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
Has Mr. Murray turned Quaker, that he styles himself John Murray (‘Mark
you his absolute John?‘) in the title-page? Or has Mr. Southey resigned
his place and his pretensions, that he omits in the same page his
honorary titles of Poet-Laureate and Member of the Royal Spanish
Academy? We cannot tell; but we should think it some sign of grace, if,
without a hint from the Lord Chamberlain, he had for a while laid by his
tattered laurel and spattered birth-day suit: if, as the Commander in
Chief retired after the droll affair of Mrs. Clarke (we are not such
rigid moralists as Mr. Southey) the Poet-Laureate had thought proper to
veil his blushing court favours during the dramatic representation of
_Wat Tyler_, and did not consider it either prudent or becoming to be
seen going to or coming from Carlton-house with the mob, ‘the reading
rabble,’ at his heels, and with a shower of twopenny pamphlets sticking
to the skirts of his turned coat. Poor _Morgan_, the honest Welchman in
_Roderic Random_, reeking with the fumes of tobacco and garlic, was not
more offensive to the sensitive organs of _Captain Whiffle_, than Mr.
Southey must be to the nice feelings of an exalted Personage, reeking
with the fumes of Jacobinism, and rolled, as he has been, in the kennel
of the newspaper press. A voyage to Italy, a classical quarantine of a
year or two, with the Pope’s blessing, seems absolutely necessary to
wipe out the stains of his _Wat Tyler_, ‘as pure as sin with baptism’;
and to restore him to the vows of Prince and People as smug as a young
novice in a monastery, and sweet as any waiting-gentlewoman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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