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WORDSWORTH COLLECTION
MADE BY
CYNTHIA MORGAN ST. JOHN
ITHACA, N. Y.
THE GIFT OF
VICTOR EMANUEL
CLASS OF 1919
1925
i^.^y\,.^7
-^H^'
:■==»:
'1^1
Cornell University
Library
The original of tiiis book is in
the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924104104132
THE WORKS OF
CHARLES AND MARY LAMB
THE WORKS OF CHARLES AND MARY LAMB
Edited by E. V. LUCAS
I. Miscellaneous Prose 1798-1834
n. Elia and the Last Essays of Elia
III. Books for Children
IV. Dramatic Specimens and the Garrick Plays
V. Poems and Plays
VI. Letters 1796-1820
VII. Letters 1821-1834
The Life of Charles Lamb. By E. V. Lucas
Two Volumes. Demy 8vo.
[In Preparation
^-^\
^ri
y-} *'
P
THE WORKS OF
CHARLES AND MARY
LAMB
EDITED BY
E. V. LUCAS
VOLUME VII.
LETTERS
1821-1834
New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
London: METHUEN & CO.
1905
•^^An?^'^^
h LooS^^O
CONTENTS
** New Letter. * New Collation, or Addition to Text.
PAGE LETTER
549-
549-
550.
551.
551.
551.
552.
553.
555.
556.
557-
558.
559.
560.
1821.
252 **Charles Lamb to Mrs. William Ayrton , . Jan. 23
From the original, lately in the possession of Mr. Edward
Ayrton.
253 **Charles Lamb to Miss Humphreys . . . Jan. 27
From the original at Rowfant.
254 **Charles Lamb to Mrs. William Ayrton . . March 15
From the original, lately in the possession of Mr. Edward
Ayrton.
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .... March 30
From Harper's Magazine.
Charles Lamb to Leigh Hunt .... April 18
From Leigh Hunt's Correspondence.
Charles Lamb to S. T. Coleridge . . . May i
From the Life of Charles Mathews.
Charles Lamb to James Gillman .... May 2
From the Life of Charles Mathews,
Charles Lamb to John Payne Collier . . . May 16
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
*Charles Lamb to B. W. Procter . . . . ? Summer
From facsimile in Mrs. Field's A Shelf of Old Authors.
Charles Lamb to John Taylor .... June 8
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to John Taylor .... July 21
Mr. Hazlitt's text {The Lambs).
Charles Lamb to Charles Cowden Clarke . . Summer
From Recollections of Writers.
Mary Lamb to Mrs. William Ayrton . . . No date
From the original in the possession of Mr. A. M. S.
Methuen.
265 **Charles Lamb to William Ayrton . . . Oct. 27
From the original, lately in the possession of Mr. Edward
Ayrton.
V
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
■H--H--
VI
CONTENTS
PAGE
LETTER
561.
266
562.
267
565.
268
566.
269
568.
270 *
569.
271
569.
272
571.
273
573.
274
575.
275
576.
276
578.
277
578.
278
580.
279
580.
280
581.
281 *
581.
282
583.
283
585.
284
586.
285
588.
286
Charles Lamb to S. T. Coleridge
Mr. Hazlitfs text (Bohn).
♦Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
Charles Lamb to W. Harrison Ainsworth .
Mr. Hazlitfs text {The Lambs).
Charles Lamb to William Godwin
Mr. Kegan Paul's text {William Godwin: His Friends^
etc.).
270 **Charles Lamb to Mrs. John Lamb
From the original in the Bodleian.
Charles Lamb to Mary Lamb (fragment) .
From Crabb Robinson's Diary.
272 ^Charles Lamb to John Clare ....
From the original (British Museum).
^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
*Charles Lamb to Barron Field ....
From the original in the possession of Mr. B. B. Mac-
george.
Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne
From the Century Magazine.
^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to B. R. Haydon .
From Hay don's Correspondence and Table Talk.
Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne
From the Century Magazine.
Charles Lamb to B. R. Haydon .
From Haydon's Correspondence and Table Talk.
Charles Lamb to Sir Walter Scott
From Scott's Familiar Letters.
281 **Charles Lamb to Thomas Robinson
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).
Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne
From the Century Magazine.
Mary Lamb to Mrs. James Kenney
Mr. Hazlitfs text {The Lambs).
Charles Lamb to John Taylor
From Elia (Bell's edition).
*Charles Lamb to Walter Wilson .
From the original (Bodleian).
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the origmal (British Museum).
1822.
March 9
March 20
May 7
May 16
May 22
Aug.
Aug. 31
Sept. II
Sept. 22
Autumn
Oct. 9
Oct. 9
Oct. 22
Oct. 29
Oct. 29
Nov. II
Nov. 13
? Early Dec.
Dec. 7
Dec. 16
Dec. 23
CONTENTS
Vll
PAGE LETTER
590.
591.
592.
594-
596.
596.
598.
600.
602.
604.
607.
608.
610.
610.
612.
613.
614.
616.
618.
618.
620.
620.
621.
287 Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne
From the Century Magazine.
288 **Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
289 Charles Lamb to Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Collier
From the original in the possession of Mr. R. B. Adam
290 ^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
291 Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne
From the Century Magazine.
292 Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne
From the Century Magazine.
293 ^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
294 Charles Lamb to Walter Wilson
From Mr. Hazlitt's text.
295 *Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
296 *Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
297 *Charles Lamb to B. W. Procter .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn) with alterations.
298 ^Charles Lamb to Sarah Hutchinson
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
299 Charles Lamb to Miss Hutchinson (?) {fragment)
From Notes and Queries.
*Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
From the original in the possession of Mr. R
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
*Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin
From the original in the possession of Mr. R
Mary Lamb to Mrs. Randal Norris
Mr. Hazlitt's text (The Lambs).
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .
From Harper's Magazine.
^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .
From Harper's Magazine.
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .
From Harper's Magazine.
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .
From Harper's Magazine.
W. Dibdin.
W. Dibdin.
1823.
Jan.
Jan.
Jan. 6
Jan. 9
Jan. 23
Feb. 9
Feb. 17
Feb. 24
March 11
April 5
April 13
April 25
No date
No date
May 3
May 6
June 18
July 10
July
Sept. 2
Sept. 6
Sept. 9
Sept. 10
viii CONTENTS
PAGE LETTER
1823.
621. 310 Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop . . . .' Sept.
From Harper's Magazine.
621. 311 *Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton . . . Sept. 17
From the original (British Museum).
623. 312 Charles Lamb to Charles Lloyd (fras^ment) . Autumn
From Letters and Poems of Bernard Barton.
624. 313 Charles Lamb to H. F. Cary .... Oct. 14
From Memoir of H. F. Cary.
624. 314 Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .... ? Oct,
From Harper's Magazine.
625. 315 Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin . . . Oct. 28
From the original in the possession of Mr. R. W. Dibdin.
626. 316 Charles Lamb to Sarah Hazlitt .... Early Nov.
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
627. 317 Charles Lamb to Robert Southey . . . Nov. 21
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
629. 318 *Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton . . . Nov. 22
From the original (British Museum).
630. 319 *Charles Lamb to W. Harrison Ainsworth . . Dec. 9
From the original.
632. 320 ^Charles Lamb to W. Harrison Ainsworth . . Dec. 29
From the original.
1824.
633. 321 *Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton . . . Jan. 9
From the original (British Museum).
634. 322 *Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton . . . Jan. 23
From the original (British Museum).
637. 323 ^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton . . . Feb. 25
From the original (British Museum).
638. 324 '^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton . , . March 24
From the original (British Museum).
639- 325 ^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton . . . Early spring
From the original (British Museum).
641. 326 Charles Lamb to Mrs. Thomas Allsop . . April 13
From Harper's Magazine.
641. 327 **Charles Lamb to William Hone .... April
From the original in the possession of Mr. R. A. Potts.
642. 328 *Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton . . . May 15
From the original in the possession of Mr. B. B. Mac-
george.
644. 329 ^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton . . . July 7
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
646. 330 Charles Lamb to W. Marter .... July 19
Mr. Hazlitt's text (The Lambs).
647. 331 *Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin . . . July 28
From the original in the possession of Mr. R. W. Dibdin.
CONTENTS
IX
PAGE
LETTER
647.
332
650.
333
652.
334
654.
335
655.
336
656.
337
657.
338 *
658.
339
659.
340
662.
341
664.
341
665.
342
667.
343
668.
344
669.
345
671.
346
671. '
347 *
672.
348
^7i-
349 *
674.
350
676.
351
677.
352
*Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood (1 fragment)
From the original.
*Charles Lamb to C. A. Elton . . . .
From the original in the possession of Sir Edmund
Elton.
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
*CharIes Lamb to Mrs. John Dyer Collier .
From the original (South Kensington Museum).
*Charles Lamb to B. W. Procter . . . .
From Barry Cornwall's Charles Lamb with alterations.
338 **Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).
*Charles Lamb to Sarah Hutchinson
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
^Charles Lamb to Leigh Hunt . . , .
From Leigh Hunt's Correspondence with alterations.
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
(Postscript) * Charles Lamb to Lucy Barton .
*Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin .
From the original in the possession of Mr. R. W.> Dibdin.
*Charles Lamb to Sarah Hutchinson
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
^Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello
From the original (British Museum).
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to Thomas Manning
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
347 **Charles Lamb to Sarah Hutchinson .
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
349 **Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).
*Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
*Charles Lamb to Sarah Hutchinson .
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original. (Last para-
graph from original scrap at Welbeck Abbey.)
678. 353 *Charles Lamb to William Hone ....
From the original at Rowfant.
1824.
Aug. 10
Aug. 17
Aug. 17
Sept. 30
Nov. 2
Nov. II
Nov. 20
Nov. 25
? Nov.
Dec. I
Dec. I
1825,
Jan. II
Jan. 20
Jan. 25
Feb. 10
? Feb.
March i
March 23
March 29
April 6
April 6
April 18
May 2
X
CONTENTS
PAGE
679.
680.
683.
684.
684.
688.
LETTER
354
355
356
357
358
359
689.
360
691.
361
694.
362
694.
363
695.
364
696.
365
696.
366
697.
367
697.
368
698.
369
698.
370
699.
371
700.
372
702.
373
703-
374
704.
375
*CharIes Lamb to William Wordsworth
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
Charles Lamb to Charles Chambers
Mr. Hazlitt's text {Jhe Lambs).
Charles Lamb to S. T. Coleridge
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
*Charles Lamb to Henry Colburn (?) .
From the original (South Kensington).
^Charles Lamb to S. T. Coleridge
From the original (Morrison Collection).
^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum). \_Foy Letter ^59A —
Charles Lamb to John Aitken — see Appendix ILy
page 974.]
^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to Robert Southey
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .
From Harper's Magazine.
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .
From Harper's Magazine.
*Charles Lamb to William Hone .
From the original at Rowfant.
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop
From Harper's Magazine.
^Charles Lamb to Charles Oilier .
From the original (South Kensington).
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .
From Harper's Magazine.
Charles Lamb to Charles Oilier .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to Charles Oilier .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
**Charles Lamb to Charles Oilier .
From the original in the possession of Mr. R. A. Potts.
* Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to S. T. Coleridge
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to H. F. Cary
Mr. Hazlitt's text.
*Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello
From the original|(British Museum).
1825.
May
? May
? June
June 14
July 2
July 2
Aug. 10
Aug. 10
Sept. 9
Sept. 24
Oct. 24
Dec. 5
? Dec.
1826.
See note
Early in year
Jan.
Feb. 7
March 16
March 20
March 22
April 3
May 9
CONTENTS
XI
720.
723-
723.
724.
724.
725.
726.
726.
729.
729.
730.
733.
PAGE LETTER
704. 376 *Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
706. 377 Charles Lamb to S. T. Coleridge
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
707- 378 *Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin
From the original in the possession of Mr. R. W. Dibdin.
710. 379 Charles Lamb to Thomas Hill
From the original (British Museum).
710. 380 *Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin
From the original in the possession of Mr. R. W. Dibdin.
712. 381 **Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
715. 382 *Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin .
From the original in the possession of Mr. R. W. Dibdin.
716. 383 *Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
718. 384 **Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original in the possession of Mr. Henry
Poulton.
719- 385 *Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
386 Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
387 **Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).
388 **Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).
389 **Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).
390 Charles Lamb to B. R. Haydon .
From Taylor's Life of Haydon.
391 *Charles Lamb to William Hone .
From the original at Rowfant.
392 Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood .
Mr. Hazlitt's text {The Lambs).
393 ^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
394 *Charles Lamb to William Hone .
From the original at Rowfant.
395 *Charles Lamb to William Hone .
From the original at Rowfant.
396 *Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
397 **Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
From the original (British Museum).
1826.
May 16
June I
June 30
No year
July 14
Sept. 6
Sept. 9
Sept. 26
? Sept.
No date
1827.
Jan. 20
Jan. 20
Jan. 29
Jan.
March
April
May
No date
May
June
June II
June 26
Xll
CONTENTS
PAGE
733.
734.
735.
738.
740.
742.
745.
746.
749.
750.
751.
751.
752.
755.
756.
756.
757-
757-
759.
760.
761.
762.
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
LETTER
398 *Charles Lamb to William Hone .
From the original at Rowfant.
399 **Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon . . . •
From the original at Rowfant.
Charles Lamb to P. G. Patmore ....
From Patmore's My Friends and Acquaintances.
Charles Lamb to Mrs. Shelley ....
Mr. Hazlitfs text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to Mrs. Basil Montagu .
Mr. Hazlitfs text (Bohn).
*Mary Lamb to Lady Stoddart )
^Charles Lamb to Sir John Stoddart/
From the original (Messrs. Maggs).
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to P. G. Patmore ....
From My Friends and Acquaintances.
407 *Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin .
From the original in the possession of Mr. R. W. Dibdin.
^Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin .
From the original in the possession of Mr. R. W. Dibdin.
*Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin .
From the original in the possession of Mr. R. W. Dibdin.
^Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood ....
From the facsimile in Mrs. Balmanno's Pen and Pencil.
*Charles Lamb to Henry Colburn ....
From the original (South Kensington).
412 **Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon ....
From the original in the possession of Mr. Henry
Poulton.
413 **Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).
* Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin .
From the orginal in the possession of Mr. R. W. Dibdin.
Charles Lamb to Barron Field ....
From the Memoirs of Charles Mathews.
Charles Lamb to William Hone ....
Mr. Hazlitfs text {.The Lambs).
Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood ....
From the National Review.
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
408
409
410
411
414
415
416
417
418
419
1827.
July
July 17
July 19
July 26
Summer
Aug. 9
Aug. 10
Aug. 28
Sept.
Sept. 5
Sept. 13
Sept. 18
Sept. 18
Sept. 25
? Sept. 26
Oct. I
Oct. 2
Oct. 4
? Oct.
No date
No date
Dec. 4
CONTENTS
Xlll
PAGE LETTER
763
764
764
765
765
766
767
767
768
769
772
772
773
774
774
774
775
775
776
778
779.
781.
420
421
422
Charles Lamb to Leigh Hunt
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to William Hone
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .
From Harper's Magazine.
423 Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .
From Harper's Magazine.
424 **Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
425 * Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
426 *Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop
From Harper's Magazine with alterations.
427 **Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
428 **Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
429 Charles Lamb to Charles Cowden Clarke
From Reminiscences of Writers.
430 **Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).
431 Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
432 *Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
433 Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop
From Harper's Magazine.
434 * Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original.
435 *Charles Lamb to Walter Wilson .
From the original (British Museum).
436 **Charles Lamb to T. N. Talfourd .
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).
437 **Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).
438 Mary Lamb to the Thomas Hoods
Mr. Hazlitt's text {The Lambs).
439 Charles Lamb to B. R. Haydon .
From Taylor's Life of Haydon. [For Letter /\s9^—the
translation of a Latin letter from Lamb to John
Rickman—see Appendix 77. , page 975.]
440
441
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to Charles Cowden Clarke
From Recollections of Writers.
1827.
Dec.
Dec. 15
? Dec.
Dec. 20
Dec. 22
End of year
1828.
Jan. 9
?Jan.
Feb. 18
Feb. 25
Feb. 26
March 19
April 21
May I
May 3
May 17
May
May
? Summer
Aug.
Oct. II
Oct.
XIV
CONTENTS
PAGE
LETTI
782.
442
785.
443
786.
444
787.
445
791.
446
792.
447
793.
448
793-
449
796.
450
798.
451
798.
452
800.
453
8oi.
454
802.
455
803.
456
804.
457
805.
458
806.
459
807.
460
808.
461
809.
462
810.
463
Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello .
From Recollections of Writers.
Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood .
From Hood's Own.
Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
Text from Mr. Samuel Davey.
^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to Charles Cowden Clarke
From Recollections of Writers.
Charles Lamb to T. N. Talfourd .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
*Charles Lamb to George Dyer
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to B. W. Procter .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
^Charles Lamb to B. W. Procter .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn) with alterations.
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop
From Harper's Magazine.
*Charles Lamb to B. W. Procter .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn) with alterations.
*Charles Lamb to B. W. Procter .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn) with alterations.
Charles Lamb to B. W. Procter .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to Charles Cowden Clarke .
From Recollections of Writers.
*Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).
Charles Lamb to Samuel Rogers .
From Rogers and His Contemporaries,
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to Miss Sarah James
Text from Mr. Samuel Davey.
*Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).
*Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
From the original (Dr. Williams' Library). ^For Letter
461A — Charles Lamb to George Dyet — see Appendix
IL, page 978.]
Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood .
Mr. Hazlitt's text {The Lambs).
Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From The A utographic Mirror,
1828.
Nov. 6
Late autumn
Dec.
Dec. 5
Dec.
End of year
1829.
? Jan.
Jan. 19
Jan. 22
Jan. 28
Jan. 29
Early in year
Feb. 2
Feb. 2
Feb. 27
March 22
March 25
? April
? April
April 17
? May
No date
CONTENTS
XV
PAGE
LETTER
8io.
464
8ii.
465
812.
466
813.
467
815.
468
815.
469 -
816.
470
818.
471
818.
472
821.
473
821.
474
824.
475
Charles Lamb to Walter Wilson ,
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to Thomas AUsop .
From Harper's Magazine.
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (Britishj Museum).
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .
From Harper's Magazine.
469 **Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
Charles Lamb to James Gillman
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
^Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to Walter Wilson .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to James Gillman .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to James Gillman .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
* Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
826. 476
831.
477
832.
478
833.
479
834.
480
835-
481
836.
482
837-
483
839.
484
840.
485
*Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth \
**Mary Lamb to Dorothy Wordsworth /
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (The Lambs).
Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (The Lambs).
Charles Lamb to Sarah Hazlitt .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to James Gillman .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to William Ayrton
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams .
Mr. Hazlitt's text {The Lambs).
*Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams .
. From the original in the possession of Mr.
Thompson.
1829.
. May 28
. June 3
, See note
. July 25
. Late July
. Sept. 22
. Oct. 26
. Nov. 10
. Nov. 15
. ? Nov. 29
. Nov. 30
. Dec. 8
1830.
Jan. 22
. Feb. 25
. Feb. 26
. March i
. March 4
. March 5
. March 8
. March 14
. March 22
. April 2
Yates
XVI
CONTENTS
PAGE
LETTER
842.
486
843.
487
843.
488
844.
489
846.
490
847.
491
851.
492 *
852.
493
852.
494
853.
495
853.
496
856.
497
857.
498
858.
499
860.
500
861.
501
861.
502
862.
503 '
863.
504
864.
505
866.
506
868.
507
871.
508
Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams .
From the original.
Charles Lamb to James Gillman .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to James Vale Asbury
From The Athceneum.
Charles Lamb to James Vale Asbury
By permission of Mr. Edward Hartley.
Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams .
Mr. Hazlitt's text {The Lambs).
Charles Lamb to Robert Southey
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
492 ** Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
*Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello
From the original (British Museum).
*Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to William Hone .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to Sarah Hazlitt .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to Sarah Hazlitt .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
*Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
Charles Lamb to Samuel Rogers
From Rogers and His Contemporaries.
Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello
From Recollections of Writers.
Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
503 **Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
*Charles Lamb to George Dyer
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn) with alterations.
*Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original (South Kensington).
*Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
Charles Lamb to George Dyer
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
^Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
From the original (British Museum).
1830.
. April 9
? Spring
? April
No date
April 21
May 10
May 12
May 14
May
May 21
May 24
June 3
June 28
Aug. 30
Oct. 5
Nov. 8
Nov. 12
?Dec.
Dec. 20
? Christmas
1831.
. Feb. 3
. Feb. 22
. April 30
CONTENTS
xvii
PAGE LETTER
873.
509
Charles Lamb to H. F. Gary
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
1831.
. May 6
874.
510
**Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
. July 14
877.
511
"Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
. Early Aug.
878.
512
"Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
. Aug. 5
879.
513
* Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
. Sept. 5
880.
514
Charles Lamb to William Hazlitt, junior .
Mr. Hazlitt's text {Lamb and Hazlitt).
. Sept. 13
880.
515
* Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
. Oct. 24
882.
516
**Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
. Dec. 15
883.
517
Charles Lamb to Joseph Hume's daughters
Mr. Hazlitt's text {The Lambs).
1832.
. No date
884.
518
"■"Charles Lamb to C. W. Dilke .
From Sir Charles Dilke's original.
. March 5
885.
519
Charles Lamb to S. T. Coleridge
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
. April 14
886.
520
Charles Lamb to James Sheridan Knowles .
From the original (South Kensington).
. ? April
886.
521
Charles Lamb to John Forster
From the original (South Kensington).
. ? Late April
887.
522
"Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon ?
From the original (South Kensington).
. June I
887.
523
""Charles Lamb to Walter Wilson .
From the original in the Bodleian,
. Aug.
888.
524
Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson
From the original (South Kensington).
. ? Early Oct.
889.
525
"Charles Lamb to Walter Savage Landor .
From the original (South Kensington).
. Oct.
891.
526
*"Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
. Late in year
891.
527
Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
. Winter
893.
528
"Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original (South Kensington).
. Dec.
894.
529
VOL.
"Charles Lamb to John Forster .
From the original (South Kensington).
VIL — b
. Dec. 23
XVlll
CONTENTS
PAGE LETTER
894.
895.
895.
896.
896.
896.
897.
898.
898.
899.
900.
900.
901.
902.
902.
903.
904.
904.
905.
906.
906.
907.
530
531
532
533
534
536
537
538
*CharIes Lamb to Edward Moxon
From Sir Charles Dilke's original.
*Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
*Charles Lamb to John Forster
From the original (South Kensington).
Charles Lamb to John Forster
From the original (South Kensington).
*Charles Lamb to John Forster
From the original (South Kensington).
535 * ''Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
*Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original (South Kensington).
Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original (South Kensington).
Charles Lamb to T. N. Talfourd .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
539 **Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original in the possession of Mr. Henry
Poulton.
540 *Charles Lamb to C. W. Dilke
From Sir Charles Dilke's original.
541 ' *Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
542 Charles Lamb to B. W. Procter .
From Procter's Autobiographical Fragment.
543 ^Charles Lamb to William Hone .
From the original (National Portrait Gallery).
544 *Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original (South Kensington).
545 *Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original (South Kensington).
546 *Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
547 ^Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
548 ^Charles Lamb to John Forster
From the original (South Kensington).
549 *Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
550 "^Charles Lamb to C. W. Dilke .
From Sir Charles Dilke's original.
551 **Charles Lamb to Mrs. William Ayrton
From the original, lately in the possession of Mr. Edward
Ayrton.
1833.
Jan.
Jan. 3
No date
No date
No date
Jan. 24
Feb. II
Feb.
Feb.
No date
Feb.
Early in year
No date
March 6
March 19
? Spring
March 30
Spring
? March
? April 10
April
April 16
CONTENTS
XIX
PAGE
908.
908,
909.
910.
gii
911.
9^3-
913-
914,
915.
916.
917.
918.
919.
920.
923-
923-
926.
926.
926.
927.
LETTER
552
*Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
553 *Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
554 Charles Lamb to the Rev. James Gilltnan
555 ^Charles Lamb to John Forster
From the original (South Kensington).
556 ^Charles Lamb to John Forster
From the original (South Kensington).
557 * Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
558 *Charles Lamb to Sarah Hazlitt .
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn) with alterations.
559 Charles Lamb to Matilda Betham
From Fr user's Magazine.
560 **Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon .
From the original at Rowfant.
561 **Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
562 *Charles and Mary Lamb to Edward and Emma
Moxon ........
From the original at Rowfant.
563 Charles Lamb to H. F. Cary ....
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
564 *Charles and Mary Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
565 **Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original at Rowfant.
566 Charles Lamb to Edward and Emma Moxon
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
567 **Charles Lamb to C. W. Dilke ....
From Sir Charles Dilke's original.
568 *Charles Lamb to Samuel Rogers ....
From Rogers and His Contemporaries,
569
570
572
927- 573
Charles Lamb to C. W. Dilke ....
From Sir Charles Dilke's original.
Charles Lamb to C. W. Dilke ....
From Sir Charles Dilke's original.
Charles Lamb to C. W. Dilke ....
From Sir Charles Dilke's original.
*Charles Lamb to Mary Betham ....
From the original in the possession of Mr. B. B. Mac-
george.
^Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon
From the original (South Kensington).
1833.
April 25
April 27
May 7
May
May 12
End of May
May 31
June
July 14
July 24
? July 31
Sept. 9
Sept. 26
Oct. 17
Nov. 29
Mid. Dec.
Dec. 21
1834.
No date
No date
Spring
Jan. 24
Jan. 28
XX
CONTENTS
PAGE
LETTER
928.
574
929.
575
930.
576
932.
577
932.
578
932.
579
934-
580
936.
581
937.
582
938.
583
938.
584
940.
585
941.
586
942.
587
943«
944-
Charles Lamb to Miss Fryer . . . •
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
^'Charles Lamb to Miss Fryer ....
From the original in the possession of Mr. A. M. S.
Methuen.
Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth
From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
Charles Lamb to Charles Cowden Clarke
{fragment) .......
From the Life and Labours of Vincent Novella.
*Charles Lamb to John Forster
From the original (South Kensington).
Charles Lamb to J. Fuller Russell
From Notes and Queries.
Charles Lamb to J. Fuller Russell
From Notes and Queries.
Charles Lamb to C. W. Dilke
From Sir Charles Dilke's original.
Charles Lamb to the Rev. James Gillman
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles and Mary Lamb to H. F. Cary
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to H. F. Cary
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to H. F. Cary
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to Mr. Childs
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
Charles Lamb to Mrs. George Dyer
Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).
588 Mary Lamb to Jane Norris .
Mr. Hazlitt's itxi {The Lambs).
589 Mary Lamb to Jane Norris .
Mr. Hazlitt's text {The Lambs).
944. 590 Miss James to Jane Norris .
1834.
Feb. 14
No date
Feb. 22
End of June
June 25
Summer
Summer
End of July
Aug. 5
Sept. 12
Oct.
Oct. 18
? Dec.
Dec. 22
1841.
Dec. 25
1842.
Oct. 3
1843.
July 25
ADDITIONAL LETTERS IN APPENDIX II
970. 170A Charles Lamb to George Dyer
From The Mirror,
973* 237A **Charles and Mary Lamb to S. J. Arnold .
973. 246A Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop .
1808.
. Dec. 5
. ? 1819.
1820.
• July 13
CONTENTS
XXI
PAGE LETTER
974* 359A Charles Lamb to John Aitken
975- 439 A *Charles Lamb to John Rickman (translation)
978. 461 A Charles Lamb to George Dyer .
From The Mirror.
1825.
Julys
1828.
Oct. 3
1829.
April 29
CONTENTS OF APPENDIX I
Coleridge's ** Ode on the Departing Year "
Wither's " Supersedeas "
Dyer's *' Poetic Sympathies " (fragment) .
Haydon's Party (from Taylor's Life of Hay don)
Southey's *' To the Chapel Bell" ....
Barton's *' Spiritual Law"
Barton's *' Translation of Enoch " ....
Talfourd's *• Verses in Memory of a Child Named Charles Lamb
FitzGerald's " Meadows in Spring" ....
Montgomery's " The Common Lot "...
Barry Cornwall's " Epistle to Charles Lamb " .
PAGE
947
950
951
954
956
957
957
958
960
961
962
CONTENTS OF APPENDIX III
Notes on Vol. L
Early Journalism, L .
Grand State Bed
Early Journalism, IL .
A Fable for Twelfth Day
Miss Kelly
*' Letter to an Old Gentleman " (note)
" Letter to Southey " (note)
Hood's Progress of Cant .
Mr. Ephraim Wagstaff
Waltham, Essex
" Mrs. Battle" (note)
** Praise of Chimney-Sweepers " (note)
'' The Tombs in the Abbey " (note) .
Lamb's Earliest Poem
Dick Strype
*' Farewell to Tobacco " (note)
*' Harmony in Unlikeness " (note) .
" To Emma" (note) ....
979
980
980
980
980
981
982
982
983
984
986
986
987
987
988
989
990
992
992
xxii CONTENTS
PAGE
A New Epigram 992
** On the Literary Gazette " (note) 992
*' Prologue to * Remorse ' " (note) 993
" Mr. H." (note) 994
A New Poem . 995
Sapphics ............. 995
A Poem Possibly by Lamb ......... 996
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF LETTERS 997
INDEX . 1008
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Charles Lamb. From the drawing by Thomas Wageman
about 1825 5 reproduced by permission of Mr. F. W.
Halsey Frontispiece
Facsimile of a Note from Lamb to Mrs. William
Ayrton. From the original lent by the late W. S.
Ayr ton To face page 550
The Bellows Portrait of Shakespeare. From the
original in the possession of Mr. B. B. Macgeorge . „ ,, 574
Mr. Alexander Pope, ^Etat. 38. From the painting by
M. Dahll n „ 606
Reduced Facsimile of Letter from Lamb to Sarah
Hutchinson. From the original in the possession of
Mr. Gordon Wordsworth n i> ^^^
Reduced Facsimile of Letter from Lamb to Sarah
Hutchinson (Page 2). From the original in the
possession of Mr. Gordon Wordsworth ... >» »» ^^°
Lamb's House in Colebrooke Row, Islington, as it is
TO-DAY (1904) » »» "20
Death of the Wicked Man. Plate from Blair's Grave,
designed by William Blake »» ?» ^44
Charles Lamb, Aged 50. From the etching by Brook
Pulham (First State) „ m 7o6
**Very Deaf Indeed," by Thomas Hood »» 7o6
HOLLINGDON RURAL ChURCH '» 7^9
The Young Catechist. Painted and engraved by Henry
Meyer To face page 728
The Picture sent by Lamb to Bernard Barton. From
the original in the possession of Mrs. Edmund Lyons . „ „ 73o
Mary Lamb, by Thomas Hood »» 734
Lamb's First House at Enfield »» 754
The Lamb Country. From a map drawn by Miss M. C. G.
Jackson ^^ /^^^ ^^^^ 792
Westwood Cottage (front) »» ^7
Westwood Cottage (back) »' ^
Thomas Westwood, by Charles Lamb »» ^9
Lamb's House at Edmonton » 9io
xxiii
THE
LETTERS OF CHARLES AND MARY LAMB
1821—1834
LETTER 252
CHARLES LAMB TO MRS. WILLIAM AYRTON
[Dated at end : Jan. 23, 1821.]
DEAR Mrs. Ayrton, my sister desires me, as being a more ex-
pert penman than herself, to say that she saw Mrs. Paris
yesterday, and that she is very much out of spirits, and has expressed
a great wish to see your son Wilham, and Fanny
I Hke to write that word Fanny, I do not know but it was one
reason of taking upon me this pleasing task
Moreover that if the said William and Frances will go and sit an
hour with her at any time, she will engage that no one else shall
see them but herself, and the servant who opens the door, she being
confined to her private room. I trust you and the Juveniles will
comply with this reasonable request.
& am
Dear Mrs. Ayrton
your's and yours'
Truly
C. Lamb.
Cov. Gar.
23 Jan. 1821.
Note
[Mrs. Ayrton {n4e Arnold) was the wife of William Ayrton, the
musical critic (see Letter 223).]
LETTER 253
CHARLES LAMB TO MISS HUMPHREYS
London 27 Jany. 182 1.
DEAR Madam, Carriages to Cambridge are in such request,
owing to the Installation, that we have found it impossible
to procure a conveyance for Emma before Wednesday, on which
VOL. VII. — 36
550 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB March
day between the hours of 3 and 4 in the afternoon you will see
your little friend, with her bloom somewhat impaired by late hours
and dissipation, but her gait, gesture, and general manners (I flatter
myself) considerably improved by somebody that shall he
nameless. My sister joins me in love to all true Trumpingtonians,
not specifying any, to avoid envy ; and begs me to assure you that
Emma has been a very good girl, which, with certain limitations,
I must myself subscribe to. I wish I could cure her of making
dog's ears in books, and pinching them on poor Pompey, who, for
one, I dare say, will heartily rejoyce at her departure.
Dear Madam,
Yours truly
foolish C. L.
Note
[The letter is addressed to " Miss Humphreys, with Mrs. Paris,
Trumpington Street, Cambridge." Franked by J. Rickman.
This letter contains the first reference in the correspondence to
Emma Isola, daughter of Charles Isola, Esquire Bedell of Cam-
bridge University, and granddaughter of Agostino Isola, the Italian
critic and teacher, of Cambridge, among whose pupils had been
Wordsworth. Miss Humphreys was Emma Isola's aunt. Emma
seems to have been brought to London by Mrs. Paris and left with
the Lambs.
Pompey seems to have been the Lambs' first dog. Later, as we
shall see, they adopted Dash.]
LETTER 254
CHARLES LAMB TO MRS. WILLIAM AYRTON
[^See facsimile on opposite page]
[Dated at end : March 15, 1821.]
DEAR Madam, We are out of town of necessity till Wednesday
next, when we hope to see one of you at least to a rubber.
On some future Saturday we shall most gladly accept your kind
offer. When I read your delicate little note, Tam ashamed of my
great staring letters.
Yours most truly
Charles Lamb.
Dalston near Hackney
15 Mar. 1831,
ft/Zri^ :>aJu^*^^ ut. iiuJl yf^^r fZmJJi^ ii.c^Mj' y^u4 k*^d ^{■{v^.. (Jt^
FACSIMILE OF A NOTE FROM LAMB TO MRS. WILLIAM AYRTON
FROM THE OKIGINAL LENT BY THE LATE W. S. AYRTON
1821 THREE NOTES 551
LETTER 255
CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP
30 March, 1821.
MY dear Sir — If you can come next Sunday we shall be equally
glad to see you, but do not trust to any of Martin's appoint-
ments, except on business, in future. He is notoriously faithless
in that point, and we did wrong not to have warned you. Leg of
Lamb, as before ; hot at 4. And the heart of Lamb ever.
Yours truly, C. L.
LETTER 256
CHARLES LAMB TO LEIGH HUNT
Indifferent Wednesday [April 18], 1821.
DEAR Hunt, — There was a sort of side talk at Mr. Novello's
about our spending Good Friday at Hampstead, but my
sister has got so bad a cold, and we both want rest so much, that
you shall excuse our putting off the visit some little time longer.
Perhaps, after all, you know nothing of it. — Believe me, yours
truly, C. Lamb.
LETTER 257
CHARLES LAMB TO S. T. COLERIDGE
May ist [1821],
Mr. Gilman*s, Highgate.
MR C. — I will not fail you on Friday by six, and Mary,
perhaps, earlier. I very much wish to meet " Master
Mathew," and am much obliged to the G s for the opportunity.
Our kind respects to them always. — Elia.
Extract from a MS. note of S. T. C. in my Beaumont and Fletcher,
dated April 17th 1807.
Midnight,
" God bless you, dear Charles Lamb, I am dying ; I feel I have
not many weeks left."
552 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB May
Note
[Master Mathew is in Ben Jonson's " Every Man in His Humour."
Lamb's "Beaumont and Fletcher," is in the British Museum.
The note quoted by Lamb is not there, or perhaps it is one that
has been crossed out. This still remains: " N.B. I shall not be
long here, Charles! I gone, you will not mind my having spoiled
a book in order to leave a Relic. S. T. C, Oct. 1811."
LETTER 258
CHARLES LAMB TO JAMES GILLMAN
[Dated at end: 2 May, 1821.]
DEAR Sir — You dine so late on Friday, it will be impossible
for us to go home by the eight o'clock stage. Will you
oblige us by securing us beds at some house from which a stage
goes to the Bank in the morning ? I would write to Coleridge,
but cannot think of troubling a dying man with such a request.
Yours truly, C. Lamb.
If the beds in the town are all engaged, in consequence of Mr.
Mathews's appearance, a hackney-coach will serve.
Wednesy. 2 May '21.
We shall neither of us come much before the time.
Note
[Mrs. Mathews (who was half-sister of Fanny Kelly) described
this evening in her Memoirs of her husband, 1839. Her account
of Lamb is interesting : —
Mr. Lamb's first approach was not prepossessing. His figure was small and
mean ; and no man certainly was ever less beholden to his tailor. His " bran " new
suit of black cloth (in which he afifected several times during the day to take great
pride, and to cherish as a novelty that he had long looked for and wanted) was
droUy contrasted with his very rusty silk stockings, shown from his knees, and his
much too large thick shoes, without polish. His shirt rejoiced in a wide ill-plaited
frill, and his very small, tight, white neckcloth was hemmed to a fine point at the
ends that formed part of the little bow. His hair was black and sleek, but not
formal, and his face the gravest I ever saw, but indicating great intellect', and re-
sembling very much the portraits of King Charles I. Mr. Coleridge was very
anxious about his pet Larnb's first impression upon my husband, which I believe
his friend saw ; and guessing that he had been extolled, he mischievously resolved
to thwart his panegyrist, disappoint the strangers, and altogether to upset the sus-
pected plan of showing him off.
1821 COLLIER'S ''POETICAL DECAMERON" 553
The Mathews' were then living at Ivy Cottage, only a short dis-
tance from the Grove, Highgate, where the famous Mathews collec-
tion of pictures was to be seen of which Lamb subsequently wrote
in the London Magazine,"]
LETTER 259
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN PAYNE COLLIER
May i6, 1821.
DEAR J. P. C.,— Many thanks for the " Decameron : " I have
not such a gentleman's book in my collection : it was a great
treat to me, and I got it just as I was wanting something of the
sort. I take less pleasure in books than heretofore, but I like books
about books. In the second volume, in particular, are treasures —
your discoveries about " Twelfth Night," etc. What a Shakespearian
essence that speech of Osrades for food ! — Shakespeare is coarse to
it — beginning " Forbear and eat no more." Osrades warms up to
that, but does not set out ruffian-swaggerer. The character of
the Ass with those three lines, worthy to be set in gilt vellum, and
worn in frontlets by the noble beasts for ever —
" Thou would, perhaps, he should become thy foe,
And to that end dost beat him many times :
He cares not for himself, much less thy blow."
Cervantes, Sterne, and Coleridge, have said positively nothing for
asses compared with this.
I write in haste; but p. 24, vol. i., the line you cannot appropri-
ate is Gray's sonnet, specimenifyed by Wordsworth in first preface
to L. B., as mixed of bad and good style : p. 143, 2nd vol., you
will find last poem but one of the collection on Sidney's death in
Spenser, the line,
" Scipio, Caesar, Petrarch of our time."
This fixes it to be Raleigh's : I had guess'd it to be Daniel's. The
last after it, " Silence augmenteth rage," I will be crucified if it
be not Lord Brooke's. Hang you, and all meddling researchers,
hereafter, that by raking into learned dust may find me out wrong
in my conjecture !
Dear J. P. C, I shall take the first opportunity of personally
thanking you for my entertainment. We are at Dalston for the
VOL. VII. — 37
554 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB May
most part, but I fully hope for an evening soon with you in Russell
or Bouverie Street, to talk over old times and books. Remember
us kindly to Mrs. J. P. C.
Yours very kindly, Charles Lamb.
I write in misery.
N.B. — The best pen I could borrow at our butcher's : the ink,
I verily believe, came out of the kennel.
Note
[Collier's Poetical Decameron^ in two volumes, was published in
1820 : a series of imaginary conversations on curious and little-
known books. His " Twelfth Night " discoveries will be found in
the Eighth Conversation ; Collier deduces the play from Bamaby
Rich's Farewell to Military Profession^ 1606. He also describes
Thomas Lodge's " Rosalynde," the forerunner of " As You Like
It," in which is the character Rosader, whom Lamb calls Osrades.
His speech for food runs thus : —
It hapned that day that Gerismond^ the lawfull king of France banished by
Torismondy who with a lustie crew of outlawes Hued in that Forrest, that day in
honour of his birth, made a feast to all his bolde yeomen, and frolickt it with store
of wine and venison, sitting all at a long table vnder the shadow of Limon trees :
to that place by chance fortune conducted Rosader^ who seeing such a crew of braue
men, hauing store of that for want of which hee and Adam perished, hee stept boldly
to the boords end, and saluted the Company thus. — Whatsoeuer thou be that art
maister of these lustie squires, I salute thee as graciously as a man in extreame
distresse may : knowe that I and a fellow friend of mine, are here famished in the
forrest for want of foode : perish we must, vnlesse relieued by thy fauours. Therefore
if thou be a Gentleman, giue meate to men, and such as are euery way worthie of
life : let the proudest Squire that sits at thy table rise and encounter with me in any
honourable point of activitie whatsoeuer, and if he and thou proue me not a man,
send mee away comfortlesse : if thou refuse this, as a niggard of thy cates, I will
haue amongst you with my sword, for rather wil I die valiantly, then perish with so
cowardly an extreame (Collier's Poetical Decafneron, 174, Eighth Conversation).
Lamb compares with that the passage in " As You Like It," H.,
7, 88, beginning with Orlando's " Forbear, and eat no more."
The character of the ass is quoted by Collier from an old book.
The Noblenesse of the Asse^ 1595, in the Third Conversation : —
Thou wouldst (perhaps) he should become thy foe,
And to that end doost beat him many times ;
He cares not for himselfe, much lesse thy blowe.
Lamb wrote more fully of this passage in an article on the ass
contributed to Hone's Every-Day Book in 1825 (see Vol. L of
the present edition, page 303).
The line from Gray's sonnet on the death of Mr. Richard W^st
was this : —
And weep the more because I weep in vain.
1821 JOHN SCOTT'S DEATH 555
" Scipio, Caesar," etc. This line runs, in the epitaph on Sidney,
beginning " To praise thy Hfe "—
Scipio, Cicero, and Petrarch of our time 1
It is generally supposed to be by Raleigh. The next poem,
''Silence Augmenteth Grief," is attributed by Malone to Sir Edward
Dyer, and by Hannah to Raleigh,]
LETTER 260
CHARLES LAMB TO B. W. PROCTER
[No date. ? Summer, 1821.]
DEAR Sir, The Wits (as Clare calls us) assemble at my Cell
(20 Russell St. Cov.-Gar.) this evening at I before 7. Cold
meat at 9. Puns at — a little after. Mr. Cary wants to see you,
to scold you. I hope you will not fail.
Yours &c. &c. &c.
C. Lamb.
Thursday.
I am sorry the London Magazine is going to be given up.
Note
[I assume the date of this note to be summer, 1821, because it was
then that Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, the London Magazine's first
publishers, gave it up. The reason was the death of John Scott,
the editor, and probably to a large extent the originator, of the
magazine. It was sold to Taylor & Hessey, their first number
being dated July, 1821.
Scott had become involved in a quarrel with Blackwood^ which
reached such a pitch that a duel was fought, between Scott and
Christie, a friend of Lockhart's. The whole story, which is in-
volved, and indeed not wholly clear, need not be told here : it will
be found in Mr. Lang's memoir of Lockhart. The meeting was
held at Chalk Farm on February 16, 1821. Peter George Patmore,
sub-editor of the London^ was Scott's second. Scott fell, wounded
by a shot which Christie fired purely in self-defence. He died on
February 27.
556 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB June
Mr. Gary. Henry Francis Gary the translator of Dante and a
contributor to the London Magazine,
The London Magazine had four periods. From 1820 to the
middle of 1821, when it was Baldwin, Gradock & Joy's. From 1821
to the end of 1824, when it was Taylor & Hesse/s at a shilling.
From January, 1825, to August of that year, when it was Taylor
& Hessey's at half-a-crown ; and from September, 1825, to the end,
when it was Henry Southern's, and was published by Hunt &
Glarke.]
LETTER 261
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN TAYLOR
Margate, June 8, 1821.
DEAR Sir, — I am extremely soiTy to be obliged to decline the
article proposed, as I should have been flattered with a
Plate accompanying it. In the first place, Midsummer day is not
a topic I could make anything of — I am so pure a Gockney, and
little read, besides, in May games and antiquities ; and, in the
second, I am here at Margate, spoiling my holydays with a Review
I have undertaken for a friend, which I shall barely get through
before my return ; for that sort of work is a hard task to me. If
you will excuse the shortness of my first contribution — and I know
I can promise nothing more for July — I will endeavour a longer
article for our next. Will you permit me to say that I think
Leigh Hunt would do the article you propose in a masterly
manner, if he has not out writ himself already upon the subject.
I do not return the proof — to save postage — because it is correct,
with ONE EXCEPTION. In the stanza from Wordsworth, you have
changed day into air for rhyme-sake : day is the rifi^ht readino-,
and I IMPLORE you to restore it.
The other passage, which you have queried, is to my ear correct.
Pray let it stand.
Dr Sr, yours truly, G. Lamb.
On second consideration, I do enclose the proof.
Note
[John Taylor (1781-1864), the publisher, with Hessey, of the
London Magazine was, in 1813, the first publicly to identify Sir
Philip Francis with Junius. Taylor acted as editor of the London
1821 IMPERFECT SYMPATHIES 657
Magazine from 1821 to 1824, assisted by Thomas Hood. Later
his interests were centred in currency questions.
"' I am here at Margate." I do not know what review Lamb was
writing. If written and published it has not been reprinted. It
was on this visit to Margate that Lamb met Charles Cowden Clarke.
" My first contribution." The first number to bear Taylor
& Hessey's name was dated July, but they had presumably
acquired the rights in the magazine before then. Lamb's first
contribution to the London Magazine had been in August, 1820,
"The South-Sea House."
The proof which Lamb returned was that of the Elia essay on
" Mackery End in Hertfordshire," printed in the July number of
the London Magazine^ in which he quoted a stanza from Words-
worth's " Yarrow Visited " : —
But thou, that didst appear so fair
To fond imagination,
Dost rival in the light of day
Her delicate creation.
Here should come a scrap from Lamb to Ayrton, dated July
17, 1821, referring to the Coronation. Lamb says that in con-
sequence of this event he is postponing his Wednesday evening
to Friday.]
LETTER 262
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN TAYLOR
July 21, 1821.
D^ Sir, — The Lond, Mag. is, chiefly pleasant to me, because
some of my friends write in it. I hope Hazlitt intends to go
on with it, we cannot spare Table Talk. For myself I feel almost
exhausted, but I will try my hand a little longer, and shall not at
all events be written out of it by newspaper paragraphs. Your
proofs do not seem to want my helping hand, they are quite correct
always. For God's sake change Sisera to JaeL This last paper
will be a choke-pear I fear to some people, but as you do not object
to it, I can be under little apprehension of your exerting your
Censorship too rigidly.
Thanking you for your extract from M^. E.'s letter,
I remain, D^ Sir,
Your obliged,
C. Lamb.
558 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB 1821
Note
[Hazlitt continued his Table Talk in the London Magazine
until December, 1821.
Lamb seems to have been treated fooHshly by some newspaper
critic ; but I have not traced the paragraphs in question.
The proof was that of the Elia essay " Imperfect Sympathies/'
which was printed (with a fuller title) in the number for August,
1821. The reference to Jael is in the passage on Braham and the
Jewish character.
I do not identify Mr. E. Possibly Elton.
Here should come a further letter to Taylor, dated July 30,
1821, not available for this edition, in which Lamb refers to some
verses addressed to him by " Olen " (Charles Abraham Elton : see
note to Letter 333) in the London Magazine for August, re-
monstrating with him for the pessimism of the Elia essay " New
Year's Eve" (see Vol. II. of this edition, page 328).
/ Lamb also remarks that he borrowed the name Elia (pronounced
^ Ellia) from an old South-Sea House clerk who is now dead.]
LETTER 263
CHARLES LAMB TO CHARLES COWDEN CLARKE
[Summer, 1821.]
MY dear Sir — Your letter has lain in a drawer of my desk, up-
braiding me every time I open the said drawer, but it is
almost impossible to answer such a letter in such a place, and I am
out of the habit of replying to epistles otherwhere than at office.
You express yourself concerning H. like a true friend, and have
made me feel that I have somehow neglected him, but without
knowing very well how to rectify it. I live so remote from him —
by Hackney — that he is almost out of the pale of visitation at
Hampstead. And I come but seldom to Govt Gard^^ this summer
time — and when I do, am sure to pay for the late hours and
pleasant Novello suppers which I incur. I also am an invalid.
But I will hit upon some way, that you shall not have cause for
your reproof in future. But do not think I take the hint unkindly.
When I shall be brought low by any sickness or untoward circum-
stance, write just such a letter to some tardy friend of mine or
come up yourself with your friendly Henshaw face — and that will
be better. I shall not forget in haste our casual day at Margate.
May we have many such there or elsewhere ! God bless you for
1821 CHARLES COWDEN CLARKE 559
your kindness to H., which I will remember. But do not show N.
this, for the flouting infidel doth mock when Christians cry God
bless us. Yours and his, too, and all our little circle's most affect^.
C. Lamb.
Mary's love included.
Note
[Charles Cowden Clarke (1787-1877) was the son of a school-
master who had served as usher with George Dyer at Northampton.
Afterwards he established a school at Enfield, where Keats was one
of the scholars. Charles Cowden Clarke, at this time a bookseller,
remained one of Keats' friends and was a friend also of Leigh
Hunt's, on whose behalf he seems to have written to Lamb. Later
he became a partner of Alfred Novello, the musical publisher, son
of Vincent Novello. In 1828 he married Mary Victoria Novello.
" Friendly Henshaw face." I cannot explain this.
Leigh Hunt left England for Italy in November, 1821, to join
Shelley and Byron.]
LETTER 264
MARY LAMB TO MRS. WILLIAM AYRTON
]\ /r Y dear friend.
[No date. ? 1821.]
Thursday Morning.
_ __ The kind interest you took in my perplexities of yester-
day makes me feel that you will be well pleased to hear I got
through my complicated business far better than I had ventured
to hope I should do. In the first place let me thank you, my good
friend, for your good advice ; for, had I not gone to Martin first
he would have sent a senseless letter to Mr. Rickman, and now he
is coming here to-day in order to frame one in conjunction with
my brother.
What will be Mr. Rickman's final determination I know not, but
he and Mrs. Rickman both gave me a most kind reception, and a
most patient hearing, and then Mr. R. walked with me as far as
Bishopsgate Street, conversing the whole way on the same unhappy
subject. I will see you again the very first opportunity till when
farewel with grateful thanks.
How senseless I was not to make you go back in that empty
coach. I never have but one idea in my poor head at a time.
Yours affectionately
M. Lamb.
at Mr. Coston's
No, 14 Kingsland Row Dalston.
560 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB 1821
Note
[The explanation of this letter is found in an entry in Crabb
Robinson's Diary ^ the unpublished portion, which tells us that
owing to certain irregularities Rickman, who was Clerk Assistant
at the table of the House of Commons, had been obliged to dis-
charge Martin Burney, who was one of his clerks.
Here should come another scrap from Lamb to Ayrton, dated
August 14, stating that at to-morrow's rubber the windows will be
closed on account of Her Majesty's death. Her Majesty was Queen
Caroline, whom Lamb had championed. She died on August 7.
Here should come an unavailable letter from Lamb to AUsop,
dated October 19, 1821. In it Lamb thanks AUsop for a hare,
which had come as from Mr. Alfourd. Lamb decides to divide
his gratitude between Allsop and Talfourd. Mary Lamb, he says,
has been and is ill. They are at Dalston. The subscription is
Piscatorum Amicus, C. L.]
LETTER 265
CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM AYRTON
[Oct. 27, 1821.]
I COME, Grimalkin ! Dalston, near Hackney, 27th Oct^. One
thousand 8 hundred and twenty one years and a wee-bit since
you and I were redeemed. I doubt if you are done properly yet.
Note
[A further letter to Ayrton, dated from Dalston, October 30,
is printed by Mr. Macdonald, in which Lamb speaks of his sister's
illness and the death of his brother John, who died on October 26,
aged fifty-eight. It is reasonable to suppose that Lamb, when the
above note was wi-itten, was unaware of his brother's death (see
note to Letter 267 on page 564). On October 26, however, he had
written to the editor of the London Magazine saying that he was
most uncomfortably situated at home and expecting some trouble
which might prevent further writing for some time — which may
have been an allusion to his brother's illness or to signs of Mary
Lamb's approaching malady.
Here should come a note to William Hone, printed by Mr.
Macdonald, evidently in reply to a comment on Lamb's essay on
" Saying Grace." Also a letter to Rickman. See Appendix II.,
page 974.]
1822 ROAST PIG 561
LETTER 266
CHARLES LAMB TO S. T. COLERIDGE
March gth, 1822.
DEAR C, — It gives me great satisfaction to hear that the
pig turned out so well — they are interesting creatures at
a certain age — what a pity such buds should blow out into the
maturity of rank bacon ! You had all some of the crackling —
and brain sauce — did you remember to rub it with butter, and
gently dredge it a little, just before the crisis ? Did the eyes come
away kindly with no (Edipean avulsion ? Was the crackling the
colour of the ripe pomegranate? Had you no complement of
boiled neck of mutton before it, to blunt the edge of delicate
desire ? Did you flesh maiden teeth in it ? Not that I sent the
pig, or can form the remotest guess what part Owen could play in
the business. I never knew him give anything away in my life.
He would not begin with strangers. I suspect the pig, after all,
was meant for me ; but at the unlucky juncture of time being
absent, the present somehow went round to Highgate. To confess
an honest truth, a pig is one of those things I could never think
of sending away. Teals, wigeons, snipes, barn-door fowl, ducks,
geese — your tame villatic things — Welsh mutton, collars of brawn,
sturgeon, fresh or pickled, your potted char, Swiss cheeses, French
pies, early grapes, muscadines, I impart as freely unto my friends
as to myself. They are but self-extended ; but pardon me if I
stop somewhere — where the fine feeling of benevolence giveth a
higher smack than the sensual rarity — there my friends (or any
good man) may command me ; but pigs are pigs, and I myself
therein am nearest to myself. Nay, I should think it an affront,
an undervaluing done to Nature who bestowed such a boon upon
me, if in a churlish mood I parted with the precious gift. One of
the bitterest pangs of remorse I ever felt was when a child — when
my kind old aunt had strained her pocket-strings to bestow a
sixpenny whole plum-cake upon me. In my way home through
the Borough, I met a venerable old man, not a mendicant, but
thereabouts — a look-beggar, not a verbal petitionist; and in the
coxcombry of taught-charity I gave away the cake to him. I
walked on a little in all the pride of an Evangelical peacock, when
of a sudden my old aunt's kindness crossed me — the sum it was to
her — the pleasure she had a right to expect that I — not the old
impostor — should take in eating her cake — the cursed ingratitude
by which, under the colour of a Christian virtue, I had frustrated
VOL. VII. — 38
562 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB March
her cherished purpose. I sobbed, wept, and took it to heart so
grievously, that I think I never suffered the Hke — and I was right.
It was a piece of unfeehng hypocrisy, and proved a lesson to me
ever after. The cake has long been masticated, consigned to dung-
hill with the ashes of that unseasonable pauper.
But when Providence, who is better to us all than our aunts,
gives me a pig, remembering my temptation and my fall, I shall
endeavour to act towards it more in the spirit of the donor's pur-
pose.
Yours (short of pig) to command in everything. C. L.
Note
[This letter probably led to the immediate composition of the
Elia essay " A Dissertation on Roast Pig " (see Vol. II. of the
present edition, page 120), which was printed in the London
Magazine for September, 1822. See also " Thoughts on Presents
of Game," Vol. I. of this edition, page 343.
" CEdipean avulsion." CEdipus, King of Thebes, in a passion of
grief put out his eyes.
" Owen." Lamb's landlord in Russell Street.
" Tame villatic things " — Sarason Agonistes, 1695, " tame vil-
latic fowl." Villatic means belonging to a village.
"My kind old aunt . . . the Borough." This is rather per-
plexing. Lamb, to the best of our knowledge, never as a child
lived anywhere but in the Temple. His only aunt of whom we
know anything lived with the family also in the Temple. But
John Lamb's will proves Lamb to have had two aunts. The
reference to the Borough suggests therefore that the aunt in
question was not Sarah Lamb (Aunt Hetty) but her sister.]
LETTER 267
CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
2oth March, 1822.
MY dear Wordsworth — A letter from you is very grateful, I
have not seen a Kendal postmark so long ! We are pretty
well save coJds and rheumatics, and a certain deadness to every
thing, which I think I may date from poor John's Loss, and another
accident or two at the same time, that has made me almost bury
myself at Dalston, where yet I see more faces than I could wish.
Deaths over-set one and put one out long after the recent grief.
1822 DEATH AND OUR FRIENDS 563
Two or three have died within this last two twelvem^hs.^ and so
many parts of me have been numbed. One sees a picture, reads
an anecdote, starts a casual fancy, and thinks to tell of it to this
person in preference to every other — the person is gone whom it
would have peculiarly suited. It won't do for another. Every
departure destroys a class of sympathies. There's Capt. Burney
gone ! — what fun has whist now ? what matters it what you lead,
if you can no longer fancy him looking over you ? One never hears
any thing, but the image of the particular person occurs with whom
alone almost you would care to share the intelligence. Thus one
distributes oneself about — and now for so many parts of me I have
lost the market. Common natures do not suffice me. Good people,
as they are called, won't serve. I want individuals. I am made
up of queer points and I want so many answering needles. The
going away of friends does not make the remainder more precious.
It takes so much from them as there was a common link. A. B.
and C. make a party. A. dies. B. not only loses A. but all A.'s
part in C. C. loses A.'s part in B., and so the alphabet sickens by
subtraction of inter changeables. I express myself muddily, capite
dolente. I have a dulling cold. My theory is to enjoy life, but
the practice is against it. I grow ominously tired of official con-
finement. Thirty years have I served the Philistines, and my neck
is not subdued to the yoke. You don't know how wearisome it
is to breathe the air of four pent walls without relief day after day,
all the golden hours of the day between 10 and 4 without ease or
interposition. Taedet me harum quotidianarum formarum, these
pestilential clerk faces always in one's dish. O for a few years be-
tween the grave and the desk ! they are the same, save that at the
latter you are outside the machine. The foul enchanter — letters
four do form his name — Busirane is his name in hell — that has
curtailed you of some domestic comforts, hath laid a heavier hand
on me, not in present infliction, but in taking away the hope of
enfranchisement. I dare not whisper to myself a Pension on this
side of absolute incapacitation and infirmity, till years have sucked
me dry. Otium cum indignitate. I had thought in a green old age
(O green thought !) to have retired to Ponder's End — emblematic
name how beautiful ! in the Ware road, there to have made up my
accounts with Heaven and the Company, toddling about between it
and Cheshunt, anon stretching on some fine Izaac Walton morning
to Hoddesdon or Am well, careless as a Beggar, but walking, walking
ever, till I fairly walkd myself off my legs, dying walking !
The hope is gone. 1 sit like Philomel all day (but not singing)
with my breast against this thorn of a Desk, with the only hope
that some Pulmonary affliction may relieve me. Vide Lord Pal-
merston's report of the Clerks in the war office (Debates, this
564 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB March
morning's Times) by which it appears in 20 years, as many Clerks
have been coughd and catarrhd out of it into their freer graves.
Thank you for asking about the Pictures. Milton hangs over
my fire side in Govt. Gard. (when I am there), the rest have been
sold for an old song, wanting the eloquent tongue that should have
set them off !
You have gratifyd me with liking my meeting with Dodd. For
the Malvolio story — the thing is become in verity a sad task and I
eke it out with any thing. If I could slip out of it I sh^ be happy,
but our chief reputed assistants have forsaken us. The opium eater
crossed us once with a dazzling path, and hath as suddenly left us
darkling ; and in short I shall go on from dull to worse, because I
cannot resist the Bookseller's importunity — the old plea you know
of authors, but I believe on my part sincere.
Hartley I do not so often see, but I never see him in unwelcome
hour. I thoroughly love and honor him.
I send you a frozen Epistle, but it is winter and dead time of the
year with me. May heaven keep something like spring and sum-
mer up with you, strengthen your eyes and make mine a little
lighter to encounter with them, as I hope they shall yet and again,
before all are closed. Yours, with every kind rem^e. C. L.
I had almost forgot to say, I think you thoroughly right about
presentation copies. I should like to see you prin t a book I should
grudge to purchase for its size. D -n me, but I would have it
though !
Note
[John Lamb's will left everything to his brother. We must sup-
pose that his widow was independently provided for. I doubt if
the brothers had seen each other except casually for some time.
The Elia essay " My Relations " contains John Lamb's full-length
portrait under the name of James Elia.
Captain Burney died on November 17, 1821.
" Capite dolente^^ — "With an aching head."
" Tcedet me hariim quotidianarum formarum,^^ See note on
page 32.
" The foul enchanter — letters four do form his name." From
Coleridge's war eclogue, " Fire, Famine and Slaughter," where
the letters form the name of Pitt. Here they stand for Joseph
Hume, not Lamb's friend, but Joseph Hume, M.P. (1777-1855),
who had attacked with success abuses in the East India Company ;
had revised economically the system of collecting the revenue, thus
touching Wordsworth as Distributor of Stamps ; and had opposed
Vansittart's scheme for the reduction of pension charges. Busirane
is the enchanter in the Fairy Queen^ Book III.
1822 GOD WIN^S ^^ VULGAR EXPRESSION" 565
" Otium cum indignitate.^^ See note on page 479.
" Vide Lord Palmerston's report." In the Times of March 21
is the report of a debate on the estimates. Palmerston proved a
certain amount of reduction of salary in the War Office. Incident-
ally he remarked that "since 1810 not fewer than twenty-six clerks
had died of pulmonary complaints, and disorders arising from
sedentary habits."
Milton was the portrait, ah-eady described (see page 457), which
had been left to Lamb. Lamb gave it as a dowry to Emma Isola
when she became Mrs. Moxon.
"My meeting with Dodd . . . MalvoHo story." In the essay
" The Old Actors," in the London Magazine for February, 1822
(see Vol. II. of this edition, page 136).
" Our chief reputed assistants." Hazlitt had left the London
Magazine ; Scott, the original editor, was dead.
De Quincey, whose Confessions of an Opium-Eater were ap-
pearing in its pages, has left a record of a visit to the Lambs about
this time. See his " London Reminiscences."
" Hartley." Hartley Coleridge, then a young man of twenty-five,
was living in London after the unhappy sudden termination of his
Oxford career.
Here should come a letter from Lamb to William Godwin, dated
April 13, in which Lamb remarks that he cannot think how Godwin,
who in his writings never expresses himself disrespectfully of any
one but his Maker, can have given offence to Rickman. This re-
minds one of Godwin's remark about Coleridge, " God bless him —
to use a vulgar expression," as recorded by Coleridge in one of his
letters.]
LETTER 268
CHARLES LAMB TO W. HARRISON AINSWORTH
[Dated at end : May 7, 1822.]
DEAR Sir, — I have read your poetry with pleasure. The tales
are pretty and prettily told, the language often finely
poetical. It is only sometimes a little careless, I mean as to re-
dundancy. I have marked certain passages (in pencil only, which
will easily obliterate) for your consideration. Excuse this liberty.
For the distinction you offer me of a dedication, I feel the honor of
it, but I do not think it would advantage the publication. I am
hardly on an eminence enough to warrant it. The Reviewers, who
are no friends of mine — the two big ones especially who make a
566 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB May
point of taking no notice of anything I bring out — may take
occasion by it to decry us both. But I leave you to your own
judgment. Perhaps, if you wish to give me a kind word, it will
be more appropriate before your republication of Tourneur.
The " Specimens " would give a handle to it, which the poems
might seem to want. But I submit it to yourself with the old
recollection that " beggars should not be chusers " and remain with
great respect and wishing success to both your publications
Your obe^. Ser^.
C. Lamb.
No hurry at all for Tourneur.
Tuesday 7 May '22.
Note
[William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882), afterwards known as
a novelist, was then articled to a Manchester solicitor, but had begun
his literary career. The book to which Lamb refers was called
The Works of Cheviot Tichburn^ 1822, and was dedicated to him
in the following terms : —
TO MY FRIEND CHARLES LAMB,
AS A SLIGHT MARK
OF
GRATITUDE FOR HIS KINDNESS
AND
ADMIRATION OF HIS CHARACTER,
THESE POEMS ARE INSCRIBED.
Ainsworth was meditating an edition of the works of Cyril
Tourneur, author of " The Atheist's Tragedy," to whom Lamb had
drawn attention in the Dramatic Specionens^ 1808. The book
was never published.]
LETTER 269
CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM GODWIN
May 16, 1822.
DEAR Godwin — I sincerely feel for all your trouble. Pray
use the enclosed ^50, and pay me when you can. I shall
make it my business to see you very shortly.
Yours truly
C. Lamb.
1822 GODWIN IN DIFFICULTIES 567
Note
[Owing largely to a flaw in the title-deed of his house at 41 Skinner
Street, which he had to forfeit, Godwin had come upon poverty
greater than any he had previously suffered, although he had been
always more or less necessitous. Lamb now lent him d£^50. In the
following year, after being mainly instrumental in putting on foot
a fund for Godwin's benefit, he transformed this loan into a gift.
An appeal was issued in 1823 asking for =£^600, the following post-
script to which, in Lamb's hand, is preserved at the South Kensington
Museum : —
" There are few circumstances belonging to the case which are not
sufficiently adverted to in the above letter.
"Mr. Godwin's opponent declares himself determined to act
against him with the last degree of hostility : the law gives him
the power the first week in November to seize upon Mr. Godwin's
property, furniture, books, &c. together with all his present sources
of income for the support of himself and his family. Mr. Godwin
has at this time made considerable progress in a work of great
research, and requiring all the powers of his mind, to the comple-
tion of which he had lookd for future pecuniary advantage. His
mind is at this moment so entirely occupied in this work, that he
feels within himself the firmness and resolution that no prospect of
evil or calamity shall draw him off from it or suspend his labours.
But the calamity itself^ if permitted to arrive, will produce the
physical impossibility for him to proceed. His books and the
materials of his work, as well as his present sources of income, will
be taken from him. Those materials have been the collection of
several years, and it would require a long time to replace them, if
they could ever be replaced.
" The favour of an early answer is particularly requested, that the
extent of the funds supplied may as soon as possible be ascertained,
particularly as any aid, however kindly intended^ will, after the
lapse of a very few weeks, become useless to the purpose in view."
The signatories to the appeal were : Crabb Robinson (^30),
William Ayrton {£\0\ John Murray (o£^10 10s.), Charles Lamb
(.£^50), Lord Francis Leveson-Gower (^10), Lord Dudley (i^50),
the Hon. W. Lamb {£9.0) and Sir James Mackintosh (£10). Other
contributions were : Lord Byron, £9^Q 5s. ; T. M. Alsager, ^10 ; and
^' A B C, by Charles Lamb," ^£^10. A B C was Sir Walter Scott.
The work on which Godwin was then labouring was his History
of the Commonwealth, 1824-1828. His new home was in the
Strand. In 1833 he received the post of Yeoman Usher of the
Exchequer, which he held till his death in 1836, although its
duties had vanished ere then.]
568 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB May
LETTER 270
CHARLES LAMB TO MRS. JOHN LAMB
22 May 1822.
DEAR Mrs. Lamb, A letter has come to Arnold for Mrs.
Phillips, and, as I have not her address, I take this method
of sending it to you. That old rogue's name is Sherwood, as you
guessed, but as I named the shirts to him, I think he must have
them. Your character of him made me almost repent of the
bounty.
You must consider this letter as Mary's — for writing letters is
such a trouble and puts her to such twitters (family modesty, you
know ; it is the way with me, but I try to get over it) that in pity
I offer to do it for her. —
We hold our intention of seeing France, but expect to see you
here first, as we do not go till the 20th of next month. A steam
boat goes to Dieppe, I see. —
Christie has not sent to me, and I suppose is in no hurry to
settle the account. I think in a day or two (if I do not hear from
you to the contrary) I shall refresh his memory.
I am sorry I made you pay for two Letters. I Peated it, and
re-peated it.
Miss Wright is married, and I am a hamper in her debt, which
I hope will now not be remembered. She is in great good humour,
I hear, and yet out of spirits.
Where shall I get such full flavor'd Geneva again ?
Old Mr. Henshaw died last night precisely at ^ past 11. — He
has been open'd by desire of Mrs. McKenna ; and, where his heart
should have been, was found a stone. Poor Arnold is inconsolable ;
and, not having shaved since, looks deplorable.
With our kind rememb^es. to Caroline and your friends
We remain yours affectionaly C. L. and M. Lamb.
[Occupying the entire margin up the left-hand side of the
letter is^ in Mary LamVs hand : — ]
I thank you for your kind letter, and owe you one in return, but
Charles is in such a hurry to send this to be franked.
Your affecate sister
M. Lamb.
[On the right-hand margin^ beside the paragraph about Mr,
Henshaw^ is written in the same hand^ underlined : — ]
He is not I dead.
1822 THE LAMBS IN PARIS 569
Note
[John Lamb's widow had been a Mrs. Dowden, with an un-
married daughter, probably the Caroline referred to. The letter
treats of family matters which could not now be explained even if
it were worth while. The Lambs were arranging a visit to Ver-
sailles, to the Kenneys. Mr. Henshaw was Lamb's godfather, a
gunsmith.]
LETTER 271
(Fragment)
CHARLES LAMB TO MARY LAMB (In Paris).
[August, 1822.]
THEN you must walk all along the Borough side of the Seine
facing the Tuileries. There is a mile and a half of print
shops and book stalls. If the latter were but English. Then
there is a place where the Paris people put all their dead people
and bring em flowers and dolls and ginger bread nuts and sonnets
and such trifles. And that is all I think worth seeing as sights,
except that the streets and shops of Paris are themselves the best
sight.
Note
[The Lambs had left England for France in June. While they
were there Mary Lamb was taken ill again — in a diligence, according
to Moore — and Lamb had to return home alone, leaving a letter,
of which this is the only portion that has been preserved, for
her guidance on her recovery. Mary Lamb^ who had taken her
nurse with her in case of trouble, was soon well again, and in August
had the company of Crabb Robinson in Paris. Mrs. Aders was also
there, and Foss, the bookseller in Pall Mall, and his brother. And
it was on this visit that the Lambs met John Howard Payne, whom
we shall shortly see.]
LETTER 272
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN CLARE
India House, 31 Aug., 1822.
DEAR Clare — I thank you heartily for your present. I am an
inverate old Londoner, but while I am among your choice
collections, I seem to be native to them, and free of the country.
570 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB August
The quantity of your observation has astonished me. What have
most pleased me have been Recollections after a Ramble, and
those Grongar Hill kind of pieces in eight syllable lines, my
favourite measure, such as Cowper Hill and Solitude. In some of
your story-telling Ballads the provincial phrases sometimes startle
me. I think you are too profuse with them. In poetry slang
of every kind is to be avoided. There is a rustick Cockneyism,
as little pleasing as ours of London. Transplant Arcadia to
Helpstone. The true rustic style, the Arcadian English, I think
is to be found in Shenstone. Would his Schoolmistress, the
prettiest of poems, have been better, if he had used quite the
Goody's own language ? Now and then a home rusticism is fresh
and startling, but where nothing is gained in expression, it is out
of tenor. It may make folks smile and stare, but the ungenial
coalition of barbarous with refined phrases will prevent you in the
end from being so generally tasted, as you deserve to be. Excuse
my freedom, and take the same liberty with my puns,
I send you two little volumes of my spare hours. They are of
all sorts, there is a methodist hymn for Sundays, and a farce for
Saturday night. Pray give them a place on your shelf. Pray
accept a little volume, of which I have [a] duplicate, that I may
return in equal number to your welcome presents.
I think I am indebted to you for a sonnet in the London for
August.
Since I saw you I have been in France, and have eaten frogs.
The nicest little rabbity things you ever tasted. Do look about for
them. Make Mrs. Clare pick off the hind quarters, boil them plain,
with parsley and butter. The fore quarters are not so good. She
may let them hop off by themselves.
Yours sincerely, Chas. Lamb.
Note
[John Clare (1793-1864) was the Northamptonshire poet whom
the London Magazine had introduced to fame. Octavius
Gilchrist had played to him the same part that Capell Lofft had to
Bloomfield. His first volume. Poems Descriptive of Rural Life
and Scenery, was published in January, 1820 ; his next. The
Village Minstrel, in September of the next year. These he had
probably sent to Lamb. Helpstone was Clare's birthplace. Lamb's
two little return volumes were his Works, The sonnet in the
August London Magazine was not signed by Clare. It runs
thus : —
1822 ENTER BERNARD BARTON 571
TO ELIA
ELIA, thy reveries and vision'd themes
To Care's lorn heart a luscious pleasure prove ;
Wild as the mystery of delightful dreams,
Soft as the anguish of remember'd love :
Like records of past days their memory dances
Mid the cool feelings Manhood's reason brings,
As the unearthly visions of romances
Peopled with sweet and uncreated things ; —
And yet thy themes thy gentle worth enhances !
Then wake again thy wild harp's tenderest strings,
Sing on, sweet Bard, let fairy loves again
Smile in thy dreams, with angel ecstacies ;
Bright o*er our souls will break the heavenly strain
Through the dull gloom of earth's realities.
Clare addressed to Lamb a sonnet on his Dramatic Specimens
which was printed in Hone's Year Book in 1831.
Here should come a letter from Lamb to Mrs. James Kenney,
dated Sept. 11, 1822, in which Lamb says that Mary Lamb had
reached home safely from France, and that she failed to smuggle
Crabb Robinson's waistcoat. He adds that the Custom House
people could not comprehend how a waistcoat, marked Henry
Robinson, could be a part of Miss Lamb's wearing apparel. At
the end of the letter is a charming note to Mrs. Kenney's little
girl, Sophy, whom Lamb calls his dear wife. He assures her that
the few short days of connubial felicity which he passed with her
among the pears and apricots of Versailles were some of the happiest
of his life.]
LETTER 273
CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON
India House, ii Sept. 1822.
DEAR Sir — You have misapprehended me sadly, if you suppose
that I meant to impute any inconsistency (in your writing
poetry) with your religious profession. I do not remember what I
said, but it was spoken sportively, I am sure. One of my levities,
which you are not so used to as my older friends. I probably was
thinking of the light in which your so indulging yourself would ap-
pear to Quakers, and put their objection in my own foolish mouth.
I would eat my words (provided they should be written on not very
coarse paper) rather than I would throw cold water upon your, and
my once, harmless occupation. I have read Napoleon and the rest
with delio-ht. I like them for what they are, and for what they
are not. I have sickened on the modern rhodomontade & Byron-
572 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Sept.
ism, and your plain Quakerish Beauty has captivated me. It is all
wholesome cates, aye, and toothsome too, and withal Quakerish.
If I were George Fox, and George Fox Licenser of the Press, they
should have my absolute Imprimatur. I hope I have removed the
impression.
I am, like you, a prisoner to the desk. I have been chained to
that gaily thirty years, a long shot. I have almost grown to the
wood. If no imaginative poet, I am sure I am a figurative one. Do
"Friends" allow puns ? i;6r6aZ equivocations ? — they are unjustly
accused of it, and I did my little best in the "imperfect Sym-
pathies " to vindicate them.
I am very tired of clerking it, but have no remedy. Did you see
a sonnet to this purpose in the Examiner ? —
" Who first invented Work — and tied the free
And holy-day rejoycing spirit down
To the ever-haunting importunity
Of business, in the green fields, and the town —
To plough — loom — anvil — spade — &, oh, most sad,
To this dry drudgery of the desk's dead wood ?
Who but the Being Unblest, alien from good,
Sabbathless Satan I he who his unglad
Task ever plies 'mid rotatory burnings,
That round and round incalculably reel —
For wrath Divine hath made him like a wheel —
In that red realm from whence are no returnings ;
Where toiling and turmoiling ever and aye
He, and his Thoughts, keep pensive worky-day."
C. L.
I fancy the sentiment exprest above will be nearly your own, the
expression of it probably would not so well suit with a follower of
John Woolman. But I do not know whether diabolism is a part of
your creed, or where indeed to find an exposition of your creed at
all. In feelings and matters not dogmatical, I hope I am half a
Quaker. Believe me, with great respect, yours
C. Lamb.
I shall always be happy to see, or heai' from you. —
Note
[This is the first of the letters to Bernard Barton (1784-1849), a
clerk in a bank at Woodbridge, in Suffolk, who was known as the
Quaker poet. Lamb had met him at a London Magazine dinner
at 13 Waterloo Place, and had apparently said something about
Quakers and poetry which Barton, on thinking it over, had taken
too seriously. Bernard Barton was already the author of four
volumes of poetry, of which Napoleon and other Poems was the
latest, published in 1822. Lamb's essay on " Imperfect Sympathies "
had been printed in the London Magazine for August, 1821. For
John Woolman see note on page 94. The sonnet " Work " had
been printed in the Examiner, August 29, 1819,]
1822 PARIS AND LONDON 573
LETTER 274
CHARLES LAMB TO BARRON FIELD
Sept, 22, 1822.
MY dear F., — I scribble hastily at office. Frank wants my
letter presently. I & sister are just returned from Paris ! !
We have eaten frogs. It has been such a treat ! You know our
monotonous general Tenor. Frogs are the nicest little delicate
things — rabbity-flavoured. Imagine a Lilliputian rabbit! They
fricassee them ; but in my mind, drest seethed, plain, with parsley
and butter, would have been the decision of Apicius. Shelley the
great Atheist has gone down by water to eternal fire ! Hunt and
his young fry are left stranded at Pisa, to be adopted by the re-
maining duumvir. Lord Byron — his wife and 6 children & their
maid. What a cargo of Jonases, if they had foundered too ! The
only use I can find of friends, is that they do to borrow money of
you. Henceforth I will consort with none but rich rogues. Paris
is a glorious picturesque old City. London looks mean and New
to it, as the town of Washington would, seen after it. But they
have no St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey. The Seine, so much
despised by Cockneys, is exactly the size to run thro' a magnifi-
cent street ; palaces a mile long on one side, lofty Edinbro' stone (O
the glorious antiques !) : houses on the other. The Thames dis-
unites London & South wark. I had Talma to supper with me. He
has picked up, as I believe, an authentic portrait of Shakspere.
He paid a broker about ^40 English for it. It is painted on the
one half of a pair of bellows — a lovely picture, corresponding with
the Folio head. The bellows has old carved wings round it, and
round the visnomy is inscribed, near as I remember, not divided
into rhyme — I found out the rhyme —
" Whom have we here,
Stuck on this bellows,
But the Prince of good fellows,
Willy Shakspere ? "
At top —
•* O base and coward luck !
To be here stuck. — Poins."
At bottom —
** Nay I rather a glorious lot is to him assign'd,
Who, like the Almighty, rides upon the wind. — Pistol."
This is all in old carved wooden letters. The countenance
smiling, sweet, and intellectual beyond measure, even as He was
574 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Sept.
immeasurable. It may be a forgery. They laugh at me and tell
me Ireland is in Paris, and has been putting oft' a portrait of the
Black Prince. How far old wood may be imitated I cannot say.
Ireland was not found out by his parchments, but by his poetry. I
am confident no painter on either side the Channel could have
painted any thing near like the face I saw. Again, would such
a painter and forger have expected £40 for a thing, if authentic,
worth i?4000? Talma is not in the secret, for he had not even
found out the rhymes in the first inscription. He is coming over
with it, and, my life to Southey's Thalaba, it will gain universal
faith.
The letter is wanted, and I am wanted. Imagine the blank
filled up with all kind things.
Our joint hearty remembrances to both of you. Yours as ever,
C. Lamb.
Note
[Frank would be Francis John Field, Barron Field's brother, in
the India House.
Shelley was drowned on July 8, 1822.
Talma was Fran9ois Joseph Talma (1763-1826), the great French
tragedian. Lamb, introduced by John Howard Payne, saw him in
"Regulus," but not understanding French was but mildly interested.
" Ah," said Talma in the account by James Kenney printed in
Henry Angelo's Pic Nic^ " I was not very happy to-night ; you
must see me in ' Scylla.' " " Incidit in Scyllam," said Lamb,
" qui vult vitare Charybdim." " Ah, you are a rogue ; you are
a great rogue," was Talma's reply. Talma had bought a pair of
bellows with Shakespeare's head on it. Lamb's belief in the
authenticity of this portrait was misplaced, as the following account
from Chambers^ Journal for September 27, 1856, will show : —
About the latter part of the last century, one Zincke, an artist of little note, but
grandson of the celebrated enameller of that name, manufactured fictitious Shake-
speares by the score. . . . The most famous of Zincke's productions is the well-
known Talma Shakespeare, which gentle Charles Lamb made a pilgrimage to Paris
to see; and when he did see, knelt down and kissed with idolatrous veneration.
Zincke painted it on a larger panel than was necessary for the size of the picture,
and then cut away the superfluous wood, so as to leave the remainder in the shape
of a pair of bellows. . . . Zincke probably was thinking of "a muse of fire" when
he adopted this strange method of raising the wind ; but he made little by it, for the
dealer into whose hands the picture passed, sold it as a curiosity, not an original
portrait, for ;^5. The buyer, being a person of ingenuity, and fonder of money than
curiosities, fabricated a series of letters to and from Sir Kenelm Digby, and, passing
over to France, planted — the slang term used among the less honest of the curiosity-
dealing fraternity — the picture and the letters in an old chateau near Paris. Of
course a confederate managed to discover the plants in the presence of witnesses,
and great was the excitement that ensued. Sir Kenelm Digby had been in France
in the reign of Charles I., and the fictitious correspondence proved that the picture
/^ 'm^tiH":
THE BELLOWS PORTRAIT OF SHAKESPEARE
FROM THE ORIGIXAL IN THE POSSESSION OF MR. B. B. MACGEORGE
1822 THE BELLOWS SHAKESPEARE 575
was an original, and had been painted by Queen Elizabeth's command, on the lid
of her favourite pair of bellows !
It really would seem that the more absurd a deception is, the better it succeeds.
All Paris was in delight at possessing an original Shakespeare, while the London
amateurs were in despair at such a treasure being lost to England. The ingenious
person soon found a purchaser, and a high price recompensed him for his trouble.
But more remains to be told. The happy purchaser took his treasure to Ribet, the
first Parisian picture-cleaner of the day, to be cleaned. Ribet set to work ; but we
may fancy his surprise as the superficial impasto of Zincke washed off beneath the
sponge, and Shakespeare became a female in a lofty headgear adorned with blue
ribbons.
In a furious passion the purchaser ran to the seller. '* Let us talk over the affair
quietly," said the latter ; " I have been cheated as well as you : let us keep the
matter secret ; if we let the public know it, all Paris and even London too, will be
laughing at us. I will return you your money, and take back the picture, if you will
employ Ribet to restore it to the same condition as it was in when you received it.'*
This fair proposition was acceded to, and Ribet restored the picture ; but as he was
a superior artist to Zincke, he greatly improved it, and this improvement was at-
tributed to his skill as a cleaner. The secret being kept, and the picture, improved
by cleaning, being again in the market, Talma, the great Tragedian, purchased it
at even a higher price than that given by the first buyer. Talma valued it highly,
enclosed it in a case of morocco and gold, and subsequently refused looo Napoleons
for it ; and even when at last its whole history was disclosed, he still cherished it
as a genuine memorial of the great bard.
By kind permission of Mr. B. B. MacGeorge, who now owns
both letter and bellows, I am enabled to give a reproduction of
the portrait on the opposite page. See also Lamb's remarks on
page 579.
Ireland was the author of " Vortigern," the forged play attributed
to Shakespeare (see note on page 5).]
LETTER 275
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN HOWARD PAYNE
[Autumn, 1822.]
DEAR Payne — A friend and fellow-clerk of mine, Mr. White
(a good fellow) coming to your parts, I would fain have
accompanied him, but am forced instead to send a part of me, verse
and prose, most of it from 20 to 30 years old, such as I then was,
and I am not much altered.
Paris, which I hardly knew whether I liked when I was in it, is
an object of no small magnitude with me now. I want to be going,
to the Jardin des Plantes (is that right, Louisa ?) with you — to
Pere de la Chaise, La Morgue, and all the sentimentalities. How
is Talma, and his (my) dear Shakspeare ?
^J5. My friend White knows Paris thoroughly, and does not
want a guide. We did, and had one. We both join in thanks.
Do you remember a Blue-Silk Girl (English) at the Luxembourg,
576 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Oct.
that did not much seem to attend to the Pictures, who fell in love
with you, and whom I fell in love with— an inquisitive, prying,
curious Beauty — where is she ?
Voire Tres Humble Serviteur^
Charlois Agneau,
alias C. Lamb.
Guichy is well, and much as usual. He seems blind to all the
distinctions of life, except to those of sex. Remembrance to Kenny
and Poole.
Note
[John Howard Payne (1792-1852) was born in NeW York. He
began life as an actor in 1809 as Young Norval in " Douglas," and
made his English dSut in 1813 in the same part. For several
years he lived either in London or Paris, where among his friends
were Washington Irving and Talma. He wrote a number of
plays, and in one of them, " Clari, or the Maid of Milan," is the
song " Home, Sweet Home," with Bishop's music, on which his
immortality rests. Payne died in Tunis, where he was American
Consul, in 1852, and when in 1883 he was reinterred at Washing-
ton, it was as the author of " Home, Sweet Home." He seems to
have been a charming but ill-starred man, whom to know was to
love.
Mr. White was Edward White of the India House, by whom
Lamb probably sent a copy of the 1818 edition of his Works.
Louisa was Louisa Holcroft. Guichy was possibly the Frenchman,
mentioned by Crabb Robinson, with whom the Lambs had travelled
to France. Poole was, I imagine, John Poole, the dramatist, author
of burlesque plays in the London Magazine and later of " Paul
Pry," which, it is quite likely, he based on Lamb's sketch " Tom
Pry."]
LETTER 276
CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON
[Dated at end: g October 1822.]
DEAR Sir — I am asham'd not sooner to have acknowledged
your letter and poem. I think the latter very temperate, very
serious and very seasonable. I do not think it will convert the
club at Pisa, neither do I think it will satisfy the bigots on our side
the water. Soniething like a parody on the song of Ariel would
please them better.
Full fathom five the Atheist lies,
Of his bones are hell-dice made. —
1822 SHELLEY 577
I want time, or fancy, to fill up the rest. I sincerely sympathise
with you on your doleful confinement. Of Time, Health, and
Riches, the first in order is not last in excellence. Riches are chiefly
good, because they give us Time. What a weight of wearisome
prison hours have [I] to look back and forward to, as quite cut out
[of] life — and the sting of the thing is, that for six hours every day
I have no business which I could not contract into two, if they
would let me work Task-work. I shall be glad to hear that your
grievance is mitigate! d.
Shelly I saw once. His voice was the most obnoxious squeak
I ever was tormented with, ten thousand times worse than the
Laureat's, whose voice is the worst part about him, except his
Laureatcy. Lord Byron opens upon him on Monday in a Parody
(I suppose) of the " Vision of Judgment," in which latter the Poet
I think did not much show his. To award his Heaven and his
Hell in the presumptuous manner he has done, was a piece of im-
modesty as bad as Shelley ism.
I am returning a poor letter. I was formerly a great Scribbler in
that way, but my hand is out of order. If I said my head too,
I should not be very much out, but I will tell no tales of myself.
I will therefore end (after my best thanks, with a hope to see you
again some time in London), begging you to accept this Letteret
for a Letter — a Leveret makes a better present than a grown hare,
and short troubles (as the old excuse goes) are best.
I hear that C. Lloyd is well, and has returned to his family. I
think this will give you pleasure to hear.
I remain, dear Sir, yours truly C. Lamb.
E. I. H.
9 Oct. 22.
Note
[Barton had just published his Verses on the Death of P. B.
Shelley, a lament for misapphed genius. The club at Pisa refeiTed
particularly to Byron, Leigh Hunt and Trelawney. Trelawney
placed three lines from Ariel's song in " The Tempest " on Shelley's
monument ; but whether Lamb knew this, or his choice of rival lines
is a coincidence, I do not know. Trelawney chose the lines : —
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
There is no other record of Lamb's meeting with Shelley, who, by
the way, admired Lamb's writings warmly, particularly Mrs. Lei-
cester's School (see Letter 334).
Byron's Vision of Judgment, a burlesque of Southey's poem of
the same name, was printed in The Liberal for 1822.]
VOL. VII. — 39
578 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Oct.
LETTER 277
CHARLES LAMB TO B. R. HAYDON
India House, gth October, 1822.
DEAR Haydon, Poor Godwin has been turned out of his
house and business in Skinner Street, and if he does not
pay two years'* arrears of rent, he will have the whole stock, furni-
ture, &c., of his new house (in the Strand) seized when term begins.
We are trying to raise a subscription for him. My object in writ-
ing this is simply to ask you, if this is a kind of case which would
be likely to interest Mrs. Coutts in his behalf ; and who in your
opinion is the best person to speak with her on his behalf. Without
the aid of from £^Q0 to c£^400 by that time, early in November,
he must be ruined. You are the only person I can think of, of her
acquaintance, and can, perhaps, if not yourself, recommend the per-
son most likely to influence her. Shelley had engaged to clear him
of all demands, and he has gone down to the deep insolvent.
Yours truly,
C. Lamb.
Is Sir Walter to be applied to, and by what channel ?
Note
[See note to Letter 269. Mrs. Coutts was probably Harriot
Mellon, the actress, widow of the banker, Thomas Coutts, and
afterwards Duchess of St. Albans. She had played the part of the
heroine Melesinda in " Mr. H. "]
LETTER 278
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN HOWARD PAYNE
"A^
Thursday [Oct. 22], 1822.
LI Pacha " will do. I sent my sister the first night, not
£\ having been able to go myself, and her report of its effect
was most favourable. I saw it last night — the third night and
it was most satisfactorily received. I have been sadly disappointed
in Talfourd, who does the critiques in the " Times," and who pro-
mised his strenuous services ; but by some damn'd arrangement he
was sent to the wrong house, and a most iniquitous account of
Ali substituted for his, which I am sure would have been a kind
one. The "Morning Herald" did it ample justice, without ap-
1822 PAYNE'S '^ALI PACHA" 579
pearing to pufF it. It is an abominable misrepresentation of the
"Times," that Farren played Ali like Lord Ogilby. He acted
infirmity of body, but not of voice or purpose. His manner was
even grand. A grand old gentleman. His falling to the earth
when his son's death was announced was fine as anything I ever
saw. It was as if he had been blasted. Miss Foote looked helpless
and beautiful, and greatly helped the piece. It is going on steadily,
I am sure, for many nights. Marry, I was a little disappointed
with Hassan, who tells us he subsists by cracking court jests before
Hali, but he made none. In all the rest, scenery and machinery,
it was faultless. I hope it will bring you here. I should be most
glad of that. I have a room for you, and you shall order your own
dinner three days in the week. I must retain my own authority
for the rest. As far as magazines go, I can answer for Talfourd in
the "New Monthly." He cannot be put out there. But it is
established as a favourite, and can do without these expletives. I
long to talk over with you the Shakspeare Picture. My doubts of
its being a forgery mainly rest upon the goodness of the picture.
The bellows might be trumped up, but where did the painter spring
from ? Is Ireland a consummate artist — or any of Ireland's accom-
plices ? — but we shall confer upon it, I hope. The " New Times,"
I understand was favorable to "Ali," but I have not seen it. I
am sensible of the want of method in this letter, but I have been
deprived of the connecting organ, by a practice I have fallen into
since I left Paris, of taking too much strong spirits of a night. I
must retui^n to the Hotel de FEurope and Macon.
How is Kenney ? Have you seen my friend White ? What is
Poole about, &c. ? Do not write, but come and answer me.
The weather is charming, and there is a mermaid to be seen in
London. You may not have the opportunity of inspecting such a
Poisarde once again in ten centuries.
My sister joins me in the hope of seeing you.
Yours truly, C. Lamb.
Note
[Lamb had met John Howard Payne, the American dramatist,
at Kenney's, in France (see note on page 576). "Ali Pacha," a
melodrama in two acts, was produced at Covent Garden on October
19, 1822. It ran altogether sixteen nights. William Farren
played the hero. Lord Ogleby, an antiquated fop, is a character
m " The Clandestine Marriage " by Colman and Garrick. Miss Foote
played Helena. See also notes to the letter on page 576 for other
references.]
680 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Oct.
LETTERS 279 AND 280
CHARLES LAMB TO B. R. HAYDON
Tuesday, 29th [October, 1822].
EAR H., I have written a very respectful letter to Sir W. S.
D
Godwin did not write, because he leaves all to his committee,
as I will explain to you. If this rascally weather holds, you will
see but one of us on that day.
Yours, with many thanks,
C. Lamb.
CHARLES LAMB TO SIR WALTER SCOTT
East India House, London,
29th October 1822.
DEAR Sir, — I have to acknowledge your kind attention to my
application to Mr. Haydon. I have transmitted your draft
to Mr. G[odwin]'s committee as an anonymous contribution through
me. Mr. Haydon desires his thanks and best respects to you, but
was desirous that I should write to you on this occasion. I cannot
pass over your kind expressions as to myself. It is not likely that
I shall ever find myself in Scotland, but should the event ever
happen, I should be proud to pay my respects to you in your
own land. My disparagement of heaths and highlands — if I said
any such thing in half earnest, — you must put down as a piece of
the old Vulpine policy. I must make the most of the spot I am
chained to, and console myself for my flat destiny as well as I am
able. I know very well our mole-hills are not mountains, but I
must cocker them up and make them look as big and as hand-
some as I can, that we may both be satisfied. Allow me to express
the pleasure I feel on an occasion given me of writing to you, and
to subscribe myself, dear sir, your obliged and respectful servant,
Charles Lamb.
Note
[See note to Letter 269, on page 567. Lamb and Scott never met.
Talfourd, however, tells us that " he used to speak with gratitude
and pleasure of the circumstances under which he saw him once in
Fleet-street. A man, in the dress of a mechanic, stopped him just
at Inner Temple-gate, and said, touching his hat, 'I beg your
pardon, sir, but perhaps you would like to see Sir Walter Scott ;
that is he just crossing the road;' and Lamb stammered out his
hearty thanks to his truly humane informer."
Mr. Lang has recently discovered that also in 1818 or there-
abouts Sii' Walter invited Lamb to Abbotsford.
1822 THE " DISSERTATION " BEARS FEUIT 581
" The old Vulpine policy." A reference to the fable of the Fox
and the Grapes.]
LETTER 281
CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ROBINSON
[Dated at end : Nov. ii, 1822.]
DEAR Sir, We have to thank you, or Mrs. Robinson — for I
think her name was on the direction — for the best pig,
which myself, the warmest of pig-lovers, everiasted. The dressing
and the sauce were pronounced incomparable by two friends, who
had the good fortune to drop in to dinner yesterday, but I must
not mix up my cook's praises with my acknowledgments ; let me
but have leave to say that she and we did your pig justice. I
should dilate on the crackling — done to a turn — but I am afraid
Mrs. Clarkson, who, I hear, is with you, will set me down as an
Epicure. Let it suffice, that you have spoil'd my appetite for
boiled mutton for some time to come. Your brother Henry par-
took of the cold relics — by which he might give a good guess at
what it had been hot.
With our thanks, pray convey our kind respects to Mrs. Robin-
son, and the Lady before mentioned.
Your obliged Ser^
Charles Lamb.
India House
II Nov. 22.
Note
[This letter is addressed to R. Robinson, Esq., Bury, Suffolk, but
I think there is no doubt that Thomas Robinson was the recipient.
Thomas Robinson of Bury St. Edmunds was Henry Crabb Robin-
son's brother. Lamb's " Dissertation on Roast Pig " had been
printed in the London Magazine in September, 1822, and this
pig was one of the first of many such gifts that came to him.]
LETTER 282
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN HOWARD PAYNE
Wednesday, 13 November, '22.
DEAR P. — Owing to the inconvenience of having two lodgings,
I did not get your letter quite so soon as I should. The
India House is my proper address, where I am sure for the fore part
582 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Nov.
of every day. The instant I got it, I addressed a letter, for Kemble
to see, to my friend Henry Robertson, the Treasurer of Covent Gar-
den Theatre. He had a conference with Kemble, and the result is,
that Robertson, in the name of the management, recognized to me
the full ratifying of your bargain : <£^250 for Ali, the Slaves, and
another piece which they had not received. He assures me the
whole will be paid you, or the proportion for the two former, as soon
as ever the Treasury will permit it. He offered to write the same
to you, if I pleased. He thinks in a month or so they will be able
to liquidate it. He is positive no trick could be meant you, as Mr.
Planche's alterations, which were trifling, were not at all considered
as affecting your bargain. With respect to the copyright of Ali,
he was of opinion no money would be given for it, as Ali is quite
laid aside. This explanation being given, you would not think of
printing the two copies together by way of recrimination. He told
me the secret of the two Galley Slaves at Drury Lane. Ellis-
ton, if he is informed right, engaged Poole to translate it, but be-
fore Poole's translation arrived, finding it coming out at Gov. Gar.,
he procured copies of two several translations of it in London.
So you see here are four translations, reckoning yours. I fear
no copyright would be got for it, for anybody may print it and
anybody has. Your's has run seven nights, and R. is of opinion
it will not exceed in number of nights the nights of Ali, — about
thirteen. But your full right to your bargain with the manage-
ment is in the fullest manner recognized by him officially. He gave
me every hope the money will be spared as soon as they can spare
it. He said a month or two^ but seemed to me to mean about a
month, A new lady is coming out in Juliet, to whom they look
very confidently for replenishing their treasury. Robertson is a
very good fellow and I can rely upon his statement. Should you
have any more pieces, and want to get a cop}Tight for them, I
am the worst person to negotiate with any bookseller, having been
cheated by all I have had to do with (except Taylor and Hessey, —
but they do not publish theatrical pieces), and I know not how to
go about it, or who to apply to. But if you had no better negoti-
ator, I should know the minimum you expect, for I should not Kke
to make a bargain out of my own head, being (after the Duke of
Wellington) the worst of all negotiators. I find from Robertson
you have written to Bishop on the subject. Have you named any-
thing of the copyright of the Slaves. R. thinks no publisher
would pay for it, and you would not risque it on your own account.
This is a mere business letter, so I will just send my love to my
little wife at Versailles, to her dear mother, etc.
Believe me, yours truly, q L
1822 GREETINGS TO FRANCE 583
Note
[Payne's translation of the French play was produced at Covent
Garden on November 6, 1822, under the title "The Soldier's
Daughter." On the same night appeared a rival version at Drury
Lane entitled " Two Galley Slaves." Payne's was played eleven
times. The new lady as Juliet was the other Fanny Kelly not
Lamb's : Fanny H. Kelly, from Dublin. The revival began on
November 14. Planche was James Robinson Planche (1796-1880),
the most prolific of librettists. Robert William EUiston, of whom
Lamb later wrote so finely, was then managing Drury Lane.
" Having been cheated." Lamb's particular reference was to
Baldwin (see Letter 290).
" The Duke of Wellington." A reference to the Duke's failure
in representing England at the Congress of Powers in Vienna and
Verona.
Lamb's " dear little wife " was Sophy Kenney (see abstract of
letter on page 571).]
LETTER 283
MARY LAMB TO MRS. JAMES KENNEY
[No date. ? Early December, 1822.]
MY dear Friend, — How do you like Harwood ? Is he not a
noble boy ? I congratulate you most heartily on this happy
meeting, and only wish I were present to witness it. Come back
with Harwood, I am dying to see you — we will talk, that is, you
shall talk and I will listen from ten in the morning till twelve at
night. My thoughts are often with you, and your children's dear
faces are perpetually before me. Give them all one additional kiss
every morning for me. Remember there's one for Louisa, one to
Ellen, one to Betsy, one to Sophia, one to James, one to Teresa,
one to Virginia, and one to Charles. Bless them all ! When shall
I ever see them again ? Thank you a thousand times for all your
kindness to me. I know you will make light of the trouble my
illness gave you ; but the recollection of it often sits heavy on my
heart. If I could ensure my health, how happy should I be to
spend a month with you every summer!
When I met Mr. Kenney there, I sadly repented that I had
not dragged you on to Dieppe with me. What a pleasant time
we should have spent there!
You shall not be jealous of Mr. Payne. Remember he did
Charles and I good service without grudge or grumbling. Say
584 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Dec.
to him how much I regret that we owe him unretumable obliga-
tions ; for I still have my old fear that we shall never see him again.
I received great pleasure fi'om seeing his two successful pieces. My
love to your boy Kenney, my boy James, and all my dear girls,
and also to Rose; I hope she still drinks wine with you. Thank
Lou-Lou for her little bit of letter. I am in a fearful hurry, or I
would write to her. Tell my friend the Poetess that I expect some
French verses from her shortly. I have shewn Betsy's and Sophy's
letters to all who came near me, and they have been very much
admired. Dear Fanny brought me the bag. Good soul you are
to think of me ! Manning has promised to make Fanny a visit this
morning, happy girl ! Miss James I often see, I think never with-
out talking of you. Oh the dear long dreary Boulevards ! how I
do wish to be just now stepping out of a Cuckoo into them !
Farewel, old tried friend, may we meet again ! Would you
could bring your house with all its noisy inmates, and plant it,
garden, gables and all, in the midst of Covent Garden.
Yours ever most affectionately,
M. Lamb.
My best respects to your good neighbours.
Note
[Harwood would be Harwood Holcroft.
" Louisa," etc. Mrs. Kenney's children by her first marriage were
Louisa, Ellen, Betsy and Sophia. By her second, with Kenney, the
others. Charles was named Charles Lamb Kenney.
" Payne's two successful pieces " — '^ Ali Pasha " and " The
Soldier's Daughter."
Fanny would be Fanny Holcroft, Mrs. Kenney's stepdaughter.
Miss Kelly has added to this letter a few words of affection
to Mrs. Kenney from "the real old original Fanny Kelly."
Charles Lamb also contributed to this letter a few lines to James
Kenney, expressing his readiness to meet Moore the poet. He adds
that he made a hit at him as Little in the London Magazine^
which though no reason for not meeting him was a reason for not
volunteering a visit to him. The reference is to the sonnet to
Barry Cornwall in the London Magazine for September, 1820,
beginning —
Let hate, or grosser heats, their foulness mask
Neath riddling Junius, or in L e's name.
The second line was altered in Lamb's Album Verses^ 1830, to
Under the vizor of a borrowed name.] ^
1822 THE PREFACE TO ^^ELIA" 585
LETTER 284
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN TAYLOR
[Dated : Dec. 7, 1822.]
DEAR Sir, — I should like the enclosed Dedication to be printed,
unless you dislike it. I like it. It is in the olden style.
But if you object to it, put forth the book as it is. Only pray
don't let the Printer mistake the word curt for curst.
C. L.
Dec. 7, 1822.
DEDICATION
TO THE FRIENDLY AND JUDICIOUS READER,
Who will take these Papers, as they were meant ; not understanding
every thing perversely in the absolute and literal sense, but giving
fair construction as to an after-dinner conversation ; allowing for
the rashness and necessary incompleteness of first thoughts ; and
not remembering, for the purpose of an after taunt, words spoken
peradventure after the fourth glass. The Author wishes (what he
would will for himself) plenty of good friends to stand by him,
good books to solace him, prosperous events to all his honest
undertakings, and a candid interpretation to his most hasty words
and actions. The other sort (and he hopes many of them will
purchase his book too) he greets with the curt invitation of Timon,
" Uncover, dogs, and lap : " or he dismisses them with the confident
security of the philosopher, " you beat but on the case of ELIA."
C. L.
Dec. 7, 1822.
Note
[Elia, Essays which have appeared under that signature in
the London Magazine was just about to be published. The book
came out with no preface.
" Uncover, dogs, and lap " (" Timon of Athens," IIL, 6, 95).
" You beat but on the case." When Anaxarchus, the philoso-
pher, was being pounded to death in a mortar, by command of
Alexander the Great, he made use of this phrase. After these
words, in Canon Ainger's transcript. Lamb remarks: —
" On better consideration, pray omit that Dedication. The Essays
want no Preface : they are all Preface. A Preface is nothing but
a talk with the reader ; and they do nothing else. Pray omit it.
" There will be a sort of Preface in the next Magazine, which may
act as an advertisement, but not proper for the volume.
586 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Dec.
" Let Eli A come forth bare as he was born."
The sort of Preface in the next magazine (January, 1823) was
the " Character of the Late Elia," used as a preface to the Last
Essays in 1833.]
LETTER 285
CHARLES LAMB TO WALTER WILSON
E. I. H. i6 dec. 22,
DEAR Wilson
Lightening I was going to call you —
You must have thought me negligent in not answering your
letter sooner. But I have a habit of never writing letters, but at
the office — 'tis so much time cribbed out of the Company — and I am
but just got out of the thick of a Tea Sale, in which most of the
Entry of Notes, deposits &c. usually falls to my share. Dodwell
is willing, but alas ! slow. To compare a pile of my notes with
his little hillock (which has been as long a building), what is it
but to compare Olympus with a mole-hill. Then Wadd is a sad
shuffler. —
I have nothing of Defoe's but two or three Novels, and the
Plague History. I can give you no information about him. As a
slight general character of what I remember of them (for I have
not look'd into them latterly) I would say that " in the appearance
of truth in all the incidents and conversations that occur in them
they exceed any works of fiction I am acquainted with. It is per-
fect illusion. The Author never appears in these self-narratives
(for so they ought to be called or rather Auto-biographies) but the
narrator chains us down to an implicet belief in every thing he
says. There is all the minute detail of a log-book in it. Dates are
painfully pressed upon the memory. Facts are repeated over and
over in varying phrases, till you cannot chuse but believe them. It
is like reading Evidence given in a Court of Justice. So anxious
the story-teller seems, that the truth should be clearly compre-
hended, that when he has told us a matter of fact, or a motive, in
a line or two farther down he repeats it with his favorite figure of
speech, 'I say' so and so, — though he had made it abundantly
plain before. This is in imitation of the common people's way of
speaking, or rather of the way in which they are addressed by a
master or mistress, who wishes to impress something upon their
memories ; and has a wonderful effect upon matter-of-fact readers.
Indeed it is to such principally that he writes. His style is else-
1822 DANIEL DEFOE 587
where beautiful, but plain & homely, Robinson Crusoe is de-
lightful to all ranks and classes, but it is easy to see that it is
written in phraseology peculiarly adapted to the lower conditions
of readers : hence it is an especial favorite with sea-faring men,
poor boys, servant maids &c. His novels are capital kitchen-
reading, while they are worthy from their deep interest to find a
shelf in the Libraries of the wealthiest, and the most learned. His
passion for matter of fact narrative sometimes betrayed him into
a long relation of common incidents which might happen to any
man, and have no interest but the intense appearance of truth in
them, to recommend them. The whole latter half, or two thirds, of
Colonel Jack is of this description. The beginning of Colonel Jack
is the most affecting natural picture of a young thief that was ever
drawn. His losing the stolen money in the hollow of a tree, and
finding it again when he was in despair, and then being in equal
distress at not knowing how to dispose of it, and several similar
touches in the early history of the Colonel, evince a deep know-
ledge of human nature ; and, putting out of question the superior
romantic interest of the latter, in my mind very much exceed
Crusoe. Roxana (1st Edition) is the next in Interest, though he
left out the best part of it subsequent Editions from a foolish
hypercriticism of his friend, Southerne. But Moll Flanders, the
account of the Plague &c. &c. are all of one family, and have the
same stamp of character." —
[At the top of the first page is added : — ]
Omitted at the end . . . believe me with friendly recollections.
Brother (as I used to call you) Yours C. Lamb.
[Below the " Dear Wilson " is added in smaller writing : — ]
The review was not mine, nor have I seen it.
Note
[Addressed to " Walter Wilson Esqr Lufton n^ Yeovil Somerset-
shire."
Lamb's friend Walter Wilson (see note on page 220) was
beginning his Memoirs of the Life and Times of Daniel Defoe,
1830. The passage sent to him in this letter by Lamb he printed
in Vol. HL, page 428. Some years later (see pages 464 and 819)
Lamb sent Wilson a further criticism. See also Letter 294 for the
reference to Roxana.
For Dodwell see page 490. Of Wadd we have no informaticfn,
except, according to Crabb Robinson's Diary, that he once acci-
588 LETTEKS OF C. AND M. LAMB Dec.
dentally discharged a pen full of ink into Lamb's eye and that
Lamb wrote this epigram upon him : —
What Wadd knows, God knows,
But God knows what Wadd knows.]
LETTER 286
CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON
[Dated at end : 23 December 1822.]
DEAR Sir — I have been so distracted with business and one
thing or other, I have not had a quiet quarter of an hour
for epistolary purposes. Christmas too is come, which always puts
a rattle into my morning scull. It is a visiting unquiet un-
Quakerish season. I get more and more in love with solitude, and
proportionately hampered with company. I hope you have some
holydays at this period. I have one day, Christmas day, alas ! too
few to commemorate the season. All work and no play dulls me.
Company is not play, but many times hard work. To play, is for
a man to do what he pleases, or to do nothing — to go about
soothing his particular fancies. I have lived to a time of life, to
have outlived the good hours, the nine o'Clock suppers, with a
bright hour or two to clear up in afterwards. Now you cannot
get tea before that hour, and then sit gaping, music-bothered
perhaps, till half-past 12 brings up the tray, and what you steal of
convivial enjoyment after, is heavily paid for in the disquiet of
to-morrow's head.
I am pleased with your liking John Woodvil, and amused
with your knowledge of our drama being confined to Shakspeare
and Miss Bailly. What a world of fine territory between Land's
End and Johnny Grots have you missed traversing. I almost envy
you to have so much to read. I feel as if I had read all the Books I
want to read. O to forget Fielding, Steele, &c., and read 'em new.
Can you tell me a likely place where I could pick up, cheap.
Fox's Journal ? There are no Quaker Circulating Libraries ? Ell-
wood, too, I must have. I rather grudge that S[outhe]y has taken
up the history of your People. I am afraid he will put in some
Levity. I am afraid I am not quite exempt from that fault in
certain magazine Articles, where I have introduced mention of
them. Were they to do again, I would reform them.
Why should not you write a poetical Account of your old
Worthies, deducing them from Fox to Woolman ? — but I remember
you did talk of something in that kind, as a counterpart to the
1822 GEORGE FOX'S JOURNAL 589
Ecclesiastical Sketches. But would not a Poem be more con-
secutive than a string of Sonnets ? You have no Martyrs quite to
the Fire, I think, among you. But plenty of Heroic Confessors,
Spirit-Martyrs — Lamb-Lions. — Think of it.
It would be better than a series of Sonnets on " Eminent Bankers."
— I like a hit at our way of life, tho' it does well for me, better
than anything short of all one's time to one's self, for which alone
I rankle with envy at the rich. Books are good, and Pictures are
good, and Money to buy them therefore good, but to buy time!
in other words, life —
The " compliments of the time to you " should end my letter ; to
a Friend I suppose I must say the " sincerity of the season ; " I
hope they both mean the same. With excuses for this hastily
penn'd note, believe me with great respect — C. Lamb.
23 dec. 22.
Note
[Miss Bailly would be Joanna Baillie (1762-1851), author of
Plays on the Passions.
The copy of Fox's Journal, 1694, which was lent to Lamb has
recently come into the possession of the Society of Friends. In it is
written : " This copy of George Fox's Journal, being the earliest
edition of that work, the property of John T. Shewell of Ipswich,
is lent for six months to Charles Lamb, at the request of Sam^
Alexander of Needham, Ipswich, 1st mo. 4 1823." Lamb has
added : " Returned by Charles Lamb, within the period, with many
thanks to the Lender for the very great satisfaction which he has
derived from the perusal of it."
Southey was meditating a Life of George Fox and corresponded
with Barton on the subject. He did not write the book.
Barton had a plan to provide Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Sonnets
with a Quaker pendant. He did not carry it out.
Here might come an undated and unpublished letter from Lamb
to Basil Montagu, which is of little interest except as referring to
Miss James, Mary Lamb's nurse. Lamb says that she was one of
four sisters, daughters of a Welsh clergyman, who all became nurses
at Mrs. Warburton's, Hoxton, whither, I imagine, Mary Lamb had
often retired. Mrs. Parsons, one of the sisters, became Mary
Lamb's nurse when, some time after Lamb's death, she moved to
41 Alpha Road, Mrs. Parsons' house. The late John Hollingshead,
great-nephew of these ladies, says in his interesting book. My
Lifetime, that their father was rector of Beguildy, in Shropshire.]
590 LETTEKS OF C. AND M. LAMB Jan.
LETTER 287
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN HOWARD PAYNE
[January, 1823.]
DEAR Payne — Your little books are most acceptable. 'Tis a
delicate edition. They are gone to the binder's. When
they come home I shall have two — the " Camp " and " Patrick's
Day " — to read for the first time. I may say three, for I never
read the '' School for Scandal." " Seen it I have, and in its happier
days." With the books Harwood left a truncheon or mathematical
instrument, of which we have not yet ascertained the use. It is like
a telescope, but unglazed. Or a ruler, but not smooth enough. It
opens like a fan, and discovers a frame such as they weave lace upon
at Lyons and Chambery. Possibly it is from those parts. I do not
value the present the less, for not being quite able to detect its
purport. When I can find any one coming your way I have a
volume for you, my Elias collected. Tell Poole, his Cockney in the
Lon. Mag. tickled me exceedingly. Harwood is to be with us this
evening with Fanny, who comes to introduce a literary lady, who
wants to see me, — and whose portentous name is Plura, in English
" many things." Now, of all God's creatures, I detest letters-affect-
ing, authors-hunting ladies. But Fanny " will have it so." So
Miss Many Things and I are to have a conference, of which you
shall have the result. I dare say she does not play at whist.
Treasurer Robertson, whose coffers are absolutely swelling with
pantomimic receipts, called on me yesterday to say he is going to
write to you, but if I were also, I might as well say that your last
bill is at the Banker's, and will be honored on the instant receipt of
the third Piece, which you have stipulated for. If you have any
such in readiness, strike while the iron is hot, before the Clown
cools. Tell Mrs. Kenney, that the Miss F. H. (or H. F.) Kelly,
who has begun so splendidly in Juliet, is the identical little Fanny
Kelly who used to play on their green before their great Lying-Inn
Lodgings at Bayswater. Her career has stopt short by the in-
judicious bringing her out in a vile new Tragedy, and for a third
character in a stupid old one, — the Earl of Essex. This is
Macready's doing, who taught her. Her recitation, &c. (not her
voice or person), is masculine. It is so clever, it seemed a male
Debut. But cleverness is the bane of Female Ti'agedy especially.
Passions uttered logically, &c. It is bad enough in men-actors.
Could you do nothing for little Clara Fisher ? Are there no French
Pieces with a Child in them ? By Pieces I mean here dramas, to
1823 SHAKESPEARE SUPERSEDED 591
prevent male-constructions. Did not the Blue Girl remind you of
some of Congreve's women ? Angelica or Millamant ? To me she
was a vision of Genteel Comedy realized. Those kind of people
never come to see one. N^import — havn't I Miss Many Things
coming? Will you ask Horace Smith to [The remainder of
this letter has been lost.]
Note
[Payne seems to have sent Lamb an edition of Sheridan. " The
Camp " and " St. Patrick's Day " are among his less known plays.
" Seen it I have, and in its happier days." After Pope's line (29)
in the " Epilogue to the Satires I. " : —
Seen him I have, but in his happier hour.
Poole was writing articles on France in the London Magazine.
Lamb refers to "A Cockney's Rural Sports" in the number for
December, 1822.
Fanny would be Fanny Holcroft. Plura I do not identify.
" Fanny ' will have it so.' " Possibly in recollection of " pretty
Fanny's way " in Parnell's " Elegy to an Old Beauty."
The new tragedy in which Miss Kelly had to play was probably
"The Huguenot," produced December 11, 1822. "The Earl of
Essex " was revived December 30, 1822. Macready played in both.
"Cleverness is the bane." See Lamb's little article on "The
New Acting" in Vol. L, page 151.
Clara Fisher. See Letter 292.
The Blue Girl seems to refer to the lady mentioned at the
end of Letter 275.
Angelica is in Congreve's " Love for Love " ; Millamant in his
" Way of the World."]
LETTER 288
CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
[No date. January, 1823.]
DEAR Wordsworth, I beg your acceptance of Elia, detached
from any of its old companions which might have been less
agreeable to you. I hope your eyes are better, but if you must
spare them, there is nothing in my pages which a Lady may not
read aloud without indecorum, which is more than can be said
of Shakspeare,
592 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Jan.
What a nut this last sentence would be for Blackwood !
You will find I availed myself of your suggestion, in curtailing
the dissertation on Malvolio.
I have been on the Continent since I saw you.
I have eaten frogs.
I saw Monkhouse tother day, and Mrs. M. being too poorly
to admit of company, the annual goosepye was sent to Russell
Street, and with its capacity has fed " A hundred head " (not of
Aristotle's) but " of Elia's friends."
Mrs. Monkhouse is sadly confined, but chearful. —
This packet is going off; and I have neither time, place nor soli-
tude for a longer Letter.
Will you do me the favor to forward the other volume to
Southey ?
Mary is perfectly well, and joins me in kindest rememb^es to
you all. [Signature cut away,]
Note
[" What a nut . . . for Blackwood." To help on Maga's great
cause against Cockney arrogance.
" The dissertation on Malvolio." In Elia the essays on the Old
Actors were much changed and rearranged (see Appendix to Vol.
II. in this edition).
" A hundred head." See the Dunciad, IV., 192 : —
A hundred head of Aristotle's friends.]
LETTER 289
CHARLES LAMB TO MR. AND MRS. J. D. COLLIER
Twelfth Day [January 6], 1823.
THE pig was above my feeble praise. It was a dear pigmy.
There was some contention as to who should have the ears,
but in spite of his obstinacy (deaf as these little creatures are to
advice) I contrived to get at one of them.
It came in boots too, which I took as a favor. Generally those
petty toes, pretty toes ! are missing. But I suppose he wore them,
to look taller.
He must have been the least of his race. His little foots would
have gone into the silver slipper. I take him to have been Chinese
and a female. —
If Evelyn could have seen him, he would never have farrowed two
1823 LITTLE PIGS AGAIN 593
such prodigious volumes, seeing how much good can be contained
in — how small a compass !
He crackled delicately.
John Collier Jun^ has sent me a Poem which (without the
smallest bias from the aforesaid present, believe me) I pronounce
sterling,
I set about Evelyn, and finished the first volume in the course
of a natural day. To-day I attack the second. — Parts are very
interesting. —
I left a blank at top of my letter, not being determined which
to address it to, so Farmer and Farmer's wife will please to divide
our thanks. May your granaries be full, and your rats empty, and
your chickens plump, and your envious neighbors lean, and your
labourers busy, and you as idle and as happy as the day is long !
Vive l' Agriculture !
Frank Field's marriage of course you have seen in the papers,
and that his brother Barron is expected home.
How do you make your pigs so little ?
They are vastly engaging at that age.
I was so myself.
Now I am a disagreeable old hog —
A middle-aged-gentleman-and-a-half.
My faculties, thank God, are not much impaired. I have my sight,
hearing, taste, pretty perfect ; and can read the Lord's Prayer in
the common type, by the help of a candle, without making many
mistakes.
Believe me, while my faculties last, a proper appreciator of your
many kindnesses in this way ; and that the last lingering relish of
past flavors upon my dying memory will be the smack of that little
Ear. It was the left ear, which is lucky. Many happy returns (not
of the Pig) but of the New Year to both. —
Mary for her share of the Pig and the memoirs desires to send
the same —
Dr. Mr. C. and M^s. C—
Yours truly
C. Lamb.
Note
[This letter, now printed from the original in the possession of
Mr. Adam of Buffalo, is usually supposed to have been addressed
by Lamb to Mr. and Mrs. Bruton of Mackery End. The address
is, however, Mrs. Collier, Smallfield Place, East Grinstead, Sussex
(see also Letters 266 and 336, pages 561 and 655).
VOL. VII. — 40
594 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Jan.
" If Evelyn could have seen him." John Evelyn's Diary had
recently been published, in 1818 and 1819, in two large quarto
volumes.]
LETTER 290
CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON
9 Jan., 1823.
^' 'nr^HROW yourself on the world without any rational plan of
X support, beyond what the chance employ of Booksellers
would afford you " ! ! !
Throw yourself rather, my dear Sir, from the steep Tarpeian
rock, slap-dash headlong upon iron spikes. If you had but five
consolatory minutes between the desk and the bed, make much of
them, and live a century in them, rather than turn slave to the
Booksellers. They are Turks and Tartars, when they have poor
Authors at their beck. Hitherto you have been at arm's length
from them. Come not within their grasp. I have known many
authors for bread, some repining, others envying the blessed security
of a Counting House, all agreeing they had rather have been
Taylors, Weavers, what not? rather than the things they were.
I have known some starved, some to go mad, one dear friend
literally dying in a workhouse. You know not what a rapacious,
dishonest set those booksellers are. Ask even Southey, who (a
single case almost) has made a fortune by book drudgery, what he
has found them. O you know not, may you never know ! the
miseries of subsisting by authorship. 'Tis a pretty appendage to
a situation like yours or mine, but a slavery worse than all slavery
to be a bookseller's dependent, to drudge your brains for pots of
ale and breasts of mutton, to change your free thoughts and volun-
tary numbers for ungracious Task- Work. Those fellows hate us.
The reason I take to be, that, contraiy to other trades, in which
the Master gets all the credit (a Jeweller or Silversmith for in-
stance), and the Journeyman, who really does the fine work, is in
the background, in our work the world gives all the credit to Us,
whom they consider as their Journeymen, and therefore do they
hate us, and cheat us, and oppress us, and would wring the blood
of us out, to put another sixpence in their mechanic pouches. I
contend, that a Bookseller has a relative honesty towards
Authors, not like his honesty to the rest of the world. B[aldwin],
who first engag'd me as Elia, has not paid me up yet (nor any of
us without repeated mortifying applials), yet how the Knave fawned
1823 "WELCOME, DEAD TIMBEE" 595
while I was of service to him ! Yet I dare say the fellow is punctual
in settling his milk-score, &c. Keep to your Bank, and the Bank
will keep you. Trust not to the Public, you may hang, starve,
drown yourself, for anything that worthy Personage cares. I
bless every star that Providence, not seeing good to make me
independent, has seen it next good to settle me upon the stable
foundation of Leadenhall. Sit down, good B. B., in the Banking
Office ; what, is there not from six to Eleven p.m. 6 days in the
week, and is there not all Sunday? Fie, what a superfluity of
man's time, — if you could think so ! Enough for relaxation, mirth,
converse, poetry, good thoughts, quiet thoughts. O the corroding
torturing tormenting thoughts, that disturb the Brain of the un-
lucky wight, who must draw upon it for daily sustenance. Hence-
forth I retract all my fond complaints of mercantile employment,
look upon them as Lovers' quarrels. I was but half in earnest.
Welcome, dead timber of a desk, that makes me live. A little
grumbling is a wholesome medicine for the spleen ; but in my inner
heart do I approve and embrace this our close but unharassing
way of life. I am quite serious. If you can send me Fox, I will
not keep it six weeks^ and will return it, with warm thanks to
yourself and friend, without blot or dog's ear. You much oblige
me by this kindness.
Yours truly, C. Lamb.
Please to direct to me at India Ho. in future. [? I am] not
always at Russell St.
Note
[Barton had long been meditating the advisability of giving
up his place in the bank at Woodbridge and depending upon his pen.
Lamb's letter of dissuasion is not the only one which he received.
Byron had written to him in 1812 : " You deserve success ; but we
knew, before Addison wrote his Cato, that desert does not always
command it. But suppose it attained —
* You know what ills the author's life assail —
Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.'
Do not renounce winting, but never trust entirely to authorship.
If you have a profession, retain it ; it will be like Prior's fellowship,
a last and sure resource." Barton had now broken again into dis-
satisfaction with his life. He did not, however, leave the bank.
Southey made no "fortune " by his pen. He almost always had
to forestall his new works.]
596 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Feb.
LETTERS 291 AND 292
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN HOWARD PAYNE
23 January, '23.
DEAR Payne — I have no mornings (my day begins at 5 p.m.)
to transact business in, or talents for it, so I employ Mary,
who has seen Robertson, who says that the Piece which is to be
Operafied was sent to you six weeks since by a Mr. Hunter, whose
journey has been delayed, but he supposes you have it by this time.
On receiving it back properly done, the rest of your dues will be
forthcoming. You have received <£30 from Harwood, I hope ?
Bishop was at the theatre when Mary called, and he has put
your other piece into C. Kemble's hands (the piece you talk of
offering Elliston) and C. K. sent down word that he had not yet
had time to read it. So stand your affairs at present. Glossop has
got the Murderer. Will you address him on the subject, or shall
I — that is, Mary ? She says you must write more showable letters
about these matters, for, with all our trouble of crossing out this
word, and giving a cleaner turn to th' other, and folding down at
this part, and squeezing an obnoxious epithet into a comer, she can
hardly communicate their contents without offence. What, man,
put less gall in your ink, or write me a biting tragedy !
C. Lamb.
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN HOWARD PAYNE
February [9], 1823.
MY dear Miss Lamb — I have enclosed for you Mr.
Payne's piece called Grandpapa, which I regret
to say is not thought to be of the nature that will suit this
theatre ; but as there appears to be much merit in it,
Mr. Kemble strongly recommends that you should send
it to the English Opera House, for which it seems to
be excellently adapted. As you have already been kind
enough to be our medium of communication with Mr.
Payne, I have imposed this trouble upon you ; but if you
do not like to act for Mr. Payne in the business, and
have no means of disposing of the piece, I will forward
it to Paris or elsewhere as you think he may prefer.
Very truly yours, Henry Robertson,
T. R. C. G., 8 Feb. 1823.
1823 HOWARD PAYNE'S "GRANDPAPA" 597
Dear P We have just received the above, and want your in-
structions. It strikes me as a very merry little piece, that should
be played by very young actors. It strikes me that Miss Clara
Fisher would play the hoy exactly. She is just such a forward chit.
No young man would do it without its appearing absurd, but in a
girl's hands it would have just all the reality that a short dream of
an act requires. Then for the sister, if Miss Stevenson that was,
were Miss Stevenson and younger, they two would carry it off. I
do not know who they have got in that young line, besides Miss
C. F., at Drury, nor how you would like EUiston to have it — has
he not had it ? I am thick with Arnold, but I have always heard
that the very slender profits of the English Opera House do not
admit of his giving above a trifle, or next to none, for a piece of
this kind. Write me what I should do, what you would ask, &c.
The music (printed) is returned with the piece, and the French
original. Tell Mr. Grattan I thank him for his book, which as
far as I have read it is a very companionable one. I have but
just received it. It came the same hour with your packet from
Cov. Gar., i.e. yester-night late, to my summer residence, where,
tell Kenney, the cow is quiet. Love to all at Versailles. Write
quickly. C. L.
I have no acquaintance with Kemble at all, having only met him
once or twice ; but any information, &c., I can get from R., who is
a good fellow, you may command. I am sorry the rogues are so
dilitory, but I distinctly believe they mean to fulfill their engage-
ment. I am sorry you are not here to see to these things. I am a
poor man of business, but command me to the short extent of my
tether. My sister's kind remembrance ever. C. L.
Note
[The " Grandpapa " was eventually produced at Drury Lane,
May 25, 1825, and played thrice. Miss Stevenson was an actress
praised by Lamb in The Examiner (see Vol. I. of this edition, pages
187 and 189).
Samuel James Arnold was manager of the Lyceum, then known
as the English Opera House ; he was the brother of Mrs. William
Ayrton, Lamb's friend.
Mr. Grattan was Thomas Colley Grattan (1792-1864), who was
then living in Paris. His book would be Highways and Byways,
first series, 1823.
There is one other note to Payne in the Century Magazine,
unimportant and undated, suggesting a walk one Sunday.]
598 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Feb.
LETTER 293
CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON
[p.m. February 17, 1823.]
MY dear Sir — I have read quite through the ponderous folio
of G. F. I think Sewell has been judicious in omitting
certain parts, as for instance where G. F. has revealed to him the
natures of all the creatures in their names, as Adam had. He
luckily turns aside from that compendious study of natural history,
which might have superseded BufFon, to his proper spiritual pursuits,
only just hinting what a philosopher he might have been. The
ominous passage is near the beginning of the Book. It is clear he
means a physical knowledge, without trope or figure. Also, pre-
tences to miraculous healing and the like are more frequent than I
should have suspected from the epitome in Sewell. He is neverthe-
less a great spiritual man, and I feel very much obliged by your
procuring me the Loan of it. How I like the Quaker phrases —
though I think they were hardly completed till Woolman. A
pretty little manual of Quaker language (with an endeavour to
explain them) might be gathered out of his Book. Could not you
do it ? I have read through G. F. without finding any explanation
of the term first volume in the title page. It takes in all, both
his life and his death. Are there more Last words of him ? Pray,
how may I venture to return it to Mr. Shewell at Ipswich? I
fear to send such a Treasure by a Stage Coach. Not that I am
afraid of the Coachman or the Guard reading it. But it might
be lost. Can you put me in a way of sending it in safety ? The
kind hearted owner trusted it to me for six months. I think I
was about as many days in getting through it, and I do not think
that I skipt a word of it. I have quoted G. F. in my Quaker's
meeting, as having said he was " lifted up in spirit " (which I felt
at the time to be not a Quaker phrase), " and the Judge and Jury
were as dead men under his feet." I find no such words in his
Journal, and I did not get them from Sewell, and the latter sentence
I am sure I did not mean to invent. I must have put some other
Quaker's words into his mouth. Is it a fatality in me, that every
thing I touch turns into a Lye ? I once quoted two Lines from a
translation of Dante, which Hazlitt very greatly admired, and quoted
in a Book as proof of the stupendous power of that poet, but no such
lines are to be found in the translation, which has been searched for
the purpose. I must have dreamed them, for I am quite certain I
did not forge them knowingly. What a misfortune to have a Lying
1823 SARA COLERIDGE 599
memory.— Yes, I have seen Miss Coleridge, and wish I had just such
a— daughter. God love her — to think that she should have had to
toil thro' five octavos of that cursed (I forget I write to a Quaker)
Abbeypony History, and then to abridge them to 3, and all for
£113. At her years, to be doing stupid Jesuits' Latin into English,
when she should be reading or writing Romances. Heaven send her
Uncle do not breed her up a Quarterly Reviewer ! — which reminds
me, that he has spoken very respectfully of you in the last number,
which is the next thing to having a Review all to one's self. Your
description of Mr. Mitford's place makes me long for a pippin and
some carraways and a cup of sack in his orchard, when the sweets
of the night come in.
Farewell. . C. Lamb.
Note
[In the 1694 folio of George Fox's Journal the revelation of
the names of creatures occurs twice, once under Notts in 1647 and
again under Mansfield in 1648.
" Sewell." The History of the Rise, Increase and Progress of
the Christian People called Quakers, 1722. By William Sewell
(1654-1720).
" In my Quaker's meeting " — the Elia essay (see Vol. II., page
45).
"I once quoted two Lines." Possibly, Mr. A. R. Waller
suggests to me, the lines : —
Because on earth their names
In Fame's eternal volume shine for aye,
quoted by Hazlitt in his Round Table essay "On Posthumous
Fame," and again in one of his Edinburgh Review articles. They
are presumably based upon the Inferno^ Canto IV. (see Haselfoot's
translation, second edition, 1899, page 21, lines 74-78). But the
" manufacturer " of them must have had Spenser's line in his mind,
" On Fame's eternall bead-roll worthie to be fyled" (Fcerie Queene,
Bk. IV., Canto II., Stanza 32). They have not yet been found
in any translation of Dante. This explanation would satisfy Lamb's
words ''quoted in a book," i.e., The Round Table, published in
1817.
" Miss Coleridge " — Coleridge's daughter Sara, born in 1802, who
had been brought up by her uncle, Southey. She had translated
Martin DobrizhofFer's Latin history of the Abipones in order to
gain funds for her brother Derwent's college expenses. Her father
considered the translation " unsurpassed for pure mother English
by anything I have read for a long time." Sara Coleridge married
her cousin, Henry Nelson Coleridge, in 1829. She edited her father's
600 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Feb.
works and died in 1852. At the present time she and her mother
were visiting the Gillmans.
Mr. Mitford was John Mitford (1781-1859), rector of Benhall,
in Suffolk, and editor of old poets. Later he became editor of the
Oentlemans Magazine. He was a cousin of Mary Russell Mitford.
In the Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1838, is a review of
Talfourd's edition of Lamb's Letters^ probably from his pen, in
which he records a visit to the Lambs in 1827.]
LETTER 294
CHARLES LAMB TO WALTER WILSON
[Dated at end : February 24, 1823.]
DEAR W. — I write that you may not think me neglectful^
not that I have any thing to say. In answer to your
questions, it was at your house I saw an edition of Roxana, the
preface to which stated that the author had left out that part of
it which related to Roxana's daughter persisting in imagining
herself to be so, in spite of the mother's denial, from certain hints
she had picked up, and throwing herself continually in her mother's
way (as Savage is said to have done in his^ prying in at windows
to get a glimpse of her), and that it was by advice of Southern,
who objected to the circumstances as being untrue, when the rest
of the story was founded on fact ; which shows S. to have been a
stupid-ish fellow. The incidents so resemble Savage's story, that
I taxed Godwin with taking Falconer from his life by Dr. Johnson.
You should have the edition (if you have not parted with it), for
I saw it never but at your place at the Mews' Gate, nor did I then
read it to compare it with my own ; only I know the daughter's
curiosity is the best part of my Roxana. The prologue you speak
of was mine, so named, but not worth much. You ask me for 2 or
3 pages of verse. I have not written so much since you knew me.
I am altogether prosaic. May be I may touch off a sonnet in time.
I do not prefer Col. Jack to either Rob. Cr. or Roxana. I only
spoke of the beginning of it, his childish history. The rest is poor.
I do not know anywhere any good character of De Foe besides
what you mention. I do not know that Swift mentions him. Pope
does. I forget if D'Israeli has. Dunlop I think has nothing of
him. He is quite new ground, and scarce known beyond Crusoe.
I do not know who wrote Quarll. I never thought of Quarll as
having an author. It is a poor imitation ; the monkey is the best
in it, and his pretty dishes made of shells. Do you know the
1823 DANIEL DEFOE AGAIN 601
Paper in the Englishman by Sir Rd. Steele, giving an account of
Selkirk ? It is admirable, and has all the germs of Crusoe. You
must quote it entire. Captain G. Carleton wrote his own Memoirs ;
they are about Lord Peterborough's campaign in Spain, & a good
Book. Puzzelli puzzles me, and I am in a cloud about Donald
M'Leod. I never heard of them; so you see, my dear Wilson,
what poor assistances I can give in the way of information. I wish
your Book out, for I shall like to see any thing about De Foe or
from you.
Your old friend, C. Lamb.
From my and your old compound. 24 Feb. '23.
Note
[With this letter compare Letter 89 to Godwin, and Letter 285
to Wilson, pages 225 and 586.
Defoe's Roxana^ first edition, does not, as a matter of fact, con-
tain the episode of the daughter which Lamb so much admired.
Later editions have it. Godwin says in his Preface to " Faulkener,"
1807, the play to which Lamb wrote a prologue in praise of Defoe
(see Vol. v., page 123), that the only accessible edition of Roxana
in which the story of Susannah is fully told is that of 1745.
Richard Savage was considered to be the natural son of the
Countess of Macclesfield and Earl Rivers. His mother at first dis-
owned him, but afterwards, when this became impossible, repulsed
him. Johnson says in his " Life of Savage," that it was his hero's
" practice to walk in the dark evenings for several hours before hei'
door in hopes of seeing her as she might come by accident to the
window or cross her apartment with a candle in her hand."
Swift and Defoe were steady enemies, although I do not find that
either mentions the other by name. But Swift in The Examiner
often had Defoe in mind, and Defoe in one of his political writings
refers to Swift, apropos Wood's halfpence, as " the copper farthing
author."
Pope referred to Defoe twice in the Dunciad : once as standing
high, fearless and unabashed in the pillory, and once, libellously,
as the father of Norton, of the Flying Post.
Philip Quarll was the first imitation of Robinson Crusoe, It
was published in 1727, purporting to be the narrative of one Dor-
rington, a merchant, and Quarll's discoverer. The title begins,
The Hermit ; or, The Unparalleled Sufferings and Surprising
Adventures of Mr, Philip Quarll^ an Englishman . . . Lamb
says in his essay on Christ's Hospital that the Blue-Coat boys used
to read the book. It is unknown now, although an abridgment
602 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB March
appeared quite recently. The authorship of the book is still un-
known.
Steele's account of Selkirk is in The Englishman, No. 26, Dec. 1,
1713. Wilson quoted it.
Defoe's fictitious Military Memoirs of Gapt. George Carleton
was published in 1728.
I cannot explain Puzzelli or Donald M'Leod. Later Lamb sent
Wilson, who seems to have asked for some verse about Defoe, the
" Ode to the Treadmill," but Wilson did not use it.
" My old compound." Robinson's Diary (Vol. I., page 333) has
this : " The large room in the accountant's office at the East India
House is divided into boxes or compartments, in each of which sit
six clerks, Charles Lamb himself in one. They are called Com-
pounds. The meaning of the word was asked one day, and Lamb
said it was ' a collection of simples.' "]
LETTER 295
CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON
[Dated at end : March ii, 1823.]
DEAR Sir — The approbation of my little book by your sister is
very pleasing to me. The Quaker incident did not happen
to me, but to Carlisle the surgeon, from whose mouth I have twice
heard it, at an interval of ten or twelve years, with httle or no
variation, and have given it as exactly as I could remember it.
The gloss which your sister, or you, have put upon it does not
strike me as correct. Carlisle drew no inference from it ao:ainst the
honesty of the Quakers, but only in favour of their surprising cool-
ness — that they should be capable of committing a good joke, with
an utter insensibility to its being any jest at all. I have reason to
believe in the truth of it, because, as I have said, I heard him re-
peat it without variation at such an interval. The story loses sadly
in print, for Carlisle is the best story teller I ever heard. The idea
of the discovery of roasting pigs, I also borrowed, from my friend
Manning, and am willing to confess both my plagiarisms.
Should fate ever so order it that you shall be in town with your
sister, mine bids me say that she shall have great pleasure in being
introduced to her. I think I must give up the cause of the Bank —
from nine to nine is galley-slavery, but I hope it is but temporary.
Your endeavour at explaining Fox's insight into the natures of
animals must fail, as I shall transcribe the passage. It appears
to me that he stopt short in time, and was on the brink of fallint^
1823 BARRON FIELD'S SEAL 603
with his friend Naylor, my favourite. — -The book shall be forthcom-
ing whenever your friend can make convenient to call for it.
They have dragged me again into the Magazine, but I feel the
spirit of the thing in my own mind quite gone. " Some brains "
(I think Ben Jonson says it) " will endure but one skimming."
We are about to have an inundation of poetry from the Lakes,
Wordsworth and Southey are coming up strong from the North.
The she Coleridges have taken flight, to my regret. With Sara's
own-made acquisitions, her unaffectedness and no-pretensions are
beautiful. You might pass an age with her without suspecting
that she knew any thing but her mother's tongue. I don't mean
any reflection on Mrs. Coleridge here. I had better have said
her vernacular idiom. Poor C. I wish he had a home to receive his
daughter in. But he is but as a stranger or a visitor in this world.
How did you like Hartley's sonnets ? The first, at least, is vastly
fine. Lloyd has been in town a day or two on business, and is per-
fectly well. I am ashamed of the shabby letters I send, but I am
by nature anything but neat. Therein my mother bore me no
Quaker. I never could seal a letter without dropping the wax
on one side, besides scalding my fingers. I never had a seal too
of my own. Writing to a great man lately, who is moreover very
Heraldic, I borrowed a seal of a friend, who by the female side
quarters the Protectorial Arms of Cromwell. How they must have
puzzled my correspondent ! — My letters are generally charged as
double at the Post office, from their inveterate clumsiness of foldure.
So you must not take it disrespectful to your self if I send you such
ungainly scraps. I think I lose <£100 a year at the India House,
owing solely to my want of neatness in making up Accounts.
How I puzzle 'em out at last is the wonder. I have to do with
millions. I^
It is time to have done my incoherencies.
Believe me Yours Truly C. Lamb.
Tuesd II Ma 23.
Note
[Lamb had sent Elia to Woodbridge. Bernard Barton's sister
was Maria Hack, author of many books for children. The Quaker
incident is in the essay "Imperfect Sympathies." Carlisle was
Sir Anthony Carlisle, whom we have already seen.
" Your endeavour at explaining Fox's insight." See Letter
293. James Nayler (1617P-1660), an early Quaker who per-
mitted his admirers to look upon him as a new Christ. He went
to extremes totally foreign to the spirit of the Society. Barton
made a paraphrase of Nayler's " Last Testimony."
604 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB April
" They have dragged me again." Lamb had been quite ready
to give up Elia with the first essays. " Old China," one of his
most charming papers, was in the March London Magazine,
" Some brains ..." I have not been able to find this in Ben
Jonson.
" Hartley's sonnets." Four sonnets by Hartley Coleridge were
printed in the London Magazine for February, 1823, addressed to
R. S. Jameson. This was the first : —
When we were idlers with the loitering rills,
The need of human love we little noted :
Our love was Nature ; and the peace that floated
On the white mist, and slept upon the hills,
To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills :
One soul was ours, one mind, one heart devoted.
That, wisely doating, ask'd not why it doated ;
And ours the unknown joy, that knowing kills.
But now I find how dear thou wert to me ;
That, man is more than half of Nature's treasure, —
Of that fair beauty which no eye can see, —
Of that still music which no ear can measure ;
But now the streams may sing for others' pleasure,
The hills sleep on in their eternity.
" Writing to a great man lately." This was Sir Walter Scott
(see Letter 279). Barron Field would be the friend with the seal.]
LETTER 296
CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON
[p.m. 5 April 1823.]
DEAR Sir — ^You must think me ill mannered not to have re-
plied to your first letter sooner, but I have an ugly habit
of aversion from letter writing, which makes me an unworthy
correspondent. I have had no spring, or cordial call to the
occupation of late. I have been not well lately, which must be my
lame excuse. Your poem, which I consider very affecting, found
me engaged about a humorous Paper for the London, which I
had called a " Letter to an Old Gentleman whose Education had
been neglected " — and when it was done Taylor and Hessey would
not print it, and it discouraged me from doing any thing else, so
I took up Scott, where I had scribbled some petulant remarks, and
for a make shift father'd them on Ritson. It is obvious I could not
make your Poem a part of them, and as I did not know whether I
should ever be able to do to my mind what you suggested, I thought
it not fair to keep back the verses for the chance. Mr. Mitford's
1823 DINING IN PARNASSUS 605
sonnet I like very well ; but as I also have my reasons against in-
terfering at all with the Editorial arrangement of the London, I
transmitted it (not in my own handwriting) to them, who I doubt
not will be glad to insert it. What eventual benefit it can be to
you (otherwise than that a kind man's wish is a benefit) I cannot
conjecture. Your Society are eminently men of Business, and will
probably regard you as an idle fellow, possibly disown you, that is
to say, if you had put your own name to a sonnet of that sort, but
they cannot excommunicate Mr. Mitford, therefore I thoroughly
approve of printing the said verses. When I see any Quaker names
to the Concert of Antient Music, or as Directors of the British
Institution, or bequeathing medals to Oxford for the best classical
themes, etc. — then I shall begin to hope they will emancipate you.
But what as a Society can they do for you ? you would not accept
a Commission in the Army, nor they be likely to procure it ; Posts
in Church or State have they none in their giving ; and then if
they disown you — think — you must live " a man forbid."
I wishd for you yesterday. I dined in Parnassus, with Words-
worth, Coleridge, Rogers, and Tom Moore — half the Poetry of
England constellated and clustered in Gloster Place ! It was a
delightful Even ! Coleridge was in his finest vein of talk, had
all the talk, and let 'em talk as evilly as they do of the envy of
Poets, I am sure not one there but was content to be nothing but
a listener. The Muses were dumb, while Apollo lectured on his
and their fine Art. It is a lie that Poets are envious, I have known
the best of them, and can speak to it, that they give each other
their merits, and are the kindest critics as well as best authors. I
am scribbling a muddy epistle with an aking head, for we did not
quaff Hippocrene last night. Marry, it was Hippocras rather.
Pray accept this as a letter in the mean time, and do me the favor
to mention my respects to Mr. Mitford, who is so good as to
entertain good thoughts of Elia, but don't show this almost im-
pertinent scrawl. I will write more respectfully next time, for
believe me, if not in words, in feelings, yours most so.
Note
[" Your poem." Barton's poem was entitled " A Poet's Thanks,"
and was printed in the London Magazine for April, 1823, the
same number that contained Lamb's article on Ritson and Scott. It
is one of his best poems, an expression of contentment in simplicity.
The " Letter to an Old Gentleman," a parody of De Quincey's series
of " Letters to a Young Gentleman " in the London Magazine,
was not published until January, 1825. Scott was John Scott of
Amwell (Barton's predecessor as the Quaker poet), who had written
606 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB April
a rather foolish book of prose, Critical Essays on the English
Poets. Ritson was Joseph Ritson, the critic and antiquarian. See
Vol. I. of the present edition, page 218, for the essay. Barton seems
to have suggested to Lamb that he should write an essay around
the poem " A Poet's Thanks." Mitford's sonnet, which was printed
in the London Magazine for June, 1823, was addressed commis-
eratingly to Bernard Barton. It began : —
What to thy broken Spirit can atone,
Unhappy victim of the Tyrant's fears ;
and continued in the same strain, the point being that Barton was
the victim of his Quaker employers, who made him " prisoner at
once and slave." Lamb's previous letter shows us that Barton was
being worked from nine till nine, and we must suppose also that an
objection to his poetical exercises had been lodged or suggested.
The matter righted itself in time.
"A man forbid" ("Macbeth," I., 3, 21).
" I dined in Parnassus." This dinner, at Thomas Monkhouse's,
No. 34 Gloucester Place, is described both by Moore and by Crabb
Robinson, who was present. Moore wrote in his Journal : " Dined
at Mr. Monkhouse's (a gentleman I had never seen before) on
Wordsworth's invitation, who lives there whenever he comes to
town. A singular party. Coleridge, Rogers, Wordsworth and
wife, Charles Lamb (the hero at present of the London Magazine\
and his sister (the poor woman who went mad in a diligence on the
way to Paris), and a Mr. Robinson, one of the minora sidera of
this constellation of the Lakes ; the host himself, a Maecenas of the
school, contributing nothing but good dinners and silence. Charles
Lamb, a clever fellow, certainly, but full of villainous and abortive
puns, which he miscarries of every minute. Some excellent things,
however, have come from him."
Lamb told Moore that he had hitherto always felt an antipathy
to him, but henceforward should like him.
Crabb Robinson writes: "April 4^/ /i^// ^^/f//?f ^^^^^<^- ^^A^ ^m \
' .'fr^/^J af/a^f/A/jfj^/- /A/ '^^uyrr p^/i/^r// js^/7 /^4^A^^ |
A^ W^/A//^/r ^f^^^A /^A^>^ A/u ^^/^A^f^^^ A^^A
^fe^ ^If^U^ , Ah/ ^J-A^khanAA/. z^/? ^ AA/ /-^^//i/.A j
^^ ^fpi// //f^/^^/7^ ^ /Aj^trAyy . AA^ ^^^ Jd"^
(4^^^AAC
REDUCED FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM LAMB TO
SARAH HUTCHINSON
FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE POSSESSION OF MK. GORDON WORDSWORTH
1823 A CUTTER OF APRON STRINGS 609
fearless flourish. Then she has always to go thro' them (a second
operation) to dot her is, and cross her ts. I don't think she can make
a cork screw, if she tried — which has such a fine effect at the end or
middle of an epistle — and fills up —
\Here Lamb has made a corkscrew two inches long {see
facsimile),]
There is a corkscrew, one of the best I ever drew. By the way
what incomparable whiskey that was of Monkhouse's. But if I
am to write a letter, let me begin, and not stand flourishing like
a fencer at a fair.
It gives me great pleasure (the letter now begins) to hear that
you got down smoothly, and that Mrs. Monkhouse's spirits are so
good and enterprising. It shews, whatever her posture may be,
that her mind at least is not supine. I hope the excursion will
enable the former to keep pace with its out-stripping neighbor.
Pray present our kindest wishes to her, and all. (That sentence
should properly have come in the Post Script, but we airy Mer-
curial Spirits, there is no keeping us in). Time — as was said of one
of us — toils after us in vain. I am afraid our co-visit with Coleridge
was a dream. I shall not get away before the end (or middle) of
June, and then you will be frog-hopping at Boulogne. And be-
sides I think the Gilmans would scarce trust him with us, I have a
malicious knack at cutting of apron strings. The Saints' days you
speak of have long since fled to heaven, with Astraea, and the cold
piety of the age lacks fervor to recall them — only Peter left his key
— the iron one of the two, that shuts amain — and that's the reason
I am lockd up. Meanwhile of afternoons we pick up primroses at
Dalston, and Mary corrects me when I call 'em cowslips. God
bless you all, and pray remember me euphoneously to Mr. Gnwel-
legan. That Lee Priory must be a dainty bower, is it built of flints,
and does it stand at Kingsgate ? Did you remem
[This is apparently the proper end of the letter. At least
there is no indication of another sheet.]
Note
[Addressed to " Miss Hutchinson, 17 Sion Hill, Ramsgate, Kent,"
where she was staying with Mrs. Monkhouse.
" Not less erring." I have not found this.
" ' Time ' — as was said of one of us." Johnson wrote of Shake-
speare, in the Prologue at the opening of Drury Lane Theatre in
1747 :—
And panting Time toil'd after him in vain,
VOL. VII. — 41
610 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB 1823
"The Saints' days." See note on page 514. Astraea, goddess of
justice, fled to heaven in the age of bronze owing to the wickedness
of man.
" Shuts amain."
Two mass keys he bore, of metals twain,
(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).
Lycidas^ no, in.
" Mr. Gnwellegan." Probably Lamb's effort to write the name
of Edward QuilHnan, afterwards Wordsworth's son-in-law, whose
first wife had been a Miss Brydges of Lee Priory.
" Lee Priory " — the home of Sir Egerton Brydges, at Ickham, near
Canterbury, for some years. He had, however, now left, and the
private press was closed.
In Notes and Queries^ November 11, 1876, was printed the
following scrap, a postscript by Charles Lamb to a letter from
Mary Lamb to Miss H(utchinson). I place it here, having no clue
as to date, nor does it matter : — ]
LETTER 299
{Fragment)
CHARLES LAMB TO MISS HUTCHINSON (?)
[No date.]
jj PROPOS of birds — the other day at a large dinner, being
call'd upon for a toast, I gave, as the best toast I knew,
" Wood-cock toast," which was drunk with 3 cheers.
Yours afFecty
C. Lamb.
LETTER 300
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN BATES DIBDIN
[No date. Probably 1823.]
IT is hard when a Gentleman cannot remain concealed, who
afFecteth obscurity with greater avidity than most do seek to
have their good deeds brought to light — to have a prying inquisi-
tive finger, (to the danger of its own scorching), busied in removino-
the little peck measure (scripturally a bushel) under which one had
hoped to bury his small candle. The receipt of fern-seed, I think,
in this curious age, would scarce help a man to walk invisible.
^/a ^/m f/U^/ti ay,^/^^ ^ -
^yrA
/
REDUCED FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM LAMP. TO
SARAH HUTCHINSON (CONTINUED)
FROM THE ORIGIN'AL IN THE POSSESSION OF MK, GORDON WORDSWORTH
1823 DIBDIN'S DISCOVERY 611
Well, I am discovered — and thou thyself, who thoughtest to
shelter under the pease-cod of initiality (a stale and shallow device),
art no less dragged to light — Thy slender anatomy — thy skeletonian
D fleshed and sinewed out to the plump expansion of six
characters — thy tuneful genealogy deduced —
By the way, what a name is Timothy !
Lay it down, I beseech thee, and in its place take up the properer
sound of Timotheus —
Then mayst thou with unblushing fingers handle the Lyre
"familiar to the D n name."
With much difficulty have I traced thee to thy lurking-place.
Many a goodly name did I run over, bewildered between Dorrien,
and Doxat, and Dover, and Dakin, and Daintry — a wilderness of
D's — till at last I thought I had hit it — my conjectures wandering
upon a melancholy Jew — you wot the Israelite upon Change —
Master Daniels — a contemplative Hebrew — to the which guess I
wgis the rather led, by the consideration that most of his nation are
p-reat readers —
Nothing is so common as to see them in the Jews' Walk, with
a bundle of script in one hand, and the Man of Feeling, or a volume
of Sterne, in the other —
I am a rogue if I can collect what manner of face thou carriest,
though thou seemest so familiar with mine — If I remember, thou
didst not dimly resemble the man Daniels, whom at first I took
thee for — a care-worn, mortified, economical, commercio-political
countenance, with an agreeable limp in thy gait, if Elia mistake
thee not. I think I sh^•^\J<11^^\^
710 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB July
" A Caledonian Chapel." Referring to the crowds that listened
to Irving (see note on page 661).
" A headless bear." From the rhyming abstract of melancholy
prefixed to the Anatomy.
"Peter Fin." A character in Jones' "Peter Finn's Trip to
Brighton," 1822, as played by Liston.
"Tommy Hill." In the British Museum is preserved the fol-
lowing brief note addressed to Mr. Thomas Hill — probably the
same. The date is between 1809 and 1817 : —
" D« Sir
" It is necessary / see you sign^ can you step up to
me 4 Inner Temple Lane this evening. I shall wait at home.
" Yours,
" C. Lamb."
I have no notion to what the note refers. It is quite likely, Mr.
J. A. Rutter suggests, that Hill the drysalter, a famous busybody,
and a friend of Theodore Hook, stood for the portrait of Tom Pry
in Lamb's " Lepus Papers " (see Vol. I., page 498). S. C. Hall,
in his Book of Memories^ says of Hill that " his peculiar faculty
was to find out what everybody did, from a minister of state to a
stable-boy."]
LETTER 380
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN BATES DIBDIN
[p.m. July 14, 1826.]
BECAUSE you boast poetic Grandsire,
And rhyming kin, both Uncle and Sire,
Dost think that none but their Descendings
Can tickle folks with double endings ?
I had a Dad, that would for half a bet
Have put down thine thro' half the Alphabet.
Thou, who would be Dan Prior the second,
For Dan Posterior must be reckon'd.
In faith, dear Tim, your rhymes are slovenly,
As a man may say, dough-baked and ovenly ;
Tedious and long as two Long Acres,
And smell most vilely of the Baker's.
(I have been cursing every limb o' thee,
Because I could not hitch in Timothy.
Jack, Will, Tom, Dick's, a serious evil,
But Tim, plain Tim's — the very devil.)
1826 DOUBLE ENDINGS 711
Thou most incorrigible scribbler.
Right Watering place and cockney dribbler,
What child ^ that barely understands A
5, (7, would ever dream that Stanza
Would tinkle into rhyme with " Plan, Sir " ?
Go, go, you are not worth an answer.
I had a Sire, that at plain Crambo
Had hit you o'er the pate a damn'd blow.
How now ? may I die game, and you die brass,
But I have stol'n a quip from Hudibras.
'Twas thinking on that fine old Suttler,
That was in faith a second Butler ;
Had as queer rhymes as he, and subtler.
He would have put you to 't this weather
For rattling syllables together ;
Rhym'd you to death, like " rats in Ireland,"
Except that he was bom in High'r Land.
His chimes, not crampt like thine, and rung ill,
Had made Job split his sides on dunghill.
There was no limit to his merryings
At christ'nings, weddings, nay at buryings.
No undertaker would live near him,
Those grave practitioners did fear him ;
Mutes, at his merry mops, turned " vocal,"
And fellows, hired for silence, " spoke all."
No body could be laid in cavity.
Long as he lived, with proper gravity.
His mirth-fraught eye had but to glitter,
And every mourner round must titter.
The Parson, prating of Mount Hermon,
Stood still to laugh, in midst of sermon.
The final Sexton (smile he must for him)
Could hardly get to " dust to dust " for him.
He lost three pall-bearei^ their livelyhood,
Only with simp'ring at his lively mood :
Provided that they fresh and neat came.
All jests were fish that to his net came.
He'd banter Apostolic castings.
As you jeer fishermen at Hastings.
When the fly bit, like me, he leapt-o'er-all.
And stood not much on what was scriptural.
P.S.
I had forgot, at Small Bohemia
(Enquire the way of your maid Euphemia)
712 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Sept.
Are sojourning, of all good fellows
The prince and princess, — the Novellas —
Pray seek 'em out, and give my love to 'em ;
You'll find you'll soon be hand and glove to 'em.
In prose. Little Bohemia, about a mile from Hastings in the
Hollington road, when you can get so far. Dear Dib, I find
relief in a word or two of prose. In truth my rhymes come slow.
You have " routh of 'em." It gives us pleasure to find you keep
your good spirits. Your Letter did us good. Pray heaven you
are got out at last. Write quickly.
This letter will introduce you, if 'tis agreeable. Take a donkey.
'Tis Novello the Composer and his Wife, our very good friends.
C. L.
Note
[Dibdin must have sent the verses which Lamb asked for in the
previous letter, and this is Lamb's reply. Pride of ancestry seems
to have been the note of Dibdin's effort. Probably there is a
certain amount of truth in Lamb's account of the resolute merri-
ment of his father. It is not inconsistent with his description of
Lovel in the Elia essay " The Old Benchers of the Inner Temple."
" Dan Prior " — Matthew Prior, the poet, " Dan " meaning
" master " (a coiTuption of " dominus ".)
"I have stol'n a quip." The manner rather than the precise
matter, I think.
" Rats in Ireland." Rosalind says in " As You Like It " (III., 2,
181-188) "I was never so berhymed since ... I was an Irish rat."
" Routh of 'em." From Bums' " Poem to J. S " Verse
21 — ''rowth o' rhymes."
Here should come a letter from Lamb to the Rev. Edward
Coleridge, Coleridge's nephew, dated July 19, 1826, printed by
Mr. Hazlitt in Bohn's edition of the letters, not available for the
present volume. It thanks the recipient for his kindness to the
child of a friend of Lamb's, Samuel Anthony Bloxam, Coleridge
having assisted in getting Frederick Bloxam into Eton (where he
was a master) on the foundation. Samuel Bloxam and Lamb were
at Christ's Hospital together.]
LETTER 381
CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
[p.m. September 6, 1826.]
MY dear Wordsworth, The Bearer of this is my young friend
Moxon, a young lad with a Yorkshire head, and a heart that
would do honour to a more Southern county : no offence to West-
1826 ENTER MOXON 713
moreland. He is one of Longman's best hands, and can give you
the best account of The Trade as 'tis now going ; or stopping. For
my part, the failure of a Bookseller is not the most unpalatable
accident of mortality :
sad but not saddest
The desolation of a hostile city.
When Constable fell from heaven, and we all hoped Baldwin was
next, I tuned a slight stave to the words in Macbeth (D'avenant's)
to be sung by a Chorus of Authors,
What should we do when Booksellers break ?
We should rejoyce.
Moxon is but a tradesman in the bud yet, and retains his virgin
Honesty ; Esto perpetua, for he is a friendly serviceable fellow, and
thinks nothing of lugging up a Cargo of the Newest Novels once
or twice a week from the Row to Colebrooke to gratify my Sister's
passion for the newest things. He is her Bodley. He is author
besides of a poem which for a first attempt is promising. It is
made up of common images, and yet contrives to read originally.
You see the writer felt all he pours forth, and has not palmed upon
you expressions which he did not believe at the time to be more
his own than adoptive. Rogers has paid him some proper compli-
ments, with sound advice intermixed, upon a slight introduction
of him by me; for which I feel obliged. Moxon has petition'd
me by letter (for he had not the confidence to ask it in London)
to introduce him to you during his holydays ; pray pat him on
the head, ask him a civil question or two about his verses, and
favor him with your genuine autograph. He shall not be further
troublesome. I think I have not sent any one upon a gaping
mission to you a good while. We are all well, and I have at last
broke the bonds of business a second time, never to put 'em on
again. I pitch Colbum and his magazine to the divil. I find I
can live without the necessity of writing, tho' last year I fretted
myself to a fever with the haunt ings of being starved. Those
vapours are flown. All the difference I find is that I have no
pocket money : that is, I must not pry upon an old book stall,
and cull its contents as heretofore, but shoulders of mutton, Whit-
bread's entire, and Booth's best, abound as formerly.
I don't know whom or how many to send our love to, your house-
hold is so frequently divided, but a general health to all that may
be fixed or wandering ; stars, wherever. We read with pleasure some
success (I forget quite what) of one of you at Oxford. Mre. Monk-
house (. . . was one of you) sent us a kind letter some [months
back], and we had the pleasure to [see] her in tolerable spirits,
looking well and kind as in bygone days.
714 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Sept.
Do take pen, or put it into goodnatured hands Dorothean or
Wordsworthian-female, or Hutchinsonian, to inform us of your
present state, or possible proceedings. I am ashamed that this
breaking of the long ice should be a letter of business. There is
none circum praecordia nostra I swear by the honesty of pedantry,
that wil I nil I pushes me upon scraps of Latin. We are yours
cordially : Chas. & Mary Lamb.
Septemr. 1826.
Note
[In this letter, the first to Wordsworth for many months, we have
the first mention of Edward Moxon, who was to be so closely
associated with Lamb in the years to come. Moxon, a young
Yorkshireman, educated at the Green Coat School, was then nearly
twenty-five, and was already author of The Prospect and other
Poems^ dedicated to Rogers, who was destined to be a valuable
patron. Moxon subsequently became Wordsworth's publisher.
" Sad but not saddest ..." From " Samson Agonistes," lines
1560-1561, condensed.
" Constable . . . Baldwin." Archibald Constable & Co., Scott's
publishers, failed in 1826 (see note on page 697). Baldwin was
the first publisher of the London Magazine, See mention of him
in Letter 290.
" Esto perpetua " — " Be thou perpetual ! " Here referring, I
take it, to Moxon's honesty — " May it be perpetual ! "
"I pitch Colburn and his magazine." Lamb wrote nothing in
the New Monthly Magazine after September, 1826.
" Gircum proecordia nostra. ^^ Chill about the midriff.
I append an abstract of what seems to be Lamb's fii'st letter to
Edward Moxon, obviously written before this date, but not out of
place here. The letter seems to have accompanied the proof of
an article on Lamb which he had coiTected and was returning to
Moxon. I quote from Sotheby's catalogue. May 13, 1903 : " Were
my own feelings consulted I should print it verbatim, but I won't
hoax you, else I love a Lye. My biography, parentage, place of
birth, is a strange mistake, part founded on some nonsense I wrote
about Elia, and was true of him, the real Elia, whose name I took.
. . . C. L. was bom in Crown Office Row, Inner Temple in 1775.
Admitted into Christs Hospital, 1782, where he was contemporary
with T. F. M. [Thomas Fanshawe Middleton], afterwards Bishop
of Calcutta, and with S. T. C. with the last of these two eminent
scholars he has enjoyed an intimacy through life. On quitting this
foundation he became a junior clerk in the South Sea House under
his Elder Brother who died accountant there some years since. . . .
I am not the author of the Opium Eater, &c." I have not suc-
ceeded in finding the article in question.]
1826 THE MISERIES OF SUNDAY 715
LETTER 382
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN BATES DIBDIN
[p.m. September 9, 1826.]
An answer is requested.
Saturday.
DEAR D. — I have obsei-ved that a Letter is never more accept-
able than when received upon a rainy day, especially a rainy
Sunday ; which moves me to send you somewhat, however short.
This will find you sitting after Breakfast, which you will have
prolonged as far as you can with consistency to the poor handmaid
that has the reversion of the Tea Leaves ; making two nibbles of
your last morsel of stale roll (you cannot have hot new ones on the
Sabbath), and reluctantly coming to an end, because when that is
done, what can you do till dinner ? You cannot go to the Beach,
for the rain is drowning the sea, turning rank Thetis fresh, taking
the brine out of Neptune's pickles, while mermaids sit upon rocks
with umbrellas, their ivory combs sheathed for spoiling in the wet
of waters foreign to them. You cannot go to the library, for it's
shut. You are not religious enough to go to church. O it is
worth while to cultivate piety to the gods, to have something to
fill the heart up on a wet Sunday ! You cannot cast accounts,
for your ledger is being eaten up with moths in the Ancient Jewry.
You cannot play at draughts, for there is none to play with you,
and besides there is not a draught board in the house. You cannot
go to market, for it closed last night. You cannot look in to the
shops, their backs are shut upon you. You cannot read the Bible,
for it is not good reading for the sick and the hypochondriacal.
You cannot while away an hour with a friend, for you have no
friend round that Wrekin. You cannot divert yourself with a
stray acquaintance, for you have picked none up. You cannot bear
the chiming of Bells, for they invite you to a banquet, where you
are no visitant. You cannot cheer yourself with the prospect of a
tomorrow's letter, for none come on Mondays. You cannot count
those endless vials on the mantlepiece with any hope of making a
variation in their numbers. You have counted your spiders ; your
Bastile is exhausted. You sit and deliberately curse your hard
exile from all familiar sights and sounds. Old Ranking poking
in his head unexpectedly would just now be as good to you as
Grimaldi. Any thing to deliver you from this intolerable weight
of Ennui. You are too ill to shake it off : not ill enough to submit
to it, and to lie down as a lamb under it. The Tyranny of Sick-
ness is nothing to the Cruelty of Convalescence : 'tis to have Thirty
716 LETTEES OF C. AND M. LAMB Sept.
Tyrants for one. That pattering rain drops on your brain. You'll
be worse after dinner, for you must dine at one to-day, that Betty
may go to afternoon service. She insists upon having her chopped
hay. And then when she goes out, who was something to you,
something to speak to — what an interminable afternoon you'll
have to go thro'. You can't break yourself from your locality : you
cannot say " Tomorrow morning I set off for Banstead, by God " :
for you are book'd for Wednesday. Foreseeing this, I thought a
cheerful letter would come in opportunely. If any of the little
topics for mirth I have thought upon should serve you in this utter
extinguishment of sunshine, to make you a little merry, I shall have
had my ends. I love to make things comfortable. [Here is an
erasure,'] This, which is scratch 'd out was the most material thing
I had to say, but on maturer thoughts I defer it.
P.S. — We are just sitting down to dinner with a pleasant party,
Coleridge, Reynolds the dramatist, and Sam Bloxam : tomorrow
(that is, today\ Liston, and Wyat of the Wells, dine with us.
May this find you as jolly and freakish as we mean to be.
C. Lamb.
Note
[Addressed to " T. Dibdin Esq^e. No. 4 Meadow Cottages, Hast-
ings, Sussex."
" You have counted your spiders." Referring, I suppose, to
Paul Pellisson-Fontanier the academician, and a famous prisoner in
the Bastille, who trained a spider to eat flies from his hand.
" Grimaldi " — Joseph Grimaldi, the clown. Ranking was one
of Dibdin's employers.
" A pleasant party." Reynolds, the dramatist, would be Frederic
Reynolds (1764-1841) ; Bloxam we have just met; and Wyat of
the Wells was a comic singer and utility actor at Sadler's Wells.
Canon Ainger remarks that as a matter of fact Dibdin was a
religious youth.]
LETTER 383
CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON
[p.m. September 26, 1826.]
DEAR B. B. — I don't know why I have delay'd so long writing.
'Twas a fault. The under current of excuse to my mind was
that I had heard of the Vessel in which Mitford's jars were to come ;
1826 THE GARRICK PLAYS 717
that it had been obliged to put into Batavia to refit (which accounts
for its delay) but was daily expectated. Days are past, and it
comes not, and the mermaids may be drinking their Tea out of his
China for ought I know ; but let's hope not. In the meantime I
have paid £28^ etc., for the freight and prime cost, (which I a little
expected he would have settled in London.) But do not mention
it. I was enabled to do it by a receipt of ^£^30 from Colburn, with
whom however I have done. I should else have run short. For I
just make ends meet. We will wait the arrival of the Trinkets,
and to ascertain their full expence, and then bring in the bill. (Don't
mention it, for I daresay 'twas mere thoughtlessness.)
I am sorry you and yours have any plagues about dross matters.
I have been sadly puzzled at the defalcation of more than one third
of my income, out of which when entire I saved nothing. But
cropping off wine, old books, &c. and in short all that can be call'd
pocket money, I hope to be able to go on at the Cottage. Re-
member, I beg you not to say anything to Mitford, for if he be
honest it will vex him : if not, which I as little expect as that you
should [not] be, I have a hank still upon the jars.
Colburn had something of mine in last month, which he has had
in hand these 7 months, and had lost, or cou'dnt find room for : I
was used to different treatment in the London, and have for-
sworn Periodicals.
I am going thro' a course of reading at the Museum : the Gamck
plays, out of part of which I formed my Specimens : I have Two
Thousand to go thro' ; and in a few weeks have despatch'd the
tythe of 'em. It is a sort of Office to me ; hours, 10 to 4, the same.
It does me good. Man must have regular occupation, that has
been used to it. So A. K. keeps a School ! She teaches nothing
wrong, I'll answer for't. I have a Dutch print of a Schoolmistress ;
little^old-fashioned Fleminglings, with only one face among them.
She a Princess of Schoolmistress, wielding a rod for form more than
use ; the scene an old monastic chapel, with a Madonna over her
head, looking just as serious, as thoughtful, as pure, as gentle, as
herself. Tis a type of thy friend.
Will you pardon my neglect ? Mind, again I say, don't shew
this to M. ; let me wait a little longer to know the event of his
Luxuries. (I am sure he is a good fellow, tho' I made a serious
Yorkshire Lad, who met him, stare when I said he was a Clergyman.
He is a pleasant Layman spoiled.) Heaven send him his jars un-
crack'd, and me mv Yours with kindest wishes to your
dau"hter and friend,* in which Mary joins C. L.
718 LETTEKS OF C. AND M. LAMB Sept.
Note
['^I saved nothing." This is a rather curious statement; for
Lamb, according to Procter, left ^2000 at his death eight years
later. He must have saved .£^200 a year from his pension of c£^441,
living at the rate of £24il per annum, plus small earnings, for the
rest of his life, and investing the <£200 at 5 per cent, compound
interest.
" Colburn had something of mine." The Popular Fallacy
'' That a Deformed Person is a Lord," not included by Lamb with
the others when he reprinted them. Printed in Vol. L of this
edition, page 290.
" Reading at the Museum." Lamb had begun to visit the
Museum every day to collect extracts from the Garrick plays for
Hone's Table Book, 1827.
" A. K." — Anne Knight again.
The pleasant Yorkshire lad whom Mitford's secular air surprised
was probably Moxon.
Here might come a purely business letter of no interest, from
Lamb to Barton, preserved in the British Museum, relating to
Mitford's jars.]
LETTER 384
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[No date. ? Sept., 1826.]
HAVE had much trouble to find Field to-day. No matter.
He was packing up for out of town. He has writ a hand-
somest letter, which you will transmit to Murry with your proof-
sheets. Seal it. —
Yours C". L .
Mrs. Hood will drink tea with us on Thursday at ^ past 5 at
Latest.
N.B. I have lost my Museum reading today : a day with
Titus : owing to your dam'd bisness. — I am the last to reproach
anybody. I scorn it.
If you shall have the whole book ready soon, it will be best for
MuiTy to see.
Note
[I am not clear as to what proof-sheets of Moxon's Lamb refers.
His second book, Christmas, 1829, was issued through Hurst,
Chance & Co.
Barron Field and John Murray were friends.
"A day with Titus." Can this (a friend suggests) have any
connection with the phrase Diem perditi t There is no Titus play
among the Garrick Extracts.]
I
1826 MITFORD'S "SACRED SPECIMENS" 719
LETTER 385
CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON
[No postmark or date. Soon after preceding letter to Barton. 1826.]
EAR B. B.—the Busy Bee, as Hood after Dr. Watts apostro-
D
phises thee, and well dost thou deserve it for thy labors in
the Muses' gardens, wandering over parterres of Think-on-me's and
Forget-me-nots, to a total impossibility of forgetting thee, — thy
letter was acceptable, thy scruples may be dismissed, thou art Rectus
in Curia, not a word more to be said, Verbum Sapienti and so forth,
the matter is decided with a white stone. Classically, mark me,
and the apparitions vanishd which haunted me, only the Cramp,
Caliban's distemper, clawing me in the calvish part of my nature,
makes me ever and anon roar Bullishly, squeak cowardishly, and
limp cripple-ishly. Do I write quakerly and simply, 'tis my most
Master Mathew-like intention to do it. See Ben Jonson. — I think
you told me your acquaint^e with the Drama was confin'd to
Shakspeare and Miss Bailly : some read only Milton and Croly.
The gap is as from an ananas to a Turnip. I have fighting in my
head the plots characters situations and sentiments of 400 old
Plays (bran new to me) which I have been digesting at the Museum,
and my appetite sharpens to twice as many more, which I mean to
course over this winter. I can scarce avoid Dialogue fashion in
this letter. I soliloquise my meditations, and habitually speak
dramatic blank verse without meaning it. Do you see Mitford ?
he will tell you something of my labors. Tell him I am sorry to
have mist seeing him, to have talk'd over those Old Treasures.
I am still more sorry for his missing Pots. But I shall be sure of
the earliest intelligence of the Lost Tribes. His Sacred Specimens
are a thankful addition to my shelves. Marry, I could wish he had
been more careful of corrigenda. I have disco ver'd certain which
have slipt his Errata. I put 'em in the next page, as perhaps thou
canst transmit them to him. For what purpose, but to grieve him
(which yet I should be sorry to do), but then it shews my learning,
and the excuse is complimentary, as it implies their correction in a
future Edition. His own things in the book are magnificent, and as
an old Christ's Hospitaller I was particularly refreshd with his
eulogy on our Edward. Many of the choice excerpta were new
to me. Old Christmas is a coming, to the confusion of Puritans,
Muggletonians, Anabaptists, Quakers, and that Unwassailing Crew.
He Cometh not with his wonted gait, he is shrunk 9 inches in the
girth, but is yet a Lusty fellow. Hood's book is mighty clever, and
went off* 600 copies the 1st day. Sion's Songs do not disperse so
720 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Jan.
quickly. The next leaf is for Revd J. M. In this Adieu thine
briefly in a tall friendship C. Lamb.
Note
[Barton's letter, to which this is an answer, not being preserved,
we do not know what his scruples were. B. B. was a great con-
tributor to annuals.
" Rectus in Curia'' A law phrase, " Upright in the court."
" Verbum Sapienti " — " Verbum sat sapienti " — " A word to
the wise is sufficient."
" With a white stone." In trials at law a white stone was cast
as a vote for acquittal, a black stone for condemnation (see Ovid,
Metamorphoses^ 15, 41).
" Caliban's distemper " : —
Prosper (to Caliban), To-night thou shalt have cramps.
"Tempest," I., 2, 325.
" Master Mathew " — in Ben Jonson's " Every Man in His
Humour."
"Croly"— the Rev. George Croly (1780-1860), of the Literary
Gazette^ author of The Angel of the World and other pretentious
poems.
" Mitford's Sacred Specimens " — Sacred Specimens Selected from
the Early English Poets^ 1827. The last poem, by Mitford him-
self, was " Lines Written under the Portrait of Edward VI."
" Hood's book " — Whims and Oddities^ second series, 1827.]
LETTERS 386 AND 387
CHARLES LAMB TO HENRY CRABB ROBINSON
Colebrooke Row, Islington,
Saturday, 20th Jan., 1827.
DEAR Robinson, — I called upon you this morning, and found
that you were gone to visit a dying friend. I had been upon
a like errand. Poor Norris has been lying dying for now almost a
week, such is the penalty we pay for having enjoyed a strong con-
stitution ! Whether he knew me or not, I know not, or whether
he saw me through his poor glazed eyes ; but the group I saw about
him I shall not forget. Upon the bed, or about it, were assembled
his wife and two daughters, and poor deaf Richard, his son, looking
doubly stupified. There they were, and seemed to have been sitting
all the week. I could only reach out a hand to Mrs. Noms. Speak-
1827 "NONE TO CALL ME CHARLEY NOW" 721
ing was impossible in that mute chamber. By this time I hope it
is all over with him. In him I have a loss the world cannot make
up. He was my friend and my father's friend all the life I can re-
member. I seem to have made foolish friendships ever since. Those
are friendships which outlive a second generation. Old as I am
waxing, in his eyes I was still the child he first knew me. To the
last he called me Charley. I have none to call me Charley now. He
was the last link that bound me to the Temple. You are but of
yesterday. In him seem to have died the old plainness of manners
and singleness of heart. Letters he knew nothing of, nor did his
reading extend beyond the pages of the " Gentleman's Magazine."
Yet there was a pride of literature about him from being amongst
books (he was librarian), and from some scraps of doubtful Latin
which he had picked up in his office of entering students, that gave
him very diverting airs of pedantry. Can I forget the erudite look
with which, when he had been in vain trying to make out a black-
letter text of Chaucer in the Temple Library, he laid it down and
told me that — " in those old books. Charley, there is sometimes a
deal of very indifferent spelling ; " and seemed to console himself in
the reflection ! His jokes, for he had his jokes, are now ended,
but they were old trusty perennials, staples that pleased after decies
repetita^ and were always as good as new. One song he had, which
was reserved for the night of Christmas-day, which we always spent
in the Temple. It was an old thing, and spoke of the flat bottoms
of our foes and the possibility of their coming over in darkness, and
alluded to threats of an invasion many years blown over ; and when
he came to the part
*' We'll still make 'em run, and we'll still make 'em sweat,
In spite of the devil and Brussels Gazette ! "
his eyes would sparkle as with the freshness of an impending event.
And what is the " Brussels Gazette " now ? I cry while I enumer-
ate these trifles. " How shall we tell them in a stranger's ear ? "
His poor good girls will now have to receive their afflicted mother
in an inaccessible hovel in an obscure village in Herts, where they
have been long struggling to make a school without effect ; and
poor deaf Richard — and the more helpless for being so — is thrown
on the wide world.
My first motive in writing, and, indeed, in calling on you, was to
ask if you were enough acquainted with any of the Benchers, to lay
a plain statement before them of the circumstances of the family.
I almost fear not, for you are of another hall. But if you can oblige
me and my poor friend, who is now insensible to any favours, pray
exert yourself. You cannot say too much good of poor Norris and
his poor wife.
Yours ever, Charles Lamb.
VOL. VII. — 48
722 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB Jan.
Note
[This letter, describing the death of Randal Norris, Sub-Treasurer
and Librarian of the Inner Temple, was printed with only very
slight alterations in Hone's Table Book, 1827, and again in the
Last Essays of Elia, 1833, under the title "A Death-Bed." It
was, however, taken out of the second edition, and " Confessions of
a Drunkard" substituted, in deference to the wishes of Nonis's
family. Mrs. Norris, as I have said, was a native of Widford,
where she had known Mrs. Field, Lamb's grandmother. With her
son Richard, who was deaf and peculiar, Mrs. Norris moved to
Widford again, where the daughters. Miss Betsy and Miss Jane,
had opened a school — Goddard House ; which they retained until
a legacy restored the family prosperity. Soon after that they both
married, each a farmer named Tween. They survived until quite
recently.
Mrs. Coe, an old scholar at the Misses Norris's school in the
twenties, gave me, in 1902, some reminiscences of those days, from
which I quote a passage or so : —
When he joined the Norrises' dinner-table he kept every one laughing. Mr.
Richard sat at one end, and some of the school children would be there too. One
day Mr. Lamb gave every one a fancy name all round the table, and made a verse
on each. "You are so-and-so," he said, "and you are so-and-so," adding the
rhyme. "What's he saying? What are you laughing at?" Mr. Richard asked
testily, for he v^as short-tempered. Miss Betsy explained the joke to him, and Mr.
Lamb, coming to his turn, said — only he said it in verse — " Now, Dick, it's your
turn. I shall call you Gruborum ; because all you think of is your food and your
stomach." Mr. Richard pushed back his chair in a rage and stamped out of the
room. " Now I've done it," said Mr. Lamb : " I must go and make friends with my
old chum. Give me a large plate of pudding to take to him." When he came
back he said, " It's all right. I thought the pudding would do it." Mr. Lamb and
Mr. Richard never got on very well, and Mr. Richard didn't like his teasing ways at
all ; but Mr. Lamb often went for long walks with him, because no one else would.
He did many kind things like that.
There used to be a half-holiday when Mr. Lamb came, partly because he would
force his way into the schoolroom and make seriousness impossible. His head
would suddenly appear at the door in the midst of lessons, with " Well, Betsy !
How do, Jane ? " " O, Mr. Lamb ! " they would say, and that was the end of work
for that day. He was really rather naughty with the children. One of his tricks
was to teach them a new kind of catechism (Mrs. Coe does not remember it, but
we may rest assured, I fear, that it was secular), and he made a great fuss with
Lizzie Hunt for her skill in saying the Lord's Prayer backwards, which he had
taue:ht her.
'»'
" Decies repetita^' (Horace, Ars Poetica, 365) — '' Haec decies
repetita placebit " — " Ten times repeated will please."
" We'll still make 'em run . . ." Canon Ainger says that the
old song is the original version of " Hearts of Oak," printed in the
Universal Magazine, March, 1760, and sung in " Harlequin's
Invasion."
1827 EFFORTS FOR THE NORRISES 723
"How shall we tell them in a stranger's ear?" A quotation
from Lamb himself, in the lines " Written soon after the Preceding
Poem," in 1798 (see Vol. V., page 22).]
CHARLES LAMB TO HENRY CRABB ROBINSON
[No date. Jan. 20, 1827.]
DEAR R. N. is dead. I have writ as nearly as I could to
look like a letter meant for your eye only. Will it do ?
Could you distantly hint (do as your own judgment suggests)
that if his son could be got in as Clerk to the new Subtreasurer, it
would be all his father wish'd ? But I leave that to you. I don't
want to put you upon anything disagreeable.
Yours thankfully
C. L.
Note
[The reference at the beginning is to the preceding letter, which
was probably enclosed with this note.]
LETTERS 388 AND 389
CHARLES LAMB TO HENRY CRABB ROBINSON
[Dated by H. C. R. Jan. 29, 1827.]
DEAR Robinson, If you have not seen Mr. Gumey, leave
him quite alone for the present, I have seen Mr. Jekyll,
who is as friendly as heart can desire, he entirely approves of my
formula of petition, and gave your very reasons for the propriety
of the "little village of Hertfs^ire." Now, Mr. G. might not
approve of it, and then we should clash. Also, Mr. J. wishes it
to be presented next week, and Mr. G. might fix earlier, which
would be aukward. Mr. J. was so civil to me, that I think it
would he better not for you to show him that letter you
intended. Nothing can increase his zeal in the cause of poor Mr.
Norris. Mr. Gardiner will see you with this, and learn from you
all about it, & consult, if you have seen Mr. G. & he has fixed a
time, how to put it off. Mr. J. is most friendly to the boy : I
think you had better not teaze the Treasurer any more about hira^
as it may make him less friendly to the Petition
Yours Ever
C. L.
724 LETTEES OF C. AND M. LAMB March
Note
[Writing to Dorothy Wordsworth on February 13, 1827,
Robinson says : " The Lambs are well. I have been so busy that
I have not lately seen them. Charles has been occupied about the
affair of the widow of his old friend Norris whose death he has
felt. But the health of both is good."
Gumey would probably be John Gumey (afterwards Baron
Gurney), the counsel and judge. Jekyll was Joseph Jekyll, the
wit, mentioned by Lamb in his essay on " The Old Benchers of
the Inner Temple."]
CHARLES LAMB TO HENRY CRABB ROBINSON
[Dated by H. C. R. Jan., 1827.]
DEAR R. do not say any thing to Mr. G. about the day or
Petition, for Mr. Jekyll wishes it to be next week, and
thoroughly approves of my formula, and Mr. G. might not, and then
they will clash. Only speak to him of Gardner's wish to have the
Lad. Mr. Jekyll was excessive friendly. C. L.
Note
[The matter referred to is stiU the Norrises' welfare. Mr. Hazlitt
says that an annuity of <£^80 was settled by the Inn on Mrs. Norris.
Here perhaps should come a letter from Lamb to Allsop, printed
by Mr. Fitzgerald, urging Allsop to go to Highgate to see Coler-
idge and tell him of the unhappy state of his, AUsop's, affairs.
In Crabb Robinson's Diary for February 1, 1827, I read : ^* I
went to Lamb. Found him in trouble about his friend Allsop,
who is a ruined man. Allsop is a very good creature who has been
a generous friend to Coleridge." Writing of his troubles in Letters^
Conversations and Recollections of S, T, Coleridge, Allsop says :
" Charles Lamb, Charles and Mary Lamb, * union is partition,'
were never wanting in the hour of need."]
LETTER 390
CHARLES LAMB TO B. R. HAYDON
[March, 1827.]
DEAR Raffaele Haydon, — Did the maid tell you I came to see
your picture, not on Sunday but the day before ? I think
the face and bearing of the Bucephalus-tamer very noble, his flesh
1827 A SUBJECT FOR HAYDON 725
too effeminate or painty. The skin of the female's back kneeling is
much more camous. I had small time to pick out praise or blame,
for two lord-like Bucks came in, upon whose strictures my presence
seemed to impose restraint : I plebeian'd off therefore.
I think I have hit on a subject for you, but can't swear it was
never executed, — I never heard of its being, — " Chaucer beating a
Franciscan Friar in Fleet Street." Think of the old dresses, houses,
&c. " It seemeth that both these learned men (Gower and Chaucer)
were of the Inner Temple ; for not many years since Master Buckley
did see a record in the same house where GeofFry Chaucer was fined
two shillings for beating a Franciscan Friar in Fleet Street."
Chancers Life by T. Speght, prefixed to the black letter folio
of Chaucer, 1598.
Yours in haste (salt fish waiting), C. Lamb.
Note
[Haydon's picture was his " Alexander and Bucephalus." The
two Bucks, he tells us in his Diary ^ were the Duke of Devonshire
and Mr. Agar Ellis.
Hay don did not take up the Chaucer subject.]
LETTER 391
CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM HONE
D
[No date. April, 1827.]
EAR H. Never come to our house and not come in. I was
quite vex'd.
Yours truly.
C. L.
There is in Blackwood this month an article most affecting
indeed called Le Revenant, and would do more towards abolish-
ing Capital Punishments than 400000 Romillies or Montagues. I
beg you read it and see if you can extract any of it. The Trial
scene in particular.
Note
[Written on the fourteenth instalment of the Gan-ick Play extracts.
Now preserved at Rowfant. The article was in Blackwood for
April, 1827. Hone took Lamb's advice, and the extract from it
will be found in the Table Book, Vol. L, col. 455.
Lamb was peculiarly interested in the subject of survival after
hanging. He wrote an early Reflector essay, " On the Incon-
veniences of Being Hanged," on the subject, and it is the pivot of
his farce "The Pawnbroker's Daughter,"
726 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB 1827
"Romillies or Montagues/' Two prominent advocates for the
abolition of capital punishment were Sir Samuel Romilly (who died
in 1818) and Basil Montagu.]
LETTER 392
CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS HOOD
[No date. May, 1827.]
DEAREST Hood, — Your news has spoil'd us a men-y meeting.
Miss Kelly and we were coming, but your letter elicited a
flood of tears from Mary, and I saw she was not fit for a party.
God bless you and the mother (or should be mother) of your sweet
girl that should have been. I have won sexpence of Moxon by the
sex of the dear gone one.
Yours most truly and hers,
[C. L.]
Note
[This note refers to one of the Hoods' children, which was still-
born. It was upon this occasion that Lamb wrote the beautiful
lines " On an Infant Dying as soon as Born " (see Vol. V., pages 49
and 307).]
LETTER 393
CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON
[No date. (1827.)]
Y dear B. B. — A gentleman I never saw before brought
me your welcome present — imagine a scraping, fiddling,
fidgetting, petit-maitre of a dancing school advancing into my plain
parlour with a coupee and a sideling bow, and presenting the book
as if he had been handing a glass of lemonade to a young miss —
imagine this, and contrast it with the serious nature of the book
presented ! Then task your imagination, revei'sing this picture, to
conceive of quite an opposite messenger, a lean, strai blocked, whey-
faced methodist, for such was he in reality who brought it, the
Genius (it seems) of the Wesleyan Magazine. Certes, friend B.,
thy Widow's tale is too horrible, spite of the lenitives of Religion,
to embody in verse : I hold prose to be the appropriate expositor of
such atrocities ! No offence, but it is a cordial that makes the heart
sick. Still thy skill in compounding it I not deny. I turn to
what gave me less mingled pleasure. I find markd with pencil
these pages in thy pretty boolc, and fear I have been penurious.
M
1827 -THE YOUNG CATECHIST" 727
page 52, 53 capital.
59 6th stanza exquisite simile.
61 11th stanza equally good.
108 3d stanza, I long to see van Balen.
Ill a downright good sonnet. Dixi.
153 Lines at the bottom.
So you see, I read, hear, and mark, if I don't learn— In short this
little volume is no discredit to any of your former, and betrays none
ot the benility you fear about. Apropos of Van Balen, an artist who
pamted me lately had painted a Blackamoor praying, and not
filling his canvas, stuff d in his little girl aside of Blacky, gaping at
him unmeaningly; and then didn't know what to call it. Now
tor a picture to be promoted to the Exhibition (Suffolk Street) as
Historical, a subject is requisite. What does me? I but christen
It the " Young Catechist " and furbishd it with Dialogue following,
which dubb'd it an Historical Painting. Nothing to a friend at need.
While this tawny Ethiop prayeth,
Painter, who is She that stayeth
By, with skin of whitest lustre ;
Sunny locks, a shining cluster ;
Saintlike seeming to direct him
To the Power that must protect him ?
Is she of the heav'nborn Three,
Meek Hope, strong Faith, sweet Charity ?
Or some Cherub ?
They you mention
Far transcend my weak invention.
'Tis a simple Christian child,
Missionary young and mild.
From her store of script'ral knowledge
(Bible-taught without a college)
Which by reading she could gather,
Teaches him to say Our Father
To the common Parent, who
Colour not respects nor hue.
White and Black in him have part,
Who looks not to the skin, but heart. —
When I'd done it, the Artist (who had clapt in Miss merely as a
fill-space) swore I exprest his full meaning, and the damosel bridled
up into a Missionary's vanity. I like verses to explain Pictures :
seldom Pictures to illustrate Poems. Your wood cut is a rueful
Lignum Mortis. By the by, is the widow likely to man-y again ?
I am giving the fruit of my Old Play reading at the Museum to
Hone, who sets forth a Portion weekly in the Table Book. Do
you see it ? How is Mitford ? —
I'll just hint that the Pitcher, the Chord and the Bowl are a
little too often repeated (passim) in your Book, and that on page 17
last line but 4 him is put for he, but the poor widow 1 take it had
728 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB 1827
small leisure for grammatical niceties. Don't you see there's He^
myself^ and hira ; why not both him ? likewise imperviously is
cruelly spelt im^periously . These are trifles, and I honestly like
your [book,] and you for giving it, tho' I really am ashamed of so
many presents.
I ca>n think of no news, therefore I will end with mine and Mary's
kindest remembrances to you and yours. C. L.
Note
[It has been customary to date this letter December, 1827, but I
think that must be too late. Lamb would never have waited till
then to tell Barton that he was contributing the Garrick Plays to
Hone's Table Book^ especially as the last instalment was printed in
that month.
Barton's new volume was A Widow^s Tale and Other Poems^
1827. The title poem tells how a missionary and his wife were
wrecked, and how after three nights and days of horror she was saved.
The woodcut on the title-page of Barton's book represented the
widow supporting her dead or dying husband in the midst of the
storm.
This is the " exquisite simile " on page 59, from " A Grandsire's
Tale " :—
Though some might deem her pensive, if not sad,
Yet those who knew her better, best could tell
How calmly happy, and how meekly glad
Her quiet heart in its own depths did dwell :
Like to the waters of some crystal well,
In which the stars of heaven at noon are seen,
Fancy might deem on her young spirit fell
Glimpses of light more glorious and serene
Than that of life's brief day, so heavenly was her mien.
This was the " downright good sonnet " : —
TO A GRANDMOTHER
" Old age is dark and unlovely.'* — Ossian.
O say not so ! A bright old age is thine ;
Calm as the gentle light of summer eves,
Ere twilight dim her dusky mantle weaves ;
Because to thee is given, in strength's decline,
A heart that does not thanklessly repine
At aught of which the hand of God bereaves,
Yet all He sends with gratitude receives ; —
May such a quiet, thankful close be mine.
And hence thy fire-side chair appears to me
A peaceful throne — which thou wert form'd to fill ;
Thy children — ministers, who do thy will ;
And those grand-children, sporting round thy knee.
Thy little subjects, looking up to thee.
As one who claims their fond allegiance still.
THE YOUNG CATECHIST
PAIN1EI> AND ENGRAVED BY HENRY iMEYER
1827 NOTES TO HONE 729
And these are the lines at the foot of page 153 in a poem
addressed to a child seven years old : —
There is a holy, blest companionship
In the sweet intercourse thus held with those
Whose tear and smile are guileless ; from whose lip
The simple dictate of the heart yet flows ; —
Though even in the yet unfolded rose
The worm may lurk, and sin blight blooming youth,
The light born with us long so brightly glows.
That childhood's first deceits seem almost truth,
To life's cold after lie, selfish, and void of ruth.
Van Balen was the painter of the picture of the " Madonna and
Child" which Mrs. FitzGerald (Edward FitzGerald's mother) had
given to Barton and for which he expressed his thanks in a poem.
The artist who painted Lamb recently was Henry Meyer
(1782 ?-1847)5 the portrait being that which serves as frontispiece
to Vol. VI. of this edition. See opposite page 728 for a reproduc-
tion of " The Young Catechist," which Meyer also engraved, with
Lamb's verses attached.]
LETTERS 394 AND 395
CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM HONE
[No date. End of May, 1827.]
DEAR H. in the forthcoming " New Monthly" are to be verses
of mine on a Picture about Angels. Translate em to the
Table-book. I am off for Enfield.
Yours, C. L.
Note
[Written on the back of the XXI. Garrick Extracts, The poem
"Angel Help" was printed in the New Monthly Magazine for
June and copied by Hone in the Table-Book^ No. 24, 1827.]
CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM HONE
[No date. June, 1827.]
DEAR Hone, I should like this in your next book. We are at
Enfield, where (when we have solituded awhile) we shall be
glad to see you. Yours,
C. Lamb.
730 LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB June
Note
[This was written on the back of the MS. of " Going or Gone "
(see Vol. v., page 70), a poem of reminiscences of Lamb's early
Widford days, printed in Hone's Table-Book, June, 1827, signed
Elia.]
LETTER 396
CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON
D
Enfield, and for some weeks to come,
''June 11, 1827r
EAR B. B. — One word more of the picture verses, and that
for good and all ; pray, with a neat pen alter one line
His learning seems to lay small stress on
to
His learning lays no mighty stress on
to avoid the unseemly recurrence (ungrammatical also) of " seems "
in the next line, besides the nonsence of " but " there, as it now
stands. And I request you, as a personal favor to me, to erase the
last line of all, which I should never have written from myself. The
fact is, it was a silly joke of Hood's, who gave me the frame, (you
judg'd rightly it was not its own) with the remark that you would
like it, because it was b — d b — d, — and I lugg'd it in : but I shall be
quite hurt if it stands, because tho' you and yours have too good
sense to object to it, I would not have a sentence of mine seen, that
to any foolish ear might sound unrespectful to thee. Let it end at
appalling ; the joke is coarse and useless, and hurts the tone of
the rest. Take your best " ivory-handled " and scrape it forth.
Your specimen of what you might have written is hardly fair.
Had it been a present to me, I should have taken a more senti-
mental tone ; but of a trifle from me it was my cue to speak in an
underish tone of commendation. Prudent givers (what a word for
such a nothing) disparage their gifts ; 'tis an art we have. So you
see you wouldnt have been so wrong, taking a higher tone. But
enough of nothino-.
By the bye, I suspected M. of being the disparager of the frame ;
hence a certain line.
For the frame, 'tis as the room is, where it hangs. It hung up
fronting my old cobwebby folios and batter'd furniture (the fruit
piece has resum'd its place) and was much better than a spick and
b
PC
1^
o
H
(^
196
Dec. 10,
198
Dec. 14,
201
June 29,
1801
219
Sept. 9,
225
Sept. 17,
228
Nov. 8,
1803
281
Nov. 10,
281
?
1806
371
March 11,
1808
386
?
1810
425
May 16,
1822
566
No date.
283
No date.
1800
169
April 9,
1810
413
Dec. 26,
1817
509
Oct. 9,
1822
578
Oct. 29,
580
March,
1827
724
Aug.,
1828
778
Nov. 10,
1805
323
Jan. 15,
1806
329
Feb. 19,
336
March 15,
346
Aug. 9,
1810
416
1002
LIST OF LETTERS
Hazlitt, William, to .
Mrs. W. See Stoddart,
jr., William, to
Rev. W., to
Sarah
Hill, Thomas, to
Holcroft, jr., Thomas,
Hone, William, to
Hood, Thomas, to
Hoods, the Thomas,
Hume, Joseph, to
his
Humphreys, Miss, to
Hunt, Leigh, to
to
to
(from Mary Lamb)
daughters.
to
Hutchinson, Sarah, to (from Mary and Charles
■ ' ' » • • •
(from Mary Lamb)
•(?)
Lamb)
Nov. 28, 1810
Oct. 2, 1811
Sept. 13, 1831
Feb. 18, 1808
No date.
Autumn, 1819
April, 1824
May 2, 1825
Oct. 24, —
April, 1827
End of May, —
June, —
Early July, —
?Oct., —
Dec. 15, —
May 21, 1830
March 6, 1833
Aug. 10, 1824
May, 1827
Sept. 18, —
No date. ? —
Late
Autumn, 1828
? May, 1829
? May, —
? Summer, 1828
No date.
No date. 1832
Jan. 27, 1821
April 18, —
? Nov., 1824
Dec, 1827
Aug. 20, 1815
Oct. 19, —
Middle of
Nov., 1816
? Late —
April 25, 1823
Undated.
Nov. 25, 1824
Jan. 20, 1825
March i, —
April 18, —
424
431
880
380
710
531
641
678
695
725
729
729
733
759
764
853
902
647
726
750
760
785
809
810
776
455
883
549
551
659
763
472
479
494
496
608
610
658
667
671
677
James, Miss Sarah, to
? April, 1829
806
Kelly, Fanny, to
Kenney, James and Louisa, to .
Mrs. James, to (from Mary Lamb)
Knowles, James Sheridan, to
. July 20, 1819
. July 20, —
. Oct., 1817
. ? Early
Dec, 1822
. ? April, 1832
527
529
503
583
886
Lamb, Mrs. John, to May 22, 1822 568
Mary, to August, ~ 5^9
Landor, Walter Savage, to Oct., 1832 889
Lloyd, Charles, to Autumn, 1823 623
LIST OF LETTERS
1003
Manning, Thomas, to
Marter, W., to
Montagu, Basil, to
Mrs. Basil, to
Morgan, John, to
Moxon, Edward, to
Dec, 1799 151
Dec. 28, — 152
Feb. 13, 1800 155
March i, — 157
March 17, — 159
April 5, — 160
May 20, — 167
? May 25, — 168
Aug. 9, — 175
Aug. II, — 176
Aug. 24, — 180
Aug. 28, — 186
Sept. 22, — 188
Oct. 16, — 189
Nov. 3, — 191
Nov. 28, — 194
Dec. 13, — 199
Dec. 16, — 203
Middle
Dec, — 205
Middle
Dec, — 205
Dec. 27, — 206
Feb. 15, 1801 212
Late Feb., — 215
April, — 217
Aug., — 220
Aug. 31, — 223
? Feb. 15, 1802 233
? April, — 240
Sept. 24, — 243
Nov., — 256
Feb. 19, 1803 258
March, — 261
Feb. 23, 1805 302
July 27, — 313
Nov. 15, — 328
No date. 329
May 10, 1806 348
Dec 5, — 364
Feb. 26, 1808 381
March 28, 1809 395
Jan. 2, 1810 408
Dec. 25, 1815 480
Dec. 26, — 482
May 28, 1819 522
? Feb., 1825 671
July 19, 1824 646
July 12, 1810 415
Summer, 1827 740
March 8, 181 1 429
? Sept., 1826 718
July 17, 1827 734
? Sept. 26, — 756
Dec. 22, — 765
? Jan., 1828 767
Feb. 18, — 768
March 19, — 772
May 3, — 774
Dec, — 786
1004
LIST OF LETTERS
Moxon, Edward, to
■(?)
and Emma (from Mary and Charles Lamb)
(from Mary and Charles Lamb)
and Emma
Norris, Jane, to (from Mary Lamb) .
(from Miss James) .
Mrs Randal, to (from Mary Lamb)
Novello, Vincent, to
Mrs. Vincent, to (from Mary Lamb)
Oilier, Charles, to
Charles and James, to .
Patmore, P. G., to
Sept. 22,
1829
Sis
May 12,
1830
851
Nov. 12,
861
? Dec,
—
862
? Dec. 25,
864
Feb. 3,
183 1
866
July 14,
874
Early
August,
877
Aug. 5,
—
878
Sept. 5,
879
Oct. 24,
880
Dec. 15,
882
June I,
887
Late
1832
8qi
Winter,
8qi
Dec,
—
893
Jan.,
1833
894
Jan. 3,
895
Jan. 24,
896
Feb. 10,
897
Feb.,
8q8
No date.
899
Early
—
900
March 19,
902
? Spring,
903
March 30,
904
Spring,
904
? April 10,
—
906
April 25,
908
April 27,
908
July 14,
914
July 24,
915
? July 31,
—
916
Sept. 26,
918
Oct. 17,
919
Nov. 29,
920
Jan. 28,
1834
927
Dec. 25,
1841
943
Oct. 3,
1842
944
July 25,
1843
944
June 18,
1823
614
Jan. 25,
1825
668
May 9,
1826
704
Nov. 6,
1828
782
? Nov. 10,
1829
818
May 14,
1830
852
May,
852
Nov. 8,
8bi
Spring,
1820
538
? Dec,
1825
696
Early
1826
697
Jan.,
698
March 16,
699
June 18,
1818
515
July 19,
1827
735
Sept.,
749
LIST OF LETTERS
1005
Payne, J. H., to
Poole, Thomas, to
Procter, B. W., to
Rickman, John, to
Robinson, H. C, to
Thomas, to
Rogers, Samuel, to
Russell, J. Fuller, to
Sargus, Mr., to
Scott, John, to
Sir Walter, to
Shelley, Mrs. Percy Bysshe
Southey, Robert, to
, to
Autumn,
1822
575
Oct. 22,
578
Nov. 13,
581
Jan.,
1823
590
Jan., 23,
596
Feb. [9",
596
Feb. 14,
1804
283
May 4,
287
May 5,
288
? Summer,
1821
555
April 13,
1823
607
Nov. II,
1824
656
Jan. 19,
1829
793
Jan. 22,
796
? Jan. 29,
798
No date.
800
Feb. 2,
801
Undated.
1833
901
? Nov.,
1801
230
April 10,
1802
239
July 16,
1803
277
Jan. 25,
1806
332
March,
345
Oct. 3,
1828
975
March 12,
1808
388
May,
1809
398
Feb. 7,
1810
411
Nov. 20,
1824
657
March 29,
1825
673
Jan. 20,
1827
720
Jan. 20,
723
Jan. 29,
723
Jan.,
724
June 26,
733
Oct. I,
756
Feb. 26,
1828
772
Feb. 27,
1829
803
? April,
807
April 17,
808
? Early
Oct.,
1832
888
Nov. II,
1822
581
March 22,
1829
804
Oct. 5,
1830
860
? Dec. 21,
1833
923
Summer,
1834
932
934
Feb. 23,
1815
454
? Feb.,
1814
433
Dec. 12,
449
Oct. 29,
1822
580
July 26,
1827
738
July 28,
1798
121
Oct. 18,
124
Oct. 29,
125
Nov. 3,
128
Nov. 8,
129
? Nov.,
132
1006
LIST OF LETTERS
Southey, Robert, to
Stoddart, Sir John, to
Lady, to (from Mary Lamb)
Sarah (later Mrs. HazHtt), to (from Mary Lamb)
(from Charles and Mary Lamb)
(from Mary Lamb)
(from Mary Lamb)
(from Mary and Charles
(from Mary Lamb)
Talfourd, T. N., to
Taylor, John, to
Williams, Mrs., to
Lamb)
Nov. 28, 1798
Dec. 27, —
Jan. 21, 1799
Late Jan.
or early
Feb., —
March 15,
March 20,
Oct. 31
Nov. 7
May 6
Aug. 9
Oct. 26
Nov. 21
Aug. 10
May 10
Aug. 9
Aug. 9
Sept. 21
? March,
Late July
? Sept. 18,
Early Nov., —
Nov. 9
and 14
? Feb. 20
and 22
March,
June 2
? July 4
Oct.
23
II
21
12
Dec.
Oct.,
Dec.
Feb.
March 16
Dec. 10
June 2
Nov. 7
? End of
Oct. 2
Early
Nov.,
March 4
May 24
June 3
May 31
May 20
End of
Feb.,
June 8
July 21
Dec. 7
Feb. 26
March i
March 5
March 22
April 2
1804
1815
1818
1823
1825
1830
1827
1803
1804
1805
21
1806
1807
1808
1809
1810
1811
1823
1830
1833
1828
1833
1821
1822
1830
134
137
139
141
143
145
149
298
465
467
516
627
691
847
743
742
278
285
291
314
321
327
338
342
350
356
362
370
374
376
379
389
391
398
405
426
430
626
834
853
856
913
775
792
898
556
557
585
832
833
835
839
840
LIST OF LETTEES
1007
Williams, Mrs., to
Wilson, Walter, to
Wordsworth, Dorothy, to (from Mary Lamb)
....
• (from Mary Lamb)
(from Mary Lamb)
(from Mary and Charles Lamb) .
Mrs., to
William.
(from
to
(and Dorothy)
Charles and Mary Lamb)
April
9,
1830
842
April
21,
—
846
Aug.
14.
1801
219
Dec.
i6,
1822
586
Feb.
24,
1823
600
May
17,
1828
774
May
28,
1829
810
Nov.
15,
818
Aug.,
1832
887
July
9,
1803
274
June
2,
1804
288
Oct.
i3»
—
295
May
7,
1805
308
June
14,
311
Aug.
29,
1806
359
Nov.
13,
1810
419
Nov.
23,
422
Nov.
21,
1817
505
Nov.
25,
1819
534
May
25,
1820
541
Jan.
8,
1821
546
Jan.
22,
1830
826
Feb.
18,
1818
510
Jan.
30»
1801
208
March
' 5,
1803
262
Oct.
13,
1804
294
Feb.
18,
1805
299
Feb.
19,
/
301
March
I 5>
304
March
121,
306
April
5,
—
307
Sept.
28,
—
316
Feb.
I,
1806
332
June
26,
353
Dec.
II,
—
369
Jan.
29,
1807
372
Oct.
19,
1810
417
Aug.
9,
1814
434
Sept.
19,
443
Dec.
28,
449
? Early
Jan
>
1815
452
April
7,
456
April
28,
460
Aug.
9,
—
469
April
9,
1816
484
April
26,
486
Sept.
23,
—
490
April
26,
1819
518
June
7,
524
March
20,
1822
562
Jan.,
1823
591
April
6,
1825
674
May,
679
Sept.
6,
1826
712
May,
1828
775
Jan.
22,
1830
826
End of
May,
1833
911
Feb.
22,
1834
930
INDEX
Acrostics, 841, 842, 847.
Aders, Charles, 441, 442.
his pictures, 884.
Lamb's poem to, 884.
Adventures of Ulysses, 382, 386, 745.
" After Blenheim," by Southey, 178.
Agricultural Depression, Lamb on, 863.
Ainsworth, W. H. See Letters.
his dedication to Lamb, 566.
— his gift of Syrinx, 630.
and "Faust," 631.
Aitken, John. See Letters.
his Cabinet, 974.
Albion, Lamb and the, 221, 223.
Albums, Lamb on, 747, 748, 762, 766, 780,
794-
Album Verses, 857, 858.
" Ali Pacha," by Howard Payne, 578, 579.
Allen, Robert, i, 4, 19, 37, 53, 301.
Allsop, Thomas. See Letters.
546, 547, 548, 620, 694, 724.
Alsager, T. M., 470, 471, 501, 502.
** Amicus Redivivus," 626, 627.
" Ancient Mariner, The," 130, 209, 211.
Anderson, Dr., 184, 186, 187, 188.
"Angel Help," 729.
Angerstein, John Julius, 346.
Angling, Lamb and, 147, 148.
Animal poetry, 145.
** Anna." See Simmons.
Annual Anthology , The, 123, 178.
Anti-jfacobin, The, 34, 136, 137.
" Antonio," by Godwin, 196, 198, 199, 201,
202, 203.
Aquinas, Thomas, 805, 816.
" Ariadne," by Titian, 912.
Ariel, Lamb as, 398, 844.
Arnold, Samuel James. See Letters.
597» 973.
" Arthur's Bower," 290.
Asbury, J. V. See Letters.
and Emma Isola, 843.
and Lamb as Ariel, 844.
Asses, old poem on, 553, 554.
AstreUf 802.
Australia, Lamb on, 500.
Authors and Publishers, Lamb on, 387.
Ayrton, William. See Letters.
500.
— Mrs. See Letters.
549.
B
Badams, Carlyle's friend, 796.
— Mrs., nee Louisa Holcroft. See
Letters.
Baldwin the publisher, 594.
Ball, Sir Alexander, 302.
"Ballad," by Lamb, 174.
Bankrupts, Lamb on, 825.
" Barbara S.," 677, 679, 978.
Barbauld, Mrs., 252, 254.
Barnes, Thomas, 501, 502.
Bartholomew Fair, 242.
Barton, Bernard. See Letters.
first mention, 572.
his suggested retirement from the
bank, 594, 595, 604, 606.
his testimonial, 638.
Lamb on his poems, 645.
Poetic Vigils, 645.
" Sonnet to Elia," 645.
Poems, 4th edition, 688.
his Devotional Verses, 698.
his Widow^s Tale, 726.
extracts from his poems, 728.
Lamb sends him a picture, 730,
731-
— — his stepgrandfather, 746.
his New Year's Eve, 787, 789.
sonnet to Lamb, 789.
his " Spiritual Law," 957.
his " Translation of Enoch," 959.
— Lucy, verses to, 654.
note to, 664.
at Islington, 701.
Baskerville, John, 732.
Battle, Mrs., 346, 986.
Beaumont and Fletcher, 28.
Beaumont, Sir George, 405.
INDEX
1009
Bdlows Shakespeare, 573, 574.
Belshazzar's Feast," 731, 732.
Benger, Miss, 162, 164.
Berkleyans, 83, 86.
Betham, Anne, her legacy, 913, 927.
— Barbara. See Letters.
— Mary Matilda. See Letters.
384, 386, 477, 489, 496, 516,
971.
Bethams, the, their tallness, 448, 890.
Betty, Master, 468, 469.
Bijou, The, 746, 748.
Binding, the perfect, 333.
** Bites," Lamb's, 169, 194, 807, 808.
Blake, William, 642, 644.
Blakesware, 149, 745.
Blanchard, Laman, 785.
Bland, Mrs., 411.
Blank Verse, by Lamb and Lloyd, 113.
Blenheim, its pictures, 416.
Bloomfield, his Farmer's Boy^ 191, 193.
— 621, 623.
Bloxam, Samuel, 712.
Blue-stockings, Lamb among, 162.
Bodleian Library, 485.
Book-binder, Lamb's poor relation, 399,
736, 758.
Book-borrowing, Lamb on, 544, 545.
"Borderers, The," by Wordsworth, 184.
Bourne, Vincent, 457, 976.
Bowles, William Lisle, 20, 25, 57.
his allegory, " Hope," 77, 79.
his " Elegiac Stanzas," 77, 80.
Boyer, James, 442, 988.
Braham, John, 383, 385, 410.
Brawn, Lamb on, 302.
Brighton, the Lambs at, 506.
British Museum, Lamb at, 938.
Brown, Miss, her album verses, 921.
Brutons, the Lambs' cousins, 522, 523.
Buchan, the Earl of, 967.
Buncle, jfohn, 106, 107.
Bungay, Lamb on, 941.
Bunyan, 779.
Burke and Hare, 797.
Burke, Edmund, 224.
Burnet, Bishop, his Own Times, 157.
Burnett, George, 211, 231, 233, 278, 340,
968.
Burney, Captain, 259, 260, 563, 969.
— Martin, 339, 342, 351, 398, 444, 559,
796, 855, 975.
— Sarah, 346, 837.
Burns, Robert, 73, 145, 170, 487, 488.
Burrell, Miss, 510, 522.
Burton, Lamb's imitations of, 159, 160,
161, 173, 174.
Button, Emma, Lamb's acrostic, 974.
Button Snap, Lamb's cottage, 454.
Bye, Thomas, 518, 522, 524.
VOL. VII. — 66
Byron, Lord, 486, 540, 541, 595, 577, 622,
643.
Cabinet, The, 974.
Callers, Lamb on, 510.
Calne, the Lambs at, 490.
Cambridge, the Lambs' visit in 1815,
473.
— Lamb at, in 1820, 973.
Campbell, J. Dykes, 71.
on Coleridge in 1806, 360.
on Coleridge's pension, 877.
and Coleridge's " Remorse,"
993.
Capital Punishment, Lamb on, 725.
Carlisle, Sir Antony, 602.
Caroline of Brunswick, 560, 761.
Cary, H. F. See Letters.
a model parson, 619.
his career, 620.
— at the Museum, 704.
and Moxon, 851.
his Euripides, 874.
his translation of Dante, 917.
at the Museum, 938.
his verses on Lamb, 943.
and Miss Isola's Latin, 975.
a sonnet upon, 982.
Catalani and Coleridge, 429.
Cellini, his autobiography, 257.
Chambers, Charles. See Letters.
and Lamb's praise offish, 680.
his family, 682.
— John. See Letters.
— 518.
Champion, The, 434, 449.
*' Chapel Bell, The," by Southey, 956.
Chapman's Homer, 253, 650.
Chatsworth, by Patmore, 737.
Chaucer, Godwin's Life, 281.
Cheshire cats, 383.
Chessiad, The, 665, 666.
Children's books. Lamb on, 252.
Childs, Mr. See Letters.
941.
Chimney-sweepers, 989.
China, Manning's intentions, 223, 224.
— Lamb on, 384, 480.
Christahel, 163, 274, 488.
'* Christian Names of Women," 900.
Christ's Hospital, 248, 252, 988.
Christy, Dr., 219.
Clare, John. See Letters.
570.
Clarke, Charles Cowden. See Letters.
his career, 559.
and Novello, 660.
1010
INDEX
Clarke, Charles Cowden, his marriage,
.781, 783-
— his tuft, 803.
— Mary Anne, 396, 397.
— Mary Victoria (nee Novello), 559, 660.
Clarkson, Thomas and Catherine. See
Letters.
276, 277, 309, 346, 394, 740.
Claudes, the four, 346.
Coe, Mrs. Elizabeth, 148, 320, 722.
Coelebs in Search of a Wife^ 401.
Colburn, Henry. See Letters.
Lamb on, 870.
— Zerah, 536.
Cold in the head, Lamb on, 633, 704.
Colebrooke Cottage, 618, 619, 701.
Coleridge, Derwent, 250, 599, 992.
— Rev. Edward. See Letters.
712.
— Hartley, 42, 154, 468, 473, 604.
— Henry Nelson, his Six Months in the
West Indies^ 702.
— Samuel Taylor. See Letters.
and religion, i.
in 1796, 3.
and Southey, 8, 11, 52.
his PoemSy 1796, 10, 15, 17, 22,
23, 25.
hisshare of yoawo/-^yc, 14, 21.
alters Lamb's sonnets, 18, 24.
— — — his letter of consolation, 42.
and opium, 56.
and the 1797 volume, 68, 70.
and John Lamb, jr., 73.
— his baby song, 75.
his Ode on the Departing Year^
75.
as a husbandman, 85.
his yoan of Arc verses, 89, 93,
95.
and Rogers, 92, 94.
on Lamb, 93.
his refusal to write, 99.
his '*Osorio," 104, 105.
and the Stowey visit, 109.
his " Lime-tree Bower," 109.
and Lamb's greatcoat, 113.
— — — and C. Lloyd, 113.
and Lamb's "Theses Quaedam
Theologicae," 117, 122.
the Wedgwood annuity, 117.
— — — the quarrel with Lamb and
Lloyd, 119.
— — — his letter of remonstrance to
Lamb, 120.
with Wordsworth in Germany,
135, 136.
— in Buckingham Street, 150.
his articles in the Morning
Post, 154.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, with Lamb in
1800, 159,
his translation of Schiller, 160.
— his books, 171.
his affection for the Lambs,
174.
his Anthology poems, 178.
on Wordsworth, 213.
— at Keswick, 243.
his Chamounix Hymn, 248, 249.
suggests collaboration with
Lamb, 250, 251.
on Mary Lamb's illness, 1803,
269.
— his Poems, 3rd edition, 270,
273-
— his Malta plans, 285.
— at Malta, 297, 302.
and the Wordsworths, 309, 310.
in Italy, 338, 341.
returns home, 359, 360.
and his wife, 359, 361.
The Friend, 392, 395, 400, 403.
neglects the Lambs, 393.
— his potations, 421.
his difference with Wordsworth,
421.
— and Catalani, 429.
in 1814, 439.
his " Remorse," 439.
■— and the translation of " Faust,"
440.
his Biographia Literaria, 473,
476.
his Sibylline Leaves, 473, 476.
a characteristic end, 481.
his *' Zapolya," 484, 486.
at a chemist's, 485.
recites " Kubla Khan," 487.
puts himself under Gillman,
487, 489.
at Highgate, 491, 495.
attacked by Hazlitt, 491, 492,
493.
his Statesman's Manual, 493.
his lectures, 1818, 508, 509.
at Gillman's, 516, 517, 519-
on Peter Bell the Third, 520.
his " Fancy in Nubibus," 530.
in Lloyd's poem, 536, 537.
his book-borrowing, 544, 545-
and AUsop, 548.
. — his dying message in 1807, 551.
at Monkhouse's dinner, 606.
his Aids to Reflection, 637, 687.
and Mrs. Gillman, 658.
and Irving, 660, 661, 672, 675.
and the Prize Essay, 680.
and Hood's Odes, 686.
— on Lamb and Herbert, 699.
INDEX
1011
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, his joke on
summer, 704.
and the Albums, 781.
for St. Luke's, 836.
on William IV., 858.
— and the pension, 875, 877.
imagines an affront, 885.
his death, 936.
his Ode on the Departing Year,
.947-
his tendency to invention, 966.
— — — his *' Remorse," 993.
— Sara, 22, 33, 35.
the younger, 599, 603, 691, 693,
740.
Collier, John Dyer. See Letters.
432.
— Mrs. John Dyer. See Letters.
656.
— John Payne. See Letters.
432, 433, 509, 593-
Colonel Jack, 587.
" Common Lot, The," by Montgomery,
878, 961.
Companion, The, 769, 770.
Condones ad Populum, 2, 19.
" Confessions of a Drunkard," 627.
Congreve and Voltaire, 383, 385.
Cooke, G. F., 219.
Cooper, Samuel, 338, 476.
Cornwall, Barry. See also B. W. Procter.
his English Songs, 891.
his '♦ King Death," 892.
his "Epistle to Charles Lamb,"
962.
Cottle, Joseph. See Letters.
his '* Monody on Henderson," 16,
21.
— — his epic, 185.
his brother's death, 189.
his Malvern Hills, 257.
his Alfred, 257.
his portrait, 532.
his Messiah, 532, 533.
his Fall of Cambria, 540, 541.
Cotton on '* Winter," 262, 268.
— on ''Old Age," 265.
Coulson, Walter, 94.
Country, Lamb on the, 242, 244, 827.
Coutts, Mrs., 578.
Covent Garden, Lamb's love for, 507.
Cowes, the Lambs and Burneys there,
969.
Cowper, William, 9, 12, 15, 21, 31, 37,
38, 93, 95.
and Milton, 66.
The Royal George, 266.
Cresswell, Dr., vicar of Edmonton, 903.
Croly, Rev. George, 720.
Cromwell and Napoleon, 253, 254.
Cromwell, Cooper's portrait of, 474, 476.
Cruelty to animals, John Lamb's pamph-
let, 411.
Cunningham, Allan, 704.
Curse of Kehama, 465.
Curtis, Alderman, 430, 643.
Dalston, the Lambs at, 490, 494, 504,
539, 540, 652.
" Danae Exposed with her Infant," 995.
Danby, the murder of, 893, 894.
Daniel, George, 194, 620.
— Samuel, 401, 402.
Darley, George, 671, 704, 805, 917.
Dash, Lamb's dog, 735, 749.
Dawe, George, 324, 367, 406, 407, 504,
505.
*' Deathbed, A," 722.
*' Decay of Imagination," Lamb's essay
on, 881.
Dedications to Lamb, 566.
Defoe, Daniel, 225, 228, 586, 600, 601,
818.
De Quincey, Thomas, 497, 506, 507, 982.
Dermody, Thomas, 72.
Despard, Colonel, 143.
De Stael, Madame, on Germany, 441.
Desultory Thoughts in London, 536.
" Dialogue between a Mother and Child,"
290.
Dibdin, Charles, 647, 665.
— John Bates. See Letters.
his meeting with Lamb, 611.
his death, 811.
" Dick Strype," 989.
Dilke, Charles Wentworth. See Letters.
884, 926.
''Dissertation on Roast Pig," 941.
Dobell, Mr. Bertram, 278, 979, 994.
Dodd, Dr., 467, 468.
Dodwell, H., Lamb's letters to, 490, 759.
" Don Giovanni," 497.
" Douglas," by Home, 65.
Dowden, Mrs. See Mrs. John Lamb.
Dramatic Specimens, 373, 374, 378, 382,
390, 400.
Drink, Lamb on, 245, 398, 450, 632, 844,
938, 940.
Druitt, Mary, 241, 267, 268.
Duddon Sonnets, 541.
Duncan, Miss, 429.
Dupuy, P. S., his translation, 29, 32.
Dyer, George. See Letters.
and Home Tooke, 33.
— — his poetry, 134.
— — his twin volumes, 175.
his many "veins," 179.
1012
INDEX
Dyer, George, his critical preface, i8i.
and the epic, 184, 186.
on Shakespeare, 185.
his phrenesis, 206.
his fallacy, 208.
his PoentSy 208, 215.
his hunger-madness, 230.
— — as the hero of a novel, 232.
his disappearance, 298.
and Lord Stanhope, 502.
on other people's poetry, 519.
his immersion, 626.
his novel way with dead books, 663.
his marriage, 692.
and Novello, 793.
and Rogers, 866, 867.
his Unitarian tract, 881.
— — his blindness, 914.
his " Poetic Sympathies," 951.
and the Earl of Buchan, 967.
his autobiography, 967.
and Earl Stanhope, 973.
and Emma Isola's album, 978.
— Mrs. George. See Letters.
692, 914.
" Dying Lover, The," 131.
Earl of Abergavenny y 300.
East India House, 33, 463, 470, 478, 509,
513, 518, 523, 563, 572, 586, 588, 594,
602, 656, 657, 672, 673.
Edinburgh Review and Wordsworth, 493.
Edmonton, the Lambs' home there, 910,
911.
Edmund Oliver, 119.
" Edward, Edward," 966.
Elia, death of the original, 558.
**Elia, Sonnet to," 645.
Eliay dedication of, 585.
— the American second series, 877.
— Last Essays of, 896, 897, 898, 900, 901.
Elton, Sir C. A., 650, 685.
Enfield, Lamb at, 733.
— Lamb settles there, 752.
— Lamb's house there, 761.
— and neighbourhood, 791.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, 532,
533-
English Songs, by Procter, 891.
Englishman's Magazine, 878, 881.
'* Enviable," Lamb on, 172, 202.
Epic poetry and George Dyer, 184, 186.
** Epitaph on Ensign Peacock," 965.
" — on Mary Druitt," 241.
" — on the Rigg Children," 861.
Epitaphs, Lamb on, 417.
— Wordsworth on, 417, 418.
Evans, William, 19, 25, 532, 533, 748.
Examiner, The, references to Miss Kelly
528, 529.
and Lamb's Album Verses^ 860
992, 993-
Excursion, the, 434, 436, 443, 445.
Exeter Change, 217, 534.
" Fable for Twelfth Day," 980.
Fairfax's Tasso, 90, 93, 917.
Falstaff's Letters, 2, 37, 53, 54, 60, 157.
** Fancy in Nubibus," 530.
*' Farewell to Tobacco," 317, 320, 990.
Farmer, Priscilla, Lloyd's grandmother,
68, 70.
"Faulkener," Godwin's play, 225, 228,
369, 375-
Fauntleroy, the forger, 656, 663, 665.
" Faust," by Goethe, 440, 441, 631.
Fawcetts, the two, 330, 331.
Fell, Lamb's friend, 235, 238, 330, 332.
F^nelon, 207, 208.
Fenwick, John, 221, 245, 276, 330, 332,
500.
Field, Barron. See Letters.
502, 542, 647, 657, 660, 805.
— Mary, Lamb's grandmother, 27, 31,
48.
Fireworks, Lamb on, 436.
First-fruits of Australian Poetry, 542,
543, 805, 806.
FitzGerald, Edward, his ** Meadows in
Spring," 878, 879, 960.
his memoir of Barton, 639.
Mrs., at Islington, 701.
Fleet Prison, 332.
Fletcher, John, Lamb on, 708.
Ford, John, 295, 298.
Fornham, 841.
Forster, John. See Letters.
886, 927.
Fox, George, his Journal, 588, 589, 598,
602, 612.
Franklin, Marmaduke, 476, 659.
Eraser's Magazine, 865.
'* Free Thoughts on Some Eminent Com-
posers," 855, 856.
Frenchmen, Lamb on, 234, 240.
Frend, William, 132.
Friend, The, 392, 395, 400.
Fryer, Miss. See Letters.
Lamb's song for, 930.
Fuller, Thomas, 843.
Gardener, Lamb as a, 619.
Garrick Extracts, 717.
INDEX
1013
Gebir, by Landor, 149, 648.
Geese, Lamb on, 975.
Geniy The, 780, 785.
" Gentle Giantess, The," 547.
"Gentle-hearted Charles," 172, 177.
George III., 495.
Ghoul, the, 239.
Gifford, William, 452, 453, 492, 515, 516.
Gighucci, Countess. See Novello, Clara.
Gillman, James. See Letters.
and Coleridge, 489.
— Rev. James. See Letters.
-— 909.
Gilray, his caricature of Coleridge and
Co., 137.
Goddard House School, Lamb at, 722.
Godiva, Lady, and John Martin, 788.
Godwin, William. See Letters.
and Allen, 19, 37.
first meeting, 157.
and Coleridge, 164, 183.
in Ireland, 171.
and Mary Lamb's appetite, 196.
his "Antonio," 196, 198, 199, 201,
202, 203.
his pride, 203.
his Persian play, 207.
his *' Faulkener," 225, 228, 367,
369.
his dulness, 259.
his Chaucer, 281.
his taste, 283.
and Hazlitt, 331.
Lamb's apology to, 371.
and the Tales from Shakespear,
372.
his shop, 381, 385.
and the Adventures of Ulysses^ 386.
his letter of criticism to Lamb,
387.
on sepulchres, 392, 397.
and Mrs. Godwin, 410.
his "tomb," 481.
his disrespect, 565.
his difficulties, 566, 567, 578, 580.
— Mrs. See Letters.
235, 238, 245, 372, 397» 4io» 424.
504, 966, 972.
Goethe, Lamb on, 631.
Gould, Mrs. See Miss Burrell.
** Grandame, The," 27, 30, 68.
" Grandpapa," the, by J. Howard Payne,
597-
" Grand State Bed," by Lamb, 980.
Gray's Latin ode, 979.
Great Russell Street, Lamb's home in,
506, 508.
Grecians, Lamb on, 869.
Greg, Mr., Lamb's tenant, 454.
Gregory, Dr., 163.
Grenville, Lord, and Coleridge, 154,
Gum-boil and Tooth-ache, 316.
Gutch, John Mathew, 167, 169, 414.
Gwynn, Mr. Stephen, his translations of
Lamb's Latin letters, 802, 871, 874.
" Gypsy's Malison, The," 796, 799.
H
Hancock, his drawing of Lamb, 316.
Handwriting, Lamb on, 869.
Harley, J. P., 689.
" Harmony in Unlikeness," 992.
Harrow Church, Lamb in, 435.
Hastings, the Lambs at, 615, 616.
— Hood at, 647, 649.
— Lamb on, 648.
— Dibdin at, 707.
Haydon, B. R. See Letters.
his career, 509.
— and Godwin's difficulties, 578,
580.
subjects for pictures, 725.
his " Chairing the Member,"
778.
his party, 954.
Hayes, Mary, and Charles Lloyd, 155,
156, 966.
Hayward, A., his Faust, 904.
Hazlitt, John, 337.
— Mrs. John, 297, 887.
— Mary, 626, 641, 642.
— Sarah. See Sarah Stoddart.
— Rev. W. See Letters.
381.
— William. See Letters.
— — on Lamb, 220.
— — his portrait of Lamb, 298.
his first meeting with Lamb, 325.
and Ned Search, 326, 329, 331,
336.
the misogynist, 355.
and Lamb scolded, 358.
woos Sarah Stoddart, 374.
his love affair, 376.
the joke of his death, 377.
plans for his wedding, 379.
his wedding, 390.
missed in London, 391.
his Grammar, 410, 411.
and the Political Register, 425.
his son born, 430.
his post on the Chronicle, 432.
misunderstanding with Lamb, 443.
his review of the Excursion, 445.
his Lake Country " 'scapes," 450,
451.
on Coleridge, 491.
his conversation, 491.
1014
INDEX
Hazlitt, William, his borrowings from
Lamb, 492.
knocked down by John Lamb, 493.
his lectures in 1818, 512, 514.
his '* Conversation of Authors,"
543-
on Lamb's Letter to Southey,
627.
on bodily pain, 640.
on Shelley, 652.
on Lamb, 669, 670.
his Spirit of the AgCy 669, 670.
his second marriage, 737.
in Paris, 744.
his portrait of Lamb, 763, 764.
on Defoe and Lamb, 819.
— — his losses, 825, 826.
his death, 861, 880.
-^ jr. See Letters.
431, 810, 812, 856, 880.
" Helen Repentant too Late," 183.
Hell-fire Dick, 473.
Hemans, Mrs., 797.
Henderson, Cottle's Monody on, 15, 21.
Henshaw, William, Lamb's godfather,
421, 568, 569.
Herbert, George, Lamb on, 699.
Hesiod, Lamb on, 650.
" Hester," 261.
Hetty, the Lambs' servant, 166.
Hicks' Hall, 456.
Higginbottom Sonnets, 119, 120.
Hill, Thomas. See Letters.
710.
Hissing, Lamb on, 382, 385.
Holcroft, Fanny, 584, 685.
— Harwood, 590.
— Louisa, 505, 798.
— Thomas, 246, 259, 337, 338, 365, 3^8,
381, 396, 407, 427, 971.
— Mrs. Thomas. See Mrs. Kenney.
970.
— Tom. Sec Letters.
5o5» 531-
Hollingdon Rural Church, 616, 648, 708,
709.
HoUingshead, Mr. John, 589.
Holmes, Edward, 660, 661, 770.
Homer, Lamb on, 402, 413, 650.
Hone, Alfred, 764, 765.
— Matilda, 744.
— William. See Letters.
first letter to, 614.
Every-Day Book, 678, 689, 695.
Lamb's lines to, 689.
and the Garrick plays, 759.
the Table Book stops, 768.
— — and his difficulties, 847, 850.
and the Times, 857.
Hood, Thomas. See Letters.
Hood, Thomas, his Odes and Addresses^
685, 686.
Lamb on, 696, 698.
his *' Very Deaf Indeed," 705, 706.
his still-born child, 726.
frames picture with Lamb, 730.
his picture of Mary Lamb, 733,
734.
and Dash, 750.
his Plea of the Midsummer FairieSf
754.
his genius, 780, 781.
his parody of Lamb, 785, 786.
his " Progress of Cant," 983.
Hoole, John, 90, 93.
Hopkins, Dick, the swearing scullion,
302.
Howell, James, his Familiar Letters
quoted, 123.
Hudibras quoted, 666.
Hugo, Victor, and Lamb, 197.
Hume, Joseph, M.P., 564.
See Letters.
377.
— the Misses, 883.
Humphreys, Miss. See Letters.
Hunt, John, 635, 636.
— Leigh. See Letters.
on Lamb's books, 405.
and the Lambs, 489.
a lost letter to, 497.
— — his need of friends, 558.
in Italy, 573, 661.
and freethinking, 617.
his handwriting, 629.
his Lord Byron, 769, 773.
his Companion, 769, 770.
and Lamb's Album Verses, 860,
992.
and Lamb's Satan, 874, 876.
— Thornton, 489, 617, 662.
Hurst & Robinson's failure, 697.
Hyde Park, the jubilation in 1814, 435.
I
Imagination, Lamb on, 213.
Imlay, Fanny, 324, 326.
Incendiarism at Enfield, 863.
India, Lamb on, 941.
Inner Temple Lane, 396, 400, 404.
" Innocence," Lamb's sonnet, 7, 20, 25.
Irving, Edward, and Coleridge, 660, 661,
672, 675.
his watch chain, 742.
with Coleridge at St. Luke's, 836.
his squint, 837.
Isle of Wight, the Lambs in, 277.
Isola, Emma, 550.
INDEX
1015
Isola, Emma, her Latin, 739, 740, 751,
975, 992.
to become a governess, 742.
her reading of Milton, 744.
her album, 750, 794, 796, 977.
her engagement at Fornham, 777,
778.
her illness, 832.
and her physic, 843.
and her watch, 915.
her marriage, 916.
a sonnet to, 922.
her appearance, 929.
— Harriet, 778.
Italian, the Lambs read, 917.
James, Sarah. See Letters.
589, 615.
Jameson, R. S., Hartley Coleridge's
sonnets, 604, 975.
*' Janus Weathercock," 613, 618. See
also Wainewright, T. G., 619.
Jekyll, Joseph, 914.
Jerdan, William, and Lamb, 859, 860.
yoan of Arc, i, 13, 21, 26, 121.
and Coleridge, 89, 93, 95.
yohn Bull and Rogers, 865.
John Biincle, 106, 107.
John-Dory, Lamb on, 680.
John Woodvily 131, 132, 139, 140, 141,
143, 150, 152, 192, 205, 214, 239.
Johnson, Dr., 462, 464.
*' — Samuel, the Whig," 979.
Joshua, Martin's picture, 731, 732.
K
" Kais," the opera, 383.
Keats, John, at Haydon's, 954.
Kelly, Fanny H., 582, 583, 590, 591.
— Maria. See Letters.
her divine plain face, 510, 513.
— Lamb's proposal to her, 522.
— Lamb's sonnet to, 528.
her letter to Lamb, 529.
and " Barbara S.," 677, 978.
at the Strand Theatre, 903.
— — — Lamb on her absence, 981.
Kenney family, 583.
— Mrs. James. See Letters.
— Louisa (afterwards Mrs. Badams). See
Letters.
— Sophy, Lamb's wife, 571.
Keymer, Mr., his album, 937.
Kew Palace, the Lambs at, 495.
" King Death," by Barry Cornwall, 892.
King and Queen of Hearts, The, 334, 335.
" Kirkstone Pass," 541.
Kitchener, Doctor, 732.
Knight, Anne, 688, 717.
Knowles, J. S., 393, 905, 910.
Kosciusko, Thaddeus, 106.
" Kubla Khan," 487, 488.
'* Lady Blanche," verses by Mary Lamb,
290.
Lakes, the Lambs among the, 242, 243.
Lamb family in 1796, 3.
— Charles, new prose and verse possibly
by. See Appendix HL
— — his temporary madness, 2, 27.
— — his love sonnets, 6.
on Priestley, 10.
— — and Coleridge in 1794, 16, 22.
on his sonnets, 18.
on old plays, 28.
on Hope and Fear, 33.
and the Bristol holiday, 35.
on the tragedy of Sept. 22, 1796,
41,. 43..
on his sister's virtues, 46, 78, 311,
928.
his salary, 47.
— — on his love, 55.
— — his share of Coleridge's Poems,
1797, 55, 57-
— — on simplicity, 56.
— — on Bowles, 57.
— — and his mother, 59.
on Coleridge's 2nd edition, 60, 61,
62.
his " Tomb of Douglas," 65.
on Cowper and Milton, 66.
— — on Burns, 73.
his second sonnet to his sister, 78.
on his share of the 1797 Poems, 81.
— — he exhorts Coleridge to attempt an
epic, 82.
— — on friendship, 83.
his first poem to Lloyd, 87.
on a subject for Coleridge, 91.
— — on Cowper, 93.
— — on Quakerism, 97.
his " Vision of Repentance," loi,
104.
— — on the 1797 Poems, 104.
at Stowey, 108.
leaves Little Queen Street, no.
— — at Southey's, no.
his lines on his mother's death, III.
— — his second poem to C. Lloyd, 112.
and Lloyd and White, 115.
his sarcastic propositions for Cole-
ridge, 117, 122.
1016
INDEX
Lamb, Charles, the quarrel with Cole-
ridge, 119.
on Wither and Quarles, 124, 129.
— — on Rosamund Gray^ 125.
on Southey's *' Eclogues," 125, 128,
129, 143.
on Marlowe, 126.
on the " Ancient Mariner," 130.
and his tailor, 135.
his appeal for a poor friend, 137,
139.
on his mind, 144.
on poems on dumb creatures, 145.
on Blakesware, 149.
on alcoholic beverages, 150.
and mathematics, 152.
on Lloyd and Mary Hayes, 155.
on Bishop Burnet, 157.
on Falstaff's Letters, 157.
among the Blue-stockings, 162.
as a linguist, 165.
on Hetty's death, 166.
on Lake society, 168.
on narrow means, 168.
on Oxford, 168, 170.
his joke against Gutch, 169.
on the ''Gentle Charles," 172.
the use of the final "e," 173.
by punch-light, 175.
as a consoler, 189.
and the snakes, 190.
his praise of London, 194, 210,
216, 235, 507.
he takes in Manning, 194.
and Godwin's supper, 196.
his Epilogue for "Antonio," 198,
199.
on the failure of '* Antonio," 203.
on his Cambridge plans, 207.
on the Lyrical Ballads, 208, 212.
his move to Mitre Court Buildings,
216, 217.
on his religious state in 1801,
220.
his dramatic suggestions, 225, 227,
228.
on Napoleon, 240.
his spare figure, 241.
at the Lakes, 242, 243.
his project for collaborating with
Coleridge, 250, 251.
on children's books, 252.
on Napoleon and Cromwell, 253.
on Chapman's Homer, 253.
on Milton's prose, 255.
on Cellini, 257.
on Independent Tartary, 258.
on Coleridge's Poems, 3rd edition,
270, 273.
his 1803 holiday, 277.
Lamb, Charles, his difficulties as a re-
viewer, 281.
ceases to be a journalist, 285, 386,
288.
his miserliness, 292.
on old books, 295.
his motto, 295, 298.
his portrait by Hazlitt, 298.
on John Wordsworth's death, 299-
308.
on brawn, 302.
on his sister, 311.
his portrait by Hancock, 316.
on pictures, 324, 336, 346.
on Nelson, 324.
his namesake, 329.
in unsettled state, 1806, 342,
344-
on Manning's departure for China,
348.
on *' Mr. H.," 353, 366, 369.
and Hazlitt scolded, 358.
reconciled to Godwin, 371.
and Hazlitt's " death," 377,
his difference with Godwin, 387.
at Hazlitt's wedding, 390.
and the Sheridans, 391, 393.
— — on moving, 396.
on critics, 400.
on the choice of a wife, 401.
criticises Mr. Lloyd's Homer, 402.
visits Hazlitt, 403.
his books, 405.
on titles of honour, 408.
a list of friends, 410, 411.
on Wither, 413, 414.
on epitaphs, 417.
his aquavorousness, 421, 422.
a servant difficulty, 423.
and Hazlitt's Chronicle appoint-
ment, 432.
on the Excursion, 434.
and The Champion, 434.
blown up by Hazlitt, 443.
his new book room, 447.
on the India House shackles, 470,
478, 503. 5i3» 518, 523, 524. 563.
586, 588, 594.
and Gifford, 452.
a landed proprietor, 454.
on Wordsworth's 1815 poems, 456,
460, 463.
on Vincent Bourne, 457.
his office work, 1815, 458.
on presents, 469, 471.
his diffidence as a critic, 477.
on his sister's illnesses, 479.
his Hes to Manning, 481.
on Coleridge and Wordsworth,
487.
INDEX
1017
Lamb, Charles, on Christabel, 488.
his borrowed good things, 492.
on Australia, 500.
on distant correspondents, 501,
502.
as matter-of-lie man, 502.
his Hogarths, 506.
on the plague of friends, 510.
his after-dinner speeches, 512,
514.
on Petey Bell^ 521.
on Mackery End, 522, 523.
on The Waggoner y 524.
on two inks, 524.
his proposal to Miss Kelly, 527.
on William Wordsworth, jr.,
534.
on other C. L.s, 537, 538.
on Lord Byron, 540.
on book-borrowing, 544, 545.
and Leigh Hunt, 558.
and his aunt's cake, 561.
in praise of pig, 561, 581, 592,
625.
on death, 562.
his efforts for Godwin, 567.
his directions for seeing Paris,
569.
and his child-wife, 571.
on India House, 572.
on Shelley, 576.
on Godwin's case, 578, 580.
and Scott, 580.
on Moore, 584.
on Defoe, 586.
his epigram on Wadd, 587.
on George Fox, 589.
as Elia, 591.
on the advantages of routine,
594-
on publishers, 594.
his propensity to lie, 598.
on Fox, 598, 602.
on Quakers, 598, 602, 605.
on India House, 602.
in Parnassus, 605, 606.
his after-dinner speeches, 610.
on Fox, 612.
and Pope's portrait, 617.
on Colebrooke Cottage, 618.
makes his will, 620.
at the Mansion House, 626.
on Physiology, 629.
on Marlowe and Goethe, 631.
his cold, 633.
not a good man, 637.
on monetary gifts, 638.
and Thackeray, 665.
Hazlitt on, 669, 670.
resignation, 672, 673.
Lamb, Charles, his release, 673, 674, 676,
677,679.
his pension, 674, 676.
on fish, 680.
ill, 684.
on magazine payment, 684.
on puns, 685.
on Hood's Odes, 685, 687.
on Signor Velluti, 686.
on the death of children, 688,
689.
lines to Hone, 689.
his last London article, 690.
on Hood, 696, 698.
on booksellers' breaking, 697, 825.
on Quarles and Herbert, 699.
on stationery, 700.
on Manning, 702, 703.
on a cold, 704.
on Brook Pulham's etching, 706.
on Hastings, 707, 712.
— — on Fletcher's plays, 708.
on publishers, 713.
his autobiography, 714.
on Sunday, 715.
his savings, 718.
on Randal Norris, 721.
at Goddard House School, 722.
and Mrs. Norris's pension, 723,
724.
his criticism of Patmore's Chats-
worthy 737.
his difficulties with the drama,
739.
on memorials, 740.
on Albums, 747-748, 762, 766, 780,
794-
on mad dogs, 749.
his house at Enfield, 752, 756.
and Mathew's picture, 757.
his epigram on the Edward crosses,
761, 762.
portraits of him, 763.
on the Pilgrim's Progress, 779.
his serenata for Cowden Clarke's
marriage, 783.
his favourite walk, 791.
his namesake, 792.
will write for antiquity, 796.
his " Gipsy's Malison," 796, 799.
his sonnet on Daniel Rogers,
804.
on Thomas Aquinas, 805, 816.
on the Laureates, 806.
his joke upon Robinson, 807,
808.
in London in 1829, 813.
and Mary Lamb's absence, 814.
and the burden of leisure, 814.
moves to the Westwoods, 817.
1018
INDEX
Lamb, Charles, on Defoe, 8i8.
on Thomas Westwood, 822, 828.
on bankrupts, 825.
on town and country, 827, 832.
asked to collect his Specimens,
838.
the journey from Fornham, 840.
his turnip joke, 840, 854.
his skill at acrostics, 842.
on an escapade, 844.
and Merchant Taylors' boys, 848.
and the Hone subscription, 850.
on music, 852, 854.
on Martin Burney, 855.
visits London in 1830, 858.
on his critics, 858.
and his will, 862.
on incendiarism, 863.
on Dyer's blindness, 868.
on Christ's Hospital days, 86g.
on Coleridge's pension, 875.
on Montgomery's "Common Lot,"
878.
on FitzGerald's '* Meadows in
Spring," 878.
and the Englishman's Magazine,
878.
on Unitarians, 881.
on his unsaleability, 883.
— — on Coleridge's imagined affront,
885.
on "Rose Aylmer," 889.
his pensioners, 8gi.
his advice on speculation, 893.
spurious letter of, 893.
mistaken for a murderer, 894.
his sonnet on women's names, 900.
and the Elia lawsuit, 901.
injury to his leg, 904.
on John Taylor, 904.
leaves Enfield for Edmonton, 909,
911.
on the Last Essays of Elia, 912.
his gift of Milton to Wordsworth,
912.
at Widford, 914.
— — his coffin nails, 914.
on Emma Isola's marriage, 916,
918.
reads the InfernOy 917.
his London holiday, 921.
his request for books, 926.
on Mr. Fuller Russell's poetry, 933,
934.
on Coleridge's death, 936, 937.
on his excesses at Cary's, 938.
his jokes on widows, 940.
at Haydon's, 954.
his name child, 957.
Procter's '• Epistle" to, 962.
Lamb, Charles, his epitaph on Ensign
Peacock, 965.
his adventure at sea, 969,
on painter-authors, 971.
on Cary, 975.
on milestones, 976.
his account of the Lord Mayor's
bed, 980.
his fable for Twelfth Day, 980.
his earliest poem, 988.
and Coleridge's '* Remorse," 993.
an epigram, 995.
— Elizabeth, her death, 41.
and John Lamb, jr., 48.
and her daughter, 48.
and her sister-in-law, 279.
— John, his querulousness, 61.
his death, 148.
the younger, his accident, 15.
and the tragedy, 46, 61.
on Coleridge, 73.
his pamphlet, 411, 412.
hisportraitof Milton, 457, 462,701.
knocks down Hazlitt, 493.
death of, 560.
— Mrs. John. See Letters.
569, 794.
— Mary. See Letters.
her frenzy, 41.
and her mother, 48.
her recovery, 48, 61.
dedication to, 57.
Lamb's second sonnet to, 78.
removed from confinement, 100.
her 1798 relapse, 114.
invited to Stowey, 115.
her first poem, 183.
her appetite, 196.
taken ill, 269.
on her brother, 275.
on secrecy, 278.
on her mother and her aunt, 279.
— — two poems, 290.
on John Wordsworth's death, 308.
two other poems by, 312.
her calligraphy, 316, 608.
projecting literary work, 338.
on marriage, 352, 426.
plans for new books, 356.
on Coleridge in 1806, 359.
her silk dress, 384, 389, 390, 481*
483.
on presents, 389.
on Coleridge, 394.
her water cure, 420, 422.
on marriage, 426.
appeals for Miss Fricker, 432.
her letter to a child, 446.
discovers a room, 447.
her article on Needlework, 452.
INDEX
1019
Lamb, Mary, her first joke, 462.
on the Cambridge excursion, 473.
on roadside churches, 475.
at the window, 506, 507.
on the death of a child, 538.
ill in France, 569.
as a smuggler, 571.
her illness, 694.
drawn by Hood, 733, 734.
her sonnet to Emma Isola, 740, 758.
her 1827 illness, 756, 761, 762, 763,
764, 765.
her 1829 illness, 811-816.
her verses on her brother, 856.
moved to Edmonton, 886.
and Emma Isola's marriage, 916.
Lamb's praise of, 928.
— — her death, 943.
on Mrs. Norris's death, 944.
— Sarah (Aunt Hetty), 3, 45.
and the rich relative, 67.
her death, 91.
her funeral, 97.
and her sister-in-law, 279.
Landon, Letitia E., 748.
Landor, Walter Savage. See Letters.
— his jfuliatiy 466.
his Imaginary Conversations^
692, 693.
and Elia, 924.
his visit to Lamb, 889.
his verses for Emma Isola, 890.
his '* Rose Aylmer," 890.
his verses on Lamb, 890.
Last Essays of Elia, 896, 897, 898, 900,
901.
Latin letters by Lamb, 246, 801, 871, 873,
975-
Laureates, Lamb on the, 806.
Lay of Marie, The, 477.
Legal joke, a, 794.
Le Grice, C. V., i, 4, 8, 914.
Samuel, 45, 47, 147, 148, 252.
Leishman, Mrs., 733.
Leonardo da Vinci, 290, 324, 326.
** Leonora," by Biirger, 38.
Letters in verse, 497, 710.
" Letter to an Old Gentleman," 604, 982.
" Lewti," by Coleridge, 172, 178.
Lies, 481, 502, 598, 736.
*♦ Lime-tree Bower," Coleridge's poem,
177, 180.
Lincolnshire and the Lambs, 410.
Liston, John, 428, 667. ,
Literary Gazette, The, 859, 992.
" Living without God in the World,"
134, 136.
Livingston, Mr. Luther S., 412.
Lloyd, Charles, the elder, described by
Robert Lloyd, 271.
Lloyd, Charles, the elder, Lamb's letters
to, 402, 413, 431.
the younger. See Letters.
his career to 1796, 51.
his sonnets on " Priscilla Far-
mer," 68, 70.
Lamb's lines to, 87.
on Lamb, 88.
his illness, 99, 103.
and Coleridge, 100.
at Southey's, no.
and Sophia Pemberton, no,
III.
Lamb's lines on, 112.
a quarrel averted, 115.
the quarrel with Coleridge, 119.
letter to Cottle, 121.
and The Anti-jfacobin, 137.
and Mary Hayes, 155, 966.
his first-born, 175.
an "American," 248.
described by Robert Lloyd, 271.
a lost letter to, 432.
his illness in 1815, 480.
his Desultory Thoughts in
London, 536.
his Poems, 1823, 613, 623, 624.
in London in 1819, 973.
— Olivia, 155, 159, 966.
— Priscilla, 142, 161, 294, 480.
— Robert, Lamb's first letter to, 121.
with Lamb, 139.
advice from his sister, 142.
advice from Lamb, 148, 149.
in London, 1800, 161.
Lamb's letters to, 168, 175, 212,
218, 219, 225, 294, 395, 403, 407.
on his father, 271.
his marriage, 284.
in London, 395.
his death, 407.
— Sophia, 175.
Lockhart, J. G., 555.
Lofft Capel, 470, 471.
Logan quoted, 29.
London, Lamb's praise of, 194, 210, 216,
235» 244, 507.
** London Fogs," 979.
London Magazine, The, 555, 556, 558, 604,
613, 618, 663, 669, 684, 690.
London Tavern dinner, 512, 514.
" Londoner, The," by Lamb, 235, 239.
Lonsdale, Lord, 968.
Lord Chief Justice, Lamb on, 635.
Lord Mayor of London and Leviathan,
142.
Lord Mayor, his bed, 980.
Lottery puffs, 406.
— tickets, 325, 326.
" Love will Come," by Lamb, 930.
1020
INDEX
Love sonnets, Lamb's, 6.
Lovell, Robert, g.
Luther in the Warteburg, 403.
Lyrical Ballads^ 130, 131, 208-211, 212-
214.
M
Mackery End, Lamb on, 522, 523.
Mackintosh, Sir James, Lamb's epigram,
221, 223.
Macready and Lamb, 320.
Magazines, Lamb on, 646.
Man, Henry, his epigram, 667.
" Man of Ross," 274.
Manning, Thomas. See Letters.
his career to 1799, 151.
his grimaces, 152.
his letters to Lamb, 153, 160, 194,
206, 217, 260, 349.
unpubHshed letters from Lamb,
168.
his grimaces, 175.
first news of China, 223.
in Paris, 233.
and Napoleon, 238, 368.
his Chinese project, 258.
he leaves for China, 348, 349.
Thibet and China, 482.
his return to England, 504, 505.
on Wordsworth, 525.
and Fanny Holcroft, 584.
at the Lambs, 641.
Lamb on, 702.
his last days, 931.
Mansion House, Lamb at, 626.
Marlowe, Christopher, 126, 631.
Marriage, Lamb on, 401.
— Mary Lamb on, 352, 426.
Marshall, Godwin's friend, 202, 245.
Marter, William. See Letters.
646.
Martin, John, 731, 732, 788, 789.
— Louisa, 323, 793, 931.
Marvell quoted, 260.
Mary of Buttermere, 275, 276.
Maseres, Baron, 218.
Massinger, Philip, 28, 31, 58.
Mathematics and Lamb, 152.
Mathews, Charles, his picture, 757.
— Mrs. Charles, and the Lambs, 552.
Mathias' Pursuits of Literature^ 52.
•* Matter-of-lie man," Lamb as, 481,
502.
May, John, 137, 139, 693.
— William, i, 3.
** Meadows in Spring," by FitzGerald,
878, 906.
Mellish, Mr., 497, 500,
Mellon, Harriet, 578.
Merchant Taylors' epigrams, 282, 848,851.
Meyer, Henry, ''The Young Catechist,"*
7^7, 729.
his portrait of Lamb, 763.
Milestones, Lamb on, 976.
" Mille viae Mortis," 988.
Milton, John, and Cowper, 66.
his Defence, 255, 256.
John Lamb's portrait, 457, 462,
701.
— — Lamb's gift to Wordsworth, 912.
Mitchell, Thomas, 502.
Mitford, Rev. John, 599, 600, 604, 606,
662, 717, 719.
— Mary Russell, 673, 786.
Monkhouse, Thomas, 546, 605, 671, 678.
" Monody on Chatterton," 12, 17, 27.
Montagu, Basil. See Letters.
343, 355, 416, 421, 726.
— Mrs. Basil. See Letters.
Montgomery, James, and chimney-
sweepers, 643, 644.
his *' Common Lot," 878, 961.
Moore, Thomas, and Lamb, 584, 606.
Morgan, John, 439, 441, 487, 490, 504,
533, 891.
— Mrs. John, 473, 506.
Morning Chronicle^ 432.
Morning Post, 154, 159, 160, 239, 250,
251, 285, 288, 967, 968, 980, 989, 992.
Moving, Lamb on, 396, 753.
Moxon, Edward. See Letters.
first mention, 712.
his career to 1826, 714.
Lamb's first letter to, 714.
his early poems, 714.
his Christmas, 718, 805.
his Nightingale sonnet, 852.
and Rogers, 852.
his Reflector, 893, 894.
small commissions for Lamb, 895,
896.
and Murray, 897.
his proposal to Miss Isola, 904.
his Oak sonnet, 906.
his marriage, 916, 918.
his sonnets, 920, 922.
"Mr. H.," 337, 340, 353, 355, 356, 369,
370, 381, 382, 994.
Mrs, Leicester's School, 402, 635.
— Leslie and Her Grandchildren, 761.
Murray, John, 492, 838, 897.
Music, Lamb on, 852, 854.
N
Napoleon, 468, 471, 484.
— and Manning, 238, 240, 368.
INDEX
1021
Napoleon and Cromwell, 253, 254.
— his height, 241.
Nayler, James, 603.
Necessarianism, 83.
Nelson, his death, 324.
New Monthly Magazine, 684, 696, 697,
713.
New River, Lamb on, 647, 753.
** New Year's Eve," 546, 624.
New Year's Eve, A, by Barton, 787, 789.
Newington, 540.
*' Newspapers," Lamb's essay on, 221.
Norris, Miss Jane. See Letters.
— Randal, 421, 720.
— Mrs. Randal. See Letters.
615, 723, 944.
— Richard, 834.
" Northern Castigation, The," 212.
Nott, Dr. John, 414.
Novello, Clara (Countess Gigliucci), 932.
— Vincent. See Letters.
660, 661, 770, 782, 793.
— Mrs. Vincent. See Letters.
525, 527, 538.
Novellos, the, 668, 712.
Ode on the Departing Year, 75, 80, 84,
947-
*' Ode to the Treadmill," 810.
Odes and Addresses, by Hood and Rey-
nolds, 685, 686.
Office work, Lamb on, 656, 657.
»*01d Actors, The," 564, 565.
" Old FamiHar Faces, The," 116.
Oilier, C. and J. See Letters.
514,515.
" On an Infant Dying as soon as Born,"
726.
"On Seeing Mrs. K B ," etc.,
996.
**Osorio," Coleridge's drama, 104, 105.
Oxford, Lamb at, 170.
** Oxford in the Vacation," 974.
Paice, Joseph, 831.
Palmerston, Lord, 565.
Pantisocracy, 11.
Pardo, Father, 467.
Paris, Lamb on, 569, 573, 575.
— Mrs., 546, 547, 777.
Park, Judge, 633, 634.
Parr, Dr., and Lamb, 320.
Parsons, Mrs., 589.
Pasta, Madame, 770.
Patmore, Coventry, 750.
— P. G. See Letters.
John Scott's second, 555.
a nonsense letter to, 735.
his Chatsworth, 737.
his imitation of Lamb, 758.
seeking a publisher, 774.
Paul, C. Kegan, and the ** Theses," 119.
" Pawnbroker's Daughter, The," 371, 689,
692, 701.
Payne, John Howard. See Letters.
576, 578, 581.
Peacock, Ensign, 965.
Pemberton, Sophia, iii.
Penn, William, his No Cross, No Crown,
97.
Persian ambassador, 409.
Peter Bell, by Wordsworth, 462, 521.
Peter Bell the Third, 518, 520.
" Peter's Net," 878.
Philip Quarll, 600, 601.
Phillips, Colonel, 399.
— Ned, 399, 420, 425, 440, 837, 972.
— Sir Richard, 123, 231.
Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum, 942.
Physiology, Lamb on, 629.
Pictures, Lamb on, 324, 336, 346.
Pig, Lamb's praise of, 561, 581, 592, 625,
655, 941. -^ ^
Pilgrim's Progress, 779, 780.
Pindar, Peter, 462, 464.
" Pipos." See Derwent Coleridge, 250.
" Pizarro," Sheridan's play, 161.
Plea of the Midsummer Fairies, 754.
Plumer family, 31.
Plura, a mysterious woman, 590.
Poems, possibly by Lamb, 987, 989, 992,
995, 996.
" Poetic Sympathies," by George Dyer,
951.
Poetry for Children, 400, 401, 408, 761,
862, 914.
Poets' dinner party, 605, 606.
"Poet's Epitaph," by Wordsworth, 209,
211, 304.
Political Decameron, The, 553.
Pompey, Lamb's dog, 550.
Poole, John, 576, 590, 591.
— Thomas. See Letters.
108.
" Poor Susan, Reverie of," 461, 463.
Pope, Alexander, 487, 600, 601, 607.
" Popular Fallacies," 696, 697.
Postage rates in 1797, 94.
Presentation copies, Lamb on, 520.
Presents, Lamb on, 469, 471.
" Pride's Cure." See John Woodvil.
Priestley, Joseph, 10, 13, 78, 83, 86.
Procter, B. W. See Letters.
See also Barry Cornwall.
1022
INDEX
Procter, B. W., in 1823, 608.
and Lamb's will, 620.
— his marriage, 656.
— and Pulham's etching, 707.
— Mrs., and Lamb, 940.
*' Progress of Cant," 983.
Prometheus Unbound story, 652, 653.
Pry, Tom, 710.
Publishers, Lamb on, 387, 594, 713.
Pulham, Brook, his etching of Lamb,
706, 707, 748.
Pun at Salisbury, 409.
Puns, Lamb on, 685.
Pure has, His Pilgrimage, 290.
Pye, Henry James, 806.
Quakers, 97, 571, 588, 598, 602, 605.
Quarles, Lamb on, 124, 129, 699.
Quarterly Review, Lamb's review for,
443, 445» 450, 452.
and Lamb, 616, 617, 627, 628.
Quillinan, Edward, 610.
Recreations in Agriculture, etc., 187.
Reflector, The, Moxon's paper, 893, 894.
Reform Bill, 873.
Rejected Addresses, 793.
Rejected Articles, 958.
** Religion of Actors," 699, 701.
" Religious Musings," i, 8, 9, 22, 90, 93,
97-
Rembrandt, 731.
"Remorse," by Coleridge, 439, 440.
Reynolds, John Hamilton, 520, 686.
— Mrs., Lamb's schoolmistress, 39, 40,
834, 891.
Rheumatism, Lamb on, 807, 808.
*' Richard H.," Lamb's epilogue to, 644.
Richmond, the Lambs at, 296.
Rickman, John. See Letters.
191, 193, 224, 229, 323, 559, 966-
969, 973-975.
Rigg children. Lamb's verses on, 861.
Rimini, Leigh Hunt's poem, 497.
" Road to Ruin, The," 365, 369.
Robinson Crusoe, 587.
Robinson, Anthony, 757.
— Mrs. Anthony, 772.
— Henry Crabb. See Letters.
he meets Lamb, 388.
Lamb on, 438.
and " Peter Bell," 521.
his admiration of Wordsworth,
526.
Robinson, Henry Crabb, his presents to
Lamb, 526.
at Monkhouse's dinner, 606.
his present to Mary Lamb, 803.
his rheumatism, 807, 808.
— Thomas. See Letters.
581.
Roderick, by Southey, 465, 466.
Rogers, Daniel, Lamb's sonnet on, 804,
811, 812.
— Samuel. See Letters.
and Wordsworth's *' Force of
Prayer," 519, 521.
and Coleridge, 92, 94.
at Monkhouse's dinner, 606.
his letter to Lamb, 811, 812.
and Moxon, 852, 857.
his Italy, 860.
and yohn Bull, 865.
and G. Dyer, 866, 867.
Lamb's sonnet to, 923, 924.
Romilly, Sir Samuel, 462, 464, 726.
Rosamund Gray, 124, 125, 796.
" Rose Aylmer," by Landor, 890.
Roxana, 587, 600, 601, 819.
Rumford, Count, 992.
Russell, J. Fuller. See Letters.
and Satan in Search of a Wife,
903-
his poem criticised, 933, 935.
Ryle, Charles, 862.
Sadler's Wells, 275.
'' Saint Charles," 665.
** St. Crispin to Mr. Gifford," 516.
St. Luke's Hospital, 836.
St. Paul's admission fee, 987.
Salisbury, Lamb's pun at, 409.
Salt-water soap, 345.
Salutation and Cat, 3, 16, 29, 61.
Sapphics, 995.
Sargus, Mr. See Letters.
Lamb's tenant, 454.
Satan in Search of a Wife, 862, 874, 876,
881, 897, 903.
Savage, Richard, 225, 227, 600, 601.
Savory, Hester, 195, 261.
Scott, John. See Letters.
434, 555-
— Sir Walter. See Letters.
580, 603, 604.
Sentiment, Lamb on, 413.
Settle, Elkanah, 467, 468.
Shakespeare, George Dyer on, 185.
— the Bellows portrait, 573, 574.
— and Eliat 591.
— his illustrations, 923.
INDEX
1023
Shakespeare's Characters, 979.
'' She dwelt among the untrodden ways,"
214.
Sheep-stealing, Lamb's sonnet, 798.
Shelley, P. B., 573. ^^
death of, 576.
Lamb on, 652, 653.
Hazlitt on, 652.
*' Lines to a Reviewer," 653.
— Mrs. P. B. See Letters.
: 739.
Sheridan and Lamb, 391, 393.
Simmons, Ann, 2, 5, 6, 55.
Simonds, the ghoul, 239, 967.
Six Mofiths in the West Indies^ 702.
Skiddaw, Lamb on, 244.
Smith, Charlotte, 355.
— Mrs., 546.
** Smoker's Song, The," 991.
Smoking, Lamb on, 269, 317, 320.
Snakes, Lamb visits, 190.
" Soldier's Daughter, The," by J. Howard
Payne, 582.
Sonnet to Elia, 571.
— on *' Work," 646.
" Sonnet to a Nameless Friend," 789.
Southampton Buildings, 396.
Southey, Edith, 691.
sonnet to, 900.
— Dr., 438, 629.
— Robert, his yoan of Arc, i, 13, 21, 26.
in 1796, 3.
and Cowper, 15, 21.
his dactyls, 32, 34.
and Coleridge, 52.
his Madoc, 53.
entertains Lamb and Lloyd, no.
his jfoan of Arc, 121.
and the '• Sonnet to Simplicity,"
119, 120.
his ** Eclogues," 125, 128, 129, 143.
on *' The Ancient Mariner," 130,
131.
his Poems, 2nd edition, 1799, 143,
145.
— — his description of Manning, 175.
in Dublin, 233.
on the perfect household, 276.
his Curse of Kehama, 465.
— — his Roderick, 465, 466.
death of his son, 490.
the lapidary style, 498, 500.
his fortune, 595.
his criticism oi Elia, 616, 617.
Lamb's Letter to, 616, 617, 627.
his reply to Lamb, 627, 628.
his Tale of Paraguay , 691.
his "Vesper Bell," 691, 956.
his Book of the Church, 691.
his Life of Biinyan, 847.
Southey, Robert, and Hone, 847, 849.
his defence of Lamb, 858, 859.
his '■' Chapel Bell," 956.
Spenser, Edmund, and Mr. Spencer, 334,
.335.
his sonnet to Harvey, 335, 336.
" Spider, To a," by Southey, 147.
Spirit of the Age, The, 669, 670.
'* Spiritual Law," by Barton, 957.
Stamps, Comptroller of, 954.
Stationery, Lamb on, 700.
Stoddart, John. See Letters.
19, 165, 217, 275, 277, 315, 355,
379, 520.
— Lady. See Letters.
768.
— Sarah (afterwards Sarah Hazlitt). See
Letters.
her love affairs, 278, 280, 291, 339,
343, 352, 362, 374, 376.
— — her mother's illness, 312, 322.
plans for her wedding, 379.
her wedding, 390.
Stothard, Thomas, Lamb's lines to, 923,
925.
Stowey, Lamb at, 108.
Stuart, Daniel, on Lamb, 288.
Sunday, Lamb on, 715.
" Superannuated Man," 675, 679.
"Supersedeas," by Wither, 124, 950.
" Suum Cuique," by Lamb, 848, 851.
Swift, Dean, 600, 601.
Swinburne, A. C, and Lamb and Hugo,
197.
on Lamb s dramatic sugges-
tions, 227.
on "A True Story," 979.
Sydney, Sir Philip, and Lamb, 942.
Sylvia, by George Darley, 805.
Table Book, Lamb's fable, 760.
Tailors, Lamb on, 449, 451, 797.
Tales from Shakespear, 348, 351, 352,
354, 358, 372.
Talfourd, Thomas Noon. See Letters.
469, 471, 526, 620, 792.
made a serjeant, 898.
his " Verses in Memory of a
Child," 957.
Talma and Lamb, 573, 574.
*' Tartar Drum," Lamb's version, 929.
Tartary, Lamb on, 258.
Tatler, The, and Jerdan, 860.
Tayler, C. B., 635, 773.
Taylor, Jeremy, 218, 225.
— John. See Letters.
Qdiioioith^London Magazine, ^^6,
1024
INDEX
Taylor, John, and the Ella lawsuit, goo,
904.
Temple finally left, 506.
Thackeray and Lamb, 665.
Thanksgiving Ode^ by Wordsworth, 484,
485.
Thekla's song in " Wallenstein," 966.
Thelwall, John, 93, log.
"Theses Quaedam Theologicae," 117,
122.
Thievery in Australia, 500.
Thurlow, Lord, 457, 788, 790.
Thurtell the murderer, 634.
Titian, Mary Lamb's verses, 312.
— the Music Piece, 346.
Titles of honour, Lamb on, 408.
*' To a Bird that Haunted the Waters of
Lacken," 790.
'* To Emma Learning Latin and Des-
ponding," 740, 992.
*'To a Friend on his Marriage,'* 918.
** To the Poet Cowper," 37.
*' To Sara and her Samuel," 35, 37, 39.
*' To my Sister," sonnet, 2.
*' To a Young Lady going out to India,"
64.
Tobin, James Webbe, 284, 353.
— John, 201.
*' Tomb of Douglas, The," 65.
"Tombs in the Abbey, The," 987.
" Tooth-ache and Gum-boil," 321.
Towers, Mrs., Lamb's sonnet to, 771.
Town and country, Lamb on, 827, 832.
" Translation of Enoch," by Barton, 959.
Travels, Lamb on, 465, 467.
Trelawney, E. J., 577.
Trimmer, Mrs., 252, 254.
" True Story, A," 979.
Tunbridge Wells, the Lambs at, 614.
Turbot, Lamb on, 681.
Turnips and legs of mutton, 840, 854.
Tuthill, Sir George, 365, 368, 455, 836.
Twelfth Day, 980.
Twiss, Horace, 683.
Unitarianism, 881.
u
V
Velluti, Signor, 685, 687.
"Vindictive Man, The," 365, 369.
Virgin and Child, Mary Lamb's verses,
312.
"Vision of Horns," 667.
"Vision of Judgment," by Byron, 577,
635, 636, 705.
"Vision of Repentance, A," loi, 104.
Voltaire and Congreve, 383, 385.
Voltaire and Wordsworth, 444.
— Lamb on, 954.
W
Wadd, Lamb's colleague, 586, 587.
Waggoner, The, 524.
"Wagstaff, Mr. Ephraim," 984.
Wainewright, T. G., 613, 618, 619. See
also " Janus Weathercock."
Waltham Cross, letter on, 986.
Walton, Isaak, 20, 52, 212, 929.
Warner's Syrinx, 630, 631.
Watch, Emma Isola's, 915.
Watchman, The, 8, 12.
Webster, his " Vittoria Corombona," 325.
Wednesdays, Lamb's evening, 428.
Wesley, Miss, 162, 164.
Wesmacott, C. M., 989.
Westwood, Thomas, 822, 828, 908.
— Cottage, 817, 824.
Whist, 837.
"White Devil, The," 325.
White Doe of Rylstone, 525.
White, Edward, 576, 740.
— James, 5, 115.
Widford, 722.
" Widow, The," 777, 785, 796.
Widow's Tale, The, by Barton, 726, 728.
Widows, a list of, 940.
" Wife, The," by Sheridan Knowles, 886,
905, 910.
" Wife's Trial, The," by Lamb, 735, 738,
739, 747, 74S, 787-
Wilde, Serjeant, 856.
William IV., 858.
Williams, Mrs. See Letters.
and Emma Isola, 778.
and the acrostics, 841, 842, 847.
Wilson, John, his biography, 893.
Wilson, Walter. See Letters.
and Lamb's apology, 219.
Lamb's fellow clerk, 220.
visits Lamb, 776.
his Life of Defoe, 810, 820.
Windham, William, 154, 155, 412.
Winterslow, 342, 398.
— the Lambs at, 403, 404, 405, 415.
" Witch, The," by Lamb, 132, 134, i35-
Wither, George, and Quarles, 124, 129.
Lamb on, 413, 414.
his "Supersedeas," 950.
Woolman, John, 91, 94, 645, 929.
Wordsworth, Dorothy. See Letters.
at Stowey, 108.
a letter from, 310.
her poems, 458.
— William. See Letters.
at Stowey, 108.
and Coleridge in Germany, 135, 136.
INDEX
1025
Wordsworth, William, his economy,
173-
Lyrical Ballads, 2nd edition, 208,
212.
and Lamb's letters, 212.
at Bartholomew Fair, 242.
his marriage, 248, 249.
his £8 worth of books, 295.
and Shakespeare, 384.
his difference with Coleridge, 421.
The Excursion, 434.
— — and Voltaire, 444, 445.
his Poems, 1815 edition, 456, 458,
463, 560.
his illegible hand, 485.
on Burns, 487, 488.
and Peter Bell the Third, 519.
The Waggoner, 524, 526.
his Duddon sonnets, 541.
at Monkhouse's dinner, 606.
in London, 641.
Wordsworth, William, his Milton, a gift
from Lamb, 912.
at Haydon's, 954.
— John, his death, 299, 310.
— William, jr., 534.
" Work," Lamb's sonnet, 572.
Works, Lamb's, 514, 515.
Worsley, Lady Frances, 608.
Wortley, Lady Mary, 607, 608.
Wroughton, Richard, his letter about
"Mr. H.," 353.
" Yarrow Visited," 557.
"Yew Trees," Wordsworth's poem, 459.
" Young Catechist, The," 727.
" Zapolya," 484, 486.
THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED
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