _Bring forth_ and _screw his courage_, Act I. 7.

_lost so poorly_ and _a little water_, Act II. 2.

_the sides of his intent_, Act I. 7.

_for their future days_ and _his fatal entrance_, Act I. 5.

_Come all you spirits_, Act I. 5.

189. _Duncan comes there_, Act I. 5. The two following quotations in
the text are in the same scene.

_Mrs. Siddons._ Sarah Siddons (1755–1831). It was as Lady Macbeth
that Mrs. Siddons made her ‘last’ appearance on the stage, June
29, 1812. She returned occasionally, and Hazlitt saw her act
the part at Covent Garden, June 7, 1817. See note to p. 156,
and also Hazlitt’s _A View of the English Stage_.

190. _There is no art_, Act I. 4.

_How goes the night_, Act II. 1.

_Light thickens_, Act III. 2–3.

191. _So fair and foul_, Act I. 3.

_Such welcome and unwelcome news together_ [things at once] and
_Men’s lives_, Act IV. 3.

_Look like the innocent flower_, Act I. 5.

_To him and all_ [all and him], _Avaunt_, and _himself again_,