Chapter XXIV: Act III: Sc. 2

124. ‘_They are not sought for_,’ _etc._ These words are quoted by
Coleridge from _Ecclesiasticus_, xxxviii. 33–34. See _A Lay
Sermon_, 308–309.

126. ‘_Twice ten degrees_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, X. 669–670.

‘_With jealous leer malign._’ _Ibid._, IV. 503.

127. ‘_Fraught with potential infidelity._’ _A Lay Sermon_, p. 329.

131. _The Watchman._ _The Watchman_ ran from March to May, 1796.
Coleridge gives an account of his tour to procure subscribers.
See _Biographia Literaria_, Chap. X. The _Conciones ad Populum_,
originally published in 1795, were reprinted in _Essays on his
own Times_ (1850).

_One of Goldsmith’s Essays._ See _A Lay Sermon_, p. 319 note.

_As Gulliver did, etc._ See _A Voyage to Brobdingnag_, Chap. V.

132. ‘_As Alps o’er Alps arise._’ Pope, _An Essay on Criticism_, II.
232.

134. ‘_High enthroned_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, III. 58.

135. ‘_It is by means_,’ _etc._ See Hobbes, _Leviathan_, Part I. Chap.
IV. 5, 15.

COLERIDGE’S LITERARY LIFE

This review, though claimed for Jeffrey by Lord Cockburn, and marked doubtful by Mr. Ireland, is certainly Hazlitt’s. Nearly the whole of the long passage on Burke (pp. 150–154 of the present volume), after doing duty in _The Champion_ (Oct. 5, 1817), was published by Hazlitt in _Political Essays_ as the first of two ‘Characters of Mr. Burke’ which appeared in that volume. See vol. III. pp. 250–253.

PAGE

135. ‘_It will be found_,’ _etc._ Chap. I.

‘_At school_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._

138. _Bowles’s Sonnets._ William Lisle Bowles’s (1762–1850) famous
_Fourteen Sonnets written chiefly on Picturesque Spots during a
Journey_ appeared anonymously in 1789. More sonnets were added
in later editions. The sonnets of Thomas Warton (1728–1790) are
frequently quoted by Hazlitt, and were eulogised by him in his
_Lectures on the English Poets_ (see vol. V. pp. 120–1). See
Chap. I. of _Biographia Literaria_ for Coleridge’s praise of
Bowles.

138. _Jacob Behmen._ Jakob Boehme (1575–1624), the mystic.

The _Morning Post._ Coleridge’s contributions to _The Morning
Post_ (chiefly during 1800) were reprinted in _Essays on his own
Times_ (1850).

139. ‘_It is not, however_,’ _etc._ Note at the end of Chap. III.

_The Cannings, the Giffords, and the Freres._ William Gifford
(1756–1826) was the editor of the _Anti-Jacobin_ (1797–8), and
George Canning (1770–1827) and _John Hookham Frere_ (1769–1846)
were the chief contributors. See an article in _The Athenæum_
for May 31, 1890, on ‘Coleridge and _The Anti-Jacobin_.’

140. ‘_Publicly_,’ _etc._ _Biographia Literaria_, Chap. III.

142. ‘_Full of wise saws_,’ _etc._ _As You Like It_, Act II. Sc. 7.

‘_It has been hinted_,’ _etc._ _Biographia Literaria_, Chap. IV.

143. _Mr. C. thinks fit, etc._ Chap. V.

144. _A series of citations._ Hazlitt probably refers to an article in
_The Examiner_ for March 31, 1816, which consists to a large
extent of quotations from Hobbes’s _Leviathan_, and which is
referred to in a later volume of the present edition; but he was
never tired of proclaiming the greatness and originality of
Hobbes. Cf. the essay or lecture ‘On the writings of Hobbes,’
published in _Literary Remains_.

145. ‘_Sound book-learnedness._’ _A Lay Sermon_ (Bohn), p. 327.

‘_Wander down_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, XI. 282–284.

‘_Towards the close_,’ _etc._ Chap. X.

150. ‘_As our very sign-boards_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._

‘_Let the scholar_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._

_It is not without reluctance, etc._ The greater part of this
character of Burke, down to the foot of p. 154, was repeated in
_Political Essays_. See vol. III. pp. 250 _et seq._, and notes.

155. _Any account of it at all._ At this point in The Edinburgh Review
a long note, signed F. J., is appended, in which Jeffrey replies
to what he describes as ‘averments of a personal and injurious
nature’ against the _Edinburgh Review_. A great part of the note
relates to Coleridge’s attack on Jeffrey in Chap. III. of the
_Biographia Literaria_ (see Bohn’s edition, p. 25 note), but
part of it concerns Hazlitt. Coleridge had said (Chap. xxiv.):
‘In the _Edinburgh Review_ it [_Christabel_] was assailed with a
malignity and a personal hatred that ought to have injured only
the work in which such a tirade was suffered to appear: and this
review was generally attributed (whether rightly or no I know
not) to a man, who both in my presence and in my absence has
repeatedly pronounced it the finest poem in the language.’
Jeffrey refers to this passage, and states that when he visited
Coleridge at Keswick, there was some talk about the poem. ‘We
spoke,’ he says, ‘of _Christabel_, and I advised him to publish
it; but I did not say it was either the finest poem of the kind,
or a fine poem at all; and I am sure of this, for the best of
all reasons, that at this time, and indeed till after it was
published, I never saw or heard more than four or five lines of
it, which my friend Mr. Scott once repeated to me. That eminent
person, indeed, spoke favourably of it; and I rather think I
told Mr. C. that I had heard him say, that it was to it he was
indebted for the first idea of that romantic narrative in
irregular verse, which he afterwards exemplified in his _Lay of
the Last Minstrel_, and other works. In these circumstances, I
felt a natural curiosity to see this great original; and I can
sincerely say, that no admirer of Mr. C. could be more
disappointed or astonished than I was, when it did make its
appearance. I did not review it.’ With regard to _A Lay Sermon_,
Coleridge had said (_Biographia Literaria_, chap. xxiv.): ‘A
long delay occurred between its first annunciation and its
appearance; it was reviewed, therefore, by anticipation with a
malignity so avowedly and exclusively personal as is, I believe,
unprecedented even in the present contempt of all common
humanity that disgraces and endangers the liberty of the press.
After its appearance, the author of this lampoon was chosen to
review it in the _Edinburgh Review_: and under the single
condition, that he should have written what he himself really
thought, and have criticised the work as he would have done had
its author been indifferent to him, I should have chosen that
man myself, both from the vigour and the originality of his
mind, and from his particular acuteness in speculative
reasoning, before all others. I remembered Catullus’s lines
[lxxiii.]:

“Desine de quoquam quicquam bene velle mereri,
Aut aliquem fieri posse putare pium.
Omnia sunt ingrata: nihil fecisse benigne est:
Immo, etiam taedet, taedet obestque magis.
Ut mihi, quem nemo gravius nec acerbius urget
Quam modo qui me unum atque unicum amicum habuit.”

But I can truly say, that the grief with which I read this
rhapsody of predetermined insult had the rhapsodist himself for
its whole and sole object: and that the indignant contempt which
it excited in me, was as exclusively confined to his employer
and suborner.’ Coleridge here refers to the first of the two
reviews of _A Lay Sermon_, contributed by Hazlitt to _The
Examiner_ in 1816. See _Political Essays_, vol. III. pp.
138–142. Jeffrey’s reply is as follows: ‘As to the review of the
_Lay Sermon_, I have only to say, in one word, that I never
employed or suborned any body to abuse or extol it or any other
publication. I do not so much as know or conjecture what Mr. C.
alludes to as a malignant lampoon or review by anticipation,
which he says had previously appeared somewhere else. I never
saw nor heard of any such publication. Nay, I was not even aware
of the existence of the _Lay Sermon_ itself, when a review of it
was offered me by a gentleman in whose judgment and talents I
had great confidence, but whom I certainly never suspected, and
do not suspect at this moment, of having any personal or partial
feelings of any kind towards its author. I therefore accepted
his offer, and printed his review, with some retrenchments and
verbal alterations, just as I was setting off, in a great hurry,
for London, on professional business, in January last.’

156. ‘_The dew of Castalie._’ Cf. ‘With verses, dipt in deaw of
Castalie.’ Spenser, _The Ruines of Time_, l. 431.

‘_Sky-tinctured._’ _Paradise Lost_, V. 285.

‘_Thoughts that voluntary move_,’ _etc._ _Ibid._, III. 37–38.

157. ‘_The golden cadences of poesy._’ _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, Act IV.
Sc. 2.

‘_Poets_ [lovers and madmen] _have such seething brains_.’ _A
Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Act V. Sc. 1.

_With Plato._ _The Republic_, Book X.

158. ‘_Pleasurable poetic fervour._’ Hazlitt probably had in his mind
chap. xviii. of the _Biographia Literaria_. The words suggest
that conception of poetry which was expressed by Wordsworth in
his _Preface to the Lyrical Ballads_ (especially in the extended
1802 form), and which was frequently repeated by Coleridge. See,
in addition to the _Biographia Literaria_, _Lectures on
Shakespere, etc._ (Bohn’s ed.), p. 49.

158. Note.—Maturin’s _Bertram_ was attacked in _The Courier_, ‘the pen
being either wielded or guided by Coleridge,’ but the attack in
_Biographia Literaria_ was a different one. See Dykes Campbell’s
_Samuel Taylor Coleridge_, 223 note 1.

LETTERS OF HORACE WALPOLE

A review of _Letters from the Hon. Horace Walpole to George Montagu, Esq. From the year 1736 to 1770_, published in 1818. This and other volumes of Walpole’s correspondence were reprinted in Peter Cunningham’s collected edition of _Walpole’s Letters_ (9 vols., 1857–1859), where the passages quoted by Hazlitt may be found.

PAGE

159. _Princess Amelia._ George II.’s daughter. See Walpole’s _Letters_,
_passim_.

_George Selwyn._ George Augustus Selwyn (1719–1791), the wit,
Walpole’s ‘oldest acquaintance and friend.’

_Mr. Chute._ John Chute (1703–1776), a great friend of Walpole’s.
See especially a letter to Sir Horace Mann, 27 May, 1776.

160. ‘_Of outward show_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, VIII. 539.

_Pam._ The Knave of Clubs, and the best trump at one form of Loo.

161. _Balmerino._ Arthur Elphinstone, sixth Lord Balmerino (1688–1746),
beheaded for participation in the Rebellion of 1745.

‘_Are kept in ponderous vases._’ Pope, _The Rape of the Lock_, V.
115.

163. ‘_Have got the start_,’ _etc._ _Julius Cæsar_, Act I. Sc. 2.

_Poor Bentley._ Richard Bentley (1708–1782), son of the scholar.

‘_High fantastical._’ _Twelfth Night_, Act I. Sc. 1.

164. _Müntz._ John Henry Müntz, a Swiss, who painted and copied
paintings for Walpole.

‘_That which he esteemed_,’ _etc._ _Macbeth_, Act I. Sc. 7.

_Mr. Mason._ William Mason (1724–1797), the poet and friend of
Gray.

165. _The Mysterious Mother._ Walpole’s tragedy (1768).

166. ‘_Himself and the universe._’ Hazlitt elsewhere says of Wordsworth
(vol. I. p. 113), ‘it is as if there were nothing but himself
and the universe.’

‘_Admit no discourse_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 1.

168. _Lord Ferrers._ Laurence Shirley (1720–1760), fourth Earl Ferrers,
was hanged for the murder of his steward, John Johnson.

169. ‘_Sleep no more_,’ _etc._ _Macbeth_, Act II. Sc. 2.

172. _Smithson._ Sir Hugh Smithson (1715–1786), married in 1740 the
heiress of the Percy estates, succeeded to the title of Earl of
Northumberland in 1750, and was created Duke in 1766.

_Pope._ Hazlitt refers presumably to ‘Song, by a Person of
Quality,’ beginning, ‘Flutt’ring spread thy purple pinions.’

‘_Very chargeable._’ _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, Act III. Sc. 2.

LIFE OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS

Joseph Farington’s (1747–1821) _Memoirs of the Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds_ was published in 1819. This review was republished in _Criticisms on Art_ (1843–4), and in _Essays on the Fine Arts_ (1873).

PAGE

172. _Dispute between their late President, etc._ Relating to the
election of Joseph Bonomi as professor of perspective. Reynolds
resigned his membership of the Academy in Feb. 1790, but
afterwards withdrew his resignation. Edmond Malone (1741–1812)
published a Memoir of Reynolds in 1797.

173. ‘_Pleased with a rattle_,’ _etc._ Pope, _Essay on Man_, II. 276.

174. _Richardson._ Jonathan Richardson (1665–1745), author of _A Theory
of Painting_ (1715).

_Hudson._ Thomas Hudson (1701–1779), portrait-painter.

177. _The French materialists._ See Helvétius, _De l’Esprit_, Discourse
III.

178. ‘_A greater general capacity_,’ _etc._ See Johnson’s _Life of
Cowley._

180. _Hayman._ See VOL. I. (_The Round Table_) note to p. 149.

_Highmore._ _Ibid._

‘_Darted contagious fire._’ _Paradise Lost_, IX. 1036.

181. _Gandy._ See vol VI. (_Table Talk_), note to p. 21.

184. _In the days of Montesquieu._ See his _De l’ Esprit des Lois_.

185. ‘_Like flowers_,’ _etc._ Macbeth, Act IV. Sc. 3.

186. _Says Schlegel._ _Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature_, I.

‘_Like the forced pace_,’ _etc._ _Henry IV._, Part I. Act III. Sc.
1.

‘_With coy, reluctant_,’ _etc._ ‘And sweet, reluctant, amorous
delay.’ _Paradise Lost_, IV. 311.

_Terrae filii._ Cf. Persius, _Satires_, VI. 59.

‘_The crown which Ariadne_,’ _etc._ Cf. _The Faerie Queene_, Book
VI. Canto X. St. 13.

‘_Their affections_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 1.

187. _In that part of the country._ Winterslow presumably.

‘_Returning with a choral song_,’ _etc._ Wordsworth, _Ruth_,
53–54.

‘_We also are not Arcadians!_’ Hazlitt frequently quoted the old
saying, attributed to Schidoni, ‘Et ego in Arcadia vixi.’ See,
_e.g._ _Table Talk_, vol. VI. p. 168.

188. ‘_The unbought grace of life._’ Burke, _Reflections on the
Revolution in France_ (_Select Works_, ed. Payne, II. 89).

190. _Leo._ Leo X. (1475–1521), son of Lorenzo de’ Medici.

_Piranesi’s drawings._ Giambattista Piranesi (1720–1778), engraver
of architecture and ancient ruins.

_Winckelman._ Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768), author of
_Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums_ (1764).

191. ‘_All eyes_’ _etc._ Cf. _Isaiah_, xlv. 22–23, and _Romans_, xiv.
11.

‘_Amazing brightness_,’ _etc._ Otway, _Venice Preserved_, Act I.
Sc. 1.

‘_A present deity_,’ _etc._ Dryden, _Alexander’s Feast_, 35–36.

_The Madona of Foligno._ Raphael’s, in the Vatican.

_The ceiling at Parma._ Painted by Girolamo Mazzola, a pupil of
Correggio.

192. _Leonardo’s Last Supper._ This famous fresco, now almost entirely
destroyed, was at the convent of S. Maria delle Grazie at Milan.

_The institution of Academies, etc._ Cf. vol I. _The Round Table_,
p. 160 and note, and vol. IX. p. 311 _et seq._

195. ‘_The cat and canary-bird_,’ _etc._ See _ante_, p. 193.

‘_Leaving the thing_,’ _etc._ _Philippians_, iii. 13.

196. _The Catalogue Raisonnée._ Cf. vol. I., _The Round Table_, pp. 140
_et seq._

‘_With jealous leer malign._’ _Paradise Lost_, IV. 503.

197. _Grampound._ The borough was disfranchised for corrupt practices
in 1821.

‘_That is true history._’ This was said by Fuseli. See vol. VI.
(_Mr. Northcote’s Conversations_), p. 340.

199. _Mr. West’s pictures._ Benjamin West (1738–1820), president of the
Royal Academy from 1792. Cf. vol. IX. pp. 318 _et seq._

_Barry._ James Barry (1741–1806). Hazlitt refers to one of the
pictures Barry painted for the Society of Arts in John Street,
Adelphi.

200. ‘_The bodiless creations_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 4,
ll. 136–137.

‘_Like the baseless fabric_,’ _etc._ _The Tempest_, Act IV. Sc. 1.

_Mr. Haydon._ Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786–1846). Mr. W. C.
Hazlitt has given an account of his relations with Hazlitt. See
_Memoirs_, I. 209–213, and _Four Generations of a Literary
Family_, I. 234–236. At his house Hazlitt met Keats.

‘_So from the root_,’ _etc._ _Paradise Lost_, V. 479–481.

201. _His own Penitent Girl._ Hazlitt seems to refer to a figure in the
_Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem_.

_His Christ._ Haydon’s picture, _Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem_,
was first exhibited in 1820. At the private view, Haydon says
(Tom Taylor’s _Life_, I. 371), ‘the room was full, Keats and
Hazlitt were up in a corner, really rejoicing.’ Hazlitt is
introduced into the picture ‘looking at the Saviour as an
investigator.’ The picture is now in America. For Mrs. Siddons’s
opinion of the picture see _Life_, I. 372.

_Mr. Haydon is a devoted, etc._ See his letter in _The Examiner_,
March 17, 1816.

THE PERIODICAL PRESS

This essay is referred to by Brougham, who, on August 18, 1837, wrote to Macvey Napier (then editor of the _Edinburgh Review_): ‘I wish the _Newspaper Press_ had not been flattered so much; at any rate its glaring faults should have been pointed out. This was done, and very ill done, in 1823, when it had hardly any sins to answer for.’ (_Selections from the Correspondence of Macvey Napier_, p. 199).

PAGE

204. ‘_We are_ [I am] _nothing, if not critical_. _Othello_, Act II.
Sc. 1. The words were used by Hazlitt as the motto to _A View of
the English Stage_.

_Terra plena, etc._ _Æneid_, I. 460.

‘_Large discourse_,’ _etc._ _Hamlet_, Act IV. Sc. 4.

205. ‘_The pomp of elder days._’ Thomas Warton’s Sonnet, ‘Written in a
blank leaf of Dugdale’s _Monasticon_.’

206. ‘_Cabin’d_,’ _etc._ _Macbeth_, Act III. Sc. 4.

207. _The Children of the Mist._ In _The Legend of Montrose_.

‘_A chemist_,’ _etc._ _Absalom and Achitophel_, I. 550.

208. _Sir Thomas Lawrence._ President of the Royal Academy from 1820
till his death in 1830.

‘_Though he should have_,’ _etc._ Adapted from _1 Corinthians_,
xiii. 1.

‘_The toe of the scholar_,’ _etc._ Varied from _Hamlet_, Act V.
Sc. 1.

209. ‘_Take the good_,’ _etc._ Dryden, _Alexander’s Feast_, 106.

210. ‘_Make the age to come her own._’ Cowley, _The Motto_, l. 2.

_Mille ornatus habet, etc._ ‘Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter
habet.’ From the first of the Sulpicia poems which are in Book
IV. of the _Elegies of Tibullus_, but the authorship of which is
not certainly known.

‘_Now this_,’ _etc._ Spenser, _Muiopotmos_, St. 22.

‘_To beguile the time_,’ _etc._ _Macbeth_, Act I. Sc. 5.

211. ‘_Squeak and gibber._’ _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 1.

_The St. James’s Chronicle._ Started in 1760 as a tri-weekly,
independent Whig evening paper. It was for a time edited by
James Mill.

212 note. Mrs. Radcliffe, the novelist, was married in 1787 to
William Radcliffe, an Oxford graduate and a student of law,
described by Sir Walter Scott (_Lives of the Novelists_) as
‘afterwards proprietor and editor of the _English Chronicle_.’

213. _The Morning Chronicle._ Founded June 28, 1769. The early notable
editors were William Woodfall (1746–1803), James Perry
(1756–1821), who was editor from 1789 to 1817, and John Black
(1783–1855). For Perry cf. vol. VI. _Table Talk_, p. 292.

_Porson._ Richard Porson (1759–1808) was Perry’s brother-in-law.

_Jekyll._ Joseph Jekyll (d. 1837) contributed many of his jokes to
_The Morning Chronicle_.

214. _The Marquis Marialva._ _Gil Blas_, Livre VII. chap x.

215. _Lord Nugent._ Presumably Robert, Earl Nugent (1702–1788), who
retired from parliamentary life in 1784. It is odd that Hazlitt
should refer to so well-known a man as a Lord Nugent.

_The Times Newspaper._ John Walter (1739–1812) in 1785 started
_The Daily Universal Register_, the name of which was changed on
Jan. 1, 1788 to _The Times or Daily Universal Register_, and on
March 18, 1788 to _The Times_.

_A steam-engine._ See vol. III. _Political Essays_, p. 158.

216. ‘_Ever strong_,’ _etc._ _King John_, Act III. Sc. 1.

‘_Whiff and wind._’ _Hamlet_, Act II. Sc. 2.

‘_Aggravate its voice_,’ _etc._ _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Act
I. Sc. 2.

217. _Mr. Walter._ John Walter the Second (1776–1847).

_A writer in his employ._ Hazlitt’s brother-in-law, Dr.
(afterwards Sir John) Stoddart, who left _The Times_ in 1817 and
started _The Day and New Times_, called from 1818 onwards _The
New Times_. Hazlitt frequently attacks him.

‘_Champion’s Legitimacy_,’ _etc._ Cf. _Macbeth_, Act III. Sc. 1.

219. _The late queen._ Queen Caroline, George IV.’s wife, who died in
1821, shortly after her trial.

_The Courier._ An evening paper bought in 1799 by Coleridge’s
friend Daniel Stuart (1766–1846), under whose management it
quickly gained a large circulation.

‘_The force of dulness_,’ _etc._ Cf. ‘The force of nature could no
farther go.’ Dryden, _Lines printed under the engraved portrait
of Milton_.

_The ingenious editor._ William Mudford (1782–1848) was editor for
some years before 1828.

220. _The Sun._ An evening paper started in 1792 by Pitt’s friend,
George Rose.

_The Traveller._ Started about 1803 by Edward Quin (d. 1823). It
was amalgamated with _The Globe_ in 1823.

_The Morning Post._ Founded in 1772.

_Cobbett._ William Cobbett (1762–1835) who started _The Weekly
Political Register_ in 1802.

_We once tried, etc._ Jeffrey attacked Cobbett in the _Edinburgh_
(July 1807, vol. X. p. 386).

_The Examiner._ Founded by John and Leigh Hunt in 1808. Hazlitt
had of course been intimately associated with the paper.

_The News._ A Sunday paper started in 1805.

_The Observer._ Another Sunday paper first made successful by
William Innell Clement (d. 1852), who afterwards bought _The
Morning Chronicle_.

221. _The Weekly Literary Journals, Gazettes._ Of which _The Literary
Gazette_, founded in 1817 and edited for a long time by William
Jerdan (1782–1869), was the chief. Others were _The Literary
Journal_ (founded by James Mill in 1803) and _The Literary
Chronicle_.

‘_Coming Reviews_,’ _etc._ Cf. ‘And coming events cast their
shadows before.’ Campbell, _Lochiel’s Warnings_, l. 56.

_The Scotsman._ Started in 1817 by Charles Maclaren (1782–1866),
who was editor from 1820 to 1845.

_The Gentleman’s Magazine._ Founded in 1731 by Johnson’s first
employer, Edward Cave (1691–1754).

_Mr. Blackwood’s._ Founded in April 1817 by William Blackwood
(1776–1834) as _The Edinburgh Monthly Magazine_. With the
seventh number (Oct. 1, 1817) the title was changed to
‘Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.’ The thousandth number appeared
in February, 1899.

_The European._ Founded by James Perry in 1782.

_The Lady’s._ _The Lady’s Magazine; or entertaining Companion for
the fair sex_, 1717–1818. A new series began in 1820.

_The London._ _The London Magazine_ was started in January 1820,
with John Scott (1723–1821) as editor, and for some years
maintained a very high level of excellence. See Talfourd’s
_Final Memorials of Charles Lamb_ (II. 1–9), and Mr. Bertram
Dobell’s _Sidelights on Charles Lamb_. Hazlitt was a regular
contributor.

_The Monthly._ _The Monthly Magazine_ founded in 1796 by Richard
(afterwards Sir Richard) Phillips (1767–1840).

_The New Monthly._ _The New Monthly Magazine_ was started by Henry
Colburn (d. 1855) in 1814, in opposition to Phillips’s magazine.
A new series, edited by Thomas Campbell, began in 1821. Many of
Hazlitt’s best-known essays were contributed to it. The working
editor was Cyrus Redding (1785–1870).

_The head of Memnon._ Hazlitt might have seen a plate of this in
_The London Magazine_ for February, 1821.

_Dr. Johnson’s dispute, etc._ See Boswell’s _Life of Johnson_ (ed.
G. B. Hill), I. 154.

222. _Elia._ Lamb wrote many of his _Elia_ essays in _The London
Magazine_, chiefly between 1820 and 1823.

_The author of Table Talk._ Hazlitt himself.

_The Confessions of an Opium-Eater._ Published in _The London
Magazine_ for September and October, 1821.

_Tales of Traditional Literature._ A series of tales by Allan
Cunningham (1784–1842), republished in 1822 as ‘Traditional
Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry.’

_Mr. Geoffrey Crayon._ Washington Irving (1783–1859), whose
_Sketch Book_, to which Hazlitt probably refers, appeared in New
York, 1819–1820.

‘_With a blush_,’ _etc._ _Troilus and Cressida_, Act I. Sc. 3.

223. _The Editor, we are afraid, etc._ Talfourd, in his _Final
Memorials of Charles Lamb_, gives a lively account of Campbell’s
fastidious editorship of the _New Monthly_.

‘_Lively_’ [waking], _etc._ _Coriolanus_, Act IV. Sc. 5.

‘_The sin_,’ _etc._ _Hebrews_, xii. 1.

225. _The Anti-Jacobin._ Cf. _ante_, p. 139 and note.

‘_The manna_,’ _etc._ Pulci’s _Morgante Maggiore_. See _ante_, p.
69.

‘_The pelting_,’ _etc._ _King Lear_, Act III. Sc. 4.

227. _A well-known paper._ _John Bull_, Oct. 27, 1822. On the previous
Tuesday (Oct. 22) young Las Cases ‘applied a horsewhip to the
shoulders’ of Sir Hudson Lowe, with a view, as he said, to
provoke a duel. Lowe obtained a warrant for the apprehension of
Las Cases, who, however, retired to France. The radical papers
made great fun of the incident. See _The Examiner_, Nov. 3,
1822.

_A man of classical taste, etc._ Hazlitt refers to Leigh Hunt and
_The Story of Rimini_. See vol. I. (_A Letter to William
Gifford_), pp. 376–378 and notes.

228. _A young poet._ On Keats and his Critics see vol. VI. (_Table
Talk_), p. 98 and note, and vol. IV. (_The Spirit of the Age_),
pp. 302–307 and notes.

_Author of the Baviad, etc._ William Gifford.

229. _Such a paper was detected, etc._ This was _John Bull_, Theodore
Hook’s weekly paper, which on August 18, 1822, accused Mr. Fyshe
Palmer, member for Reading, of having said that ‘he should have
a dinner at the Crown on the occasion, with a haunch of venison,
and turtle, and _lots of punch_.’ The detection was quoted from
_The Times_ in _John Bull_, Sep. 15, 1822.

LANDOR’S IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS

Hazlitt here reviews the first two volumes of Walter Savage Landor’s (1775–1864) _Imaginary Conversations_, published in 1824. A second edition, ‘corrected and enlarged,’ appeared in 1826, and vol. III. completing the ‘first series,’ in 1828. Vols. IV. and V. constituting the ‘second series,’ were published in 1829. For an account of Hazlitt’s visit to Landor at Florence in 1825 see Forster’s _Walter Savage Landor, a Biography_, II. 201–211, where a subsequent letter from Hazlitt to Landor is quoted, in which he says: ‘I am much gratified that you are pleased with the _Spirit of the Age_. Somebody ought to like it, for I am sure there will be plenty to cry out against it. I hope you did not find any sad blunders in the second volume; but you can hardly suppose the depression of body and mind under which I wrote some of those articles.’ This review of the _Imaginary Conversations_ seems to have been cut about a good deal by Jeffrey.

PAGE

231. ‘_Great wits_,’ _etc._ _Absalom and Achitophel_, I. 163.

233. ‘_It travels in a road_’ [strait], _etc._ _Troilus and Cressida_,