‘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.