The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 01 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
General
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 01 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
‘Gallaspy was the tallest and strongest man I have ever seen, well made,
and very handsome: had wit and abilities, sung well, and talked with
great sweetness and fluency, but was so extremely wicked that it were
better for him if he had been a natural fool. By his vast strength and
activity, his riches and eloquence, few things could withstand him. He
was the most profane swearer I have known: fought every thing, whored
every thing, and drank seven in hand: that is, seven glasses so placed
between the fingers of his right hand, that, in drinking, the liquor
fell into the next glasses, and thereby he drank out of the first glass
seven glasses at once. This was a common thing, I find from a book in my
possession, in the reign of Charles II., in the madness that followed
the restoration of that profligate and worthless prince.[42] But this
gentleman was the only man I ever saw who could or would attempt to do
it; and he made but one gulp of whatever he drank. He did not swallow a
fluid like other people, but if it was a quart, poured it in as from
pitcher to pitcher. When he smoked tobacco, he always blew two pipes at
once, one at each corner of his mouth, and threw the smoke out at both
his nostrils. He had killed two men in duels before I left Ireland, and
would have been hanged, but that it was his good fortune to be tried
before a judge who never let any man suffer for killing another in this
manner. (This was the late Sir John St. Leger.) He debauched all the
women he could, and many whom he could not corrupt....’ The rest of this
passage would, we fear, be too rich for the Round Table, as we cannot
insert it, in the manner of Mr. Buncle, in a sandwich of theology.
Suffice it to say, that the candour is greater than the candour of
Voltaire’s _Candide_, and the modesty equal to Colley Cibber’s.
To his friend Mr. Gollogher, he consecrates the following irresistible
_petit souvenir_:
‘He might, if he had pleased, have married any one of the most
illustrious and richest women in the kingdom; but he had an aversion to
matrimony, and could not bear the thoughts of a wife. Love and a bottle
were his taste: he was, however, the most honourable of men in his
amours, and never abandoned any woman in distress, as too many men of
fortune do, when they have gratified desire. All the distressed were
ever sharers in Mr. Gollogher’s fine estate, and especially the girls he
had taken to his breast. He provided happily for them all, and left
nineteen daughters he had by several women, a thousand pounds each. This
was acting with a temper worthy of a man; _and to the memory of the
benevolent Tom Gollogher, I devote this memorandum_.’
Lest our readers should form rather a coarse idea of our author from the
foregoing passages, we will conclude with another list of friends in a
different style:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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