MY FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH POETS
Republished in Literary Remains and Winterslow. The germ of the essay appeared in a short letter to The Examiner, reprinted in Political Essays. See vol. III. pp. 152–3 and notes.
PAGE [259]. W——m. Wem. ‘Dreaded name,’ etc. Paradise Lost, II. 964–5. ‘Fluttering,’ etc. Cf. Coriolanus, Act V. Sc. 6. [260]. ‘High-born Hoel’s harp,’ etc. Gray, The Bard, 28. ‘Bound them,’ etc. Pope, Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day, 90–91. The fires in the Agamemnon. Cf. ante, p. 240 and note. It was in January, etc. This paragraph and the next are from The Examiner. See the notes to vol. III. (Political Essays), pp. 152–3. [262]. ‘As are the children,’ etc. Cf. Thomson, The Castle of Indolence, II. xxxiii. ‘A certain tender bloom,’ etc. Cf. ante, p. 207 and note. ‘Somewhat fat and pursy.’ Cf. ‘He’s fat and scant of breath’ (Hamlet, Act V. Sc. 2), and ‘For in the fatness of these pursy times,’ etc. (Ibid. Act III. Sc. 4). [263]. ‘No figures,’ etc. Julius Cæsar, Act II. Sc. 1. [264]. Note 1. For an account of the Rev. William Hazlitt, see Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s Four Generations of a Literary Family, The First Generation. [265]. T. Wedgwood. A Life of Tom Wedgwood was published recently (1903) by the late Mr. R. B. Litchfield. ‘Sounding on his way.’ See vol. IV. (The Spirit of the Age), note to p. 214. [266]. Credat Judæus Apella! Horace, Satires, I. v. 100. ‘Thus I refute him, Sir.’ See Boswell’s Life (ed. G. B. Hill), I. 471. [267]. ‘Kind and affable,’ etc. Cf. Paradise Lost, VIII. 648–50. He has somewhere told himself. See Biographia Literaria, chap. x. That other Vision of Judgment. Byron’s, first published in The Liberal, No. 1. Bridge-street junto. Cf. vol. VI. (Table-Talk), p. 190 and note. [268]. Tom Jones and the adventure of the muff. See Tom Jones, Book X. chap. v. et seq. At Tewkesbury. According to the essay ‘On Going a Journey,’ it was at Bridgwater. See vol. VI. (Table-Talk), p. 186. [269]. A friend of the poet’s. This is a mistake. Wordsworth paid £23 a year for Alfoxden. The agreement is given in Mrs. Henry Sandford’s Thomas Poole and his Friends, I. 225. [270]. ‘In spite of pride,’ etc. Pope, An Essay on Man, I. 293. ‘While yet,’ etc. Cf. Thomson, The Seasons, Spring, 18. ‘Of Providence,’ etc. Paradise Lost, II. 559–560. [271]. Chantry’s bust. Sir Francis Chantrey’s bust, now at Coleorton. Castle Spectre. Originally produced (at Drury Lane) December 14, 1797. ‘His face,’ etc. Cf. Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 5. [272]. Tom Poole. Thomas Poole (1765–1837), for an account of whom see Mrs. Sandford’s Thomas Poole and his Friends. ‘Followed in the chase,’ etc. Cf. Othello, Act II. Sc. 3. Sir Walter Scott’s, etc. Hazlitt probably refers to the banquet given to George IV. by the Magistrates of Edinburgh, August 24, 1822. [273]. The Death of Abel. Solomon Gessner’s Tod Abels (1758). [274]. ‘Ribbed sea-sands.’ The Ancient Mariner, 227. This was one of the lines for which Coleridge was indebted to Wordsworth. [275]. ‘But there is matter,’ etc. Wordsworth, Hart-leap Well, 95–96.
PULPIT ORATORY, ETC.
Now reprinted for the first time. See Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s Memoirs, etc., I. xxvii. Cf. the essay on Edward Irving in The Spirit of the Age (vol. IV. pp. 222–231). After Hazlitt’s essay there follows a savage attack on Irving (? by T. J. Hogg), as to which the editor says: ‘The following has also lost its way to us. We take it in as a foundling, but without adopting all its sentiments.’
PAGE ‘Got the start,’ etc. Cf. Julius Cæsar, Act I. Sc. 2. ‘Kingly Kensington.’ Swift’s Ballad, Duke Upon Duke, St. 14. [276]. Lady Bluemount. Lady Beaumont presumably, the wife of Wordsworth’s friend, Sir George Howland Beaumont. Mr. Botherby.? William Sotheby (1757–1833), whose persistent attempts as a dramatic author may explain the nickname. Mr. Theodore Flash. Theodore Hook, no doubt, who afterwards denounced Irving as a humbug. See John Bull, July 20, 1823. Note. Mr. Dubois. Edward Dubois (1774–1850), wit and journalist. Note. ‘Rose,’ etc. Cf. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 1. [277]. ‘His foot mercurial,’ etc. Cymbeline, Act IV. Sc. 2. ‘The iron,’ etc. The Psalter, Psalm CV. 18. ‘Come, let me clutch thee.’ Macbeth, Act II. Sc. 1. [280]. ‘Spins,’ etc. Cf. Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act V. Sc. 1. ‘Loop or peg,’ etc. Cf. Othello, Act III. Sc. 3. [281]. ‘Fire hot from Hell.’ Cf. Julius Cæsar, Act III. Sc. 1. [282]. The swimmer. See this passage quoted by Hazlitt in vol. V. (Lectures on the Age of Elizabeth), pp. 323–4. [283]. Mr. Croly. George Croly (1780–1860), a regular contributor to Blackwood’s Magazine, had published Paris in 1815 (1817). [284]. ‘Best virtue.’ Cf. All’s Well That Ends Well, Act IV. Sc. 3. ‘We pause for a reply.’ Cf. Julius Cæsar, Act III. Sc. 2. [285]. Daniel Wilson. Daniel Wilson (1778–1858), at this time incumbent of St. John’s Chapel, Bedford Row, Bloomsbury, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta. ‘Oh! for an eulogy,’ etc. Cf. ‘Oh, for a curse to kill with.’ Otway, Venice Preserved, Act II. Sc. 2.
ARGUING IN A CIRCLE
Now reprinted for the first time. See Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s Memoirs, etc., I. xxvii.
PAGE [285]. ‘Fancies and good-nights.’ Cf. 2 Henry IV., Act III. Sc. 2. ‘Base cullionly fellow.’ Cf. 2 Henry VI., Act I. Sc. 3. ‘Beggarly, unmannered corse.’ Cf. 1 Henry IV. Act I. Sc. 3. ‘The age of chivalry,’ etc. Cf. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 89). ‘The melancholy Jacques,’ etc. As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 1. [286]. The present Duke of Buckingham. Richard Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos, created Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Feb. 1822. ‘New manners,’ etc. Thomas Warton, Sonnet, Written in a Blank Leaf of Dugdale’s Monasticon. ‘Submits,’ etc. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 90).