Hazlitt on English Literature Part 32

P. 87. _Poetry and the stage_. Cf. Lamb, "On the Tragedies of Shakespeare"

(ed. Lucas, I, 110): "Spirits and fairies cannot be represented, they cannot even be painted,--they can only be believed. But the elaborate and anxious provision of scenery, which the luxury of the age demands, in these cases works a quite contrary effect to what is intended. That which in comedy, or plays of familiar life, adds so much to the life of the imitation, in plays which appeal to the higher faculties, positively destroys the illusion which it is introduced to aid."

HENRY IV

Hazlitt's interpretation of Falstaff is worth comparing with that of Maurice Morgann in "An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff," although Hazlitt does not allude to Morgann's essay and is supposed to have had no knowledge of it. "To me then it appears that the leading quality in Falstaff's character, and that from which all the rest take their colour, is a high degree of wit and humour, accompanied with great natural vigour and alacrity of mind.... He seems, by nature, to have had a mind free of malice or any evil principle; but he never took the trouble of acquiring any _good_ one. He found himself esteemed and beloved with all his faults; nay _for_ his faults, which were all connected with humour, and for the most part grew out of it. As he had, possibly, no vices but such as he thought might be openly confessed, so he appeared more dissolute thro' ostentation. To the character of wit and humour, to which all his other qualities seem to have conformed themselves, he appears to have added a very necessary support, _that_ of the profession of a _Soldier_.... Laughter and approbation attend his greatest excesses; and being governed visibly by no settled bad principle or ill design, fun and humour account for and cover all. By degrees, however, and thro'

indulgence, he acquires bad habits, becomes an humourist, grows enormously corpulent, and falls into the infirmities of age; yet never quits, all the time, one single levity or vice of youth, or loses any of that cheerfulness of mind which had enabled him to pa.s.s thro' this course with ease to himself and delight to others; and thus, at last, mixing youth and age, enterprize and corpulency, wit and folly, poverty and expence, t.i.tle and buffoonery, innocence as to purpose, and wickedness as to practice; neither incurring hatred by bad principle, or contempt by cowardice, yet involved in circ.u.mstances productive of imputation in both; a b.u.t.t and a wit, a humourist and a man of humour, a touchstone and a laughing stock, a jester and a jest, has Sir _John Falstaff_, taken at that period of life in which we see him, become the most perfect comic character that perhaps ever was exhibited." (Nichol Smith's "Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare," 226-7.)

P. 88. _we behold_. Cf. Colossians, ii, 9; "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the G.o.dhead bodily."

_lards the lean earth_. 1 "Henry IV," ii, 2, 116.

_into thin air_. "Tempest," iv, 1, 150.

_three fingers deep_. Cf. 1 "Henry IV," iv, 2, 80: "three fingers on the ribs."

P. 89. _it snows_. Chaucer's Prologue to the "Canterbury Tales," 345.

_ascends me_. 2 "Henry IV," iv, 3, 105.

_a tun of man_. 1 "Henry IV," ii, 4, 493.

P. 91. _open, palpable_. Cf. 1 "Henry IV," ii, 4, 248: "These lies are like their father that begets them; gross as a mountain, open, palpable."

_By the lord_. Ibid., i, 2, 44.

_But Hal_. Ibid., i, 2, 91.

P. 92. _who grew_. Cf. ii, 4, 243: "eleven buckram men grown out of two."

_Harry, I do not_. ii, 4, 439.

P. 94. _What is the gross sum_. 2 "Henry IV," ii, 1, 91.

P. 95. _Would I were with him_. "Henry V," ii, 3, 6.

_turning his vices_. Cf. 2 "Henry IV," i, 2, 277: "I will turn diseases to commodity."

_their legs_. Ibid., ii, 4, 265.

_a man made after supper_. Ibid., iii, 2, 332.

_Would, Cousin Silence_. Ibid., iii, 2, 225.

_I did not think_. Ibid., v, 3, 40.

_in some authority_. Ibid., v, 3, 117.

_You have here_. Ibid., v, 3, 6.

TWELFTH NIGHT

P. 96. _It aims at the ludicrous._ Cf. Hazlitt's remark in the Characters on "Much Ado About Nothing": "Perhaps that middle point of comedy was never more nicely hit in which the ludicrous blends with the tender, and our follies, turning round against themselves in support of our affections, retain nothing but their humanity."

P. 97. _William Congreve_ (1670-1729), _William Wycherley_ (1640-1716), _Sir John Vanbrugh_ (1664-1726), the chief masters of Restoration Comedy.

P. 98. _high fantastical_. i, 1, 15.

_Wherefore are these things hid_. i, 3, 133.

_rouse the night-owl_. ii, 3, 60.

_Dost thou think_. ii, 3, 123.

P. 99. _We cannot agree with Dr. Johnson._ See p. 49 and n.

_What's her history_. ii, 4, 12.

_Oh it came o'er_. i, 1, 5.

P. 100. _They give a very echo_. ii, 4, 21.

_Blame not this haste_. iv, 3, 22.

The essay concludes with the quotation of one of the songs and Malvolio's reading of the letter.

MILTON

P. 101. _Blind Thamyris_. "Paradise Lost," III, 35.

P. 102. _with darkness_. VII, 27.

_piling up every stone_. XI, 324.

_For after I had from my first years_. "The Reason of Church Government,"

Book II, Introduction.

P. 103. _The n.o.ble heart_. "Faerie Queene," I, v, 1.

P. 104. _makes Ossa like a wart_. "Hamlet," v, 1, 306.

_Him followed Rimmon_. "Paradise Lost," I, 467.

_As when a vulture_. III, 431.

P. 105. _the pilot_. I, 204.