how it was, that Mr. Farren in the farce of the Deaf Lover, played the old gentleman so well, and failed so entirely in the young gallant. I said I could not tell. He then tried at a solution himself, in which I could not follow him so as to give the precise point of his argument. He afterwards defined to me, and those about us, the merits of Mr. Cooper and Mr. Wallack, classing the first as a respectable, and the last as a second-rate actor; with large grounds and learned definitions of his meaning on both points; and, as the lights were by this time nearly out, and the audience (except his immediate auditors) going away, he reluctantly ended,' 6 'But in Adam's ear so pleasing left his voice,' that I quite forgot I had to write my article on the Drama the next day; nor without his imaginary aid should I have been able to wind up my accounts for the year, as Mr. Matthews gets through his AT HOME by the help of a little awkward ventriloquism. November 21, 1820. W. H. NOTES LECTURES ON THE ENGLISH COMIC WRITERS THESE Lectures were delivered at the Surrey Institution, in Blackfriars Road, in 1818, after the completion of the course on the English Poets (see vol. v.). Some particulars as to their delivery will be found in Talfourd's edition of Lamb's Letters (see Mr. W. C. Hazlitt's reprint, Bohn, 1. 38 et seq.), and in Patmore's My Friends and Acquaintance. See also Mr. W. C. Hazlitt's Four Generations of a Literary Family (vol. 1. pp. 121-2), where the opinions of Beckford and Thackeray are referred to. In the third edition of the Lectures (see Bibliographical Note) several passages collected by the author, apparently with a view to a reprint of the volume,' were interpolated. Two of these passages are taken from a long letter (published in full in the Appendix to these notes) which Hazlitt contributed to The Morning Chronicle, Oct. 15, 1813. The rest are taken from prefatory notices which he contributed to William Oxberry's The New English Drama (20 vols. 1818-1825), and are printed in the following notes. PAGE LECTURE I. INTRODUCTORY 8. The Tale of Slaukenbergius. Tristram Shandy, vol. IV. 9. There is something in the misfortunes, etc. Rochefoucault, Maximes et Réflexions Morales, CCXLI. 'They were talking, etc. Farquhar's Beaux' Stratagem, Act 111. Sc. 1. Lord Foppington. In The Relapse of Vanbrugh. See post, p. 82. 10. Aretine laughed himself to death, etc. The story is that while laughing at the jest Aretine fell from a stool and was killed. Sir Thomas More jested, etc. More bade the executioner stay till he had put aside his beard, 'for that,' he said, 'had never committed treason.' Rabelais and Wycherley. When Rabelais,' says Bacon (Apophthegms), 'the great jester of France, lay on his death-bed, and they gave him the extreme unction, a familiar friend came to him afterwards, and asked him how he did? Rabelais answered, "Even going my journey, they have greased my boots already." But his last words, uttered 'avec un éclat de rire,' were: 'Tirez le rideau, la farce est jouée.' It is said that Wycherley, on the night before he died, made his young wife promise that she would never marry an old man again. See a letter from Pope to Blount, Jan. 21, 1715-6 (Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, vi. 366). Pope, after telling the story, adds: 'I cannot help remarking that sickness, which often destroys both wit and wisdom, yet seldom has power to remove that talent which we call humour.' The dialogue between Aimwell and Gibbet. The Beaux' Stratagem, Act 11. Sc. 2. Mr. Emery's Robert Tyke. In Thomas Morton's School of Reform (1805). Cf. post, p. 391. PAGE 11. The Liar. By Samuel Foote (1762). The Busy Body. By Susannah Centlivre (1709). The history of hobby-horses. See Tristram Shandy, vol. 1. especially chaps. xxiv. and xxv. 'Ever lifted leg. Cf. 'A better never lifted leg.' Tam o' Shanter, 80. 12. Malvolio's punishment, etc. Twelfth Night, Act iv. Sc. 2. Christopher's Sly's drunken transformation. The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, Sc. 2. Parson Adams's fall, etc. See Joseph Andrews, Book 1. Chap. 7, Book iv. Chap. 14, and Book 11. Chap. 12. Baltimore House. In what is now Russell Square. 14. The author of the Ancient Mariner. Cf. a passage in the essay On Dreams' (Plain Speaker, vol. vii. pp. 23-24). Bishop Atterbury. See Pope's Works (ed. Elwin and Courthope), 1x. 21-4. As Mr. Austin Dobson, however, points out, it is not clear that the Arabian Nights are referred to. Atterbury speaks of Petit de la Croix' as 'the pretended author' of the tales, from which it would appear that the tales he found so hard to read were not the Arabian Nights, but the Contes Persans of Petit de la Croix, a translation of which Ambrose Philips had published in 1709. 'Favours secret, etc. Burns, Tam o' Shanter, 48. 'The soldiers, etc. Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 1. Horner, etc. Horner, in Wycherley's The Country Wife; Millamant, in Congreve's The Way of the World; Tattle and Miss Prue, in Congreve's Love for Love; Archer and Cherry, in Farquhar's The Beaux' Stratagem; Mrs. Amlet, in Vanbrugh's The Confederacy (see Act III. Sc. 1); Valentine and Angelica, in Love for Love; Miss Peggy, in Garrick's The Country Girl, adapted from The Country Wife; Anne Page, in The Merry Wives of Windsor (See Act 1. Sc. 1). 15. The age of comedy,' etc. An adaptation of Burke's famous 'But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever. (Reflections on the Revolution in France, Select Works, ed. Payne, 11. 89.) 'Accept a miracle, etc. By the poet Young. See Spence's Anecdotes, P. 378. 16. The sun had long since, etc. Hudibras, Part II., Canto 11. 29-38. 17. By this the northern waggoner, etc. The Faerie Queene, Book I., Canto II. St. I. 'At last, etc. Ibid. Book I., Canto v. St. 2. But now a sport, etc. Hudibras, Part I., Canto 1. 675-688. Mr. Sheridan's description, etc. In his speech on the Definitive Treaty of Peace, May 14, 1802. The sarcastic reply of Porson. According to Rogers (Dyce, Recollections of the 18. Compound for sins,' etc. Hudibras, Part I., Canto 1., 215-216. 'Now night descending,' etc. The Dunciad, 1. 89-90. 19. Harris. James Harris (1709-1780), author of Hermes, or a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Universal Grammar (1751). 20. A foregone conclusion. Othello, Act 111. Sc. 3. 'Comes in such,' etc. Hamlet, Act 1. Sc. 4. |