DAVID IN THE CAVE OF ADULLAM

(_Text of 1818_)

David and his three captains bold

Kept ambush once within a hold.

It was in Adullam's cave,

Nigh which no water they could have,

Nor spring, nor running brook was near

To quench the thirst that parch'd them there.

Then David, king of Israel,

Strait bethought him of a well,

Which stood beside the city gate,

At Bethlem; where, before his state

Of kingly dignity, he had

Oft drunk his fill, a shepherd lad;

But now his fierce Philistine foe

Encamp'd before it he does know.

Yet ne'er the less, with heat opprest,

Those three bold captains he addrest,

And wish'd that one to him would bring

Some water from his native spring.

His valiant captains instantly

To execute his will did fly.

The mighty Three the ranks broke through

Of armed foes, and water drew

For David, their beloved king,

At his own sweet native spring.

Back through their armed foes they haste,

With the hard earn'd treasure graced.

But when the good king David found

What they had done, he on the ground

The water pour'd. "Because," said he,

"That it was at the jeopardy

Of your three lives this thing ye did,

That I should drink it, God forbid."

THREE POEMS NOT IN _POETRY FOR CHILDREN_

SUMMER FRIENDS

The Swallow is a summer bird;

He in our chimneys, when the weather

Is fine and warm, may then be heard

Chirping his notes for weeks together.

Come there but one cold wintry day,

Away will fly our guest the Swallow:

And much like him we find the way

Which many a gay young friend will follow.

In dreary days of snow and frost

Closer to Man will cling the Sparrow:

Old friends, although in life we're crost,

Their hearts to us will never narrow.

Give me the bird--'give me the friend--

Will sing in frost--will love in sorrow--

Whate'er mischance to-day may send,

Will greet me with his sight to-morrow.

A BIRTH-DAY THOUGHT

Can I, all gracious Providence!

Can I deserve thy care:

Ah! no; I've not the least pretence

To bounties which I share.

Have I not been defended still

From dangers and from death;

Been safe preserv'd from ev'ry ill

E'er since thou gav'st me breath?

I live once more to see the day

That brought me first to light;

Oh! teach my willing heart the way

To take thy mercies right!

Tho' dazzling splendour, pomp, and show,

My fortune has denied,

Yet more than grandeur can bestow,

Content hath well supplied.

I envy no one's birth or fame,

Their titles, train, or dress;

Nor has my pride e'er stretched its aim

Beyond what I possess.

I ask and wish not to appear

More beauteous, rich, or gay:

Lord, make me wiser every year,

And better every day.

THE BOY, THE MOTHER, AND THE BUTTERFLY

[1827]

Young William held the Butterfly in chase,

And it was pretty to observe the race

Betwixt the Fly and Child, who nigh had caught him

But for a merry jest his Mother taught him.

"My valiant Huntsman, fie!" she said, "for shame,

You are too big a match for so small game,

To catch the Hare, or nimble Squirrel try,

Remember, William, He is BUT A FLY."

Not always is Humanity imprest

By serious schooling; a light word or jest

Will sometimes leave a moral sting behind

When graver lessons vanish out of mind.

PRINCE DORUS

OR

FLATTERY PUT OUT OF COUNTENANCE

A POETICAL VERSION OF AN ANCIENT TALK

In days of yore, as Ancient Stories tell,

A King in love with a great Princess fell.

Long at her feet submiss the Monarch sigh'd,

While she with stern repulse his suit denied.

Yet was he form'd by birth to please the fair,

Dress'd, danc'd, and courted with a Monarch's air;

But Magic Spells her frozen breast had steel'd

With stubborn pride, that knew not how to yield.

This to the King' a courteous Fairy told,

And bade the Monarch in his suit be bold;

For he that would the charming Princess wed,

Had only on her cat's black tail to tread,

When straight the Spell would vanish into air,

And he enjoy for life the yielding fair.

He thank'd the Fairy for her kind advice.--

Thought he, "If this be all, I'll not be nice;

Rather than in my courtship I will fail

I will to mince-meat tread Minon's black tail."

To the Princess's court repairing strait,

He sought the cat that must decide his fate;

But when he found her, how the creature stared!

How her back bristled, and her great eyes glared!

That [tail] which he so fondly hop'd his prize,

Was swell'd by wrath to twice its usual size;

And all her cattish gestures plainly spoke

She thought the affair he came upon, no joke.

With wary step the cautious King draws near,

And slyly means to attack her in her rear;

But when he thinks upon her tail to pounce,

Whisk--off she skips--three yards upon a bounce--

Again he tries, again his efforts fail--

Minon's a witch--the deuce is in her tail--

The anxious chase for weeks the Monarch tried,

Till courage fail'd, and hope within him died.

A desperate suit 'twas useless to prefer,

Or hope to catch a tail of quicksilver.--

When on a day, beyond his hopes, he found

Minon, his foe, asleep upon the ground;

Her ample tail behind her lay outspread,

Full to the eye, and tempting to the tread.

The King with rapture the occasion bless'd.

And with quick foot the fatal part he press'd.

Loud squalls were heard, like howlings of a storm,

And sad he gazed on Minon's altered form,--

No more a cat, but chang'd into a man

Of giant size, who frown'd, and thus began:

"Rash King, that dared with impious design

To violate that tail, that once was mine;

What though the spell be broke, and burst the charms,

That kept the Princess from thy longing arms,--

Not unrevenged shall thou my fury dare,

For by that violated tail I swear,

From your unhappy nuptials shall be born

A Prince, whose Nose shall be thy subjects' scorn.

Bless'd in his love thy son shall never be,

Till he his foul deformity shall see,

Till he with tears his blemish shall confess,

Discern its odious length, and wish it less!"

This said, he vanish'd; and the King awhile

Mused at his words, then answer'd with a smile

"Give me a child in happy wedlock born,

And let his Nose be made like a French horn;

His knowledge of the fact I ne'er can doubt,--

If he have eyes, or hands, he'll find it out."

So spake the King, self-flatter'd in his thought,

Then with impatient step the Princess sought.

His urgent suit no longer she withstands,

But links with him in Hymen's knot her hands.

Almost as soon a widow as a bride,

Within a year the King her husband died;

And shortly after he was dead and gone,

She was deliver'd of a little son,

The prettiest babe, with lips as red as rose,

And eyes like little stars--but such a nose--

The tender Mother fondly took the boy

Into her arms, and would have kiss'd her joy;

His luckless nose forbade the fond embrace--

He thrust the hideous feature in her face.

Then all her Maids of Honour tried in turn,

And for a Prince's kiss in envy burn;

By sad experience taught, their hopes they miss'd,

And mourn'd a Prince that never could be kiss'd.

In silent tears the Queen confess'd her grief,

Till kindest Flattery came to her relief.

Her maids, as each one takes him in her arms,

Expatiate freely o'er his world of charms--

His eyes, lips, mouth--his forehead was divine--

And for the nose--they called it Aquiline--

Declared that Cæsar, who the world subdued,

Had such a one--just of that longitude--

That Kings like him compelled folks to adore them,

And drove the short-nos'd sons of men before them--

That length of nose portended length of days,

And was a great advantage many ways--

To mourn the gifts of Providence was wrong--

Besides, _the Nose was not so very long_.--

These arguments in part her grief redrest,

A mother's partial fondness did the rest;

And Time, that all things reconciles by use,

Did in her notions such a change produce.

That, as she views her babe, with favour blind,

She thinks him handsomest of human kind.

Meantime in spite of his disfigured face,

Dorus (for so he's call'd) grew up apace;

In fair proportion all his features rose,

Save that most prominent of all--his Nose.

That Nose, which in the infant could annoy,

Was grown a perfect nuisance in the boy.

Whene'er he walk'd, his Handle went before,

Long as the snout of Ferret, or Wild Boar;

Or like the Staff, with which on holy day

The solemn Parish Beadle clears the way.

But from their cradle to their latest year,

How seldom Truth can reach a Prince's ear!

To keep th' unwelcome knowledge out of view,

His lesson well each flattering Courtier knew;

The hoary Tutor, and the wily Page,

Unmeet confederates! dupe his tender age.

They taught him that whate'er vain mortals boast--

Strength, Courage, Wisdom--all they value most--

Whate'er on human life distinction throws--

Was all comprised--in what?--a length of nose!

Ev'n Virtue's self (by some suppos'd chief merit)

In short-nosed folks was only want of spirit.

While doctrines such as these his guides instill'd,

His Palace was with long-nosed people fill'd;

At Court, whoever ventured to appear

With a short nose, was treated with a sneer.

Each courtier's wife, that with a babe is blest,

Moulds its young nose betimes; and does her best,

By pulls, and hauls, and twists, and lugs and pinches,

To stretch it to the standard of the Prince's.

Dup'd by these arts, Dorus to manhood rose,

Nor dream'd of aught more comely than his Nose,

Till Love, whose pow'r ev'n Princes have confest,

Claim'd the soft empire o'er his youthful breast.

Fair Claribel was she who caused his care;

A neighb'ring Monarch's daughter, and sole heir.

For beauteous Claribel his bosom burn'd;

The beauteous Claribel his flame return'd;

Deign'd with kind words his passion to approve,

Met his soft vows, and yielded love for love.

If in her mind some female pangs arose

At sight (and who can blame her?) of his Nose.

Affection made her willing to be blind;

She loved him for the beauties of his mind;

And in his lustre, and his royal race,

Contented sunk--one feature of his face.

Blooming to sight, and lovely to behold,

Herself was cast in Beauty's richest mould;

Sweet female majesty her person deck'd,

Her face an angel's--save for one defect--

Wise Nature, who to Dorus over kind,

A length of nose too liberal had assign'd,

As if with us poor mortals to make sport,

Had giv'n to Claribel a nose too short:

But turned up with a sort of modest grace;

It took not much of beauty from her face;

And subtle Courtiers, who their Prince's mind

Still watch'd, and turned about with every wind,

Assur'd the Prince, that though man's beauty owes

Its charm to a majestic length of nose,

The excellence of Woman (softer creature)

Consisted in the shortness of that feature.

Few arguments were wanted to convince

The already more than half persuaded Prince;

Truths, which we hate, with slowness we receive,

But what we wish to credit, soon believe.

The Princess's affections being gain'd,

What but her Sire's approval now remain'd?

Ambassadors with solemn pomp are sent

To win the aged Monarch to consent

(Seeing their States already were allied)

That Dorus might have Claribel to bride.

Her Royal Sire, who wisely understood

The match propos'd was for both kingdoms' good,

Gave his consent; and gentle Claribel

With weeping bids her Father's court farewell.

With gallant pomp, and numerous array,

Dorus went forth to meet her on her way;

But when the Princely pair of lovers met,

Their hearts on mutual gratulations set,

Sudden the Enchanter from the ground arose,

(The same who prophesied the Prince's nose)

And with rude grasp, unconscious of her charms,

Snatch'd up the lovely Princess in his arms,

Then bore her out of reach of human eyes,

Up in the pathless regions of the skies.

Bereft of her that was his only care,

Dorus resign'd his soul to wild despair;

Resolv'd to leave the land that gave him birth,

And seek fair Claribel throughout the earth.

Mounting his horse, he gives the beast the reins,

And wanders lonely through the desert plains;

With fearless heart the savage heath explores,

Where the wolf prowls, and where the tiger roars,

Nor wolf, nor tiger, dare his way oppose;

The wildest creatures see, and shun, his NOSE.

Ev'n lions fear! the elephant alone

Surveys with pride a trunk so like his own.

At length he to a shady forest came,

Where in a cavern lived an aged dame;

A reverend Fairy, on whose silver head

A hundred years their downy snows had shed.

Here ent'ring in, the Mistress of the place

Bespoke him welcome with a cheerful grace,

Fetch'd forth her dainties, spread her social board

With all the Store her dwelling could afford.

The Prince with toil and hunger sore opprest,

Gladly accepts, and deigns to be her guest.

But when the first civilities were paid,

The dishes rang'd, and Grace in order said;

The Fairy, who had leisure now to view

Her guest more closely, from her pocket drew

Her spectacles, and wip'd them from the dust,

Then on her nose endeavour'd to adjust;

With difficulty she could find a place

To hang them on in her unshapely face;

For if the Princess's was somewhat small,

This Fairy scarce had any nose at all.

But when by help of spectacles the Crone

Discern'd a Nose so different from her own,

What peals of laughter shook her aged sides!

While with sharp jests the Prince she thus derides.

FAIRY

"Welcome, great Prince of Noses, to my cell;

'Tis a poor place,--but thus we Fairies dwell.

Pray, let me ask you, if from far you come--

And don't you sometimes find it cumbersome?"

PRINCE

"Find what?"

FAIRY

"Your Nose--."

PRINCE

"My Nose, Ma'am!"

FAIRY

"No offence.--

The King your Father was a man of sense,

A handsome man (but lived not to be old)

And had a Nose cast in the common mould.

Ev'n I myself, that now with age am grey,

Was thought to have some beauty in my day,

And am the Daughter of a King. Your sire

In this poor face saw something to admire--

And I to shew my gratitude made shift--

Have stood his friend--and help'd him at a lift--

'Twas I that, when his hopes began to fail,

Shew'd him the spell that lurk'd in Minon's tail--

Perhaps you have heard--but come, Sir, you don't eat--

That Nose of yours requires both wine and meat--

Fall to, and welcome, without more ado--

You see your fare--what shall I help you to?

This dish the tongues of nightingales contains;

This, eyes of peacocks; and that, linnets' brains;

That next you is a Bird of Paradise--

We fairies in our food are somewhat nice.--

And pray, Sir, while your hunger is supplied,

Do lean your Nose a little on one side;

The shadow, which it casts upon the meat,

Darkens my plate, I see not what I eat "--

The Prince on dainty after dainty feeding,

Felt inly shock'd at the old Fairy's breeding;

And held it want of manners in the Dame,

And did her country education blame.

One thing he only wonder'd at,--what she

So very comic in his nose could see.

Hers, it must be confest, was somewhat short,

And time and shrinking age accounted for't;

But for his own, thank heaven, he could not tell

That it was ever thought remarkable;

A decent nose, of reasonable size,

And handsome thought, rather than otherwise.

But that which most of all his wonder paid,

Was to observe the Fairy's waiting Maid;

How at each word the aged Dame let fall

She courtsied low, and smil'd assent to all;

But chiefly when the rev'rend Grannam told

Of conquests, which her beauty made of old.--

He smiled to see how Flattery sway'd the Dame,

Nor knew himself was open to the same!

He finds her raillery now increase so fast,

That making hasty end of his repast,

Glad to escape her tongue, he bids farewell

To the old Fairy, and her friendly cell.

But his kind Hostess, who had vainly tried

The force of ridicule to cure his pride,

Fertile in plans, a surer method chose,

To make him see the error of his nose;

For till he view'd that feature with remorse,

The Enchanter's direful spell must be in force.

Midway the road by which the Prince must pass,

She rais'd by magic art a House of Glass;

No mason's hand appear'd, nor work of wood;

Compact of glass the wondrous fabric stood.

Its stately pillars, glittering in the sun,

Conspicuous from afar, like silver, shone.

Here, snatch'd and rescued from th' Enchanter's might,

She placed the beauteous Claribel in sight.

The admiring Prince the chrystal dome survey'd,

And sought access unto his lovely Maid;

But, strange to tell, in all that mansion's bound,

Nor door, nor casement, was there to be found.

Enrag'd, he took up massy stones, and flung

With such a force, that all the palace rung;

But made no more impression on the glass,

Than if the solid structure had been brass.

To comfort his despair, the lovely maid

Her snowy hand against her window laid;

But when with eager haste he thought to kiss,

His Nose stood out, and robb'd him of the bliss.

Thrice he essay'd th' impracticable feat;

The window and his lips can never meet.

The painful Truth, which Flattery long conceal'd,

Rush'd on his mind, and "O!" he cried, "I yield;

Wisest of Fairies, thou wert right, I wrong--

_I own, I own, I have a Nose too long_."

The frank confession was no sooner spoke,

But into shivers all the palace broke,

His Nose of monstrous length, to his surprise

Shrunk to the limits of a common size;

And Claribel with joy her Lover view'd,

Now grown as beautiful as he was good.

The aged Fairy in their presence stands,

Confirms their mutual vows, and joins their hands.

The Prince with rapture hails the happy hour,

That rescued him from self-delusion's power;

And trains of blessings crown the future life

Of Dorus, and of Claribel, his wife.

NOTES

CHARLES LAMB AND BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

Charles Lamb's activities as a writer for children seem to have begun

and ended in the service of Godwin. The earliest effort in this

direction of which we have any knowledge is _The King and Queen of

Hearts_, 1805, and the latest _Prince Dorus_, 1810 or 1811, unless we

count _Beauty and the Beast_, possibly 1811, which in my opinion he

did not write.

Lamb first met William Godwin (1756-1836), the philosopher, probably

through the instrumentality of their mutual friend Thomas Holcroft,

not long after Gillray had satirised Lamb and Lloyd, in his plate in

the first number of _The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine_, August,

1798, as a frog and a toad, seated in the vicinity of Coleridge and

Southey and reading together a volume labelled "Blank Verse, by Toad

and Frog." "Pray, Mr. Lamb," said Godwin when he first made Lamb's

acquaintance, "are you toad or frog?" It was feared that trouble might

ensue, but Lamb and Godwin were found the next morning at breakfast

together and they became good, though never very intimate, friends.

Godwin, who had been for a while a minister at Ware, in Hertfordshire,

came to London in 1779, and took up literature as a profession

seriously in 1783. His _Political Justice_ was published in 1793,

_Caleb Williams_ in 1794, and _St. Leon_ in 1799. After loving at

a distance Mrs. Opie and Mrs. Inchbald, Godwin married Mary

Wollstonecraft in 1797. Their daughter afterwards became Mrs. Shelley,

the wife of the poet. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin died in the year of

her marriage, and in 1801 Godwin married again, a Mrs. Clairmont,

a widow. Lamb detested her. None the less it was she who took to

publishing and who incited him and his sister to write the charming

children's books in this volume.

Lamb helped Godwin with other literary ventures before the publishing

business was started. In 1800 he wrote an epilogue to his tragedy

of "Antonio" (see the essay in Vol. II., "The Old Actors," for a

description of the luckless first night), and he advised him in the

composition of "Faulkener," another tragedy, which failed in 1807 and

which also had a prologue by Lamb. And a letter is extant showing Lamb

toiling at a review of Godwin's _Chaucer_ in 1803, but the review

itself is not forthcoming.

The publishing business was started in 1805 on Mrs. Godwin's

initiative. At first, owing to the undesirability of connecting the

name of a political and moral firebrand like Godwin with books for

children, it was arranged that the business, which was in Hanway

Street, Oxford Street, should bear the name of the manager, Thomas

Hodgkins, while the books contributed by Godwin were to be signed

Edward Baldwin. In 1806, however, Mrs. Godwin opened a shop at 41

Skinner Street, Snow Hill (now demolished), and published in her own

name as M.J. Godwin & Co., at The Children's Library.

For her the Lambs wrote _The King and Queen of Hearts_ (by Charles

Lamb), 1805; _Tales from Shakespear_, 1807; _The Adventures of

Ulysses_ (by Charles Lamb), 1808; _Mrs. Leicester's School and Poetry

for Children_, 1809; and _Prince Dorus_ (by Charles Lamb), 1811. Mrs.

Godwin translated tales from the French, Godwin contributed _Baldwin's

Fables_, _Baldwin's Pantheon_, and histories of Greece, England and

Rome, and Hazlitt wrote an English Grammar. The principal illustrator

to the firm was William Mulready.

Although Lamb had the most cordial disliking for Mrs. Godwin, he

always stood by his old friend her husband. Between 1811 and 1821

the two men seem to have had little to do with each other; but in

1822 Lamb came to Godwin's assistance to much purpose. The title to

Godwin's house in Skinner Street was successfully contested in that

year, and Godwin became a bankrupt. A fund was therefore set on

foot for him by Lamb and others, Lamb's own contribution being £50.

Godwin, however, never rightly rallied, and thenceforward lived very

quietly, wrote the _History of the Commonwealth_ and _Lives of the

Necromancers_, and died in 1836. Mrs. Godwin survived him until 1841.

Knowing what we do--from Dowden's _Shelley_ and other sources--it is

not possible greatly to admire Godwin's character, nor is the second

Mrs. Godwin a subject for enthusiasm; but the part played by them in

the Lambs' literary life was extremely valuable. Charles Lamb had,

it is true, other stimulus, and without his work for children, sweet

though it is, his name would still be a household word; but Mary Lamb

might, but for the Godwins, have gone almost silent to the grave. Her

writings, with their sweet gravity and tender simplicity, were called

forth wholly by the Bad Baby, as Lamb called Mrs. Godwin.

Lamb's views on the literature of the nursery had crystallised long

before he began to write children's books himself. In a letter to

Coleridge, October 23,1802, he had said:--

"'Goody Two Shoes' is almost out of print. Mrs. Barbauld's stuff has

banished all the old classics of the nursery; and the shopman at

Newberry's hardly deigned to reach them off an old exploded corner

of a shelf, when Mary asked for them. Mrs. B.'s and Mrs. Trimmer's

nonsense lay in piles about. Knowledge insignificant and vapid as Mrs.

Barbauld's books convey, it seems, must come to a child in the _shape

of knowledge_, and his empty noddle must be turned with conceit of his

own powers when he has learnt, that a horse is an animal, and Billy is

better than a horse, and such like; instead of that beautiful interest

in wild tales, which made the child a man, while all the while he

suspected himself to be no bigger than a child. Science has succeeded

to poetry no less in the little walks of children than with men. Is

there no possibility of averting this sore evil? Think what you would

have been now, if, instead of being fed with tales and old wives'

fables in childhood, you had been crammed with geography and natural

history!"

Hence when the time came Lamb was all ready with a nursery method of

his own.

* * * * *

Page 1. TALES FROM SHAKESPEAR.

Mary Lamb was asked to write the _Tales from Shakespear_, with help

from her brother, in the spring of 1806 or the winter of 1805. I have

seen the statement that this was at the instigation of Hazlitt, but

Lamb does not say so. The first mention of the work is in Lamb's

letter to Manning, May 10, 1806:--

"She [Mary] says you saw her writings about the other day, and she

wishes you should know what they are. She is doing for Godwin's

bookseller twenty of Shakspeare's plays, to be made into children's

tales. Six are already done by her, to wit, 'The Tempest,' 'Winter's

Tale,' 'Midsummer Night,' 'Much Ado,' 'Two Gentlemen of Verona,' and

'Cymbeline'; and the 'Merchant of Venice' is in forwardness. I have

done 'Othello' and 'Macbeth,' and mean to do all the tragedies. I

think it will be popular among the little people, besides money. It's

to bring in sixty guineas. Mary has done them capitally, I think,

you'd think. These are the humble amusements we propose, while you are

gone to plant the cross of Christ among barbarous pagan anthropophagi.

Quam homo homini præstat! but then, perhaps, you'll get murdered, and

we shall die in our beds with a fair literary reputation."

Mary Lamb's letters to Sarah Stoddart (afterwards Sarah Hazlitt),

continue the story. This is on June 2, 1806:--

My _Tales_ are to be published in separate story-books; I mean, in

single stories, like the children's little shilling books. I cannot

send you them in Manuscript, because they are all in the Godwins'

hands; but one will be published very soon, and then you shall have

it _all in print_. I go on very well, and have no doubt but I shall

always be able to hit upon some such kind of job to keep going on. I

think I shall get fifty pounds a year at the lowest calculation; but

as I have not yet seen any _money_ of my own earning, for we do not

expect to be paid till Christmas, I do not feel the good fortune, that

has so unexpectedly befallen me, half so much as I ought to do. But

another year, no doubt, I shall perceive it.

When I write again, you will hear tidings of the farce, for Charles is

to go in a few days to the Managers to inquire about it. But that must

now be a next-year's business too, even if it does succeed; so it's

all looking forward, and no prospect of present gain. But that's

better than no hopes at all, either for present or future times.

Charles has written Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, and has begun Hamlet;

you would like to see us, as we often sit writing on one table (but

not on one cushion sitting), like Hermia and Helena in the Midsummer

Night's Dream; or, rather, like an old literary Darby and Joan: I

taking snuff; and he groaning all the while, and saying he can make

nothing of it, which he always says till he has finished, and then he

finds out he has made something of it....

Martin [Burney] has just been here. My Tales (_again_) and Charles's

Farce has made the boy mad to turn Author; and he has written a Farce,

and he has made the Winter's Tale into a story; but what Charles says

of himself is really true of Martin, for _he can make nothing at all

of it_; and I have been talking very eloquently this morning, to

convince him that nobody can write farces, &c., under thirty years of

age. And so I suppose he will go home and new model his farce.

A little later, June 26, Lamb writes to Wordsworth:--

"Mary is just stuck fast in All's Well that Ends Well. She complains

of having to set forth so many female characters in boy's clothes. She

begins to think Shakspear must have wanted Imagination. I to encourage

her, for she often faints in the prosecution of her great work,

flatter her with telling how well such and such a play is done. But

she is stuck fast and I have been obliged to promise to assist her."

Then we have Mary Lamb to Sarah Stoddart again (early in July, 1806):

"I am in good spirits just at this present time, for Charles has been

reading over the _Tale_ I told you plagued me so much, and he thinks

it one of the very best: it is 'All's Well that Ends Well.'"

The work was finished in the autumn of 1806 and published at the end

of the year, dated 1807. Lamb sent Wordsworth a copy on January 29,

1807, with the following letter:--

"We have book'd off from Swan and Two Necks, Lad Lane, this day

(per Coach) the Tales from Shakespear. You will forgive the

plates, when I tell you they were left to the direction of Godwin,

who left the choice of subjects to the bad baby, who from mischief

(I suppose) has chosen one from damn'd beastly vulgarity (vide

'Merch. Venice'), where no atom of authority was in the tale to

justify it--to another has given a name which exists not in the

tale, Nic Bottom, and which she thought would be funny, though in

this I suspect _his_ hand, for I guess her reading does not reach

far enough to know Bottom's Christian name--and one of Hamlet, and

Grave digging, a scene which is not hinted at in the story, and

you might as well have put King Canute the Great reproving his

courtiers--the rest are Giants and Giantesses. Suffice it, to save

our taste and damn our folly, that we left it all to a friend W.G.

who in the first place cheated me into putting a name to them,

which I did not mean, but do not repent, and then wrote a puff

about their _simplicity_, &c., to go with the advertisement as in

my name! Enough of this egregious dupery. I will try to abstract

the load of teazing circumstances from the Stories and tell you

that I am answerable for Lear, Macbeth, Timon, Romeo, Hamlet,

Othello, for occasionally a tail piece or correction of grammar,

for none of the cuts and all of the spelling. The rest is my

Sister's.--We think Pericles of hers the best, and Othello of

mine--but I hope all have some good. As You Like It, we like

least.

"So much, only begging you to tear out the cuts and give them to

Johnny, as 'Mrs. Godwin's fancy'.

"C.L.

"_Our love to all_.

"I had almost forgot, My part of the Preface begins in the middle

of a sentence, in last but one page, after a colon, thus:--

":--_which if they be happily so done_, &c. (see page 2, line 7

from foot).

The former part hath a more feminine turn and does hold me up

something as an instructor to young ladies: but upon my modesty's

honour I wrote it not.

"Godwin told my Sister that the Baby chose the subjects: a fact in

taste."

This letter not only tells us how the preface was written--the first

part, I take it, by William Godwin--but what Lamb himself thought of

the pictures; which I reproduce in the large edition. It is customary

to attribute the designs to Mulready and the engraving to William

Blake.

I have set up the _Tales_ from the second edition, 1809, because it

embodies certain corrections and was probably the last edition in

which the Lambs took any interest. The changes of word are few. I note

the more important; Page 5, line 1, "recollection" was "remembrance"

in the first edition; page 10, line 27, "voracious" was "ugly" in the

first edition; page 15, line 21, "vessel" was "churn"; page 42, line

30, "continued" was in the first edition "remained"; page 108, foot,

"But she being a woman" had run in the first edition, "But she being

a bad ambitious woman." I leave other minute differences to the

Bibliographer.

The second edition was issued in two forms: one similar to the first

edition and one with only frontispiece, a portrait of Shakespear, and

the following foreword from the pen, I imagine, of Mr. Godwin:--

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION

The Proprietors of this work willingly pay obedience to the voice

of the public. It has been the general sentiment, that the style

in which these Tales are written, is not so precisely adapted for

the amusement of mere children, as for an acceptable and improving

present to young ladies advancing to the state of womanhood.

They therefore now offer to the public an edition prepared with

suitable elegance. In the former impression they gave twenty

prints, illustrative of the twenty tales which compose these

volumes, for they knew that it was a grievous thing and a

disappointment to a child, to find some tales without the

recommendation of a print, which the others possessed. The prints

were therefore made from spirited designs, but did not pretend to

high finishing in the execution. To this edition they have annexed

merely a beautiful head of our immortal Dramatist, from a much

admired painting by Zoust.--They are satisfied that every reader

of taste will thank them for not suppressing the former Preface,

though not exactly applicable on the present occasion.

N.B.--A few copies have been worked off on the plan of the former

impression, for the use of those who rather coincide in the

original conception of the writer, than in the opinion above

stated.

Lamb, we may be sure, had no hand in this manifesto, but whatever

protest he may have made was unsuccessful. It reappears in the third

edition, while the preface there has the general alteration of the

first person singular to the first person plural: "our young readers"

for "my young readers," and so forth. But this was probably Godwinian

work.

The Godwins also issued some or all of the _Tales_ separately at

sixpence each (the two ordinary volumes cost eight shillings) with

three plates to each, of a different design from those in the

two-volume edition. These little books are exceedingly rare, but

copies have been discovered both plain and coloured. The plates are

attributed to Blake.

The Lambs' _Tales from Shakespear_ were not, Mr. Bertram Dobell has

pointed out, the first experiment of the kind. In 1783 was published

in Paris _Contes Moraux, Amusans et Instructifs, à l'usage de la

Jeunesse tirés des Tragédies de Shakespear_. Par M. Perrin. The Lambs

did not, however, borrow anything from M. Perrin, even if they were

aware of his work. The _Tales_ are peculiarly their own.

The _Tales from Shakespear_ are, and probably will continue to be,

the most widely distributed of all the Lambs' work. In England it may

be that _Elia_ has had as many readers; but abroad the _Tales from

Shakespear_ easily lead. In the British Museum catalogue I find

translations in French, German, Swedish, Spanish, and Polish. (No

complete translation of _Elia_ into any language is known, not even in

French, although a selection of the essays will be found at the end of

Depret's monograph, _De L'Humeur Littéraire en Angleterre_, 1877.) In

England almost every Christmas brings a new edition of the _Tales_ and

often an imitation.

Although Mary Lamb was the true author of the book, as of _Mrs.

Leicester's School_ and of _Poetry for Children_, her share being much

greater than her brother's in all of these, she was not until many

years later associated publicly with any of them. The _Tales_ were

attributed to Charles Lamb, presumably against his wish, as we see

from a sentence in the letter to Wordsworth quoted above, and the

other two books had no name attached to them at all. Why Mary Lamb

preserved such strict anonymity we do not now know; but it was

probably from a natural shrinking from any kind of publicity after the

unhappy publicity which she had once gained by her misfortune.

* * * * *

Page 240. THE ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES.

Lamb must have been as busy in the years 1806-1808 as in any of his

life; for he then not only had his India House work, but wrote his

share of the _Tales from Shakespear_, _Mrs. Leicester's School_ and

_Poetry for Children_, wrote all of _The Adventures of Ulysses_, and

finally prepared his _Dramatic Specimens_. Moreover in 1806 he had the

harassment of the alterations and impending production of "Mr. H."

On February 26, 1808, he tells Manning that he has just finished _The

Adventures of Ulysses_ and the _Specimens_, describing _The Adventures

of Ulysses_ as "intended to be an introduction to the reading of

Telemachus! it is done out of the Odyssey, not from the Greek. I

would not mislead you: nor yet from Pope's Odyssey, but from an older

translation of one Chapman. The 'Shakspeare Tales' suggested the doing

it." Many years after Lamb wrote to Barton (August 10, 1827): "Did

you ever read my 'Adventures of Ulysses,' founded on Chapman's old

translation of it? for children or _men_. Ch. is divine, and my

abridgment has not quite emptied him of his divinity."

Chapman's _Homer_ was the folio which Leigh Hunt tells us he once saw

Lamb kiss.

Writing to Coleridge on October 23, 1802, Lamb says:--

"I have just finished Chapman's Homer. Did you ever read it?--it

has most the continuous power of interesting you all along, like a

rapid original, of any; and in the uncommon excellence of the more

finished parts goes beyond Fairfax or any of 'em. The metre is

fourteen syllables, and capable of all sweetness and grandeur.

Cowper's ponderous blank verse detains you every step with some

heavy Miltonism; Chapman gallops off with you his own free

pace....

"I will tell you more about Chapman and his peculiarities in my

next. I am much interested in him."

A brief correspondence which passed between Godwin and Lamb just

before the publication of _The Adventures of Ulysses_ may be given

here.

WILLIAM GODWIN TO CHARLES LAMB

Skinner Street, _March_ 10, 1808.

Dear Lamb,--I address you with all humility, because I know you to

be _tenax propositi_. Hear me, I entreat you, with patience.

It is strange with what different feelings an author and

a bookseller looks at the same manuscript. I know this by

experience: I was an author, I am a bookseller. The author thinks

what will conduce to his honour: the bookseller what will cause

his commodities to sell.

You, or some other wise man, I have heard to say, It is children

that read children's books, when they are read, but it is parents

that choose them. The critical thought of the tradesman put itself

therefore into the place of the parent, and what the parent will

condemn.

We live in squeamish days. Amid the beauties of your manuscript,

of which no man can think more highly than I do, what will the

squeamish say to such expressions as these,--'devoured their

limbs, yet warm and trembling, lapping the blood,' page 10. Or

to the giant's vomit, page 14; or to the minute and shocking

description of the extinguishing the giant's eye in the page

following. You, I daresay, have no formed plan of excluding the

female sex from among your readers, and I, as a bookseller, must

consider that if you have you exclude one half of the human

species.

Nothing is more easy than to modify these things if you please,

and nothing, I think, is more indispensable.

Give me, as soon as possible, your thoughts on the matter.

I should also like a preface. Half our customers know not Homer,

or know him only as you or I know the lost authors of antiquity.

What can be more proper than to mention one or two of those

obvious recommendations of his works, which must lead every human

creature to desire a nearer acquaintance.--Believe me, ever

faithfully yours,

W. GODWIN.

CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM GODWIN

_March_ 11, 1808.

Dear Godwin,--The giant's vomit was perfectly nauseous, and I am

glad you pointed it out. I have removed the objection. To the

other passages I can find no other objection but what you may

bring to numberless passages besides, such as of Scylla snatching

up the six men, etc.,--that is to say, they are lively images of

_shocking_ things. If you want a book, which is not occasionally

to _shock_, you should not have thought of a tale which was so

full of anthropophagi and wonders. I cannot alter these things

without enervating the Book, and I will not alter them if the

penalty should be that you and all the London booksellers should

refuse it. But speaking as author to author, I must say that I

think _the terrible_ in those two passages seems to me so much to

preponderate over the nauseous, as to make them rather fine than

disgusting. Who is to read them, I don't know: who is it that

reads Tales of Terror and Mysteries of Udolpho? Such things sell.

I only say that I will not consent to alter such passages, which

I know to be some of the best in the book. As an author I say to

you, an author, Touch not my work. As to a bookseller I say, Take

the work such as it is, or refuse it. You are as free to refuse it

as when we first talked of it. As to a friend I say, Don't plague

yourself and me with nonsensical objections. I assure you I will

not alter one more word.

As the reader will see, Lamb made only the one alteration; nor did he

add a preface recommending the works of Homer.

I have set up _The Adventures of Ulysses_ from the second edition,

1819, because it probably contains Lamb's final revision of the text.

The punctuation differs considerably from that of the first edition,

but there are, I think, only four changes of words. On page 251, line

34, "and" was inserted before "snout"; on page 257, line g, "does"

was substituted for "do"; on page 266, line 7 from foot, "over" was

substituted for "above"; and on page 276, line 5 from foot, "it" was

inserted after "keep."

The suggestion has been made that, since Lamb states in the preface

that this work was designed as a supplement to _The Adventures

of Telemachus_, he was also the author of one of the versions of

Fénélon's popular tale. But this, I think, has no foundation in fact.

We know from Lamb's letter to Godwin that the impulse to write _The

Adventures of Ulysses_ came from Godwin, and it was natural that he,

a bookseller, should wish to associate this new venture with a volume

so well known and so acceptable as the _Telemachus_. Now and then in

the story Lamb deliberately refers to Fénélon's work, as when in the

fourth chapter he says:--

"It were useless to describe over again what has been so well told

already; or to relate those soft arts of courtship which the goddess

used to detain Ulysses; the same in kind which she afterwards

practised upon his less wary son, whom Minerva, in the shape of

Mentor, hardly preserved from her snares when they came to the

Delightful Island together in search of the scarce departed Ulysses."

This is drawn not from Chapman or Homer, but from the Archbishop of

Cambrai. Lamb introduced it in accordance with the first sentence of

his preface.

Lamb adapted Chapman very freely. For the material in Chapter I. we

must go to Chapman, Books IX. and X.; for Chapter II., to Books X.

and XL; for Chapter III., to Book XII.; for Chapter IV., to the early

books; for Chapters V., VI. and VII., to Chapman, Books V.-IX. and

XIII.; for Chapter VIII., to Books XIII. and XIV.; and for Chapter IX.

to the end, to Chapman, Book XVI. and onwards. It must be agreed

that Lamb performed a difficult task with great skill and success,

especially when we consider his want of interest, frequently admitted,

in stories. But the pleasure of adding dignity and sweetness to the

character of Ulysses seems to have been very considerable as he

worked (or so I imagine), and he made practically a new thing, a very

persuasive blend of ancient and modern. The book has not been so

popular as the _Tales from Shakespear_, but it has, I think, finer

literary merits and may perhaps be read by older intellects with more

satisfaction.

* * * * *

Page 316. MRS. LEICESTER'S SCHOOL.

This charming little book was published by Mrs. Godwin at the end of

1808, dated 1809, with no author's name attached. Besides, however,

ample internal evidence as to its authorship, there are many

references to it in Lamb's letters. Why it was issued anonymously we

cannot now learn; probably, as I have suggested, from Mary Lamb's

unwillingness to have her name in print. The _Tales from Shakespear_,

it will be remembered, were described always as being by Charles Lamb,

although Mary did far more than half, and it was at the outset her

book. Her share of _Mrs. Leicester's School_ was equally great, and

a sentence in one of her letters to Sarah Stoddart suggests that it

was hers in inception also: "I have been busy making waistcoats, and

plotting new work to succeed the _Tales_." Possibly it was because

his share in the book was so small that Lamb refused to sign _Mrs.

Leicester's School_ as he had the _Tales from Shakespear_; possibly

he had other reasons, the title-page of his _Dramatic Specimens_

being one of them. When, a little while afterwards, the _Poetry for

Children_ was published, it was stated to be "by the author of _Mrs.

Leicester's School_," while several of the poems when reprinted by

Mylius (see notes below) were signed Mrs. Leicester. Thus, Mary Lamb's

last chance of seeing her name on a title-page vanished. But we may

feel confident that her own wishes were consulted in the matter.

Lamb's share in _Mrs. Leicester's School_ we know from a letter to

Bernard Barton (January 23, 1824): "My Sister's part in the Leicester

School (about two thirds) was purely her own; as it was (to the same

quantity) in the Shakspeare Tales which bear my name. I wrote only the

Witch Aunt, the first going to Church, and the final Story, about a

little Indian girl in a ship."

The little book was well received, and was quietly popular for some

years, running into eight editions by 1823. I imagine, however, that

it was little known between 1830 and the end of the century. Latterly

there has been a revival in interest. One or two critics have touched

rapturous heights in their praise. Landor wrote to Crabb Robinson in

April, 1831:--

It is now several days since I read the book you recommended to

me, "Mrs. Leicester's School;" and I feel as if I owed you a debt

in deferring to thank you for many hours of exquisite delight.

Never have I read anything in prose so many times over within so

short a space of time as "The Father's Wedding-day." Most people,

I understand, prefer the first tale--in truth a very admirable

one--but others could have written it. Show me the man or woman,

modern or ancient, who could have written this one sentence: "When

I was dressed in my new frock, I wished poor mamma was alive,

to see how fine I was on papa's wedding day; and I ran to my

favourite station at her bedroom door." How natural, in a little

girl, is this incongruity--this impossibility! Richardson would

have given his "Clarissa," and Rousseau his "Heloïse" to have

imagined it. A fresh source of the pathetic bursts out before

us, and not a bitter one. If your Germans can show us anything

comparable to what I have transcribed, I would almost undergo a

year's gargle of their language for it. The story is admirable

throughout--incomparable, inimitable....

Landor wrote to Lady Blessington to the same effect. Praise of this

book is so pleasant to read that I quote his second letter too:--

One of her tales is, with the sole exception of the _Bride of

Lammermoor_, the most beautiful tale in prose composition in any

language, ancient or modern. A young girl has lost her mother, the

father marries again, and marries a friend of his former wife. The

child is ill reconciled to it, but being dressed in new clothes

for the marriage, she runs up to her mother's chamber, filled with

the idea how happy that dear mother would be at seeing her in all

her glory--not reflecting, poor soul! that it was only by her

mother's death that she appeared in it. How natural, how novel is

all this! Did you ever imagine that a fresh source of the pathetic

would burst forth before us in this trodden and hardened world? I

never did, and when I found myself upon it, I pressed my temples

with both hands, and tears ran down to my elbows.

And Coleridge remarked to Allsop:--

It at once soothes and amuses me to think--nay, to know--that

the time will come when this little volume of my dear and

well-nigh oldest friend, Mary Lamb, will be not only enjoyed but

acknowledged as a rich jewel in the treasury of our permanent

English literature; and I cannot help running over in my mind the

long list of celebrated writers, astonishing geniuses, Novels,

Romances, Poems, Histories and dense Political Economy quartos

which, compared with _Mrs. Leicester's School_, will be remembered

as often and prized as highly as Wilkie's and Glover's _Epics_ and

Lord Bolingbroke's _Philosophies_ compared with _Robinson Crusoe_.

I have set up the book from the second edition, 1809, because the

Lambs' final text is probably to be found there. Although certain

additional minor differences were made in the eighth and ninth

editions, 1821 and 1825, I think it very unlikely that they were

made by Mary or Charles Lamb. The principal alteration between the

second and first editions is page 317, line 6, "your eyes were red

with weeping," for "The traces of tears might still be seen on your

cheeks." The other differences are very slight, mostly being in

punctuation, but there are also a few changes of word. I leave these,

however, to the Bibliographer.

The eighth edition was furnished with the following preface; which,

though it is signed "The Author," is not, I think, from either Mary or

Charles Lamb's pen. I rather suspect Mrs. Godwin.

"Tell me a story, Mamma," was almost the first request my own

child made me when she understood the meaning of a story, and

I soon discovered I had no easier method of managing a very

difficult temper than by adapting my stories to the errors she

committed, or the good qualities she announced; but as I found it

a very difficult and troublesome task to repeat the same story

precisely the same each time, and as a sensible child, even at

so early a period as three years of age, will remember where the

narrator forgets, and never fail to detect the mistakes of the

second repetition, I came to the resolution to print a small

collection of stories for very young children, composed merely of

circumstances incidental to their age.

The great error of many juvenile books is their deviation from truth;

and as so much is absolutely necessary to be taught, why add to

the labour by impressing false ideas on the mind of an infant, and

thus lose the opportunity of making amusement the vehicle to convey

instruction? A Mother only is, perhaps, capable of adapting stories to

the capacities of very young Children; for a Mother only watches the

unfolding of their ideas, and the bent of their dispositions. If one

good Mother finds these tales of service to her in her arduous but

pleasing task, my purpose will be answered.

It is stated that a French version of _Mrs. Leicester's School_, under

the title _Les Jeunes Pensionnaires_, was published. I have seen,

however, only _Petits Conies à l'usage de la Feunesse traduits de

l'Anglais par M'me M. D'Avot_, 1823, which contains "Elisabeth

Villiers, ou l'Oncle marin," "Charlotte Wilmot," "Marguerite Green, ou

la jeune Mahométane," and "Arabella Hardy, ou la Traversée."

_Mrs. Leicester's School_ calls for little annotation, except for the

purpose of relating the stories to the lives of their writers; for it

contains some very valuable autobiographical matter. But there are a

few minor points too.

Page 316. _Dedication_.

In the choice of Amwell School as the name of Mrs. Leicester's

establishment Mary (or Charles) returned after an inveterate Lamb

habit to the old Hertfordshire days. Amwell, where the New River

rises, is only a few miles from Widford and Blakesware. The signature

to the dedication, "M.B.," may have been a little joke for the

amusement of Martin Burney, who had taken such interest in the

progress of the _Tales from Shakespear_ and was in those days a

special favourite with Mary Lamb.

Page 319. I.--_Elizabeth Villiers_. "The Sailor Uncle."

By Mary Lamb. The story of the little girl learning her letters from

her mother's grave may have belonged to Widford churchyard; otherwise

there seems to be no personal memory here.

Page 328. II.--_Louisa Manners_. "The Farm House."

By Mary Lamb. Much of the description of the farm and country is

probably from memory of the old days at Mackery End, where we know

Mary Lamb to have gone with her little brother Charles some time

about 1780, and perhaps herself earlier. It is, however, possible

that Blakesware is meant, since Mary Lamb speaks of the grandmother:

Mrs. Bruton of Mackery End was her great aunt. One feels that the

grandmother's sorrow at not being remembered (on page 329) is from

life; and also the episode with Will Tasker (on the same page), and

the description (and probably the name) of Old Spot, the shepherd, on

page 333.

Page 334. III.--_Ann Withers_. "The Changeling."

By Mary Lamb. In one of the later editions of this story certain small

changes were made, not, I fancy, by Mary Lamb. For example, on page

349, line 19, the sentence was made to read: "Neither dancing, nor

any foolish lectures, could do much for Miss Lesley, she remained

_for some time_ wanting in gracefulness of carriage; but all that is

usually attributed to dancing music _finally effected_." The italics

indicate the additions of the nice editorial hand.

Page 350. IV.--_Elinor Forester_. "The Father's Wedding Day."

By Mary Lamb. It is this story which Landor so much admired (see

above). The pretty song, "Balow, my babe," was probably "Ann

Bothwell's Lament," beginning "Balow, my boy."

Page 354. V.--_Margaret Green_. "The Young Mahometan."

By Mary Lamb, and perhaps her most perfect work. Here we have a

description of Blakesware, the home of the Plumers, which for many

years was uninhabited by the family, and left from 1778 to 1792 in the

sole charge of Mrs. Field, Charles and Mary's maternal grandmother.

Charles, since he was born in 1775, would on his visits have known no

power superior to his grandmother; but Mary, who was born in 1764,

would have occasionally encountered Mrs. Plumer, just as Margaret

Green met Mrs. Beresford. Probably Mrs. Plumer and Mrs. Beresford

were very like. Probably also Mrs. Field maintained silence with her

grandchild, for we know that neither she nor her daughter rightly

understood Mary Lamb. Mrs. Field used to speak of her "poor moythered

brains." Mary's description of the old house should be compared

with Charles's in the _Elia_ essays "Blakesmoor in H----shire" and

"Dream-Children." In one point they are at variance; for Mary says

that the twelve Cæsars "hung" round the hall, and her brother that

they were life-size busts. I have the authority of a gentleman who

remembers them at Gilston, whither they were removed, for saying that

Charles Lamb's memory was the more accurate. The picture of the little

girl with a lamb seems to have made an equal impression on both their

minds; and both mention the shuttlecocks on the table.

Page 360. VI.--_Emily Barton_. "Visit to the Cousins."

By Mary Lamb. Possibly autobiographical in the matter of the first

play. Charles Lamb's first play was the opera "Artaxerxes;" Mary's may

quite well have been Congreve's "Mourning Bride." The book-shop at the

corner of St. Paul's Churchyard would be Harris's (late Newbery's);

that in Skinner Street (No. 41) was, of course, Godwin's, where _Mrs.

Leicester's School_ was published and sold. This pleasant art of

advertising one's wares in one's own children's books was brought

to perfection by Newbery, and by Harris, his successor, whose tiny

histories are full of reminders of the merits of the corner of St.

Paul's Churchyard. By making Mr. Barton hesitate between the two shops

and then go to Mrs. Godwin's, Lamb (for here it was probably he and

not his sister) carried the joke a step farther than Newbery.

The following account of the figures on old St. Dunstan's Church (the

children of to-day are taken to Cheapside to see Bennett's clock) is

given in Hughson's _London_ (1805):--

On the outside of the church, within a niche and pediment at the

south-west end, over the clock, are two figures of savages or wild

men, carved in wood, and painted natural colour, as big as the

life, standing erect, with each a knotty club in his hand, with

which they alternately strike the quarters, not only their arms,

but even their heads, moving at every blow.

Moxon tells us that when the old church was pulled down and the

figures were removed, Lamb shed tears. The figures I am told

still exist in the garden of the villa in Regent's Park--"St.

Dunstan's"--that once belonged to the Marquis of Hertford and is now

the Earl of Londesborough's London House.

Miss Pearson kept a toy-shop at No. 7 Fleet Street. The Lambs knew her

through Charles's old schoolmistress, Mrs. Reynolds.

Page 368. VII.--_Maria Howe_. "The Witch Aunt."

By Charles Lamb. This story is peculiarly interesting to students of

Lamb's life, for it describes, probably with absolute fidelity, his

Aunt Hetty, and elaborates the passage concerning Stackhouse's _New

History of the Bible_, which is to be found in the _Elia_ essay

"Witches and other Night Fears." Aunt Hetty is described elsewhere by

Lamb in his _Elia_ essays, "Christ's Hospital" and "My Relations;" and

in the poem "Written on the Day of my Aunt's Funeral." In Mary Lamb's

letter to Sarah Stoddart on September 21, 1803, is a short passage

corroborative of Lamb's account of the relations subsisting between

his aunt and his parents:--

My father had a sister lived with us--of course, lived with my

Mother, her sister-in-law; they were, in their different ways, the

best creatures in the world--but they set out wrong at first. They

made each other miserable for full twenty years of their lives--my

Mother was a perfect gentlewoman, my Aunty as unlike a gentlewoman

as you can possibly imagine a good old woman to be; so that my

dear Mother (who, though you do not know it, is always in my poor

head and heart) used to distress and weary her with incessant and

unceasing attention and politeness, to gain her affection. The old

woman could not return this in kind, and did not know what to make

of it--thought it all deceit, and used to hate my Mother with a

bitter hatred; which, of course, was soon returned with interest.

Lamb told Coleridge, in a letter upon his aunt's death, "she was to me

the 'cherisher of infancy.'"

In the _Elia_ essay on "Witches" no mention is made of Glanvil; but

there is a passage in the unpublished version of _John Woodvil_ which

mentions both it and Stackhouse:--

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.

That was written some eight or nine years earlier than "Maria Howe;"

the essay on "Witches" some fifteen years later. Joseph Glanvill

(1636-1680) issued his _Philosophical Considerations touching Witches

and Witchcraft_, in 1666.

Page 375. VIII.--_Charlotte Wilmot_. "The Merchant's Daughter."

By Mary Lamb.

Page 378. IX.--_Susan Yates_. "First Going to Church."

By Charles Lamb. John Lamb, the father, came from Lincolnshire, but

Charles did not know that county at all. The remark, "to see how

goodness thrived," may well have been John Lamb's, or possibly his

father's; and Lamb's own first impressions of church, probably

acquired at the Temple (which he mentions here by comparison), were,

it is easy to believe, identical with the imaginary narrator's. Church

bells seem always to have had an attraction for him: he has a pretty

reference to them in _John Woodvil_, and a little poem in _Blank

Verse_, 1798, entitled "The Sabbath Bells."

Page 384. X.--_Arabella Hardy_. "The Sea Voyage."

By Charles Lamb. Nothing else that Lamb wrote is quite so far from the

ordinary run of his thoughts; and nothing has, I think, more charm.

* * * * *

Page 389. The King and Queen of Hearts This is probably the first of

Charles Lamb's books for children. Of its history nothing is known:

the proof that Charles Lamb wrote it is to be found in a letter

from Lamb to Wordsworth, now in America, dated February 1, 1806,

the concluding portion of which, and the only portion that has been

printed--beginning "_Apropos_ of Spenser"--will be found in most

editions of the correspondence tacked on to the letter dated June,

1806. In the earlier part of this missive Lamb enumerates the books

which he has just despatched to Wordsworth by carrier from London.

Among these is an edition of Spenser, leading to the "_apropos_."

Also: "there comes W. Hazlitt's book about Human Action for Coleridge;

a little song book for Sarah Coleridge; a Box for Hartley ...; a

Paraphrase on _The King and Queen of Hearts_, of which I, being the

author, beg Mr. Johnny Wordsworth's acceptance and opinion. _Liberal

Criticism_, as G. Dyer declares, I am always ready to attend to."

As Charles Lamb is not known to have written children's books for any

one but the Godwins, who in 1806 were still publishing under cover of

Thomas Hodgkins' name, in Hanway Street, it is reasonable to assume

that if a paraphrase of _The King and Queen of Hearts_ nursery rhyme

could be found, bearing Hodgkins' or Godwin's name, and dated 1805 or

1806, Lamb would be its author. That such a work did exist was proved

by the advertisements at the end of other of Godwin's juvenile books.

In the first edition of _Mrs. Leicester's School_, 1809, is this

announcement:--

"Likewise, the following elegant and approved Publications,

containing each of them the Incidents of an agreeable Tale,

exhibited in a Series of Engravings, Price 1s. plain, or 1s. 6d.

coloured.

"1. _The King and Queen of Hearts: showing how notably the Queen

made her Tarts, and how Scurvily the Knave stole them away._ &c."

This series was called the Copperplate Series. In due course a copy

of No. 1, _The King and Queen of Hearts_, was found in the library of

Miss Edith Pollock, bought by her at the sale of the late Mr. Andrew

W. Tuer, an authority upon old children's literature and the publisher

to whose enterprise we owe the facsimile editions of _Prince Dorus_

and _Poetry for Children_. Mr. Tuer, however, had not suspected Lamb's

authorship. The cover of Miss Pollock's copy bears the date 1809,

which means that the little book was re-bound as required with the

date of the current year upon it. Copies of the first edition have

since been discovered and sold for enormous sums. The date is 1806.

In a copy of _The Looking Glass_, another of Godwin's books, _The King

and Queen of Hearts_ is thus advertised, with a new quatrain, probably

also from Lamb's pen:--

"Price 1s. Plain; or 15. 6ed. Coloured,

The King and Queen of Hearts,

With the

Rogueries of the Knave who stole away the Queen's Pies.

Illustrated in Fifteen elegant Engravings:

Agreeably to the famous Historical Ballad on the Subject.

"I write of Tarts; how sweet a tale!

You'll lick your lips to hear it told:

I show you mighty Kings and Queens,

Robes of scarlet, Crowns of gold."

This little book, _The Looking Glass_, which relates the early life

of William Mulready (1786-1863), was issued in facsimile by Mr. F.G.

Stephens in 1885, with an interesting account of its history. Therein

Mr. Stephens wrote: "Mr. Linnell told me that the cuts to the once

well-known _Nongtong Paw_ [Vol. 6 of "The Copperplate Series;" see

above], _The Sullen Woman and the Pedlar_ [Vol. 2 of the same series],

_Think before you speak_, and _The King and Queen of Hearts_, were

designed by Mulready." We thus discover who was the illustrator. My

own feeling is that the plates came first and Lamb's verses later.

_The King and Queen of Hearts_ cannot be said to add anything

characteristic to the body of Lamb's writings. But its discovery

is historically valuable in establishing--by the date 1805 on the

engraved title-page--the fact that before the _Tales from Shakespear_,

which are usually thought to be the brother and sister's first

experiment in writing for children, Charles at any rate had tried his

hand at that pastime. _The King and Queen of Hearts_ thus becomes his

first juvenile work.

* * * * *

Page 404. POETRY FOR CHILDREN.

This little book, attributed on the title-page merely to the author

of _Mrs. Leicester's School_, was published in two minute volumes at

three shillings by Mrs. Godwin in 1809.

Robert Lloyd, writing from London to his wife in April, 1809, says

of Charles and Mary Lamb: "If we may use the expression, their Union

of affection is what we conceive of marriage in Heaven. They are

the World _one_ to the _other_. They are writing a Book of Poetry

for children together." Later: "It is _task_ work to them, they are

writing for money, and a Book of Poetry for Children being likely to

sell has induced them to compose one." Writing to Coleridge of the

_Poetry for Children_, in June, 1809, Lamb says: "Our little poems are

but humble, but they have no name. You must read them, remembering

they were task-work; and perhaps you will admire the number of

subjects, all of children, picked out by an old Bachelor and an old

Maid. Many parents would not have found so many." Charles Lamb, by the

way, was then thirty-four, and Mary Lamb forty-four. In sending the

book to Manning, Lamb said that his own share of the poems was only

one-third.

The little book seems to have been quickly allowed by its publisher

to pass into the void. Possibly the two-volume form was found to be

impracticable: at any rate _Poetry for Children_ disappeared, many

of its pieces at various times reappearing with the signature Mrs.

Leicester in _The Junior Class-Book_ (two pieces), in _The First Book

of Poetry_ (twenty-two pieces) and _The Poetical Class Book_ (three

pieces), all compiled by William Frederic Mylius, a Christ's Hospital

master, and published by Mrs. Godwin. Hence the extreme rarity of

_Poetry for Children_, which seemed to be completely lost until, in

1877, a copy was found in Australia. Two or three other copies of

the English edition have since come to light. Mylius used also the

frontispieces to the two volumes. As I have not seen all the editions

of these compilations, it is possible that my figures may not be

complete.

An American edition of _Poetry for Children_ was published in 1812 at

Boston. The poems "Clock Striking," "Why not do it, Sir, To-day?" and

"Home Delights," were omitted.

I have placed against the poems, in the notes that follow, the

authorship--brother or sister's--which seems to me the more probable.

But I hope it will be understood that I do this at a venture, and,

except in a few cases, with no exact knowledge.

Page 404. _Envy_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 404. _The Reaper's Child_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 405. _The Ride_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 406. _The Butterfly_.

(?) Mary Lamb. The poet referred to was William Roscoe, author of _The

Butterfly's Ball_, 1807.

Page 407. _The Peach_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 408. _Chusing a Name_.

By Charles Lamb; as we know from a letter from Lamb to Robert Lloyd.

Page 408. _Crumbs to the Birds_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 409. _The Rook and the Sparrows_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 410. _Discontent and Quarrelling_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 411. _Repentance and Reconciliation_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 412. _Neatness in Apparel_.

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 412. _The New-born Infant_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 413. _Motes in the Sun-beams_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 413. _The Boy and Snake_.

(?) Mary Lamb. This poem was the subject of the frontispiece to

Vol. I. of the original edition. According to a letter from Jean D.

Montgomery printed in _The County Gentleman_ in August, 1907, there is

extant in Kirkcudbrightshire a legend on which this poem is probably

based. She writes thus:--

"At the farm of Newlaw, in the parish of Rerrick, in

Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, some people named Crosbie lived

about the year 1782--at least, they had a son, Douglas, who was

born there in that year. When the child grew old enough to trot

about by himself his mother was in the habit of giving him his

plate of porridge and milk to take outside the farm and eat every

morning. He had probably done so for long enough, when one day,

his mother, happening to go out, saw him seated on the ground

eating his porridge in company with an adder, who, however,

instead of hurting the child, merely supped up the milk. When the

reptile edged a little nearer to the boy than was quite equal,

Douglas slapped the adder on his head with his horn spoon, saying,

"Keep yer ain side o' the plate, Grey Bairdie."

The mother was, of course, terrified, but waited until the boy had

finished his meal, when she called in the neighbours and killed the

adder.

Curiously enough a precisely similar story turned up in Hungary in

1907 and was telegraphed to the London press from Budapest.

Page 415. _The First Tooth_.

Mary Lamb. The last line was quoted by Lamb in his Popular Fallacy

"That Home is Home": "It has been prettily said, that 'a babe is fed

with milk and praise.'"

Page 416. _To a River in which a Child was Drowned_.

By Charles Lamb. It was reprinted by him in the _Works_, 1818, the

text of which is here given. I imagine Lamb to have found the metre

and manner of the poem in the ballad "Gentle River, Gentle River"

(translated from the Spanish "Rio Verde, Rio Verde"), which is

printed in the _Percy Reliques_. Reprinted by Mylius in _The Junior

Class-Book_.

Page 416. _The First of April_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 417. _Cleanliness_.

(?) Charles Lamb. In the little essay "Saturday Night," written in

1829, Lamb disputes the truth of the adage "Cleanliness is next to

Godliness."

Page 418. _The Lame Brother_.

(?) Mary Lamb. John Lamb, Charles's elder brother, was lamed when a

young man (much older than the brother in the verses) by a falling

stone. In "Dream-Children" Lamb states that he himself was once

lame-footed too, and had to be carried by John. Somewhere between the

two brothers the historical truth of this poem probably resides.

Page 419. _Going into Breeches_.

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 420. _Nursing_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 421. _The Text_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 422. _The End of May_.

Mary Lamb. Talfourd writes, apparently with reference to this poem:

"One verse, which she did not print--the conclusion of a little poem

supposed to be expressed in a letter by the son of a family who, when

expecting the return of its father from sea, received news of his

death,--recited by her to Mr. Martin Burney, and retained in his fond

recollection, may afford a concluding example of the healthful wisdom

of her lessons:--

'I can no longer feign to be

A thoughtless child in infancy;

I tried to write like young Marie,

But I am James her brother;

And I can feel--but she's too young--

Yet blessings on her prattling tongue,

She sweetly soothes my mother.'"

Page 424. _Feigned Courage_.

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 425. _The Broken Doll_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 426. _The Duty of a Brother_.

(?) Mary Lamb, amended by Charles Lamb.

Page 427. _Wasps in a Garden_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 428. _What is Fancy?_

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 429. _Anger_.

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 429. _Blindness_.

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 430. _The Mimic Harlequin_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 430. _Written in the First Leaf of a Child's Memorandum Book_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 431. _Memory_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 432. _The Reproof_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 432. _The Two Bees_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 434. _The Journey from School and to School_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 435. _The Orange_.

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 436. _The Young Letter-writer_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 437. _The Three Friends_.

By Charles Lamb. Reprinted by him in his _Works_, 1818, with the text

now given, which differs very slightly from that of 1809.

Page 442. _On the Lord's Prayer_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 443. "_Suffer little Children_ ..."

(?) Mary Lamb. With this poem ended Vol. I. of the original edition of

_Poetry for Children_. With the following poem Vol. II. began.

Page 445. _The Magpye's Nest, or a Lesson of Docility_.

(?) Mary Lamb. In this poem some trace of John Lamb senior's poetical

manner may be seen. Fables drawn from bird life stand at the beginning

of his _Poetical Pieces on Several Occasions_ (see Vol. II.).

Page 447. _The Boy and the Sky-lark_.

(?) Charles Lamb. The frontispiece to Vol. II. of _Poetry for

Children_ took its subject from this poem.

Page 449. _The Men and Women, and the Monkeys_.

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 449. _Love, Death, and Reputation_.

(?) Charles Lamb. Mr. Swinburne contributed to _The Athenæum_ of

February 2, 1878, a note on this poem:--

At the 96th page of the new edition of Charles and Mary Lamb's

'_Poetry for Children_' is a little poem of which the authorship can

hardly be doubtful, done into rhyme from the blank verse of Webster; a

translation by no means to its advantage. The original is to be found

in the third act of the "Duchess of Malfi," in the magnificent scene

where the privacy of the wedded lovers is invaded by Ferdinand; in

whose mouth the apologue transferred or "conveyed" by Lamb into the

quaint and delightful little book over the recovery of which all the

hearts of his lovers are yet warm with rejoicing, has a tragic and

terrible significance. It may be worth remark that the _Poetry for

Children_ appeared the year after that--most fortunate of years

for all students of the higher English drama--which was made nobly

memorable by the appearance of the matchless and priceless volume of

'_Specimens of English Dramatic Poets who Lived about the Time of

Shakespear_,' in which the fratricide's apologue is translated at

length; so that while some part of Lamb's too rare leisure was given

to the gentle "task work" of making rhymes for little children, the

first strong savour of a fierce delight in his new intimacy with the

third and most tragic of English tragic poets must have been fresh and

hot upon him.

Page 450. _The Sparrow and the Hen_.

(?) Charles Lamb. Mrs. Glasse would be Hannah Glasse, of _The Art of

Cookery made Plain and Easy_, 1747.

Page 451. _Which is the Favourite?_

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 451. _The Beggar-Man_.

By John Lamb, Charles and Mary's brother; as we know from a letter

from Charles Lamb to Robert Lloyd.

Page 452. _Choosing a Profession_.

By Mary Lamb, as we know on the evidence of Robert Lloyd.

Page 453. _Breakfast_.

This also, on Robert Lloyd's evidence, is by Mary Lamb.

Page 454. _Weeding_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 455. _Parental Recollections_.

(?) Charles Lamb. The first line was quoted by him in the _Elia_ essay

"The Old and the New Schoolmaster." The poem may be considered as the

poetical correlative of the beautiful _Elia_ essay "Dream-Children."

Page 455. _The Two Boys_.

By Mary Lamb. Quoted by Lamb, as by "a quaint poetess," in his _Elia_

essay "Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading."

Page 456. _The Offer_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 456. _The Sister's Expostulation on the Brother's Learning

Latin_.

(?) Charles Lamb. Many years later Mary Lamb wrote a sonnet in

_Blackwood_ on a kindred subject, addressed to Emma Isola. Mary Lamb

taught Latin to Mary Cowden Clarke (when Mary Victoria Novello) and to

William Hazlitt's son, also to Miss Kelly.

Page 457. _The Brother's Reply_.

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 459. _Nurse Green_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 460. _Good Temper_.

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 460. _Moderation in Diet_.

(?) Mary Lamb. The "splendid shilling" (borrowed from Phillips' parody

of Milton) suggests a touch of Charles Lamb.

Page 462. _Incorrect Speaking_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 462. _Charity_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 463. _My Birth-day_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 464. _The Beasts in the Tower_.

(?) Charles Lamb. There is a hint of Blake's "Tiger, tiger burning

bright" (which Lamb so greatly admired) in--

That cat-like beast that to and fro

Restless as fire doth ever go.

Page 466. _The Confidant_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 466. _Thoughtless Cruelty_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 467. _Eyes_.

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 468. _Penny Pieces_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 469. _The Rainbow_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 470. _The Force of Habit_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 470. _Clock Striking_.

(?) Charles Lamb. The late R.H. Shepherd, in his edition of Lamb,

remarks upon the resemblance between lines 10 and 11 and the couplet

in "Hester"--

if 'twas not pride

It was a joy to that allied--

as proving Charles Lamb to be the author.

Page 471. _Why not do it, Sir, To-day?_

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 471. _Home Delights_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 472. _The Coffee Slips_.

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 473. _The Dessert_.

(?) Charles Lamb.

Page 474. _To a Young Lady, on being too fond of Music_.

(?) Mary Lamb. Melesinda also was the name of the heroine in "Mr. H."

Page 475. _Time spent in Dress_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 476. _The Fairy_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 476. _Conquest of Prejudice_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 478. _The Great Grandfather_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 479. _The Spartan Boy_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 480. _Queen Oriana's Dream_.

By Charles Lamb. Reprinted by him in his _Works_, 1818, the text of

which is here given.

Page 481. _On a Picture of the Finding of Moses, etc_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 483. _David_.

(?) Mary Lamb.

Page 486. _David in the Cave of Adullam_.

Reprinted by Lamb, with Mary Lamb's name to it, in the _Works_, 1818,

the text of which is here given. This was the last poem in _Poetry for

Children_.

* * * * *

Page 488, _Summer Friends_.

By Mary Lamb. This poem was sent by Robert Lloyd to his wife in April,

1809, as being one of the poems which Mary Lamb was writing for

_Poetry for Children_. It was not, however, included in that

collection.

Page 488. _A Birth-day Thought_.

This poem is printed by Mylius in his _First Book of Poetry_. In the

edition of 1811 the initials M.L. are appended; in later editions,

C.L. Hence it is included here. But we have no proof that M.L. stands

for Mary Lamb, or C.L. for Charles Lamb; although the coincidence

would be very striking if they did not.

Page 489. _The Boy, the Mother, and the Butterfly_.

These verses, which have not before been collected with Lamb's

writings, exist in an album which belonged probably to Thomas

Westwood, son of the Lambs' providers at Enfield. They are signed

Charles Lamb and dated October 9, 1827, at Enfield Chase.

* * * * *

Page 490. PRINCE DORUS, OR FLATTERY PUT OUT OF COUNTENANCE.

Apart from the internal evidence, which is very strong, I think, the

only reason for attributing this tale to Charles Lamb is an entry

in Crabb Robinson's diary for May 15, 1811: "A very pleasant call

on Charles and Mary Lamb. Read his version of _Prince Dorus, the

Long-Nosed King_." In his reminiscences of Lamb and others (in MS.)

Robinson said, under 1811: "C. Lamb wrote this year for children a

version of the Nursery Tale of Prince Dorus. I mention this, because

it is not in his collected works and like two vols. of Poems for

Children likely to be lost. I this year tried to persuade him to make

a new version of the old Tale of Reynard the Fox. He said he was sure

it would not succeed--sense for humour, said L., is extinct." What

particular version of the story was used by Lamb we cannot tell, but

in a little book called _Adventures of Musul; or, The Three Gifts_,

printed for Vernor & Hood and E. Newbery in 1800, "The Prince that had

a Long Nose" is one of the tales. Lamb's version does not call for

annotation.

INDEX

A

"Adventures of Ulysses," 240, 505.

"All's Well that Ends Well," 115.

Allsop, Thomas, and Coleridge, 509.

Amwell and the Lambs, 510.

"Anger," 429, 518.

"Ann Withers," 334, 511.

_Anti-Jacobin and Review, The_, 499.

"Arabella Hardy," 384, 513.

"As You Like It," 44.

B

Baldwin, Edward (Godwin's pseudonym), 500.

Barbauld, Mrs., Lamb on, 500.

Barton, Bernard, Lamb's letters to, 505, 508.

"Beasts in the Tower, The," 464, 520.

"Beggar Man, The," 451, 520.

Bells and Lamb, 513.

"Birthday Thought, A," 488, 522.

Blake, William, 503, 520.

Blakesware and the Lambs, 511.

"Blindness," 429, 518.

"Boy and the Sky-lark, The," 447, 519.

"Boy and the Snake, The," 413, 516.

"Boy, Mother, and Butterfly, The," 489, 522.

"Breakfast," 453, 520.

"Broken Doll, The," 425, 518.

"Brother's Reply, The," 457, 520.

Burney, Martin, and the Lambs, 502, 510, 518.

"Butterfly, The," 406, 516.

C

"Changeling, The," 334, 511.

Chapman, George, his _Homer_, 505, 507.

"Charity," 462, 520.

"Charlotte Wilmot," 375, 513.

"Choosing a Profession," 452, 520.

"Chusing a Name," 408, 516.

Clairmont, Mrs. (afterwards Mrs. Godwin), 499.

"Cleanliness," 417, 517.

"Clock Striking," 470, 521.

"Coffee Slips, The," 472, 521.

Coleridge, S.T., Lamb's letters to, 500, 505, 515.

---- on _Mrs. Leicester's School_, 509.

"Comedy of Errors," 136.

"Confidant, The," 466, 521.

"Conquest of Prejudice," 476, 521.

"Crumbs to the Birds," 408, 516.

"Cymbeline," 81.

D

"David," 483, 521.

"---- in the Cave of Adullam," 486, 522.

"Dessert, The," 473, 521.

"Discontent and Quarrelling," 410, 516.

"DORUS, PRINCE," 490, 522.

"Duchess of Malfi," Lamb's paraphrase from, 449, 519.

"Duty of a Brother, The," 426, 518.

E

_Elia_ in translation, 504.

"Elinor Forester," 350, 511.

"Elizabeth Villiers," 319, 510.

"Emily Barton," 360, 511.

"End of May, The," 422, 518.

"Envy," 404, 516.

"Eyes," 467, 521.

F

"Fairy, The," 476, 521.

"Farmhouse, The," 328, 310.

"Father's Wedding Day, The," 350, 511.

"Feigned Courage," 424, 518.

Fénélon, his _Telemachus_, 507.

Field, Mary, the Lambs' grandmother, 511.

"First Going to Church," 378, 513.

"---- of April, The," 416, 517.

"---- Tooth, The," 415, 517.

"Force of Habit, The," 470, 521.

G

Gillray, James, his caricature of Lamb, 499.

Glanvill, Joseph, on witchcraft, 513.

Godwin, Mrs., Lamb's hostility to, 500.

---- her choice in pictures, 502.

---- her preface to _Mrs. Leicester's School_ (?), 509.

-- William, his meeting with Lamb, 499.

---- becomes a publisher, 500.

---- his influence on Lamb's career, 500.

---- his preface to _Tales from Shakespear_, 503.

---- his criticism of _The Adventures of Ulysses_, 506.

---- Lamb's reply to him, 506.

"Going into Breeches," 419, 517.

"Good Temper," 460, 520.

"Great Grandfather, The," 478, 521.

H

"Hamlet," 199.

Hazlitt, Sarah. _See_ Sarah Stoddart.

Hazlitt, William, 500, 501.

Hodgkins, Thomas, Godwin's manager, 500.

"Home Delights," 471, 521.

Homer, in Chapman's translation, 505, 507.

I

"Incorrect Speaking," 462, 520.

J

"JOHN WOODVIL" quoted, 513.

"Journey from School and to School, The," 434, 518.

Juvenile literature, Lamb on, 500.

K

"King Lear," 92.

"KING AND QUEEN OF HEARTS," 389, 513.

L

Lamb, Charles, and books for children, 499.

---- and William Godwin, 499, 505.

---- and Mrs. Godwin, 500, 502.

---- on Mrs. Barbauld and Mrs. Trimmer, 500, 501.

---- and _Tales from Shakespear_, 501.

---- and the Godwins' illustrator, 502.

---- and _The Adventures of Ulysses_, 505.

---- kisses Chapman's _Homer_, 505.

---- commends it to Coleridge, 505.

---- on publishers and authors, 506.

---- and Mrs. _Leicester's School_, 508.

---- his affection for St. Dunstan's giants, 512.

---- and Stackhouse's picture of the witch, 513.

---- his father and Lincolnshire, 513.

Lamb, Charles, and church bells, 513.

---- his first children's book, 513.

---- and _The King and Queen of Hearts_, 513.

---- and _Poetry for Children_, 515.

---- his union with his sister, 515.

---- and _Prince Dorus_, 522.

-- Elizabeth, the Lambs' mother, 512.

-- John, the Lambs' father, 513.

---- the Lambs' brother, his poem, 451, 520.

---- his lameness, 517.

-- Mary, and _Tales from Shakespear_, 501.

---- her difficulty with "All's Well that Ends Well," 502.

---- her anonymity, 504.

---- and _Mrs. Leicester's School_, 508.

---- her "new source of the pathetic," 509.

---- a preface in her name, 509.

---- her memory of Mackery End (?), 510.

---- her recollections of Blakesware, 511.

---- her relations with her grandmother, 511.

---- her first play, 511.

---- on her aunt Hetty and her mother, 512.

---- and _Poetry for Children_, 515.

---- her union with her brother, 515.

"Lame Brother, The," 418, 517.

Landor, Walter Savage, on _Mrs. Leicester's School_, 508.

"LEICESTER, MRS., HER SCHOOL," 316, 508.

Lloyd, Robert, and the Lambs, 515.

_Looking Glass, The_, 514.

"Louisa Manners," 328, 510.

"Love, Death, and Reputation," 449, 519.

M

"Macbeth," 106.

Mackery End and the Lambs, 510.

"Magpye's Nest, The," 445, 519.

Manning, Thomas, Lamb's letters to, 501, 505.

"Margaret Green," 354, 511.

"Maria Howe," 368, 512.

"Measure for Measure," 148.

"Memory," 431, 518.

"Men and Women, and the Monkeys, The," 449, 519.

"Merchant of Venice, The," 69.

"Merchant's Daughter, The," 375, 513.

"Midsummer Night's Dream," 13.

"Mimic Harlequin, The," 430, 518.

"Moderation in Diet," 460, 520.

"Motes in the Sunbeams," 413, 516.

"MRS. LEICESTER'S SCHOOL," 316, 508.

---- in translation, 510.

"Much Ado About Nothing," 33.

Mulready, William, 500, 503, 515.

"My Birthday," 463, 520.

Mylius, W.F., his gleanings from Lamb, 516.

N

"Neatness in Apparel," 412, 516.

Newbery's art of advertisement, 512.

"New-born Infant, The," 412, 516.

"Nurse Green," 459, 520.

"Nursing," 420, 518.

O

_Odyssey, The_. _See_ Chapman.

"Offer, The," 456, 520.

"On a Picture of the Finding of Moses," 481, 521.

"On the Lord's Prayer," 442, 519.

"Orange, The," 435, 518.

"Othello," 213.

P

"Parental Recollections," 455, 520.

"Peach, The," 407, 516.

Pearson, Miss, 512.

"Penny Pieces," 468, 521.

"Pericles," 225.

Plumer, Mrs., and Mary Lamb, 511.

"POETRY FOR CHILDREN," 404, 515.

"PRINCE DORUS," 490, 522.

Q

"Queen Oriana's Dream," 480, 521.

R

"Rainbow, The," 469, 521.

"Reaper's Child, The," 404, 516.

"Repentance and Reconciliation," 411, 516.

"Reproof, The," 432, 518.

"Ride, The," 405, 516.

Robinson, Crabb, and Lamb, 522.

---- and Landor, 508.

"Romeo and Juliet," 184.

"Rook and the Sparrows, The," 409, 516.

S

"Sailor Uncle, The," 319, 510.

St. Dunstan's giants, 512.

"Sea-Voyage, The," 384, 513.

"SHAKESPEAR, TALES FROM," 1, 501.

Shakespeare, William, and the Lambs, 1, 501.

"Sister's Expostulation on the Brother's Learning Latin, The," 456, 520.

"Sparrow and the Hen, The," 450, 519.

"Spartan Boy, The," 479, 521.

Stoddart, Sarah, Mary Lamb's letters to, 501, 502, 508, 512.

"Suffer Little Children...," 443, 519.

"Summer Friends," 488, 522.

"Susan Yates," 378, 513.

Swinburne, Mr. A.C., on Lamb, 519.

T

"TALES FROM SHAKESPEAR," 1.

---- how written, 501.

---- how illustrated, 502.

---- Godwin's preface, 503.

---- translation, 504.

"Taming of the Shrew," 126.

_Telemachus, The Adventures of_, 507.

"Tempest, The," 3.

"Text, The," 421, 518.

"Thoughtless Cruelty," 466, 521.

"Three Friends, The," 437, 519.

"Time Spent in Dress," 475, 521.

"Timon of Athens," 173.

"To a River in which a Child was Drowned," 416, 517.

"To a Young Lady, on being Too Fond of Music," 474, 521.

Translations of Lamb's work, 504, 510.

Trimmer, Mrs., Lamb on, 501.

"Twelfth Night," 161.

"Two Bees, The," 432, 518.

"---- Boys, The," 455, 520.

"---- Gentlemen of Verona," 58.

U

"ULYSSES, ADVENTURES OF," 240, 505.

V

"Visit to the Cousins," 360, 511.

W

"Wasps in a Garden," 427, 518.

Webster, Thomas, and Lamb, 519.

"Weeding," 454, 520.

"What is Fancy?" 428, 518.

"Which is the Favourite?" 451, 519.

"Why not do it, Sir, To-day?" 471, 521.

"Winter's Tale, The," 23.

"Witch Aunt, The," 368, 512.

Wollstonecraft, Mary, 499.

"WOODVIL, JOHN," quoted, 513.

Wordsworth, William, Lamb's letters to, 502, 514.

"Written in the First Leaf of a Child's Memorandum-Book," 430, 518.

Y

"Young Letter-Writer, The," 436, 519.

"---- Mahometan," 354, 511.

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

A bird appears a thoughtless thing, 408.

A child's a plaything for an hour, 455.

A Creole boy from the West Indies brought, 452.

A dinner party, coffee, tea, 453.

A dozen years since in this house what commotion, 463.

A little boy with crumbs of bread, 409.

A little child, who had desired, 470.

A Sparrow, when Sparrows like Parrots could speak, 450.

A wicked action fear to do, 447.

Abject, stooping, old, and wan, 451.

After the tempest in the sky, 469.

An infant is a selfish sprite, 425.

Anger in its time and place, 429.

Anna was always full of thought, 466.

As busy Aurelia, 'twixt work and 'twixt play, 454.

Brothers and sisters I have many, 451.

But a few words could William say, 432.

Can I, all gracious Providence, 488.

Come my little Robert near, 417.

David and his three captains bold, 486.

_Dear Sir, Dear Madam, or Dear Friend_, 436.

Did I hear the church-clock a few minutes ago, 470.

Do, my dearest brother John, 406.

For gold could Memory be bought, 431.

Henry was every morning fed, 413.

High on a Throne of state is seen, 390.

Horatio, of ideal courage vain, 424.

I am to write three lines, and you, 429.

I have got a new-born sister, 408.

I have taught your young lips the good words to say over, 442.

I keep it, dear Papa, within my glove, 468.

I saw a boy with eager eye, 455.

I'll _make believe_, and fancy something strange, 430.

If you go to the field where the Reapers now bind, 404.

In a stage-coach, where late I chanc'd to be, 429.

In days of yore, as Ancient Stories tell, 490.

In many a lecture, many a book, 475.

In whatsoever place resides, 460.

In your garb and outward clothing, 412.

Incorrectness in your speech, 462.

It is not always to the strong, 483.

Joy to Philip, he this day, 419.

Lately an Equipage I overtook, 405.

Lucy, what do you espy, 467.

Mamma gave us a single Peach, 407.

Mamma heard me with scorn and pride, 432.

Mamma is displeased and look very grave, 411.

Miss Lydia every day is drest, 410.

My father's grandfather lives still, 478.

My neat and pretty book, when I thy small lines see, 430.

My parents sleep both in one grave, 418.

O hush, my little baby brother, 420.

O what a joyous joyous day, 434.

O why your good deeds with such pride do you scan, 462.

On a bank with roses shaded, 480.

Once on a time, Love, Death, and Reputation, 449.

One Sunday eve a grave old man, 421.

Our Governess is not in school, 422.

Said Ann to Matilda, I wish that we knew, 476.

Shut these odious books up, brother, 456.

Sister, fie, for shame, no more, 457.

Smiling river, smiling river, 416.

Tell me what is the reason you hang down your head, 416.

Tell me, would you rather be, 456.

The drunkard's sin, excess in wine, 460.

The month was June, the day was hot, 435.

The motes up and down in the sun, 413.

The Swallow is a summer bird, 488.

The wall-trees are laden with fruit, 427.

There, Robert, you have kill'd that fly, 466.

This Picture does the story express, 481.

This rose-tree is not made to bear, 404.

Three young maids in friendship met, 437.

Through the house what busy joy, 415.

To Jesus our Saviour some parents presented, 443.

To operas and balls my cousins take me, 471.

Unto a Yorkshire school was sent, 476.

When beasts by words their meanings could declare, 449,

When I the memory repeat, 479.

When the arts in their infancy were, 445.

Whene'er I fragrant coffee drink, 472.

Whether beneath sweet beds of roses, 412.

Why is your mind thus all day long, 474.

Why on your sister do you look, 427.

Why so I will, you noisy bird, 471.

With the apples and the plums, 473.

Within the precincts of this yard, 464.

Young William held the Butterfly in chase, 489.

Your prayers you have said, and you've wished Good night, 459.

End of Project Gutenberg's Books for Children, by Charles and Mary Lamb