Reference should be made (1) to Mr. William Archer’s Introduction to a Selection of Hazlitt’s Dramatic Essays (ed. Archer and Lowe, 1895), and (2) to the companion-volume of Leigh Hunt’s Dramatic Essays (ed. Archer and Lowe, 1894).
PAGE [173]. Rochefoucault, etc. Maximes et Réflexions Morales, cccxii. ‘The brief chronicles of the time.’ Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 2. ‘Hold the mirror,’ etc. Ibid. Act. III. Sc. 2. ‘Imitate humanity,’ etc. Ibid. Zoffany’s pictures. John Zoffany (1733-1810), a native of Ratisbon, came to England in 1758, and soon became noted for his pictures of Garrick and other actors in character. Several of these are preserved at the Garrick Club. Colley Cibber’s Life. Cf. ante, pp. 160-1. [174]. A perverse caricature. Hazlitt refers to the character of Marmozet in Peregrine Pickle (1751). The quarrel between Garrick and Smollett was afterwards made up. In different newspapers. See ante, introductory note to p. 169. ‘The secrets of the prison-house.’ Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 5. The editor of which, etc. Thomas Barnes was editor of The Times when Hazlitt was theatrical critic, but the reference is probably to the proprietor, John Walter the Second. Too prolix on the subject of the Bourbons. Hazlitt probably refers to his brother-in-law, Dr., afterwards Sir John Stoddart, who was dismissed from the editorship of The Times early in 1817, in consequence of the violence of his writings on French affairs. Stoddart immediately started The Day and New Times, the title of which was altered in 1818 to The New Times. ‘One who loved, etc. Othello, Act V. Sc. 2. [175]. ‘‘Some quantity,’ etc. A composite quotation from Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2, and Romeo and Juliet, Act V. Sc. 1. Mr. Perry. James Perry (1756-1821), proprietor and editor of The Morning Chronicle. ‘Screw the courage,’ etc. Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 7. [176]. ‘Pritchard’s genteel,’ etc. Churchill, The Rosciad, 852, the reference being to Hannah Pritchard (1711-1768), the actress who played Johnson’s Irene. Swiss bodyguards. The famous corps, constituted in 1616, who had shown such fidelity to Louis XVI. during the attack on the Tuileries on August 10, 1792. ‘Pigmy body,’ etc. Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, I. 157-8. The Fudge family in Paris (1818), Letter II. 116-123. [177]. ‘A master of scholars.’ Cf. ante, p. 167. [178]. The Characters of Shakespear’s Plays. A second edition had just been published. Hazlitt certainly availed himself to the full of the license which he frankly claims in this paragraph. An attempt has been made in the present edition to indicate the source of his essays and criticisms, and also the various publications into which they were afterwards transferred. [179]. Mr. Kean’s Shylock. Edmund Kean (1787-1833) had already acted many important parts in the provinces. At Dorchester one of his performances had been witnessed by Arnold, the stage manager of Drury Lane, through whom an engagement was made with the management of that theatre. Kean insisted on playing Shylock, and though the management and his fellow-actors were incredulous as to his powers, his success was undisputed. Henceforward his many triumphs in London were associated with the Drury Lane Theatre, except for a short period from 1827 to 1829, when his services were transferred to Covent Garden. For a later account of his Shylock, see ante, pp. 294-6. [180]. l. 8. In The Morning Chronicle Hazlitt adds: ‘After the play we were rejoiced to see the sterling farce of The Apprentice[[57]] revived, in which Mr. Bannister was eminently successful.’ Miss Smith. The assumed maiden name of the actress who married George Bartley, the actor, on August 24, 1814. She made her first appearance in London in 1805. She suffered by comparison with Mrs. Siddons, and later with Miss O’Neill. Rae. Alexander Rae (1782-1820), after acting for a season at the Haymarket in 1806, made his first appearance at Drury Lane on November 12, 1812. Kean quickly eclipsed him in tragedy, though he maintained the reputation of being a good Hamlet. ‘Far-darting’ eye.
‘And covetous of Shakspeare’s beauty seen
In every flash of his far-beaming eye.’
Cowper, The Task, III. 601-2.
‘—— ——This is a sleep
That from this golden rigol hath divorced
So many English kings.’
Cf. ‘But Shakespear’s magic could not copied be;
Within that circle none durst walk but he.’