Jean Charles Léonard Simonde de Sismondi (1773–1842) published his Histoire des Républiques Italiennes du Moyen-Age in 16 vols, between 1807 and 1818; his Littérature du midi de l’Europe (here reviewed and afterwards—in 1823—translated by Thomas Roscoe) in 4 vols. in 1813; and his Histoire des Français in 31 vols., 1821–1844. Roscoe’s translation forms two volumes of Bohn’s Standard Library. The translations in the present review are presumably by Hazlitt himself.
PAGE [45]. Metastasio. Pietro Antonio Bonaventura Trapassi (1698–1782), poet and librettist. Alfieri. Vittorio, Count Alfieri (1749–1803), the dramatist and poet. Goldoni. Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793), the comic dramatist. [46]. Professor Boutterwek. Friedrich Bouterwek (1765–1828), author of Geschichte der neuern Poesie und Beredsamkeit (1801–1819). Millot’s History of the Troubadours. Histoire Littéraire des Troubadours (1774), by Claude François Xavier Millot (1726–1785). Tiraboschi. Girolamo Tiraboschi (1731–1794), author of Storia della Letteratura Italiana (1772–1782). Velasquez. Louis Joseph Velasquez de Velasco (1722–1772), author of several works on Spanish poetry and antiquities. ‘Rose like an exhalation.’ Paradise Lost, I. 711. [56]. Preserved by Cervantes, etc. Don Quixote, Part I., Book I., chap. vi. [61]. Dante. Cf. Lectures on the English Poets, vol. V. pp. 17, 18, and notes. [62]. That withering inscription. At the beginning of Canto III. of the Inferno. The Story of Geneura. It is clear from the note that Hazlitt is referring to the story of Francesca of Rimini in Canto V. of the Inferno. Paolo and Francesca read together the story of Lancelot and Guinevere. Note. ‘And all that day we read no more!’ Inferno, Canto V. [63]. ‘Because on earth,’ etc. Hazlitt is fond of quoting these lines, which, however, do not appear to be Dante’s. Possibly the explanation is to be found in a letter from Lamb to Bernard Barton (Feb. 17, 1823), where he says: ‘I once quoted two lines from a translation of Dante, which Hazlitt very greatly admired, and quoted in a book, as proof of the stupendous power of that poet; but no such lines are to be found in the translation, which has been searched for the purpose. I must have dreamed them, for I am quite certain I did not forge them knowingly. What a misfortune to have a lying memory!’ ‘I am the tomb,’ etc. Inferno, Canto XI. As when Satan is compared, etc. Hazlitt seems to be confusing Dante with Milton. See Paradise Lost, IV. 196. ‘Instinct with life.’ Cf. ‘Instinct with spirit.’ Paradise Lost, vi. 752. Count Ugolino. Inferno, Canto XXXIII. Lamb shared Hazlitt’s dislike of Reynolds’s picture. See Works (ed. E. V. Lucas), I. 75 and 149. Patmore (My Friends and Acquaintance, II. 252) compares Hazlitt with Ugolino. ‘By the sole strength,’ etc. See Paradiso, Canto I. [65]. The Sonnet of Petrarch. No. CCLI. See Sismondi, chap. X. [68]. The story of the two holiday lovers. The Decameron, 4th Day, Novel VII. [69]. Pulci. Luigi Pulci (1432–?1484), author of Il Morgante Maggiore (1481). Boyardo. Matteo Maria Boiardo (1434–1494), whose Orlando Innamorato was published in 1486. Francesco Berni’s (1490?–1536) version appeared in 1541. [71]. ‘Giace l’alta Cartago.’ Jerusalem Delivered, Canto XV. St. 20. The speech of Satan. Ibid. Canto IV. [72]. ‘I rather envied,’ etc. Montaigne, Essays, Book II., chap. xii. [73]. ‘Like the swift Alpine torrent,’ etc. From the final chorus of Il Torrismondo. [74]. Chaucer and Spenser. Much of what follows was repeated by Hazlitt in his lecture on Chaucer and Spenser. See vol. V., pp. 19–44, and notes. [75]. Rousseau’s description of the Elisée. La Nouvelle Héloïse, Partie IV., Lettre XI. [76]. In looking back, etc. These two concluding paragraphs were lifted into Hazlitt’s lecture on Shakspeare and Milton. See vol. V. pp. 44–46, and notes.
SCHLEGEL ON THE DRAMA.
August Wilhelm von Schlegel’s (1767–1845) ‘Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature’ were delivered in Vienna in 1808. Hazlitt reviews the English translation, published in 1815, by John Black (1783–1855), who afterwards became editor of The Morning Chronicle.
PAGE [79]. The admirable translator. Schlegel had translated Shakespeare (9 vols. 1797–1810), and Calderon (Spanish Theatre, 2 vols., 1803–1809). Madame de Staël. Schlegel lived for many years at Madame de Staël’s house at Coppet. [81]. Florimel. The Faerie Queene, Book III., Canto VII. [82]. ‘There was magic in the web.’ Othello, Act III. Sc. 4. Schlegel somewhere compares, etc. Lectures XXV. ‘So withered,’ etc. Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 3. ‘Metaphysical aid.’ Ibid., Act I. Sc. 5. [83]. ‘That she moved with grace,’ etc. Possibly Hazlitt was thinking of the scene in the Iliad (III. 150, et seq.), where at the Scaean Gate the Trojan elders see Helen for the first time. ‘Upon her eyelids,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, Book II., Canto III., St. 25. ‘All plumed,’ etc. Henry IV., Part I., Act IV. Sc. 1. ‘For they are old,’ etc. King Lear, Act II. Sc. 4. [85]. ‘Antres vast,’ etc. Othello, Act I. Sc. 3. Orlando’s enchanted sword, etc. In Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso. [86]. ‘New-lighted,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 4. ‘The evidence of things seen.’ Hebrews, xi. 1.
Cf. ‘She hath pursued conclusions infinite
Of easy ways to die.’
Antony and Cleopatra, Act V. Sc. 2.
LEIGH HUNT’S ‘RIMINI’
The Edinburgh Review for June, 1816 (vol. XXVI. pp. 476–491) contained a notice of Leigh Hunt’s The Story of Rimini. Lord Cockburn includes this review in his List of Lord Jeffrey’s articles in the Edinburgh (see Life of Francis Jeffrey); Mr. W. C. Hazlitt (Memoirs, I. pp. xxv. and 225) attributes it to Hazlitt; and Mr. Ireland, in his Bibliography of Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt, marks it as doubtful. The Blackwood set regarded or professed to regard Hazlitt as the author, as appears from a passage in Lockhart’s attack on Hunt in the first number (October 1817) of Blackwood’s Magazine: ‘The very culpable manner in which his [Hunt’s] chief poem was reviewed in the Edinburgh Review (we believe it is no secret, at his own impatient and feverish request, by his partner in the Round Table), was matter of concern to more readers than ourselves.... Mr. Jeffrey does ill when he delegates his important functions into such hands as those of Mr. Hazlitt.’ Lockhart, however, knew nothing about Hunt or Hazlitt, and his ‘no secret’ (which afforded an opportunity for a hit at Jeffrey) does not throw any light on the question. Hunt denied the insinuation. See Memoirs of William Hazlitt, I. 225. The review does not read like Hazlitt, but, from a letter which he afterwards addressed to Leigh Hunt, it would seem that at the least he had some hand in it. The letter is dated April 21, 1821 (see Four Generations of a Literary Family, I. 133), and contains an account of Hazlitt’s grievances against Leigh Hunt. In course of it, he says: ‘For instance, I praised you in the Edinburgh Review.’ There does not seem to be any praise of Hunt to which this passage can refer except this review, which is possibly the result of some rather free handling of Hazlitt’s MS. by Jeffrey.