NOTES LECTURES ON THE ENGLISH POETS I. ON POETRY IN GENERAL Any differences between the text quoted by Hazlitt and the texts used for the purposes of these notes which seem worth pointing out are indicated in square brackets. For Sergeant Talfourd's impressions of these lectures, and other matters of interest connected with their delivery, the reader may be referred to the Memoirs of William Hazlitt, vol. i., pp. 236 et seq. PAGE 1. Spreads its sweet leaves. Romeo and Juliet, 1. I. 2. The stuff of which our life is made. Cf. The Tempest, IV. I. Mere oblivion. As You Like It, 11. 7. Man's life is poor as beast's. King Lear, 11.4. [Man's life's as cheap as beast's.'] There is warrant for it. Cf. Richard III., 1. 4, and Macbeth, 11. 3. Such seething brains and the lunatic. A Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1. 3. Angelica and Medoro. Characters in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1516). Plato banished the poets. The Republic, Book x. Ecstasy is very cunning in. Hamlet, 111. 4. According to Lord Bacon. An adaptation of a passage in the Advancement of 4. Our eyes are made the fools. Macbeth, 11. 1. That if it would but apprehend. A Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1. For they are old. Cf. King Lear, 11. 4. 5. Nothing but his unkind daughters. King Lear, 111. 4. [Could have subdued nature to such a lowness.'] The little dogs. King Lear, 111. 6. So I am. King Lear, Iv. 7. O now for ever. Othello, 111. 3. 6. Never, Iago. Othello, 111. 3. But there where I have garner'd. Othello, iv. 2. Moore. Edward Moore (1712-1757), author of The Gamester (1753). Lillo. George Lillo (1693-1739), author of The London Merchant, or the 7. As Mr. Burke observes. Sublime and Beautiful, Part 1. § 15. Masterless passion. Merchant of Venice, xv. 1. ['for affection, Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood.'] Satisfaction to the thought. Cf. Othello, 111. 3. 8. Now night descending. Dunciad, 1. 89, 90. PAGE 8. Throw him on the steep. Ode to Fear. ['ridgy steep Of some loose hanging rock to sleep.'] Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend. King Lear, 1. 4. Both at the first and now. Hamlet, 111. 2. ['More hideous, 9. Doctor Chalmers's Discoveries. Thomas Chalmers, D.D. (1780-1847), who sought in his A Series of Discourses on the Christian Revelation, viewed in connection with Modern Astronomy (1817), to reconcile science with current conceptions of Christianity. See The Spirit of the Age, vol. 1. p. 228 and note. 10. Bandit fierce. Comus, 1. 426. Our fell of hair. Macbeth, v. 5. Macbeth. for the sake of the music. Probably Purcell's. It was written for D'Avenant's version and produced in 1672 (Genest). Cf. The Round Table, vol. 1. p. 138 and note. Between the acting. Julius Caesar, 11. 1. [The Genius and the mortal instruments.'] 11. Thoughts that voluntary move. Paradise Lost, 111. 37, 38. The words of Mercury. Love's Labour's Lost, v. 11. [The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo.'] So from the ground. Faery Queene, 1. vi. ['With doubled Eccho.'] 12. The secret soul of harmony. L'Allegro, 1. 144. [The hidden soul of harmony.'] The golden cadences of poetry. Love's Labour's Lost, IV. 2. Sailing with supreme dominion. Gray's Progress of Poesy, 11. 3. 13. Sounding always. Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, 1. 275. Addison's Campaign. 1705. Addison wrote it on Marlborough's victory of 14. Married to immortal verse. L'Allegro, l. 137. Dipped in dews of Castalie. Cf. T. Heywood's, And Jonson, though his learned pen Was dipt in Castaly, is still but Ben.' The most beautiful of all the Greek tragedies. Sophocles's Philoctetes. As I walked about. Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Part I. p. 125, ed. G. A. Aitken. 15. Give an echo. Twelfth Night, 11. 4. Our poesy. Timon of Athens, 1. 1. [Which oozes."] 16. All plumed like ostriches. Adapted from the First Part of King Henry IV., Iv. 1. [As full of spirit as the month of May.'] If we fly into the uttermost parts of the earth. Cf. Psalms, cxxxix. 9-11. 18. Pope Anastasius the Sixth. Inferno, XI. Count Ugolino. Inferno, XXXIII. Neither was Lamb satisfied with the concep tion. See his paper on 'The Reynolds Gallery' in The Examiner, June 6, 1813. The lamentation of Selma. Colma's lament in the Songs of Selma. III. ON CHAUCER AND SPENSER. The Chaucer and Spenser references throughout are to Skeat's Student's Chaucer, and to the Globe Edition of Spenser (Morris and Hales). 19. Chaucer. Modern authorities date Chaucer's birth from 1340. It is no longer held as true that he had an university education. The story of his plot against the king, his flight and his imprisonment, is also legendary. 384 PAGE 20. Close pent up, and the next quotation. King Lear, 111. 2. And as the new abashed nightingale. Troilus and Criseyde, 111. 177. 21. That stondeth at a gap. Have ye not seen. The Tale of the Man of Law,' 645-51. Swiche sorrow he maketh. 22. Babbling gossip of the air. There was also a nonne. The Knightes Tale,' 1277-80. "The Prologue,' 118-129 [Entuned in hir nose ful semely']; 137-155 [And held after the newe world the space']; Chaucer, it has been said, numbered the classes of men. Cf. Wm. Blake's Descriptive Catalogue, III. 'As Newton numbered the stars, and as Linnaeus numbered the plants, so Chaucer numbered the classes of men.' A Sompnoure. lbid. 623-41. ['Children were aferd,' 'oynons, and eek lekes,' 'A ́fewe termes hadde he']; 663-669. 25. Ther maist thou se. "The Knightes Tale,' 2128-2151; 2155-2178; 2185-6. 27. The Flower and the Leaf. Most modern scholars regard the evidence which attributes this poem to Chaucer as insufficient. The same few words of Hazlitt's were originally used in The Round Table, 'Why the Arts are not Progressive? vol. 1. p. 162. 28. Griselda. The Clerkes Tale.' See The Round Table, vol. 1. p. 162. The faith of Constance. The Tale of the Man of Law.' 29. Oh Alma redemptoris mater. 'The Prioress's Tale.' Whan that Arcite. "The Knightes Tale,' 1355-71. ['His hewe falwe.'] 30. The three temples, ll. 1918-2092. Dryden's version, i.e. his 'Palamon and Arcite.' Why shulde I not. The statue of Mars. 'The Knightes Tale,' 1967-9, 1972-80. ['In which ther Ibid. 2041-2, 2047-8. Let me not like a worm. "Heave thou no sigh, nor shed a tear,' Prior: Answer to 'The Clerkes Tale,' 1. 880. 31. Nought fer fro thilke paleis honourable. Ibid. 197-245. ['Sette his ye']; 274-94 [Hir threshold goon ']. 32. All conscience and tender heart. 'The Prologue,' 150. From grave to gay. Pope, Essay on Man, Ep. iv. 380. 33. The Cock and the Fox. The Nonne Preestes Tale of the Cok and Hen.' January and May. The Marchantes Tale.' The story of the three thieves. The Pardoners Tale.' Mr. West. Benjamin West (1738-1820). See the article on this picture by Hazlitt in The Edinburgh Magazine, Dec. 1817, where the same extract is quoted. · 34. Ne Deth, alas. The Marchantes Tale,' 727-38. VOL. V.: 2 B 385 PAGE 34. Occieve. Thomas Hoccleve or Occleve (b. 1368), who expressed his grief at his master dear' Chaucer's death in his version of De Regimine Principum. Ancient Gower. John Gower (1330-1408), who wrote Confessio Amantis (1392-3), and to whom Chaucer dedicated ('O moral Gower") his Tratas and Criseyde. See Pericles, I. Lydgate. John Lydgate (c. 1370-c. 1440), poet and imitator of Chaucer. Sir John Davies (1569-1626), poet and statesman. Spenser was sent to The bog of Alian. The Faerie Queene, Book II. Canto Ix. An obscure inn. In King Street, Westminster, Jan. 13, 1599. The treatment he received from Burleigh. It has been suggested that the dis- 35. Clap on high. The Faerie Queene, III. XII. 23. I. VII. 32. The incidents mentioned will be found in 36. And mask, and antique pageantry. The whiles some one did chaunt. 38. The House of Pride. I. IV. L'Allegro, 128. Julius Caesar, 11. 1. [To read what manner.'] II. VII. 28-50. I. IX. 33-35. The Cave of Mammon. II. 1x. 56. III. VII. 12. The gardens of Adonis. III. vi. 29. The Bower of Bliss. II. XII. 42. Poussin's pictures. Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). See Hazlitt's Table Talk, vol. vi. p. 168, et seq. And eke that stranger knight. III. 1x. 20. Her hair was sprinkled with flowers. II. 111. 30. The cold icicles. III. viii. 35. [Ivory breast.']. That was Arion crowned. IV. XI. line 3, stanza 23, and line 1, stanza 24. 39. And by his side rode loathsome Gluttony. I. IV. 21-2. [In shape and life.'] And next to him rode lustfull Lechery. lbid. 24-6. 40. Yet not more sweet. The first was Fancy. III. XII. 7-13, 22-3. [Next after her.'] Carmen Nuptiale, The Lay of the Laureate (1816), xviii. 4-6. 42. The account of Satyrane. I. vi. 24. Go seek some other play-fellows. Stanza 28. 386 [Go find.'] PAGE 42. By the help of his fayre horns. III. x. 47. The change of Malbecco into Jealousy. III. x. 56-60. That all with one consent. Trous and Cressida, 111. 3. 43. High over hill. III. x. 55. Pipe, who used to ask. In view of this remark, it may be of interest to quote the following passage from Spence's „Anecdotes (pp. 296-7, 1820; Section viii, 1743-4): There is something in Spenser that pleases one as strongly in one's old age, as it did in one's youth. I read the Faerie Queene, when I was about twelve, with infinite delight, and I think it gave me as much, when I read it over about a year or two ago.' The account of Talus, the Iron Man. V. 1. 12. The .. Episode of Pastorella. VI. 1x. 12. ... 44. In many a winding bout. L'Allegro, 139-140. III. ON SHAKSPEARE AND MILTON The references are to the Globe Edition of Shakespeare, and Masson's threevolume edition of Milton's Poetical Works. See The Round Table, On Milton's Versification,' vol. i. pp. 36 et seq., for passages used again for the purposes of this lecture. See also ibid. 'Why the Arts are not Progressive?' pp. 160 et seq, and notes to those two Essays. PAGE 46. The human face divine. Paradise Lost, 111. 44. And made a sunshine in the shady place. Faerie Queene, I. m. 4. The fault has been more in their [is not in our] stars. Cf. Julius Caesar, 1. 2. 47. A mind reflecting ages past. See vol. iv. notes to p. All corners of the earth. Cymbeline, 111. iv. Nodded to him. A Midsummer Night's Dream, 11I. I. His so potent art. Tempest, v. 1. 213. 48. Subject [servile] to the same [all] skyey influences. Measure for Measure, 111. 1. His frequent haunts [ my daily walks ']. Comus, 314. Coheres semblably together. Cf. 2 Henry IV., v. 1. Me and thy crying self. The Tempest, 1. 2. What, man! ne'er pull your hat. Macbeth, xv. 3. Man delights not me, and the following quotation. Adapted from Hamlet, 11. 2. A combination and a form. Hamlet, 111. 4. 49. My lord, as I was reading [sewing]. Hamlet, 11. 1. ['His stockings foul'd... so piteous in purport... loosed out of hell.'] There is a willow ['grows aslant']. Hamlet, iv. 7. 50. He's speaking now. Antony and Cleopatra, 1. 5. It is my birth-day. Antony and Cleopatra, 111. 13. 51. Nigh sphered in Heaven. Collins's Ode on the Poetical Character, 66. To make society the sweeter welcome. Macbeth, 11. 1. 52. With a little act upon the blood [burn] like the mines of sulphur. Othello, 111. 3. [Syrups of the world.']. Troilus and Cressida, 1. 3. While 'That glorious star In its untroubled element will shine, As now it shines, when we are laid in earth And safe from all our sorrows.' Wordsworth, The Excursion, vi. 763-66. |