Table-Talk by William Hazlitt (best pdf reader for ebooks txt) 📕

Spectator’s time, sat in the two-shilling gallery. But that was in the Spectator’s time, and not in the days of Mr. Smirke and Mr. Wyatt. ↩

Jack Cade’s salutation to one who tries to recommend himself by saying he can write and read⁠—see Henry VI Part Second. ↩

It is calculated that West cleared some hundred pounds by the catalogues that were sold of his great picture of Death riding on the Pale Horse. ↩

I cannot say how in this respect it might have fared if a Mr. Mudford, a fat gentleman, who might not have “liked yon lean and hungry Roscius,” had continued in the theatrical department of Mr. Perry’s paper at the time of this actor’s first appearance; but I had been put upon this duty just before, and afterwards Mr. Mudford’s spare talents were not in much request. This, I believe, is the reason why he takes pains every now and then to inform the readers of the Courier that it is impossible for anyone to understand a word that I write. ↩

I (not very long ago) had the pleasure of spending an evening with Mr. Betty, when we had some “good talk” about the good old times of acting. I wanted to insinuate that I had been a sneaking admirer, but could not bring it in. As, however, we were putting on our greatcoats downstairs, I ventured to break the ice by saying, “There is one actor of that period of whom we have not made honourable mention, I mean Master Betty.” “Oh!” he said, “I have forgot all that.” I replied, that he might, but that I could not forget the pleasure I had had in seeing him. On which he turned off, and, shaking his sides heartily, and with no measured demand upon his lungs, called out, “Oh, memory! memory!” in a way that showed he felt the full force of the allusion. I found afterwards that the subject did not offend, and we were to have drunk some Burton ale together the following evening, but were prevented. I hope he will consider that the engagement still stands good. ↩

Sir Joshua, who was not a vain man, purchased a tawdry sheriff’s carriage, soon after he took his house in Leicester Fields, and desired his sister to ride about in it, in order that people might ask, “Whose it was?” and the answer would be, “It belongs to the great painter!” ↩

Sharp became a great favourite of the king on the following occasion. It was the custom, when the king went through the lobbies of the palace, for those who preceded him to cry out, “Sharp, sharp, look sharp!” in order to clear the way. Mr. Sharp, who was waiting in a room just by (preparing some colours), hearing his name repeated so urgently, ran out in great haste, and came up with all his force against the king, who was passing the door at the time. The young artist was knocked down in the encounter, and the attendants were in the greatest consternation; but the king laughed heartily at the adventure, and took great notice of the unfortunate subject of it from that time forward. ↩

“It is not a year or two shows us a man.” —⁠Aemilia, in Othello ↩

The bones of the murdered man were dug up in an old hermitage. On this, as one instance of the acuteness which he displayed all through the occasion, Aram remarks, “Where would you expect to find the bones of a man sooner than in a hermit’s cell, except you were to look for them in a cemetery?” —⁠See Newgate Calendar for the year 1758 or 1759 ↩

“And surely Mandricardo was no baby.” —⁠Harrington’s Ariosto ↩

“All men think all men mortal but themselves.” —⁠Young ↩

I remember once, In particular, having this feeling in reading Schiller’s Don Carlos, where there is a description of death, in a degree that almost stifled me. ↩

It has been usual to raise a very unjust clamour against the enormous salaries of public singers, actors, and so on. This matter seems reducible to a moral equation. They are paid out of money raised by voluntary contributions in the strictest sense; and if they did not bring certain sums into the treasury, the managers would not engage them. These sums are exactly in proportion to the number of individuals to whom their performance gives an extraordinary degree of pleasure. The talents of a singer, actor, etc., are therefore worth just as much as they will fetch. ↩

Colophon

Table-Talk
was published between 1821 and 1822 by
William Hazlitt.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Alex Cabal,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2009 by
Christopher Hapka and David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at
Google Books.

The cover page is adapted from
Blind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun,
a painting completed in 1658 by
Nicolas Poussin.
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