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by Charles and Mary Lamb

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Title: The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb (Vol. 6)
       Letters 1821-1842

Author: Charles and Mary Lamb

Release Date: January 28, 2004 [EBook #10851]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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Produced by Keren Vergon, Virginia Paque and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.





    THE WORKS OF
    CHARLES AND MARY LAMB
    VI. LETTERS
    1821-1842




    THE LETTERS

    OF

    CHARLES AND MARY LAMB

    1821-1842

    EDITED BY

    E.V. LUCAS

    WITH A FRONTISPIECE




CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI

LETTER                                                   1821

264      Charles Lamb to Dorothy Wordsworth              Jan. 8
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

265      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   No date
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

266      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   No date
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

267      Charles Lamb to Mrs. William Ayrton             Jan. 23
           From the original.

268      Charles Lamb to Miss Humphreys                  Jan. 27
           From the original at Rowfant.

269      Charles Lamb to Mrs. William Ayrton.            March 15
           From the original.

270      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   March 30
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

271      Charles Lamb to Leigh Hunt                      April 18
           From Leigh Hunt's _Correspondence_.

272      Charles Lamb to S.T. Coleridge                  May 1
           From the _Life of Charles Mathews_.

273      Charles Lamb to James Gillman                   May 2
           From the _Life of Charles Mathews_.

274      Charles Lamb to John Payne Collier              May 16
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

275      Charles Lamb to B.W. Procter                    ?Summer
           From facsimile in Mrs. Field's _A Shelf of
             Old Authors_.

276      Charles Lamb to John Taylor                     June 8
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

277      Charles Lamb to John Taylor                     July 21
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

278      Charles Lamb to C.A. Elton                      Aug. 17
           From the original in the possession of
             Sir Edmund Elton.

279      Charles Lamb to Charles Cowden Clarke           Summer
           From _Recollections of Writers_.

280      Mary Lamb to Mrs. William Ayrton                No date
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. A.M.S. Methuen.

281      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Oct. 21
           From the American owner.

282      Charles Lamb to William Ayrton                  Oct. 27
           From the original.

                                                         1822.

283      Charles Lamb to S.T. Coleridge                  March 9
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

284      Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth              March 20
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

285      Charles Lamb to W. Harrison Ainsworth           May 7
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

286      Charles Lamb to William Godwin                  May 16
           Mr. Kegan Paul's text (_William Godwin:
             His Friends_, etc.).

287      Charles Lamb to Mrs. John Lamb                  May 22
           From the original in the Bodleian.

288      Charles Lamb to Mary Lamb (_fragment_)          Aug.
           From Crabb Robinson's _Diary_.

289      Charles Lamb to John Clare                      Aug. 31
           From the original (British Museum).

290      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Sept. 11
           From the original (British Museum).

291      Charles Lamb to Barren Field                    Sept. 22
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. B.B. Macgeorge.

292      Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne               Autumn
           From the _Century Magazine_.

293      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Oct. 9
           From the original (British Museum).

294      Charles Lamb to B.R. Haydon                     Oct. 9
           From _Haydon's Correspondence and Table
             Talk_.

295      Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne               Oct. 22
           From the _Century Magazine_.

296      Charles Lamb to B.R. Haydon                     Oct. 29
           From _Haydon's Correspondence and Table
             Talk_.

297      Charles Lamb to Sir Walter Scott                Oct. 29
           From Scott's _Familiar Letters_.

298      Charles Lamb to Thomas Robinson                 Nov. 11
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

299      Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne               Nov. 13
           From the _Century Magazine_.

300      Mary Lamb to Mrs. James Kenney                  ?Early Dec.
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

301      Charles Lamb to John Taylor                     Dec. 7
           From _Elia_ (Bell's edition).

302      Charles Lamb to Walter Wilson                   Dec. 16
           From the original (Bodleian).

303      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Dec. 23
           From the original (British Museum).

                                                         1823.

304      Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne               Jan.
           From the _Century Magazine_.

305      Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth              Jan.
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

306      Charles Lamb to Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Collier       Jan. 6
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.B. Adam.

307      Charles Lamb to Charles Aders                   Jan. 8
           From the original (Mr. J. Dunlop).

308      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Jan. 9
           From the original (British Museum).

309      Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne               Jan. 23
           From the _Century Magazine_.

310      Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne               Feb. 9
           From the _Century Magazine_.

311      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Feb. 17
           From the original (British Museum).

312      Charles Lamb to Walter Wilson                   Feb. 24
           From Mr. Hazlitt's text.

313      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  March 11
           From the original (British Museum).

314      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  April 5
           From the original (British Museum).

315      Charles Lamb to B.W. Procter                    April 13
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn) with alterations.

316      Charles Lamb to Sarah Hutchinson                April 25
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

317      Charles Lamb to Miss Hutchinson (?)
             (_fragment_)                                No date
           From _Notes and Queries_.

318      Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin               No date
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.W. Dibdin.

319      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  May 3
           From the original (British Museum).

320      Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin               May 6
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.W. Dibdin.

321      Mary Lamb to Mrs. Randal Norris                 June 18
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

322      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  July 10
           From the original (British Museum).

323      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   July
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

324      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Sept. 2
           From the original (British Museum).

325      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Sept. 6
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

326      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Sept. 9
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

327      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Sept. 10
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

328      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Sept.
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

329      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Sept. 17
           From the original (British Museum).

330      Charles Lamb to Charles Lloyd
             (_fragment_)                                Autumn
           From _Letters and Poems of Bernard Barton_.

331      Charles Lamb to H.F. Cary                       Oct. 14
           From _Memoir of H.F. Cary_.

332      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   ?Oct.
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

333      Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin               Oct. 28
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.W. Dibdin.

334      Charles Lamb to Sarah Hazlitt                   Early Nov.
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

335      Charles Lamb to Robert Southey                  Nov. 21
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

336      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Nov. 22
           From the original (British Museum).

337      Charles Lamb to W. Harrison Ainsworth           Dec. 9
           From the original.

338      Charles Lamb to W. Harrison Ainsworth           Dec. 29
           From the original.

                                                         1824.

339      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Jan. 9
           From the original (British Museum).

340      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Jan. 23
           From the original (British Museum).

341      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Feb. 25
           From the original (British Museum).

342      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  March 24
           From the original (British Museum).

343      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Early Spring
           From the original (British Museum).

344      Charles Lamb to Mrs. Thomas Allsop              April 13
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

345      Charles Lamb to William Hone                    April
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.A. Potts.

346      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  May 15
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. B.B. Macgeorge.

347      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  July 7
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

348      Charles Lamb to W. Marter.                      July 19
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

349      Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin               July 28
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.W. Dibdin.

350      Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood (?_fragment_)       Aug. 10
           From the original.

351      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Aug. 17
           From the original (British Museum).

352      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Sept. 30
           From the original (British Museum).

353      Charles Lamb to Mrs. John Dyer Collier          Nov. 2
           From the original (South Kensington
             Museum).

354      Charles Lamb to B.W. Procter                    Nov. 11
           From Barry Cornwall's _Charles Lamb_
             with alterations.

355      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  Nov. 20
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

356      Charles Lamb to Sarah Hutchinson                Nov. 25
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

357      Charles Lamb to Leigh Hunt                      ?Nov.
           From Leigh Hunt's _Correspondence_ with
             alterations.

358      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Dec. 1
         Charles Lamb to Lucy Barton
           From the original (British Museum).

                                                         1825.

359      Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin               Jan. 11
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.W. Dibdin.

360      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Jan. 17
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

361      Charles Lamb to Sarah Hutchinson                Jan. 20
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

362      Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello                 Jan. 25
           From the original (British Museum).

363      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Feb. 10
           From the original (British Museum).

364      Charles Lamb to Thomas Manning                  ?Feb.
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

365      Charles Lamb to Sarah Hutchinson.               March 1
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

366      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  March 23
           From the original (British Museum).

367      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  March 29
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

368      Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth              April 6
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

369      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  April 6
           From the original (British Museum).

370      Charles Lamb to Sarah Hutchinson                April 18
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.
             (Last paragraph from original scrap at
             Welbeck Abbey.)

371      Charles Lamb to William Hone                    May 2
           From the original at Rowfant.

372      Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth              May
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

373      Charles Lamb to Charles Chambers                ?May
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

374      Charles Lamb to S.T. Coleridge                  ?June
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

375      Charles Lamb to Henry Colburn (?)               June 14
           From the original (South Kensington).

376      Charles Lamb to S.T. Coleridge                  July 2
           From the original (Morrison Collection).

377      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  July 2
           From the original (British Museum).

378      Charles Lamb to John Aitken                     July 5

379      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Aug. 10
            From the original (British Museum).

380      Charles Lamb to Robert Southey                  Aug. 10
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

381      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Sept. 9
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

382      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Sept. 24
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

383      Charles Lamb to William Hone                    Oct. 24
           From the original at Rowfant.

384      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Dec. 5
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

385      Charles Lamb to Charles Oilier                  ?Dec.
           From the original (South Kensington).

                                                         1826.

386      Charles Lamb to Charles Oilier                  Early in year
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

387      Charles Lamb to Charles Oilier                  Jan.
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

388      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Feb. 7
           From the original (British Museum).

389      Charles Lamb to Charles Oilier                  March 16
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.A. Potts.

390      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  March 20
           From the original (British Museum).

391      Charles Lamb to S.T. Coleridge                  March 22
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

392      Charles Lamb to H.F. Gary                       April 3
           Mr. Hazlitt's text.

393      Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello                 May 9
           From the original (British Museum).

394      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  May 16
           From the original (British Museum).

395      Charles Lamb to S.T. Coleridge                  June 1
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

396      Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin               June 30
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.W. Dibdin.

397      Charles Lamb to Thomas Hill                     No year
           From the original (British Museum).

398      Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin               July 14
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.W. Dibdin.

399      Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth              Sept. 6
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

400      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon (fragment).        No date

401      Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin               Sept. 9
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.W. Dibdin.

402     Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                   Sept. 26
           From the original (British Museum).

403      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    ?Sept.
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. Henry Poulton.

404      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  No date
           From the original (British Museum).

                                                         1827.

405      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  Jan. 20
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

406      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  Jan. 20
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

407      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  Jan. 29
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

408      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  Jan.
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

409      Charles Lamb to B.R. Haydon                     March
           From Taylor's _Life of Haydon_.

410      Charles Lamb to William Hone                    April
           From the original at Rowfant.

411      Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood                     May
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

412      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  No date
           From the original (British Museum).

413      Charles Lamb to William Hone                    May
           From the original at Rowfant.

414      Charles Lamb to William Hone                    June
           From the original at Rowfant.

415      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  June 11
           From the original (British Museum).

416      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  June 26
           From the original (British Museum).

417      Charles Lamb to William Hone                    July
           From the original at Rowfant.

418      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    July 17
           From the original at Rowfant.

419      Charles Lamb to P.G. Patmore                    July 19
           From Patmore's _My Friends and Acquaintances_.

420      Charles Lamb to Mrs. Shelley                    July 26
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

421      Charles Lamb to Mrs. Basil Montagu              Summer
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

422      Mary Lamb to Lady Stoddart                      Aug. 9

423      Charles Lamb to Sir John Stoddart
           From the original (Messrs. Maggs).

424      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Aug. 10
           From the original (British Museum).

425      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Aug. 28
           From the original (British Museum).

426      Charles Lamb to P.G. Patmore                    Sept.
           From _My Friends and Acquaintances_.

427      Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin               Sept. 5
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.W. Dibdin.

428      Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin               Sept. 13
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.W. Dibdin.

429      Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin               Sept. 18
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.W. Dibdin.

430      Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood                     Sept. 18
           From the facsimile in Mrs. Balmanno's
             _Pen and Pencil_.

431      Charles Lamb to Henry Colburn                   Sept. 25
           From the original (South Kensington).

432      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    ?Sept. 26
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. Henry Poulton.

433      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  Oct. 1
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

434      Charles Lamb to John Bates Dibdin               Oct. 2
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. R.W. Dibdin.

435      Charles Lamb to Barron Field                    Oct. 4
           From the _Memoirs of Charles Matthews_.

436      Charles Lamb to William Hone                    ?Oct.
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

437      Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood                     No date
           From the _National Review_.

438      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  No date
           From the original (British Museum).

439      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Dec. 4
           From the original (British Museum).

440      Charles Lamb to Leigh Hunt                      Dec.
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

441      Charles Lamb to William Hone                    Dec. 15

442      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   ?Dec.
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

443      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Dec. 20
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

444      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Dec. 22
           From the original at Rowfant.

445      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  End of year
           From the original (British Museum).

                                                         1828.

446      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Jan. 9
           From _Harper's Magazine_ with alterations.

447      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    ?Jan.
           From the original at Rowfant.

448      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Feb. 18
           From the original at Rowfant.

449      Charles Lamb to Charles Cowden Clarke           Feb. 25
           From _Reminiscences of Writers_.

450      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  Feb. 26
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

451      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    March 19
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

452      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  April 21
           From the original (British Museum).

453      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   May 1
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

454      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    May 3
           From the original.

455      Charles Lamb to Walter Wilson                   May 17
           From the original (British Museum).

456      Charles Lamb to T.N. Talfourd                   May 20
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

457      Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth              May
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

458      Charles Lamb to Mrs. Morgan                     June 17

459      Mary Lamb to the Thomas Hoods                   ?Summer
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

460      Charles Lamb to B.R. Haydon                     Aug.
           From Taylor's _Life of Haydon_.

461      Charles Lamb to John Rickman
           (_translation_)                               Oct. 3

462      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Oct. 11
           From the original (British Museum).

463      Charles Lamb to Charles Cowden Clarke           Oct.
           From _Recollections of Writers_.

464      Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello                 Nov. 6
           From _Recollections of Writers_.

465      Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood                     Late autumn
           From _Hood's Own_.

466      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Dec.
           Text from Mr. Samuel Davey.

467      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Dec. 5
           From the original (British Museum).

468      Charles Lamb to Charles Cowden Clarke           Dec.
           From _Recollections of Writers_.

469      Charles Lamb to T.N. Talfourd                   End of year
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

                                                         1829.

470      Charles Lamb to George Dyer                     ?Jan.
           From the original (British Museum).

471      Charles Lamb to B.W. Procter                    Jan.19
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

472      Charles Lamb to B.W. Procter                    Jan. 22
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn) with alterations.

473      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Jan. 28
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

474      Charles Lamb to B.W. Procter                    Jan. 29
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn) with alterations.

475      Charles Lamb to B.W. Procter                    Early in year
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn) with alterations.

476      Charles Lamb to B.W. Procter                    Feb. 2
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

477      Charles Lamb to Charles Cowden Clarke           Feb. 2
           From _Recollections of Writers_.

478      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  Feb. 27
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

479      Charles Lamb to Samuel Rogers                   March 22
           From _Rogers and His Contemporaries_.

480      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  March 25
           From the original (British Museum).

481      Charles Lamb to Miss Sarah James                ?April
           Text from Mr. Samuel Davey.

482      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  ?April
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

483      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  April 17
           From the original (Dr. Williams' Library).

484      Charles Lamb to George Dyer                     April 29
           From _The Mirror_, 1841.

485      Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood                     ?May
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

486      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                     No date
           From _The Autographic Mirror_.

487      Charles Lamb to Walter Wilson                    May 28
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

488      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                   June 3
           From the original (British Museum).

489      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                   July 25
           From the original (British Museum).

490      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   Late July
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

491      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Sept. 22
           From the original at Rowfant.

492      Charles Lamb to James Gillman                   Oct. 26
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

493      Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello                 Nov. 10
           From the original (British Museum).

494      Charles Lamb to Walter Wilson                   Nov. 15
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

495      Charles Lamb to James Gillman                   ?Nov. 29
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

496      Charles Lamb to James Gillman                   Nov. 30
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

497      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Dec. 8
           From the original (British Museum).

498      Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth
499      Mary Lamb to Dorothy Wordsworth                 Jan. 22
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

500      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Feb. 25
           From the original (British Museum).

501      Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams                   Feb. 26
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

502      Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams                   March 1
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

503      Charles Lamb to Sarah Hazlitt                   March 4
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

504      Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams                   March 5
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

505      Charles Lamb to James Gillman                   March 8
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

506      Charles Lamb to William Ayrton                  March 14
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

507      Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams                   March 22
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

508      Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams                   April 2
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. Yates Thompson.

509      Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams                   April 9
           From the original.

510      Charles Lamb to James Gillman                   ?Spring
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

511      Charles Lamb to Jacob Vale Asbury               ?April
           From _The Athenaewn_.

512      Charles Lamb to Jacob Vale Asbury               No date
           By permission of Mr. Edward Hartley.

513      Charles Lamb to Mrs. Williams                   April 21
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

514      Charles Lamb to Robert Southey                  May 10
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

515      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    May 12
           From the original at Rowfant.

516      Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello                 May 14
           From the original (British Museum).

517      Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello                 May 20
           From the original (British Museum).

518      Charles Lamb to William Hone                    May 21
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

519      Charles Lamb to Sarah Hazlitt                   May 24
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

520      Charles Lamb to Sarah Hazlitt                   June 3
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

521      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  June 28
           From the original (British Museum).

522      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  Aug. 30
           From the original (British Museum).

523      Charles Lamb to Samuel Rogers                   Oct. 5
           From _Rogers and His Contemporaries_.

524      Charles Lamb to Vincent Novello                 Nov. 8
           From _Recollections of Writers_.

525      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Nov. 12
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

9526     Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    ?Dec.
           From the original at Rowfant.

527      Charles Lamb to George Dyer                     Dec. 20
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn) with alterations.

528      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    ?Christmas
           From the original (South Kensington).

                                                         1831.

529      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Feb. 3
           From the original at Rowfant.

530      Charles Lamb to George Dyer                     Feb. 22
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

531      Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton                  April 30
           From the original (British Museum).

532      Charles Lamb to H.F. Cary                       May 6
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

533      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    July 14
           From the original at Rowfant.

534      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Early Aug.
           From the original at Rowfant.

535      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Aug. 5
           From the original at Rowfant.

536      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Sept. 5
           From the original at Rowfant.

537      Charles Lamb to William Hazlitt, junior         Sept. 13
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_Lamb and Hazlitt_).

538      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Oct. 24
           From the original at Rowfant.

539      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Dec. 15
           From the original at Rowfant.

                                                         1832.

540      Charles Lamb to Joseph Hume's daughters         No date
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

541      Charles Lamb to C.W. Dilke                      March 5
           From Sir Charles Dilke's original.

542      Charles Lamb to S.T. Coleridge                  April 14
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

543      Charles Lamb to James Sheridan Knowles          ?April
           From the original (South Kensington).

544      Charles Lamb to John Forster                    ?Late April
           From the original (South Kensington).

545      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon?                   June 1
           From the original (South Kensington).

546      Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop                   July 2
           From _Harper's Magazine_.

547      Charles Lamb to Walter Wilson                   Aug.
           From the original in the Bodleian.

548      Charles Lamb to Crabb Robinson                  ?Early Oct.
           From the original (South Kensington).

549      Charles Lamb to Walter Savage Landor            Oct.
           From the original (South Kensington).

550      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Late in year
           From the original at Rowfant.

551      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Winter
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bonn).

552      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Dec.
           From the original (South Kensington).

553      Charles Lamb to John Forster.                   Dec. 23
           From the original (South Kensington).

                                                         1833.

554      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Jan.
           From Sir Charles Dilke's original.

555      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Jan. 3
           From the original at Rowfant.

556      Charles Lamb to John Forster                    No date
           From the original (South Kensington).

557      Charles Lamb to John Forster                    No date
           From the original (South Kensington).

558      Charles Lamb to John Forster                    No date
           From the original (South Kensington).

559      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Jan. 24
           From the original at Rowfant.

560      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Feb. 11
           From the original (South Kensington).

561      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Feb.
           From the original (South Kensington).

562      Charles Lamb to T.N. Talfourd                   Feb.
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

563      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    No date
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. Henry Poulton.

564      Charles Lamb to C.W. Dilke                      Feb.
           From Sir Charles Dilke's original.

565      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Early in year
           From the original at Rowfant.

566      Charles Lamb to B.W. Procter.                   No date
           From Procter's Autobiographical Fragment.

567      Charles Lamb to William Hone                    March 6
           From the original (National Portrait Gallery).

568      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    March 19
           From the original (South Kensington).

569      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    ?Spring
           From the original (South Kensington).

570      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    March 30
           From the original at Rowfant.

571      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Spring
           From the original at Rowfant.

572      Charles Lamb to John Forster                    ?March
           From the original (South Kensington).

573      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    ?April 10
           From the original at Rowfant.

574      Charles Lamb to C.W. Dilke                      April
           From Sir Charles Dilke's original.

575      Charles Lamb to Mrs. William Ayrton             April 16
           From the original, lately in the possession
             of Mr. Edward Ayrton.

576      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    April 25
           From the original at Rowfant.

577      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    April 27
           From the original at Rowfant.

578      Charles Lamb to the Rev. James Gillman          May 7

579      Charles Lamb to John Forster                    May
           From the original (South Kensington).

580      Charles Lamb to John Forster                    May 12
           From the original (South Kensington).

581      Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth              End of May
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

582      Charles Lamb to Sarah Hazlitt                   May 31
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn) with alterations.

583      Charles Lamb to Mary Betham                     June 5
           From _A House of Letters_.

584      Charles Lamb to Matilda Betham                  June 5
           From _Fraser's Magazine_.

585      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    July 14
          From the original at Rowfant.

586      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    July 24
           From the original at Rowfant.

587      Charles and Mary Lamb to Edward
             and Emma Moxon                              ?July 31
           From the original at Rowfant.

588      Charles Lamb to H.F. Cary                       Sept. 9
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

589      Charles and Mary Lamb to Edward Moxon           Sept. 26
           From the original at Rowfant.

590      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Oct. 17
           From the original at Rowfant.

591      Charles Lamb to Edward and Emma Moxon           Nov. 29
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

592      Charles Lamb to C.W. Dilke                      Mid. Dec.
           From Sir Charles Dilke's original.

593     Charles Lamb to Samuel Rogers                    Dec. 21
          From _Rogers and His Contemporaries_.

594     Charles Lamb to C.W. Dilke                       No date
          From Sir Charles Dilke's original.

595     Charles Lamb to C.W. Dilke                       No date
          From Sir Charles Dilke's original.

                                                         1834.

596      Charles Lamb to the printer of
             _The Athenaeum_                             No date
           From Sir Charles Dilke's original.

597      Charles Lamb to Mary Betham                     Jan. 24
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. B.B. Macgeorge.

598      Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon                    Jan. 28
           From the original (South Kensington).

599      Charles Lamb to Miss Fryer                      Feb. 14
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

600      Charles Lamb to Miss Fryer                      No date
           From the original in the possession of
             Mr. A.M.S. Methuen.

601      Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth              Feb. 22
           From Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's original.

602      Charles Lamb to T.N. Talfourd                   No date

603      Charles Lamb to Charles Cowden Clarke
             (_fragment_)                                End of June
           From the _Life and Labours of Vincent Novello._

604      Charles Lamb to John Forster                    June 25
           From the original (South Kensington).

605      Charles Lamb to J. Fuller Russell               Summer
           From _Notes and Queries_.

606      Charles Lamb to J. Fuller Russell               Summer
           From _Notes and Queries_.

607      Charles Lamb to C.W. Dilke                      End of July
           From Sir Charles Dilke's original.

608      Charles Lamb to the Rev. James Gillman          Aug. 5
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

609      Charles and Mary Lamb to H.F. Cary              Sept. 12
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

610      Charles Lamb to H.F. Cary                       Oct.
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

611      Charles Lamb to H.F. Cary                       Oct. 18
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

612      Charles Lamb to Mr. Childs                      ?Dec.
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

613      Charles Lamb to Mr. Childs                      No date

614      Charles Lamb to Mrs. George Dyer                Dec. 22
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (Bohn).

615      Mary Lamb to Jane Norris                        Dec. 25
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

616      Mary Lamb to Jane Norris                        Oct. 3 1842.
           Mr. Hazlitt's text (_The Lambs_).

Last letter. Miss James to Jane Norris                   July 25 1843.




    APPENDIX

    Barton's "Spiritual Law"
    Barton's "Translation of Enoch"
    Talfourd's "Verses in Memory of a Child named after Charles Lamb"
    FitzGerald's "Meadows in Spring"
    Montgomery's "The Common Lot"
    Barry Cornwall's "Epistle to Charles Lamb"


    ALPHABETICAL LIST OF LETTERS


    INDEX




    FRONTISPIECE

    CHARLES LAMB (aged 51).
    From the painting by Henry Meyer at the India Office.




    THE LETTERS OF CHARLES AND MARY LAMB

                 1821-1834




LETTER 264

CHARLES LAMB TO DOROTHY WORDSWORTH

[P.M. January 8, 1821.]

Mary perfectly approves of the appropriat'n of the _feathers_, and
wishes them Peacocks for your fair niece's sake!

Dear Miss Wordsworth, I had just written the above endearing words when
Monkhouse tapped me on the shoulder with an invitation to cold goose
pye, which I was not Bird of that sort enough to decline. Mrs. M. I am
most happy to say is better. Mary has been tormented with a Rheumatism,
which is leaving her. I am suffering from the festivities of the season.
I wonder how my misused carcase holds it out. I have play'd the
experimental philosopher on it, that's certain. Willy shall be welcome
to a mince pye, and a bout at Commerce, whenever he comes. He was in our
eye. I am glad you liked my new year's speculations. Everybody likes
them, except the Author of the Pleasures of Hope. Disappointment attend
him! How I like to be liked, and _what I do_ to be liked! They flatter
me in magazines, newspapers, and all the minor reviews. The Quarterlies
hold aloof. But they must come into it in time, or their leaves be waste
paper. Salute Trinity Library in my name. Two special things are worth
seeing at Cambridge, a portrait of Cromwell at Sidney, and a better of
Dr. Harvey (who found out that blood was red) at Dr. Davy's. You should
see them.

Coleridge is pretty well, I have not seen him, but hear often of him
from Alsop, who sends me hares and pheasants twice a week. I can hardly
take so fast as he gives. I have almost forgotten Butcher's meat, as
Plebeian. Are you not glad the Cold is gone? I find winters not so
agreeable as they used to be, when "winter bleak had charms for me." I
cannot conjure up a kind similitude for those snowy flakes--Let them
keep to Twelfth Cakes.

Mrs. Paris, our Cambridge friend, has been in Town. You do not know the
Watfords? in Trumpington Street--they are capital people.

Ask any body you meet, who is the biggest woman in Cambridge--and I'll
hold you a wager they'll say Mrs. Smith.

She broke down two benches in Trinity Gardens, one on the confines of
St. John's, which occasioned a litigation between the societies as to
repairing it. In warm weather she retires into an ice-cellar
(literally!) and dates the returns of the years from a hot Thursday some
20 years back. She sits in a room with opposite doors and windows, to
let in a thorough draught, which gives her slenderer friends
tooth-aches. She is to be seen in the market every morning at 10,
cheapening fowls, which I observe the Cambridge Poulterers are not
sufficiently careful to stump.

Having now answered most of the points containd in your Letter, let me
end with assuring you of our very best kindness, and excuse Mary from
not handling the Pen on this occasion, especially as it has fallen into
so much better hands! Will Dr. W. accept of my respects at the end of a
foolish Letter.

C.L.


[Miss Wordsworth was visiting her brother, Christopher Wordsworth, the
Master of Trinity.

Willy was William Wordsworth, junr.

Lamb's New Year speculations were contained in his _Elia_ essay "New
Year's Eve," in the _London Magazine_ for January, 1821. There is no
evidence that Campbell disapproved of the essay. Canon Ainger suggests
that Lamb may have thus alluded playfully to the pessimism of his
remarks, so opposed to the pleasures of hope. When the _Quarterly_ did
"come in," in 1823, it was with cold words, as we shall see.

"Trinity Library." It is here that are preserved those MSS. of Milton,
which Lamb in his essay "Oxford in the Vacation," in the _London
Magazine_ for October, 1820, says he regrets to have seen.

"Cromwell at Sidney." See Mary Lamb's letter to Miss Hutchinson, August
20, 1815.

"Harvey ... at Dr. Davy's"--Dr. Martin Davy, Master of Caius.

"Alsop." This is the first mention of Thomas Allsop (1795-1880),
Coleridge's friend and disciple, who, meeting Coleridge in 1818, had
just come into Lamb's circle. We shall meet him frequently. Allsop's
_Letters, Conversations and Recollections of Samuel Taylor Coleridge_
contain much matter concerning Lamb.

"Winter bleak had charms for me." I could not find this for the large
edition. It is from Burns' "Epistle to William Simpson," stanza 13.

Mrs. Paris was a sister of William Ayrton and the mother of John Ayrton
Paris, the physician. It was at her house at Cambridge that the Lambs
met Emma Isola, whom we are soon to meet.

"Mrs. Smith." Lamb worked up this portion of his letter into the little
humorous sketch "The Gentle Giantess," printed in the _London Magazine_
for December, 1822 (see Vol. I. of the present edition), wherein Mrs.
Smith of Cambridge becomes the Widow Blacket of Oxford.

"Dr. W."--Dr. Christopher Wordsworth.]



LETTER 265

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP

[No date. 1821.]

Dear Sir--The _hairs_ of our head are numbered, but those which emanate
from your heart defy arithmetic. I would send longer thanks but your
young man is blowing his fingers in the Passage.

Yours gratefully                        C.L.


[The date of this scrap is unimportant; but it comes well here in
connection with the reference in the preceding letter.

In _Harper's Magazine_ for December, 1859, were printed fifty of Lamb's
notes to Allsop, all of which are reproduced in at least two editions of
Lamb's letters. I have selected only those which say anything, as for
the most part Lamb was content with the merest message; moreover, the
date is often so uncertain as to be only misleading.

Crabb Robinson says of Allsop, "I believe his acquaintance with Lamb
originated in his sending Coleridge a present of £100 in admiration of
his genius."]



LETTER 266

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP

[No date. 1821.]

D'r Sir--Thanks for the Birds and your kindness. It was but yesterd'y. I
was contriving with Talf'd to meet you 1/2 way at his chamber. But night
don't do so well at present. I shall want to be home at Dalston by
Eight.

I will pay an afternoon visit to you when you please. I dine at a
chop-house at ONE always, but I can spend an hour with you after that.

Yours truly

C.L.

Would Saturdy serve?



LETTER 267

CHARLES LAMB TO MRS. WILLIAM AYRTON

[Dated at end: Jan. 23, 1821.]

Dear Mrs. Ayrton, my sister desires me, as being a more expert 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
William, and Fanny--

I like 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.


[Mrs. Ayrton (_née_ Arnold) was the wife of William Ayrton, the musical
critic.]



LETTER 268

CHARLES LAMB TO MISS HUMPHREYS

London 27 Jan'y. 1821.

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 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 be 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.


[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 Cambridge
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 Lamb's first dog. Later, as we shall see,
they adopted Dash.]



LETTER 269

CHARLES LAMB TO MRS. WILLIAM AYRTON

[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, I am ashamed of my great staring letters.

Yours most truly

CHARLES LAMB.

Dalston near Hackney

15 Mar. 1821.


[In my large edition I give a facsimile of this letter.]



LETTER 270

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 appointments, 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 271

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 272

CHARLES LAMB TO S.T. COLERIDGE

May 1st [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."


[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 273

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. Wednes'y. 2 May '21.

We shall neither of us come much before the time.


[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 affected
    several times during the day to take great pride, and to cherish as
    a novelty that he had long looked for and wanted) was drolly
    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 resembling very much the portraits of King Charles I.
    Mr. Coleridge was very anxious about his _pet_ Lamb'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 suspected plan of showing him off.

The Mathews' were then living at Ivy Cottage, only a short distance from
the Grove, Highgate, where the famous Mathews collection of pictures was
to be seen of which Lamb subsequently wrote in the _London Magazine_.

Here should come a note to Ayrton saying that Madame Noblet is the least
graceful dancer that Lamb ever "did not see."]



LETTER 274

CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN PAYNE COLLIER

May 16, 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 appropriate 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 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.


[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 Barnaby 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 _Torismond_, who with a lustie crew of outlawes liued 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 slept 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 Decameron_, 174, Eighth Conversation).

Lamb compares with that the passage in "As You Like It," II., 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. I. of the
present edition).

The line from Gray's sonnet on the death of Mr. Richard West was this:--

        And weep the more because I weep in vain.

"Scipio, Caesar," etc. This line runs, in the epitaph on Sidney,
beginning "To praise thy life"--

Scipio, Cicero, and Petrarch of our time!

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 275

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 1/4 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.


[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 involved, 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.

Mr. Cary. Henry Francis Cary 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, Cradock & Joy's. From 1821 to the end of 1824, when
it was Taylor & Hessey'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, l825, to the end, when it was Henry Southern's, and was
published by Hunt & Clarke.]



LETTER 276

CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN TAYLOR

Margate, June 8, 1821.

Dear Sir,--I am extremely sorry 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 Cockney, 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 outwrit 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 right reading, and I IMPLORE you to restore
it.

The other passage, which you have queried, is to my ear correct. Pray
let it stand.

D'r S'r, yours truly,                                     C. LAMB.

On second consideration, I do enclose the proof.


[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 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 Wordsworth'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 consequence of this event
he is postponing his Wednesday evening to Friday.]



LETTER 277

CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN TAYLOR

July 21, 1821.

D'r 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'r. E.'s letter,

I remain, D'r Sir,

Your obliged,

C. LAMB.


[Hazlitt continued his Table Talk in the _London Magazine_ until
December, 1821.

Lamb seems to have been treated foolishly 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. See next letter.

Here should come a further letter to Taylor, dated July 30, 1821, in
which Lamb refers to some verses addressed to him by "Olen" (Charles
Abraham Elton: see note to next letter) in the _London Magazine_ for
August, remonstrating with him for the pessimism of the _Elia_ essay
"New Year's Eve" (see Vol. II. of this edition).

Lamb also remarks that he borrowed the name Elia (pronounced Ellia) from
an old South-Sea House clerk who is now dead.

Elia has recently been identified by Mr. R.W. Goulding, the librarian at
Welbeck Abbey, as F. Augustus Elia, author of a French tract entitled
_Considération sur l'état actuel de la France au mois de Juin 1815. Par
une anglais_. It is privately reprinted in _Letters from the originals
at Welbeck Abbey_, 1909.]



LETTER 278

CHARLES LAMB TO CHARLES ABRAHAM ELTON

India House

to which place all letters addressed to C.L. commonly come.

[August 17, 1821 (?).]

My dear Sir, You have overwhelmed me with your favours. I have received
positively a little library from Baldwyn's. I do not know how I have
deserved such a bounty. We have been up to the ear in the classics ever
since it came. I have been greatly pleased, but most, I think, with the
Hesiod,--the Titan battle quite amazed me. Gad, it was no child's
play--and then the homely aphorisms at the end of the works--how
adroitly you have turned them! Can he be the same Hesiod who did the
Titans? the latter is--

            "-----wine
            Which to madness does incline."

But to read the Days and Works, is like eating nice brown bread, homely
sweet and nutritive. Apollonius was new to me. I had confounded him with
the conjuror of that name. Medea is glorious; but I cannot give up Dido.
She positively is the only Fine Lady of Antiquity: her courtesy to the
Trojans is altogether queen-like. Eneas is a most disagreeable person.
Ascanius a pretty young master. Mezentius for my money. His dying speech
shames Turpin--not the Archbishop I mean, but the roadster of that name.

I have been ashamed to find how many names of classics (and more than
their names) you have introduced me to, that before I was ignorant of.
Your commendation of Master Chapman arrideth me. Can any one read the
pert modern Frenchify'd notes, &c., in Pope's translation, and contrast
them with solemn weighty prefaces of Chapman, writing in full faith, as
he evidently does, of the plenary inspiration of his author--worshipping
his meanest scraps and relics as divine--without one sceptical misgiving
of their authenticity, and doubt which was the properest to expound
Homer to their countrymen. Reverend Chapman! you have read his hymn to
Pan (the Homeric)--why, it is Milton's blank verse clothed with rhyme.
Paradise Lost could scarce lose, could it be so accoutred.

I shall die in the belief that he has improved upon Homer, in the
Odyssey in particular--the disclosure of Ulysses of himself, to
Alcinous, his previous behaviour at the song of the stern strife arising
between Achilles and himself (how it raises him above the _Iliad_
Ulysses!) but you know all these things quite as well as I do. But what
a deaf ear old C. would have turned to the doubters in Homer's real
personality! They might as well have denied the appearance of J.C. in
the flesh.--He apparently believed all the fables of H.'s birth, &c.

Those notes of Bryant have caused the greatest disorder in my brain-pan.
Well, I will not flatter when I say that we have had two or three long
evening's _good reading_ out of your kind present.

I will say nothing of the tenderest parts in your own little volume, at
the end of such a slatternly scribble as this, but indeed they cost us
some tears. I scrawl away because of interruptions every moment. You
guess how it is in a busy office--papers thrust into your hand when your
hand is busiest--and every anti-classical disavocation.

[_Conclusion cut away_.]


[Sir Charles Abraham Elton (1778-1853) seems to have sent Lamb a number
of his books, principally his _Specimens of the Classical_ _Poets ...
from Homer to Tryphiodorus translated into English Verse_, Baldwin,
1814, in three volumes. Lamb refers first to the passage from Hesiod's
_Theogony_, and then to his _Works and Days_ (which Chapman
translated)--"Dispensation of Providence to the Just and Unjust."

Apollonius Rhodius was the author of _The Argonautics_. Lamb then passes
on to Virgil. For the death of Mezentius see the _Aeneid_, Book X., at
the end. The makers of broadsides had probably credited Dick Turpin with
a dying speech.

"Those notes of Bryant." Lamb possibly refers to Jacob Bryant's _Essay
on the Original Genius and Writings of Homer_, 1775, or his pamphlet on
the Trojan War, 1795, 1799.

"Your own little volume." Probably _The Brothers and Other Poems_, by
Elton, 1820.]



LETTER 279

CHARLES LAMB TO CHARLES COWDEN CLARKE

[Summer, 1821.]

My dear Sir--Your letter has lain in a drawer of my desk, upbraiding 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 Cov't Gard'n 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 circumstance, 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 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'e.

C. LAMB.

Mary's love included.


[Charles Cowden Clarke (1787-1877) was the son of a schoolmaster 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.

Here should come a brief note to Allan Cunningham asking him to an
evening party of _London Magazine_ contributors at 20 Russell St., given
in the Boston Bibliophile edition.]



LETTER 280

MARY LAMB TO MRS. WILLIAM AYRTON

[No date. ?1821.]

Thursday Morning.

MY dear friend,

The kind interest you took in my perplexities of yesterday 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.


[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 discharge 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.]



LETTER 281

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP

Oct. 21, 1819.

My dear Sir, I have to thank you for a fine hare, and unless I am
mistaken for _two_, the first I received a week since, the account given
with it was that it came from Mr. Alfourd--I have no friend of that
name, but two who come near it

Mr. Talfourd

Mr. Alsop

so my gratitude must be divided between you, till I know the true
sender. We are and shall be some time, I fear, at Dalston, a distance
which does not improve hares by the circuitous route of Cov't Garden,
though for the sweetness of _this last_ I will answer. We dress it
to-day. I suppose you know my sister has been & is ill. I do not see
much hopes, though there is a glimmer, of her speedy recovery. When we
are all well, I hope to come among our town friends, and shall have
great pleasure in welcoming you from Beresford Hall.

Yours, & old Mr. Walton's, & honest Mr. Cotton's Piscatorum Amicus, C.L.

India House 19 Oct. 21



LETTER 282

CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM AYRTON

[Oct. 27, 1821.]

I Come, Grimalkin! Dalston, near Hackney, 27th Oct'r. 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.


[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 written, was
unaware of his brother's death (see note to Letter 284 on page 610). 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, evidently in reply to a comment
on Lamb's essay on "Saying Grace."

Here should come a letter from Lamb to Rickman, dated November 20, 1821,
referring to Admiral Burney's death. "I have been used to death lately.
Poor Jim White's departure last year first broke the spell. I had been
so fortunate as to have lost no friends in that way for many long years,
and began to think people did not die." He says that Mary Lamb has
recovered from a long illness and is pretty well resigned to John Lamb's
death.]



LETTER 283

CHARLES LAMB TO S.T. COLERIDGE

March 9th, 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 Oedipean 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 pocketstrings 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 her cherished purpose. I sobbed, wept, and took
it to heart so grievously, that I think I never suffered the like--and I
was right. It was a piece of unfeeling hypocrisy, and proved a lesson to
me ever after. The cake has long been masticated, consigned to dunghill
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 purpose.

Yours (short of pig) to command in everything.                 C.L.


[This letter probably led to the immediate composition of the _Elia_
essay "A Dissertation on Roast Pig" (see Vol. II. of the present
edition), which was printed in the _London Magazine_ for September,
1822. See also "Thoughts on Presents of Game," Vol. I. of this edition.

"Owen." Lamb's landlord in Russell Street.

"My kind old aunt... the Borough." This is rather perplexing. 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 284

CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

20th 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 colds 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. Two or three have died within this last two twelvem'ths, 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 interchangeables. 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 confinement. 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 between
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 Amwell, careless as a Beggar, but walking,
walking ever, till I fairly walkd myself off my legs, dying walking!

The hope is gone. I 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 Palmerston's report of
the Clerks in the war office (Debates, this 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 Covt. Card, (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'd 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 summer 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'be.

C.L.

I had almost forgot to say, I think you thoroughly right about
presentation copies. I should like to see you print a book I should
grudge to purchase for its size. D----n me, but I would have it though!


[John Lamb's will left everything to his brother. We must suppose 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,

"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.

"_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. Incidentally 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, already described, which had been left to Lamb.
Lamb gave it as a dowry to Emma Isola when she became Mrs. Moxon.

"My meeting with Dodd ... Malvolio story." In the essay "The Old
Actors," in the London Magazine for February, 1822 (see Vol. II. of this
edition).

"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 appearing 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 brief note to Mrs. Norris, dated March 26, 1822,
given in the Boston Bibliophile edition.

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 reminds one of Godwin's
remark about Coleridge, "God bless him--to use a vulgar expression," as
recorded by Coleridge in one of his letters. Lamb also said of Godwin
(and to him) that he had read more books that were not worth reading
than any man in England.]



LETTER 285

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 redundancy. 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 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't. Ser't.

C. LAMB.

No hurry at all for Tourneur.

Tuesday 7 May '22.


[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 Specimens_, 1808. The book was never published.]



LETTER 286

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.


[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 £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 postscript 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 completion 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
(£10), John Murray (£10 10s.), Charles Lamb (£50), Lord Francis
Leveson-Gower (£10), Lord Dudley (£50), the Hon. W. Lamb (£20) and Sir
James Macintosh (£10). Other contributions were: Lord Byron, £26 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.]



LETTER 287

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 1/2 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 remembrances 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 Lamb's 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 affectionate sister

M. LAMB.


[_On the right-hand margin, beside the paragraph about Mr. Henshaw, is
written in the same hand, underlined_:--]

He is not dead.

[John Lamb's widow had been a Mrs. Dowden, with an unmarried 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 Versailles, to the Kenneys. Mr. Henshaw was
Lamb's godfather, a gunsmith.]



LETTER 288

(_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.


[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.
It is also the only writing from Lamb to his sister that exists. 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 289

CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN CLARE

India House, 31 Aug., 1822.

Dear Clare--I thank you heartily for your present. I am an inveterate
old Londoner, but while I am among your choice collections, I seem to be
native to them, and free of the country. 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.


[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:--

        TO ELlA

        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 Ayrton dated Sept. 5, 1822,
referring to the writer's "drunken caput" and loss of memory.

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 290

CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON

India House, 11 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 appear 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
delight. I like them for what they are, and for what they are not. I
have sickened on the modern rhodomontade & Byronism, 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
gally 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? _verbal_ equivocations?--they are unjustly accused of it, and I
did my little best in the "imperfect Sympathies" 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! 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 hear from you.--


[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 93. The sonnet "Work" had been
printed in the _Examiner_, August 29, 1819.]



LETTER 291

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 remaining 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 magnificent street; palaces a mile long on one side, lofty
Edinbro' stone (O the glorious antiques!): houses on the other. The
Thames disunites London & Southwark. 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! 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 immeasurable. It
may be a forgery. They laugh at me and tell me Ireland is in Paris, and
has been putting off 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 £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.


[Frank was Francis John Field, Barron Field's brother, in the India
House.

Shelley was drowned on July 8, 1822.

Talma was François 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 Charybdiro." "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 Shakespeares 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 château near Paris. Of course a confederate managed to
discover the _plant_, 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 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 attributed 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 1000 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, the owner both of the letter
and bellows, I was enabled to give a reproduction of the portrait in my
large edition.

Ireland was the author of "Vortigern," the forged play attributed to
Shakespeare.]



LETTER 292

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?

N.B.--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, 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?

_Votre Très 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.


[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 _début_
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 Washington, 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 293

CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON

[Dated at end: 9 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. Something 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.--

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 mitigated.

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 immodesty as bad as Shelleyism.

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.


[Barton had just published his _Verses on the Death of P.B. Shelley_, a
lament for misapplied genius. The club at Pisa referred 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. Leicester's
School_ (see the letter to Barton, August 17, 1824).

Byron's _Vision of Judgment_, a burlesque of Southey's poem of the same
name, was printed in _The Liberal_ for 1822.]



LETTER 294

CHARLES LAMB TO B.R. HAYDON

India House, 9th 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, furniture, &c., of his new house (in the
Strand) seized when term begins. We are trying to raise a subscription
for him. My object in writing 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 £300 to £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
person 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?


[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 295

CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN HOWARD PAYNE

Thursday [Oct. 22], 1822.

"Ali 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 promised 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
appearing 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 accomplices?--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 return to the Hotel de l'Europe 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.


[Lamb had met John Howard Payne, the American dramatist, at Kenney's, in
France. "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
in "The Clandestine Marriage" by Colman and Garrick. Miss Foote played
Helena. See notes to the letter above for other references.]



LETTER 296

CHARLES LAMB TO B.R. HAYDON

Tuesday, 29th [October, 1822].

Dear H., I have written a very respectful letter to Sir W.S. 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.



LETTER 297

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 handsome 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.


[See note to the letter to Godwin above. 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 thereabouts Sir
Walter invited Lamb to Abbotsford.]



LETTER 298

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ROBINSON

[Dated at end: Nov. 11, 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, ever tasted. 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 partook 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. Robinson, and the
Lady before mentioned.

Your obliged Ser't

CHARLES LAMB.

India House

11 Nov. 22.


[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 Robinson'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 299

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 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 Garden 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. Elliston, if he is informed right,
engaged Poole to translate it, but before Poole's translation arrived,
finding it coming out at Cov. 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 management 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 copyright
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 negotiator,
I should know the minimum you expect, for I should not like 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 anything 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, C.L.


[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