Chapter XXXII: Canto III: , Stanzas 113 and 114

Note. Gray says the same thing about Shenstone in a letter to
Norton Nicholls, June 24, 1769 (_Works_, ed. Gosse, III. 344–5)
quoted by Johnson in his Life of Shenstone. As to Gray’s dislike
to having his portrait prefixed to his works, see his letter to
Horace Walpole, January 1753 (_Works_, ed. Gosse, II. 233 _et
seq._), where he says: ‘This I know, if you suffer my head to be
printed, you will infallibly put me out of mine’; and again—‘I
do assure you, if I had received such a book, with such a
frontispiece, without any warning, I believe it would have given
me a palsy.’

98. _The man in the Hartz mountains._ Hazlitt refers to the well-known
mirage of the Brocken.

‘_Listening its fears._’ ‘Listening their fear, I could not say
“Amen.”’ _Macbeth_, Act II. Scene 2.

‘_Still, small voice._’ _1 Kings_, xix. 12.

_After the Quarterly Review came out._ The review of _Characters
of Shakespear’s Plays_ appeared in the _Quarterly_ for Jan. 1818
(vol. XVIII. p. 458). Taylor and Hessey were the publishers of
the _Characters_.

_The Cockney School._ The phrase seems to have been first used in
an article by Lockhart entitled ‘On the Cockney School of
Poetry,’ which appeared in the first number (Oct. 1817) of the
new series of _Blackwood’s Magazine_. That article dealt almost
exclusively with Leigh Hunt, but the expression became popular,
and was afterwards applied, not only by _Blackwood’s Magazine_,
but by _The Quarterly Review_, to Keats, Lamb, Shelley, and
Hazlitt among others. See Lang’s _Life of Lockhart_, I. 146 _et
seq._, and Mrs. Oliphant’s _William Blackwood and his Sons_, I.
132 _et seq._ and 164–7, where a letter from Lockhart and Wilson
to John Murray is printed, in which the writers refer to ‘that
happy name which you and all the reviews are now borrowing.’ The
attacks on Keats referred to by Hazlitt appeared in _Blackwood’s
Magazine_ for Aug. 1818 (the 4th of the ‘Cockney School’
Series), and in _The Quarterly Review_ for April 1818, published
in September. It is not known who wrote the _Blackwood_ article;
the review in the _Quarterly_ was by Croker. Much has been
written as to the effect of these attacks on Keats’s health and
happiness, but it is obviously impossible to come to any
definite conclusion. Keats died in Rome on the 23rd Feb. 1821.

98. ‘_A bud bit_,’ _etc._ _Romeo and Juliet_, Act I. Scene 1.

‘_A huge-sized monster_,’ _etc._ ‘A great-sized monster of
ingratitudes.’ _Troilus and Cressida_, Act III. Scene 3.

100. _The celebrated Bub Doddington._ The _Diary_ of George Bubb
Dodington (1691–1762), created Lord Melcombe in 1761, was
posthumously published in 1784.

_My soul, turn from them._ Hazlitt quotes elsewhere the line (165)
from Goldsmith’s _The Traveller_. ‘My soul, turn from them, turn
we to survey.’

‘_Far from the madding strife._’ ‘Far from the madding crowd’s
ignoble strife.’ Gray’s _Elegy_, l. 73.

_Bolingbroke’s Reflections on Exile._ Written in 1716, published
in 1752.

101. Note. See Plutarch, _Morals_ (of Banishment), and Virgil,
_Georgics_, I. 6.

ESSAY XI. ON THOUGHT AND ACTION

_Abraham Tucker._ For Tucker, see vol. IV. pp. 371–385 and notes.

102. _Louvet._ The Girondin, Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray
(1760–1797), author of _Les Amours du Chevalier de Faublas_.

Note. Cf. Hazlitt’s _Life of Napoleon_ (ed. 1894), III. 298.

_Tull’s Husbandry._ An edition of Jethro Tull’s (1674–1741)
_Horse-hoing Husbandry_ (1733) was brought out by Cobbett in
1822.

‘_Tut! will you baulk a man_,’ _etc._ ‘Shall quips and sentences
and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career
of his humour?’ _Much Ado About Nothing_, Act II. Scene 3.

‘_No figures_,’ _etc._ _Julius Cæsar_, Act II. Scene 1.

104. _Chapter of Accidents._ Apparently Lord Chesterfield (Letter, Feb.
16, 1753) was the first person who is known to have used this
phrase. Southey in _The Doctor_ (chap. cxviii.) attributes to
John Wilkes the saying, similar to Hazlitt’s, that ‘the chapter
of accidents is the longest chapter in the book.’

_And — — for love!_ Possibly Hazlitt refers to himself.

105. ‘_Measure with a two-foot rule_,’ _etc._ Burke, _Regicide Peace_
(ed. Payne), p. 105.

_Quicquid agit_, _etc._ See note to vol. II. p. 331.

‘_Curtailing him_,’ _etc._ Cf.

‘I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,’ etc.
_Richard III._, Act I. Scene 1.

107. _Arbela._ The city which gives its name to the battle in which
Alexander finally defeated Darius (B.C. 331).

109. ‘_To be wise_,’ _etc._ Cf. ‘Let it be virtuous to be obstinate.’
_Coriolanus_, Act V. Scene 3.

_Any more than St. Augustine was_, _etc._ The allusion is to an
incident which took place at the house of Boileau, when La
Fontaine, Racine, and Boileau’s brother were present. The latter
had been holding forth on the merits of St. Augustine, when La
Fontaine, who had been listening half asleep, said: ‘Was he as
witty as Rabelais?’ Boileau’s brother replied, ‘Be careful, M.
la Fontaine, one of your stockings is wrong side out.’

‘_All tranquillity and smiles._’ Cowper, _The Task_, IV. 49.

110. _Abraham Cowley has left_, _etc._ ‘_A Vision, concerning his late
pretended Highness, Cromwell the Wicked_,’ _etc._ (1661).

‘_Sharp and sweet._’ ‘And be as sharp as sweet.’ _All’s Well that
Ends Well_, Act IV. Scene 4.

111. William Mudford (1782–1848), at this time editor of _The Courier_,
afterwards a well-known contributor to _Blackwood’s Magazine_,
published in 1817, _An Historical Account of the Campaign in the
Netherlands in 1815, under the Duke of Wellington and Prince
Blucher_, in which he was assisted by the Duke.

_Nor does Horace seem to give_, _etc._ See Odes, II. 7, where he
tells us that he left his shield ingloriously behind him at
Philippi, and Epod. I. where he describes himself as ‘imbellis
ac firmus parum.’

‘_From every work_,’ _etc._ _The Faerie Queene_, Book I. Canto iv.
Stanza 20.

‘_Better be lord_,’ _etc._

‘And to be lord of those that riches have
Than them to have my selfe, and be their servile sclave.’
_Ib._ Book II. Canto vii. Stanza 33.

112. _Sir William —._ Sir William Curtis (1752–1829), a staunch Tory
and friend of George IV., Lord Mayor (1795–1796) and Member for
the City (1790–1817 and 1820–1826).

_Alderman —._ Robert Waithman (1764–1833), perhaps, Curtis’s
radical opponent for the representation of the City.

Note. ‘_Dish of skimmed milk._’ ‘O, I could divide myself, and go
to buffets, for moving such a dish of skim milk with so
honourable an action.’ _Henry IV._, Part I. Act II. Scene 3.

113. _The cave of Mammon._ _The Faerie Queene_, Book II. Canto vii.

_The founder of Guy’s Hospital._ Thomas Guy (1645–1724),
bookseller in Cornhill, is said to have begun by importing
English Bibles printed in Holland. The bulk of his fortune was
made by successful dealings in South Sea stock. The residue of
his estate, devoted to the founding of the hospital, amounted to
£200,000.

ESSAY XII. ON WILL-MAKING

116. _A will of one of the Thellussons_. The famous will of Peter
Thellusson (1737–1797), who directed the income of his property
to be accumulated during the lives of all his children,
grandchildren, and great grandchildren, living at the time of
his death. The will was upheld, but an Act, commonly called the
Thellusson Act (39 and 40 George III. c. 98) was passed to
prevent the repetition of such accumulations.

117. _I have heard of a singular instance_, _etc._ In _Notes and
Queries_ (1st Series, X. 531) a correspondent, signing himself
‘W. M. T.’, states that in a volume of Hazlitt’s _Works_ in his
possession the Essay ‘On Will-making’ has a marginal note in the
handwriting of Wordsworth. The note is as follows:—‘This story
must have come from me. It is exaggerated here. The person was a
school-fellow of mine, and I had the particulars of his will
from a brother of one his executors. He did not bequeath large
estates, etc., but very considerable sums of money to different
relatives and friends; without being possessed of a sixpence, or
having reason to believe that he was. W. Wordsworth.’

118. _Diamond cut Diamond._ As old at any rate as Ford. See _The
Lover’s Melancholy_, Act I. Scene 3.

_Ben Jonson’s Volpone._ First acted in 1605.

_The will of Nicholas Gimcrack._ _The Tatler_, No. 216 (By
Addison).

120. ‘_Even from the tomb_,’ _etc._ Gray’s _Elegy_, 91–2.

_Memoirs of an Heiress._ Frances Burney’s _Cecilia, or The Memoirs
of an Heiress_ (1782).

_Dyot-Street._ This name was restored in 1877. The street was
named after _Richard_ Dyot. Wheatley and Cunningham’s _London
Past and Present_, I. 544.

‘_The foxes_,’ _etc._ _St. Matthew_, viii. 20.

_Lord Camelford._ Thomas Pitt, second Lord Camelford (1775–1804),
killed in a duel. The war rendered it impossible for his body to
be taken to Switzerland.

_Sir Francis Bourgeois._ Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois (1756–1811),
the painter, bequeathed a large number of pictures to Dulwich
College.

Note. _Kellerman._ François Christophe, Duke of Valmy (1735–1820).

Note. _As the basil-tree grew_, _etc._ Boccaccio, _The Decameron_,
Fourth Day, Novel 5.

ESSAY XIII. ON CERTAIN INCONSISTENCIES IN SIR JOSHUA
REYNOLDS’S DISCOURSES

Cf. six papers which Hazlitt contributed to _The Champion_ (Oct. 30, Nov. 6, Nov. 27, Dec. 4, Dec. 25, 1814, and Jan. 8, 1815) on Reynolds as a painter and a critic.

123. ‘_You take my house_,’ _etc._ _Merchant of Venice_, Act IV. Scene
1.

124. ‘_Ascending the brightest heaven of invention._’ _Henry V._,
Prologue. _Carlo Maratti._ 1625–1713.

128. ‘_It loses some colour._’ _Othello_, Act I. Scene 1.

130. ‘_Not once perceive_,’ _etc._ _Comus_, 74–5.

Note. _Boucher._ François Boucher (1703–1770).

ESSAY XIV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

131. _Two papers in the Idler._ Nos. 76 and 82.

133. _Denner’s style._ Balthasar Denner (1685–1749), the German
painter, whose too minute detail is often referred to by
Hazlitt.

134. ‘_Of late reformed_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Scene 2.

‘_What word_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, IX. 1144.

136. _What was said of Virgil._ Addison, in his _Essay on Virgil’s
Georgics_, says:—‘He breaks the clods and tosses the dung about
with an air of gracefulness.’ Cf. also

‘Hence mighty Virgil’s said, of old,
From dung to have extracted gold,’ _etc._
Butler, _Satire upon Plagiaries_, 87 _et seq._

145. _Dr. Johnson’s Irene._ Produced at Drury Lane in 1749.

ESSAY XV. ON PARADOX AND COMMON-PLACE

146. ‘_Putting in one scale_,’ _etc._ Cowper, _The Task_, IV. 484–6.

147. ‘_Apprehensive, forgetive._’ _Henry IV._ Part II. Act IV. Scene 3.

148. ‘_The powers that be._’ _Romans_, XIII. 1.

_Holy Oil._ The coronation of George IV. (July 19, 1821) was
imminent.

‘_All trivial, fond records._’ _Hamlet_, Act I. Scene 5.

‘_He never is_,’ _etc._ A variation of Pope’s well-known line,
_Essay on Man_, I. 96.

_The author of the Prometheus Unbound_, _etc._ The passage which
follows on Shelley led to a quarrel between Hazlitt and Leigh
Hunt. See _Memoirs of William Hazlitt_ (II. 305 _et seq._),
where two letters from Hunt to Hazlitt and one from Hunt to
Shelley are published; and _Four Generations of a Literary
Family_ (I. 130–135), where a long letter from Hazlitt to Hunt
is published for the first time. The quarrel was made up, but
Hazlitt never cared for Shelley’s poetry. See his article in
_The Edinburgh Review_ (July 1824) on Shelley’s Posthumous
Poems.

‘_And in its liquid texture_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, VI. 348–9.

149. ‘_Seas of pearl_,’ _etc._ Cf. ‘Lutes, laurels, seas of milk, and
ships of amber.’ Otway, _Venice Preserved_, Act V. Scene 2.
Coleridge more than once quoted the line as an example of
fanciful delirium. See _Biographia Literaria_ (chap. iv.) and
Crabb Robinson’s _Diary_ (Nov. 15, 1810).

_Play round the head_, _etc._ ‘Plays round the head, but comes not
to the heart.’ Pope, _Essay on Man_, IV. 254.

150. ‘_At the horizon._’ ‘Their humanity is at their horizon.’ Burke,
_A Letter to a Noble Lord_ (_Works_, Bohn, V. 142).

‘_While you are talking of marrying_,’ _etc._ _The Beggar’s
Opera_, Act II. Scene 2.

151. _The present poet-laureate._ Southey.

‘_Poets (as it has been said)_’ _etc._ Hazlitt quotes from his own
review of Coleridge’s _Literary Life_ in _The Edinburgh Review_
for August, 1817 (Vol. XXVIII. pp. 514–5).

‘_Such seething brains._’ Cf.

‘Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,’ _etc._
_A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Act V. Scene 1.

152. Note. _Twice have the dastard, vaunting, venal crew_, _etc._ The
reference is of course to Southey and Wordsworth. See many
passages in _Political Essays_.

Note. _Like Cacus’s oxen._ _Æneid_, VIII. 209 _et seq._

Note. ‘_Rout on rout_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, II. 995–6.

Note. ‘_Deliverance for mankind._’ Southey’s _Carmen Triumphale_.

Note. ‘_The Camomil_,’ _etc._ ‘The camomile, the more it is
trodden on the faster it grows.’ _Henry IV._, Part I. Act II.
Scene 4.

153. Note. _Troja fuit._ ‘Et Thebae steterunt, altaque Troja fuit.’
Propertius, _Elegies_, II. 8.

154. _Like Mr. Cobbett’s ‘Gold against Paper.’_ The first of Cobbett’s
articles on ‘Paper against Gold’ appeared in the _Political
Register_ on Sept. 1, 1810. The articles were afterwards
collected and published in separate form.

_Lord Bacon’s axiom._ _Advancement of Learning_, Book I. V. 1.

‘_But of this be sure_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, I. 158–9.

155. ‘_Ambling and lisping_,’ _etc._ ‘You jig, you amble, and you lisp,
and nickname God’s creatures.’ _Hamlet_, Act III. Scene 1.

156. _Edgar’s exaggerations to Gloster._ _King Lear_, Act IV. Scene 6.

_Mr. Montgomery._ James Montgomery (1771–1854), while editor of
_The Sheffield Iris_, suffered two terms of imprisonment
(1795–1796), but not in connection with the Duke of Richmond’s
_Letter on Reform_, which was originally published in 1783.

_Spain, as Ferdinand_, _etc._ In March 1820, in consequence of a
revolution in Spain, Ferdinand VII. was forced to accept the
constitution of 1812, and the suppression of the Inquisition,
but in October of the same year, as the result of French
intervention, absolutism was restored. This essay would appear
to have been written between these two dates.

ESSAY XVI. ON VULGARITY AND AFFECTATION

‘_Thin partitions_,’ _etc._ Dryden, _Absalom and Achitophel_, Part
I. 164.

157. ‘_A feather will turn_,’ _etc._ Cf. ‘The weight of a hair will
turn the scales between their avoirdupois’ (_Henry IV._, Part
II. Act II. Scene 4), and ‘Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a
feather will turn the scale’ (_Measure for Measure_, Act IV.
Scene 2).

‘_Great Vulgar and the Small._’ Cowley, Horace, _Odes_, III. 1.

159. ‘_Have eyes and see them._’ ‘Eyes have they, but they see not.’
_Psalms_, CXV. 5.

‘_Lovers of low company._’ ‘Kings are naturally lovers of low
company.’ Burke, _Speech on Economical Reform_ (_Works_, Bohn,
II. 106).

160. ‘_I like it_,’ _etc._ The reference seems to be to _Evelina_,