Note 14 — INTRODUCTION

Both the Characters and the English Poets were reviewed by Gifford in the Quarterly. The style of these ‘reviews’ is abject; the inspiration venal; the matter the very dirt of the mind. Gifford hated Hazlitt for his politics, and set out to wither Hazlitt’s repute as a man of letters. For the tremendous reprisal with which he was visited, the reader is referred to the Letter to William Gifford, Esq., in the first volume of the present Edition. If he find it over-savage: probably, being of to-day, he will: let him turn to his Quarterly, and consider, if he have the stomach, Gifford and the matter of offence.