NOTES (continued 2)

‘Like a rebel’s whore.’ Macbeth, Act I. Scene 2.

Brangle, etc. Cf. ‘And Noise and Norton, Brangling and Breval, Dennis and Dissonance, and captious Art.’ Pope, The Dunciad, II. 238–9.

‘The pillar’d firmament,’ etc. Comus, ll. 598–9.

315.

‘The sad historian,’ etc. ‘The sad historian of the pensive plain.’ Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, l. 136.

‘As precious,’ etc. Julius Caesar, Act II. Scene 1.

‘Return,’ etc. Letter IV.

E******. E—gl—d in the original.

317. Indignatio facit versus. See ante, note to p. 257.

318.

‘Yes—’twas a cause,’ etc. Letter XI.

319.

‘By the bye though,’ etc. Letter I.

‘Good Viscount S—dm—th,’ etc. Letter IX.

321.

‘They do not cut up,’ etc. Burke, Letter to a Noble Lord (Works, Bohn, V. 145).

Character of Lord Chatham. First published as one of the critical notices in The Eloquence of the British Senate.

‘A flame of sacred vehemence.’ Comus, l. 795.

323.

‘Flew an eagle flight,’ etc. Timon of Athens, Act I. Scene 1.

‘Sailing with,’ etc. Gray, The Progress of Poesy, ll. 116–7.

‘Both end and use.’ Cf. ‘His actions’, passions’, being’s use and end.’ Pope, Essay on Man, I. 66.

‘Laps it,’ etc. Comus, l. 257.

325. Character of Mr. Burke. First published in The Eloquence of the British Senate.

The following speech. On presenting to the House of Commons (on the 11th February 1780) a plan for the better security of the independence of Parliament, and the economical reformation of the civil and other establishments (Works, Bohn, II. 55).

326.

‘The elephant,’ etc. Paradise Lost, IV. 345–7.

‘Native and endued,’ etc. Hamlet, Act IV. Scene 7.

328. Note. In The Eloquence of the British Senate this note proceeded: ‘and he produced less effect on the mob that compose the English Public than Paine or Joel Barlow, at least at the time.’ Joel Barlow (1755–1812), the American poet, was, like Paine, an active sympathiser with the French Revolution.

329.

‘Alas! Leviathan was not so tamed.’ Cowper, The Task, II. 322.

The corner stone, etc. Psalms, cxviii. 22.

To the Jews, etc. 1 Corinthians i. 23.

333.

‘How charming,’ etc. Comus, l. 476.

336.

Dr. Johnson observed. See his Life of Pope (Works, Oxford, 1825), VIII. 329.

Note. ‘Proud keep of Windsor.’ A letter to a Noble Lord (Works, Bohn, V. 137).

337.

A person. Hazlitt’s early friend, Joseph Fawcett, perhaps. See Table Talk, On Criticism.

Character of Mr. Fox. From The Eloquence of the British Senate, where the ‘Character’ begins: ‘I have hitherto deferred giving any opinion on the talents of eminent speakers, till I could present the reader with something 461that might justify the encomiums passed upon them; as the following is one of the most memorable of Mr. Fox’s speeches, I shall prefix to it a sort of character, the best I can give, of this celebrated man.’ The speech referred to was on the War with France, delivered in 1794.

Note. ‘Craftily qualified.’ Othello, Act II. Scene 3.

339.

‘Whose sound,’ etc. King Lear, Act I. Scene 1.

That is an automaton. In The Eloquence of the British Senate Hazlitt has the following note to this passage: ‘I ought to beg pardon of the polite reader for thus rudely contrasting these two celebrated men and leaders of parties together. It has of late become more fashionable to consider them in the light of the United Friends. But as I am no sign-painter, I hope I may be excused for not adhering exactly to the costume of the times. This agreeable idea might however, if skilfully executed, be improved into a very appropriate sign for the tap-room of the house of commons. My Lord Howick the other day drew a pleasing picture of them shaking hands in Elysium. It must be owned that this is pretty and poetical. Happy, well assorted pair! Methinks I see you, bowing to one another, with repeated assurances of friendship and esteem, but half believed, just like—lord Grenville and lord Howick in the park! This was probably what his lordship had in his mind at the time: but as our young orators generally love to shew that they have read the classics, so perhaps his lordship was willing to shew that he had not forgot them. It is pleasing to see great men sweetening the cares of state with the flowers of poetical allusion; condescending to turn with a benign countenance from the serious realities of life, to the lighter scenes of fable and romance; still wandering, (as in their boyish days) with Dido and Æneas, and taking an imaginary trip from Downing Street to the Elysian Fields, and from the Elysian Fields back again! After all, I do not know that it would be any disgrace to Mr. Fox to associate with Mr. Pitt in the other world, if we recollect the company he kept in this. Lord H—— I believe, on the same occasion, quoted Dryden, and compared the late duke of Brunswick to Darius. Really, his lordship’s researches in poetry are astonishing; they are almost as extensive and profound as his knowledge of the affairs of Europe, or of the fate of battles! There is some excuse, however, for this last mentioned quotation, as though the passage quoted was by no means new in itself, yet the particular application of it must certainly have been very new to his lordship’s mind, and one which the public might not have been disposed to give him credit for without some positive evidence. To complete the solemnity of the scene, nothing more was wanting but for the whole house to have joined chorus in this affecting and well known specimen of elegiac sadness, particularly as it had been already set to music, one would suppose for this very purpose.’

Note 1. Hazlitt refers to an article on Fox by William Godwin published in The Morning Chronicle, Nov. 22, 1806.

Note 2. John Upton published an edition of The Faerie Queen in 1758.

340.

Lord Lansdown. Lord Shelburne, created Marquis of Lansdowne in 1784.

342.

‘Jutting frieze,’ etc. Macbeth, Act I. Scene 6.

344.

‘With mighty wings,’ etc. Paradise Lost, I. 20–2.

345.

‘The dazzling fence of argument.’ Cf. ‘Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence.’ Comus, ll. 790–1. 462

345.

‘An honest man’s the noblest work of God.’ Pope’s Essay on Man, IV. 248.

346.

What Burke said of him. In a speech on the Army Estimates (Feb. 9, 1790), in which he replied to Fox’s eulogy of the French Revolution. See Works, Bohn, III. 273–4.

Character of Mr. Pitt, 1806. See ante, pp. 14 et seq. and notes.

349. Note. The passage referred to is from Pitt’s Speech on the Regency, delivered on January 16, 1789.

350. Pitt and Buonaparte. This essay by Coleridge is reprinted in Essays on His Own Times, vol. II. pp. 319–329. The editor (Coleridge’s daughter Sara, the wife of Henry Nelson Coleridge), referring to the essay, says (I. lxxxv. note), ‘“The character of Pitt” is given to my Father on the repeated testimony of Mr. Stuart, which indeed was scarcely needed to confirm the strong internal evidence of both style and matter.’ See J. D. Campbell’s Samuel Taylor Coleridge, p. 108.

356. An Examination of Mr. Malthus’s Doctrines. From No. 14 (April 4, 1818) of The Yellow Dwarf. In these concluding papers Hazlitt repeats the substance of the more elaborate criticism which he had already published in 1807, under the title of A Reply to Malthus. See that work and Hazlitt’s sketch of Malthus in The Spirit of the Age (vol. IV. of the present edition).

359.

Major Torrens. Robert Torrens (1780–1864), who, after serving in the Royal Marines, retired on half-pay, and devoted himself to economical study.

361.

This will never do. Perhaps this is a reference to the famous opening words of the Edinburgh Review article on Wordsworth’s Excursion (xxiv. p. 1). The Edinburgh had defended Malthus.

On the Originality of Mr. Malthus’s Essay. This essay does not seem to have been published in The Yellow Dwarf.

367. On the Principle of Population, etc. From Hazlitt’s Reply to Malthus, Letter III. See vol. IV. of the present edition.

371.

‘What conjuration,’ etc. Othello, Act I. Scene 3.

373.

‘These three bear record,’ etc. Cf. 1 John v. 7.

‘’Tis as easy as lying,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2.

374.

‘To this end,’ etc. Malthus’s Essay, etc. (2nd Ed. 1803), pp. 538–540.

375.

Well answered by Mr. Cobbett. Cobbett addressed a letter ‘To Parson Malthus’ (Political Register, May 1819) beginning abruptly ‘Parson.’ ‘No assemblage of words,’ he says, ‘can give an appropriate designation of you; and therefore, as being the single word which best suits the character of such a man, I call you Parson,’ etc.

376.

In a separate work. See his Reply to Malthus in vol. IV. of the present edition.

381. Queries relating to the Essay on Population. No. 23 of The Round Table series in The Examiner (Oct. 29, 1815), which is in the form of a letter addressed to the President of the Round Table, and begins as follows:—‘Sir,—You some time ago inserted in your Paper [Round Table, No. 26, Feb. 15, 1815] a letter from A Mechanic, who seemed strangely puzzled by a learned friend of his, who thwarts him in all his notions, political, moral, domestic and economical, by interrogatories put to him out of Mr. Malthus’s Essay on Population. I do not know whether your Correspondent has got rid of his troublesome acquaintance; but if he has not, I think he will be able to do it by putting to him the following questions as to the merits of Mr. Malthus and his work, which I met with in the course of my reading this morning, and which it appears to me to be incumbent on the admirers of that gentleman to answer, Aye or No.’

383.

‘Sicklied over,’ etc. Hamlet, Act II. Scene 1. 463

385.

‘Neither married,’ etc. St. Matthew xxii. 30.

‘Beware therefore,’ etc. Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Somnour’s Tale, ll. 2074 et seq.

ADVERTISEMENT, ETC., FROM ‘THE ELOQUENCE OF THE BRITISH SENATE’

All the biographical and critical notes, introductory to the selected Speeches, are here reproduced, except (1) a few which consist merely of dates, and (2) the ‘characters’ of Chatham, Burke, Fox and Pitt. These were republished by Hazlitt in Political Essays, and will be found in the present reprint of that work (see ante, pp. 321–350). Where there are two notes on the same speaker, they have been printed together under the same heading. In cases where Hazlitt specially mentions a particular speech, a reference to that speech is given below. Hazlitt himself, in the Table of Contents, described the following as the ‘principal biographical notices,’ viz., in vol. I., Cromwell, Whitlocke, Lord Belhaven, Mr. Pulteney, Lord Chesterfield, Sir John St. Aubin, and Sir Robert Walpole; and, in vol. II., Lord Chatham, Lord Mansfield, Lord Camden, Mr. Burke, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Pitt.

389.

‘Who strut and fret,’ etc. Macbeth, Act V. Scene 5.

390.

‘Wherein I saw them,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Scene 4.

‘Set the imprisoned wranglers free again.’ Cowper, The Task, Book IV. 34.

391.

‘The things themselves,’ etc., ‘The things we know are neither rich nor rare.’ Pope, Prologue to the Satires, 171.

393.

Sir Edward Coke. The speech selected by Hazlitt was delivered on a Motion for Supply, Aug. 5, 1625 (Parl. Hist. II. 11.). On a phrase of Coke’s ‘to petition the King rather for a logique than a rhetorique hand,’ Hazlitt has the following note: ‘This mode of expression seems natural enough to any one who was familiar with Cicero’s description of the difference between logic and rhetoric, and who knew that most of his hearers either were, or would be thought, equally learned. It was a convenient short-hand language to those who were hardly ever accustomed to think or speak but in classical allusions, and which no one could affect to misunderstand without first exposing his own ignorance:—it was a sort of word to the wise. So that its being abrupt and far-fetched would be a recommendation of it, and would even give it an air of simplicity with men of deep learning, as being more in the way of their habitual and favourite train of ideas. But this stile, which may be called the abstruse or pedantic, is soon exploded when knowledge becomes more generally diffused, and the pretension to it universal: when there are few persons who profess to be very learned, and none are contented to be thought entirely ignorant; when every one who can read is a critic; when the reputation of taste and good sense is not confined to an acquaintance with the Greek and Latin authors, and it is not thought necessary to a man’s understanding an eloquent discourse, or even to his making one, that he should ever have read a definition either of logic or rhetoric.’

393.

Mr. Burke’s famous Bill. For the better security of the independence of Parliament and the economical reformation of the civil and other establishments. Hazlitt included in his selections Burke’s great speech (Feb. 11, 1780) introducing the Bill. 464

393.

Sir Robert Cotton. The speech was delivered on Aug. 6, 1825 (Parl. Hist., II. 14).

394.

Dr. John Williams. Speech on opening Parliament, Feb. 26, 1626 (Parl. Hist., II. 39).

Sir Heneage Finch. Speech on Feb. 6, 1626 (Parl. Hist., II. 41).

Sir Dudley Carleton. Speech on May 12, 1626 (Parl. Hist., II. 120).

395.

Mr. Creskeld. Speech on the Detention of some Members of the House, March 25, 1627 (Parl. Hist., II. 240).

Sir Francis Rouse. Speech on June 3, 1628 (Parl. Hist., II. 377).

Sir John Elliott. Speech on Public Affairs, June 3, 1628 (Parl. Hist., II. 380).

A certain political writer. Cobbett presumably.

Sir Benjamin Rudyard. Speech on the State of Religion, June 3, 1628 (Parl. Hist., II. 385).

Edmund Waller. The speech referred to in the first paragraph was a speech on the Supply, April 22, 1640 (Parl. Hist., II. 555); that referred to in the second paragraph a speech praying for a mitigation of the sentence passed upon him by Parliament, July 4, 1643 (Parl. Hist., III. 140).

397.

Dr. Joseph Hall. The speech which shews that ‘passion makes men eloquent’ was a speech in defence of the Church and Clergy, 1641 (Parl. Hist., II. 987).

Bulstrode Whitlocke. The speech referred to in the second paragraph was a speech on changing the old Law style, Feb. 1641 (Parl. Hist., II. 1078).

398.

William Lenthall. Speech on Nov. 13, 1646 (Parl. Hist., III. 530).

Oliver Cromwell. Hazlitt gave the brief speech in the House of Commons on Dec. 9, 1644, another small fragment, and Cromwell’s speech dissolving the second Protectorate Parliament (Feb. 4, 1658).

John Thurloe. Speech in vindication of the Bill to tax Royalists (1656).

399.

Richard Cromwell. Speech on the Meeting of Parliament (1658).

Charles II. Speech on the second Meeting of Parliament, May 8, 1661 (Parl. Hist., IV. 178).

Lord Bristol. Speech on the Test Act, March 15, 1672 (Parl. Hist., IV. 564).

400.

Earl of Caernarvon. Speech on the impeachment of Lord Danby, Dec. 23, 1678 (Parl. Hist., IV. 1074).

Henry Booth. Speech on putting certain Justices out of commission (1681).

401.

John, Lord Somers. Hazlitt gives the speeches of Somers, Lord Nottingham, Sir George Treby and Sir Robert Howard on the Abdication of James II. (1688).

‘In contempt of the people.’ See ante, note to p. 175.

402.

Sir John Knight. Speech against the proposal for naturalising foreign protestants, March 1694 (Parl. Hist., V. 851). Knight concluded his speech with the motion ‘that the serjeant be commanded to open the doors, and let us first kick this Bill out of the house, and then foreigners out of the kingdom.’ Knight was member for Bristol 1692–1695, plotted for the restoration of James and died in obscurity in 1718.

403.

‘Metaphysical aid.’ Macbeth, Act I. Scene 5.

‘Non bene,’ etc. Ovid, Metamorphoses, II. 846.

‘Reason panders will.’ Hamlet, Act III. Scene 4.

‘The downright violence,’ etc. ‘My downright violence and storm of fortunes.’ Othello, Act I. Scene 3.

Lord Belhaven. Speech in the Scottish Convention, against the Union, printed in Appendix to Vol. VI. of Parl. Hist., p. cxlii. 465

404.

‘The melancholy madness,’ etc. Junius, Letter VII.

405.

George I. Speech on his accession.

Sir Thomas Hanmer. The first speech referred to was the Speaker’s address to the Throne (1715), the second a speech on the Reduction of the Army (1717).

‘Threads’ etc. Cowper, The Task, III. 147.

Sir Richard Steele. Speech on annual parliaments (1716).

406.

The following speech. Speech on the Triennial Bill, March 13, 1734 (Parl. Hist., IX. 471). Walpole having referred to some inconveniences of the democratical form of government, Hazlitt makes the following remarks in a note:—

‘Sir Robert here, by entirely leaving out the consideration of the other parts of our constitution which are intended to operate as checks and correctives of the democratic part, very ingeniously models the house of commons according to his own wishes, and at the same time in such a manner as to answer the purposes of all the other parts, and in fact to render them unnecessary. It has always been pretended that the house of commons was but one branch of the legislative—the representative of the people; and that an antidote to any evils that might arise from this part of the system was wisely provided in the other branches, which were to represent property and power; but care has been taken to make sure of the remedy in the first instance, namely by inoculating the patient before the disease was caught, and making the house of commons itself never anything more than the representative of property and power.’

‘The popular harangue,’ etc. Cowper, The Task, IV. 31–32.

408.

A niche in one of his satires. Moral Essays, I. 174–209.

409.

Earl of Strafford. Speech on the Mutiny Bill, Feb. 22, 1732 (Parl. Hist., VIII. 1008). Thomas Wentworth, third Earl of Strafford, ambassador extraordinary at the Hague during the critical years 1711–1714 (see Swift’s History of the last four years of Queen Anne) was a great-nephew of ‘the great lord Strafford.’

‘The worse appear,’ etc. Paradise Lost, II. 113–114.

410. To Heathcote’s speech, which was on the Establishment of Excise Officers, Hazlitt has the following note: ‘The introduction of the excise laws excited an immense ferment through the kingdom about this time. It was called by Pulteney, ‘that monster, the Excise.’ And Walpole had more difficulty in weathering the storm of opposition that rose on this occasion, than on any other. How tame are we grown! How familiar with that slavery and ruin, threatened us by so many succeeding prophets and politicians! We play with the bugbears, and handle them, and do not find that they hurt us. We look back and smile at the disproportionate resistance of our inexperienced forefathers to petty vexations and imaginary grievances, and are like the old horse in the fable, who wondered at the folly of the young horse, who refused even to be saddled, while he crouched patiently under the heaviest burthens.’

411.

Mr. Campbell. Speech against a bill to prevent officers of Government from sitting in Parliament, commonly called the Place Bill, Feb. 26, 1734 (Parl. Hist., IX. 367).

‘’Twas mine,’ etc. Othello, Act III. Scene 3.

Samuel Sandys. Speech in reply to Campbell. Sandys’s ‘principles’ consisted of hostility to Walpole, after whose fall he became Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Sandys. In 1742 he opposed the introduction of his own Place Bill. 466

412.

See his speech on the theatres. Hazlitt included Chesterfield’s speech on the Play-house Bill (1737—Parl. Hist., X. 319) among his selections.

413.

Sir John St. Aubin. Speech on the Triennial Bill, March 13, 1734 (Parl. Hist., IX. 400).

Sir Watkin William Wynne. Speech on the same.

414.

The following Speech on abolishing, etc. April, 1747.

415.

Honourable Edward Coke. Speech on the Address, Dec. 1, 1743 (Parl. Hist., XIII. 135).

Sir Dudley Rider. Speech on the Attainder Bill, May 3, 1744 (Parl. Hist., XIII. 859).

416.

Mr. Grenville. Speech on the Stamp Act, January 1766 (Parl. Hist., XVI. 101).

418.

‘As dry,’ etc. As You Like It, Act II. Scene 7.

419.

Junius says. Letter LIX. Isaac Barré (1726–1802), son of a French refugee, served under Wolfe at Quebec and sat in Parliament under Lord Shelburne’s patronage from 1761 to 1790. He is one of the many to whom the authorship of Junius has been attributed. He was author of the phrase ‘sons of liberty’ applied to the American colonists.

Garrit aniles. Horace, Satires, II. 6. 77–8.

Courteney. Hazlitt seems to refer to Boswell’s friend, John Courtenay (1741–1816), member for Tamworth (1780–1796), who is described by Wraxall (Posthumous Memoirs, V. 4) as ‘eccentric, fearless, sarcastic, highly informed, always present to himself, dealing his blows on every side regardless on whom they fell.’

420.

The Barrés, etc. In the Dictionary of National Biography, the latest of the ‘motley lists of fame,’ Hazlitt would have found not only the Dyches, the Fennings, the Lillys, and the Laxtons, but also ‘characters on whom a dazzling splendour has been shed.’

The following masterly character. Burke, Letter to a Noble Lord (Works, Bohn, V. 117).

The following speech. On the Bill for doubling the Militia, June 22, 1779 (Parl. Hist., XX. 947).

Hazlitt has the two following notes on Burke’s speech on American Taxation (April 19, 1774—Works, Bohn, I. 383 et seq.):—

‘The following arguments towards the conclusion of this speech are so sensible, so moderate, so wise and beautiful, that I cannot resist the temptation of copying them out, though I did not at first intend it. Burke’s speeches are to me, in this my parliamentary progress, what the Duke’s castle was to Sancho: I could be content to stay there longer than I am able. I have no inclination to leave the stately palaces, the verdant lawns, the sumptuous entertainments, the grave discourse, and pleasing sounds of music, to sally forth in search of bad roads, meagre fare, and barren adventures. Charles Fox is indeed to come; but he is but the Knight of the Green Surtout. Pitt is the brazen head, that delivers mysterious answers; and Sheridan, Master Peter with his puppet-show. Mais allons.’

‘Thus was this great man, merely for disclaiming metaphysical distinctions and shewing their inapplicability to practical questions, considered as an unintelligible reasoner; as if you were chargeable with the very folly of which you convict others. Burke understood metaphysics, and knew their true boundaries: when he saw others venturing blindly upon this treacherous ground, and called out to them to stop, shewing them where they were, they said, this man is a metaphysician. General unqualified assertions, universal axioms, and abstract rules serve to embody our prejudices; they 467are the watch-words of party, the strong-holds of the passions. It is therefore dangerous to meddle with them. Solid reason means nothing more than being carried away by our passions, and solid sense is that which requires no reflection to understand it.’

421.

The following boyish rhapsody. For an account of this matter see Trevelyan’s Early History of Charles James Fox, pp. 414 et seq.

In the Louvre. In 1802. See Memoirs of William Hazlitt, I. 91.

422.

Sir W. Meredith. Speech on the Lord Mayor and Oliver being committed to the Tower.

Junius praises. Letter LIX.

Servetur ad imum, etc. Horace, Ars Poetica, 126–7.

Hon. Temple Luttrell. Speech on Mr. Buller’s Motion that 2000 additional seamen be employed for the year 1775, to enforce the measures of Government in America, Feb. 13, 1775 (Parl. Hist., XVIII. 308).

Mr. Wilkes. Speech on the Motion for expunging the Resolution respecting his Expulsion, Feb. 22, 1775 (Parl. Hist., XVIII. 358).

423.

Mr. Dunning. Speech on the Bill for punishing Persons suspected of being Pirates, Feb. 7, 1777 (Parl. Hist., XIX. 24).

‘Good set terms.’ As You Like It, Act II. Scene 7.

William Pitt. It is strange that Hazlitt mentions only Pitt’s office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, and not the fact that he was Prime Minister from 1783 to 1801, and from 1804 till his death in 1806.

424.

‘The wine of life,’ etc. Macbeth, Act II. Scene 3.

The following speech. Sheridan’s speech in reply to Lord Mornington on the war with France, Jan. 21, 1794.

Mr. Grattan. Speech on moving an Address to the Throne, containing a Declaration of Rights, April 16, 1782.

425.

‘Where each alley,’ etc. Pope, Moral Essays, IV. 117–8.

Non omnia possumus omnes. Virgil, Eclogues, VIII. 63.

Mr. Horne Tooke. Speech on the eligibility of clergymen to sit in Parliament (1801).

Printed by T. and A. Constable, (late) Printers to Her Majesty at the Edinburgh University Press