and her malady growing so nearly chronic that there was only “a
twilight of consciousness in her,” she was kept under care and restraint
in St. John’s Wood until her death, thirteen years after his. She rests
by his side, in the same grave, as they both wished. His pension had
been, with rare generosity, continued to her by the East India Company,
and, in addition, she enjoyed the income of his small savings (£2,000)
during her life; at her death it went to Emma Isola Moxon. This was the
sum total of coin which he had gathered together; his real riches were
lavishly dispensed during his life, and are hoarded now by all of us who
love his memory.
We walk from Enfield by the same path across the fields through which
Lamb escorted Wordsworth and his other visitors to the _Bell_ at
Edmonton, there to take a parting glass with them, before the return
coach to town should come along. That famous inn is no longer as it was
in his day, even then still in the same state as it was when Cowper
laughed all night at the diverting history of John Gilpin, just heard
from Lady Austen, and said that he “must needs turn it into a ballad
when he got up,” to relieve his reaction of melancholy. The balcony
from which the thrifty wife gazed on Johnny’s mad career is gone, the
very walls are levelled, a vilely vulgar gin-palace rises in their
place, and the ancient sign, bearing the legend, _The Bell and John
Gilpin’s Ride_, is now replaced by a great aggressive gilt emblem.
From here we turn, following Lamb’s last footsteps, perchance none too
steady, along the London Road, past the old wooden taverns, steep-roofed
and dormer-windowed, set well back from the highway, and on the green in
front a mighty horse-trough--relic of ancient coaching conveniences. The
_Golden Fleece_ and the _Horse and Groom_ are all unchanged; in his odd
irony the modern builder has left them untouched, because they have no
historic memories! Then we wind around under the railway arch, and so
through dull, straggling Church Street; passing the little shop in
which--then a surgery--John Keats served his apprenticeship, and wrote
his “Juvenile Poems;” and by the one-storied Charity School, “A
structure of Hope, Founded in
[Illustration: EDMONTON CHURCH, FROM LAMB’S GRAVE.]
Faith, on the basis of Charity, 1784,” as the legend reads over the head
of the queer little female figure in the niche. Its mistress, drawn by
Lamb’s cheery voice as he came out, used to run to her window to look at
the “spare, middle-sized man in pantaloons,” as she described him.
For Bay Cottage--so called in his day, now well re-named Lamb’s Cottage,
next to the rampant lions on the gate-posts of Lion House--stands nearly
opposite the small school; and it was through this long, narrow strip of
front garden, cut by a gravelled footpath, and railed in by iron
palings, that Charles Lamb walked for the last time, and was carried to
his final resting-place. At its farther end squats the small cottage,
darkened and made more diminutive by the projecting houses on both
sides. On the left of the hall--large by contrast--is their snug
sitting-room, not more than twelve feet square, low-ceilinged,
deep-windowed, with a great beam above. Mounting by a narrow, winding,
tiny staircase, with its Queen Anne balustrade--under which partly lies
the dingy dining-room--we find ourselves in his front bedroom, his
death-room, with one window only, as in the sitting-room beneath. Mary’s
large bedroom is behind, with two good windows, looking out on the long
strip of back garden, wherein are aged trees and young vegetables.
Nothing within these walls has suffered any change.
It is but two minutes’ walk to the great, desolate graveyard, encircling
all about the ancient church; whose square, squat, battlemented tower
shows its mellow tints through dark masses of ivy. Service was going on
when I went for the first time to this spot, a few years since, and I
waited until the officiating clergyman had finished his functions, that
I might learn from him the location of the grave I had come so far to
see. _He could not tell me!_ He had heard that Charles Lamb was buried
in his churchyard, but he had never seen the grave, nor had he been
unduly inquisitive about it. After we had found it, a crippled impostor,
lounging on the lookout for stray pence, scrambled up with affectation
of mute sympathy, and swarmed down with scissors on the long grass about
the small mound. That parson’s ignorance, the obscurity and desolation
of the grave, the shocking structure of the stone-mason order of
architecture dominating it, well-cared for, and aggressively
commemorating one “Gideon Rippon, of the Eagle House, Edmonton, and of
the Bank of England”: all this is typical of the relation borne by
literature to Genteel Society in England. Its combined cohorts of The
Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry do not know, and do not want to know, about
the burial-place of their only Charles Lamb; but they do due reverence,
with naïve and unconscious vulgarity, to the memory of the bank official
who kept Books or handled Money. Lamb himself, with his large sense of
the ludicrous and his small sense of the decorous, would have been
tickled by the harmony between this state of affairs and his whole life.
To this grave--a peopled solitude it is to us--come pilgrims from the
other side of the ocean, and sometimes the Blue-Coat boys in small
groups. The dreary and tasteless head-stone bears Cary’s feeble lines,
affectionate enough, no doubt; but who cares to wade through a deluge of
doggerel, to learn that Lamb’s “meek and harmless mirth no more shall
gladden our domestic hearth”? The acutest criticism on this epitaph was
made by a knowing “navvy,” who, having spelled it through painfully,
said to his companion: “I’m blest if it isn’t as good as any in the
churchyard; _but a bit too long_, eh, mate?”
They have quite lately put up, in the church’s single aisle, a mural
monument, in which, under twin arches, perked up with crocketed
commonplaces, are the medallion busts of Charles Lamb and William
Cowper. Under the former--the only one which concerns us now--is cut
this inscription, fitly followed by Wordsworth’s impressive lines: “In
Memory of Charles Lamb, the gentle Elia, and author of the Tales from
Shakespeare. Born in the Inner Temple, 1775, educated at Christ’s
Hospital, Died at Bay Cottage, Edmonton, 1834, and buried beside his
sister Mary in the adjoining churchyard--
“‘At the centre of his being lodged
A soul by resignation sanctified:
Oh, he was good, if e’er a good man lived.’”
[Illustration: THE GRAVE OF CHARLES AND MARY ANNE LAMB AT EDMONTON.]
INDEX.
“A Farewell to Tobacco,” 89.
Addison, Joseph, 78.
Ainger, Canon, 25.
“Album Verses,” 128.
Aldgate, 113.
“All’s Well That Ends Well,” 95.
Amiens, 99, 100.
Amwell river, 97, 115.
Anceps, 114.
Aram, Eugene, 61.
Aristotle, 4.
Ashe river, 23.
_Athenæum, The_, 128.
Aunt Hetty, 15, 40.
Austen, Lady, 135.
Bacon, Francis, 125.
Balzac, Honoré de, 57.
Bank of England, 139.
Bartholomew Fair, 112.
Bartlett’s Passage, 11.
Barton, Bernard, 61, 76, 102.
Bay Cottage, 137, 140.
Bedford, Duke of, 78.
Bentham, Jeremy, 4.
Bethnal Green, 114.
Bird, William, 12.
Bishopsgate, 29, 113.
Blakesware, 22, 25, 49, 97.
Blue-Coat School, The, 17, 20, 46, 47, 139.
Bodleian Library, 116.
Boswell, James, 5.
Boulogne, 68.
Bow Bells, 119.
Bow Street, 78, 79, 80.
Boythorn, 96.
Braham, J., 5.
Brick Court, 13.
Brighton, 98.
_British Ladies’ Magazine_, 28.
British Museum, 116, 123, 124.
Brompton Crescent, 34.
Browne, Sir Thomas, 44, 132.
Bruce Castle, 114.
Bruce, Robert, 114.
“Brutus,” 100.
Buildings, Bartlett’s, 11.
Buildings, Featherstone, 48.
Buildings, Mitre Court, 53, 54, 102.
Buildings, New, 7.
Buildings, Ram Alley, 8.
Buildings, Southampton, 41, 52, 54, 122.
Bulwer, Lytton, 62.
Buonaparte, General, 34.
Burney, Captain, 61, 131.
Burney, Fanny, 61.
Burney, Martin, 61, 68, 85, 120.
Burns, Robert, 133.
Byron, Lord, 3, 126.
Cambridge, 98, 107.
Carlyle, Thomas, 47, 72, 124.
Cary, Rev’d H. F., 124, 139.
Cary, F. S., 124.
Castlereagh, Lord, 70.
Cervantes, 75.
Chadwell river, 115.
Chancery Lane, 54, 123.
Chapel Street, 38, 52.
Charing Cross, 6, 19.
Charles I., 115.
Chatham, Earl of, 34.
Chelsea China, 111.
Christ’s Hospital, 16, 29, 41, 42, 69, 116, 140.
Church Street, 136.
Cibber, Colley, 78.
City, The, 6, 26, 47.
City Road, 103.
Clare, Allan, 49.
Clarke, Mrs. Cowden, 132.
Clifford’s Inn, 70.
Clive, Robert, 27.
Colburn, H., 126.
Colebrook Cottage, 110, 113, 116.
Colebrook Row, 102, 103.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 17, 19, 20, 33, 38,
40, 41, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 54, 59, 60,
63, 64, 65, 66, 77, 85, 96, 97, 98, 132, 134.
“Coleridge, Early Recollections of,” 126.
Colman, George, Jr., 5.
Congreve, William, 5.
Cornwall, Barry (See Procter).
Cornwallis, Lord, 27.
Cook, Captain, 61.
Coote, Sir Eyre, 27.
Cottle, Joseph, 126.
Covent Garden, 78, 80, 81, 102.
Cowper, William, 5, 135, 140.
Cranmer, Archbishop, 17.
Crown Office Row, 7, 8, 13, 14.
Cunningham, Allan, 61.
Dalston, 103.
Dante, 124.
D’Arblay, Madame, 61.
Da Vinci, 111.
De Quincey, Thomas, 62, 70, 93, 108.
“Deserted Village, The,” 13.
Dickens, Charles, 6, 62.
Drury Lane Theatre, 72, 81.
Dryden, John, 3, 78.
Dyer, George, 42, 68, 69, 70, 104, 105.
Eagle House, 139.
East India Company, 110, 135.
East India House, 5, 26, 30, 44, 82, 83, 126.
Edward VI., 17, 116.
Edmonton, 15, 114, 119, 129, 134, 135, 139, 140.
“Elia,” 9, 58, 71, 75, 76, 82, 94, 103, 125, 140.
“Elia, Bridget,” 21, 94.
“Elia, Last Essays of,” 119, 128.
Elizabeth, Princess, 116.
Elliston, R. W., 72.
Embankment, The, 14.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 64.
Enfield, 43, 112, 113, 114, 115, 118, 119, 120, 135.
Enfield Chase, 115.
“English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,” 126.
_Englishman’s Magazine, The_, 127, 128.
Epping Hills, 117.
Essays of Charles Lamb:
Blakesmoor in H----shire, 24.
Child Angel, The, 16.
Confessions of a Drunkard, 74, 90.
Mackery End, 94.
My First Play, 42.
New Year’s Eve, 51.
Old Benchers of the Inner Temple, 9.
Old Margate Hoy, The, 98.
Peter’s Net, 127.
Popular Fallacies, 127.
South Sea House, The, 29.
Superannuated Man, The, 111.
Two Races of Men, The, 31.
Evans, William, 126.
Evelyn, John, 5, 112.
_Every Day Book, The_, 12, 123.
“Excursion, The,” 86.
Exeter Exchange, 6.
Falstaff, 105.
“Falstaff’s Letters,” 121.
Fetter Lane, 3, 11.
Field, Mrs., 22, 25.
Fielding, Henry, 5, 43.
Finden, W., 126.
Fleet Market, The, 18.
Fleet Street, 19, 122.
Forster, John, 5.
Franklin, Benjamin, 3.
_Fraser’s Magazine_, 127.
Fulleylove, John, 14.
Gardens, The Temple, 14.
Garrick, David, 9, 123.
Gate Street, 33.
Gay, John, 78.
Gilchrist, Mrs. Annie, 91.
Gilpin, John, 114, 135, 136.
Gladmans, The, 21.
Godwin, William, 60, 94.
Goethe, 57.
Goldsmith, Oliver, 5, 13.
“Good-Natur’d Man, The,” 13.
Göttingen, 66.
Gracechurch Street, 26.
Gray, Thomas, 107.
Great Fire, The, 26.
Great Turnstile, The, 48.
Gutch, John Mathew, 41, 53.
Hackney, 40.
Hackney Downs, 114.
“Hamlet,” 67.
Hancock, ----, 125.
Hand Court, 48.
Hare Court, 54.
Hart Street, 124.
Hastings, 98.
Hastings, Warren, 27.
Hatfield, 114.
Haydon, Benjamin R., 61, 70, 71, 77.
Hazlitt, William, 4, 41, 60, 65, 66, 73, 74, 77,
85, 91, 98, 99, 120, 122, 125, 132.
Hazlitt, Mrs., 69, 98.
Hazlitt, W. Carew, 38.
Helena, 95.
Heliogabalus, 87.
Helvellyn, 6.
Hermia, 95.
Hertfordshire, 21, 22.
“Hester,” 51.
Hogarth, William, 23, 58, 111.
Holborn, 11, 32, 33, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 48.
Holland House, 56.
Hollis Street, 3.
Holy Trinity Church, 32.
Hone, William, 12, 123.
Hood, Thomas, 4, 61, 112, 113, 115, 118, 120.
Hook, Theodore, 107.
Hoole, John, 27.
House of Commons, The, 86.
Hoxton, 34, 37, 40, 49.
Hunt, Leigh, 4, 17, 20, 45, 61, 76, 111, 120, 125, 126, 131.
Inner Temple Lane, 8, 9, 54, 59, 79.
Irving, Edward, 61.
Irving, Washington, 3.
Islington, 50, 52, 102, 104, 113, 128.
Isola, Emma, 107, 120, 121, 129.
Italy, 34, 131.
James I., 115.
Johnson, Samuel, 5, 6, 79.
Joseph, G. F., 126.
“Juvenile Poems,” 136.
Keats, John, 71, 136.
Kelly, Miss, 117.
King’s Bench Walk, 52.
Knowles, Mr., 34.
Lakes, The, 98.
Lamb, Charles (mentioned), 5, 7, 9, 11, 12,
13, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 24, 28, 29, 31,
33, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 45, 46,
47, 48, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62,
63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73,
74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 85, 86, 90, 93,
94, 97, 100, 102, 104, 107, 108, 109,
112, 115, 117, 118,
119, 120, 121, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127,
128, 132, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140.
Lamb, John (the father), 9, 10, 28.
Lamb, John (the son), 14, 28, 29, 37, 38, 109.
Lamb, Mary (mentioned), 5, 11, 13, 14, 15, 21,
28, 38, 40, 41, 53, 55, 58, 69, 73, 74, 80, 81,
82, 89, 91, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 100,
103, 105, 107, 109, 112, 113, 118, 120, 121,
123, 124, 128, 130, 132, 138, 140.
Landor, Walter Savage, 96, 120, 121.
Lea river, 97, 114.
Leadenhall Street, 26, 32, 82, 110.
“Lear, King,” 77.
Leighton, Archbishop, 133.
Leipsic, 66.
Leishman, Mrs., 113.
Lime Street, 26.
Lincoln, Abraham. 75.
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 32, 33, 48.
Lion House, 137.
Little Britain, 3.
Little Queen Street, 32, 42, 48.
Liverpool Road, 38.
Liverpool Street, 114.
Lloyd, Charles, 45, 61.
London, 3, 6, 7, 26, 74, 81, 97, 100, 115, 130.
London Fields, 114.
_London Magazine, The_, 62, 76, 82, 128.
London Road, 136.
“Lord Byron and His Contemporaries,” 126.
Louvre, The, 100.
“Lovel,” 9.
Lucan, 64.
“Lyrical Ballads,” 67.
“Macbeth,” 94.
Mackarel End, 21.
Mackery End, 21, 97.
Maclise, Daniel, 127.
Macready, W. C., 72.
Manning, Thomas, 30, 52, 53, 55, 61, 67, 72.
Manse, The, 117.
Margate, 98.
Metal Exchange, The, 26.
Meyer, Henry, 126.
Middleton, Bishop, 20.
“Midsummer Night’s Dream,” 95.
Mill, John Stuart, 27.
Milton, John, 3, 4, 67, 71, 130.
Molière, 75.
Montagu, Basil, 61.
Montaigne, 108.
Moore, Thomas, 71.
_Morning Chronicle, The_, 44.
Moxon, Edward, 127, 128, 129, 130, 134.
Moxon, Mrs., 130, 134, 135.
“Mr. H----, a Farce,” 72.
“Mrs. Leicester’s School,” 96, 134.
Mulready, William, 96.
Myddleton, Hugh, 115.
Napoleon, 60.
Nether Stowey, 64, 97.
_New Monthly Magazine, The_, 127, 128.
New River, 97, 102, 103, 104, 115, 116.
Newgate Street, 17, 46.
Newton, Isaac, 71.
Noggs, Newman, 38.
Occhini, 116.
Old Bailey, The, 18.
“On Needle-work,” 96.
Oriental Bank, The, 29.
Otaheite, 131.
“Othello,” 94.
Ovid, 23.
Oxford, 98, 99, 116.
Palace School, The, 116.
Paris, 68, 99, 100, 101.
Patmore, Coventry, 68.
Payne, John Howard, 99, 100.
“Pencillings by the Way,” 74.
Pentonville, 38, 39, 42, 48.
Pepys, Samuel, 79.
Petty France, 3.
Piscator, 114.
Pitt, William, 43, 115.
Plantagenet, 14.
Plumer Family, The, 22.
Poe, Edgar Allan, 71.
“Poems on Various Subjects,” 44.
“Poetry for Children,” 96.
Poplars, The, 117.
Portraits, of Charles Lamb, 124, 125, 126, 127;
of Mary Lamb, 124.
Primrose Hill, 70.
Prior, Matthew, 9.
Procter, B. W. (Barry Cornwall), 5, 56, 61, 62, 92, 93, 104, 107.
Pulham, Brook, 127.
_Quarterly Review, The_, 75.
Ratcliffe Highway, 70.
Regent’s Canal, The, 103.
“Religio Medici,” 132.
Rickman, John, 86.
Ridley, Bishop Nicholas, 17.
Rippon, Gideon, 139.
Robinson, Crabb, 58, 59, 62, 63, 73, 99, 120, 125, 133.
Rousseau, 108.
Royal Academy, The, 127.
Russell, Lord John, 66.
Russell Street, 78, 79, 81, 82, 90, 102.
Sadler’s Wells, 103.
St. Andrews, 38, 39.
St. John’s Wood, 135.
St. Martin’s Lane, 6.
St. Paul’s, 19, 47.
St. Paul’s Churchyard, 6.
Salisbury, 98.
Salisbury Plain, 56.
Salt, Samuel, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 30, 32.
Seine river, 100.
Seven Sisters, The, 114.
Sévigné, Madame de, 57.
Shaftesbury, Lord, 43.
Shakespeare, 14, 21, 43, 67, 68, 94, 95, 134, 140.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 45.
Shelley, Mrs., 131.
Shenstone, William, 57.
Siddons, Mrs., 44.
Silver Street, 114.
Simmons, Ann, 48, 49.
Skiddaw, 6.
Smith, Sydney, 66.
Smollett, Tobias, 78.
South Sea House, The, 29.
Southey, Robert, 46, 75, 76.
Spenser, Edmund, 5.
Staple Inn, 54.
Starkey, ----, 12.
Steele, Richard, 78.
Sterne, Laurence, 57, 75.
Stoddart, Sarah, 92.
Strand, The, 6, 75, 131.
Surrey Hills, The, 52.
Swift, Jonathan, 9, 43, 78.
Swinburne, Algernon, 5.
_Table Book, The_, 123.
“Tale of Rosamund Gray and Old Blind Margaret,” 45, 49.
“Tales from Shakespear,” 96, 134, 140.
Talfourd, Thomas Noon, 45, 56, 62, 126, 133.
Talma, 101.
Tasso, 27.
Taverns:
_Bell_, 135;
_Bell and John Gilpin’s Ride_, 136;
_Crown and Horseshoes_, 117;
_Feathers_, 48;
_Golden Fleece_, 136;
_Horse and Groom_, 136;
_Rising Sun_, 116;
_Salutation and Cat_, 46, 47;
_Swan_, 114.
Temple, The, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11,
13, 14, 18, 32, 52, 53,
54, 56, 57, 79, 80, 90, 94, 102, 140.
Thackeray, W. M., 87.
Thames river, 52.
“This Lime-Tree Bower my Prison,” 64.
Threadneedle Street, 29.
“Three Memorable Murders,” 70.
_Times, The London_, 34.
Titian, 5, 11.
Tottenham, 113.
_True Briton, The_, 36.
Tuileries, The, 100.
Van Diemen’s Land, 62.
Versailles, 100.
Wageman, ----, 126.
Wainewright, Thomas, 62.
Walden, Mr. and Mrs., 129, 130, 134.
Walton, Izaak, 10, 114.
“Walton Redivivus,” 115.
Ware, 25, 97, 114.
Warwick, Earl of, 14.
“Waverley,” 70.
Westminster, 3.
Westwoods, The, 118, 130.
Wheathampstead, 21.
White Hart Lane, 114.
White, James, 121.
Whittington, Richard, 26.
Widford, 25, 49.
Wild, Jonathan, 43.
Willis, N. P., 74.
Will’s Coffee House, 78.
Wilson, Walter, 88.
Wiltshire, 98.
Winterslow, 98.
Winterton, Alice, 48, 51.
Wordsworth, Dorothy, 80, 81, 97.
Wordsworth, William, 6, 31, 60,
63, 65, 67, 70, 73, 83, 87,
90, 97, 107, 109, 110,
117, 135, 140.
Worsley, P., 120.
Wren, Sir Christopher, 47.
* * * * *
BIBLIOGRAPHY,
BY
ERNEST D. NORTH.
PAGE
I. LEADING EVENTS IN LAMB’S LIFE 149
II. FIRST EDITIONS 150
III. THE “ELIA” ESSAYS 165
IV. REVIEWS, POEMS, ESSAYS, ETC. 168
V. COLLECTED WORKS 170
VI. SINGLE WORKS 172
VII. LETTERS 181
VIII. POETICAL WORKS 182
IX. LAMBIANA:
BIOGRAPHY, CRITICISMS, ETC. 182
MAGAZINE ARTICLES 189
The measurements given of the First Editions are for uncut copies,
unless otherwise stated.
The edition of the Works and Letters of Lamb referred to is Canon
Ainger’s.
In giving the title-pages no attempt has been made to reproduce the
various types used.
I. LEADING EVENTS IN LAMB’S LIFE.
1775. Born February 10, Crown Office Row, Temple.
1782 (aged 7). Enters Christ’s Hospital School.
1789 (aged 14). Leaves school and enters service of South Sea
House.
1792 (aged 17). Enters service East India Company.
1795 (aged 20). Resides at No. 7 Little Queen St., Holborn.
1796 (aged 21). Publishes four Sonnets in volume of “Poems by S. T.
Coleridge.”
1797 (aged 22). Removes to No. 45 Chapel St.,
Pentonville.--Contributes to “Poems by S. T. Coleridge, Charles
Lamb, and Charles Lloyd.”
1800 (aged 25). Writes Epilogue to Godwin’s “Antonio.”
1801 (aged 26). Removes to No. 16 Mitre-Court Buildings, Temple.
1802 (aged 27). Publishes “John Woodvil.”
1806 (aged 31). Produces “Mr. H.”--a Farce, at Drury Lane.
1807 (aged 32). Publishes “Tales from Shakespear”--“Mrs.
Leicester’s School.”--Writes Prologue for “Faulkener,” by Godwin.
1808 (aged 33). Publishes “Specimens of Dramatic Poets”--“The
Adventures of Ulysses.”
1809 (aged 34). Publishes “Poetry for Children.”--Removes to No. 4
Inner Temple Lane.--Lives at No. 34 Southampton Buildings.
1811 (aged 36). Publishes “Prince Dorus.”
1813 (aged 38). Writes Prologue for Coleridge’s “Remorse.”
1817 (aged 42). Removes to No. 20 Russell St., Covent Garden.
1818 (aged 43). Publishes “Collected Works.” 2 vols.
1820 (aged 45). Contributes to the _London Magazine_.
1823 (aged 48). Removes to Colebrooke (Colnbrooke) Row,
Islington.--Publishes “Essays of Elia,” First Series.
1825 (aged 50). Retires from East India House.--Contributes
numerous articles to Hone’s _Every Day Book_.
1826 (aged 51). Removes to Enfield.
1827 (aged 52). Contributes Introduction to “The Garrick Plays,” in
Hone’s _Table Book_.
1829 (aged 53). Lodges in Enfield.
1830 (aged 55). Publishes “Album Verses.”--Contributes “De Foe’s
Works of Genius” to Wilson’s “Memoirs of Daniel De Foe.”
1831 (aged 56). Publishes “Satan in Search of a Wife.”
1832 (aged 57). Removes to Bay Cottage, Edmonton.
1833 (aged 58). Publishes “Last Essays of Elia.”--Contributes
Epilogue to “The Wife,” by J. Sheridan Knowles.
1834 (aged 59 years 10 months). Charles Lamb dies, December 27, at
Edmonton.
* * * * *
II. FIRST EDITIONS.
[_Arranged Chronologically._]
1796.
[1]
_Title_: POEMS | ON | VARIOUS SUBJECTS, | by S. T. COLERIDGE, | late of
JESUS COLLEGE, Cambridge | [Quotation]. London: | Printed for G. G. and
J. Robinsons, and | J. Cottle, Bookseller, Bristol. | 1796. 16mo.
_Collation_: Bastard Title, 1 page. Title, 1 page. pp. xvi. pp. 188.
“Errata,” 1 unnumbered page of Advertisement, “Published by the same
author.” Size 6½ × 4.
_Note._ Coleridge says in the Preface, “The Effusions signed C. L.
were written by Mr. Charles Lamb, of the India House--independently
of the signature their superior merit would have sufficiently
distinguished them.” There are four, viz.: VII. “To Mrs. Siddons.”
XI. Beginning “Was it some sweet device of faery land?” XII.
Beginning “Methinks how dainty sweet it were, reclin’d.” XIII.
“Written at midnight, by the sea-side, after a voyage.”
_Price._ Johnson Sale, N. Y., 1890, $9.50 [calf, gilt]. Sotheby’s, 1887
[morocco, gilt top], £3 15_s._
1797.
[2]
_Title_: POEMS, | BY | S. T. COLERIDGE | Second edition |, to which are
now added | POEMS | BY CHARLES LAMB | and | Charles Lloyd | [Quotation].
Printed by N. Biggs, | for J. Cottle, Bristol, and Messrs. | Robinsons,
London. | 1797. 16mo.
_Collation_: Title, 1 page. pp. xx. pp. 278. Size 6-11/16 × 4⅛.
_Note._ Lamb’s contribution was eight Sonnets and a Dedication,
viz.: “Fragments,” (6) “A Vision of Repentance,” in Supplement,
“Childhood,” “Grandame,” “The Sabbath Bells,” “Fancy,” “The Tomb of
Douglas.”
“There were inserted in my former Edition a few Sonnets of my
Friend and Old Schoolfellow, Charles Lamb. He has now communicated
to me a complete collection of all his Poems--_quæ qui non prorsus
amet ilium omnes et virtutes et veneres ordore_.”
This volume contains two Prefaces, one to the First Edition, signed
S. T. C., and one to Second Edition, signed “Stowey, May, 1797,” S.
T. C.
_Price._ Johnson Sale, N. Y., 1890 [calf, gilt top], $8.00. Sotheby’s,
1887 [calf], £1 18_s._ Sotheby’s, 1888 [calf, gilt], £1 5_s._ Sotheby’s,
1887 [calf], £1 10_s._
1798.
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_Title_: BLANK VERSE, | by | CHARLES LLOYD | AND CHARLES LAMB. |
London: | Printed by T. Bensley, | for John and Arthur Arch, No 23,
Grace-| church Street | 1798. 12mo
_Collation_: Title, 1 page, Double Title, 1 page, Dedication, 1 page.
pp. 95. Index, 1 page. Size 6⅝ × 4⅜.
_Price._ Johnson Sale, N. Y., 1890 [morocco uncut, gilt top], $28.00.
Sotheby’s, 1890 [original boards, uncut], £9.
1798.
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_Title_: A TALE | of | ROSAMUND GRAY | and | OLD BLIND MARGARET. | by
CHARLES LAMB. | London, | Printed for Lee and Hurst, | No. 32.
Pater-noster Row, | 1798. Small 8vo
_Collation_: Title, 1 page, Dedication, 1 page. pp. 134. Size 6⅝ ×
4⅛.
_Note._ Another edition was published the same year in Birmingham.
Printed for Thos. Pearson, pp. 134.
With the exception of the title-page this edition is identical with
the London one. Charles Lloyd’s father lived in Birmingham, and it
is suggested that a few copies had been struck off there.
[Dedication. “This Tale is inscribed in friendship to Marmaduke
Thompson, of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge.”]
_Price._ Dodd & Mead [morocco, gilt. Title in fac-simile], $50.00. New
York, 1885 [Full calf, by Bedford], $25.00.
1799.
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_Title_: THE | ANNUAL ANTHOLOGY, | Volume I | Bristol: Printed by Biggs
and Co, For | T. N. Longman and O. Rees, Paternoster-Row, | London |
n,d. 16mo
_Collation_: Title, 1 page, Advertisement, 1 unnumbered leaf, Contents,
4 unnumbered pages, pp. 300. Size 6⅞ × 4½.
_Note._ This volume was edited by Robert Southey, and published by
Joseph Cottle. Among the distinguished contributors were Coleridge,
Southey, Charles Lloyd, George Dyer, Mrs. Opie, Joseph Cottle,
etc., etc. Lamb contributed “Living Without God in the World,” pp.
90-92. A second series was published the next year [See Letter to
Southey, November 28, 1798], which contained Coleridge’s Poem “This
Lime-Tree Bower my Prison, A Poem addressed to Charles Lamb of the
India House,” pp. 140-144.
_Price._ Sotheby’s, 1888 [original boards, uncut], £1. [calf] £1 5_s._
1800.
[6]