Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.’
Romeo and Juliet, Act IV. Scene 1.
ON POETICAL VERSATILITY
This fragment is taken from the third of a series of four ‘Illustrations of the Times Newspaper,’ which Hazlitt contributed to The Examiner under the heading of ‘Literary Notices.’ The first of these four papers (Dec. 1, 1816) has not been republished; the other three, dated respectively December 15, 1816, December 22, 1816, and January 12, 1817, were published in Political Essays.
PAGE [151]. ‘Heaven’s own tinct.’ Cymbeline, Act II. Scene 2. ‘Being so majestical,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Scene 1. [152]. Poets, it has been said. See Political Essays (Mr. Southey’s New Year’s Ode). They do not like, etc. The reference is to Southey, Poet Laureate, and Wordsworth, distributor of stamps for the county of Westmoreland.
ON ACTORS AND ACTING
This essay and the next are based upon the last (No. 48) of the Round Table series, which appeared in The Examiner for Jan. 5, 1817. Hazlitt has, however, interpolated into both essays various passages from former theatrical criticisms. The paper in the Round Table appears to have been inspired by Colley Cibber’s Apology for his Life. A general reference may here be made to that work, to the volume in the present edition containing Hazlitt’s dramatic criticisms, and to Lamb’s and Leigh Hunt’s essays on the stage.
PAGE [153]. ‘The abstracts,’ etc. Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2. [154]. George Barnwell. By George Lillo (1693–1739), produced at Drury Lane Theatre on June 22, 1731. The play was frequently revived, and was in some places acted annually as a moral lesson to apprentices. The Inconstant. Farquhar’s comedy (1702). Orinda should be Oriana. Mr. Liston. John Liston (1776?-1846),the comic actor, who made his first appearance in 1805 and retired in 1837.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED
A large part of the first paragraph of this essay appeared originally in a notice of Kean’s Sir Giles Overreach (‘Theatrical Examiner,’ Jan. 14, 1816). See A View of the English Stage.