[389]. We do not wonder, etc. Kean had played Richard III. at the Théâtre Français in May 1828. Voltaire has borrowed, etc. Cf. ante, p. 282. ‘The poet’s eye,’ etc. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V. Sc. 1. [390]. ‘Should be as a book,’ etc. Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 5. The Hetman Platoff. The Russian general, Matvei Ivanovich Platoff (1757–1818), Hetman of the Cossacks of the Don. See vol. IX. p. 465. [391]. ‘Give us pause.’ Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 1. Miss Smithson. Harriet Constance Smithson (1800–1854), who played frequently in France and married Hector Berlioz in 1833. A series of elegant bas-reliefs, etc. Cf. vol. VIII. p. 456, where the same comparison is made. [392]. Little Bartolozzi. Miss Bartolozzi made her first appearance (at the Haymarket) on June 17, 1828. She was a sister of Madame Vestris.
MUNDEN’S SIR PETER TEAZLE
For Hazlitt’s connection with The Times as dramatic critic see vol. VIII. p. 512. The fifteen articles reprinted for the first time in the present volume have been included upon internal evidence of Hazlitt’s authorship. No reasonable doubt can be felt with regard to any of them.
[392]. Past Ten O’clock. ‘A moderate farce’ by Dibdin, produced March 11, 1815. See Genest. In another account of Munden (vol. VIII. p. 270) Hazlitt had referred to his ‘broad shining face’ and ‘the alarming drop of his chin.’
YOUNG’S HAMLET
Cf. this paper with the account of Hamlet in Characters of Shakespear’s Plays, vol. I. p. 237.
[394]. The Miller and his Men. A successful melodrama by Pocock, produced in 1813. [395]. ‘The paragon of animals.’ Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 2. ‘Peaked or pined.’ Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 3. ‘Oh that this too, too solid flesh,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 2. ‘The pretty Ophelia.’ Ibid. Act IV. Sc. 5.
DOWTON IN THE HYPOCRITE
Cf. the notice of The Hypocrite in A View of the English Stage, vol. VIII. pp. 245–7.
[395]. ‘Very craftily qualified.’ Othello, Act II. Sc. 3.