NOTES
LECTURES ON THE ENGLISH COMIC WRITERS
These Lectures were delivered at the Surrey Institution, in Blackfriars Road, in 1818, after the completion of the course on the English Poets (see vol.V.). Some particulars as to their delivery will be found in Talfourd’s edition of Lamb’sLetters(see Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s reprint, Bohn, i. 38et seq.), and in Patmore’sMy Friends and Acquaintance. See also Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’sFour Generations of a Literary Family(vol.I.pp. 121-2), where the opinions of Beckford and Thackeray are referred to. In the third edition of the Lectures (see Bibliographical Note) several passages ‘collected by the author, apparently with a view to a reprint of the volume,’ were interpolated. Two of these passages are taken from a long letter (published in full in the Appendix to these notes) which Hazlitt contributed toThe Morning Chronicle, Oct. 15, 1813. The rest are taken from prefatory notices which he contributed to William Oxberry’sThe New English Drama(20 vols. 1818-1825), and are printed in the following notes.
The Relapse, ActIII.Sc. 1.
LECTURE III. ON COWLEY, BUTLER, SUCKLING, ETHEREGE, ETC.
‘Tom Carew was next, but he had a faultThat would not stand well with a laureat;His Muse was hard bound, and th’ issue of’s brainWas seldom brought forth but with trouble and pain.’
‘Tom Carew was next, but he had a faultThat would not stand well with a laureat;His Muse was hard bound, and th’ issue of’s brainWas seldom brought forth but with trouble and pain.’
‘Tom Carew was next, but he had a faultThat would not stand well with a laureat;His Muse was hard bound, and th’ issue of’s brainWas seldom brought forth but with trouble and pain.’
‘Tom Carew was next, but he had a fault
That would not stand well with a laureat;
His Muse was hard bound, and th’ issue of’s brain
Was seldom brought forth but with trouble and pain.’
‘Thou divine nature, how thyself thou blazon’stIn these two princely boys!’Cymbeline, ActIV.Sc. 2.
‘Thou divine nature, how thyself thou blazon’stIn these two princely boys!’Cymbeline, ActIV.Sc. 2.
‘Thou divine nature, how thyself thou blazon’stIn these two princely boys!’
‘Thou divine nature, how thyself thou blazon’st
In these two princely boys!’
Cymbeline, ActIV.Sc. 2.
Cymbeline, ActIV.Sc. 2.
‘What made (say Montaigne, or more sage Charron!)Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon.’Pope,Moral Essays,I.87-8.
‘What made (say Montaigne, or more sage Charron!)Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon.’Pope,Moral Essays,I.87-8.
‘What made (say Montaigne, or more sage Charron!)Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon.’
‘What made (say Montaigne, or more sage Charron!)
Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon.’
Pope,Moral Essays,I.87-8.
Pope,Moral Essays,I.87-8.
The whole of this Lecture down to the end of the paragraph on p. 125 is taken with but few variations from an article inThe Edinburgh Reviewfor Feb. 1815, on ‘Standard Novels and Romances,’ ostensibly a review of Madame D’Arblay’sThe Wanderer.