150. ‘Gone to the vault,’ etc. A favourite quotation of Burke’s from the lines in Shakespeare:—
‘To that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.’
Romeo and Juliet, Act IV. Scene 1.
The picture ... of Charles I. In Hazlitt’s time this picture was at Blenheim, and he referred to it in his Sketches of the Principal Picture Galleries in England (Pictures at Oxford and Blenheim). It was bought by Parliament from the Duke of Marlborough in 1885, and is now in the National Gallery.
The Waterloo Exhibition. The Waterloo Museum in Pall Mall ‘which now (according to the advertisement) presents to public view upwards of 1000 mementos of the late extraordinary events upon the Continent.’
‘From this time forth,’ etc. Othello, Act V. Scene 2.
The English are a shopkeeping nation. Hazlitt probably refers to the exclamation of Barère said to have been repeated by Napoleon. The expression seems to have been first used by Dean Tucker of Gloucester in a Tract of 1766.
‘Balm of hurt minds,’ etc. Macbeth, Act II. Scene 2.
151. ‘Smoothing the raven down,’ etc. Comus, 251–252.
О ПОЭТИЧЕСКОЙ УНИВЕРСАЛЬНОСТИ
Этот фрагмент взят из третьей из серии четырех «Иллюстраций газеты «Таймс»», которые Хэзлитт предоставил «Экзаминеру» под заголовком «Литературные уведомления». Первая из этих четырех статей (1 декабря 1816 года) не была переиздана; остальные три, датированные соответственно 15 декабря 1816 года, 22 декабря 1816 года и 12 января 1817 года, были опубликованы в «Политических эссе».
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151. ‘Heaven’s own tinct.’ Cymbeline, Act II. Scene 2.
‘Being so majestical,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Scene 1.
152. Poets, it has been said. See Political Essays (Mr. Southey’s New Year’s Ode).
They do not like, etc. The reference is to Southey, Poet Laureate, and Wordsworth, distributor of stamps for the county of Westmoreland.
ОБ АКТЕРАХ И АКТЕРСКОЙ ИГРЕ
Это эссе и следующее за ним основаны на последнем (№ 48) серии «Круглый стол», который появился в «Экзаминере» 5 января 1817 года. Хэзлитт, однако, вставил в оба эссе различные отрывки из прежних театральных критических статей. Статья в «Круглом столе», по-видимому, была вдохновлена «Апологией жизни» Колли Сиббера. Здесь можно сделать общую ссылку на эту работу, на том в настоящем издании, содержащий драматические критические статьи Хэзлитта, и на эссе Лэма и Ли Ханта о сцене.
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153. ‘The abstracts,’ etc. Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2.
154. George Barnwell. By George Lillo (1693–1739), produced at Drury Lane Theatre on June 22, 1731. The play was frequently revived, and was in some places acted annually as a moral lesson to apprentices.
The Inconstant. Farquhar’s comedy (1702). Orinda should be Oriana.
Mr. Liston. John Liston (1776?-1846),the comic actor, who made his first appearance in 1805 and retired in 1837.
155. Sir George Etherege (1635?-1691), the dramatist. See English Comic Writers, where a part of this passage is repeated.
John Kemble. John Philip Kemble (1757–1823). Hazlitt wrote an account of his retirement from the stage, which took place at Covent Garden on June 23, 1817.
Pierre. In Otway’s Venice Preserved (1682), ‘one of the happiest and most spirited of all Mr. Kemble’s performances’ (A View of the English Stage).
The Stranger. Benjamin Thompson’s (1776?-1816) play, ‘The Stranger,’ translated from Kotzebue, was produced in 1798, Kemble playing the title-rôle. See Hazlitt’s essay on ‘Mr. Kemble’s Retirement.’
‘A tale of other times.’ ‘A tale of the times of old!’ the opening words of Macpherson’s Ossian.
One of the most affecting things, etc. This paragraph is taken from a ‘Theatrical Examiner’ (June 4, 1815) on the retirement of John Bannister (1760–1836) from the stage. For Bannister and Richard Suett (1755–1805) see Hazlitt’s essay ‘On Play-Going and on Some of our old Actors,’ and Lamb’s ‘On Some of the old Actors.’
The Prize. By Prince Hoare (1755–1834), originally produced in 1793.
Mrs. Storace. Anna Selina Storace or Storache (1766–1817), the singer and actress, played in ‘The Prize’ in 1793.
My Grandmother. By Prince Hoare, produced in 1793.
The Son-in-Law. A comic opera by John O’Keeffe (1747–1833), produced in 1779.
Scrub. In The Beaux’ Stratagem of Farquhar.
Thomas King (1730–1805), the original Sir Peter Teazle; William Parsons (1736–1795); James William Dodd (1740–1796); John Quick (1748–1831), who made his last appearance in 1813; and John Edwin the elder (1749–1790). See Hazlitt’s essay ‘On Play-Going and Some of our old Actors.’
156. ‘All the world’s a stage’ etc. As You Like It, Act II. Scene 7.
ПРОДОЛЖЕНИЕ ТОЙ ЖЕ ТЕМЫ
Большая часть первого абзаца этого эссе первоначально появилась в заметке о сэре Джайлсе Оверриче в исполнении Кина («Театральный обозреватель», 14 января 1816 года). См. «Взгляд на английскую сцену».
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156. ‘Leaving the world no copy.’ Twelfth Night, Act I. Scene 5.
Colley Cibber’s account. See Chap. iv. of Cibber’s Apology.
Miss O’Neill. Eliza O’Neill (1791–1872) made her last appearance on the stage on July 13, 1819, shortly before her marriage with Mr. Becher, who afterwards became a baronet. Hazlitt in an article on her retirement (see A View of the English Stage) said that ‘her excellence (unrivalled by any actress since Mrs. Siddons) consisted in truth of nature and force of passion.’
Mrs. Siddons. Sarah Siddons (1755–1831) appeared without success in London in 1775 and 1776, gained a great reputation in Manchester and Bath, and reappeared in London on October 10, 1782 in Garrick’s Isabella, a version of Southerne’s Fatal Marriage. After a long series of triumphs she made her farewell appearance on June 29, 1812, as Lady Macbeth. Hazlitt’s notices of her are confined to two of the occasional benefit performances which she gave before she finally retired in June 1819. See A View of the English Stage (June 15, 1816, and June 7, 1817).
157. ‘We have seen what a ferment,’ etc. See the essays above, ‘On the Catalogue Raisonné of the British Institution.’
Betterton, etc. Thomas Betterton (1635?-1710); Barton Booth (1681–1733); Robert Wilks (1665?-1732); Samuel Sandford, a well-known actor on the Restoration stage, who died early in the eighteenth century; James Nokes (d. 1692); Anthony Leigh (d. 1692); William Pinkethman (d. 1724); William Bullock (d. 1740?); Richard Estcourt (1668–1712); Thomas Dogget (d. 1721): Elizabeth Barry (1658–1713); Susanna Mountfort, the daughter of William Mountfort, the actor and dramatist, who was murdered by Captain Hill and Lord Mohun in 1692; Anne Oldfield (1683–1730); Anne Bracegirdle (1663?-1748), who retired from the stage in 1707 after being defeated in a competition with Mrs. Oldfield; Susannah Maria Cibber (1714–1766), sister of Arne the composer, and wife of Theophilus Cibber, famous first as a singer (especially of Handel’s music), and later as an actress of tragedy.
Cibber himself. Colley Cibber (1671–1757), actor and dramatist, Poet Laureate from 1730 till his death. For a very entertaining account of himself and of nearly all the well-known actors and actresses whose names appear in the preceding note see his Apology for his Life (1740).
Macklin, etc. Charles Macklin (1697?-1797), actor and dramatist, whose great part was Shylock; James Quin (1693–1766); John Rich (1682–1761), the originator of pantomime in England (his name is substituted by Hazlitt for that of Peg Woffington, which appeared in the original Round Table paper); Catherine or Kitty Clive (1711–1785), whose acting and ‘sprightliness of humour’ were admired by Dr. Johnson, and Hannah Pritchard (1711–1768), who created the part of Irene in Johnson’s play, and Frances Abington (1737–1815), well-known members of Garrick’s company; Thomas Weston (1737–1776), and Edward Shuter (1728–1776), two of the best comic actors of their time.
‘Gladdened life,’ etc. A composite quotation from Johnson’s well-known reference to Garrick (Lives of the Poets, Edmund Smith). See Boswell’s Life of Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill, iii. 387.
Our hundred days. The reference is a characteristic one to Buonaparte’s hundred days in Europe in 1815.
Betterton’s Hamlet or his Brutus, etc. Colley Cibber (Apology, Chap, iv.) refers particularly to these two impersonations, describes (Chap. xiv.) Booth’s performance of Cato in 1713, and specially eulogises Mrs. Barry’s Monimia and Belvidera in Otway’s plays, The Orphan and Venice Preserved. (Chap. v.). See Hazlitt’s lecture ‘On the Spirit of Ancient and Modern Literature’ in his Lectures on the Literature of the Age of Elizabeth for a criticism of these plays. He saw and reviewed Miss O’Neill’s performances in both these characters. See A View of the English Stage.
Penkethman’s manner, etc. See The Tatler, No. 188.
Dowton. Hazlitt spoke of William Dowton (1764–1851) as ‘a genuine and excellent comedian’ (‘On Play-Going and on Some of the old Actors’). There are frequent notices of him in A View of the English Stage.
157. Note. Marriage à la mode. By Dryden, first produced in 1672. In The Examiner this note forms part of the text. At the end of the passage quoted Hazlitt proceeds: ‘The whole of Colley Cibber’s work is very amusing to a dramatic amateur. It gives an interesting account of the progress of the stage, which in his time appears to have been in a state militant. Two actors, Kynaston and Montfort were run through the body in disputes with gentlemen, with impunity; and the Master of the Revels arrested any of the two companies who was refractory to the managers, at his pleasure. Dogget was brought up in this manner from Norwich, by two constables: but Dogget being a whig, and a surly fellow, got a Habeas Corpus, and the Master of the Revels was driven from the field.’ Edward Kynaston (1640–1706) was beaten more than once at the instance of Sir Charles Sedley whom he impersonated on the stage. For the story of the Lord Chamberlain and Dogget, see Cibber’s Apology (Chap. x.).
158. Sir Harry Wildair. Farquhar’s Sir Harry Wildair, a continuation of The Constant Couple, was produced in 1701.
‘The Jew that Shakespeare drew.’ This is an exclamation (attributed to Pope) overheard at one of Macklin’s representations of Shylock.
As often as we are pleased. The following passage from The Examiner is omitted by Hazlitt: ‘We have no curiosity about things or persons that we never heard of. Mr. Coleridge professes in his Lay Sermon to have discovered a new faculty, by which he can divine the future. This is lucky for himself and his friends, who seem to have lost all recollection of the past.’ Hazlitt here refers to The Statesman’s Manual; or, The Bible the best guide to political skill and foresight: A Lay Sermon, addressed to the Higher Classes of Society (1816), known as the first Lay Sermon. Hazlitt wrote two notices of it in The Examiner, one of which (September 8, 1816) was based merely on newspaper announcements of its forthcoming appearance (see Political Essays); and probably, as Coleridge believed, reviewed it in the Edinburgh Review for December 1816.
Players, after all, etc. This passage to the end of the paragraph is from a ‘Theatrical Examiner,’ January 14, 1816.
Actors have been accused, etc. The whole of this paragraph is taken from a ‘Theatrical Examiner,’ March 31, 1816.
‘The web of our life,’ etc. All’s Well that Ends Well, Act IV. Scene 3.
159. ‘Like the giddy sailor,’ etc. Richard III., Act III. Scene 4.
A neighbouring country. Hazlitt probably refers to France where the disqualifications of actors had only recently been removed by the Revolution government. For an account of ecclesiastical intolerance towards actors, especially in France, see Lecky’s The Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe, II. 316 et seq.
‘A consummation,’ etc. Hamlet, Act III. Scene 1.
‘The wine of life,’ etc. Macbeth, Act II. Scene 3.
160. ‘Hurried from fierce extremes,’ etc.
‘——and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,’ etc.
Paradise Lost, II. 599 et seq.
The strolling player in ‘Gil Blas.’ Gil Blas, Liv. II. Chap. viii.
ПОЧЕМУ ИСКУССТВА НЕ ПРОГРЕССИРУЮТ: ФРАГМЕНТ
В «Морнинг Кроникл» от 11 и 15 января 1814 года Хэзлитт опубликовал две статьи под названием «Фрагменты об искусстве. Почему искусства не прогрессируют?». Позже в том же году он предоставил две статьи «Чемпиону» (28 августа 1814 года и 11 сентября 1814 года) под заголовком «Изобразительные искусства. Способствуют ли им академии и общественные институты?» и в письме (2 октября) ответил на критику корреспондента. Настоящий «Фрагмент» состоит из (1) первой из статей в «Морнинг Кроникл» и части второй, и (2) части второй статьи в «Чемпионе». Большая часть содержания настоящего эссе воплощена в статье Хэзлитта об изобразительных искусствах, предоставленной «Британской энциклопедии».
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160. ‘It is often made a subject,’ etc. The first three paragraphs are taken from The Morning Chronicle, January 11, 1814. In The Champion for August 28, 1814, the first two paragraphs appear as a quotation from a ‘contemporary critic.’
Antæus. The story of Antæus the giant is referred to by Milton (Paradise Regained, IV. 563 et seq.).
161. Nothing is more contrary, etc. This paragraph and part of the next are repeated at the beginning of the Lecture on Shakspeare and Milton in Lectures on the English Poets.
162. Guido. Substituted for Claude Lorraine, upon whom, in The Morning Chronicle, Hazlitt has the following note: ‘In speaking thus of Claude, we yield rather to common opinion than to our own. However inferior the style of his best landscapes may be, there is something in the execution that redeems all defects. In taste and grace nothing can ever go beyond them. He might be called, if not the perfect, the faultless painter. Sir Joshua Reynolds used to say, that there would be another Raphael, before there was another Claude. In Mr. Northcote’s Dream of a Painter (see his Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds), there is an account of Claude Lorraine, so full of feeling, so picturesque, so truly classical, so like Claude, that we cannot resist this opportunity of copying it out.’ The passage quoted from Northcote is the paragraph beginning, ‘Now tired with pomp and splendid shew.’ See Northcote’s Varieties on Art (The Dream of a Painter) in his Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds, etc. (1813–1815) p. xvi.
‘The human face divine.’ Paradise Lost, III. 44.
‘Circled Una’s angel face,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, Book I. Canto iii. st. 4.
Griselda. See The Canterbury Tales (The Clerk’s Tale).
The Flower and the Leaf. This poem, a great favourite of Hazlitt’s, is not now attributed to Chaucer.
163. The divine story of the Hawk. The Decameron (Fifth Day, Novel IX.). Hazlitt continually refers to the story.
Isabella. The Decameron (Fourth Day, Novel V.).
So Lear, etc. King Lear, Act II. Scene 4.
Titian. The picture referred to is one of those which Hazlitt copied while he was studying in the Louvre in 1802. See Memoirs of William Hazlitt, I. 88. He frequently mentions it.
Nicolas Poussin. ‘But, above all, who shall celebrate, in terms of fit praise, his picture of the shepherds in the Vale of Tempe going out in a fine morning of the spring, and coming to a tomb with this inscription:—Et ego in Arcadia vixi!’ (Table Talk, ‘On a Landscape of Nicolas Poussin.’)
In general, it must happen, etc. The two concluding paragraphs are taken from The Champion, September 11, 1814.
Current with the world. The following passage in The Champion is here omitted: ‘Common sense, which has been sometimes appealed to as the criterion of taste, is nothing but the common capacity, applied to common facts and feelings; but it neither is nor pretends to be, the judge of anything else. To suppose that it can really appreciate the excellence of works of high art, is as absurd as to suppose that it could produce them.’
Count Castiglione. Baldassare Count Castiglione (1478–1529), whose famous Il Cortegiano was translated into English by Sir Thomas Hoby under the title of ‘The Courtyer’ (1561).
ХАРАКТЕРЫ ПЬЕС ШЕКСПИРА
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171. It is observed by Mr. Pope. Ed. Elwin and Courthope, vol. X. pp. 534–535.
A gentleman of the name of Mason. Neither George Mason (1735–1806), author of An Essay on Design in Gardening, 1768, nor John Monck Mason (1726–1809), Shakespearian commentator, is the author of the work alluded to by Hazlitt, but Thomas Whately (d. 1772) whose Remarks on some of the Characters of Shakespere was published after Thomas Whately’s death by his brother, the Rev. Jos. Whately, in 1785, as ‘by the author of Observations on Modern Gardening’ [1770]; a second edition was published in 1808 with the author’s name on the title-page, and a third in 1839, edited by Archbishop Whately, Thomas Whately’s nephew.
Richardson’s Essays. Essays on Shakespeare’s Dramatic Characters. 1774–1812. By William Richardson (1743–1814).
Schlegel’s Lectures on the Drama. A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. By A. W. von Schlegel. Delivered at Vienna in 1808. English translation, by John Black, in 1815. The quotation which follows will be found in Bohn’s one vol. edition, 1846, pp. 363–371, and the further references given in these notes are to the same edition.
174. ‘to do a great right.’ Mer. Ven. IV. 1.
‘alone is high fantastical.’ Twelfth Night, I. 1.
175. Dr. Johnson’s Preface to his Edition of Shakespear. 1765.
‘swelling figures.’ Dr. Johnson’s Preface. See Malone’s Shakespeare, 1821, vol. i. p. 75.
176. Dover cliff in Lear, Act IV. 6.
flowers in The Winter’s Tale, Act IV. 4.
Congreve’s description of a ruin in the Mourning Bride, Act II. 1.
177. the sleepy eye of love. Cf. ‘The sleepy eye that spoke the melting soul.’ Pope, Imit. 1st Epis. 2nd. Bk. Horace, l. 150.
In his tragic scenes. Dr. Johnson’s Preface, p. 71.
His declamations, etc. Ibid., p. 75.
But the admirers, etc. Ibid., p. 75.
178. in another work, The Round Table. See pp. 61–64.
ЦИМБЕЛИН
Когда название пьесы не указано, следует понимать, что речь идет о обсуждаемой пьесе. Различия между текстом, цитируемым Хэзлиттом, и текстом Шекспира «Глобус», которые кажутся заслуживающими внимания, указаны в квадратных скобках.
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179. Dr. Johnson is of opinion. Dr. Johnson’s Preface, p. 73.