Hazlitt on English Literature Part 31

P. 70. _subject to all_. "Measure for Measure," iii, 1, 9.

_My way of life_. v, 3, 22.

P. 71. _Lillo_, George (1693-1739), author of several "bourgeois"

tragedies of which the best known is "George Barnwell" (1731).

_Specimens of Early English Dramatic Poets_ by Charles Lamb, 1808. (Works, ed. Lucas, IV, 144.)

IAGO

P. 73. _What a full fortune_ and _Here is her father's house_. i, 1, 66-74

P. 74. _I cannot believe_. i, 1, 254.

_And yet how nature_. iii, 3, 227.

_milk of human kindness_. "Macbeth," i, 5, 18.

_relish of salvation_. "Hamlet," iii, 3, 92.

_Oh, you are well tuned_. ii, 1, 202.

P. 75. _My n.o.ble lord_. iii, 3, 92.

_O grace_. iii, 3, 373.

P. 76. _How is it_. iv, 1, 60.

_Zanga_, in the "Revenge" (1721), a tragedy by Edward Young (1683-1765).

HAMLET

P. 76. _This goodly frame and Man delighted not_. ii, 2, 310-321.

P. 77. _too much i' th' sun_. i, 2, 67.

_the pangs_. iii, 1, 72.

P. 78. _There is no attempt to force an interest._ Professor Saintsbury ("History of Criticism," III, 258) calls this utterance an apex of Shakespearian criticism. Hazlitt makes a similar comment in the character of "Troilus and Cressida": "He has no prejudice for or against his characters: he saw both sides of a question; at once an actor and a spectator in the scene." Dr. Johnson had observed this att.i.tude in Shakespeare, but he had seen in it a violation of the demands of poetic justice: "he carries his persons indifferently through right and wrong, and at the close dismisses them without further care, and leaves their examples to operate by chance. This fault the barbarity of his age cannot extenuate; for it is always a writer's duty to make the world better, and justice is a virtue independent on time or place." (Nichol Smith's "Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare," p. 123.)

_outward pageant_. Cf. i, 2, 86: "the trappings and the suits of woe."

_we have that within_. i, 2, 85.

P. 79. _He kneels._ Cf. iii, 3, 73: "Now might I do it pat, now he is praying."

P. 80. _How all occasions_. iv, 4, 32.

P. 81. _that n.o.ble and liberal casuist_. Doubtless suggested by Lamb's description of the old English dramatists as "those n.o.ble and liberal casuists." (Works, ed. Lucas, I, 46.)

_The Whole Duty of Man_, a popular treatise of morals (1659).

_Academy of Compliments_, or the Whole Duty of Courtship, being the nearest or most exact way of wooing a Maid or Widow, by the way of Dialogue or Complimental Expressions (1655, 1669).

_The neglect of punctilious exactness_, etc. The entire pa.s.sage follows pretty closely the interpretation of Lamb: "Among the distinguishing features of that wonderful character, one of the most interesting (yet painful) is that soreness of mind which makes him treat the intrusions of Polonius with harshness, and that asperity which he puts on in his interviews with Ophelia. These tokens of an unhinged mind (if they be not mixed in the latter case with a profound artifice of love, to alienate Ophelia by affected discourtesies, so to prepare her mind for the breaking off of that loving intercourse, which can no longer find a place amidst business so serious as that which he has to do) are parts of his character, which to reconcile with our admiration of Hamlet, the most patient consideration of his situation is no more than necessary; they are what we _forgive afterwards_, and explain by the whole of his character, but _at the time_ they are harsh and unpleasant.... [His behavior toward Ophelia] is not alienation, it is a distraction purely, and so it always makes itself to be felt by that object: it is not anger, but grief a.s.suming the appearance of anger,--love awkwardly counterfeiting hate, as sweet countenances when they try to frown." "On the Tragedies of Shakespeare." (Works, ed. Lucas, I, 103-104)

_He may be said to be amenable_, etc. Cf. Coleridge (Works, IV, 145): "His thoughts, and the images of his fancy, are far more vivid than his actual perceptions, and his very perceptions, instantly pa.s.sing through the _medium_ of his contemplations, acquire, as they pa.s.s, a form and a colour not naturally their own. Hence we see a great, an almost enormous, intellectual activity, and a proportionate aversion to real action, consequent upon it, with all its symptoms and accompanying qualities."

P. 82. _his father's spirit_. i, 2, 255.

_I loved Ophelia_. v, 1, 292.

_Sweets to the sweet_. v, 1, 266.

P. 83. _There is a willow_. See p. 39.

_our author's plays acted_. See pp. 70, 87.

P. 84. _Kemble_, John Philip (1757-1823), younger brother to Mrs. Siddons and noted as the leader of the stately school in tragedy. Hazlitt often contrasted his manner with that of Kean: "We wish we had never seen Mr.

Kean. He has destroyed the Kemble religion; and it is the religion in which we were brought up." Works, VIII, 345.

_a wave o' th' sea_. "Winter's Tale," iv, 4, 141.

_Kean_, Edmund (1787-1833), the great English tragic actor whom Hazlitt was instrumental in discovering for the London public. Shylock and Oth.e.l.lo were his most successful roles. For accounts of his various performances, see "A View of the English Stage" (Works, VIII). Most of the points in this essay are reproduced from the notice of Kean's Hamlet (VIII, 185-189).

ROMEO AND JULIET

This extract is the opening paragraph of the sketch.

P. 84. _a great critic_, A. W. Schlegel. The pa.s.sage alluded to by Hazlitt appears in Coleridge's Works (IV, 60-61) in what is little more than a free translation: "Read 'Romeo and Juliet';--all is youth and spring;--youth with its follies, its virtues, its precipitancies;--spring with its odors, its flowers, and its transiency; it is one and the same feeling that commences, goes through, and ends the play. The old men, the Capulets and the Montagues, are not common old men; they have an eagerness, a heartiness, a vehemence, the effect of spring; with Romeo, his change of pa.s.sion, his sudden marriage, and his rash death, are all the effects of youth;--whilst in Juliet love has all that is tender and melancholy in the nightingale, all that is voluptuous in the rose, with whatever is sweet in the freshness of the spring; but it ends with a long deep sigh like the last breeze of the Italian evening."

P. 85. _fancies wan_. Cf. "Lycidas," "cowslips wan."

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

These extracts are the second and last paragraphs of the essay.

P. 85. _Lord, what fools_. iii, 2, 115.

P. 86. _human mortals_. ii, 1, 101.

_gorgons and hydras_. "Paradise Lost," II, 628.

_a celebrated person_, Sir Humphry Davy; see p. 342. Cf. Coleridge (Works, IV, 66): "Shakespeare was not only a great poet, but a great philosopher."