COLERIDGE’S LAY SERMON
The authorship of this review has also been the subject of controversy. See the authorities cited on p. 411. Mr. Dykes Campbell, in the note there quoted, says that, as in the case of Christabel, the ascription of the review to Hazlitt is ‘probably, though not certainly correct.’ The editors regarded the internal evidence of Hazlitt’s authorship as so overwhelmingly strong, especially after a comparison of the article with Hazlitt’s review of the same work in The Examiner (see Political Essays, III. 143–152), that they decided to include it in the text. It has not been thought necessary to give references to all Hazlitt’s quotations from the Lay Sermon. References, when they are given, are to the edition in Bohn’s Standard Library.
PAGE [120]. ‘Fancies and Good-nights.’ Henry IV., Part II., Act III. Sc. 2. Odd ends of verse, etc. Hudibras, I. iii. 1011–2. ‘Chase his fancy’s rolling speed.’ Cf. On a Distant Prospect of Eton College, 29. [121]. ‘Babbles of green fields.’ Henry V., Act II. Sc. 3. ‘Alarmists by trade.’ A Lay Sermon, p. 309. ‘A gentle Husher,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, Book I. Canto IV. Stanza 13. Joanna Southcote. Joanna Southcott (1750–1814), the fanatic and impostor, whose prophesies had recently caused a good deal of excitement. [122]. ‘Thick-coming fancies.’ Macbeth, Act V. Sc. 3. [123]. The ‘Friend.’ Published in numbers at irregular intervals between June 1809 and March 1810. Coleridge published a recast—‘a complete Rifacimento’—of The Friend in 1818. ‘Like the swan’s down feather,’ etc. Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. Sc. 2.