Chapter XXXII: Book I: , Chap. i

‘_Flying an eagle flight_,’ _etc._ _Timon of Athens_, Act I. Scene
1.

‘_Thus far_,’ _etc._ _Job_, xxxviii. 11.

_Captain Parry._ Captain, afterwards Sir William Edward Parry
(1790–1855) had recently returned from the second of his voyages
for the discovery of a north-west passage.

208. ‘_Championing it to the Outrance._’ ‘And champion me to the
utterance!’ _Macbeth_, Act III. Scene 1.

208. _Caleb Williams._ Published in 1794. _St. Leon: A Tale of the
Sixteenth Century_, appeared in 1799.

Note. _Mr. Fuseli._ Henry Fuseli (1741–1825), the painter, for
whom, according to his biographer, Mary Wollstonecraft
(afterwards Godwin’s wife) formed her first attachment.

209. ‘_Bastards of his art._’ Cf.

‘Thought characters and words merely but art
And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.’
Shakespeare, _A Lover’s Complaint_, ll. 174–5.

_Allen-a-Dale._ This ‘northern minstrel’ figures in Scott’s own
_Ivanhoe_.

_Fleetwood._ _Fleetwood; or, the New Man of Feeling_, was
published in 1805, _Mandeville: a Tale of the Seventeenth
Century_, in 1817.

210. _His Life of Chaucer._ Published in 1803. _His Remarks on Judge
Eyre’s Charge to the Jury. Cursory Strictures on the Charge of
Chief-Justice Eyre_ appeared in the _Morning Chronicle_ on
October 20, 1794. Godwin’s own note and the notes of his
daughter, Mrs. Shelley, on the political trials of that year,
will be found in C. Kegan Paul’s _William Godwin: His Friends
and Contemporaries_ (I. 117–137). Cf. Hazlitt’s _Life of Thomas
Holcroft_, Vol. II., pp. 139 _et seq._

_Skulked behind a British throne._ See Vol. I., p. 378, note.

_A Volume of Sermons._ _Sketches of History, in Six Sermons_
(1784).

_A life of Chatham._ Published anonymously in 1783.

Note. _Antonio_, a tragedy in verse, was produced on December
13, 1800, and ‘damned finally and hopelessly.’ See Kegan Paul
(II. 36–55), where Lamb’s account of the tragedy and its
representation (not reprinted in the _Essays of Elia_) is
quoted from a paper in the _London Magazine_ (April 1, 1822).
_Faulkener_ (not _Ferdinand_), a tragedy in prose, was
produced with more success on December 16, 1807. Lamb wrote
prologues to both plays. This play, which was sent to Holcroft
to be touched up for the stage, led to a quarrel between the
friends. See Kegan Paul, II. 122 _et seq._

_Mr. Fawcett._ For Hazlitt’s account of Joseph Fawcett see _Table
Talk_ (On Criticism).

_A Speech on General Warrants._ Hazlitt refers to a speech of
Chatham’s, not on General Warrants, but on the Cyder Tax in the
Budget of 1763. The Parliamentary History gives only a few
lines, but the passage quoted by Hazlitt will be found in Lord
Brougham’s _Historical Studies of Statesmen during George III.’s
reign_.

212. _Mr. Coleridge, who_, _etc._ Hazlitt seems to refer to Coleridge’s
Lectures on Poetry, delivered at the Royal Institution in 1808.

_A History of the Commonwealth of England._ Published in 4
volumes, 1824–8.

_A very admirable likeness._ Reproduced as frontispiece to Vol. I.
of Kegan Paul’s _William Godwin_, _etc._

_Mrs. Wollstonecraft._ Godwin married Mary Wollstonecraft on March
29, 1797. Mrs. Inchbald, according to Mrs. Shelley (Kegan Paul,
I. 239) shed tears when the announcement was made to her.

213. _And thank the bounteous Pan._ ‘In wanton dance they praise the
bounteous Pan.’ _Comus_, 176.

‘_A mind reflecting ages past._’ These words occur in the first
line of a laudatory poem on Shakespeare printed in the second
folio (1632). The poem is signed ‘J. M. S.’ and was attributed
by Coleridge to ‘John Milton, Student.’ See his _Lectures on
Shakspere_ (ed. T. Ashe), pp. 129–30.

213. ‘_Dark rearward and abyss._’ Cf. ‘In the dark backward and abysm
of time.’ _The Tempest_, Act I., Scene 2.

‘_That which was now a horse_,’ _etc._ _Antony and Cleopatra_, Act
IV. Scene 14.

‘_Quick, forgetive, apprehensive._’ ‘Makes it apprehensive, quick,
forgetive.’ _Henry IV._, Part II., Act IV. Scene 3.

214. ‘_What in him is weak_,’ _etc._ Cf.

‘——what in me is dark,
Illumine, what is low raise and support.’
_Paradise Lost_, I. 22–3.

‘_And by the force_,’ _etc._

‘As by the strength of their illusion
Shall draw him on to his confusion.’
_Macbeth_, Act III. Scene 5.

‘_Blear_ illusion’ is a phrase of Milton’s (_Comus_, 155).

‘_Rich strond._’ See _The Faerie Queene_, Book III., Canto iv.,
Stanzas 18., 29., and 34.

‘_Goes sounding on his way._’ Hazlitt seems to have had a hazy
recollection of two passages in Chaucer’s _Prologue_. In his
essay on ‘My First Acquaintance with Poets,’ he says, ‘the
scholar in Chaucer is described as going “sounding on his way,”’
and in his _Lectures on the English Poets_ (see Vol. V., p. 13)
he says ‘the merchant, as described in Chaucer, went on his way
“sounding always the increase of his winning.’” The scholar is
not described as ‘sounding on his way,’ but Chaucer says of him,
‘Souninge in moral vertu was his speche,’ while the merchant,
though ‘souninge alway th’ encrees of his winning,’ is
not described as going on his way. Wordsworth has a line
(_Excursion_, Book III.), ‘Went sounding on a dim and perilous
way,’ but it seems clear that Hazlitt thought he was quoting
Chaucer.

‘_His own nothings monstered._’ _Coriolanus_, Act II. Scene 2.

215. ‘_Letting contemplation_,’ _etc._ Cf. ‘Till Contemplation had her
fill.’ Dyer, _Grongar Hill_, l. 26.

‘_Sailing with supreme dominion_,’ _etc._ Gray, _The Progress of
Poesy_, 115–6.

‘_He lisped in numbers_,’ _etc._ Pope, _Prologue to the Satires_,
128.

_Ode on Chatterton._ _Monody on the Death of Chatterton_, written
in 1790 when Coleridge was eighteen.

_Gained several prizes._ At Cambridge Coleridge won the Browne
Gold Medal for a Greek Ode in 1792.

216. ‘_Struggling in vain_,’ _etc._ Wordsworth, _The Excursion_, Book
VI.

‘_Etherial braid_,’ _etc._ Hazlitt perhaps recalled two passages
from Collins, ‘with brede etherial wove’ (_Ode to Evening_), and
‘the shadowy tribes of mind, in braided dance their murmurs
joined’ (_Ode on the Poetical Character_).

_Next he was engaged_, _etc._ Some foundation for this account of
Coleridge will be found in his published writings, especially in
_The Friend_ and _Biographia Literaria_, but Hazlitt seems to
have drawn largely upon his recollections of Coleridge’s
conversation. See his essay, ‘My First Acquaintance with the
Poets.’

_Like Ariel._ _The Tempest_, Act I. Scene 2.

Note. ‘_And so by many winding nooks_,’ _etc._ _Two Gentlemen of
Verona_, Act II. Scene 7.

_Malebranche._ The _De la Recherche de la Vérité_ of Nicolas
Malebranche (1638–1715) was published in 1674.

_Cudworth’s Intellectual System._ Ralph Cudworth’s (1617–1688)
_True Intellectual System of the Universe_ (1678).

216. _Lord Brook’s hieroglyphic theories._ For Fulke Greville, Lord
Brooke (1554–1628), the friend of Sir Philip Sidney, see
Hazlitt’s essay ‘On persons one would wish to have seen’
(_Literary Remains_), where Lamb speaks of Greville’s
‘apocalyptical, cabalistical’ style.

_The Duchess of Newcastle’s fantastic folios._ Margaret Cavendish,
Duchess of Newcastle (1624–1674), published between 1653
and 1668 a number of folio volumes of poems, plays, and
philosophical treatises. Lamb speaks of her (_Essays of Elia_,
‘Mackery End in Hertfordshire’) as ‘the thrice noble,
chaste, and virtuous, but again somewhat fantastical, and
original-brained, generous Margaret Newcastle,’ and in another
essay (The Two Races of Men) charges Kenney with having carried
off” with him ‘the letters of that princely woman, the thrice
noble Margaret Newcastle.’

_The hortus siccus of Dissent._ Burke, _Reflections on the
Revolution in France_ (_Select Works_, ed. Payne, II. 14).

217. _John Huss_, _etc._ Cf. a passage in the _Political Essays_, vol,
III. p. 265, and notes thereon.

_His Religious Musings._ First published in _Poems on various
subjects_ (1796).

_The John Bull._ The first number of ‘John Bull,’ Theodore Hook’s
rascally paper founded to oppose the agitation in favour of
Queen Caroline, appeared on Dec. 17, 1820. Arbuthnot’s _History
of John Bull_ appeared in 1712.

‘_Laughed with Rabelais_,’ _etc._

‘Or laugh and shake in Rab’lais easy chair.’
Pope, _The Dunciad_, I. 22.

‘_Spoke with rapture of Raphael_,’ _etc._ Coleridge visited Rome
in 1806 on his way from Malta to England.

218. _Sang for joy_, _etc._ Coleridge’s Stanzas entitled _Destruction
of the Bastile_ (of which the second and third are lost) were
first published in 1834. They were written about 1789, and
Hazlitt may have seen them.

‘_In Philarmonia’s undivided dale._’ Coleridge in his lines _To
the Rev. W. J. Hort_, plainly refers to the Pantisocracy scheme.
Stanza 3, begins

‘In Freedom’s UNDIVIDED dell,
Where _Toil_ and _Health_ with mellowed _Love_ shall dwell,
Far from folly, far from men,’ etc.

‘_Frailty_,’ _etc._ ‘Frailty, thy name is woman!’ _Hamlet_, Act I.
Scene 2.

_Paragraphs in the Courier._ Many of Coleridge’s contributions to
_The Courier_, chiefly from 1809 to 1811, are published in
_Essays on his own Times_ (1850).

_A poet-laureate or stamp-distributor._ The reference is of course
to Southey and Wordsworth.

‘_Bourne from whence_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Scene 1.

219. _One splendid passage._ ‘Alas! they had been friends in youth,’
etc., lines 408–426. Cf. Hazlitt’s _Lectures on the English
Poets_ (on the Living Poets).

_The Friend._ See note to vol. III. p. 139.

220. ‘_He cannot be constrained by mastery._’ Wordsworth, _The
Excursion_, Book VI. See note to vol. III. p. 166.

221. ‘_Taught with the little nautilus to sail._’ Pope, _Essay on Man_,
III. 177.

‘_Youth at its prow_,’ _etc._ Gray, _The Bard_, II. 2.

_It was a misfortune_, _etc._ This concluding paragraph was added
in the second edition.

_Instead of gathering_, _etc._ Cf. Hazlitt’s essay ‘On Poetical
Versatility’ in _The Round Table_ (vol. III. p. 151).

‘_From the pelting of the pitiless storm._’ _King Lear_, Act III.
Scene 4.

‘_As with triple steel._’ _Paradise Lost_, II. 569.

‘_His words were hollow_’ _etc._ Cf. ‘But all was false and
hollow ... yet he pleased the ear.’ _Paradise Lost_, II. 112–7.

222. ‘_And curs’d the hour_,’ _etc._

‘Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day,
When first from Schiraz’ walls I bent my way!’
Collins, _Oriental Eclogues_, II.

MR. IRVING. This essay is from the _New Monthly Magazine_ (1824,
vol. X. p. 187). Edward Irving (1792–1834), after having been
for a time Dr. Chalmers’s assistant at Glasgow, came to London
in July 1822, as minister of the Caledonian Asylum Chapel in
Cross Street, Hatton Garden. In 1829 he removed into the new
church, built for him in Regent Square, where the ‘unknown
tongues’ began to be heard. Hazlitt wrote a paper for _The
Liberal_ (1823) entitled ‘Pulpit Oratory, Dr. Chalmers and Mr.
Irving,’ reprinted in the present edition.

_A burning and a shining light._ _St. John_, V. 35.

‘_Nothing extenuate_,’ _etc._ _Othello_, Act V. Scene 2.

223. _After the last fight._ Between the Gas-man and Bill Neate
described by Hazlitt himself in the Essay entitled ‘The Fight,’
republished in _Literary Remains_.

_Shaw the Life-guardsman._ Apostrophised by Moore in his _Epistle
from Tom Crib to Big Ben_. In a note Moore describes him as ‘a
Life Guardsman, one of the Fancy, who distinguished himself, and
was killed in the memorable _set-to_ at Waterloo.’

_Crib or Molyneux._ Tom Cribb (1781–1848) the champion pugilist
defeated Tom Molineaux, an American black, in two fights (1810
and 1811). At the time of Hazlitt’s essay, Cribb had retired,
and was proprietor of a public house, the King’s Arms, at the
corner of Duke Street and King Street, St. James’s.

_Miss Macauley’s readings._ Elizabeth Wright Macauley (1785–1837),
poetess, actress, public reader, pamphleteer and preacher,
appeared at Covent Garden in 1819 in the rôles of Mary Stuart
and Jane Shore, but did not satisfy the managers, and was
dismissed. After that she gave public readings and became a
woman with a grievance. See her pamphlets, _Theatric Revolution_
(1819) and _Facts against Falsehood_ (1824). In 1833 she
published a fragment of _Autobiographical Memoirs_.

_Exeter-Change._ The upper rooms of Exeter ‘Change in the Strand
were let for various purposes, among others for the purposes of
a menagerie. Byron writes in his Journal (Nov. 1813, ed.
Prothero, II. 319): ‘Two nights ago I saw the tigers sup at
Exeter ‘Change.’

224. ‘_Lies floating many a rood._’ _Paradise Lost_, I. 196.

‘_Bestrode the world_,’ _etc._ _Julius Caesar_, Act I. Scene 2.

‘_The player’s province_,’ _etc._ Robert Lloyd, _The Actor_
(1760), ll. 67–8.

‘_Damnation round the land._’ Pope, _The Universal Prayer_, St. 7.

‘_Hath a smooth aspect_,’ _etc._

‘He hath a person and a smooth dispose
To be suspected; framed to make women false.’
_Othello_, Act I. Scene 3.

‘_Faultless monster._’ From the _Essay on Poetry_ of John
Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham.

225. ‘_Consummation_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Scene 1.

‘_A lusty man’_, _etc._

‘A manly man, to been an abbot able.’
Chaucer, _Prologue_, 167.

225. _Glanced an eye at Mr. Canning._ The immediate cause of Irving’s
popularity is said to have been a flattering reference to him by
Canning in the House of Commons.

‘_Like an eagle_,’ _etc._ _Coriolanus_, Act V. Scene 6.

_Peter Aretine._ Pietro Aretino (1492–1557) ‘the scourge of
princes.’

226. ‘_God made the country_,’ _etc._ Cowper, _The Task_, i. 749.

227. The ‘Saints,’ etc. Wilberforce was a prominent member of the
‘Clapham Sect,’ and represented Yorkshire from 1784 to 1812.

‘_Hilting the house_,’ _etc._ This expression is used by Burke in
his speech on American taxation (Ap. 19, 1774). See _Select
Works_ (ed. Payne), i. 147 and note.

_A Mr. Fox._ William Johnson Fox (1786–1864), the anti-corn law
orator, was at this time Unitarian preacher at the Chapel in
South Place, Finsbury, which was built for him, and opened in
1824.

228. _The Duke of Sussex._ The sixth son of George III., created Duke
of Sussex in 1801.

_Miraturque_, _etc._

‘Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma.’
Virgil, _Georgics_, II. 82.

_Dr. Chalmers._ Chalmers’s _Astronomical Discourses_ (week-day
sermons delivered at the Tron Church, Glasgow) were published in
1817, and in the same year he visited London where his sermons,
at the Surrey Chapel, and at the Scotch Churches in London Wall
and Swallow Street, created extraordinary enthusiasm. Hazlitt
had heard him in Glasgow. See _Memoirs of W. Hazlitt_, II. 42.

‘_Four Orations_,’ _etc._ Irving’s _For the Oracles of God, four
Orations; for Judgment to Come, an Argument in nine Parts_ was
published in 1823. Lowndes mentions a third edition in 1824.

229. _Orator Henley._ John Henley (1692–1756), who preached at Newport
Market, and, later, in what Pope calls ‘Henley’s gilt tub,’ at
Clare Market, is one of the heroes of the _Dunciad_—

‘Embrowned with native bronze, lo! Henley stands,
Tuning his voice, and balancing his hands.’