Page 113, line 1. _The maternal lap_. With the exception of a brief
mention on page 33--"the gentle posture of maternal tenderness"--this
is Lamb's only reference to his mother in all the essays--probably
from the wish not to wound his sister, who would naturally read all he
wrote; although we are told by Talfourd that she spoke of her mother
with composure. But it is possible to be more sensitive for others
than they are for themselves.
Page 113, line 3. _The play was Artaxerxes_. The opera, by Thomas
Augustine Arne (1710-1778), produced in 1762, founded on Metastasio's
"Artaserse." The date of the performance was in all probability
December 1, 1780, although Lamb suggests that it was later; for that
was the only occasion in 1780-81-82 on which "Artaxerxes" was followed
by "Harlequin's Invasion," a pantomime dating from 1759, the work of
Garrick. It shows Harlequin invading the territory of Shakespeare;
Harlequin is defeated and Shakespeare restored.
Page 113, line 20. _The Lady of the Manor_. Here Lamb's memory, I
fancy, betrayed him. This play (a comic opera by William Kenrick) was
not performed at Drury Lane or Covent Garden in the period mentioned.
Lamb's pen probably meant to write "The Lord of the Manor," General
Burgoyne's opera, with music by William Jackson, of Exeter, which was
produced in 1780. It was frequently followed in the bill by "Robinson
Crusoe," but never by "Lun's Ghost," whereas Wycherley's "Way of the
World" was followed by "Lun's Ghost" at Drury Lane on January 9, 1782.
We may therefore assume that Lamb's second visit to the theatre was to
see "The Lord of the Manor," followed by "Robinson Crusoe," some time
in 1781, and his third to see "The Way of the World," followed by
"Lun's Ghost" on January 9, 1782. "Lun's Ghost" was produced on
January 3, 1782. Lun was the name under which John Rich (1682?-1761),
the pantomimist and theatrical manager, had played in pantomime.
Page 113, last line. _Round Church ... of the Templars_. This allusion
to the Temple Church and its Gothic heads was used before by Lamb in
his story "First Going to Church" in _Mrs. Leicester's School_ (see
Vol. III.). In that volume Mary Lamb had told the story of what we
may take to be her first play (see "Visit to the Cousins"), the piece
being Congreve's "Mourning Bride."
Page 114, line 1. _The season 1781-2_. Lamb was six on February 10,
1781. He says, in his "Play-house Memoranda," of the same occasion,
"Oh when shall I forget first seeing a play, at the age of five or
six?"
Page 114, line 3. _At school_. Lamb was at Christ's Hospital from 1782
to 1789.
Page 114, end. _Mrs. Siddons in "Isabella."_ Mrs. Siddons first played
this part at Drury Lane on October 10, 1782. The play was "Isabella,"
a version by Garrick of Southerne's "Fatal Marriage." Mrs. Siddons
also appeared frequently as Isabella in "Measure for Measure;" but
Lamb clearly says "in" Isabella, meaning the play. Lamb's sonnet,
in which he collaborated with Coleridge, on Mrs. Siddons, which was
printed in the _Morning Chronicle_ in December, 1794 (see Vol. IV.),
was written when he was nineteen. It runs (text of 1797):--
As when a child on some long winter's night
Affrighted clinging to its Grandam's knees
With eager wond'ring and perturb'd delight
Listens strange tales of fearful dark decrees
Mutter'd to wretch by necromantic spell;
Or of those hags, who at the witching time
Of murky midnight ride the air sublime,
And mingle foul embrace with fiends of Hell:
Cold Horror drinks its blood! Anon the tear
More gentle starts, to hear the Beldame tell
Of pretty babes, that lov'd each other dear,
Murder'd by cruel Uncle's mandate fell:
Ev'n such the shiv'ring joys thy tones impart,
Ev'n so thou, SIDDONS! meltest my sad heart!
* * * * *
Page 115. DREAM-CHILDREN.
_London Magazine_, January, 1822.
John Lamb died on October 26, 1821, leaving all his property to his
brother. Charles was greatly upset by his loss. Writing to Wordsworth
in March, 1822, he said: "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.... Deaths over-set one, and put one out
long after the recent grief." (His friend Captain Burney died in the
same month.) Lamb probably began "Dream-Children,"--in some ways,
I think, his most perfect prose work--almost immediately upon his
brother's death. The essay "My Relations" may be taken in connection
with this as completing the picture of John Lamb. His lameness was
caused by the fall of a stone in 1796, but I doubt if the leg were
really amputated.
The description in this essay of Blakesware, the seat of the Plumers,
is supplemented by the essay entitled "Blakesmoor in H----shire."
Except that Lamb substitutes Norfolk for the nearer county, the
description is accurate; it is even true that there is a legend in the
Plumer family concerning the mysterious death of two children and the
loss of the baronetcy thereby--Sir Walter Plumer, who died in the
seventeenth century, being the last to hold the title. In his poem
"The Grandame" (see Vol. IV.), Lamb refers to Mrs. Field's garrulous
tongue and her joy in recounting the oft-told tale; and it may be to
his early associations with the old story that his great affection
for Morton's play, "The Children in the Wood," which he so often
commended--particularly with Miss Kelly in the caste--was due. The
actual legend of the children in the wood belongs, however, to
Norfolk.
William Plumer's newer and more fashionable mansion was at Gilston,
which is not in the adjoining county, but also in Hertfordshire, near
Harlow, only a few miles distant from Blakesware. Mrs. Field died
of cancer in the breast in August, 1792, and was buried in Widford
churchyard, hard by Blakesware.
According to Lamb's Key the name Alice W----n was "feigned." If by
Alice W----n Lamb, as has been suggested, means Ann Simmons, of
Blenheims, near Blakesware, he was romancing when he said that he had
courted her for seven long years, although the same statement is made
in the essay on "New Year's Eve." We know that in 1796 he abandoned
all ideas of marriage. Writing to Coleridge in November of that year,
in reference to his love sonnets, he says: "It is a passion of which I
retain nothing.... Thank God, the folly has left me for ever. Not even
a review of my love verses renews one wayward wish in me." This was
1796. Therefore, as he was born in 1775, he must have begun the wooing
of Alice W----n when he was fourteen in order to complete the seven
long years of courtship. My own feeling, as I have stated in the notes
to the love sonnets in Vol. IV., is that Lamb was never a very serious
wooer, and that Alice W----n was more an abstraction around which now
and then to group tender imaginings of what might have been than any
tangible figure.
A proof that Ann Simmons and Alice W----n are one has been found
in the circumstance that Miss Simmons did marry a Mr. Bartrum, or
Bartram, mentioned by Lamb in this essay as being the father of
Alice's real children. Bartrum was a pawnbroker in Princes Street,
Coventry Street. Mr. W.C. Hazlitt says that Hazlitt had seen Lamb
wandering up and down before the shop trying to get a glimpse of his
old friend.
* * * * *
Page 118. DISTANT CORRESPONDENTS.
_London Magazine_, March, 1822.
The germ of this essay will be found in a letter to Barron Field, to
whom the essay is addressed, of August 31, 1817. Barron Field was a
son of Henry Field, apothecary to Christ's Hospital. His brother,
Francis John Field, through whom Lamb probably came to know Barron,
was a clerk in the India House.
Barron Field was associated with Lamb on Leigh Hunt's _Reflector_ in
1810-1812. He also was dramatic critic for _The Times_ for a while. In
1816 he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales,
where he remained until 1824. For other information see the note, in
Vol. I., to his _First-Fruits of Australian Poetry_, reviewed by Lamb.
In the same number of the _London Magazine_ which included the present
essay was Field's account of his outward voyage to New South Wales.
Page 119, line 24. _Our mutual friend P._ Not identifiable: probably
no one in particular. The Bench would be the King's Bench Prison. A
little later one of Lamb's friends, William Hone, was confined there
for three years.
Page 121, line 8. _The late Lord C._ This was Thomas Pitt, second
Baron Camelford (1775-1804), who after a quarrelsome life, first in
the navy and afterwards as a man about town, was killed in a duel at
Kensington, just where Melbury Road now is. The spot chosen by him
for his grave was on the borders of the Lake of Lampierre, near three
trees; but there is a doubt if his body ever rested there, for it lay
for years in the crypt of St. Anne's, Soho. Its ultimate fate was the
subject of a story by Charles Reade.
Page 123, line 11. _Bleach_. Illegitimacy, according to some old
authors, wears out in the third generation, enabling a natural son's
descendant to resume the ancient coat-of-arms. Lamb refers to this
sanction.
Page 123, line 20. _Hare-court_. The Lambs lived at 4 Inner Temple
Lane (now rebuilt as Johnson's Buildings) from 1809 to 1817. Writing
to Coleridge in June, 1809, Lamb says:--"The rooms are delicious, and
the best look backwards into Hare Court, where there is a pump always
going. Hare Court trees come in at the window, so that it's like
living in a garden."
Barron Field was entered on the books of the Inner Temple in 1809 and
was called to the Bar in 1814.
Page 123, last paragraph. _Sally W----r_. Lamb's Key gives "Sally
Winter;" but as to who she was we have no knowledge.
Page 123, end. _J.W._ James White. See next essay.
* * * * *
Page 124. THE PRAISE OF CHIMNEY-SWEEPERS.
_London Magazine_, May, 1822, where it has a sub-title, "A May-Day
Effusion."
This was not Lamb's only literary association with chimney-sweepers.
In Vol. I. of this edition will be found the description of a sweep
in the country which there is good reason to believe is Lamb's work.
Again, in 1824, James Montgomery, the poet, edited a book--_The
Chimney-Sweepers' Friend and Climbing Boys' Album_--with the
benevolent purpose of interesting people in the hardships of the
climbing boys' life and producing legislation to alleviate it. The
first half of the book is practical: reports of committees, and so
forth; the second is sentimental; verses by Bernard Barton, William
Lisle Bowles, and many others; short stories of kidnapped children
forced to the horrid business; and kindred themes. Among the
"favourite poets of the day" to whom Montgomery applied were Scott,
Wordsworth, Rogers, Moore, Joanna Baillie and Lamb. Lamb replied
by copying out (with the alteration of Toddy for Dacre) "The
Chimney-Sweeper" from Blake's _Songs of Innocence_, described by
Montgomery as "a very rare and curious little work." In that poem it
will be remembered the little sweep cries "weep, weep, weep." Lamb
compares the cry more prettily to the "peep, peep" of the sparrow.
Page 125, line 6. _Shop ..._ Mr. Thomas Read's Saloop Coffee House was
at No. 102 Fleet Street. The following lines were painted on a board
in Read's establishment:--
Come, all degrees now passing by,
My charming liquor taste and try;
To Lockyer come, and drink your fill;
Mount Pleasant has no kind of ill.
The fumes of wine, punch, drams and beer,
It will expell; your spirits cheer;
From drowsiness your spirits free.
Sweet as a rose your breath will be,
Come taste and try, and speak your mind;
Such rare ingredients here are joined,
Mount Pleasant pleases all mankind.
Page 127, line 12 from foot. _The young Montagu_. Edward Wortley
Montagu (1713-1776), the traveller, ran away from Westminster School
more than once, becoming, among other things, a chimney-sweeper.
Page 127, line 9 from foot. _Arundel Castle_. The Sussex seat of the
Dukes of Norfolk. The "late duke" was Charles Howard, eleventh duke,
who died in 1815, and who spent enormous sums of money on curiosities.
I can find no record of the story of the sweep. Perhaps Lamb invented
it, or applied it to Arundel.
Page 128, line 14 from foot. _Jem White_. James White (1775-1820),
who was at Christ's Hospital with Lamb, and who wrote _Falstaff's
Letters_, 1796, in his company (see Vol. I.). "There never was his
like," Lamb told another old schoolfellow, Valentine Le Grice, in
1833; "we shall never see such days as those in which he flourished."
See the essay "On Some of the Old Actors," for an anecdote of White.
Page 128, line 8 from foot. _The fair of St. Bartholomew_. Held
on September 3 at Smithfield, until 1855. George Daniel, in his
recollections of Lamb, records a visit they paid together to the Fair.
Lamb took Wordsworth through its noisy mazes in 1802.
Page 129, line 14. _Bigod_. John Fenwick (see note to "The Two Races
of Men").
Leigh Hunt, in _The Examiner_ for May 5, 1822, quoted some of the best
sentences of this essay. On May 12 a correspondent (L.E.) wrote a very
agreeable letter supporting Lamb's plea for generosity to sweeps and
remarking thus upon Lamb himself:--
I read the modicum on "Chimney-Sweepers," which your last paper
contained, with pleasure. It appears to be the production of that
sort of mind which you justly denominate "gifted;" but which is
greatly undervalued by the majority of men, because they have no
sympathies in common with it. Many who might partially appreciate
such a spirit, do nevertheless object to it, from the snap-dragon
nature of its coruscations, which shine themselves, but shew every
thing around them to disadvantage. Your deep philosophers also,
and all the laborious professors of the art of sinking, may
elevate their nasal projections, and demand "cui bono"? For my
part I prefer a little enjoyment to a great deal of philosophy. It
is these gifted minds that enliven our habitations, and contribute
so largely to those _every-day_ delights, which constitute, after
all, the chief part of mortal happiness. Such minds are ever
active--their light, like the vestal lamp, is ever burning--and in
my opinion the man who refines the common intercourse of life, and
wreaths the altars of our household gods with flowers, is more
deserving of respect and gratitude than all the sages who waste
their lives in elaborate speculations, which tend to nothing, and
which _we_ cannot comprehend--nor they neither.
On June 2, however, "J.C.H." intervened to correct what he considered
the "dangerous spirit" of Lamb's essay, which said so little of the
hardships of the sweeps, but rather suggested that they were a happy
class. J.C.H. then put the case of the unhappy sweep with some
eloquence, urging upon all householders the claims of the mechanical
sweeping machine.
* * * * *
Page 130. A COMPLAINT OF THE DECAY OF BEGGARS IN THE METROPOLIS.
_London Magazine_, June, 1822.
The origin of this essay was the activity at that time of the Society
for the Suppression of Mendicity, founded in 1818, of which a Mr. W.H.
Bodkin was the Hon. Secretary. The Society's motto was "Benefacta male
collocata, malefacta existima;" and it attempted much the same work
now performed by the Charity Organisation Society. Perhaps the delight
expressed in its annual reports in the exposure of impostors was a
shade too hearty--at any rate one can see therein cause sufficient for
Lamb's counter-blast. Lamb was not the only critic of Mr. Bodkin's
zeal. Hood, in the _Odes and Addresses_, published in 1825, included a
remonstrance to Mr. Bodkin.
The Society's activity led to a special commission of the House
of Commons in 1821 to inquire into the laws relating to vagrants,
concerning which Lamb speaks, the clergyman alluded to being Dr.
Henry Butts Owen, of Highgate. The result of the commission was an
additional stringency, brought about by Mr. George Chetwynd's bill.
It was this essay, says Hood, which led to his acquaintance with
Charles Lamb. After its appearance in the _London Magazine_, of which
Hood was then sub-editor, he wrote Lamb a letter on coarse paper
purporting to come from a grateful beggar; Lamb did not admit the
discovery of the perpetrator of the joke, but soon afterwards Lamb
called on Hood when he was ill, and a friendship followed to which we
owe Hood's charming recollections of Lamb--among the best that were
written of him by any one.
Page 131, line 14. _The Blind Beggar_. The reference is to the ballad
of "The Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green." The version in the _Percy
Reliques_ relates the adventures of Henry, Earl of Leicester, the son
of Simon de Montfort, who was blinded at the battle of Evesham and
left for dead, and thereafter begged his way with his pretty Bessee.
In the _London Magazine_ Lamb had written "Earl of Flanders," which
he altered to "Earl of Cornwall" in _Elia_. The ballad says Earl of
Leicester.
Page 131, line 28. _Dear Margaret Newcastle_. One of Lamb's recurring
themes of praise (see "The Two Races of Men," "Mackery End in
Hertfordshire," and "Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading").
"Romancical," according to the _New English Dictionary_, is Lamb's own
word. This is the only reference given for it.
Page 133, line 7. _Spital sermons_. On Monday of Easter week it was
the custom for the Christ's Hospital boys to walk in procession to the
Royal Exchange, and on Tuesday to the Mansion House; on each occasion
returning with the Lord Mayor to hear a special sermon--a spital
sermon, as it was called--and an anthem. The sermon is now preached
only on Easter Tuesday.
Page 133, line 24. _Overseers of St. L----_. Lamb's Key states that
both the overseers and the mild rector were inventions. In the _London
Magazine_ the rector's parish is "P----."
Page 133, line 27. _Vincent Bourne_. See Lamb's essay on Vincent
Bourne, Vol. I. This poem was translated by Lamb himself, and was
first published in _The Indicator_ for May 3, 1820. See Vol. IV. for
Lamb's other translations from Bourne.
Page 135, line 2. _A well-known figure_. This beggar I take to be
Samuel Horsey. He is stated to have been known as the King of the
Beggars, and a very prominent figure in London. His mutilation is
ascribed to the falling of a piece of timber in Bow Lane, Cheapside,
some nineteen years before; but it may have been, as Lamb says, in the
Gordon Riots of 1780.
There is the figure of Horsey on his little carriage, with several
other of the more notable beggars of the day plying their calling,
in an etching of old houses at the corner of Chancery Lane and Fleet
Street, made by J.T. Smith in 1789 for his _Ancient Topography of
London_, 1815. I give it in my large edition.
Page 137, end of essay. _Feigned or not._ In the _London Magazine_ the
essay did not end here. It continued thus:--
"'Pray God your honour relieve me,' said a poor beadswoman to my
friend L---- one day; 'I have seen better days.' 'So have I, my
good woman,' retorted he, looking up at the welkin which was just
then threatening a storm--and the jest (he will have it) was as
good to the beggar as a tester.
"It was at all events kinder than consigning her to the stocks, or
the parish beadle--
"But L. has a way of viewing things in rather a paradoxical light
on some occasions.
"ELIA.
"P.S.--My friend Hume (not MP.) has a curious manuscript in his
possession, the original draught of the celebrated 'Beggar's
Petition' (who cannot say by heart the 'Beggar's Petition?') as it
was written by some school usher (as I remember) with corrections
interlined from the pen of Oliver Goldsmith. As a specimen of the
doctor's improvement, I recollect one most judicious alteration--
"_A pamper'd menial drove me from the door._
"It stood originally--
"_A livery servant drove me, &c._
"Here is an instance of poetical or artificial language properly
substituted for the phrase of common conversation; against
Wordsworth.
"I think I must get H. to send it to the LONDON, as a corollary to
the foregoing."
The foregoing passage needs some commentary. Lamb's friend L---- was
Lamb himself. He tells the story to Manning in the letter of January
2,1810.--Lamb's friend Hume was Joseph Hume of the victualling office,
Somerset House, to whom letters from Lamb will be found in Mr. W.C.
Hazlitt's _Lamb and Hazlitt_, 1900. Hume translated _The Inferno_ of
Dante into blank verse, 1812.--The "Beggar's Petition," a stock piece
for infant recitation a hundred years ago, was a poem beginning
thus:--
Pity the sorrows of a poor old man
Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door,
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span;
Oh give relief, and Heaven will bless your store.
In the reference to Wordsworth Lamb pokes fun at the statement, in his
friend's preface to the second edition of _Lyrical Ballads_, that
the purpose of that book was to relate or describe incidents and
situations from common life as far as possible in a selection of
language really used by men.
Lamb's _P.S._ concerning the "Beggar's Petition" was followed in the
_London Magazine_ by this _N.B._:--
"N.B. I am glad to see JANUS veering about to the old quarter. I
feared he had been rust-bound.
"C. being asked why he did not like Gold's 'London' as well as
ours--it was in poor S.'s time--replied--
"_--Because there is no WEATHERCOCK
And that's the reason why._"
The explanation of this note is that "Janus Weathercock"--one of the
pseudonyms of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright--after a long absence from
its pages, had sent to the previous month's _London Magazine_, May,
1822, an amusing letter of criticism of that periodical, commenting on
some of its regular contributors. Therein he said: "Clap Elia on the
back for such a series of good behaviour."--Who C. is cannot be said;
possibly Lamb, as a joke, intends Coleridge to be indicated; but poor
S. would be John Scott, the first editor of the _London Magazine_,
who was killed in a duel. C.'s reply consisted of the last lines
of Wordsworth's "Anecdote for Fathers; or, Falsehood Corrected."
Accurately they run:--
At Kelve there was no weather-cock
And that's the reason why.
The hero of this poem was a son of Lamb's friend Basil Montagu.
Gold's _London Magazine_ was a contemporary of the better known London
magazine of the same name. In Vol. III. appeared an article entitled
"The Literary Ovation," describing an imaginary dinner-party given by
Messrs. Baldwin, Cradock & Joy in February, 1821, at which Lamb was
supposed to be present and to sing a song by Webster, one of his old
dramatists. Mr. Bertram Dobell conjectures that Wainewright may have
written this squib.
* * * * *
Page 137. A DISSERTATION UPON ROAST PIG.
_London Magazine_, September, 1822.
There has been some discussion as to the origin of the central idea of
this essay. A resemblance is found in a passage in _The Turkish Spy_,
where, after describing the annual burnt-offering of a bull by the
Athenians, _The Spy_ continues:--
In process of time a certain priest, in the midst of his bloody
sacrifice, taking up a piece of the broiled flesh which had fallen
from the altar on the ground, and burning his fingers therewith,
suddenly clapt them to his mouth to mitigate the pain. But, when
he had once tasted the sweetness of the fat, not only longed for
more of it, but gave a piece to his assistant; and he to others;
who, all pleased with the new-found dainties, fell to eating of
flesh greedily. And hence this species of gluttony was taught to
other mortals.
"Este," a contributor to _Notes and Queries_, June 21, 1884, wrote:--
A quarto volume of forty-six pages, once in "Charles Lamb's
library" (according to a pencilled note in the volume) is before
me, entitled: _Gli Elogi del Porco, Capitoli Berneschi di Tigrinto
Bistonio P.A., E. Accademico Ducale de' Dissonanti di Modena.
In Modena per gli Eredi di Bartolmeo Soliani Stampatori Ducali
MDCCLXI. Con Licenza de' Superiori_, [wherein] some former owner
of the volume has copied out Lamb's prose with many exact verbal
resemblances from the poem.
It has also been suggested that Porphyry's tract on _Abstinence from
Animal Food_, translated by William Taylor, bears a likeness to the
passage. Taylor's translation, however, was not published till 1823,
some time after Lamb's essay.
These parallels merely go to show that the idea was a commonplace; at
the same time it is not Lamb, but Manning, who told him the story,
that must declare its origin. Not only in the essay, but in a letter
to Barton in March, 1823, does Lamb express his indebtedness to his
traveller friend. Allsop, indeed, in his _Letters of Coleridge_,
claims to give the Chinese story which Manning lent to Lamb and which
produced the "Dissertation." It runs thus:--
A child, in the early ages, was left alone by its mother in a
house in which was a pig. A fire took place; the child escaped,
the pig was burned. The child scratched and pottered among the
ashes for its pig, which at last it found. All the provisions
being burnt, the child was very hungry, and not yet having any
artificial aids, such as golden ewers and damask napkins, began to
lick or suck its fingers to free them from the ashes. A piece of
fat adhered to one of his thumbs, which, being very savoury alike
in taste and odour, he rightly judged to belong to the pig. Liking
it much, he took it to his mother, just then appearing, who also
tasted it, and both agreed that it was better than fruit or
vegetables.
They rebuilt the house, and the woman, after the fashion of good
wives, who, says the chronicle, are now very scarce, put a pig
into it, and was about to set it on fire, when an old man, one
whom observation and reflection had made a philosopher, suggested
that a pile of wood would do as well. (This must have been the
father of economists.) The next pig was killed before it was
roasted, and thus
"From low beginnings,
We date our winnings."
Manning, by the way, contributed articles on Chinese jests to the _New
Monthly Magazine_ in 1826.
A preliminary sketch of the second portion of this essay will be found
in the letter to Coleridge dated March 9, 1822. See also the letters
to Mr. and Mrs. Bruton, January 6, 1823, to Mrs. Collier, November 2,
1824, and to H. Dodwell, October 7, 1827, all in acknowledgment of
pigs sent to Lamb probably from an impulse found in this essay.
Later, Lamb abandoned the extreme position here taken. In the little
essay entitled "Thoughts on Presents of Game," 1833 (see Vol. I.), he
says: "Time was, when Elia ... preferred to all a roasted pig. But he
disclaims all such green-sickness appetites in future."
Page 141, verse. "Ere sin could blight ..." From Coleridge's "Epitaph
on an Infant."
Page 142, line 7 from foot. _My good old aunt_. Probably Aunt Hetty.
See the essay on "Christ's Hospital," for another story of her. The
phrase, "Over London Bridge," unless an invention, suggests that
before this aunt went to live with the Lambs--probably not until they
left the Temple in 1792--she was living on the Surrey side. But it was
possibly an Elian mystification. Lamb had another aunt, but of her we
know nothing.
Page 143, line 11 from foot. _St. Omer's_. The French Jesuit College.
Lamb, it is unnecessary to say, was never there.
* * * * *
Page 144. A BACHELOR'S COMPLAINT OF THE BEHAVIOUR OF MARRIED PEOPLE.
This is, by many years, the earliest of these essays. It was printed
first in _The Reflector_, No. IV., in 1811 or 1812. When Lamb brought
his _Works_ together, in 1818, he omitted it. In September, 1822, it
appeared in the _London Magazine_ as one of the reprints of Lamb's
earlier writings, of which the "Confessions of a Drunkard" (see Vol.
I.)was the first. In that number also appeared the "Dissertation upon
Roast Pig," thereby offering the reader an opportunity of comparing
Lamb's style in 1811 with his riper and richer style of 1822. The
germ of the essay must have been long in Lamb's mind, for we find him
writing to Hazlitt in 1805 concerning Mrs. Rickman: "A good-natured
woman though, which is as much as you can expect from a friend's wife,
whom you got acquainted with as a bachelor."
Page 147, line 6. "_Love me, love my dog_." See "Popular Fallacies,"
page 302, for an expansion of this paragraph.
* * * * *
Page 150. ON SOME OF THE OLD ACTORS.
In February, 1822, Lamb began a series of three articles in the
_London Magazine_ on "The Old Actors." The second was printed in April
and the third in October of the same year. Afterwards, in reprinting
them in _Elia_, he rearranged them into the essays, "On Some of the
Old Actors," "On the Artificial Comedy of the Last Century," and "On
the Acting of Munden," omitting a considerable portion altogether. The
essay in its original tripart form will be found in the Appendix to
this volume.
In one of his theatrical notices in _The Examiner_ (see Vol. I.) Lamb
remarks, "Defunct merit comes out upon us strangely," and certain
critics believe that he praised some of the old actors beyond their
deserts. But no one can regret any such excesses.
Page 150, beginning. _Twelfth Night_. When recalling early playgoing
days in "Old China," Lamb refers again to this play--Viola in Illyria.
Page 150, foot. _Whitfield, Packer, Benson, Burton, Phillimore_ and
_Barrymore_. Whitfield, who made his London début as Trueman in
"George Barnwell" about 1776, was a useful man at Covent Garden and
Drury Lane.--John Hayman Packer (1730-1806), known in Lamb's time for
his old men. He acted at Drury Lane until 1805.--Benson, who married a
sister of Mrs. Stephen Kemble, wrote one or two plays, and was a good
substitute in emergencies. He committed suicide during brain fever
in 1796.--Burton was a creditable utility actor at Covent Garden and
Drury Lane.--Phillimore filled small parts at Drury Lane.--Barrymore
was of higher quality, a favourite character actor both at Drury Lane
and the Haymarket.
Page 151, line 6. _Mrs. Jordan_. Mrs. Jordan, born in 1762, ceased to
act in England in 1814 and died in 1816. Nell was her famous part, in
Coffey's "The Devil to Pay." Miss Hoyden is in Vanbrugh's "Relapse."
Lamb is referring to Viola in Act I., Scene 5, and Act II., Scene 4,
of "Twelfth Night."
Page 151, line 8 from foot. _Mrs. Powel_. Mrs. Powel, previously known
as Mrs. Farmer, and afterwards Mrs. Renaud, was at Drury Lane from
1788 to 1811. She ended her London career in 1816 and died in 1829.
Page 152, line 8. _Of all the actors_. The _London Magazine_ article
began at this point. Robert Bensley (1738?-1817?) was at Drury
Lane from 1775 to 1796, when he retired (alternating it with the
Haymarket). G.H. Boaden and George Colman both bear out Lamb's eulogy
of Bensley as Malvolio; but otherwise he is not the subject of much
praise.
Page 152, line 15. _Venetian incendiary_. Pierre in Otway's "Venice
Preserved." Lamb appended the passage in a footnote in the _London
Magazine_.
Page 153, line 12. _Baddeley ... Parsons ... John Kemble_. Robert
Baddeley (1733-1794), the husband of Mrs. Baddeley, and the original
Moses in the "School for Scandal." William Parsons (1736-1795), the
original Crabtree in the "School for Scandal," and a favourite actor
of Lamb's. John Philip Kemble (1757-1823), who managed Drury Lane from
1788 to 1801.
Page 153, line 11 from foot. _Of birth and feeling_. In the _London
Magazine_ a footnote came here (see page 316).
Page 153, line 6 from foot. _Length of service_. In the _London
Magazine_ a footnote came here (see page 316).
Page 154, line 24. _House of misrule_. A long passage came here in the
_London Magazine_ (see page 317).
Page 154, line 8 from foot. _Hero of La Mancha_. Compare a similar
analysis of Don Quixote's character on page 264.
Page 155, line 23. _Dodd_. James William Dodd (1740?-1796).
Page 155, line 24. _Lovegrove_. William Lovegrove (1778-1816), famous
in old comedy parts and as Peter Fidget in "The Boarding House."
Page 155, foot. _The gardens of Gray's Inn._ These gardens are said to
have been laid out under the supervision of Bacon, who retained his
chambers in the Inn until his death. As Dodd died in 1796 and Lamb
wrote in 1822, it would be fully twenty-six years and perhaps more
since Lamb met him.
Page 156, lines 26-29. _Foppington, etc._ Foppington in Vanbrugh's
"Relapse," Tattle in Congreve's "Love for Love," Backbite in
Sheridan's "School for Scandal," Acres in "The Rivals" by the same
author, and Fribble in Garrick's "Miss in her Teens."
Page 157, line 13. _If few can remember._ The praise of Suett that
follows is interpolated here from the third part of Lamb's original
essay (see page 332). Richard Suett, who had been a Westminster
chorister (not St. Paul's), left the stage in June, 1805, and died in
July.
Page 157, footnote, _Jem White_. See note above.
Page 158, line 22. _His friend Mathews._ Charles Mathews (1776-1835),
whom Lamb knew.
Page 159, line 1. _Jack Bannister._ John Bannister retired from the
stage in 1815. He died in 1836.
Page 159, line 7. _Children in the Wood._ Morton's play, of which Lamb
was so fond. It is mentioned again in "Barbara S----" and "Old China."
Page 159, line 19. _The elder Palmer._ The first part of the essay is
here resumed again. The elder Palmer was John Palmer, who died on the
stage, in 1798, when playing in "The Stranger." Lamb's remarks tend
to confuse him with Gentleman Palmer, who died before Lamb was born.
Robert Palmer, John's brother, died about 1805.
Page 159, line 22. _Moody_. John Moody (1727?-1812), famous as Teague
in "The Committee."
Page 159, lines 31 to 36. _The Duke's Servant, etc._ The Duke's
servant in Garrick's "High Life below Stairs," Captain Absolute in
Sheridan's "Rivals," Dick Amlet in Vanbrugh's "Confederacy."
Page 160, line 1. _Young Wilding ... Joseph Surface._ In Foote's
"Liar" and Sheridan's "School for Scandal."
* * * * *
Page 161. ON THE ARTIFICIAL COMEDY OF THE LAST CENTURY.