William Hazlitt

The son of a Unitarian minister, William Hazlitt was born at Maidstone in Kent and educated for the ministry at Hackney College (1793-94). He began as a painter, a profession he abandoned for journalism. Hazlitt lectured at the Russell Institution and Surrey Institution, wrote drama criticism for the Morning Chronicle (1814), and contributed to Leigh Hunt's Examiner and to the London Magazine and New Monthly Magazine. His Shakespeare lectures were much admired and his sketches of contemporary writers in his Spirit of the Age (1825) would prove influential.

TEXT RECORDS:

1815Review of Sismondi's De la Litterature du Midi d'un l'Europe.
1815The Round Table. No. 16. ["On Milton's Versification."]
1816The Round Table No. 42. ["On the Character of Milton's Eve."]
1817Review of Coleridge's Biographia Literaria.
1818Lecture II. On Chaucer and Spenser.
1818Lecture III. On Shakespeare and Milton.
1824Select British Poets: Edmund Spenser.
1825The Spirit of the Age: William Godwin.
1826Of Persons one would wish to have seen.

PUBLICATIONS:

An essay on the principles of human action. 1805.
Free thoughts on public affairs: or advice to a patriot. 1806.
Tucker, An abridgment of the Light of nature pursued [ed. Hazlitt]. 1807.
The eloquence of the British senate. 2 vols, 1807.
A reply to the Essay on population by the Rev. T. R. Malthus. 1807.
A new and improved grammar of the English tongue for the use of schools. 1810.
Memoirs of the late Thomas Holcroft. 3 vols, 1816.
The round table: a collection of essays on literature, men, and manners [with Hunt]. 2 vols, 1817.
Characters of Shakespeare's plays. 1817.
A view of the English stage: or a series of dramatic criticisms. 1818.
Lectures on the English poets. 1818.
A letter to William Gifford, esq. 1819.
Lectures on the English comic writers. 1819.
Political essays, with sketches of public characters. 1819.
Lectures chiefly on the dramatic literature of the age of Elizabeth. 1820.
Table-talk: or original essays. 2 vols, 1821-22.
Liber amoris: or the new Pygmalion. 1823.
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims. 1823.
Sketches of the principal picture galleries in England, with a criticism on Marriage a la mode. 1824.
Select British poets: or new elegant extracts from Chaucer to the present time, with critical remarks. 1824, 1825.
The spirit of the age: or contemporary portraits. 1825.
The plain speaker: opinions on books, men, and things. 2 vols, 1826.
Notes of a journey through France and Italy. 1826.
The life of Napoleon Buonoparte. 4 vols, 1828-30.
Conversations of James Northcote esq. 1830.
Literary remains of the late William Hazlitt, with a notice of his life by his son. 2 vols, 1836.
Sketches and essays, now first collected by his son. 1839.
Criticisms on art, and sketches of the picture galleries of England. 1843-44.
Winterslow: essays and characters written there. 1850.
Memoirs of Hazlitt, with portions of his correspondence. 2 vols, 1867.
The complete works, ed. P. P. Howe. 21 vols, 1930-34.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Unitarian
Dissenter

Hackney College
Dissenting academy

painter
essayist
journalist

The Morning Chronicle
The Champion
Yellow Dwarf
The Examiner
The Liberal
Edinburgh Review
Edinburgh Magazine
London Magazine
The Monthly Magazine
New Monthly Magazine

Thomas Barnes
Lord Byron
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Barron Field
William Godwin
Benjamin Robert Haydon
Thomas Hood
John Keats
Thomas Holcroft
Leigh Hunt
Charles Lamb
Bryan Waller Procter
John Hamilton Reynolds
Henry Crabb Robinson
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Horace Smith
John Thelwall

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; CBEL (3rd Ed.); DLB.

Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); "William Hazlitt and his School" Analectic Magazine [Philadelphia] NS 12 (September 1818) 201-19; "Notice of a Course of Lectures" Blackwood's Magazine 2 (February 1818) 556-62, (March 1818) 679-84 (April 1818) 71-75; "On the Cockney School of Prose Writers" New Monthly Magazine 10 (October 1818-January 1819) 198-202, 299-304, 487-92; "[Hazlitt, Shelley, and the Quarterly Review]" The Examiner (20 January 1822) 34-35; "On the Writings of Hazlitt" Literary Speculum 2 (September 1822) 235-38; "Hunt and Hazlitt" Blackwood's Magazine 16 (1824) 67-73; "Writings of Mr. Hazlitt" Oriental Herald and Colonial Review 3 (September 1824) 23-27; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); A New Biographical Dictionary of 3000 Cotemporary Public Characters (1825); "Memoir of Mr. William Hazlitt" Literary Chronicle 8 (26 August 1826) 537-40; obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 100 (October 1830) 371-73; obituary in The Kaleidoscope NS 10 (5 October 1830) 110; obituary in Monthly Magazine NS 10 (October 1830) 485-86; J. B. "Recollections of the late William Hazlitt" New Monthly Magazine NS 29 (1830) 469-82; The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Allan Cunningham, "Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (28 December 1833) 893; Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); George Gilfillan, in Gallery of Literary Portraits (1845); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); P. P. Howe, "Hazlitt and Blackwood's Magazine" Fortnightly Review 112 (1919); P. P. Howe, The Life of William Hazlitt (1922, 1928; 1947); P. L. Carver, "Hazlitt's Contributions to the Edinburgh Review" RES 4 (1928) 375-93; Geoffrey Keynes, Bibliography of Hazlitt (1931); A. L. Strout, "Hunt, Hazlitt, and Maga" ELH 4 (1937); C. D. Thorpe, "Keats and Hazlitt: a Record of Personal Relationship and Critical Estimate" PMLA 57 (1947); Herschel Baker, William Hazlitt (1962); Jack, OHEL (1963); Elizabeth W. Schneider, The English Romantic Poets and Essayists (1966); A. N. L. Munby, Sale Catalogues of Libraries of Eminent Persons (1971-75); J. A. Houck, William Hazlitt: a Reference Guide (1977); John Kinnard, Hazlitt, Critic of Power (1978); Prance, Companion to Charles Lamb (1983); S. Jones, Hazlitt: a Life (1989); Spenser Encyclopedia, "Hazlitt" (1990) 349-50; David Bromwich, Hazlitt, the MInd of a Critic (1999).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for William Hazlitt:

1.	1799  Henry Crabb Robinson, 1799; Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence (1870; 1872) 1:35.
2.	1803  Robert Southey to Richard Duppa, 14 December 1803; Life and Correspondence (1849-50) 2:238.
3.	1817  William Wordsworth to Benjamin Robert Haydon, 7 April 1817; Critical Opinions of William Wordsworth, ed. Peacock (1950) 277.
4.	1817  Anonymous, in Review of The Round Table; Scots Magazine 79 (February 1817) 127-28.
5.	1818  John Keats to Benjamin Robert Haydon, 23 March 1818; Works, ed. H. Buxton Forman (1901) 4:90.
6.	1818  John Gibson Lockhart and John Wilson to John Murray, September 1818; Margaret Oliphant, William Blackwood and his Sons (1897) 1:164-67.
7.	1819  Mary Russell Mitford to Sir William Elford, 4 December 1819; L'Estrange, Life of Mary Russell Mitford (1870) 1:321-22.
8.	1819  Richard Henry Dana, in Review of Hazlitt's English Poets; North American Review [Boston] 8 (March 1819) 281-82.
9.	1819  George Ticknor; Journal Entry, 1819; Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor (1876) 1:293-94.
10.	1820  John Scott, in Review of Hazlitt, Lectures on the Age of Elizabeth; London Magazine 1 (February 1820) 185-86.
11.	1821  Leigh Hunt to Mary Shelley, 11 July 1821; Correspondence of Leigh Hunt (1862) 1:166.
12.	1822  Anonymous, in "The Augustan Age in England" The Album 1 (1822) 230.
13.	1822  James Harley, in The Press, or Literary Chit-Chat. A Satire (1822) 17-19 &n.
14.	1823 ca.  William Maginn to William Blackwood, 1823 ca.; Margaret Oliphant, William Blackwood and his Sons (1897) 1:389.
15.	1823  Charles Lamb, in "Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esquire" London Magazine 8 (October 1823) 405.
16.	1826  James Sheridan Knowles, "Lines written under the Portrait of Hazlitt" The Examiner (28 May 1826) 346.
17.	1827  Anonymous, "William Hazlitt" The Age (18 November 1827) 187.
18.	1828 ca.  Felicia Hemans, 1828 ca.; Memorials of Mrs. Hemans, ed. Chorley (1836) 2:23-24.
19.	1828  Versificator, "Sonnet addressed to W. Hazlitt, the Historian of Napoleon" The Examiner (4 May 1828) 298.
20.	1832  John Hamilton Reynolds?, Lines written under the Picture of William Hazlitt" The Athenaeum (19 May 1832) 321.
21.	1833  Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (28 December 1833) 893.
22.	1843  Walter Savage Landor, 1843; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 568-59.
23.	1845  George Gilfillan, "William Hazlitt" Gallery of Literary Portraits (1845) 36-57.
24.	1846  John Dix, in "Personal Sketches of Shelley and Hazlitt" Pen and Ink Sketches of Poets, Preachers, and Politicians (1846) 147-54.
25.	1852  Mary Russell Mitford to James T. Fields, 14 December 1852; in Fields, Yesterdays with Authors (1900) 318.
26.	1866  Bryan Waller Procter, in Charles Lamb: a Memoir (1866) 120-21.
27.	1871  S. C. Hall, in A Book of Memories: Great Men and Women of the Age, from personal Acquaintance (1871) 64-66.
28.	1877  Bryan Waller Procter, in Procter: An Autobiographical Fragment (1877) 167-82.
29.	1878  Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke, in Recollections of Writers (1878) 60.
30.	1896  George Saintsbury, in History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1896) 186.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for William Hazlitt:

1.	1816  Anonymous, in Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816) 151.
2.	1825  Anonymous, "William Hazlitt, Esq." A New Biographical Dictionary of 3000 Cotemporary Public Characters (1825) 2:325.
3.	1830  Anonymous, Obituary in New Monthly Magazine NS 30 (1830) 438-39.
4.	1830  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 100 (October 1830) 371-73.
5.	1830  Anonymous, Obituary in Monthly Magazine NS 10 (October 1830) 485-86.
6.	1832  William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 3:396-97.
7.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:693.
8.	1849  Thomas Noon Talfourd, in Last Memorials of Charles Lamb (1849) 216-28.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1817  Edmund Burke:   William Hazlitt, in Review of Coleridge, Biographia Literaria; Edinburgh Review 28 (August 1817) 503-07.
2.	1817  Samuel Taylor Coleridge:   William Hazlitt, Review of Coleridge, Biographia Literaria; Edinburgh Review 28 (August 1817) 488-515.
3.	1817  Robert Southey:   William Hazlitt, in Review of Southey, Letter to William Smith; The Examiner (4 May 1817) 286-87.
4.	1818  Anna Laetitia Barbauld:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 194-95.
5.	1818  Samuel Butler:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 110.
6.	1818  Thomas Chatterton:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 167-68.
7.	1818  William Collins:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 154.
8.	1818  Rev. George Crabbe:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 128.
9.	1818  Dr. Erasmus Darwin:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 193.
10.	1818  Rev. John Donne:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 109.
11.	1818  Thomas Gray:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 157.
12.	1818  Andrew Marvell:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 109.
13.	1818  Matthew Prior:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818, 1909) 141-42.
14.	1818  Sir Walter Scott:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 205.
15.	1818  William Shenstone:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 158.
16.	1818  Robert Southey:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 218.
17.	1818  Sir Richard Steele:   William Hazlitt, in English Comic Writers (1818; 1909) 129.
18.	1818  Rev. Jonathan Swift:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 147.
19.	1818  Edmund Waller:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 109.
20.	1818  Horace Walpole:   William Hazlitt, Review of Walpole, Letters to George Montagu; Edinburgh Review 31 (December 1818) 80-93.
21.	1818  Rev. Thomas Warton:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 160.
22.	1819  Abraham Cowley:   William Hazlitt, in English Comic Writers (1819; 1909) 78.
23.	1819  Sir William Davenant:   William Hazlitt, in English Comic Writers (1819; 1909) 69.
24.	1819  Sir John Davies:   William Hazlitt, in English Comic Writers (1819; 1909) 68-69.
25.	1819  Bp. Joseph Hall:   William Hazlitt, in English Comic Writers (1819; 1909) 68.
26.	1819  John Hawkesworth:   William Hazlitt, in English Comic Writers (1819; 1909) 139.
27.	1819  Samuel Johnson:   William Hazlitt, in English Comic Writers (1819; 1909) 135.
28.	1819  Henry Mackenzie:   William Hazlitt, in English Comic Writers (1819; 1909) 141.
29.	1819  Thomas Shadwell:   William Hazlitt, in English Comic Writers (1819; 1909) 70.
30.	1820  Sir John Beaumont:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures chiefly on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth (1820; 1845) 140-41.
31.	1820  Francis Beaumont:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures chiefly on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth (1820; 1845) 138-39.
32.	1820  William Browne of Tavistock:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures chiefly on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth (1820; 1845) 160.
33.	1820  John Fletcher:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures chiefly on the dramatic literature of the age of Elizabeth (1820; 1845) 92.
34.	1820  Rev. Phineas Fletcher:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures chiefly on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth (1820; 1845) 156
35.	1820  Rev. Robert Herrick:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures chiefly on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth (1820; 1845) 157.
36.	1820  Ben Jonson:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures chiefly on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth (1820; 1845) 151.
37.	1820  Sir Philip Sidney:   William Hazlitt, in Age of Elizabeth (1820; 1845) 164.
38.	1820  Rev. Joseph Spence:   William Hazlitt, Review of Spence, Anecdotes; Edinburgh Review 33 (May 1820) 302-30.
39.	1823  John Nichols:   William Hazlitt, in "The Periodical Press" Edinburgh Review 38 (May 1823) 369-70.
40.	1824  Dr. Mark Akenside:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:241.
41.	1824  Dr. John Armstrong:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824) in Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:242.
42.	1824  Robert Burns:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824) in Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:242.
43.	1824  Rev. Charles Churchill:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:241.
44.	1824  William Collins:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:240.
45.	1824  William Cowper:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:242.
46.	1824  Samuel Daniel:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824) in Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:237.
47.	1824  Sir John Denham:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824) in Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:238.
48.	1824  Michael Drayton:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824) in Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:236-37.
49.	1824  John Dryden:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824) in Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:238.
50.	1824  John Gay:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:239-40.
51.	1824  Oliver Goldsmith:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:241-42.
52.	1824  John Keats:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824) in Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:244-45.
53.	1824  Walter Savage Landor:   William Hazlitt, in Review of Landor, Imaginary Conversations; Edinburgh Review 40 (March 1824) 67-80.
54.	1824  David Mallet:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:241.
55.	1824  Andrew Marvell:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:238.
56.	1824  John Milton:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824) in Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:237.
57.	1824  Ambrose Philips:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:240.
58.	1824  Alexander Pope:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:239.
59.	1824  Bryan Waller Procter:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:245.
60.	1824  Percy Bysshe Shelley:   William Hazlitt, Review of Shelley, Posthumous Poems; Edinburgh Review 40 (July 1824) 494-514.
61.	1824  James Thomson:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:240.
62.	1824  Edward Thurlow:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:244.
63.	1824  William Wordsworth:   William Hazlitt, in Select British Poets (1824); Works, ed. Howe (1932) 9:243.
64.	1825  Lord Byron:   William Hazlitt, "Lord Byron" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 159-81.
65.	1825  Thomas Campbell:   William Hazlitt, in "Mr. Campbell and Mr. Crabbe" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 185-94.
66.	1825  Samuel Taylor Coleridge:   William Hazlitt, "Samuel Taylor Coleridge" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 61-79.
67.	1825  Rev. George Crabbe:   William Hazlitt, in "Mr. Campbell and Mr. Crabbe" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 194-205.
68.	1825  William Gifford:   William Hazlitt, "Mr. Gifford" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 279-302.
69.	1825  William Godwin:   William Hazlitt, "William Godwin" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 31-58.
70.	1825  Leigh Hunt:   William Hazlitt, in "Mr. T. Moore — Mr. Leigh Hunt" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 401-05.
71.	1825  Charles Lamb:   William Hazlitt, in "Elia, and Geoffrey Crayon" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 409-20.
72.	1825  Sir James Mackintosh:   William Hazlitt, "Sir James Mackintosh" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 209-27.
73.	1825  Robert Merry:   William Hazlitt, in "Mr. Gifford" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 300.
74.	1825  Sir Walter Scott:   William Hazlitt, "Sir Walter Scott" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 131-56.
75.	1825  Robert Southey:   William Hazlitt, "Mr. Southey" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 367-84.
76.	1825  William Taylor of Norwich:   William Hazlitt, in "Mr. Jeffrey" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 308n.
77.	1825  William Wordsworth:   William Hazlitt, "Mr. Wordsworth" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 231-50.
78.	1826  Charles Lamb:   William Hazlitt, in The Plain Speaker (1826), ed. Smith, Donne: The Critical Heritage (1975) 289.
79.	1829  Charles Brockden Brown:   William Hazlitt, in "American Literature" Edinburgh Review 50 (October 1829) 126-28.
80.	1830  William Godwin:   William Hazlitt, Review of Godwin, Cloudsley, a Tale; Edinburgh Review 51 (April 1830) 144-59.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(biography records)

1.	1820  William Drummond:   William Hazlitt, in Lectures chiefly on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth (1820; 1845) 142-43, 147.