The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 03 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
General
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 03 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
of youth; the other adopts those prejudices which are most conducive to
the convenience of age: the one saw nothing but the abuses of power; the
other sees nothing but the horrors of resistance to those abuses: the
one did not stop short of general anarchy; the other goes the whole
length of despotism; the one vilified kings, priests, and nobles; the
other vilifies the people: the one was for universal suffrage and
perfect equality; the other is for seat-selling, and the increasing
influence of the Crown: the one admired the preaching of John Ball; the
other recommends the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus, and the putting
down of the _Examiner_ by the sword, the dagger, or the thumb-screw; for
the pen, Mr. Southey tells us, is not sufficient. We wonder that in all
this contempt which our prose-poet has felt at different times for
different persons and things, he has never felt any dissatisfaction with
himself, or distrust of his own infallibility. Our differing from others
sometimes staggers our confidence in our own conclusions: if we had been
chargeable with as many contradictions as Mr. Southey, we suppose we
should have had the same senseless self-sufficiency. A changeling is
your only oracle. Those who have undergone a total change of sentiment
on important questions, ought certainly to learn modesty in themselves,
and moderation towards others; on the contrary, they are generally the
most violent in their own opinions, and the most intolerant towards
others; the reason of which we have shewn elsewhere, to the satisfaction
of the proprietor of the _Old Times_. Before we have done, we shall,
perhaps, do the same thing to the satisfaction of the publisher of the
Quarterly Review; for the Mr. Murrays and the Mr. Walters, the patrons
of the band of gentlemen-pensioners and servile authors, have ‘a sort of
squint’ in their understanding, and look less to the dirty sacrifices of
their drudges, or the dirtier they are ready to make, than to their
standing well with that great keeper, the public, for purity and
innocence. The band of gentlemen-pensioners and servile authors do not
know what to make of this, and hardly believe it: we shall in time
convince them.
But to proceed to our extracts:—
MORCEAU I.
_Wat Tyler._ Hob—I have only six groats in the world,
And they must soon by law be taken from me.
_Hob._ Curse on these taxes—one succeeds another—
Our ministers—panders of a king’s will—
Drain all our wealth away—waste it in revels—
And lure or force away our boys, who should be
The props of our old age!—to fill their armies,
And feed the crows of France! Year follows year,
And still we madly prosecute the war;—
Draining our wealth—distressing our poor peasants—
Slaughtering our youths—and all to crown our Chiefs
With glory!—I detest the hell-sprung name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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