The Sun.
London, England, 1836-06-30 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

LITERARY REMAINS OF THE LATE
WILLIAM HAZLITT.
In Two Vols. London : Saunders and Otley. 1836.
Prefixed to this collection of essays, some of which
are finer than any contained in Hazlitt's " Table-talk"
and " Plain-speaker," is " a biographical Sketch of the
Author's Life, by his Son ; Some Thoughts on
the Genius of Hazlitt, by Mr. E. L. Bulwer ; and,
a Dissertation on his Intellectual Character, by
Mr. Sergeant Talfourd. The public, we are con-
fident, will be pleased with the way in which the
younger Mr. Hazlitt has performed this sacred duty to
the memory of his father. With every disposition to
do justice to the intellectual character of an author
misunderstood and under-rated during his life-time,
and to vindicate the moral worth of a man whose re-
pulsive manners, perhaps, even more than his casual
frailties, exposed to the most cruel calumnies, Mr.
Hazlitt carefully avoids running into the opposite ex-
treme, by attempting any laboured panegyric on the
genius or the virtues of his illustrious parent. With
a few allowances for the tender relationship between
the object of this biographical sketch and the writer of
it—allowances which we are confident will be cheer-
fully made—we may safely pronounce this notice of
Hazlitt's life as a most impartial epitome of his per-
sonal history.
Of the Essays on the Genius of Hazlitt, by lAr.
Bulwer and Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, that by the author
of " Ion" is the more laboured, and enters more fully
into an examination of the peculiar powers and faculties
of his mind. Mr. Bulwer considers bins chiefly in
the light of a critic ; Mr. Sergeant Talfourd in that of
a critic, a philosopher, and a politician. By Mr. Bul-
wer his criticisms on Shakspeare are regarded as mas-
ter-pieces ; in the judgment of Mr. Sergeant Talfourd
they are secondary in merit, originality, and power to se-
veral of his other works. We shall here quote a striki pg
instance of this discrepancy of opinion ; and we s:nall
take " Shakspeare's Plays" as the more tangil,te and
intelligible to every class of readers. Mr. Bulwer, in
descanting upon Cie peculiar powers of Hazlitt as 3
critic, and more particularly upon " the wonderful sub-
tlety with which he possessed hiroself of the intentions
of the author," says :
" Thus especially in his ' Characters of Shakspeare'o
Plays,' he seizes at once upon the ruling principle of each,
with an ease, a carelessness, a quiet and unstrained fi-
delity,' which proves bow familiarly he dwelt upon the
secret he bad mastered. He is, in these sketches, less elo-
quent and less refining than Schlegel, but it is because la
has gazed away the first wonder that dazzles and inspires
his rival. He has made himself household with Shakspeare'
and his full and entire confidence that he understands tbo
mysteries of the host in whose dwelling-place he has tar-
ried, gives his elucidations, short and sketch-like theY
are, the almost unconscious simplicity of a man explainia
the true motives of the friend he has known. Thus
the character of Hamlet,' on which so many have been
bewildered, and so many have been eloquent, he emploP
little or nothing of the lavish and exuberant diction, or the
elaborate spirit of conjecture that he can command at 'sol
l.
He utters his dogmas as unpretendingly as if they Were
common-places, and it is scarcely till he brings the charac-
ter of • Hamlet,' as conceived by him, into suddenlden contra.it
with the delineation of the two master actors of his time,
that you perceive bow new and irresistible are his COw'
elusions."
Mr. Bulwer then goes on to prove the correctoes:
of his impressions and convictions by copious extract.,
from Hazlitt's criticisms on " Hamlet," " Romeo and
Juliet," &c., particularly dwelling upon the last as _
criticism worthy of the great original. Referring w
the same work, Mr. Sergeant Talfourd observes
" Of Shakspeare's genius Mr. Hazlitt has written lars_c;.,„,'
and well ; but there is more felicity in his incidental re!,,
rences to this great subject, than in those elaborate
upon it, which fill the volume entitled 'Characters of 5b.,".0
speare's Plays.' In reading them we are fatigued by
.tit'it
perpetual eulogy—not because we deem it excessive, :_o
because we observe in it a constant straining to express
admiration too vast for any style. There is so much
gested by.the poet to each individual mind, which bleuato
with and colours its own most profound meditatioinsav:
dearest feelings, without assuming a distinct form, t
resent the laborious efforts of another to body forth
.c:te
own ideas of our common inheritance, unless they shileil,„ol„
themselves by entire success, as intruding on.
glancet n ft
ground of our own thoughts. Mr. Lamb's brief
a_
"0
Lear' is the only instance of a commentary on Je?
ies
tre-
tS, Shakspeare's- s
entirelyea r e 's
worthyfour gorfe
taitietor
raiggeind
conWerr
to prolong, and even to heighten, the feeling of the
mendons scenes to which it applies, and to make
• ,se cleariY.
long cherished as they were, by the huge image
roam
sation for displacing our own dim and faint concep!iorns,e_
apP_
ea_ , oft
al ;
fleeted in another's mind. There is nothing
lavnhdichthies,eirtalepeprsont°s
to this excellence in Mr. Hazlitt's account 0f.;,31-,cilwt
giving In despll ;
,if
grcatadequate
• klamlet,' of Othello,' or Macbeth.'
Hel piles
otibis
on epithet in a vain attempt to reach " the
e ,
breathe nu
for here, unable to find language which
playmaa%yvakcns, he at-
Nor is his essay on Romeo and Juliet' more sm., 1".1.
sense of love and joy which which tlg:
;exporretsrsillo(l'istowlittil: ot%hvliet sftelielitencgts'
?:pary of ot'rf.
lity in Early Childhood,' because it refers
to the dawn 0t
intellectual being to a season antecedent
tacks Wordsworth's Ode on the Intfinrisatitoinies of 14.1norta-
dard for the loos.
passion ; as if there was any commot! s
•„; tlte essece, and !ll'•
ever volu";jrYt•
ad not trutii "Jt.
plays
moved harmonious numbers .' as if eachwieoh in the grocjo-
nob deliciousl
noblest t roafi n o allf
philosophic 1 which
they which
I
its own ; or as if there was not roomi et
reduced, by
world of poetry fo-,. both! When .
scious inabil,,y to grasp the s
d jutting frecze.er esti-
he iost ; but wherever he.
fouwn reflections as wool_
nice' to lodge the store of 1u.5,0
Coriolanus' was
mating the aristocratic pride of
object.,
_ltnituosvague declaniatcoluer..