Chapter XLV: Act IV: Sc. 1

‘_A word of naught._’ Cf. ‘You must say “paragon”; a paramour
is, God bless us, a thing of naught.’ _A Midsummer Night’s
Dream_, Act IV. Sc. 2.

‘_So stands the statue_,’ _etc._ Thomson, _The Seasons_,
Summer, 1347.

l. 24. Hazlitt concluded his article in _The Examiner_ as
follows: ‘He must be sent to Coventry or St. Helena!’

305. _Bertram._ By the Rev. Charles Robert Maturin (1782-1824),
author of _Melmoth the Wanderer_ (1820). _Bertram_ had
previously been recommended by Scott to Kemble who declined
it. Coleridge attacked it in _The Courier_ and in _Biographia
Literaria_. See Dykes Campbell’s _Samuel Taylor Coleridge_,
p. 223, note 1.

_Aristotle_, _etc._ Part of the famous definition of tragedy in
the _Poetics_.

‘_Yes, the limner’s art_,’ _etc._ _Bertram_, Act I. Sc. 5.

306. ‘_And yet some sorcery_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._

307. ‘_Yea, thus they live_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._ Act III. Sc. 2.

‘_By heaven_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._ Act IV. Sc. 2.

_The speech of Bertram._ _Ibid._ Act V. Sc. 2.

‘_The wretched have no country._’ _Ibid._ Act II. Sc. 3.

_Miss Somerville._ Margaret Agnes Somerville (1799-1883),
whose first appearance Hazlitt notices here. In 1819 she
married Alfred Bunn, the theatrical manager. Her subsequent
appearances were fitful, and she retired at an early age.

308. ‘_Decked in purple_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._ Act I. Sc. 5.

‘_Beholds that lady_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._

l. 13. In _The Examiner_ Hazlitt adds: ‘Covent-Garden. We have
seen Miss O’Neill’s _Mrs. Oakley_. It is much better than her
_Lady Teazle_, and yet it is not good. Her comedy is only
tragedy _diluted_. It wants the true spirit.’

_Adelaide, or the Emigrants._ The first play of Richard Lalor
Sheil (1791-1851). It had been brought out at Dublin in 1814.

309. ‘_Throw it to the dogs_,’ _etc._ _Macbeth_, Act V. Sc. 3.

_Mr. Murray._ Charles Murray (1754-1821), after acquiring
considerable reputation in the provinces, appeared at Covent
Garden in 1796.

310. ‘_Where did you rest last night._’ See _ante_, note to p. 263.

l. 22. In _The Examiner_ the article concludes with a long
account of the plot of _Bertram_.

_It has been observed of Ben Jonson_, _etc._ Cf. _ante_, note
to p. 42.

311. ‘_As dry_,’ _etc._ _As You Like It_, Act II. Sc. 7.

‘_Like a man_,’ _etc._ _Henry IV._, Part II., Act III. Sc. 2.

312. ‘_The baby of a girl._’ _Macbeth_, Act III. Sc. 4.

‘_Rather than so_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._ Act III. Sc. 1.

313. _The Princess Charlotte._ The only daughter of the Prince
Regent, and a great favourite of the nation’s. She married
(May 2, 1816) Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, and died
November 5, 1817.

‘_Leave me to my repose._’ ‘Leave me, leave me to repose.’
Gray. _The Vegtam’s Kivitha; or the Descent of Odin_.

‘_The line too labours_,’ _etc._ Pope, _An Essay on Criticism_,
371.

‘_I tell you_,’ _etc._ _Macbeth_, Act V. Sc. 1.

314. ‘_Go, go._’ In the banquet scene presumably, Act III. Sc. 4.

_Mr. Horace Twiss._ Horace Twiss (1787-1849), the biographer of
Lord Eldon, was a nephew of Mrs. Siddons and wrote for her an
address which she delivered on taking her farewell of the
stage, June 29, 1812.

‘_Himself again._’ _Richard III._ (Cibber’s version).

‘_Tomorrow and tomorrow._’ _Macbeth_, Act V. Sc. 5.

_Printed by a steam-engine._ See vol. III., p. 158 (_Political
Essays_).

315. _Up all Night, or the Smuggler’s Cave._ By Matthew Peter King
(1773-1823) first produced in 1809 (words by S. J. Arnold).

_Mr. Russell from Edinburgh._ Hazlitt distinguishes him from
Samuel Thomas Russell (1769?-1845), great as Jerry Sneak.

_The Beehive._ A musical farce by John Gideon Millingen
(1782-1862), produced in 1811.

_Wrench._ Benjamin Wrench (1778-1843), after playing at Bath
and York, appeared in London in 1809 and became a well-known
comedian at Drury Lane, The Lyceum and Covent Garden.

_The School of Reform._ By Thomas Morton, produced in 1805.

316. _The Irish Widow._ By Garrick, produced in 1772.

l. 10. Hazlitt, in concluding his article in _The Examiner_,
declares his disbelief of the rumours relating to Mrs. Mardyn
(see _ante_, note to p. 249), and publishes a long letter
from her addressed to the editor of the _Morning Chronicle_,
indignantly denying them.

_The Jealous Wife._ By George Colman the elder, produced in
1761.

_Sylvester Daggerwood._ By George Colman the younger, first
acted in 1795 as ‘New Hay at the Old Market.’

‘_Like angels’ visits_,’ _etc._ See vol. IV., note to p. 346
(_The Spirit of the Age_).

_Wild Oats._ O’Keeffe’s comedy, produced in 1794.

317. _The acting of Dowton and Russell._ This paragraph is repeated
in _Lectures on the Comic Writers_. See _ante_, pp. 167-8.

319. _The Poor Gentleman._ By George Colman the younger, produced in
1802.

_The Agreeable Surprise._ Cf. Hazlitt’s account of this farce,
_ante_, pp. 166-7.

320. l. 4. Hazlitt continues in _The Examiner_: ‘We saw Miss
Matthews’s name in the bills, but as it was her benefit night
at Covent-Garden, her entrance in the afterpiece was an
agreeable surprise to us.—_English Opera_. A gentleman of the
name of Horn has re-appeared with much and deserved applause
at this Theatre, in the part of the _Seraskier_. His voice
and style of singing are good, and his action spirited and
superior to that of singers in general. We hope soon to say
more of him.’ Charles Edward Horn (1786-1849), the composer
of ‘Cherry Ripe,’ ‘I know a bank,’ etc.

_Artaxerxes._ Cf. _ante_, pp. 192-3.

321. _Exit by Mistake._ ‘A pretty good comedy in 3 acts, by Jameson’
(Genest).

322. _John Dennis._ Hazlitt probably refers to John Dennis’s
‘Remarks upon Cato.’ 1713.

_The editor of a modern journal._ Probably Hazlitt’s
brother-in-law, Dr., afterwards Sir John Stoddart.

323. _The Beggar’s Opera._ Cf. _ante_, pp. 193-5. Polly’s famous
song, ‘Oh, ponder well! be not severe,’ etc. (Act I.), is
said to have turned the tide in favour of the opera at its
first representation, January 29, 1728.

324. _Schlegel’s work on the Drama._ See Lecture IV. _Lectures on
Dramatic Art and Literature_ (trans. John Black, ed. 1900),
p. 64.

325. _Selon la coutume de notre pays._ See vol. I. note to p. 100.

_Cosi fan Tutti._ Mozart’s Opera, 1788.

_Dansomanie._ By Étienne Nicolas Méhul (1763-1817), produced in
Paris, 1800.

326. ‘_To draw three souls_,’ _etc._ _Twelfth Night_, Act II. Sc. 3.

_Mr. Naldi._ Giuseppe Naldi (1770-1820), who first appeared in
London in 1806.

_Pandarus._ In _Troilus and Cressida_.

_Signor Begri._ Presumably Pierre Ignace Begrey (1783-1863),
who appeared in London, 1815-1822.

‘_Floats upon the air_,’ _etc._ Loosely quoted from _Comus_,
249-251.

‘_And silence_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._ 557-560.

327. _Madame Vestris._ Lucia Elizabeth Bartolozzi (1797-1856),
granddaughter of the engraver, and the wife, first (1813) of
Armand Vestris, a dancer at the King’s Theatre, and second
(1838), of Charles James Mathews. She first appeared in
London in 1815, and retired in 1854. Mrs. Baron Wilson (_Our
Actresses_, II. 184) describes her as ‘the fair Syren, who,
for nearly a quarter of a century, has fascinated the whole
kingdom by her talent and beauty.’

_Miss L. Kelly._ The younger sister of Frances Maria Kelly,
born 1795.

328. l. 13. In _The Examiner_ the article concludes as follows:
‘_Love in a Village_ is put off till Thursday next, and Mr.
Incledon is to perform in _Artaxerxes_ on Tuesday. Mr. Horn
played the _Seraskier_ in the _Siege of Belgrade_ on Friday,
and sung the songs, particularly ‘My heart with love is
beating’ with great truth and effect. Mr. Russell’s _Leopold_
was very lively. It is not necessary to say that Miss Kelly’s
_Lilla_ was good, for all that she does is so. The Duke and
Duchess of Gloucester were present, and were very cordially
greeted by the audience. After the play, God save the King
was repeatedly called for, and at length sung, with an
additional, occasional, and complimentary verse by Mr.
Arnold:—

“Long may the Royal Line,
Proud Star of Brunswick shine;
While thus we sing,
Joy may thy Daughter share,
Blest by a Nation’s pray’r,
Blest be the Royal Pair;
God save the King.”

‘At the Haymarket, where the same Illustrious Personages
appeared for the first time in public (since their marriage)
the night before, the following stanza was introduced:—

‘“Great George! thy people’s voice
Now hails thy daughter’s choice
Till echoes ring:
This shout still rends the air,
May she prove blest as fair!
Long live the noble pair!
God save the King.”’

_My Landlady’s Night-Gown._ _My Landlady’s Gown_ (August 10,
1816), by Walley Chamberlain Oulton (1770?-1820?).

‘_Its own place._’ _Paradise Lost_, 1. 254.

329. l. 4. In _The Examiner_ Hazlitt proceeds: ‘A Miss Ives played a
little plump chambermaid prettily enough. _The Jealous Wife_
was acted at this Theatre on Monday. Mr. Meggett played _Mr.
Oakley_ but indifferently. He seemed to be at hawk and
buzzard between insipid comedy and pompous tragedy. It was
not the thing. Mr. Terry’s _Major Oakley_ we like very much.
Mrs. Glover, who played _Mrs. Oakley_, is really too big for
this little theatre. The stage cannot contain her, and her
violent airs. Miss Taylor was _Miss Russet_, and looked like
a very nice, runaway school-girl. Barnard played her lover,
and got through the part very well.’

_Rosetta._ In Bickerstaffe’s _Love in a Village_.

_Mr. Chatterley._ William Symonds Chatterley (1787-1822).
Justice Woodcock was his best character.

_Castle of Andalusia._ A comic opera by O’Keeffe, produced in
1782.

330. l. 36. The article in _The Examiner_ continues:
‘_Haymarket-Theatre_. The new farce in one act, called _The
Fair Deserter_, succeeds very well here. It preserves the
unities of time, place, and action, with the most perfect
regularity. The merit of it is confined to the plot, and to
the pretended changes of character by the changes of dress,
which succeed one another with the rapidity and with
something of the ingenuity of a pantomime. Mr. Duruset, a
young officer of musical habits, wishes to release Miss
MacAlpine from the power of her guardian, who is determined
to marry her the next day. The young lady is kept under lock
and key, and the difficulty is to get her out of the house.
For this purpose Tokely, servant to Duruset, contrives to
make the cook of the family drunk at an alehouse, where he
leaves him, and carries off his official paraphernalia, his
night-cap, apron, and long knife, in a bundle to his master.
The old guardian (Watkinson) comes out with his lawyer from
the house, and Tokely, presenting himself as the drunken
cook, is let in. He, however, takes the key of the street
door with him, which he shuts to, and as this intercepts the
return of the old gentleman to his house, Tokely is forced to
get out of the window by a ladder to fetch a blacksmith. He
presently returns himself, in the character of the
blacksmith, unlocks the door, but on the other’s refusing him
a guinea for his trouble, locks it again, and walks off in
spite of all remonstrances. The guardian is now compelled to
ascend the ladder himself as well as he can: and while he is
engaged in this ticklish adventure, the young Gallant and his
mischievous Valet return with a couple of sentries whom
Duruset orders to seize the poor old Guardian as a robber,
and upon his declaring who and what he is, he is immediately
charged by the lover with concealing a Deserter in his house,
who is presently brought out, and is in fact his ward,
disguised in a young officer’s uniform, which Tokely had
given to her for that purpose. Tokely now returns dressed as
an officer, and pretending to be the father of the young
gentleman, with much blustering and little probability,
persuades the guardian to consent to the match between his
(adopted) son and the young lady, who has just been arrested
as the Deserter, and who, upon this, throwing aside her
disguise, the affair is concluded, to the satisfaction of
every body but the old guardian, and the curtain drops. The
bustle of this little piece keeps it alive: there is nothing
good either in the writing or the acting of it.’

331. ‘_Gone like a crab_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act II. Sc. 2.

_Mr. Terry last week_, _etc._ At the Haymarket, on August 27,
1816.

_The Surrender of Calais._ By George Colman the younger (1791).

‘_The line too labours_,’ _etc._ Cf. _ante_, note to p. 313.

‘_He resembles a person_,’ _etc._ Schlegel on Dryden. See
_Lectures on Dramatic Literature_ (trans. John Black, ed.
1900), p. 479.

332. ‘_Not to be hated._’ Cf. _ante_, note to p. 288.

_The Wonder._ Mrs. Centlivre’s (1714), Covent Garden, Sep. 13,
1816.

_The Busy Body._ 1709.

333. ‘_Trippingly from_ [on] _the tongue._’ _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc.
2.

‘_A Scotsman is not ashamed_,’ _etc._ _The Wonder_, Act V. Sc.
1.

334. _The Distressed Mother._ Originally produced in 1712. Hazlitt
here notices the first appearance in London of William
Charles Macready (1793-1873), Covent Garden, Sep. 16, 1816.

335. _The epithet in Homer._ Κάρη κομδωντες Ἀξαϡολ.

_Lovers’ Vows._ Sep. 14, 1816. Cf. _ante_, p. 249.

_Writer in the Courier._ Coleridge. See _ante_, note to p. 305.

336. ‘_Pointing to_ [at] _the skies._’ Pope, _Moral Essays_, III.
339.

‘_A vaporous drop profound._’ _Macbeth_, Act III. Sc. 5.

_Miss Boyle’s Rosalind._ October 2, 1816.

‘_How silver sweet_,’ _etc._ _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II. Sc. 2.

_Lady Townley._ In Vanbrugh and Cibber’s _The Provoked
Husband_.

337. ‘_Our poesy_,’ _etc._ _Timon of Athens_, Act I. Sc. 1.

_The Italian Lover._ Robert Jephson’s (1736-1803) _Julia, or
the Italian Lover_ (1787), revived at Covent Garden, Sep. 30,
1816.

338. l. 10. In _The Examiner_ the article concludes as follows:
‘_Drury Lane._—O’Keeffe’s farce of the _Blacksmith of
Antwerp_ was brought out here on Thursday [Oct. 3, 1816], Mr.
Munden being sufficiently recovered from his indisposition.
It is founded on the old story of _Quintin Matsys_ and the
Citizen of Antwerp, who would marry his daughter to no
one but a painter. It is full of pleasant incidents and
situations, which succeed one another with careless rapidity,
without fatiguing the attention or exciting much interest. It
is one of the least striking of O’Keeffe’s productions. It
however went off very well, and we dare say will have a run.
The music is pleasing enough.’

_Mr. Macready’s Othello._ October 10, 1816.

‘_Let Afric_,’ _etc._ Young, _The Revenge_, Act V. Sc. 2.

339. ‘_I do agnise_,’ _etc._ _Othello_, Act I. Sc. 3.

‘_No, not much moved._’ _Ibid._ Act III. Sc. 3.

‘_Othello’s occupation’s gone._’ _Ibid._ Act III. Sc. 3.

‘_Yet, oh the pity of it_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._ Act IV. Sc. 1.

‘_Swell, bosom_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._ Act III. Sc. 3.

‘_Like to the Pontic sea_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._ Act III. Sc. 3.

‘_Horror on horror’s head_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._ Act III. Sc. 3.

‘_Pride, pomp_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._ Act III. Sc. 3.

340. _Mr. Stephen Kemble._ Stephen Kemble (1758-1822), brother of
Mrs. Siddons and John Kemble.

_Sir John Falstaff._ _The Merry Wives of Windsor_ was played at
Drury Lane, October 10, 1816.

‘_Had guts in his brains._’ Cf. ‘Who wears his wit in his belly
and his guts in his head.’ _Troilus and Cressida_, Act II.
Sc. 1.

‘_How he cuts up_,’ _etc._ Burke, _A Letter to a Noble Lord_
(_Works_, Bohn, V. 145).

‘_The gods have not made_,’ _etc._ Cf. _As You Like It_, Act
III. Sc. 3.

_The writer in the Courier._ Hazlitt is plainly referring to
Coleridge. The poet’s contributions to _The Courier_ during
1816 have not been republished. Cf. _ante_, notes to pp. 305
and 335.

_Sir Richard Steele tells us_, _etc._ See a paper ‘On the Death
of Peer, the Property Man,’ in _The Guardian_ (No. 82), June
15, 1713.

342. _Mr. Kemble’s Cato._ October 25, 1816.

l. 5. In _The Examiner_ Hazlitt continues: ‘Owing to the early
filling of the house, we were prevented from seeing _Othello_
on Tuesday; but we understand that Mr. Young played Othello
like a great humming-top, “full of sound, but signifying
nothing,”[67] and that Mr. Macready in Iago was like a
mischievous boy whipping him; and that Miss Boyle did not
play Desdemona as unaffectedly as she ought. But we hope we
have been misinformed: and shall be glad to say so, if
possible, in our next.’ The article concludes with an account
of Kean quoted from _The Edinburgh Courant_.

342. ‘_Being mortal._’ _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Act II. Sc. 1.

l. 27. In _The Examiner_ the article continues as follows:
‘After the play, we saw the _Broken Sword_, which is a
melodrame of some interest, for it has a dumb boy, a
murderer, and an innocent person suspected of being the
perpetrator of the crime, in it: but it is a very
ill-digested and ill-conducted piece. The introduction to the
principal events is very tedious and round about, and the
incidents themselves, when they arrive, come in very great
disorder, and shock from their improbability and want of
necessary connection as much as from their own nature. Mr.
Terry played the part of a murderer with considerable
gravity. We do not know at all how he came to get into so
awkward a situation. The piece is, we understand, from common
report, by Mr. Dimond.[68] It is by no means one of his best.
For he is a very impressive as well as a prolific writer in
this way, and would do still better, if he would mind his
fine writing less, and get on faster to the business of the
story. Mr. Farley was highly interesting as _Estevan_, the
servant who is unjustly accused of the murder of his master;
in fact, he always plays this class of characters admirably,
both as to feeling and effect; and Miss Lupino played the
dumb _Florio_ very prettily. In the first act, there was a
dance by the Miss Dennetts.[69] If our readers have not seen
this dance, we hope they will, and that they will _encore_
it, which is the etiquette. Certainly, it is the prettiest
thing in the world, except the performers in it. They are
quite charming. They are three kindred Graces cast in the
same mould: a little Trinity of innocent delights, dancing in
their “trinal simplicities below.”[70] They are like “three
red roses on a stalk;”[71] and in the _pas de trois_ which
they dance twice over, they are as it were twined and woven
into garlands and festoons of blushing flowers, such as
“Proserpine let fall from Dis’s waggon.”[72] You can hardly
distinguish them from one another, they are at first so alike
in shape, age, air, look: so that the pleasure you receive
from one is blended with the delight you receive from the
other two, in a sort of provoking, pleasing confusion. Milton
was thinking of them when he wrote the lines:—

‘Whom lovely Venus at a birth,
With two Sister Graces more,
To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore.”[73]

Yet after all we have a preference, but we will not say which
it is, whether the tallest or the shortest, the fairest or
the darkest, of this lovely, laughing trio, more gay and
joyous than _Mozart’s_.—“But pray, dear sir, could you not
give us a little bit of a hint which of us it is you like the
very, very best?”—Yes, yes, you rogue, you know very well
it’s you, but don’t say a word of it to either of your
sisters.’ The theatrical criticisms during November were
written by Leigh Hunt.

_The Iron Chest._ By George Colman the younger (1796), revived
at Drury Lane, November 23, 1816.

343. _Adam Winterton._ A character in _The Iron Chest_.

_Mr. Colman was enraged_, _etc._ He wrote an angry preface
which was suppressed after the first edition.

344. ‘_Wears his heart_,’ _etc._ Adapted from _Othello_, Act I. Sc.
1.

‘_The fiery soul_,’ _etc._ Dryden, _Absalom and Achitophel_,