LIBER AMORIS

The facts relating to the episode in Hazlitt’s life which is the subject of this book are referred to in the General Introduction to the present edition (see vol. i.pp. xviii, xix), but it may be useful to give here a brief summary of them, and to refer shortly to the few later books which throw further light upon the matter.

Before the autumn of 1819 Hazlitt and his wife had ceased to live together, and in 1820 Hazlitt went to lodge in the house of a tailor named Walker, at No. 9 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, where, on August 16, he first saw the heroine of this book, Sarah Walker, the elder of his landlord’s two unmarried daughters. Some time in the same year (1820), or in the following year, Mrs. Hazlitt agreed, or rather, as we must assume (since she afterwards took the Oath of Calumny), decided to take proceedings for divorce under the Scottish law, for which purpose it was necessary for both parties to go to Scotland. Hazlitt accordingly started for Edinburgh early in 1822, and reached Scotland in February, after having been detained for a time at Stamford, where he began ‘a book of our conversations (I mean mine and the statue’s), which I callLiber Amoris.’ Mrs. Hazlitt did not arrive in Edinburgh till April 21, and the business of the divorce was not finally settled till July. Hazlitt spent the greater part of the time between March and July either in Edinburgh or at Renton Inn, Berwickshire, whence he addressed several of his letters to his friend, P. G. Patmore, and where he wrote some of the essays which subsequently appeared in vol. ii. ofTable Talk. In May he delivered two lectures at Glasgow, one (May 6) on Milton and Shakespeare, the other (May 13) on Thomson and Burns. From Glasgow he seems to have gone for a short trip to the Highlands with his friend Sheridan Knowles, to whom he afterwards addressed the concluding letters ofLiber Amoris. Towards the end of May he paid a hurried visit to London, returning to Scotland early in June. The book itself was published anonymously by John Hunt in 1823, the copyright being purchased from Hazlitt by C. H. Reynell for £100.

It is unnecessary to refer to the many merely critical comments on the book and its story, and it remains only to mention the works which may be regarded as additional and authoritative sources of information. P. G. Patmore devoted to the subject one chapter (vol. iii. pp. 171–188) of his lengthy recollections of Hazlitt inMy Friends and Acquaintance(3 vols., 1854), and published extracts from some of the letters he had received from Hazlitt. Further extracts from the same correspondence and extracts from the journal kept by Mrs. Hazlitt in Scotland appeared in Mr W. C. Hazlitt’sMemoirs of William Hazlitt(2 vols., 1867). All these letters (with a few trifling exceptions) and the whole of Mrs. Hazlitt’s journal were printed from the originalMSS.in Mr Le Gallienne’s edition ofLiber Amoris, published in 1894 (see Bibliographical Note,ante, p. 284). This edition contains also a transcript of the originalMS.ofLiber Amoris(Part 1.) (believed to be in the handwriting of Patmore with additions written by Hazlitt), and (besides Mr Le Gallienne’s introduction) an unsigned essay by Mr W. C. Hazlitt, entitled ‘Hazlitt from another point of view.’ B. W. Procter (Barry Cornwall), who visited Hazlitt at Southampton Buildings, referred to the subject in his Recollections of Men of Letters (seeBryan Waller Procter, An Autobiographical Fragment, 1877, pp. 180–82). Finally, inLamb and Hazlitt(1900), Mr W. C. Hazlitt published for the first time aMS.which contains Hazlitt’s comment on the experiences of Patmore (recorded in the form of a Diary), from March 4 to March 16, 1822, during which time he appears to have been (at Hazlitt’s request) a lodger at No. 9 Southampton Buildings. ThisMS.is entirely in Hazlitt’s handwriting.

‘Think of that, Master Brook.’Merry Wives of Windsor, ActIII.Scene 5.

‘Think of that, Master Brook.’

Merry Wives of Windsor, ActIII.Scene 5.

‘To lip a wanton in a secure couch,And to suppose her chaste.’Othello, ActIV.Scene 1.

‘To lip a wanton in a secure couch,And to suppose her chaste.’

‘To lip a wanton in a secure couch,

And to suppose her chaste.’

Othello, ActIV.Scene 1.

‘Quod si me lyricis vatibus inseris,Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.’Horace, Odes, I. 1. 35–36.

‘Quod si me lyricis vatibus inseris,Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.’

‘Quod si me lyricis vatibus inseris,

Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.’

Horace, Odes, I. 1. 35–36.

‘She’s gone; I am abused, and my reliefMust be to loathe her.’Othello, ActIII.Scene 3.

‘She’s gone; I am abused, and my reliefMust be to loathe her.’

‘She’s gone; I am abused, and my relief

Must be to loathe her.’

Othello, ActIII.Scene 3.

‘I do mistake my person all this while:Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,Myself to be a marvellous proper man.’Richard III, Act.I.Scene 2.

‘I do mistake my person all this while:Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,Myself to be a marvellous proper man.’

‘I do mistake my person all this while:

Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,

Myself to be a marvellous proper man.’

Richard III, Act.I.Scene 2.

‘Illam quidquid agit, quoquo vestigia movitComponit furtim subsequiturque decor.’

‘Illam quidquid agit, quoquo vestigia movit

Componit furtim subsequiturque decor.’

‘Then took his Muse at once and dipt herFull in the middle of the Scripture.’Gay, ‘Verses to be placed under the Picture of Sir Richard Blackmore, England’s Arch-Poet, etc.’

‘Then took his Muse at once and dipt herFull in the middle of the Scripture.’

‘Then took his Muse at once and dipt her

Full in the middle of the Scripture.’

Gay, ‘Verses to be placed under the Picture of Sir Richard Blackmore, England’s Arch-Poet, etc.’

Much Ado About Nothing, ActIII.Scene 5.

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