The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 06 (of 12)

by William Hazlitt

TABLE TALK

PAGE [2]. An Advertisement, etc. The advertisement to the Paris edition of Table Talk was as follows:— ‘The work here offered to the public is a selection from the four volumes of Table Talk, printed in London. Should it meet with success, it will be followed by two other volumes of the same description, which will include all that the author wishes to preserve of his writings in this kind. The title may perhaps serve to explain what there is of peculiarity in the style or mode of treating the subjects. I had remarked that when I had written or thought upon a particular topic, and afterwards had occasion to speak of it with a friend, the conversation generally took a much wider range, and branched off into a number of indirect and collateral questions, which were not strictly connected with the original view of the subject, but which often threw a curious and striking light upon it, or upon human life in general. It therefore occurred to me as possible to combine the advantages of these two styles, the literary and the conversational; or after stating and enforcing some leading idea, to follow it up by such observations and reflections as would probably suggest themselves in discussing the same question in company with others. This seemed to me to promise a greater variety and richness, and perhaps a greater sincerity, than could be attained by a more precise and scholastic method. The same consideration had an influence on the familiarity and conversational idiom of the style which I have used. How far the plan was feasible, or how far I have succeeded in the execution of it must be left to others to decide. I am also afraid of having too frequently attempted to give a popular air and effect to subtle distinctions and trains of thought; so that I shall be considered as too metaphysical by the careless reader, while by the more severe and scrupulous inquirer my style will be complained of as too light and desultory. To all this I can only answer that I have done not what I wished, but the best I could do; and I heartily wish it had been better.’

ESSAY I. ON THE PLEASURE OF PAINTING

This and the following essay are from The London Magazine for December 1820 (Vol. II. pp. 597–607), No. V. of a series entitled Table Talk.

[5]. ‘There is a pleasure,’ etc. Cf. vol. I. note to p. 76. ‘No juggling here.’ Cf. ‘Here is such patchery, such juggling, and such knavery.’ Troilus and Cressida, Act II. Scene 3. ‘Study with joy,’ etc. Cowper, The Task, III. 227–8. [6]. ‘More tedious,’ etc. King John, Act III. Scene 4. ‘My mind to me,’ etc. The first line of the well-known poem attributed to Sir Edward Dyer (d. 1607).

‘Light thickens; and the crow

Makes wing to the rooky wood.’

Macbeth, Act III. Scene 2.

‘—— so distinctly wrought

That one might almost say, her body thought.’

John Donne, An Anatomy of the World, Second Anniversary, 245–6.

ESSAY III. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

[13]. ‘Whate’er Lorraine,’ etc. Thomson, The Castle of Indolence, Canto I. Stanza 38. Lord Radnor’s park. For a fuller account of the collections here referred to, see the volume in the present edition containing Hazlitt’s Fine Art Criticisms. [14]. ‘Bosomed high,’ etc. L’Allegro, 78. ‘Hands that the rod,’ etc. Gray, Elegy, 47. ‘A forked mountain,’ etc. Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV. Scene 14. ‘Signifying nothing.’ Macbeth, Act V. Scene 5, [15]. When I went to the Louvre. In 1802. See Memoirs of William Hazlitt, I. 84 et seq. Titian’s Mistress. The picture so called is in the Louvre. It is in fact a portrait of Alphonso of Ferrara and Laura Dianti. The Transfiguration, etc. On the fall of Napoleon, Raphael’s Transfiguration, and Domenichino’s Communion of St. Jerome were restored to Rome; Titian’s St. Peter Martyr to Venice, and his Hippolito de Medici to Florence. The St. Peter Martyr was destroyed by fire in 1867. Hazlitt’s copy of ‘A young Nobleman with a glove’ is still in the possession of Mr. W. C. Hazlitt. [16]. ‘If thou hast not seen,’ etc. Cf. ‘Wast ever in court, shepherd?—No, truly.—Then thou art damned.’ As You Like It, Act III., Scene 2. The Elgin marbles. See Vol. i. p. 143 and note. ‘Hard money.’ Specie opposed to paper currency. Cf. ‘Your mother has a hundred pounds in hard money’ etc. Farquhar, The Recruiting Officer, Act IV. Scene 3. ‘Number numberless.’ Paradise Regained, III. 310 [numbers]. ‘Casual fruition,’ etc. Paradise Lost, IV. 766–7. [17]. W—. Richard Wilson. [18]. A friend of mine. Northcote, presumably, whose Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds had been praised in The Edinburgh Review (vol. xxiii. pp. 263 et seq.) A friend had bought, etc. Mr. W. C. Hazlitt suggests that this was Haydon. [19]. Richardson, in his Essays. A Discourse on the Science of a Connoisseur (Essays, 1773, pp. 327 et seq.) [20]. ‘Guido Reni,’ etc. Richardson, Essays, 1773, pp. 217–8. [21]. Gandy. William Gandy (died 1729). See Hazlitt’s Conversations of James Northcote, ante, p. 345. A short Memoir of Gandy forms the Appendix to Northcote’s Life of Reynolds. Poor Dan. Stringer. Cf. ante, pp. 345–6. ‘Swallowing the tailor’s news.’ King John, Act IV., Scene 2. ‘Bastards of his genius,’ etc. Cf. Vol. iv. p. 209.

ESSAY III. ON THE PAST AND FUTURE.

[22]. When Sterne in the Sentimental Journey. A Sentimental Journey, ‘Character. Versailles.’ [23]. ‘The thoughts of which,’ etc. Cf. ‘Yet loss of thee would never from my heart.’ Paradise Lost, IX. 912. ‘What though the radiance,’ etc. Wordsworth, Ode, Intimations of Immortality, 179 et seq. ‘Retrace its footsteps,’ etc. Paradise Lost, XI. 329–333. ‘And see how dark,’ etc. Wordsworth, Lines written while sailing in a boat at evening.

‘In weary being now I pine,

For a’ the life of life is dead,’

Burns, Lament for James, Earl of Glencairn, Stanza 6.

Cf. also ‘Till youth and genial years are flown,

And all the life of life is gone,’

‘For ever, Fortune, wilt thou prove,’ etc.

ESSAY IV. ON GENIUS AND COMMON SENSE.

[33]. Mr. Burke, by whom, etc. Cf. Conversations of James Northcote, ante, p. 366. Windham in one of his Speeches. Speech on the Conduct of the Duke of York, March 14, 1809. Speeches, III. 205. [34]. One of the persons, etc. No doubt John Thelwall (1764–1834), who was acquitted in December, 1794, and retired to Brecon in 1798. Hazlitt afterwards became acquainted with him. Among his Poems (1801) is an epic entitled ‘Edwin of Northumbria.’ [35]. Note. ‘Sound it,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2. [36]. ‘Make assurance,’ etc. Macbeth, Act IV. Scene 1. ‘Shuts the gates,’ etc. Gray, Elegy, Stanza 17. Mr. Burke said. Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 102). [37]. Come home to the business, etc. Bacon, Dedication to the Essays. Ultima ratio regum. See vol. III., note to p. 44. ‘There’s the rub,’ etc. ‘There’s the respect that makes calamity of so long life.’ Hamlet, Act III. Scene 1.

‘And I do think, or else this brain of mine

Hunts not the trail of policy so sure

As it hath used to do.’

Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2.

ESSAY V. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

[42]. ‘As one, in suffering,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2. ‘Knew all qualities,’ etc. Othello, Act III. Scene 3. ‘A pipe for the Muse’s finger,’ etc. Cf. ‘That they are not a pipe for fortune’s finger to sound what stop she please.’ Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2. [43]. ‘To descry new lands,’ etc. Paradise Lost, I. 290–1. ‘Fierce extremes,’ etc. Ib. II. 599. ‘Of the earth, earthy.’ I Corinthians, XV. 47. ‘Darkness that may be felt.’ Exodus, X. 21. ‘Palpable obscure.’ Paradise Lost, II. 406. [44]. ‘Look abroad into universality.’ Bacon, Advancement of Learning, Book I. ‘Content with riches fineless.’ Othello, Act III. Scene 3. ‘Poor as Winter.’ Ib. ‘Self-involved, not dark.’ Cf. ‘Pensive, not sad; in thought involved, not dark.’ Thomson, The Castle of Indolence, Canto I. Stanza 57. ‘Enjoys bright day.’ Comus, 382. ‘Kept the noiseless tenour of his way.’ Gray’s Elegy, Stanza 19. ‘Finds tongues,’ etc. As You Like It, Act II. Scene 1. ‘The meanest flow’r,’ etc. Wordsworth, Ode, Intimations of Immortality. [45]. ‘Yet I’ll remember thee,’ etc. Burns, Lament for James, Earl of Glencairn. Sir Joshua Reynolds, in endeavouring, etc. Cf. the essays ‘On Certain Inconsistencies in Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Discourses, ante, pp. 122 et seq. [46]. The admirable Crichton. James Crichton (1560–1585?). Jedediah Buxton. For Jedidiah Buxton (1707–1772) see Gentleman’s Magazine, June 1754. Note. ‘The force of dulness,’ etc. Cf. ‘The force of Nature could no further go.’ Dryden, Under Mr. Milton’s Picture. [49]. Mediocribus esse, etc. Horace, Ars Poetica, 372–3. I find from Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations, Book I. chap. i. Those nonsensical stories about Lopez de Vega. See Lord Holland’s Some Account of the life and writings of Lope Felix de Vega Carpio (1806), pp. 75–82. [50]. Why does Mr. Kean, etc. See the volume containing Hazlitt’s theatrical criticisms.

ESSAY VI. CHARACTER OF COBBETT

[58]. This essay was afterwards republished in the second edition of The Spirit of the Age. See vol. IV. pp. 334–343, and notes thereto.

ESSAY VII. ON PEOPLE WITH ONE IDEA

[59]. Major C—. John Cartwright (1740–1824), major in the Nottinghamshire Militia, and author of a large number of tracts, chiefly on parliamentary reform. [60]. Like the story of the Cosmogony. The Vicar of Wakefield, chap. xiv. Nihil humani, etc. Terence, Heautontimorumenos, Act I. Scene 1. ‘A fee-grief’ etc. Macbeth, Act IV. Scene 3. [61]. As Cicero says of study. ‘Haec studia adolescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant,’ etc. Cicero, Pro Archia, VII. 16. As Sancho, etc. Don Quixote, Second Part, Book II. chap. xxxi. Dulce ridentem, etc. Horace, Odes, I. xxii., 23–4. ‘Rings the world,’ etc. Cowper, The Task, III. 129–130. [62]. Abernethy. John Abernethy (1764–1831), whose chief work, An Essay on the Constitutional Origin of Local Diseases, appeared in 1806. [63]. Alderman Wood. Sir Matthew Wood (1768–1843), lord mayor 1815–16, and member for the city from 1817 till his death, had recently (1820) made himself notorious as a champion of Queen Caroline. A conceited fellow about town, etc. Hazlitt probably refers to Wirgmann, the goldsmith, of whom Crabb Robinson gives an amusing account in his Diary (1872 ed.) Vol. I. pp. 310–311. A friend of mine. John Fearn (1768–1837), of whom Hazlitt gives some account in the following page. The essay referred to was An Essay on Consciousness (2nd ed. 4to, 1812). Hazlitt quotes a long passage from the Essay in Why Distant Objects Please. See ante, pp. 260–2. [64]. ‘Poor, unfledged,’ etc. Cymbeline, Act III. Scene 3. [65]. As Goldsmith said. See Boswell’s Life of Johnson (ed. G. B. Hill), III. 252. Yet his Treatise on Human Nature, etc. ‘Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my Treatise of Human Nature. It fell dead-born from the press,’ etc. The Life of David Hume, Esq. Written by Himself. A celebrated lyrical writer. Wordsworth. The motto in the title-page.

‘For why? Because the good old rule

Sufficeth them: the simple plan,

That they should take, who have the power,

And they should keep who can.’

Wordsworth, Rob Roy’s Grave.

‘O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee

To temper man: we had been brutes without you.’

Otway, Venice Preserved, Act I. Scene 1.

ESSAY VIII. ON THE IGNORANCE OF THE LEARNED

First published in the Scots’ Magazine (New Series), July 1818, vol. III. pp. 55 et seq. Hazlitt refers to this essay in A Letter to William Gifford (vol. I., p. 382).

[70]. ‘For the more languages,’ etc. Satire upon the Abuse of Human Learning, 57–68. ‘Spectacles.’ Dryden says of Shakespeare, ‘he needed not the spectacles of books to read Nature.’ Essay of Dramatic Poesy (Essays, ed. Ker, I. 80). [71]. ‘Leave me to my repose.’ ‘Leave me, leave me to repose,’ the refrain of the Prophetess in Gray’s The Vegtam’s Kivitha. The line is quoted by Burke in A Letter to a Noble Lord (Works, Bohn, V. 112). ‘Take up his bed and walk.’ St. Matthew, ix. 6. ‘Enfeebles all internal strength of thought.’ Goldsmith, The Traveller, 270. ‘Sweats in the eye of Phœbus.’ Henry V., Act IV. Scene 1. [72]. ‘Th’ enthusiast Fancy,’ etc. ‘The truant fancy was a wanderer ever.’ Lamb, Fancy Employed on Divine Subjects, I. 1. The least respectable character. Hazlitt is probably referring to Canning. [73]. A person of this class. Charles Burney, D.D. (1757–1817), whose Remarks on the Greek Verses of Milton appeared in 1790. Dr. —. Hazlitt refers to Charles Burney (see last note) and Dr. Parr. Cf. a similar passage in The Examiner, vol. I. p. 425. [74]. ‘The mighty world of eye and ear.’ Wordsworth, Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, 105–6. ‘Knowledge quite shut out.’ ‘And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.’ Paradise Lost, III. 50. ‘Of the colouring of Titian,’ etc. Tristram Shandy, III. 12. The Elgin marbles. See The Round Table, vol. I. p. 143 and note. ‘Knows no touch of it.’ Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2. ‘The art and practique,’ etc. Henry V., Act I. Scene 1. ‘Has no skill in surgery.’ Henry IV., Part I., Act V. Scene 1. [76]. Baxter. Cf. the essay ‘On People of Sense’ in the Plain Speaker, vol. VII. p. 243. ‘Wink and shut,’ etc. Prologue to Marston’s Antonio’s Revenge (History of Antonio and Mellida, Part II.). Laud, etc. William Laud (1573–1645), and John Whitgift (1530?–1604), Archbishops of Canterbury; George Bull (1634–1710), Bishop of St. David’s, author of Defensio Fidei Nicenae (1685) and other theological works; Daniel Waterland (1683–1740), whose works were edited in eleven vols. in 1823–1828, was not a bishop; Humphrey Prideaux (1648–1724), whose Old and New Testament connected ... to the Time of Christ first appeared in two folio volumes 1716–1718; Isaac de Beausobre (1659–1738), the Huguenot writer; Augustine Calmet (1672–1757); Samuel, Baron von Puffendorf (1632–1694) and Eméric de Vattel (1714–1767), the jurists; Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609); Jerome Cardan (1501–1576), and Kaspar Schoppe (1576–1649). [76]. ‘Gone to the vault of all the Capulets.’ See vol. I. note to p. 150.

ESSAY IX. THE INDIAN JUGGLERS

[79]. Note. It was at Truro that Opie, who had already acquired some practice as a portrait painter, met with John Wolcot (1738–1819). [80]. I was at that time employed, etc. See Memoirs of William Hazlitt, I. xvi. ‘In argument,’ etc. The Deserted Village, 211–2. [81]. ‘To allow for the wind.’ Ivanhoe, chap. xiii. ‘Human face divine.’ Paradise Lost, III. 44. [82]. H—s and H—s. Mr. W. C. Hazlitt in his edition of Table Talk prints ‘Haydons and H—s.’ ‘In tones and gestures hit.’ ‘In tones and numbers hit.’ Paradise Regained, IV. 255. To snatch this grace, etc. An unacknowledged quotation from Pope, Essay on Criticism, 153. ‘Commercing with the skies.’ Il Penseroso, 39. [83]. ‘Thrills in each nerve,’ etc. Cf.

‘a sudden horror chill

Ran through each nerve, and thrilled in ev’ry vein.’

Addison, Milton’s Style Imitated, 123–4.

‘Lady, you are the cruell’st she alive,

If you will lead these graces to the grave

And leave the world no copy.’

Twelfth Night, Act I. Scene 5.

‘And I feel now

The future in the instant.’

Macbeth, Act I. Scene 5.

‘Which whoso tastes, forgets his former friends,

Sire, Ancestors, Himself,’ etc.

‘May no rude hand deface it,

And its forlorn hic jacet.’

Wordsworth, Ellen Irwin, 55–6.

ESSAY X. ON LIVING TO ONE’S-SELF

[90]. ‘Remote, unfriended,’ etc. Goldsmith, The Traveller, l. 1. Winterslow. Hazlitt’s wife inherited some cottages at Winterslow, a small village six or seven miles from Salisbury on the Andover road, and in one of these cottages a part of their early married life was spent. See Memoirs of William Hazlitt, I. 168 et seq., where an account is given of a visit paid to Mr. and Mrs. Hazlitt by Charles and Mary Lamb. After 1819 (see Memoirs II. 16) Hazlitt began to frequent Winterslow Hut or the Pheasant Inn, where many of his essays (collected under the title of ‘Winterslow’) were written. ‘While Heavn’s chancel-vault,’ etc. Cf.

‘When the chill rain begins at shut of eve

In dull November, and their chancel vault,

The Heaven itself, is blinded throughout night.’

Keats, Hyperion, II. 36–8.

‘I behold

The tumult and am still.’

Cowper, The Task, IV. 99–100.

ESSAY XI. ON THOUGHT AND ACTION

Abraham Tucker. For Tucker, see vol. IV. pp. 371–385 and notes. [102]. Louvet. The Girondin, Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray (1760–1797), author of Les Amours du Chevalier de Faublas. Note. Cf. Hazlitt’s Life of Napoleon (ed. 1894), III. 298. Tull’s Husbandry. An edition of Jethro Tull’s (1674–1741) Horse-hoing Husbandry (1733) was brought out by Cobbett in 1822. ‘Tut! will you baulk a man,’ etc. ‘Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humour?’ Much Ado About Nothing, Act II. Scene 3. ‘No figures,’ etc. Julius Cæsar, Act II. Scene 1. [104]. Chapter of Accidents. Apparently Lord Chesterfield (Letter, Feb. 16, 1753) was the first person who is known to have used this phrase. Southey in The Doctor (chap. cxviii.) attributes to John Wilkes the saying, similar to Hazlitt’s, that ‘the chapter of accidents is the longest chapter in the book.’ And — — for love! Possibly Hazlitt refers to himself. [105]. ‘Measure with a two-foot rule,’ etc. Burke, Regicide Peace (ed. Payne), p. 105. Quicquid agit, etc. See note to vol. II. p. 331. ‘Curtailing him,’ etc. Cf.

‘I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion,

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,’ etc.

Richard III., Act I. Scene 1.

‘And to be lord of those that riches have

Than them to have my selfe, and be their servile sclave.’

Ib. Book II. Canto vii. Stanza 33.

ESSAY XII. ON WILL-MAKING

[116]. A will of one of the Thellussons. The famous will of Peter Thellusson (1737–1797), who directed the income of his property to be accumulated during the lives of all his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, living at the time of his death. The will was upheld, but an Act, commonly called the Thellusson Act (39 and 40 George III. c. 98) was passed to prevent the repetition of such accumulations.

ESSAY XIII. ON CERTAIN INCONSISTENCIES IN SIR JOSHUA
REYNOLDS’S DISCOURSES

Cf. six papers which Hazlitt contributed to The Champion (Oct. 30, Nov. 6, Nov. 27, Dec. 4, Dec. 25, 1814, and Jan. 8, 1815) on Reynolds as a painter and a critic.

[123]. ‘You take my house,’ etc. Merchant of Venice, Act IV. Scene 1. [124]. ‘Ascending the brightest heaven of invention.’ Henry V., Prologue. Carlo Maratti. 1625–1713. [128]. ‘It loses some colour.’ Othello, Act I. Scene 1. [130]. ‘Not once perceive,’ etc. Comus, 74–5. Note. Boucher. François Boucher (1703–1770).

ESSAY XIV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

[131]. Two papers in the Idler. Nos. 76 and 82. [133]. Denner’s style. Balthasar Denner (1685–1749), the German painter, whose too minute detail is often referred to by Hazlitt. [134]. ‘Of late reformed,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2. ‘What word,’ etc. Paradise Lost, IX. 1144.

‘Hence mighty Virgil’s said, of old,

From dung to have extracted gold,’ etc.

Butler, Satire upon Plagiaries, 87 et seq.

ESSAY XV. ON PARADOX AND COMMON-PLACE

[146]. ‘Putting in one scale,’ etc. Cowper, The Task, IV. 484–6. [147]. ‘Apprehensive, forgetive.’ Henry IV. Part II. Act IV. Scene 3. [148]. ‘The powers that be.’ Romans, XIII. 1. Holy Oil. The coronation of George IV. (July 19, 1821) was imminent. ‘All trivial, fond records.’ Hamlet, Act I. Scene 5. ‘He never is,’ etc. A variation of Pope’s well-known line, Essay on Man, I. 96. The author of the Prometheus Unbound, etc. The passage which follows on Shelley led to a quarrel between Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt. See Memoirs of William Hazlitt (II. 305 et seq.), where two letters from Hunt to Hazlitt and one from Hunt to Shelley are published; and Four Generations of a Literary Family (I. 130–135), where a long letter from Hazlitt to Hunt is published for the first time. The quarrel was made up, but Hazlitt never cared for Shelley’s poetry. See his article in The Edinburgh Review (July 1824) on Shelley’s Posthumous Poems. ‘And in its liquid texture,’ etc. Paradise Lost, VI. 348–9. [149]. ‘Seas of pearl,’ etc. Cf. ‘Lutes, laurels, seas of milk, and ships of amber.’ Otway, Venice Preserved, Act V. Scene 2. Coleridge more than once quoted the line as an example of fanciful delirium. See Biographia Literaria (chap. iv.) and Crabb Robinson’s Diary (Nov. 15, 1810). Play round the head, etc. ‘Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.’ Pope, Essay on Man, IV. 254. [150]. ‘At the horizon.’ ‘Their humanity is at their horizon.’ Burke, A Letter to a Noble Lord (Works, Bohn, V. 142). ‘While you are talking of marrying,’ etc. The Beggar’s Opera, Act II. Scene 2. [151]. The present poet-laureate. Southey. ‘Poets (as it has been said)’ etc. Hazlitt quotes from his own review of Coleridge’s Literary Life in The Edinburgh Review for August, 1817 (Vol. XXVIII. pp. 514–5). ‘Such seething brains.’ Cf.

‘Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,’ etc.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V. Scene 1.

ESSAY XVI. ON VULGARITY AND AFFECTATION

‘Thin partitions,’ etc. Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. 164. [157]. ‘A feather will turn,’ etc. Cf. ‘The weight of a hair will turn the scales between their avoirdupois’ (Henry IV., Part II. Act II. Scene 4), and ‘Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn the scale’ (Measure for Measure, Act IV. Scene 2). ‘Great Vulgar and the Small.’ Cowley, Horace, Odes, III. 1. [159]. ‘Have eyes and see them.’ ‘Eyes have they, but they see not.’ Psalms, CXV. 5. ‘Lovers of low company.’ ‘Kings are naturally lovers of low company.’ Burke, Speech on Economical Reform (Works, Bohn, II. 106). [160]. ‘I like it,’ etc. The reference seems to be to Evelina, Letter XXI. Janus Weathercock, Esq. One of the pseudonyms of the notorious poisoner Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (1794–1852). He and Hazlitt were in 1820 fellow-contributors to The London Magazine. For the matters referred to in this paragraph of the text, see Hazlitt’s Dramatic Essays, especially the essay reprinted from The London Magazine for July 1820. For an account of Wainewright see the introduction to Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s selection of Wainewright’s Essays and Criticisms (1880). The article to which Hazlitt replies had appeared in The London Magazine for June 1820 (vol. I. p. 630) under the title of ‘Janus’s Jumble.’ Note. ‘Dip it in the ocean,’ etc. The Sentimental Journey, The Wig, Paris. [161]. Milaine ‘with the foot of fire.’ See Hazlitt’s Dramatic Essays. ‘Swallows total grist,’ etc. Cowper, The Task, VI. 108. Emery’s Yorkshireman. The character of Tyke in Morton’s The School for Reform. Cf. Hazlitt’s Dramatic Essays. [162]. ‘A stamp,’ etc. ‘A stamp exclusive and professional.’ Leigh Hunt, The Story of Rimini, III. 32. ‘Gabble most brutishly.’

‘But wouldst gabble like

A thing most brutish.’

The Tempest, Act I. Scene 2.

ESSAY XVII. ON A LANDSCAPE OF NICOLAS POUSSIN

‘Table Talk, No. XI.,’ from The London Magazine, August 1821 (vol. IV. p. 176). ‘And blind Orion,’ etc. Keats, Endymion, II. 198. ‘A hunter of shadows,’ etc. Cf.

‘The huge Orion, of portentous size,

Swift through the gloom a giant-hunter flies.’

Pope, Homer’s Odyssey, XI. 703–4.

‘Full-orbed the moon, and, with more pleasing light,

Shadowy sets off the face of things.’

Paradise Lost, V. 42–3.

‘He who of those delights can judge, and spare

To interpose them oft, is not unwise.’

Milton, Sonnet (No. XX.) To Mr. Lawrence.

‘Thus pleasure is spread through the earth

In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find.’

Wordsworth, Stray Pleasures.

ESSAY XVIII. ON MILTON’S SONNETS

Published in The New Monthly Magazine (1822), vol. IV. p. 238, under the title of ‘Table Talk, No. III.’

‘Some fee-grief,’ etc.

‘Or is it a fee-grief

Due to some single breast?’

Macbeth, Act IV. Scene 3.

‘and his grave rebuke

Severe in youthful beauty, added grace

Invincible.’

Paradise Lost, IV, 844–6.

ESSAY XIX. ON GOING A JOURNEY

Published in The New Monthly Magazine (1822, vol. IV. p. 73) under the heading ‘Table Talk, No. 1.’ Mr. W. C. Hazlitt in his edition of Table Talk gives some variations between the printed text of this essay and the original MS.

[181]. ‘The fields his study,’ etc. Bloomfield, The Farmer’s Boy, Spring, 31. ‘A friend in my retreat,’ etc. Cowper, Retirement, 741–2. ‘May plume her feathers,’ etc. Comus, 378–80. [182]. ‘Sunken wrack,’ etc. ‘With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries,’ Henry V., Act I. Scene 2. ‘Leave, oh, leave me,’ etc. See ante, note to p. 71. ‘The very stuff of conscience.’ Othello, Act I. Scene 2. ‘Out upon such half-faced fellowship.’ Henry IV., Part I. Act I. Scene 3. [183]. ‘Give it an understanding,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Scene 2. My old friend C—. Coleridge. Cf. the essay on ‘My First Acquaintance with Poets.’ ‘He talked far above singing.’ ‘I did hear you talk far above singing.’ Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, Act V. Scene 5. ‘That fine madness,’ etc.

‘For that fine madness still he did retain,

Which rightly should possess a Poet’s brain.’

Drayton, Censure of Poets.

ESSAY XX. ON COFFEE-HOUSE POLITICIANS

Some variations from the MS. are given in Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s edition of Table Talk.

[190]. ‘They live and move,’ etc. Acts, xvii. 28. The Queen, etc. Queen Caroline returned to England in June 1820, and died on August 7, 1821. During that time her case was of course the chief topic of conversation in London. George IV. was crowned on July 19, 1821. ‘That of an hour’s age,’ etc. Macbeth, Act IV. Scene 3. The Two-penny Post-Bag. Moore’s, published in 1813. The Westminster Election. Two memorable elections took place in Westminster in 1819 and 1820. In the first Hobhouse was defeated by George Lamb; in the second he was successful. Have nothing farther to say. In the MS. this sentence is followed by ‘They are like an oyster at the ebb of the tide, gaping for fresh tidings.’ The Bridge Street Association. The Constitutional Association or, as it was called by its opponents, ‘The Bridge Street Gang,’ founded in 1821 ‘to support the laws for suppressing seditious publications, and for defending the country from the fatal influence of disloyalty and sedition.’ The Association was an ill-conducted party organisation and created so much opposition by its imprudent prosecutions that it very soon disappeared. See an article in The Edinburgh Review for June, 1822. (Vol. XXXVII. p. 110). Mr. Cobbett’s Letter. Cobbett’s Letter ‘To Mr. James Cropper, a Quaker Merchant of Liverpool, on his letter to Mr. Wilberforce relating to East India and West India Sugar,’ appeared in the Weekly Register on July 21, 1821 (Vol. XL. p. 1.) [191]. ‘Any six of these men in buckram.’ See Henry IV. Part I., Act II. Scene 4. Note. This note is not in the MS., but the words ‘Draper’ and ‘Radical Tobacco’ are jotted down in the text. As Trim blew up the army, etc. Tristram Shandy, III. 20. Note. ‘Dream on, blest pair,’ etc.

‘Sleep on,

Blest pair! and O! yet happiest, if ye seek

No happier state, and know to know no more.’

Paradise Lost, IV. 773–5.

‘a great arithmetician,

One Michael Cassio, a Florentine.’

Othello, Act I. Scene 1.

‘And thou art long, and lank, and brown,

As is the ribbed sea-sand,’

ESSAY XXI. ON THE ARISTOCRACY OF LETTERS

[205]. ‘Ha! here’s three of us,’ etc. King Lear, Act III. Scene 4. Stat nominis umbra. ‘Stat magni nominis umbra.’ Lucan, Pharsalia, I. 135. — House. Holland House. Cf. Political Essays (vol. III. p. 44). ‘Continents have most,’ etc. Hobbes, Human Nature (Works, ed. Molesworth), IV. 50. ‘O that mine enemy,’ etc. Job, xxxi. 35. Note. Lord H—. The third Lord Holland. Note. Sir J— M—. Sir James Mackintosh. Note. ‘The first row of the rubric.’ Cf. ‘The first row of the pious chanson will show you more.’ Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2. [206]. A third makes the indecency pass, etc. The reference is clearly to Richard Payne Knight whose first publication (1786) was An Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus lately existing in Isernia, etc., and who in 1816 gave evidence before a select committee of the House of Commons against the national acquisition of the Elgin Marbles. [207]. ‘Cannot command it,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2. ‘Monster’d.’ ‘To hear my nothings monster’d.’ Coriolanus, Act II. Scene 2. ‘Ducks to the learned fool.’ Timon of Athens, Act IV. Scene 3. ‘He that is but able,’ etc. Satire upon the Abuse of Human Learning, 67–70. [208]. ‘’Twas mine,’ etc. Cf. ‘’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands.’ Othello, Act III. Scene 3. The Cider-cellar. See ante, p. 199. The Hole in the Wall. In Chancery Lane. See ante, note to p. 202. [209]. The B— family. The Burneys. ‘In numbers numberless.’ Paradise Regained, III. 310. The founder of it. Dr. Charles Burney (1726–1814), the friend of Johnson and author of A History of Music (4 vols. 1776–1789). Madame D—. Frances Burney (1752–1840), Madame D’Arblay, Dr. Burney’s daughter, author of Evelina and Cecilia. The rest have done nothing, etc. ‘The rest’ include Dr. Burney’s two sons, Charles Burney the younger (1757–1817), the Greek scholar, referred to by Hazlitt more than once, especially in connection with his Remarks on the Greek Verses of Milton (1790), and James Burney (1750–1821), familiar to readers of Lamb’s Letters as Captain and Admiral Burney, author of A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean (5 vols. 1803–1817), part of which is famous as The Buccaneers of America; Sarah Harriet Burney (1770–1844), Dr. Burney’s youngest daughter, author of Clarentine (1796) and other novels and tales; and Martin Charles Burney, Lamb’s friend, the son of Admiral Burney. [209]. The most celebrated author, etc. Sir Walter Scott, created a baronet by George IV. in 1820. Lord Byron complains. See the Preface to Marino Faliero (1820). ‘Let but a lord,’ etc. Pope, An Essay on Criticism, 420–1. [210]. Decorum, which Milton declares, etc. On Education, Works, 1738, I. 140. ‘Bears a charmed reputation,’ etc.

‘I bear a charmed life, which must not yield

To one of woman born.’

Macbeth, Act V. Scene 8.

‘By heaven, I had rather coin my heart,

And drop my blood for drachmas,’ etc.

Julius Caesar, Act IV. Scene 3.

‘What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,

Of Attic taste, with wine,’ etc.

Milton, Sonnet XX. (to Mr. Lawrence).

‘the fairest flowers o’ the season

Are our carnations and streak’d gillyvors.’

Winter’s Tale, Act IV. Scene 4.

‘nor could the Muse defend

Her son.’

Paradise Lost, VII. 37.

ESSAY XXII. ON CRITICISM

[214]. De omni scibile, etc. The origin of this saying seems obscure. See Notes and Queries, 7th Ser. IX. 500 and Larousse, Fleurs Latines, 94. We may sometimes see articles of this sort. Hazlitt had himself suffered from this form of reviewing. See notes to Reply to Malthus, vol. IV. p. 399. [215]. ‘As when a well-graced actor,’ etc. Richard II., Act V. Scene 2. Much as Peter Pounce, etc. Joseph Andrews, Book III. Chap. 13. ‘Assumes the rod,’ etc.

‘Assumes the god,

Affects to nod,

And seems to shake the spheres.’

Dryden, Alexander’s Feast, 39–41.

‘Others may boast a single man to kill:

But I the blood of thousands daily kill,’ etc.

‘Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,’ etc.

Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2.

ESSAY XXII. ON GREAT AND LITTLE THINGS

Published in The New Monthly Magazine (1822), vol. IV. p. 127, under the title of ‘Table Talk No. II.’

‘These little things,’ etc. Goldsmith, The Traveller, l. 42. [227]. ‘Some trick not worth an egg.’ Coriolanus, Act IV. Scene 4. Paper in the Tatler. No. 79 (by Steele).

‘We put on Berenice’s hair,

And sit in Cassiopeia’s chair.’

Dixon’s Canidia, or The Witches.

‘Ariadne’s crowne and Cassiopeia’s chayre.’

Randolph’s Poems, 1640, p. 14.

‘Not Berenice’s locks first rose so bright.’

Pope, Rape of the Lock, v. 129.

ESSAY XXIV. ON FAMILIAR STYLE

A few variations of the text from the MS. are given in Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s edition of Table Talk.

[245]. His papers under the signature of Elia. In The London Magazine. The first, ‘Recollections of the South Sea House,’ appeared in August 1820. Mrs. Battle’s Opinions on Whist. The London Magazine, Feb. 1821. ‘A well of native English undefiled.’

‘Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled,

On Fame’s eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled.’

Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book IV. Canto ii. Stanza 32.

‘Nec sermones ego mallem

Repentes per humum quam res componere gestas.’

Horace, Epistles, II. i. 250–1.

‘My affections

Are then most humble; I have no ambition

To see a goodlier man.’

The Tempest, Act I. Scene 2.

‘And on his crest

Sat Horror plumed.’

Paradise Lost, IV. 988–9.

‘’Twas transient in its nature, as in show

’Twas durable: as worthless as it seemed

Intrinsically precious; to the foot

Treacherous and false; it smiled, and it was cold.’

The Task, V. 173–6.

ESSAY XXV. ON EFFEMINACY OF CHARACTER

[248]. ‘The gossamer,’ etc.

‘the gossamer

That idles in the wanton summer air.’

Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Scene 6.

ESSAY XXVI. WHY DISTANT OBJECTS PLEASE

‘Descry new lands,’ etc. Paradise Lost, I. 290–1. Ethereal mould, sky-tinctured. Phrases borrowed without acknowledgment from Milton (Paradise Lost, II. 139, and V. 285). ‘But thou, oh Hope,’ etc. Collins, The Passions, 29–32. [256]. I lived within sight, etc. At Wem, in Shropshire, within sight of the Welsh hills. Cf. a passage in the first paragraph of ‘My First Acquaintance with Poets.’ ‘Yarrow unvisited.’ Wordsworth’s three poems, Yarrow Unvisited, Yarrow Visited, and Yarrow Revisited, were published in 1807, 1814, and 1835 respectively. ‘Unmould their essence.’ Cf. ‘Unmoulding reason’s mintage.’ Comus, 529. ‘A mighty stream of tendency.’ Wordsworth, The Excursion, IX. 87. ‘A tide in the affairs of men.’ Julius Caesar, Act IV. Scene 3. ‘With sails and tackle torn.’ ‘Though shrouds and tackle torn.’ Paradise Lost, II. 1044. ‘Such tricks hath,’ etc. Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V. Scene 1. [257]. ‘Hangs upon the beatings,’ etc. Wordsworth, Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, 54. ‘Come thronging soft desires.’ ‘Come thronging soft and delicate desires.’ Much Ado About Nothing, Act I. Scene 1. ‘Bring back the hour,’ etc. Wordsworth, Intimations of Immortality. ‘That first garden of my innocence.’ ‘In that first garden of our simplenesse.’ Daniel, Hymen’s Triumph. [258]. ‘Like the sweet south.’ Twelfth Night, Act I. Scene 1. W—m. Wem.

ESSAY XXVII. ON CORPORATE BODIES

Many instances of variation between the MS. and the text of this essay are given by Mr. W. C. Hazlitt in his edition of Table Talk. ‘The MS. and the printed copy’ (he says, p. 380) ‘scarcely correspond in two consecutive words.’

[264]. ‘Corporate bodies have no soul.’ ‘They [corporations] cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed nor excommunicate, for they have no souls.’ Sir Edward Coke, Case of Sutton’s Hospital, 10 Rep. 32. ‘Self-love and social.’ Pope, Essay on Man, IV. 396. ‘A pestilent fellow.’ Cf. ‘What a pestilent slave is this same!’ Romeo and Juliet, Act IV. Scene 5. [265]. The town-hall reels, etc. Mr. W. C. Hazlitt says that ‘it appears from a rough memorandum on the back of one of the leaves of the MS. that the Mayor’s Feast at Basingstoke was in the writer’s mind when he wrote this,’ ‘The very stones prate.’ Macbeth, Act II. Scene 1. ‘Dressed in a little brief authority.’ Measure for Measure, Act II. Scene 2. [266]. ‘Compunctious visitings,’ etc. Macbeth, Act I. Scene 5. ‘Motley’s his proper wear.’ ‘Motley’s the only wear.’ As You Like It, Act II. Scene 7. ‘Diseases are turned,’ etc. Henry IV., Part II. Act I. Scene 2. Note. ‘Sacred pity,’ etc. As You Like It, Act II. Scene 7. [267]. ‘Disembowel himself,’ etc. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 101). [268]. Hitherto, etc. Job, xxxviii. 11. ‘In spite of,’ etc. ‘And, spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite.’ Pope, Essay on Man, I. 293. [270]. The Barrys, etc. James Barry (1741–1806) quarrelled with his brother Academicians and was expelled in 1799; Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786–1846), to whom Hazlitt probably refers as ‘H—,’ also quarrelled with the Royal Academy, and was never made a member; Charles Cotton (1728–1798), coach-painter to George III., was by him nominated one of the foundation members of the Academy.

ESSAY XXVIII. WHETHER ACTORS OUGHT TO SIT IN THE BOXES

‘By his so potent art.’ The Tempest, Act V. Scene 1. [272]. ‘Pile millions,’ etc.

‘Be buried quick with her, and so will I:

And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw

Millions of acres on us,’ etc.

Hamlet, Act V. Scene 1.

‘Dread o’er the scene, the ghost of Hamlet stalks;

Othello rages; poor Monimia mourns;

And Belvidera pours her soul in love.’

Thomson, The Seasons, Winter, 646–8.

‘Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him

That would upon the rack of this tough world

Stretch him out longer.’

King Lear, Act V. Scene 3.

ESSAY XXIX. ON THE DISADVANTAGES OF INTELLECTUAL SUPERIORITY

[280]. Petrarch complains, etc. In the sonnet lamenting the death of Laura, beginning ‘Gli occhi di ch’ io parlai si caldamente.’ ‘To be honest,’ etc. Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2. ‘How now,’ etc. Henry VI. Part II., Act IV. Scene 2. ‘Stand all astonied,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, Book vii. Canto VI. Stanza 28. [281]. C—. Coleridge. [283]. Otium cum dignitate. Cicero, Pro Publio Sextio, XLV. ‘I am nothing,’ etc. Othello, Act II. Scene 1. [284]. In the —. The Quarterly Review. ‘This is the unkindest,’ etc. ‘This was the most unkindest cut of all!’ Julius Cæsar, Act III. Scene 2. Prince Maurice’s Parrot, etc. These two papers were published in Political Essays, vol. III. pp. 101 and 305. [285]. A motto from Butler.

‘Yet he that is but able to express

No sense at all in several languages,

Will pass for learneder than he that’s known, etc.

Butler, Satire upon the Abuse of Human Learning, ll. 65–7.

ESSAY XXX. ON PATRONAGE AND PUFFING

[289]. ‘A gentle husher,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, Book I. Canto iv. Stanza 13. ‘Puff direct.’ Sheridan, The Critic, Act I. Scene 2. [290]. Groundling. ‘To split the ears of the groundlings.’ Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2. [291]. Parolles and his drum. All’s Well that Ends Well. Another friend of mine. Lamb. Even Lord Byron, etc. Byron was said to have written puffs of Warren’s Blacking. See W. F. Deacon’s volume of parodies, Warreniana (1824). ‘Deathless date.’ Cf. ‘Short is my date, but deathless my renown.’ Pope, Homer’s Iliad, IX. 535. [292]. When I formerly, etc. For the matters referred to in this and the two succeeding paragraphs, cf. the volume containing Hazlitt’s dramatic criticisms. Poor Perry. James Perry (1756–1821), editor and proprietor of The Morning Chronicle. See Hazlitt’s A View of the English Stage for his article on Miss Stephens as Polly. Mrs. Billington. Elizabeth Billington (1768–1818), the great singer. ‘Life knows no return of spring.’ The song (Act II. Scene 1) begins ‘Let us drink and sport to-day.’ ‘My final hopes,’ etc. A characteristic reference to the fall of Napoleon. [293]. ‘Hope, thou nurse,’ etc. Bickerstaffe’s Love in a Village, Act I. Scene 1. ‘Bought golden opinions,’ etc. Macbeth, Act I. Scene 7. ‘On such a day,’ etc. Merchant of Venice, Act I. Scene 3. Note. Mr. M—. William Mudford. See ante, p. 111. Note. ‘Liked you lean,’ etc. Cf. ‘Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look.’ Julius Caesar, Act I. Scene 2.

‘And Katterfelto, with his hair on end

At his own wonders, wondering for his bread.’

Cowper, The Task, IV. 86–87.

ESSAY XXXI. ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHARACTER

[303]. ‘Speech,’ said a celebrated wit, etc. Hazlitt probably refers to Voltaire (Le Chapon et la Poularde), but the saying is older. Lord Chesterfield advises us, etc. See note to vol. I. p. 42. Note. Othello, Act III. Scene 4. [304]. A rude half-effaced outline, etc. The portrait of Donne by W. Marshall, taken from a painting in 1591, when Donne was 18. The Duke of W—. The Duke of Wellington. [305]. C—’s face. Coleridge. ‘Create a soul,’ etc. Comus, 562. A little, demure, etc. Sarah Walker, the heroine of Liber Amoris. [306]. I know a person. Hazlitt himself. ‘Compliments extern.’ Othello, Act I. Scene 1. [307]. ‘If the French have a fault,’ etc. A Sentimental Journey, Character, Versailles. [309]. Service is no inheritance. ‘Service is no heritage.’ All’s Well that Ends Well, Act I. Scene 3. ‘Subtle as the fox,’ etc. Cymbeline, Act III. Scene 3. [310]. ‘Bitter bad judges.’ The Beggar’s Opera, Act I. Scene 1. I never knew but one clever man, etc. Leigh Hunt?

ESSAY XXXII. ON THE PICTURESQUE AND IDEAL

[318]. Mr. Northcote’s study of Gadshill. Cf. Conversations of Northcote, ante, p. 403. ‘Of no mark,’ etc. Henry IV., Part I. Act III. Scene 2. [319]. The Marriage of Cana. The Marriage at Cana in the Louvre. Madame M—. Mr. W. C. Hazlitt fills this blank with the name of Mérimée. When Hazlitt went to Paris in 1802 he took with him a letter of introduction from Holcroft to Mérimée the painter, whose son Prosper was born in the following year, 1803. [320]. ‘See how the moonlight,’ etc. Merchant of Venice, Act V. Scene 1. [321]. ‘My bounty,’ etc. Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Scene 2.

ESSAY XXXIII. ON THE FEAR OF DEATH

‘And our little life,’ etc. The Tempest, Act IV. Scene 1. [322]. When Bickerstaff wrote his essays. In The Tatler, 1709–11. The firing at Bunker’s hill. June 17, 1775. ‘The gorge rises at.’ Hamlet, Act V. Scene 1. [323]. ‘The wars,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, Book II. Canto IX. Stanza 56. ‘The present eye,’ etc. ‘The present eye praises the present object.’ Troilus and Cressida, Act III. Scene 3. [324]. ‘Makes calamity,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Scene 1. ‘Oh! thou strong heart,’ etc. Webster’s The White Devil; or Vittoria Corombona, Act V. Scene 1. ‘Content man’s natural desire.’ ‘To be, contents his natural desire.’ Pope, Essay on Man, I. 109. ‘On this bank,’ etc. Macbeth, Act I. Scene 1. ‘This sensible,’ etc. Measure for Measure, Act III. Scene 1. ‘Turns to withered,’ etc. Paradise Lost, XI. 540. Note. Young’s Night Thoughts, I. 424. [325]. ‘The sear, the yellow leaf.’ Macbeth, Act V. Scene 3. Gone into the wastes of time. ‘That thou among the wastes of time must go.’ Shakespeare, Sonnet No. XII. [326]. Zanetto, etc. Rousseau’s Confessions, Part II. liv. 7.

‘To lose it, may be, at last in a lewd quarrel

For some new friend.’

Otway, Venice Preserved, Act IV. Scene 2.