See also "A Vision of Horns" (Vol. I.) for, as it seems to me, a
whimsical extension to the point of absurdity of the theory expressed
in this essay--a theory which Lord Macaulay, in his review of Leigh
Hunt's edition of the Dramatic Works of Wycherley, Congreve, etc., in
1840, opposed with characteristic vigour.
Hartley Coleridge, in a letter to Edward Moxon concerning Leigh Hunt's
edition of Wycherley and Congreve, happily remarked: "Nothing more or
better can be said in defence of these writers than what Lamb has said
in his delightful essay ... which is, after all, rather an apology for
the audiences who applauded and himself who delighted in their plays,
than for the plays themselves.... But Lamb always took things by the
better handle."
Page 163, line 16. _The Fainalls, etc_. Fainall in Congreve's "Way
of the World," Mirabel in Farquhar's "Inconstant," Dorimant in
Etheredge's "Man of Mode," and Lady Touchstone in Congreve's "Double
Dealer."