Chapter XXVIII: Act I: Sc. 1

‘_All appliances_,’ _etc._ _2 Henry IV._, Act III. Sc. 1.

ON PERSONS ONE WOULD WISH TO HAVE SEEN

Republished in _Literary Remains_ and _Winterslow_.

26. ‘_Come like shadows_,’ _etc._ _Macbeth_, Act IV. Sc. 1.

_B——._ B—— here and throughout the essay is Lamb. The essay
professes to describe a conversation which took place at one of
Lamb’s ‘Wednesdays’ at 16 Mitre Court Buildings, where Lamb
resided from 1801 to 1809. Hazlitt (p. 27) describes the
conversation as having taken place ‘twenty years ago.’

_The defence of Guy Faux._ See vol. XI. pp. 317 _et seq._ and
notes.

‘_Never so sure_,’ _etc._ Cf. Pope, _Moral Essays_, II. 51–2.

_A——._ Here and throughout the essay William Ayrton (1777–1858),
the musician.

27. ‘_In his habit_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 4.

_Fulke Greville._ See vol. V. (_Lectures on the Age of
Elizabeth_), p. 231 and note, and Lamb’s _Specimens of English
Dramatic Poets_.

‘_And call up him_,’ _etc._ _Il Penseroso_, 109–110.

28. _Wished that mankind, etc._ _Religio Medici_, Part II. Sec. ix.

_The portrait prefixed to the old edition._ Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, in
_Memoirs, etc._ (1867), vol. I. p. 276 note, suggests that
Hazlitt refers to the 12mo edition of 1669 which Lamb
possessed.

‘_Here lies a She-Sun_,’ _etc._ _Poems_ (‘Muses Library’) I. 86,
_Epithalamion on the Lady Elizabeth and Count Palatine_.

29. ‘_Lisped in numbers_,’ _etc._ Pope, _Prologue to the Satires_,
128.

30. _His interview with Petrarch, etc._ The editor of _The New
Monthly Magazine_ adds a footnote: ‘Query, did they ever meet?’
Chaucer was in Italy in 1372–3, and may have met Petrarch. Cf.
_The Canterbury Tales_, The Clerk’s Prologue, to which Hazlitt
no doubt refers. Chaucer may have met Boccaccio also.

_A fine portrait of Ariosto._ Hazlitt possibly refers to the
‘Portrait of a Poet’ in the National Gallery, now ascribed to
Palma. Titian’s portrait of Aretine is in the Pitti Gallery.

‘_The mighty dead._’ Thomson, _The Seasons, Winter_, 432.

‘_A creature_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Comus_, 299–301.

‘_That was Arion_,’ _etc._ _The Faerie Queene_, IV. xi. 23.

_Captain C._ Captain Burney; M. C., Martin Burney. See vol. VI.
_Table-Talk_, note to p. 209.

31. _Miss D——._ In _Literary Remains_ this name is given as
‘Mrs. Reynolds,’ presumably the lady who had been Lamb’s
schoolmistress. See Lamb’s _Letters_, ed. W. C. Hazlitt,
I. 121.

_A harsh, croaking voice._ Not to be identified. As to Johnson’s
life during 1745–6 see Boswell’s _Life_ (ed. G. B. Hill), I.
176 and notes.

‘_With lack-lustre eye._’ _As You Like It_, Act II. Sc. 7.

‘_Despise low joys_,’ _etc._ _Imitations of Horace_, _Epistles_,
I. vi. (to Mr. Murray), 60–62.

‘_Conspicuous scene_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._ 50–53.

‘_Why rail they then_,’ _etc._ _Epilogue to the Satires_, II.
138–9.

32. ‘_But why then publish_,’ _etc._ _Prologue to the Satires_,
135–146.

_E——._ In _Literary Remains_ and _Winterslow_ this blank is
filled with the name of ‘Erasmus Phillips,’ but Hazlitt must
refer to Lamb’s lifelong friend, Edward Phillips, secretary to
Speaker Abbott (see Lamb’s _Letters_, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, I. 76;
II. 346), or, possibly, to Colonel Phillips (_Ibid._ II. 148,
346).

33. ‘_Nigh-sphered in Heaven._’ Collins, Ode, _On the Poetical
Character_, 66.

_J. F——._ According to _Literary Remains_ this was Barron Field
(1786–1846).

34. ‘_A vast species alone._’ Cowley, _The Praise of Pindar_, l. 2.

_G——._ Godwin, according to _Literary Remains_.

_Eugene Aram._ Eugene Aram (1704–1759), hanged in 1759 for the
murder of Daniel Clark several years earlier at Knaresborough.

_H——._ _Literary Remains_ reads ‘Hunt.’

35. _The Duchess of Bolton._ Lavinia Fenton (1708–1760), the original
Polly, married the third Duke of Bolton in 1751.

_Captain Sentry._ See _The Spectator_, No. 2.

36. _Giotto, etc._ Giotto di Bondone (d. 1337), Giovanni Cimabue (?
1240–? 1302), and Domenico Bigardi (1449–1494), known as
Ghirlandaio—three of the most famous early Florentine masters.

‘_Whose names_,’ _etc._ See vol. X. (_Contributions to the
Edinburgh Review_), note to p. 63.

37. _The Duchess of Newcastle._ Lamb is never tired of praising her.
See, _e.g._, _The Two Races of Men_ (Elia).

_Mrs. Hutchinson._ Lucy Hutchinson (b. 1620). Her Life of her
husband, Colonel Hutchinson, was first published in 1806.

_One in the room, etc._ Mary Lamb.

_Ninon de l’Enclos._ Ninon de Lenclos (1616–1706), the famous
beauty.

‘_Your most exquisite reason._’ Cf. _Twelfth Night_, Act II. Sc.
3.

_G——._ Godwin, according to _Literary Remains_.

‘_Oh! ever right_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Coriolanus_, Act II. Sc. 1.

‘_There is only one other person_,’ _etc._ It should be noted
that _Literary Remains_ and _Winterslow_ wrongly attribute this
speech to Lamb. The Magazine clearly gives it to H——, that is,
to Leigh Hunt. It is, of course, conceivable that the editor of
_Literary Remains_ silently corrected an error in the Magazine,
but that does not seem likely, because, in the first place, the
speech seems more characteristic of Hunt than of Lamb, and,
secondly, because the volume of the _New Monthly_ (XVI.) 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.

ON THE CONVERSATION OF LORDS

Published in _Sketches and Essays_.

PAGE

38. ‘_An infinite deal of nothing._’ _The Merchant of Venice_, Act I.
Sc. 1.

39. ‘_The wish_,’ _etc._ _2 Henry IV._, Act IV. Sc. 5.

40. ‘_Bestow his tediousness._’ Cf. _Much Ado About Nothing_, Act
III. Sc. 5.

41. ‘_Treatise on Horsemanship._’ The Duke of Newcastle (1592–1676),
husband of Lamb’s favourite (see _ante_, note to p. 37), wrote
two works on horsemanship, (i) _La Methode et Invention
Nouvelle de dresser les Chevaux_ (Antwerp, 1657), and (ii) _A
New Method and Extraordinary Invention to Dress Horses, etc._
(1667). Hazlitt probably refers to the first, which was
published in English with 43 plates in vol. I. of _A General
System of Horsemanship_ (1743).

‘_A question_,’ _etc._ _1 Henry IV._, Act II. Sc. 4.

‘_The act_’ [art], _etc._ _Henry V._, Act I. Sc. 1.

42. ‘_The feast of reason_,’ _etc._ Pope, _Imitations of Horace_,
Satire I. l. 128.

‘_Catch glimpses_,’ _etc._ Cf. Wordsworth’s sonnet ‘The world is
too much with us,’ etc.

43. ‘_Face to face_,’ _etc._ Cf. _1 Corinthians_ xiii. 12.

‘_With jealous leer malign._’ _Paradise Lost_, IV. 503.

‘_Best can feel them_,’ _etc._ ‘He best can paint them who shall
feel them most.’ Pope, _Eloisa to Abelard_, 366.

_The Roxburgh Club._ Founded in 1812 to celebrate the sale of the
third Duke of Roxburgh’s great library.

‘_With sparkling eyes_,’ _etc._ Cf. Watts, _Hymns and Spiritual
Songs_, Book II. Hymn 65.

44. ‘_Pure in the last recesses_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Dryden, Translations
from Persius_, Sat. II. l. 133.

‘_Or write_,’ _etc._ Cf. Pope, _Epilogue to the Satires_, I. 137.

45. ‘_Held on their way_,’ _etc._ See vol. IV. (_Reply to Malthus_),
note to p. 42.

‘_The labour_’ _etc._ _Macbeth_, Act II. Sc. 3.

46. ‘_From every work_,’ _etc._ _The Faerie Queen_, I. iv. 20.

_Otium cum dignitate._ Cicero, _Pro P. Sestio_, c. 45.

_N——._ Probably Northcote.

_A celebrated critic._ ? Jeffrey, whom Hazlitt had visited at
Craigcrook.

47. ‘_That there are powers_,’ _etc._ Wordsworth, _Expostulation and
Reply_, 21–24.

50. ‘_A man’s mind_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Antony and Cleopatra_, III. 13.

_The Letter to Sir William Wyndham_. Published by Mallet in 1753.

_Lord Bolingbroke had, it seems_, _etc._ This cannot be true,
though Chatham’s admiration of Bolingbroke’s eloquence is well
known.

‘_As if a man_,’ _etc._ _Coriolanus_, v. 3.

ON A SUN-DIAL

First republished in _Sketches and Essays_, where it is said to have been written in Italy in 1825.

51. ‘_To carve out dials_,’ _etc._ _3 Henry VI._, Act II. Sc. 5.

52. ‘_Morals on the time._’ Cf. _As You Like it_, Act II. Sc. 7.

54. ‘_How sweet the moonlight_,’ _etc._ _The Merchant of Venice_, Act
V. Sc. 1.

_The account given by Rousseau_, _etc._ Hazlitt is probably
referring to a somewhat similar story told in _Les
Confessions_, Partie II. Livre XI.

55. ‘_Allons, mon fils_,’ _etc._ _Les Confessions_, Partie I. Livre
I.

‘_Lend it_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 2.

‘_With its brazen throat_,’ _etc._ Cf. _King John_, Act III. Sc.
3.

‘_Swinging slow_,’ _etc._ _Il Penseroso_, 76.

56. _Even George IV._, _etc._ This sentence is omitted in _Sketches
and Essays_.

‘_The poor man’s only music._’ Coleridge, _Frost at Midnight_,
29.

57. _Goes to church_, _etc._ Cf. _Twelfth Night_, Act I. Sc. 3.

‘_Sing those witty rhymes_,’ _etc._ Cf. Wordsworth, _The
Fountain_, 13–15.

58. ‘_As in a map_,’ _etc._ Cowper, _The Task_, VI. 17.

‘_With light-winged toys_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Othello_, Act I. Sc. 3.

‘_Diana and her fawn_,’ _etc._ Hazlitt seems to be quoting from
himself. See vol. IX. p. 107.

59. ‘_With lack-lustre eye._’ _As You Like It_, Act II. Sc. 7.

_I have done something of the kind before._ Hazlitt probably
refers to the sketch of his father in ‘My First Acquaintance
with Poets’ (_post_, pp. 262–3). Cf. also vol. III. (_Political
Essays_), pp. 265–6.

WHY THE HEROES OF ROMANCE ARE INSIPID

Published in _Sketches and Essays_.

60. ‘_To gild refined gold_,’ _etc._ _King John_, Act IV. Sc. 2.

‘_Faultless monsters._’ John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham,
_Essay on Poetry_.

61. _The grand Cyruses, the Artamenes._ Mlle. de Scudéry’s _Artamène
ou le Grand Cyrus_ was published in 10 vols., 1649–53.

_Oroondates._ In _La Calprenède’s Cassandra_.

‘_Mistress’ eyebrow._’ _As You Like It_, Act II. Sc. 7.

62. ‘_Be mine_,’ _etc._ Gray, _Letters_ (ed. Tovey), I. 97.

‘_The Princess of Cleves._’ By Madame de la Fayette (1678).

_The Duke de Nemours._ In _La Princesse de Clèves_.

‘_Ugly all over_,’ _etc._ See vol. II. (_Life of Holcroft_), note
to p. 130.

64. _Narcissa and Emily Gauntlet._ Narcissa in _Roderick Random_;
Emily Gauntlet in _Peregrine Pickle_; Winifred Jenkins in
_Humphry Clinker_.

‘_Her heroes_,’ _etc._ Cf. ‘Most women have no characters at
all.’ Pope, _Moral Essays_, II. 2.

_Theodore_, _Valancourt_. Theodore in _The Romance of the
Forest_; Valancourt in _The Mysteries of Udolpho_.

65. _Miss Milner._ Miss Milner and Dorriforth in _A Simple Story_
(1791); Lord Norwynne in _Nature and Art_ (1796).

67. ‘_All germins_,’ _etc._ _King Lear_, Act III. Sc. 2.

‘_Tears such as angels shed_ [weep].’ _Paradise Lost_, I. 620.

THE SHYNESS OF SCHOLARS

Republished in _Literary Remains_.

68. ‘_And of his port_,’ _etc._ _The Canterbury Tales._ The Prologue,
69.

‘_If you have not seen_,’ _etc._ Cf. _As You Like It_, Act III.
Sc. 2.

70. ‘_Fools rush in_,’ _etc._ Pope, _An Essay on Criticism_, III.
625.

71. ‘_In peace_,’ _etc._ _Henry V._, Act III. Sc. 1.

72. ‘_Gods of his idolatry._’ Cf. _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II. Sc. 2.

73. ‘_Will not have_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Coriolanus_, Act II. Sc. 2.

‘_Vix ea nostra voco._’ Ovid, _Metam._ XIII. 141.

75. ‘_Scholar’s melancholy._’ _As You Like It_, Act IV. Sc. 1.

‘_He held_,’ _etc._ Cf. Gray’s _Elegy_, Stanza III., which
Hazlitt seems to have had in mind.

‘_From humble porter_ [port],’ _etc._ Townley, _High Life Below
Stairs_, II. 1.

76. ‘_Modest as morning_,’ _etc._ _Troilus and Cressida_, Act I. Sc.
3.

‘_Deprived of its natural patrons_,’ _etc._ Cf. Burke,
_Reflections on the Revolution in France_ (_Select Works_, ed.
Payne, II. 93).

THE MAIN-CHANCE

Published in _Literary Remains_ with omissions and a few additions. The additions are printed in the text within square brackets. In other respects the Essay is printed _verbatim_ from the Magazine.

78. ‘_Search then_,’ _etc._ Pope, _Moral Essays_, III. 174–179.

82. ‘_Sown_,’ _etc._ Cf. Middleton, _The Witch_, Act I. Sc. 2.

83. _Mr. F._ Beckford sold Fonthill to John Farquhar in 1822.

86. Note. ‘_Men act from calculation_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Principles of
Morals and Legislation_, Ch. XIV. Sec. xxviii.

Note. ‘_A Mad World._’ _etc._ John Taylor, _Wandering to see the
Wonders of the West_ (1649).

88. ‘_Now all ye ladies_,’ _etc._ These lines by Scott form the motto
of chap. xii. of _The Betrothed_, where they are entitled
‘Family Quarrels.’

Note. ‘_Have I not seen_,’ _etc._ _The Betrothed_, chap. XII.

Note. ‘_I would take_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. II.

Note. _Dr. Jamieson._ John Jamieson (1759–1838), whose
_Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language_ appeared in
1808.

90. ‘_Some trick_,’ _etc._ _Coriolanus_, Act IV. Sc. 4.

91. _Mr. Bartholine Saddletree._ In _The Heart of Midlothian_.

_Peter Peebles._ In _Redgauntlet_.

_The Baron of Bradwardine, etc._ In _Waverley_.

‘_The age of chivalry_,’ _etc._ Burke, _Reflections on the
Revolution in France_ (_Select Works_, ed. Payne, II. 89).

‘_Smack of honour._’ _Macbeth_, Act I. Sc. 2.

93. ‘_An ounce_,’ _etc._ Cf. _The Faerie Queene_, I. iii. 30.

95. ‘_Masterless passion_,’ _etc._ Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_, Act
IV. Sc. 1.

SELF-LOVE AND BENEVOLENCE

These two papers were republished in _Sketches and Essays_ (1839), but were omitted in the second edition (1852). Mr. W. C. Hazlitt restored them in his edition in Bohn’s Standard Library, where he states that they were written in Italy in 1825, and represent a conversation between the author, Landor and Captain Medwin.

PAGE

96. ‘_Sound significant._’ Hazlitt was perhaps thinking of Milton’s
words, ‘the sound symphonious.’ _Paradise Lost_, VII. 558.

‘_These needs_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 5.

99. ‘_Nihil humani_,’ _etc._ Terence, _Heauton-Timoroumenos_, I. 1.
‘_Greater love_,’ _etc._ Cf. _St. John_ XV. 13.

102. ‘_Letting I should not_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Macbeth_, Act I. Sc. 7.

104. ‘_Throw honour_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Ibid._ Act V. Sc. 3.

104. _Very’s._ A well-known restaurant in Paris. Cf. Moore’s _The
Fudge Family in Paris_, Letter III.

_The Count de Stutt-Tracy._ See Vol. VII. (_The Plain Speaker_),
p. 323 and note.

105. ‘_This one entire_,’ _etc._ _Othello_, Act V. Sc. 2.

‘_Precious jewel_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Ibid._ Act III. Sc. 3.

‘_Plain truth_,’ _etc._ Cf. Pope, _Imitations of Horace_,
_Epistles_, I. 6, l. 3.

_C. D._ See _post_, note to p. 119.

‘_I shall be ever_,’ _etc._ Cf. Garrick’s verses in reply to Dr.
John Hill. They are quoted in Doran’s _Annals of the English
Stage_, II. 326.

106. ‘_No more of that_,’ _etc._ _1 Henry IV._, Act II. Sc. 4.

108. ‘_Come, but no farther_,’ _Job_ xxxviii. 11.

112. ‘_Come, let me clutch thee._’ _Macbeth_, Act II. Sc. 1.

113. ‘_And coming events_,’ _etc._ Campbell, _Lochiel’s Warning_.

115. ‘_Made and moulded of things past._’ _Troilus and Cressida_, Act
III. Sc. 3.

‘_Thou art to continue_,’ _etc._ _Measure for Measure_, Act II.
Sc. 1.

‘_Here and hereafter_,’ _etc._ Byron, _Sardanapalus_, Act IV. Sc.
1.

116. ‘_I do not think_,’ _etc._ See vol. VII. (_Essay on the
Principles of Human Action_), pp. 430–3.

119. _J. D._ Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, in his edition of _Sketches and
Essays_, states that on a folio leaf in his possession, the
initials are J. L. and C. L., and that Lamb and his brother are
evidently the persons intended. If that be so, A. and C. can
hardly be Landor and Medwin. Possibly A. represents Ayrton and
Captain C. Captain Burney, but all the initials are merely
matter for conjecture, and it is extremely unlikely that the
dialogue ever took place in anything like its present form.

‘_This is the strangest tale_,’ _etc._ _1 Henry IV._, Act V. Sc.
4.

THE FREE ADMISSION

Now republished for the first time. See Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s _Memoirs, etc._, I. xxx.

120. ‘_Loop-holes of retreat._’ Cowper, _The Task_, IV. 88.

121. ‘_He is all ear and eye_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Comus_, 560–2.

‘_The fly_,’ _etc._ _The Beggar’s Opera_, Act II. Sc. 2.

‘_Oh! leave me_,’ _etc._ Cf. Gray, _The Vegtam’s Kivitha_.

_My beloved corner._ See Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s _Memoirs, etc._, I.
205.

‘_The arm-chair at an inn._ ‘A tavern chair is the throne of
human felicity.’ Johnson (Boswell’s _Life_, ed. G. B. Hill, II.
452, note 1).

‘_Witching time of night._’ _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 2.

‘_Like bees in spring-time_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, I. 768–9.

122. ‘_A discipline of humanity._’ Bacon (_Essays_, ‘Of Marriage and
Single Life’) applies the phrase to wife and children. Hazlitt
himself applies it to books (vol. I. _The Round Table_, p.
123).

‘_Retire, the world shut out_,’ _etc._ Young, _Night Thoughts_,
IX.

‘_Still, small voice._’ _1 Kings_ xix. 12.

_Miss Ford._ Hazlitt refers to Miss Forde as Cherry in _The Beaux
Stratagem_ (revived Covent Garden, Dec. 31, 1828). In _Lectures
on the Comic Writers_ (VIII. 88) he refers to the dialogue in