Chapter XLIV: Book I: , IV. 5 (3)

It has been usual to raise a very unjust clamour against the enormous
salaries of public singers, actors, and so on. This matter seems
reducible to a _moral equation_. They are paid out of money raised by
voluntary contributions in the strictest sense; and if they did not
bring certain sums into the treasury, the Managers would not engage
them. These sums are exactly in proportion to the number of
individuals to whom their performance gives an extraordinary degree of
pleasure. The talents of a singer, actor, &c. are therefore worth just
as much as they will fetch.

Footnote 88:

Mr. Moore has just written a book to prove the truth of the contrary
opinion.

Footnote 89:

One of ‘the blacksmith swallowing the tailor’s news,’ from Shakspeare.

Footnote 90:

That is, a _remarkable_ man.

Footnote 91:

This very interesting letter will be found in the _Elegant Epistles_.

Footnote 92:

Now at the Dulwich Gallery.

Footnote 93:

Barry’s Letter to the Dilettanti Society, enumerating his grievances,
was published in 1798.

Footnote 94:

These people are said to be the real descendants of the ancient
Romans.

Footnote 95:

‘Shakspeare’s verses are not exactly “wood-notes wild.” He was
indebted to a most extensive reading at the same time as to a most
transcendant genius. He did not pique himself upon originality, but
sat down to write his plays for the simple purpose of the moment, and
without a glimpse or an ambition of the immortality which they were to
acquire. He made use of whatever he recollected and thought desirable,
with the contrivance of an ordinary play-writer, and only grew
original and vast and exquisite, in spite of himself. If it be true
that “he wrote not for an age, but for all time,” still there was no
one who knew less of that fact than he! He imagined himself writing
only for the day before him; and it is to this very circumstance that
we owe the ease, the flashes, and the soarings of his spirit. He was
never over-powered by the intended loftiness of the occasion. He made
no efforts that were laborious, because his mind was always superior
to his object, and never bowed down to it. He possessed, too, that
affluence of genius, which rendered him not only prodigal in its use,
but almost unacquainted with its existence. He never stood upon its
dignity; he was never fearful of its loss nor of its denial. The swan
of Avon, like the swans from which poets derive their title, was all
strength and grace and beauty, without a consciousness of either. And
this character of his genius accords with that character of facility,
of gentleness, and of unostentation, which his biographer ascribes to
the man. He knew of nothing within himself, of which he felt it worth
while to be vain. He would as soon have been vain of his power to put
one foot before another, as of his power to write the _Tempest_ or
_Macbeth_. It belongs, in the midst of abundance, to GENIUS as BEAUTY,
to be thoughtless of itself. It is only for the dull and the ugly—or
at least for those in whom the claims to beauty or to genius are
equivocal—to be forever contemplating either in themselves, or for
ever demanding the acknowledgments of others. With the plenary
possessors, the luxury is too common, too much of every-day wear, to
fix their attention. The restlessness of the remainder is the
restlessness of poverty, and contrasts itself with the carelessness of
riches.’—_Kendall’s Letters on Ireland._

Footnote 96:

See a paper on this subject in the TATLER.

Footnote 97:

The same praise may be extended to Matthews. Those who have seen this
ingenious and lively actor only on the stage, do not know half his
merits.

Footnote 98:

See _The Family Journal_; a series of papers in _The New Monthly
Magazine_, 1825, signed Harry Honeycomb (=Leigh Hunt).

Footnote 99:

The Chinese call the Americans _second-chop_ English [Hazlitt’s Note].

Footnote 100:

For Sir Walter Scott’s share in _The Beacon_ and its successor _The
Sentinel_, see chapter liv. of Lockhart’s _Life_.

Edinburgh: Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. P. 251, changed “uneasi-” to “uneasiness”. 2. P. 469, changed “upon particular” to “upon a particular”. 3. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 4. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed. 5. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 6. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. 7. Superscripts are denoted by a caret before a single superscript character, e.g. M^r.