A FAREWELL TO ESSAY-WRITING
Republished in an imperfect form in Winterslow. In the Magazine the essay is dated ‘Winterslow, Feb. 20, 1828.’
PAGE [321]. ‘This life is best,’ etc. Cymbeline, Act III. Sc. 3. ‘A friend,’ etc. Cf. Cowper, Retirement, 741–2. ‘Done its spiriting gently.’ Cf. The Tempest, Act I. Sc. 2. ‘The spring,’ etc. Coleridge, Christabel, 22. ‘Fields are dank,’ etc. Milton’s Sonnet (XX.), ‘Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son.’ [322]. ‘Peep,’ etc. Cf. Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 5. ‘Open,’ etc. Cowper, The Task, VI. 11–12. [323]. ‘Of all the cities,’ etc. Dryden, Theodore and Honoria, 1–2. ‘Which when Honoria view’d,’ etc. Ibid. 342–3. ‘And made th’ insult,’ etc. Dryden, Sigismonda and Guiscardo, 668–9. I am much pleased, etc. This sentence (to the end of the paragraph) was omitted in Winterslow. [324]. ‘Fall’n,’ etc. Scott, Glenfinlas, last stanza. Mr. Gifford once said, etc. See vol. IV. (The Spirit of the Age) p. 307. I am rather disappointed, etc. This sentence was omitted in Winterslow. [325]. ‘The admired,’ etc. Cf. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 1. What I have here stated, etc. This paragraph and the next two were omitted in Winterslow. ‘I know not seems.’ Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 2. [326]. L——. Lamb, no doubt. Antonio. Godwin’s Antonio was produced at Drury Lane and damned Dec. 13, 1800. ‘Nor can I think,’ etc. Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, I. 315. [327]. Chaucer’s Flower and Leaf. See vol. V. (Lectures on the English Poets) p. 27 and note. ‘And ayen,’ etc. The Flower and the Leaf, St. 15. Mr. and Miss L——. Charles and Mary Lamb. [328]. ‘And curtain close,’ etc. Cf. Collins’s Ode, On the Poetical Character, 76.