CHAPTER PAGE
CHRONOLOGY OF HAZLITT'S LIFE AND WRITINGS ix
INTRODUCTION xi
I. THE AGE OF ELIZABETH 1
II. SPENSER 21
III. SHAKSPEARE 34
IV. THE CHARACTERS OF SHAKSPEARE'S PLAYS CYMBELINE 50 MACBETH 60 IAGO 72 HAMLET 76 ROMEO AND JULIET 84 MIDSUMMERNIGHT'S DREAM 85 FALSTAFF 88 TWELFTH NIGHT 96
V. MILTON 101
VI. POPE 118
VII. ON THE PERIODICAL ESSAYISTS 133
VIII. THE ENGLISH NOVELISTS 155
IX. CHARACTER OF MR. BURKE 172
X. MR. WORDSWORTH 191
XI. MR. COLERIDGE 205
XII. MR. SOUTHEY 216
XIII. ELIA 220
XIV. SIR WALTER SCOTT 227
XV. LORD BYRON 236
XVI. ON POETRY IN GENERAL 251
XVII. MY FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH POETS 277
XVIII. ON THE CONVERSATION OF AUTHORS 301
XIX. OF PERSONS ONE WOULD WISH TO HAVE SEEN 315
XX. ON READING OLD BOOKS 333
NOTES 349
CHRONOLOGY OF HAZLITT'S LIFE AND WRITINGS
1778 William Hazlitt born at Maidstone in Kent, April 10.
1783-1786 Residence in America.
1787 ff. Residence at Wem in Shropshire.
1793-1794 Student in the Hackney Theological College.
1798 Meeting with Coleridge and Wordsworth.
1798?-1805 Study and practice of painting.
1802 Visit to Paris.
1805 Essay on the Principles of Human Action.
1806 Free Thoughts on Public Affairs.
1807 An Abridgment of the Light of Nature Revealed, by Abraham Tucker.
Reply to the Essay on Population by the Rev. T. R. Malthus.
Eloquence of the British Senate.
1808 Marriage with Sarah Stoddart and settlement at Winterslow.
1810 A New and Improved Grammar of the English Tongue.
1812 Removal to London.--Lectures on philosophy at the Russell Institution.
1812-1814 On the staff of the Morning Chronicle.
1814 Begins contributing to the Champion, Examiner, and the Edinburgh Review.
1816 Memoirs of the Late Thomas Holcroft.
1817 The Round Table.
The Characters of Shakespeare's Plays.
1818 A View of the English Stage.
Lectures on the English Poets. (Delivered at the Surrey Institution.)
1819 Lectures on the English Comic Writers. (Delivered at the Surrey Institution at the close of 1818.)
A Letter to William Gifford Esq., from William Hazlitt Esq.
Political Essays.
1820 Lectures on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth. (Delivered at the Surrey Institution at the close of 1819.)
Joins the staff of the London Magazine.
1821-22 Table Talk, or Original Essays (2 volumes).
1822 Episode of Sarah Walker.--Journey to Scotland to obtain a divorce from his wife.
1823 Liber Amoris, or the New Pygmalion.
Characteristics in the Manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims.
1824 Sketches of the Principal Picture-Galleries in England.
Select British Poets.
Marriage with Mrs. Bridgewater.--Tour of the Continent.
1825 The Spirit of the Age.
1826 Notes of a Journey through France and Italy.
The Plain Speaker, Opinions on Books, Men, and Things (2 volumes).
1828-1830 Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (4 volumes).
1830 Conversations of James Northcote.
Death of William Hazlitt, September 18.