Chapter XXVI: Act I

‘_Fools aspiring to be knaves._’ Pope, Epilogue to the Satires, i.
165.

70. _Still true to the war—and himself._ In _The Morning Chronicle_
Hazlitt quotes, ‘Oh, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,’ etc., from
Shakespeare’s Sonnets (No. 116).

68. _Peachum._ See _The Beggar’s Opera_, Act I. Scene 1.

71. _The treaty of 1763._ The Peace of Paris, by which England kept
her conquests in America. France recognised the independence of
the States in 1778.

_‘With centric,’ etc._ _Paradise Lost_, VIII. 83.

72. _‘I will have ransom,’ etc._ _Henry V._, Act IV. Scene 4.

‘_The fierce extremes._’ _Paradise Lost_, II. 599.

73. ILLUSTRATIONS OF VETUS (_continued_). _The Morning Chronicle_,
Dec. 16, 1813.

_‘Madmen’s epistles,’ etc._ _Twelfth Night_, Act V. Scene 1.

‘_Events ... in Holland._’ The Dutch had revolted from Napoleon,
and declared for the Prince of Orange, who landed in Holland
(from England) on Nov. 27, 1813.

_Spenser’s Allegory._ _The Faerie Queene_, Book II. Canto v.

‘_Made of penetrable stuff._’ _Hamlet_, Act III. Scene 4.

‘_Leer malign._’ _Paradise Lost_, IV. 503.

74. _Vattel._ Eméric de Vattel (1714–1767), whose _Droits des Gens_
was published in 1758, and was frequently translated.

_‘Think, there’s livers out of England,’ etc._ _Cymbeline_, Act
III. Scene 4.

_Anacharsis Cloots._ For Jean Baptiste Cloots, who assumed the
name of Anacharsis, see Burke’s _Regicide Peace_ (ed. Payne),
pp. 296 _et seq._

75. _Lord Castlereagh’s Speech._ On Nov. 17, 1813. See Hansard’s
_Parl. Debates_, XXVII. 132 _et seq._

_‘Why so,’ etc._ _Macbeth_, Act III. Scene 4.

Note. _Cursory Strictures on the Charge of Chief-Justice Eyre._
See the essay on Godwin in Hazlitt’s _Spirit of the Age_.

76. ‘_To knot and gender in._’ _Othello_, Act IV. Scene 2.

‘_Mere midsummer madness._’ _Twelfth Night_, Act III. Scene 4.

_‘For in this lowest deep,’ etc._ _Paradise Lost_, IV. 76.

_The Sun and the Star._ ‘The Sun,’ a Tory evening paper founded in
1802 by George Rose. ‘The Star,’ the first London evening paper,
founded in 1788 by Peter Stuart.

77. _Political E. O. tables._ See vol. i., note to p. 145.

‘_Struggled to get free._’ _Hamlet_, Act III. Scene 3.

78. _Doctor Pedro Positive._ See _Don Quixote_, Part II. Book III.
Chaps, xlvii. and xlix.

_But we deny._ The rest of the essay from this point appeared
first in _The Morning Chronicle_ for Dec. 18, 1813.

79. _‘Like a devilish engine,’ etc._ _Paradise Lost_, IV. 17.

_‘So small a drop,’ etc._ _Cymbeline_, Act IV. Scene 2.

80. _‘The stone which the builders rejected,’ etc._ Psalms cxviii. 22.

81. _‘This large discourse of reason,’ etc._ _Hamlet_, Act IV. Scene
4.

82. _The murdered D’Enghien._ The Duc d’Enghien, eldest son of the
Prince de Condé, was executed on March 21, 1804, to avenge
Pichegru’s plot against the life of Buonaparte.

85. _‘His yoke,’ etc._ _St. Matthew_ xi. 30.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF VETUS. From _The Morning Chronicle_, Jan. 3,
1814.

_‘Take him,’ etc._ _Romeo and Juliet_, Act III. Scene 2.

_‘Our occupation,’ etc._ _Othello_, Act III. Scene 3.

_‘Aggravate his voice,’ etc._ _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Act I.
Scene 2.

_He is not the first enthusiast, etc._ Hazlitt refers to the
well-known story of Ixion.

86. _That of Parolles._ In _The Morning Chronicle_ Hazlitt appends a
note in which he applies the reference: ‘Vetus does not relish
our quotations from the Poets. The following is, however, so
applicable, that we insert it: Parolles, “What the devil should
move me to the recovery of this drum, not being ignorant of the
possibility. Tongue, I will put you into a butter-woman’s mouth,
and buy myself another of Bajazet’s mule, if you prattle me into
these perils.” _All’s Well that Ends Well_,’ Act IV. Scene 1.

_Dr. Parr’s Spital Sermon._ Preached before the Lord Mayor on
Easter Monday, 1800, and published with notes in 1801. It
consisted chiefly of an attack on Godwin’s _Political Justice_.
See the essay on Godwin in Hazlitt’s _Spirit of the Age_, and,
for Sir James Mackintosh’s _Lectures_, the essay on Mackintosh.

_‘One of these patriots,’ etc._ These three paragraphs are far
beside the mark if they were aimed at Hazlitt, who cared little
for Godwin’s social philosophy.

87. ‘_Scrub._’ Farquhar’s _The Beaux-Stratagem_.

Note. _‘In heaven,’ etc._ _St. Matthew_, xxii. 30.

88. _‘Confound the ignorant,’ etc._ _Hamlet_, Act II. Scene 2.

89. _‘The latter end,’ etc._ ‘The latter end of his commonwealth
forgets the beginning.’ _Tempest_, Act II. Scene 1.

90. ILLUSTRATIONS OF VETUS (_concluded_). From _The Morning
Chronicle_, Jan. 5, 1814.

_‘What do you read,’ etc._ _Hamlet_, Act II. Scene 2.

90. _Don Quixote’s books._ See _Don Quixote_, Book I. chap. i.

91. _Patriotism in modern times, etc._ This passage, down to ‘broad
and firm basis,’ had already been republished by Hazlitt. See
vol. i. (_Round Table_) pp. 67–8.

92. _It was said, etc._ By Rousseau, _Emile_, Liv. iv. p. 279 (édit.
Garnier).

_‘A painted sepulchre,’ etc._ See _ante_, note to p. 34.

Note 2. _Canning’s Jaggernaut Speech._ In the debate on Foreign Treaties,
Nov. 17, 1813. See Hansard’s _Parl. Debates_, XXVII. 144–152.

93. _Tempora mollia fandi._ _Æneid_, iv. 293.

_‘Smoothing,’ etc._ ‘Smoothing the raven down of darkness till it
smiled.’ _Comus_, 251–2.

_‘Airs from heaven,’ etc._ _Hamlet_, Act I. Scene 4.

_‘Thrust us,’ etc._ _Henry IV._, Part II. Act II. Scene 1.

95. _That profound politician._ Malthus. See _ante_, pp. 356 _et seq._

96. ‘_What appetite he may._’ _Henry VIII._, Act III. Scene 2.

ON THE LATE WAR. Published in _The Champion_, April 3, 1814.

97. _‘The great statesman,’ etc._ Pitt.

_‘Their pound of carrion-flesh,’ ‘’tis theirs,’ etc._ _Merchant of
Venice_, Act IV. Scene 1.

_‘’Tis an indifferent piece of work,’ etc._ _Taming of the Shrew_,