Landor, says that Landor told her of his visit to Lamb and said that
Lamb read to him some poetry and asked his opinion of it. Landor said it
was very good, whereupon Lamb laughed and called Landor the vainest of
men, for it was his own.
In a letter to Southey the lines differed, ending thus:
Few are the spirits of the glorified
I'd spring to earlier at the gate of Heaven.]
LETTER 550
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[Late 1832.]
A poor mad usher (and schoolfellow of mine) has been pestering me
_through you_ with poetry and petitions. I have desired him to call upon
you for a half sovereign, which place to my account.
I have buried Mrs. Reynolds at last, who has _virtually at least_
bequeath'd me a legacy of £32 per Ann., to which add that my other
pensioner is safe housed in the workhouse, which gets me £10.
Richer by both legacies £42 per Ann.
For a loss of a loss is as good as a gain of a gain.
But let this be _between ourselves_, specially keep it from A----- or I
shall speedily have candidates for the Pensions.
Mary is laid up with a cold.
Will you convey the inclosed by hand?
When you come, if you ever do, bring me one _Devil's Visit_, I mean
_Southey's_; also the Hogarth which is complete, Noble's I think. Six
more letters to do. Bring my bill also. C.L.
[I do not identify the usher. Mrs. Reynolds, Lamb's first
schoolmistress, we have met. The other pensioner I do not positively
identify; presumably it was Morgan, Coleridge's old friend, to whom Lamb
and Southey had each given ten pounds annually from 1819.
A----- I cannot positively identify. Perhaps the philanthropic Allsop.
Southey's "Devil's Visit" was a new edition of _The Devil's Walk_
illustrated by Thomas Landseer.
Noble's "Hogarth." Noble was the engraver.]
LETTER 551
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[No date. Winter, 1832.]
Thank you for the books. I am ashamed to take tythe thus of your press.
I am worse to a publisher than the two Universities and the Brit. Mus.
A[llan] C[unningham] I will forthwith read. B[arry] C[ornwall] (I can't
get out of the A, B, C) I have more than read. Taken altogether, 'tis
too Lovey; but what delicacies! I like most "King Death;" glorious 'bove
all, "The Lady with the Hundred Rings;" "The Owl;" "Epistle to What's
his Name" (here may be I'm partial); "Sit down, Sad Soul;" "The Pauper's
Jubilee" (but that's old, and yet 'tis never old); "The Falcon;"
"Felon's Wife;" damn "Madame Pasty" (but that is borrowed);
Apple-pie is very good,
And so is apple-pasty;
But--
O Lard! 'tis very nasty:
but chiefly the dramatic fragments,--scarce three of which should have
escaped my Specimens, had an antique name been prefixed. They exceed his
first. So much for the nonsense of poetry; now to the serious business
of life. Up a court (Blandford Court) in Pall Mall (exactly at the back
of Marlbro' House), with iron gate in front, and containing two houses,
at No. 2 did lately live Leishman my taylor. He is moved somewhere in
the neighbourhood, devil knows where. Pray find him out, and give him
the opposite. I am so much better, tho' my hand shakes in writing it,
that, after next Sunday, I can well see F[orster] and you. Can you throw
B.C. in? Why tarry the wheels of my Hogarth?
CHARLES LAMB.
["I am worse to a publisher." There is a rule by which a publisher must
present copies of every book to the Stationers' Hall, to be distributed
to the British Museum, the Bodleian, and Cambridge University Library.
"A.C.... B.C." Allan Cunningham's _Maid of Elvar_ and Barry Cornwall's
_English Songs_, both published by Moxon. This is Barry Cornwall's "King
Death":--
KING DEATH
King Death was a rare old fellow!
He sate where no sun could shine;
And he lifted his hand so yellow,
And poured out his coal-black wine.
_Hurrah! for the coal-black Wine!_
There came to him many a Maiden,
Whose eyes had forgot to shine;
And Widows, with grief o'erladen,
For a draught of his sleepy wine.
_Hurrah! for the coal-black Wine!_
The Scholar left all his learning;
The Poet his fancied woes;
And the Beauty her bloom returning,
Like life to the fading rose.
_Hurrah! for the coal-black Wine!_
All came to the royal old fellow,
Who laugh'd till his eyes dropped brine,
As he gave them his hand so yellow,
And pledged them in Death's black wine.
_Hurrah!--Hurrah!_
_Hurrah! for the coal-black Wine!_
By the "Epistle to What's his Name" Lamb refers to some lines to himself
which had been printed first in the _London Magazine_ in 1825, entitled
"The Epistle to Charles Lamb." See in the Appendix.
"Madame Pasty." Procter had some lines on Madame Pasta.
"My Specimens." Lamb's _Dramatic Specimens_, which very likely suggested
to Procter the idea of "Dramatic Fragments."
Under the date November 30, 1832, an unsigned letter endorsed "From
Charles Lamb to Professor Wilson" is printed in Mrs. Gordon's
_"Christopher North:" A Memoir of John Wilson_. Although in its first
paragraph it might be Lamb's, there is evidence to the contrary in the
remainder, and I have no doubt that the endorsement was a mistake. It is
therefore not printed here.]
LETTER 552
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[Dated by Forster at end: Dec., 1832.]
This is my notion. Wait till you are able to throw away a round sum (say
£1500) upon a speculation, and then --don't do it. For all your loving
encouragem'ts--till this final damp came in the shape of your letter,
thanks--for Books also--greet the Fosters and Proctors--and come singly
or conjunctively as soon as you can. Johnson and Fare's sheets have been
wash'd--unless you prefer Danby's _last_ bed--at the Horseshoe.
[I assume Lamb's advice to refer to Moxon's intention of founding a
paper called _The Reflector_, which Forster was to edit. All trace of
this periodical has vanished, but it existed in December, 1832, for
three numbers, and was then withdrawn. Lamb contributed to it.
Johnson and Fare had just murdered--on December l9--a Mr. Danby, at
Enfield. They had met him in the Crown and Horseshoes (see note to next
Letter).
Mr. W.C. Hazlitt prints a note to Moxon in his Bohn edition in which
Lamb advises the withdrawal of _The Reflector_ at once. This would be
December, 1832.]
LETTER 553
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN FORSTER
To Messrs. Bradbury & Evans, 14 Bouverie Street, Fleet Street. For the
Editor of the Reflector from C. Lamb.
[P.M. Dec. 23, 1832.]
I am very sorry the poor Reflector is abortive. Twas a child of good
promise for its _weeks_. But if the chances are so much against it,
withdraw immediately. It is idle up hill waste of money to spend another
stamp on it.
[Around the seal of this note are the words in Lamb's hand: "Obiit
Edwardus Reflector Armiger, 31 Dec., 1832. Natus tres hebdomidas. Pax
animae ejus."
The newspaper stamp at that time was fourpence (less 25 per cent.).
Here should come a letter from Lamb to Louisa Badams (_née_ Holcroft),
dated December 31, 1832, not available for this edition, in which, after
some plain speaking about the Westwoods, Lamb refers to the murder of
Mr. Danby at Enfield by Fare and two other men on the night of December
19, and says that he had been in their company at the inn a little
before, and the next morning was asked to give his evidence. Canon
Ainger says that Lamb's story is a hoax, but it reads reasonably enough
and might as easily have happened as not.]
LETTER 554
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[No date. Jan., 1833.]
I have a proof from Dilke. _That_ serves for next Saturday. What Forster
had, will serve a second. I sent you a _third_ concluding article for
_him_ and _us_ (a capital hit, I think, about Cervantes) of which I
leave you to judge whether we shall not want it to print _before_ a
third or even second week. In that case beg D. to clap them in all at
once; and keep the Atheneums to print from. What I send is the
concluding Article of the painters.
Soften down the Title in the Book to
"Defect of the Imaginative Faculty in Artists."
Consult Dilke.
[Lamb's _Elia_ essay "Barrenness of the Imaginative Faculty in the
Production of Modern Art," intended originally for _The Englishman's
Magazine_, was partly printed by Forster in _The Reflector_ and finally
printed in full in _The Athenaeum_ in January and February, 1833. The
reference to Don Quixote is at the end. Moxon was already printing the
_Last Essays of Elia_.
"Consult Dilke" was a favourite phrase with Lamb and Hood and, long
before, with Keats.]
LETTER 555
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[P.M. Jan. 3(1833).]
Be sure and let me have the Atheneum--or, if they don't appear, the Copy
back again. I have no other.
I am glad you are introduced to Rickman, _cultivate the introduction_. I
will not forget to write to him.
I want to see Blackwood, but _not without you_.
We are yet Emma-less.
And so that is all I can remember.
This is a corkscrew.
[_Here is a florid corkscrew._]
C. Lamb, born 1775
flourished about
the year 1832.
C.L. Fecit.--
[Lamb refers still to the "Barrenness of Imagination" series.
There are several scraps addressed by Lamb to Forster in the South
Kensington Museum; but they are undated and of little importance. I
append one or two here:--]
LETTER 556
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN FORSTER
[No date.]
Orders.
Go to Dilke's, or Let Mockson, and ax him to add this to what I sent him
a few days since, or to continue it the week after. The Plantas &c. are
capital.
Requests.
Come down with M. and _Dante_ and L.E.L. on Sunday.
ELIA.
I don't mean at his House, but the Atheneum office. Send it there. Hand
shakes.
[The Plantas would probably be a reference to the family of Joseph
Plantas of the British Museum. M. and Dante and L.E.L. would be Moxon,
Cary and Letitia Landon, the poetess, to whom Forster was for a while
engaged.
This letter, up to a certain point, was repeated as follows. It also is
at South Kensington:--]
LETTER 557
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN FORSTER
[No date.]
I wish youd go to Dilke's, or let Mockson, and ax him to add this to
what I sent him a few days since, or to continue it the week after. The
Plantas &c. are capital. Come down with Procter and Dante on Sunday. I
send you the last proof--not of my friendship. I knew you would like the
title. I do thoroughly. The Last Essays of Elia keeps out any notion of
its being a second volume.
LETTER 558
CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN FORSTER
[No date.]
There was a talk of Richmond on Sunday but we were hampered with an
unavoidable engagement that day, besides that I wish to show it you when
the woods are in full leaf. Can you have a quiet evening here to night
or tomorrow night? We are certainly at home.
Yours C. LAMB.
Friday.
LETTER 559
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[P.M. Jan. 24, 1833.]
Dear Murray! _Moxon_ I mean.--I am not to be making you pay postage
every day, but cannot let pass the congratulations of sister, brother,
and "Silk Cloak," _all most cordial_ on your change of place. Rogers
approving, who can demur? Tell me when you get into Dover St. and what
the _No_. is--that I may change foolscap for gilt, and plain Mr. for
Esqr. I shall _Mister_ you while you stay--
If you are not too great to attend to it, I wish us to do without the
Sonnets of Sydney: 12 will take up as many pages, and be too palpable a
fill up. Perhaps we may leave them out, retaining the article, but that
is not worth saving. I hope you liked my Cervantes Article which I sent
you yesterday.
Not an inapt quotation, for your fallen predecessor in Albemarle Street,
to whom you must give the _coup du main_--
Murray, long enough his country's pride.
_Pope._
[_Then, written at the bottom of the page_] there's [_and written on the
next page_] there's nothing over here.
[Moxon was moving from 64 New Bond Street to 33 Dover Street.
"Silk Cloak" would, I imagine, probably be a name for Emma Isola.
"The Sonnets of Sydney"--Lamb's _Elia_ essay on this subject. It was not
omitted from the _Last Essay_, which Moxon was to publish, and eleven
sonnets were quoted.
"Your fallen predecessor." It is hardly needful to say that Moxon made
very little difference to Murray's business. The line is from Pope's
Sixth Epistle of the First Book of Horace. To Mr. Murray, who afterwards
was Earl of Mansfield.]
LETTER 560
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[Feb. 10. P.M. Feby. 11, 1833.]
I wish you would omit "by the author of Elia," _now_, in advertising
that damn'd "Devil's Wedding."
I had sneaking hopes you would have dropt in today--tis my poor
birthday. Don't stay away so. Give Forster a hint--you are to bring your
brother some day--_sisters_ in better weather.
Pray give me one line to say if you receiv'd and forwarded Emma's
pacquet to Miss Adams,
and how Dover St. looks.
Adieu.
Is there no Blackwood this month?
[_Added on cover_:--]
What separation will there be between the friend's preface, and THE
ESSAYS? Should not "Last Essays &c." head them? If 'tis too late, don't
mind. I don't care a farthing about it.
["What separation"--the _Last Essays of Elia_ were preceded by "A
Character of the Late Elia."
Here should come a letter from Lamb to Louisa Badams, dated February 15,
1833. Lamb begins with a further reference to the Enfield murder. He
says that his sister and himself have got through the _Inferno_ with the
help of Cary, and Mary is beginning Tasso.]
LETTER 561
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[No date. Feb., 1833.]
My dear M.--I send you the last proof--not of my friendship-- pray see
to the finish.
I think you will see the necessity of adding those words after
"Preface"--and "Preface" should be in the "contents-table"--
I take for granted you approve the title. I do thoroughly-- Perhaps if
you advertise it in full, as it now stands, the title page might have
simply the Last Essays of Elia, to keep out any notion of its being a
second vol.--
Well, I wish us luck heartily for your sake who have smarted by me.--
LETTER 562
CHARLES LAMB TO T.N. TALFOURD
February, 1833.
My dear T.,--Now cannot I call him _Serjeant_; what is there in a coif?
Those canvas-sleeves protective from ink, when he was a law-chit--a
_Chitty_ling, (let the leathern apron be apocryphal) do more 'specially
plead to the Jury Court of old memory. The costume (will he agnize it?)
was as of a desk-fellow or Socius Plutei. Methought I spied a brother!
That familiarity is extinct for ever. Curse me if I can call him Mr.
Serjeant--except, mark me, in _company_. Honour where honour is due; but
should he ever visit us, (do you think he ever will, Mary?) what a
distinction should I keep up between him and our less fortunate friend,
H.C.R.! Decent respect shall always be the Crabb's--but, somehow, short
of reverence.
Well, of my old friends, I have lived to see two knighted: one made a
judge, another in a fair way to it. Why am I restive? why stands my sun
upon Gibeah?
Variously, my dear Mrs. Talfourd, (I can be more familiar with her!)
_Mrs. Serjeant Talfourd_,--my sister prompts me--(these ladies stand
upon ceremonies)--has the congratulable news affected the members of our
small community. Mary comprehended it at once, and entered into it
heartily. Mrs. W---- was, as usual, perverse--wouldn't, or couldn't,
understand it. A Serjeant? She thought Mr. T. was in the law. Didn't
know that he ever 'listed.
Emma alone truly sympathised. _She_ had a silk gown come home that very
day, and has precedence before her learned sisters accordingly.
We are going to drink the health of Mr. and Mrs. Serjeant, with all the
young serjeantry--and that is all that I can see that I shall get by the
promotion.
Valete, et mementote amici quondam vestri humillimi.
C.L.
[Talfourd, who had been pupil of Joseph Chitty, had just become a
serjeant.
"H.C.R."--Crabb Robinson.
"My old friends." Stoddart and Tuthill were knighted; Barron Field was a
judge; Talfourd was to become both a knight and a judge.
"Mrs. W----." Mrs. Westwood, I suppose.]
LETTER 563
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[No date. 1833.]
D'r M. let us see you & your Brother on Sunday--The Elias are
beautifully got up. Be cautious how you name the _probability_ of
bringing 'em ever out complete--till these are gone off. Everybody'd say
"O I'll wait then."
An't we to have a copy of the Sonnets--
Mind, I shall _insist_ upon having no more copies: only I shall take 3
or 4 more of you at trade price. I am resolute about this. Yours ever--
LETTER 564
CHARLES LAMB TO C.W. DILKE
[P.M. Feb., 1833.]
CHRISTIAN NAMES OF WOMEN
(TO EDITH S-----)
In Christian world MARY the garland wears!
REBECCA sweetens on a Hebrew's ear;
Quakers for pure PRISCILLA are more clear;
And the light Gaul by amorous NINON swears.
Among the lesser lights how LUCY shines!
What air of fragrance ROSAMUND throws round!
How like a hymn doth sweet CECILIA sound!
Of MARTHAS, and of ABIGAILS, few lines
Have bragg'd in verse. Of coarsest household stuff
Should homely JOAN be fashioned. But can
You BARBARA resist, or MARIAN?
And is not CLARE for love excuse enough?
Yet, by my faith in numbers, I profess,
These all, than Saxon EDITH, please me less.
Many thanks for the life you have given us--I am perfectly satisfied.
But if you advert to it again, I give you a delicate hint. Barbara S----
shadows under that name Miss Kelly's early life, and I had the Anecdote
beautifully from her.
[The sonnet, addressed to Edith Southey, was printed in _The Athenaeum_
for March 9, 1833.
For "Barbara S----" see Vol. II. of the present edition.]
LETTER 565
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[No date. Early 1833.]
No _writing_, and no _word_, ever passed between Taylor, or Hessey, and
me, respecting copy right. This I can swear. They made a volume at their
own will, and volunteerd me a third of profits, which came to £30, which
came to _Bilk_, and never came back to me. Proctor has acted a friendly
part--when did he otherwise? I am very sorry to hear Mrs. P---- _as I
suppose_ is not so well. I meditated a rallying epistle to him on his
Gemini--his two Sosias, accusing him of having acted a notable piece of
duplicity. But if his partner in the double dealing suffers--it would be
unseasonable. You cannot rememb'r me to him too kindly. Your chearful
letter has relieved us from the dumps; all may be well. I rejoice at
your letting your house so magnificently. Talfourd's letter may be
directed to him "On the Western Circuit."* That is the way, send it.
With Blackwood pray send Piozziana and a Literary Gazette if you have
one. The Piozzi and that shall be immed'tly return'd, and I keep Mad.
Darblay for you eventually, a longwinded reader at present having use of
it.
The weather is so queer that I will not say I _expect_ you &c.--but am
prepared for the pleasure of seeing you when you can come.
We had given you up (the post man being late) and Emma and I have 20
times this morning been to the door in the rain to spy for him coming.
Well, I know it is not all settled, but your letter is chearful and
cheer-making.
We join in triple love to you.
ELIA & Co.
I am settled _in any case_ to take at Bookseller's price any copies I
have more. Therefore oblige me by sending a copy of Elia to Coleridge
and B. Barton, and enquire (at your leisure of course) how I can send
one, with a letter, to Walter Savage Landor. These 3 put in your next
bill on me. I am peremptory that it shall be so. These are all I can
want.
*Is it the Western? he goes to Reading &c.
[John Taylor, representing the firm of Taylor & Hessey, seems to have
set up a claim of copyright in those essays in the _Last Essays of Elia_
that were printed in the _London Magazine_. For Procter's part, see next
letter.
_Piozziana; or, Recollections of the late Mrs. Piozzi_ (Johnson's Mrs.
Thrale), was published in 1833. It was by the Rev. E. Mangin.
Mad. Darblay would be _The Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, 1832, by his daughter
Madame d'Arblay (Admiral Burney's niece). The book was severely handled
in the _Quarterly_ for April, 1833.
The following letter, which is undated, seems to refer to the difficulty
mentioned above:--]
LETTER 566
CHARLES LAMB TO B.W. PROCTER
Enfield, Monday.
Dear P----, I have more than £30 in my house, and am independent of
quarter-day, not having received my pension.
Pray settle, I beg of you, the matter with Mr. Taylor. I know nothing of
bills, but most gladly will I forward to you that sum for him, for Mary
is very anxious that M[oxon] may not get into any litigation. The money
is literally rotting in my desk for want of use. I should not interfere
with M----, tell M---- when you see him, but Mary is really uneasy; so
lay it to that account, not mine.
Yours ever and two evers,
C.L.
Do it smack at once, and I will explain to M---- why I did it. It is
simply done to ease her mind. When you have settled, write, and I'll
send the bank notes to you twice, in halves.
Deduct from it your share in broken bottles, which, you being capital in
your lists, I take to be two shillings. Do it as you love Mary and me.
Then Elia's himself again.
LETTER 567
CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM HONE
[March 6, 1833.]
Dear Friend--Thee hast sent a Christian epistle to me, and I should not
feel clear if I neglected to reply to it, which would have been sooner
if that vain young man, to whom thou didst intrust it, had not kept it
back. We should rejoice to see thy outward man here, especially on a day
which should not be a first day, being liable to worldly callers in on
that day. Our little book is delayed by a heathenish injunction,
threatened by the man Taylor. Canst thou copy and send, or bring with
thee, a vanity in verse which in my younger days I wrote on friend
Aders' pictures? Thou wilt find it in the book called the Table Book.
Tryphena and Tryphosa, whom the world calleth Mary and Emma, greet you
with me.
CH. LAMB.
6th of 3d month 4th day.
[On this letter is written by Hone in pencil: "This acknowledges a note
from me to C.L. written in January preceding and sent by young Will
Hazlitt. Received in my paralysis. March, 1833."
On this day Lamb gave Hone two books with the same inscription in
each--very tipsily written.]
LETTER 568
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[P.M. March 19, 1833.]
I shall _expect_ Forster and two Moxons on Sunday, and _hope_ for
Procter.
I am obliged to be in town next Monday. Could we contrive to make a
party (paying or not is immaterial) for Miss Kelly's that night, and can
you shelter us after the play, I mean Emma and me? I fear, I cannot
persuade Mary to join us.
N.B. _I can sleep at a public house._
Send an Elia (mind, I _insist_ on buying it) to T. Manning Esq. at Sir
G. Tuthill's Cavendish Square.
DO WRITE.
[Miss Kelly was then giving an entertainment called "Dramatic
Recollections" at the Strand Theatre.]
LETTER 569
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[No date. ? Spring, 1833.]
One o Clock.
This instant receiv'd, this instant I answer your's--Dr. Cresswell has
one copy, which I cannot just now re-demand, because at his desire I
have sent a "Satan" to him, which when he ask'd for, I frankly told him,
was imputed a lampoon on HIM!!! I have sent it him, and cannot, till we
come to explanation, go to him or send--
But on the faith of a Gentleman, you shall have it back some day _for
another_. The 3 I send. I think 2 of the blunders perfectly immaterial.
But your feelings, and I fear _pocket_, is every thing. I have just time
to pack this off by the 2 o Clock stage. Yours till me meet
At all events I behave more gentlemanlike than Emma did, in returning
the copies.
Yours till we meet--DO COME.
Bring the Sonnets--
Why not publish 'em?--or let another Bookseller?
[Dr. Cresswell was vicar of Edmonton. Having married the daughter of a
tailor--or so Mr. Fuller Russell states in his account of a conversation
with Lamb in _Notes and Queries_--he was in danger of being ribaldly
associated with Satan's matrimonial adventures in Lamb's ballad. I
cannot explain to what book Lamb refers: possibly to the _Last Essays of
Elia_, which Moxon, having found errors in, wished to withdraw,
substituting another. The point probably cannot be cleared up. The
sonnets would be Moxon's own, which he had printed privately (see a
later letter).]
LETTER 570
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[P.M. March 30, 1833.]
D'r M. Emma and we are _delighted_ with the Sonnets, and she with her
nice Walton. Mary is deep in the novel. Come as early as you can. I
stupidly overlookd your proposal to meet you in Green Lanes, for in some
strange way I _burnt my leg_, shin-quarter, at Forster's;* it is laid up
on a stool, and Asbury attends. You'll see us all as usual, about
Taylor, when you come.
Yours ever
C.L.
*Or the night I came home, for I felt it not bad till yesterday. But I
scarce can hobble across the room.
I have secured 4 places for night: in haste.