1. Septimius Severus: Roman Emperor, A.D. 193–211.

2. "Juventutem," etc.: "He passed a youth full of errors, nay of

wild excesses."

3. Cosmus: made Duke of Florence in 1537.

4. Gaston de Fois: probably the Duc de Nemours (1489-1512), nephew of Louis XII of France.

5. Care not to: do not hesitate to.

6. Rabbin: rabbi or master.

7. Hermogenes: a Greek rhetorician of the second century,

B.C.

8. Tully: Marcus Tullius Cicero (B.c. 106-43), the greatest of Roman orators.

9. Hortensius: a well-known Roman orator (B.c. 114-50), at one time Cicero's rival.

10. "Idem manebat," etc.: "He remained the same, though so to remain was unbecoming."

II. Scipio Africanus: a famous Roman general (B.C. 234-183), who defeated Hannibal at Zama in B.C. 202.

12. Livy: Titus Livius (B.c. 59-A.d. 17), a great Roman historian. 13. "Ultima," etc.: "His last actions were not equal to his first."

Of Studies (page 14)

This essay, because of its remarkable compression of style and richness of thought, is generally considered to be Bacon's best. 1. Privateness and retiring: solitude and retreat.

2. Proyning: cultivating.

3. Curiously: carefully.

4. Flashy: insipid.

5. Conference: conversation.

6. "Abeunt studia," etc.: "Studies translate themselves into character."

7. Stone: a disease of the bladder or kidneys.

8. Reins: the kidneys.

9. "Cymini sectores: "splitters of cumin-seeds;" i.e., "niggards."

CHARLES LAMB (Page 16)

CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834), rightly called the best-beloved of English authors, was born in London and educated at Christ's Hospital. Obliged while still a boy to leave school in order to help

in supporting his family, he secured a clerical position in the South-Sea House, and later with the East India Company, where he remained until 1825. In his spare hours he tried his hand, not unsuccessfully, at poetry and plays; but his real fame did not come until 1820, when he began contributing to the London Magazine a series of essays signed "Elia." Twenty-eight of these were gathered in one volume in 1823 as Essays of Elia, and a second collection, Last Essays of Elia, appeared in 1833. Lamb's delightful personality and whimsical ways made him a general favorite in a circle of prominent literary people. He died in 1834, leaving a sister, Mary, to whose care he had devoted himself for many years.

Lamb, says an appreciative critic, had every quality of intellect, — "energy, keenness, justness, precision." What lends most attractiveness to his essays, however, is his inimitable humor, combined with his exquisite pathos. He was a man of wide sympathies, of discriminating literary and artistic taste, and of deep reverence for the past: and these characteristics fill his work with charm. His style is flexible and graceful, with unexpected illum inating phrases and quaint turns of speech. In a very real sens the essays mirror the man himself, with his oddities, his curious prejudices, his old-fashioned habit of mind, and his perfect humanity. He holds properly the place among English writers that Montaigne has among the French.

A Dissertation upon Roast Pig (page 16)

This essay first appeared in the London Magazine for September, 1822. The narrative element occupies a more conspicuous place in this than in most essays; but it is used principally for its suggestive value, and it does not mar the complete effect.

1. My friend M.: Thomas Manning, Lamb's life-long friend, with whom he kept up an entertaining correspondence. 2. Confucius: the greatest of Chinese philosophers, who lived about B.C. 550-478.

3. Locke: John Locke (1632–1704), the English philosopher, and author of the Essay on Human Understanding.

4. Mundus edibilis: world of eatables.

5. Princeps obsoniorum: prince of viands.

6. Amor immunditiæ: love of uncleanness.

7. The quotation is from Coleridge's Epitaph on an Infant.

8. St. Omer's: a Roman Catholic college in France, for English students. Lamb is simply assuming that he attended it. 9. Per flagellatione extremam: by a tremendous thrashing.

Poor Relations (page 25)

This was first printed in the London Magazine for May, 1823. It is a good example of the reminiscent manner which Lamb uses so frequently in his essays.

I. Agathocles: the son of a humble potter. He rose to the generalship of the army, and finally became ruler of all Sicily. 2. Mordecai: a Jew at the court of King Ahasuerus of Persia.

Esther, the queen, was his adopted daughter. For the specific phrase "a Mordecai in your gate," see Esther iv, 1–3. 3. Aliquando, etc.: sometimes he had to be restrained. 4. Richard Amlet, Esq.: a character in The Confederacy (1705), the best comedy of John Vanbrugh (1672–1726), an English dramatist.

5. Poor W

Favell.

a reference to a friend of Lamb's, named

6. Nessian venom: Nessus was a centaur slain by Hercules. Nessus, before his death, told Dejanira, the wife of Hercules, that if she would steep her husband's shirt in his blood, it would preserve the love of Hercules for her. Hercules. however, was poisoned by the shirt, and died. Thus Nessus had his revenge.

7. Hugh Latimer (1485–1555), the famous bishop and martyr, had worn a servitor's gown at Cambridge.

8. Richard Hooker (1553–1600), the noted theologian, had been once a poor boy at Oxford.

9. Artist Evangelist: St. Luke, who, according to tradition, was a painter as well as a physician.

10. San Sebastian, in Spain, was besieged in 1813 by the Duke of Wellington, and finally captured.

11. Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) was a Dutch jurist, who founded a system of international law.

The Superannuated Man (page 34)

This essay, published in the London Magazine for May, 1825, gives an account, substantially accurate, of Lamb's retirement from active service in the India House, which took place on the

last Tuesday of March, 1825. Lamb retired on an annual pension of four hundred and fifty pounds.

1. The line is from Virgil's Eclogues, I.

2. John O'Keefe (1747-1833) was an Irish playwright.

3. L : the Lacy mentioned later.

4. B- : the Bosanquet mentioned later.

5. These are fictitious names given by Lamb to the Directors of the East India House.

6. Esto perpetua! "May it be perpetual!" These were the last words of Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623), the Venetian historiar. 7. Old Bastille: the notorious prison in Paris, destroyed by a mob during the French Revolution.

8. The quotation is taken inaccurately from Middleton's Mayor of Queenboro, Act 1, Scene 1.

9. The lines are from The Vestal Virgin, or the Roman Ladies, Act v, Scene 1, a play by Sir Robert Howard (1626–98). 10. Sir Thomas Gresham (d. 1579) founded the Royal Exchange, and other members of the same family were Lord Mayors of London.

II. Richard Whittington (d. 1423) was the famous poor boy who became Lord Mayor of London.

12. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–74) was a mediæval theologian. 13. Carthusian: a monk of the Carthusian order, founded in 1086 by St. Bruno, and established at Chartreuse. 14. Elgin marbles: the great collection of Greek sculptures brought to England by Lord Elgin in the early nineteenth century,. and placed in the British Museum.

15. Cum dignitate: a fragment of Cicero's phrase, otium cum dignitate, leisure with dignity.

16. Opus, etc.: the work is accomplished.

WILLIAM HAZLITT (Page 44)

WILLIAM HAZLITT (1778-1830), the friend and contemporary rival of Lamb as an essayist, was born in Maidstone and was the son of a Unitarian clergyman. Hazlitt himself studied for the ministry, but a meeting with Coleridge in 1798 turned him from this project. For a time he hesitated between art and literature, but he gradually drifted into writing, and, after 1812, was occupied mainly with contributing to periodicals and lecturing. He quarreled with his first wife, and was divorced from her in 1822; his second wife left

།

him shortly after their marriage. A contentious critic and untiring controversialist, Hazlitt engaged in many disputes and was subjected by his enemies to much abuse. He was a man of sincere and definite convictions, but also of violent prejudices. His temper, moreover, was so irritable and savage that even his closest friends found him sometimes difficult to deal with.

"Hazlitt is the essayist, as Shelley is the lyrist, par excellence," says Mr. Oliver Elton. He published in all over a hundred essays covering a wide range of thought, and nearly every one is of rare merit. In his criticisms of literature he has seldom been surpassed. His work is better represented, however, by essays of the Montaigne type on miscellaneous subjects, in which he shows himself to be a clear and cogent thinker, a fascinating commentator on art, literature, and life, and a master of a nervous and incisive style. His prose, with its effect of "living if abrupt speech," is packed with epigrams and passages of brilliant imaginative power.

Hazlitt's essays are rich in quotations which, as one writer says, "glimmer like burnished threads in the texture of his prose." In annotating the selections in this volume, it has seemed best not to devote space to pointing out the source of these quotations. They are used so naturally and effectively that they form an intrinsic part of the essays themselves, and little is to be gained by directing students to the books from which they are taken.

On Going a Journey (page 44)

This essay first appeared in the New Monthly Magazine, January, 1822, under the heading, "Table Talk," No. 1. From the very beginning the personal note is struck. Hazlitt chats about himself, telling of his likes and dislikes, his partialities and aversions.

1. William Cobbett (1762-1835) was an essayist and political writer.

2. Laurence Sterne (1713-68), the author of Tristram Shandy. 3. C: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), the philosopher and poet, whose influence on Hazlitt was strong and enduring.

4. L

: Charles Lamb (see page 49), one of Hazlitt's best friends.

5. Procul, etc.: "stand far off, O profane souls!”

6. Gribelin's engravings: Simon Gribelin (1661–1733) published his engravings of Raphael's cartoons in 1707.