Page images
PDF
EPUB

AND

HISTORICAL ESSAYS,

CONTRIBUTED TO

THE EDINBURGH REVIEW,

BY

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY.

NEW EDITION.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.

LONDON:

SPOTTISWOODES and SHAW, New-street-Square.

[blocks in formation]

CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS

CONTRIBUTED TO

THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.

LEIGH HUNT. (JANUARY, 1841.)

The Dramatic Works of WYCHErley, Congreve, VanBRUGH, and FARQUHAR, with Biographical and Critical Notices. By LEIGH HUNT. 8vo. London: 1840.

We have a kindness for Mr. Leigh Hunt. We form our judgment of him, indeed, only from events of universal notoriety, from his own works, and from the works of other writers, who have generally abused him in the most rancorous manner. But, unless we are greatly mistaken, he is a very clever, a very honest, and a very good-natured man. We can clearly discern, together with many merits, many faults both in his writings and in his conduct. But we really think that there is hardly a man living whose merits have been so grudgingly allowed, and whose faults have been so cruelly expiated.

In some respects Mr. Leigh Hunt is excellently qualified for the task which he has now undertaken. His style, in spite of its mannerism, nay, partly by reason of its mannerism, is well suited for light, garrulous, desultory ana, half critical, half biographical. We do not always agree with his literary judgments; but we find in him what is very rare in our time, the

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »