SIR WALTER SCOTT
This selection forms the latter half of the sketch of Scott in the “Spirit of the Age.” The following dialogue between Northcote and Hazlitt, “Conversations of Northcote,” XVI, represents Hazlitt’s feelings for Scott: “N. ‘You don’t know him, do you? He’d be a pattern to you. Oh! he has a very fine manner. You would learn to rub off some of your asperities. But you admire him, I believe.’ H. ‘Yes; on this side of idolatry and Toryism.’ N. ‘That is your prejudice.’ H. ‘Nay, it rather shows my liberality, if I am a devoted enthusiast notwithstanding. There are two things I admire in Sir Walter, his capacity and his simplicity; which indeed I am apt to think are much the same.’”
[P. 227.] more lively. Cf. “Coriolanus,” iv, 5, 237; “it’s spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent.”
their habits. “Hamlet,” iii, 4, 135.
[P. 228.] Baron of Bradwardine and the others mentioned in this sentence appear in “Waverley.”
Paul Veronese (1528-1588), a painter of the Venetian school.
Balfour of Burley and the others in this sentence appear in “Old Mortality.” The quotation is from chapter 38.
Meg Merilees to Dominie Sampson, in “Guy Mannering.”
[P. 229.] her head to the east. Cf. “Guy Mannering,” chap. 15; “Na, na! not that way, the feet to the east.”
Rob Roy to Die Vernon, in “Rob Roy.”
thick coming. Cf. “Macbeth,” v, 3, 38: “thick-coming fancies.”
Earl of Glenallan, in “The Antiquary.”
Black Dwarf to Grace Armstrong, in the “Black Dwarf.”
Children of the Mist, in “Legend of Montrose.”
Amy (Robsart) and Varney, in “Kenilworth.”
George of Douglas, in “The Abbot.”
P. 229, n. the finest scene. “Guy Mannering,” chap. 51.
[P. 231.] a consummation. “Hamlet,” iii, 1, 63.
by referring to the authentic history. At this point Hazlitt reproduces in a footnote one of Scott’s historical quotations in “Ivanhoe.”
flints and dungs. See “Ivanhoe,” chap. 43.
[P. 232.] calls backing. 1 “Henry IV,” ii, 4, 165.
Mr. MacAdam, John Loudon (1756-1836).
Sixty years since. The sub-title of “Waverley” was “’Tis Sixty Years Since.”
Wickliff, John (c. 1320-1384), an important English forerunner of the Protestant Reformation, the first translator of the Bible into English.
Luther, Martin (1483-1546), led the first successful revolt against the authority of the Catholic Church.
Hampden, John (c. 1595-1643), an English patriot who by his refusal to pay ship-money precipitated the rebellion against Charles I which ended in the beheading of that monarch.
Sidney, Algernon (1622-1683), an English patriot who fought on the side of Parliament against Charles I, and who, in the reign of Charles II, was tried for treason by Jeffreys, the hanging judge, and condemned to execution without proof. Sidney is the author of “Discourses Concerning Government” in which he vindicates the right of resistance to the misrule of kings.
Somers, John (1651-1716), took an important part in bringing about the bloodless Revolution which drove James II from England in 1688.
[P. 233.] Red Reiver, in “The Black Dwarf.”
Claverhouse, in “Old Mortality.”
Tristan the Hermit and Petit André, in “Quentin Durward.”
but himself. Though Scott composed many of his own mottoes, he never quoted his own previous verse but pretended to be using an Old Play or an Old Poem.
[P. 234.] born for the universe. Goldsmith’s “Retaliation,” 31.
winked and shut. Marston’s “Antonio’s Revenge,” Prologue.
[P. 235.] Who would not grieve. Cf. Pope’s “Prologue to the Satires,” 213:
“Who but must laugh, if such a man there be?
Who would not weep if Atticus were he?”