NOTES CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EDINBURGH REVIEW (continued 2)

History of Apparitions. An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions, 1727.

‘Call spirits,’ etc. Henry IV., Part I., Act III. Sc. 1.

History of the Plague. Journal of the Plague Year, 1722.

MR. GODWIN

This was ostensibly a review of Cloudesley, published in 1830. Some years previously Sir James Mackintosh had suggested that Hazlitt should be asked to review Godwin’s novels. Towards the end of 1823 he wrote to Godwin: ‘I see your novels advertised to-day. Could you ask Mr. Hazlitt to review them in the Edinburgh Review. He is a very original thinker, and notwithstanding some singularities which appear to me faults, a very powerful writer. I say this, though I know he is no panegyrist of mine. His critique might serve all our purposes, and would, I doubt not, promote the interests of literature also.’ (C. Kegan Paul, William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries, II. 289.) The Edinburgh had reviewed Godwin’s Fleetwood (vol. VI. p. 182), and had praised Caleb Williams very highly in a review of the Lives of Edward and John Philips (XXV. p. 485). Cf. Hazlitt’s sketch of Godwin in The Spirit of the Age, vol. IV. pp. 200 et seq., and notes.

PAGE

385.

Dramatised. Caleb Williams was dramatised by George Colman the younger as The Iron Chest. See vol. VIII. (A View of the English Stage), p. 342.

386.

‘Seemed like another morn,’ etc. Paradise Lost, V. 310–311.

‘Even in his ashes,’ etc. Cf. Gray, Elegy written in a Country Church-Yard, 92.

387.

Otium cum dignitate. Cicero, Pro Sestio, XLV. 98.

‘Retired leisure,’ etc. Il Penseroso, 49–50. 434

387.

Horas non numero, etc. The motto of a sun-dial near Venice. See Hazlitt’s essay ‘On a Sun-Dial.’

‘The iron rod,’ etc. Vaguely quoted from Paradise Lost, II. 90–92.

‘Stretched upon the rack,’ etc. Cf. Macbeth, Act III. Sc. 2.

‘And like a gallant horse,’ etc. Troilus and Cressida, Act III. Sc. 3.

There is only one living writer. Scott, no doubt.

388.

‘O let not virtue,’ etc. Loosely quoted from Troilus and Cressida, Act III. Sc. 3.

‘To elevate and surprise.’ The Duke of Buckingham’s The Rehearsal, Act I. Sc. 1.

‘Takes an inventory.’ Ben Jonson, The Alchemist, Act III. Sc. 2.

391.

‘A pass of wit.’ Cf. ‘Wit shall not go unrewarded while I am king of this country. “Steal by line and level” is an excellent pass of pate.’ The Tempest, Act IV. Sc. 1.

‘O’ersteps,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

392.

Annesley. Hazlitt refers to the well-known case of James Annesley (1715–1760), who claimed to be the legitimate son and heir of Lord Altham. The story will be found in Howell’s State Trials (vols. XVI. and XVII.), and has been used by other novelists besides Godwin. See Peregrine Pickle (chap. 98) and Charles Reade’s The Wandering Heir. Godwin, in the advertisement to Cloudesley, says: ‘It is but just that the reader should be informed that a novel has been already written on this theme, and printed in the year 1743, under the title of “Memoirs of an unfortunate young Nobleman, Returned from a Thirteen Years’ Slavery in America.”’ This is presumably the work referred to by Hazlitt as ‘a novel with the title of Annesley.’ In 1756 appeared The Case of the Honourable J. A., humbly offered to all lovers of truth and justice.

‘Mark and likelihood.’ Henry IV., Part I., Act III. Sc. 2.

393.

Multum abludit imago. Horace, Satires, II. 3, 320.

‘Subject [servile] to all,’ etc. Measure for Measure, Act III. Sc. 1.

‘A fiery soul,’ etc. Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, I. 156–158.

394.

‘But the lees,’ etc. Loosely quoted from Macbeth, Act II. Sc. 3.

‘After a thousand victories,’ etc. Shakespeare, Sonnet XXV.

‘A great man’s memory,’ etc. Cf. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

395.

‘At first no bigger,’ etc. Cf. S. Matthew, xiii. 31.

397.

‘A consummation,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 1.

‘The scale by which we ascend.’ Cf. Paradise Lost, VIII. 591–592.

398.

‘Reaches the verge,’ etc. Cf. Pope, Moral Essays, II. 52.

399.

His New Man of Feeling. Fleetwood; or, The New Man of Feeling, 1805.

Mandeville. 1817.

Life of Chaucer. 1803.

Essay on Sepulchres. 1809.

Mr. Malthus’s theory. See vol. IV. (The Spirit of the Age), p. 296.

400.

Sermons. Sketches of History, in Six Sermons, 1784.

An English Grammar. The grammar was written by Hazlitt himself and published by Mrs. Godwin at the Skinner Street house. See vol IV., Bibliographical Note on p. 388. It contained a letter written by Godwin under the pseudonym of Edward Baldwin.

Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty

at the Edinburgh University Press

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.

Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.