| chapter | | | page |
| | Chronology of Hazlitt’s Life and Writings | | [ix] |
| | Introduction | | [xi] |
| [I.] | The Age of Elizabeth | | [1] |
| [II.] | Spenser | | [21] |
| [III.] | Shakspeare | | [34] |
| [IV.] | The Characters of Shakspeare’s Plays |
| | Cymbeline | | [50] |
| | Macbeth | | [60] |
| | Iago | | [72] |
| | Hamlet | | [76] |
| | Romeo and Juliet | | [84] |
| | Midsummernight’s Dream | | [85] |
| | Falstaff | | [88] |
| | Twelfth Night | | [96] |
| [V.] | Milton | | [101] |
| [VI.] | Pope | | [118] |
| [VII.] | On the Periodical Essayists | | [133] |
| [VIII.] | The English Novelists | | [155] |
| [IX.] | Character of Mr. Burke | | [172] |
| [X.] | Mr. Wordsworth | | [191] |
| [XI.] | Mr. Coleridge | | [205] |
| [XII.] | Mr. Southey | | [216] |
| [XIII.] | Elia | | [220] |
| [XIV.] | Sir Walter Scott | | [227] |
| [XV.] | Lord Byron | | [236] |
| [XVI.] | On Poetry in General | | [251] |
| [XVII.] | My First Acquaintance With Poets | | [277] |
| [XVIII.] | On the Conversation of Authors | | [301] |
| [XIX.] | Of Persons One Would Wish To Have Seen | | [315] |
| [XX.] | On Reading Old Books | | [333] |
| | Notes | | [349] |