Butler, Satire upon the Abuse of Human Learning, ll. 65–7.
ESSAY XXX. ON PATRONAGE AND PUFFING
[289]. ‘A gentle husher,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, Book I. Canto iv. Stanza 13. ‘Puff direct.’ Sheridan, The Critic, Act I. Scene 2. [290]. Groundling. ‘To split the ears of the groundlings.’ Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2. [291]. Parolles and his drum. All’s Well that Ends Well. Another friend of mine. Lamb. Even Lord Byron, etc. Byron was said to have written puffs of Warren’s Blacking. See W. F. Deacon’s volume of parodies, Warreniana (1824). ‘Deathless date.’ Cf. ‘Short is my date, but deathless my renown.’ Pope, Homer’s Iliad, IX. 535. [292]. When I formerly, etc. For the matters referred to in this and the two succeeding paragraphs, cf. the volume containing Hazlitt’s dramatic criticisms. Poor Perry. James Perry (1756–1821), editor and proprietor of The Morning Chronicle. See Hazlitt’s A View of the English Stage for his article on Miss Stephens as Polly. Mrs. Billington. Elizabeth Billington (1768–1818), the great singer. ‘Life knows no return of spring.’ The song (Act II. Scene 1) begins ‘Let us drink and sport to-day.’ ‘My final hopes,’ etc. A characteristic reference to the fall of Napoleon. [293]. ‘Hope, thou nurse,’ etc. Bickerstaffe’s Love in a Village, Act I. Scene 1. ‘Bought golden opinions,’ etc. Macbeth, Act I. Scene 7. ‘On such a day,’ etc. Merchant of Venice, Act I. Scene 3. Note. Mr. M—. William Mudford. See ante, p. 111. Note. ‘Liked you lean,’ etc. Cf. ‘Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look.’ Julius Caesar, Act I. Scene 2.
‘And Katterfelto, with his hair on end
At his own wonders, wondering for his bread.’
Cowper, The Task, IV. 86–87.
ESSAY XXXI. ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHARACTER
[303]. ‘Speech,’ said a celebrated wit, etc. Hazlitt probably refers to Voltaire (Le Chapon et la Poularde), but the saying is older. Lord Chesterfield advises us, etc. See note to vol. I. p. 42. Note. Othello, Act III. Scene 4. [304]. A rude half-effaced outline, etc. The portrait of Donne by W. Marshall, taken from a painting in 1591, when Donne was 18. The Duke of W—. The Duke of Wellington. [305]. C—’s face. Coleridge. ‘Create a soul,’ etc. Comus, 562. A little, demure, etc. Sarah Walker, the heroine of Liber Amoris. [306]. I know a person. Hazlitt himself. ‘Compliments extern.’ Othello, Act I. Scene 1. [307]. ‘If the French have a fault,’ etc. A Sentimental Journey, Character, Versailles. [309]. Service is no inheritance. ‘Service is no heritage.’ All’s Well that Ends Well, Act I. Scene 3. ‘Subtle as the fox,’ etc. Cymbeline, Act III. Scene 3. [310]. ‘Bitter bad judges.’ The Beggar’s Opera, Act I. Scene 1. I never knew but one clever man, etc. Leigh Hunt?
ESSAY XXXII. ON THE PICTURESQUE AND IDEAL
[318]. Mr. Northcote’s study of Gadshill. Cf. Conversations of Northcote, ante, p. 403. ‘Of no mark,’ etc. Henry IV., Part I. Act III. Scene 2. [319]. The Marriage of Cana. The Marriage at Cana in the Louvre. Madame M—. Mr. W. C. Hazlitt fills this blank with the name of Mérimée. When Hazlitt went to Paris in 1802 he took with him a letter of introduction from Holcroft to Mérimée the painter, whose son Prosper was born in the following year, 1803. [320]. ‘See how the moonlight,’ etc. Merchant of Venice, Act V. Scene 1. [321]. ‘My bounty,’ etc. Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Scene 2.