May 21, 1822.—On Sunday, while we (Hazlitt and myself) were with John Hunt,* he (Hazlitt) related two or three nice things about Jeffrey. One was a reply of his to Owen (of New Lanark), who had been relating to him something of a person who, on visiting his (Owen’s) place, seemed disposed chiefly to notice those of his people who were good-looking; on which Owen said, “Now,
* Then confined in Coldbath Fields Prison for a political offence. |
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On another occasion, when Owen was teazing Jeffrey about his system, Jeffrey said, “But Mr. Owen, according to all this that you are telling me, you, who are the founder and inventor of this system, on the supposition of its being capable of working these effects, ought to be the best man in the world. Now, to tell you the truth, I don’t see that you are any better than many other people that I know. And what,” added Jeffrey, “do you think he had the impudence to reply to this? Why, he bade me name the persons to whom I alluded; and when I did so he took exceptions to them, as persons not so good as himself.”
Speaking of Mrs.
Siddons and Miss
O’Neil, Hazlitt
said it was idle to compare them together; for, however excellent
Miss O’Neil might be, Mrs.
Siddons was above all excellence. He
added that he had said this to a party of Scotchmen at Edinburgh, and that
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Speaking of Walter Scott, he said that when he was in Edinburgh, Jeffrey had offered to introduce him (Hazlitt) to Scott, but that he declined. He said to Jeffrey, “I should be willing to kneel to him, but I could not take him by the hand.” Alluding to Scott’s political opinions and his supposed connexion with the Beacon and Blackwood’s Magazine.
He afterwards said of Walter Scott, “He seems to me to hang over Scottish literature just as Arthur’s Seat hangs over Edinburgh, like a great hulking lion.”*
Dined at ——’s with Hazlitt. He told
* I think he afterwards used this comparison in print. |
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It was A—— himself who
related this story of his own blundering impertinence, but related it purely as
an instance of court manners—of the want of gratitude in the marquis for the
kind interest that he (A——) had taken in his infirmities.
“As if,” said Hazlitt, “it were the place of the manager
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He told another story of A—— having taken some people to see Harlow’s copy of the Transfiguration (which Hazlitt described as very bad), and showing it to them as a prodigiously fine thing; but on one of the party (who told the story to Hazlitt) saying that he thought one of the heads, pointing to it, a very bad one, he (A——) replied, “Oh, I don’t mean to say that the heads are good. I’m not praising the Transfiguration. I don’t think anything of that; it is the copy that I speak of as inimitable. Its faults are the faults of the original.”
He related another story of the same person (whom he
described as a singular embodiment of self-sufficient impertinence). On
entering a room at a friend’s house, where two or three persons were
collected round a picture, seemingly intent on admiring it, A—— walked towards the picture, but before he
had got half way to it, stopped and looked: “Ay,” said he,
“I see—a copy, evidently. I can see that from the cracks in
| WILLIAM HAZLITT. | 25 |
Speaking of having just called on Andrews about a volume of Maxims that he was writing, he said Andrews had spoken of his (Hazlitt’s) article about the Fight (between Neate and the Gas Man) in the New Monthly, and seemed to think it was unrivalled in its way. P—— said, jokingly, “You mustn’t reckon too much on his opinion; for it may have a rival before long:” alluding jestingly to one that he (P.) was writing on the same subject. “Why,” he said, “I am not going to write another!”
He had just dined with Haydon, and related one or two things told by him
(Haydon) that passed at a dinner at
C——’s, where Y——, the tragedian, was present. Speaking of a recent
performance of his, which, by his own account, he had got through very
indifferently, he said quite seriously, “But, in fact, I have a kind
of feverette upon me
| 26 | WILLIAM HAZLITT. |
Speaking of the American character, Hazlitt related a story told him by ——, illustrating their coolness under uncommon circumstances. He was spending an evening with an American family, when a young man was shown into the room. On his entering, the master of the house got up and went to him, saying, “Ah, George, how do you do?” The young man replied that he was very well, and then took his seat among
* Hazlitt afterwards related these two stories of Y—— to Northcote, and has reported (in the Boswell Redivivus) N.’s characteristic commentary on the latter of them. “Good God!” exclaimed N., “did he consider this as a matter of wonder, that, after showing himself as a sign for a number of years, people should know his face? If an artist or an author were recognised in that manner, it might be a proof of celebrity; but as to an actor, a fellow who had stood in the pillory might as well be proud of being pointed at.” |
| WILLIAM HAZLITT. | 27 |
