Hazlitt on English Literature Part 42

_Earl of Glenallan_, in "The Antiquary."

_Black Dwarf_ to _Grace Armstrong_, in the "Black Dwarf."

_Children of the Mist_, in "Legend of Montrose."

_Amy_ (Robsart) and _Varney_, in "Kenilworth."

_George of Douglas_, in "The Abbot."

P. 229, n. _the finest scene_. "Guy Mannering," chap. 51.

P. 231. _a consummation_. "Hamlet," iii, 1, 63.

_by referring to the authentic history_. At this point Hazlitt reproduces in a footnote one of Scott's historical quotations in "Ivanhoe."

_flints and dungs_. See "Ivanhoe," chap. 43.

P. 232. _calls backing_. 1 "Henry IV," ii, 4, 165.

_Mr. MacAdam_, John Loudon (1756-1836).

_Sixty years since_. The sub-t.i.tle of "Waverley" was "'Tis Sixty Years Since."

_Wickliff_, John (c. 1320-1384), an important English forerunner of the Protestant Reformation, the first translator of the Bible into English.

_Luther_, Martin (1483-1546), led the first successful revolt against the authority of the Catholic Church.

_Hampden_, John (c. 1595-1643), an English patriot who by his refusal to pay s.h.i.+p-money precipitated the rebellion against Charles I which ended in the beheading of that monarch.

_Sidney_, Algernon (1622-1683), an English patriot who fought on the side of Parliament against Charles I, and who, in the reign of Charles II, was tried for treason by Jeffreys, the hanging judge, and condemned to execution without proof. Sidney is the author of "Discourses Concerning Government" in which he vindicates the right of resistance to the misrule of kings.

_Somers_, John (1651-1716), took an important part in bringing about the bloodless Revolution which drove James II from England in 1688.

P. 233. _Red Reiver_, in "The Black Dwarf."

_Claverhouse_, in "Old Mortality."

_Tristan the Hermit_ and _Pet.i.t Andre_, in "Quentin Durward."

_but himself_. Though Scott composed many of his own mottoes, he never quoted his own previous verse but pretended to be using an Old Play or an Old Poem.

P. 234. _born for the universe_. Goldsmith's "Retaliation," 31.

_winked and shut_. Marston's "Antonio's Revenge," Prologue.

P. 235. _Who would not grieve_. Cf. Pope's "Prologue to the Satires," 213:

"Who but must laugh, if such a man there be?

Who would not weep if Atticus were he?"

LORD BYRON

From the "Spirit of the Age." Discussions of Byron's poetry are also to be found in the review of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (Works, XI, 420-426) and in "Pope, Lord Byron and Mr. Bowles" (XI, 486-508).

P. 236. _As if a man_. "Coriola.n.u.s," v, 3, 36.

_cloud-capt_. "Tempest," iv, I, 152.

P. 237. _prouder than_. Cf. Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida," i, 3, 380: "His crest that prouder than blue Iris bends."

_silly sooth_. "Twelfth Night," ii, 4, 47.

P. 239. _denotes a foregone conclusion_. "Oth.e.l.lo." iii, 3, 428.

P. 240. _in cell monastic_. Cf. "As You Like It," iii, 2, 441: "To live in a nook merely monastic."

P. 241. _thoughts that breathe_. Gray's "Progress of Poesy," 110.

P. 242. _Lord Byron does not exhibit a new view of nature._ In the paper on "Pope, Lord Byron and Mr. Bowles," Hazlitt's tone is more generous: "His Lords.h.i.+p likes the poetry, the imaginative part of art, and so do we.... He likes the _sombre_ part of it, the thoughtful, the decayed, the ideal, the spectral shadow of human greatness, the departed spirit of human power. He sympathizes not with art as a display of ingenuity, as the triumph of vanity or luxury, as it is connected with the idiot, superficial, petty self-complacency of the individual and the moment (these are to him not 'luscious as locusts, but bitter as coloquintida'); but he sympathizes with the triumphs of Time and Fate over the proudest works of man--with the crumbling monuments of human glory--with the dim vestiges and countless generations of men--with that which claims alliance with the grave, or kindred with the elements of nature." Works, XI, 496.

_poor men's cottages_. "Merchant of Venice," i, 2, 14.

_reasons high_. "Paradise Lost," II, 558.

P. 243. _Till Contemplation_. Dyer's "Grongar Hill," 26.

_this bank_. "Macbeth," i, 7, 6.

P. 244. _The Liberal_: Verse and Prose from the South, a quarterly published in Italy by Leigh Hunt and Byron, 1822-23, to which Hazlitt also contributed. In the second of its four numbers appeared Byron's "Heaven and Earth: A Mystery."

_the deluge_, in "Heaven and Earth."

_his aversion_. See "Don Juan," III, stanza 94:

"A drowsy frowzy poem, called the Excursion, Writ in a manner which is my aversion."

_born in a garret_. In the "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," Byron, speaking of Jeffrey, refers to "the sixteenth story, where himself was born."

_Letter to the Editor_. The Letter to William Roberts, editor of the British Review, appeared in the first number of the Liberal.

_Long's_, a restaurant in Bond Street.

P. 245. _the controversy about Pope_. See note to p. 118.

_Scrub_, in Farquhar's "Beaux' Stratagem."

_very tolerable_. "Much Ado About Nothing," iii, 3, 37.