He who, to enjoy
Plato's Elysium, leap'd into the sea.
_Paradise Lost_, III., lines 471-472.
Page 49, line 8. _Plasterers at Babel_. Lamb's _London Magazine_
note:--
The builders next of Babel on the plain
Of Sennaar.
_Paradise Lost_, III., lines 466-467.
Page 49, line 10. _My right hand_. Lamb, it is probably unnecessary to
remind the reader, stammered too.
Page 49, line 13 from foot. _Duns_, Duns Scotus (1265?-1308?),
metaphysician, author of _De modis significandi sive Grammatica
Speculativa_ and other philosophic works. Known as Doctor Subtilis.
There was nothing of Duns in the _London Magazine_; the sentence ran:
"Mr. Hazlitt, I cannot indulge you in your definitions." This was at a
time when Lamb and Hazlitt were not on good terms.
Page 49, last line. _Honest R----_. Lamb's Key gives "Ramsay, London
Library, Ludgate Street; now extinct." I have tried in vain to find
out more about Ramsay. The London Library was established at 5 Ludgate
Street in 1785. Later, the books were lodged at Charles Taylor's house
in Hatton Garden, and were finally removed to the present London
Institute in Finsbury Circus.
Page 50, line 6. _Good Granville S----_. Lamb's Key gives Granville
Sharp. This was the eccentric Granville Sharp, the Quaker abolitionist
(1735-1813).
* * * * *
Page 51. A QUAKER'S MEETING.
_London Magazine_, April, 1821.
Lamb's connection with Quakers was somewhat intimate throughout
his life. In early days he was friendly with the Birmingham
Lloyds--Charles, Robert and Priscilla, of the younger generation,
and their father, Charles Lloyd, the banker and translator of Horace
and Homer (see _Charles Lamb and the Lloyds_, 1898); and later with
Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet of Woodbridge. Also he had loved from
afar Hester Savory, the subject of his poem "Hester" (see Vol. IV.). A
passage from a letter written in February, 1797, to Coleridge, bears
upon this essay:--"Tell Lloyd I have had thoughts of turning Quaker,
and have been reading, or am rather just beginning to read, a most
capital book, good thoughts in good language, William Penn's 'No
Cross, No Crown,' I like it immensely. Unluckily I went to one of his
meetings, tell him, in St. John Street [Clerkenwell] yesterday, and
saw a man under all the agitations and workings of a fanatic, who
believed himself under the influence of some 'inevitable presence.'
This cured me of Quakerism; I love it in the books of Penn and
Woolman, but I detest the vanity of a man thinking he speaks by the
Spirit...."
Both Forster and Hood tell us that Lamb in outward appearance
resembled a Quaker.
Page 52, line 13. _The uncommunicating muteness of fishes_. Lamb had
in mind this thought on the silence of fishes when he was at work on
_John Woodvil_. Simon remarks, in the exquisite passage (Vol. IV.) in
reply to the question, "What is it you love?"
The fish in th' other element
That knows no touch of eloquence.
Page 53, second quotation. "_How reverend ..._" An adaptation of
Congreve's description of York Minster in "The Mourning Bride" (Mary
Lamb's "first play"), Act I., Scene 1:--
How reverend is the face of this tall pile ...
Looking tranquillity!
Page 53, middle. _Fox and Dewesbury_. George Fox (1624-1691) founded
the Society of Friends. William Dewesbury was one of Fox's first
colleagues, and a famous preacher. William Penn (1644-1718), the
founder of Pennsylvania, was the most illustrious of the early
converts to Quakerism. Lamb refers to him again, before his judges, in
the essay on "Imperfect Sympathies," page 73. George Fox's _Journal_
was lent to Lamb by a friend of Bernard Barton's in 1823. On returning
it, Lamb remarked (February 17, 1823):--"I have quoted G.F. in my
'Quaker's Meeting' as having said he was 'lifted up in spirit' (which
I felt at the time to be not a Quaker phrase),' and the Judge and Jury
were as dead men under his feet.' I find no such words in his Journal,
and I did not get them from Sewell, and the latter sentence I am sure
I did not mean to invent. I must have put some other Quaker's words
into his mouth."
Sewel was a Dutchman--William Sewel (1654-1720). His title runs:
_History of the Rise, Increase and Progress of the Christian People
called Quakers, written originally in Low Dutch by W. Sewel, and by
himself translated into English_, 1722. James Naylor (1617-1660) was
one of the early Quaker martyrs--"my favourite" Lamb calls him in a
letter. John Woolman (1720-1772) was an American Friend. His principal
writings are to be found in _A Journal of the Life, Gospel Labours,
and Christian Experiences of that faithful minister of Jesus Christ,
John Woolman, late of Mount Holly in the Province of Jersey, North
America_, 1795. Modern editions are obtainable.
* * * * *
Page 56. THE OLD AND THE NEW SCHOOLMASTER.
_London Magazine_, May, 1821.
Page 56, line 9. _Ortelius ... Arrowsmith_. Abraham Ortellius
(1527-1598), the Dutch geographer and the author of _Theatrum
Orbis Terræ_, 1570. Aaron Arrowsmith (1750-1823) was a well-known
cartographer at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Lamb would
perhaps have known something of his _Atlas of Southern India_, a very
useful work at the East India House.
Page 56, line 13. _A very dear friend_. Barren Field (see the essay on
"Distant Correspondents").
Page 56, line 10 from foot. _My friend M_. Thomas Manning (1772-1840),
the mathematician and traveller, and Lamb's correspondent.
Page 56, last line. "_On Devon's leafy shores_." From Wordsworth's
_Excursion_, III.
Page 57, line 16. _Daily jaunts_. Though Lamb was then (1821) living
at 20 Great Russell Street, Covent Garden, he rented rooms at 14
Kingsland Row, Dalston, in which to take holidays and do his literary
work undisturbed. At that time Dalston, which adjoins Shackleton, was
the country and Kingsland Green an open space opposite Lamb's lodging.
Page 58, line 23. _The North Pole Expedition_. This would probably
be Sir John Franklin's expedition which set out in 1819 and ended in
disaster, the subject of Franklin's book, _Narrative of a Journey to
the Shores of the Polar Sea in the years 1819, 20, 21, 22_ (1823). Sir
John Ross made an expedition in 1818, and Sir William Edward Parry in
1819, and again in 1821-1823 with Lyon. The panorama was possibly
at Burford's Panorama in the Strand, afterwards moved to Leicester
Square.
Page 60, line 17. _Tractate on Education_. Milton's _Tractate on
Education_, addressed to his friend, Samuel Hartlib, was published in
1644. The quotation above is from that work. This paragraph of Lamb's
essay was afterwards humorously expanded in his "Letter to an Old
Gentleman whose Education has been Neglected" (see Vol. I.).
Page 60, last line. _Mr. Bartley's Orrery._ George Bartley
(1782?-1858), the comedian, lectured on astronomy and poetry at the
Lyceum during Lent at this time. An orrery is a working model of the
solar system. The Panopticon was, I assume, a forerunner of the famous
Panopticon in Leicester Square.
Page 61, line 8. "_Plaything for an hour_." A quotation, from Charles
and Mary Lamb's _Poetry for Children_--"Parental Recollections":--
A child's a plaything for an hour.
Page 63, end of essay. "_Can I reproach her for it_." After these
words, in the _London Magazine_, came:--
"These kind of complaints are not often drawn from me. I am aware
that I am a fortunate, I mean a prosperous man. My feelings
prevent me from transcribing any further."
* * * * *
Page 63. VALENTINE'S DAY.
This essay first appeared in _The Examiner_, February 14 and 15, 1819,
and again in _The Indicator_, February 14, 1821. Signed ***
Page 64, line 18. _Twopenny postman._ Hone computed, in his _Every-Day
Book_, Vol. I., 1825, that "two hundred thousand letters beyond the
usual daily average annually pass through the two-penny post-office in
London on Valentine's Day." The Bishop's vogue is now (1911) almost
over.
Page 65, line 15 from foot. E.B. Lamb's Key gives "Edward Burney, half
brother of Miss Burney." This was Edward Francis Burney (1760-1848),
who illustrated many old authors, among them Richardson.
* * * * *
Page 66. IMPERFECT SYMPATHIES.
_London Magazine_, August, 1821, where the title ran: "Jews, Quakers,
Scotchmen, and other Imperfect Sympathies."
Page 69, line 18 from foot. _A print ... after Leonardo._ The Virgin
of the Rocks. See Vol. IV. for Lamb's and his sister's verses on this
picture. Crabb Robinson's MS. diary tells us that the Scotchman was
one Smith, a friend of Godwin. His exact reply to Lamb's remark about
"my beauty" was: "Why, sir, from all I have heard of you, as well
as from what I have myself seen, I certainly entertain a very high
opinion of your abilities, but I confess that I have not formed any
opinion concerning your personal pretensions."
Page 70, line 10. _The poetry of Burns._ "Burns was the god of my
idolatry," Lamb wrote to Coleridge in 1796. Coleridge's lines on
Burns, "To a Friend who had declared his intention of writing no more
poetry," were addressed to Lamb. Barry Cornwall records seeing Lamb
kiss his copy of the poet.
Page 70, line 17. _You can admire him_. In the _London Magazine_ Lamb
added:--
"I have a great mind to give up Burns. There is certainly
a bragging spirit of generosity, a swaggering assertion of
independence, and _all that_, in his writings."
Page 70, line 18. _Smollett_. Tobias George Smollett (1721-1771), the
novelist, came of a Dumbartonshire family. Rory was Roderick Random's
schoolboy name. His companion was Strap. See _Roderick Random_,
Chapter XIII., for the passage in question. Smollett continued the
_History of England_ of David Hume (1711-1776), also a Scotchman, and
one of the authors whom Lamb could not read (see "Detached Thoughts on
Books and Reading," page 196).
Lamb's criticism of Scotchmen did not pass without comment. The
pleasantest remark made upon it was that of Christopher North
(John Wilson) some dozen years later (after he had met Lamb), in a
_Blackwood_ paper entitled "Twaddle on Tweedside" (May, 1833), wherein
he wrote:--
Charles Lamb ought really not to abuse Scotland in the pleasant
way he so often does in the sylvan shades of Enfield; for Scotland
loves Charles Lamb; but he is wayward and wilful in his wisdom,
and conceits that many a Cockney is a better man even than
Christopher North. But what will not Christopher forgive to Genius
and Goodness? Even Lamb bleating libels on his native land. Nay,
he learns lessons of humanity, even from the mild malice of Elia,
and breathes a blessing on him and his household in their Bower of
Rest.
Coleridge was much pleased by this little reference to his friend. He
described it as "very sweet indeed" (see his _Table Talk_, May 14,
1833).
Page 70, line 14 from foot. _Hugh of Lincoln_. Hugh was a small
Lincoln boy who, tradition states, was tortured to death by the Jews.
His dead body being touched by a blind woman, she received sight.
Many years earlier Lamb had spoken of the Jew in English society with
equal frankness (see his note to the "Jew of Malta" in the _Dramatic
Specimens_).
Page 71, line 18. _B----_. John Braham, _née_ Abraham (1774?-1856),
the great tenor. Writing to Manning in 1808, Lamb says:--"Do you like
Braham's singing? The little Jew has bewitched me. I follow him like
as the boys followed Tom the Piper. He cures me of melancholy as
David cured Saul.... I was insensible to music till he gave me a new
sense.... Braham's singing, when it is impassioned, is finer than Mrs.
Siddons's or Mr. Kemble's acting! and when it is not impassioned it is
as good as hearing a person of fine sense talking. The brave little
Jew!"
Two years later Lamb tells Manning of Braham's absence from London,
adding: "He was a rare composition of the Jew, the gentleman, and the
angel; yet all these elements mixed up so kindly in him that you could
not tell which preponderated." In this essay Lamb refers to Braham's
singing in Handel's oratorio "Israel in Egypt." Concerning Braham's
abandonment of the Jewish faith see Lamb's sarcastic essay "The
Religion of Actors," Vol. I., page 338.
Page 73, line 17 from foot. _I was travelling_. Lamb did not really
take part in this story. It was told him by Sir Anthony Carlisle
(1768-1840), the surgeon, as he confessed to his Quaker friend,
Bernard Barton (March 11, 1823), who seemed to miss its point. Lamb
described Carlisle as "the best story-teller I ever heard."
* * * * *
Page 74. WITCHES, AND OTHER NIGHT-FEARS.
_London Magazine_, October, 1821.
Compare with this essay Maria Howe's story of "The Witch Aunt," in
_Mrs. Leicester's School_ (see Vol. III.), which Lamb had written
thirteen years earlier.
Page 75, line 12 from foot. _History of the Bible, by Stackhouse_.
Thomas Stackhouse (1677-1752) was rector of Boldon, in Durham; his
_New History of the Holy Bible from the Beginning of the World to the
Establishment of Christianity_--the work in question--was published in
1737.
Page 75, line 6 from foot. _The Witch raising up Samuel_. This
paragraph was the third place in which Lamb recorded his terror of
this picture of the Witch of Endor in Stackhouse's _Bible_, but the
first occasion in which he took it to himself. In one draft of _John
Woodvil_ (see Vol. IV.), the hero says:--
I can remember when a child the maids
Would place me on their lap, as they undrest me,
As silly women use, and tell me stories
Of Witches--make me read "Glanvil on Witchcraft,"
And in conclusion show me in the Bible,
The old Family Bible, with the pictures in it,
The 'graving of the Witch raising up Samuel,
Which so possest my fancy, being a child,
That nightly in my dreams an old Hag came
And sat upon my pillow.
Then again, in _Mrs. Leicester's School_, in the story of Maria Howe,
called "The Witch Aunt," one of the three stories in that book which
Lamb wrote, Stackhouse's _Bible_ is found once more. In my large
edition I give a reproduction of the terrible picture. Page 77, foot.
_Dear little T.H._ This was the unlucky passage which gave Southey his
chief text in his criticism of _Elia_ as a book wanting "a sounder
religious feeling," and which led to Lamb's expostulatory "Letter"
(see Vol. I.). Southey commented thus:--
This poor child, instead of being trained up in the way in which
he should go, had been bred in the ways of modern philosophy; he
had systematically been prevented from knowing anything of that
Saviour who said, "Suffer little children to come unto Me, and
forbid them not; for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven;" care had
been taken that he should not pray to God, nor lie down at night
in reliance upon His good Providence!
T.H. was Thornton Hunt, Leigh Hunt's eldest son and Lamb's "favourite
child" (see verses to him in Vol. IV.).
Page 79, line 18 from foot. _Barry Cornwall_. Bryan Waller Procter
(1787-1874), Lamb's friend. The reference is to "A Dream," a poem in
Barry Cornwall's _Dramatic Scenes_, 1819, which Lamb greatly admired.
See his sonnet to the poet in Vol. IV., where it is mentioned again.
Page 80, last paragraph of essay. In the original MS. of this essay
(now in the Dyce and Forster collection at South Kensington) the last
paragraph ran thus:--
"When I awoke I came to a determination to write prose all the
rest of my life; and with submission to some of our young writers,
who are yet diffident of their powers, and balancing perhaps
between verse and prose, they might not do unwisely to decide the
preference by the texture of their natural dreams. If these are
prosaic, they may depend upon it they have not much to expect in
a creative way from their artificial ones. What dreams must not
Spenser have had!"
* * * * *
Page 80. MY RELATIONS.
_London Magazine_, June, 1821.
Page 80, beginning. _At that point of life_. Lamb was forty-six on
February 10, 1821.
Page 80, line 12 of essay. _I had an aunt_. Aunt Hetty, who died in
1797 (see the essay on "Christ's Hospital").
Page 81, line 6. _The chapel in Essex-street_. The headquarters of
"that heresy," Unitarianism. Lamb was at first a Unitarian, but
afterwards dropped away from all sects.
Page 81, line 23. _Brother, or sister, I never had any--to know them_.
Lamb is writing strictly as the imagined Elia, Elia being Lamb in mind
rather than Lamb in fact. It amused him to present his brother John
and his sister Mary as his cousins James and Bridget Elia. We have
here an excellent example of his whimsical blending of truth and
invention: brothers and sisters he denies, yet admits one sister,
Elizabeth, who died in both their infancies. Lamb had in reality two
sisters named Elizabeth, the former of whom he never knew. She was
born in 1762. The second Elizabeth, his parents' fifth child, was born
in 1768, seven years before Charles. Altogether the Lambs had seven
children, of whom only John (born 1763), Mary Anne (born 1764) and
Charles (born 1775) grew up. Again Lamb confesses to several cousins
in Hertfordshire, and to two others. The two others were fictitious,
but it was true that he had Hertfordshire relations (see the essay
"Mackery End, in Hertfordshire").
John Lamb's character is perhaps sufficiently described in this essay
and in "Dream-Children." He was a well-to-do official in the South-Sea
House, succeeding John Tipp as accountant. Crabb Robinson found him
too bluff and noisy to be bearable; and he once knocked Hazlitt down
in a dispute about painting. He died on October 26, 1821, to his
brother's great grief, leaving Charles everything. He married late in
life a Mrs. Dowden. Probably she had her own money and needed none of
her second husband's. Hence the peculiarity of the will. Mrs. John
Lamb died in 1826.
John Lamb's sympathy with animals led him to write in 1810 a pamphlet
entitled _A Letter to the Right Hon. William Windham, on his
opposition to Lord Erskine's Bill for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals_--Mr. Windham having expressed it as his opinion that the
subject was not one for legislation. Lamb sent the pamphlet to Crabb
Robinson on February 7, 1810, saying:--"My Brother whom you have met
at my rooms (a plump good looking man of seven and forty!) has written
a book about humanity, which I transmit to you herewith. Wilson the
Publisher has put it in his head that you can get it Reviewed for him.
I dare say it is not in the scope of your Review--but if you could
put it into any likely train, he would rejoyce. For alas! our boasted
Humanity partakes of Vanity. As it is, he teazes me to death with
chusing to suppose that I could get it into all the Reviews at a
moment's notice.--I!! who have been set up as a mark for them to throw
at and would willingly consign them all to Hell flames and Megæra's
snaky locks.
"But here's the Book--and don't shew it Mrs. Collier, for I remember
she makes excellent Eel soup, and the leading points of the Book are
directed against that very process."