This article inThe Examinerbegins with a long editorial passage written in a chaffing spirit and praising the former notice of the French Plays.
This paper is signed ‘W. H.’
‘Than on the torture of the mind to lieIn restless ecstasy.’Macbeth, ActIII.Sc. 2.
‘Than on the torture of the mind to lieIn restless ecstasy.’Macbeth, ActIII.Sc. 2.
‘Than on the torture of the mind to lieIn restless ecstasy.’Macbeth, ActIII.Sc. 2.
‘Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy.’Macbeth, ActIII.Sc. 2.
SOME OF THE OLD ACTORS
This notice is full of favourite quotations and of sentiments which Hazlitt had expressed elsewhere. See specially the Dramatic Essays in vol.VIII.
For Hazlitt’s connection with TheTimesas dramatic critic see vol.VIII.p. 512. The fifteen articles reprinted for the first time in the present volume have been included upon internal evidence of Hazlitt’s authorship. No reasonable doubt can be felt with regard to any of them.
Cf. this paper with the account ofHamletinCharacters of Shakespear’s Plays, vol.I.p. 237.
Cf. the notice ofThe HypocriteinA View of the English Stage, vol.VIII.pp. 245–7.
MISS BRUNTON’S ROSALIND
Cf. the notices of two other Rosalinds inA View, etc., vol.VIII.pp. 252 and 336.
Hazlitt had noticed Maywood’s Shylock. SeeA View,etc.vol.VIII.p. 374. In 1821 Maywood wrote to Hazlitt from New York introducing a Mr. Greenhow, who was entrusted to present to Hazlitt a morsel of George Cooke’s liver. See Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’sMemoirs,etc.,II.1–2.
Cf. the essay on RichardIII.inCharacters of Shakespear’s Plays(vol.I.pp. 298–303), where Hazlitt speaks of the ‘miserable medley acted for RichardIII.’ and gives some of the omitted passages as being ‘peculiarly adapted for stage effect.’ Shakespeare’sRichard III.was revived at Covent Garden on March 12, 1821, Macready playing Richard and Mrs. Bunn Queen Margaret.
Cf.A View,etc., vol.VIII.p. 332.
Cf. the account of Kemble’s Pierre, vol.VIII.p. 378.
KEAN’S MACBETH
Cf. this with Hazlitt’s appreciation of Miss O’Neill inThe London Magazine, vol.VIII.of the present edition, pp. 392et seq.
Hazlitt was a very frequent contributor to John Hunt’s ‘Weekly Miscellany,’The Yellow Dwarf, which ran from Jan. 1 to May 23, 1818. Most of his contributions were included inPolitical Essays. See vol.III.pp. 254et seq.Of those included in the present volume ‘The Opera’ was reprinted with some omissions and variations inLiterary Remains, the rest are now republished for the first time, on the strength of what the editors regard as the conclusive internal evidence of Hazlitt’s authorship. All the essays are reprintedverbatimfrom the Magazine.
This course of Lectures began on Jan. 27, and ended on March 13, 1818. Hazlitt was lecturing on Poetry at the same time. For Coleridge’s prospectus seeLectures on Shakespeare(ed. Ashe), 170.
‘I do understand a fury in your words,But not the words.’Othello, ActIV.Sc. 2.
‘I do understand a fury in your words,But not the words.’Othello, ActIV.Sc. 2.
‘I do understand a fury in your words,But not the words.’Othello, ActIV.Sc. 2.
‘I do understand a fury in your words,
But not the words.’Othello, ActIV.Sc. 2.
Hazlitt was for a time a fairly frequent contributor toThe Edinburgh Magazine(New Series), otherwise known asThe New Scots Magazine. Two of his contributions, ‘Remarks on Mr. West’s Picture of Death on the Pale Horse,’ and ‘On the Ignorance of the Learned,’ have been published in vols.IX.andVI.respectively. The essays ‘On Fashion,’ ‘On Nicknames’ and ‘Thoughts on Taste’ in the present volume were first reprinted with omissions and variations inSketches and Essays(1839); those ‘On the Question whether Pope was a Poet,’ (signed W. H.), and ‘On Respectable People,’ are now reprinted for the first time.