NOTES

This essay formed No. 3 of the Round Table series, the first two having been contributed by Leigh Hunt. To numbers 2, 3, 4 the following motto was prefixed: ‘Sociali fœdere mensa.Milton.A Table in a social compact joined.’

‘What then remains, but that we still should cryFor being born, or being born, to die?’

‘What then remains, but that we still should cry

For being born, or being born, to die?’

ON CLASSICAL EDUCATION

This essay formed the greater part of No. 7 of the Round Table series. The first three paragraphs are from one of Hazlitt’s ‘Common Places’ inThe Morning Chronicle, September 25, 1813.

“He for God only, she for God in him.”[89]

This essay formed No. 10 of the Round Table series. The substance of it was repeated by Hazlitt in his volume ofLectures on the English Comic Writers(1819). (See the Lecture on ‘The Periodical Essayists.’)

This essay did not form one of the Round Table series, but was published inThe Examinerfor August 20, 1815, under the heading ‘Theatrical Examiner.’ It was substantially repeated in theLectures on the English Comic Writers(LectureVIII., ‘on the Comic Writers of the Last Century’), and was republishedverbatimin the posthumous volume entitledCriticisms and Dramatic Essays on the English Stage(1851). The essay is practically a reprint of the first of two letters which Hazlitt wrote toThe Morning Chronicle(September 25 and October 15, 1813). The second of these letters has not been republished.

Republished with a few variations fromThe Examinerof July 24, 1814. Hazlitt afterwards published the original article inA View of the English Stage(1818), and borrowed from it inCharacters of Shakespear’s Plays(Seeante, pp. 206–7).

ON THE LOVE OF THE COUNTRY

This essay was one of a series called Common-places (No.III.) and appeared inThe Examineron November 27, 1814, before the Round Table series commenced. It was not, therefore, addressed, as it purports to be, ‘to the editor of the “Round Table.”’ The greater part of it was repeated in theLectures on the English Poets(1818) at the end of LectureV.on Thomson and Cowper.

‘If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,Extend his evening beam,’ etc.Paradise Lost,II.492.

‘If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,Extend his evening beam,’ etc.

‘If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,

Extend his evening beam,’ etc.

Paradise Lost,II.492.

This essay is not one of the Round Table series. It appeared inThe Examineron May 22, 1814.

‘Through what variety of untried being,Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!’Addison’sCato, ActV.Scene 1.

‘Through what variety of untried being,Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!’

‘Through what variety of untried being,

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!’

Addison’sCato, ActV.Scene 1.

This essay (fromThe Examiner, June 5, 1814) and the next one (June 19, 1814) continuing the same subject, were (in substance) republished in theEnglish Comic Writers(see the LectureVII.on the works of Hogarth) and also inSketches of the Principal Picture-Galleries in England,etc.(1824).

No. 15 of the Round Table series.

No. 16 of the Round Table series. Hazlitt drew largely on this essay for his lecture on Shakspeare and Milton. SeeLectures on the English Poets.

This essay is compounded of two papers in the Round Table series, Nos. 17 and18.| Hazlitt, however, omitted the greater part of No. 18, at the beginning of which he discussed Dryden’s version ofThe Flower and the Leaf. No. 18 was published inWinterslow(1839) under the title ofMatter and Manner.

‘Now that all hearts are glad, all faces bright’

“To church was mine husband borne on the morrowWith neighbours that for him maden sorrow,And Jenkin our clerk was one of tho:As help me God, when that I saw him goAfter the bier, methought he had a pairOf legs and feet, so clean and fair,That all my heart I gave unto his hold.”

“To church was mine husband borne on the morrow

With neighbours that for him maden sorrow,

And Jenkin our clerk was one of tho:

As help me God, when that I saw him go

After the bier, methought he had a pair

Of legs and feet, so clean and fair,

That all my heart I gave unto his hold.”

ON THE TENDENCY OF SECTS

No. 19 of the Round Table series.

No. 20 of the Round Table series.

The Life of John Buncle, Esq., by Thomas (not John) Amory (1691?-1788), was published in two volumes, 1756–1766. A new edition in three volumes was published in 1825, very likely on Hazlitt’s recommendation. SeeMemoirs of William Hazlitt, ii. 198. A quotation from the present essay faces the title-page of the new edition (vol. i.). A volume containing the most readable parts of the book, and happily entitled ‘The Spirit of Buncle,’ was published in 1823. The book was a great favourite of Lamb’s as well as of Hazlitt’s.

‘Who breathes, must suffer; and who thinks, must mourn.’Prior,Solomon on the Vanity of the World,III.240.

‘Who breathes, must suffer; and who thinks, must mourn.’

Prior,Solomon on the Vanity of the World,III.240.

‘I will play on the tabor to the worthies, and let them dance the hay.’Love’s Labour’s Lost, ActV.Scene 1.

‘I will play on the tabor to the worthies, and let them dance the hay.’

Love’s Labour’s Lost, ActV.Scene 1.

No. 22 of the Round Table series. Leigh Hunt discussed this article in No. 24 of the series, republished in the 1817 edition of theRound Table, and entitled ‘On the Poetical Character.’ On the subject of Methodism Hunt had already spoken his mind in a series of articles inThe Examiner, which he republished in 1809 under the title ofAn Attempt to shew the folly and danger of Methodism.

No. 26 of the Round Table series. The essay was in substance republished inCharacters of Shakespear’s Plays. Seeante, pp. 244–248, and the notes thereon.

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