A CHAPTER ON EDITORS
Republished with some omissions in Sketches and Essays. In the Magazine there is the following note by the Editor:—‘We give insertion to this article, one of the posthumous papers of Mr. Hazlitt, to shew that we do not consider ourselves implicated in the abuses complained of; and that we have no right to any share of indignation so whimsically lavished upon our fraternity. Ed.’
PAGE [230]. ‘Our withers,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2. ‘Tittle-tattle.’ The phrase is so printed in the Magazine and in Sketches and Essays, but Hazlitt probably wrote ‘kittle cattle,’ a distinctively Scots expression for what he meant to say. ‘Lay the flattering unction,’ etc. Cf. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 4. [231]. As Mr. Horne Tooke said, etc. See vol. IV. (The Spirit of the Age), p. 236 and note. [232]. We only know one Editor. Hazlitt possibly refers to the Editor of Blackwood’s Magazine. We will not mention names, etc. This sentence was omitted in Sketches and Essays. ‘More subtle web,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, II. xii. 77. [233]. The conductor, etc. This sentence and the next but one were omitted in Sketches and Essays. ‘Here’s the rub.’ Cf. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 1.