_London Magazine.--Contributors.--Transfer of Magazine.--Monthly Dinners
and Visitors.--Colebrook Cottage.--Lamb's Walks.--Essays of Elia: Their
Excellence and Character.--Enlarged Acquaintance.--Visit to Paris.--Miss
Isola.--Quarrel with Southey.--Leaves India House.--Leisure.--Amicus
Rediviuus.--Edward Irving._
The "London Magazine" was established in January, 1820, the publishers
being Messrs. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, and its editor being Mr. John
Scott, who had formerly edited "The Champion" newspaper, and whose
profession was exclusively that of a man of letters. At this distance of
time it is impossible to specify the authors of all the various papers
which gave a tone to the Magazine; but as this publication forms, in fact,
the great foundation of Lamb's fame, I think it well to enter somewhat
minutely into its constitution and character.
_Mr. John Scott_ was the writer of the several articles entitled "The
Living Authors;" of a good many of the earlier criticisms; of some of the
papers on politics; and of some which may be termed "Controversial." The
essays on Sir Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Godwin, and Lord Byron are from
his hand. He contributed also the critical papers on the writings of
Keats, Shelley, Leigh Hunt, and Hazlitt.
_Mr. Hazlitt_ wrote all the articles which appear under the head "Drama;"
the twelve essays entitled "Table Talk;" and the papers on Fonthill Abbey,
and on the Angerstein pictures, and the Elgin marbles.
_Mr. Charles Lamb's_ papers were the well-known Elia Essays, which first
appeared in this Magazine. Mr. Elia (whose name he assumed) was, at one
time, a clerk in the India House. He died, however, before the Essays were
made public, and was ignorant of Lamb's intention to do honor to his name.
_Mr. Thomas Carlyle_ was author of the "Life and Writings of Schiller," in
the eighth, ninth, and tenth volumes of the Magazine. These papers,
although very excellent, appear to be scarcely prophetic of the great fame
which their author was afterwards destined, so justly, to achieve.
_Mr. De Quincey's_ contributions were the "Confessions of an Opium Eater;"
also various papers specified as being "by the Opium Eater;" the essay on
Jean Paul Richter, and papers translated from the German, or dealing with
German literature.
_The Reverend Henry Francis Cary_ (the translator of Dante) wrote the
Notices of the Early French poets; the additions to Orford's "Royal and
Noble Authors;" and, I believe, the continuations of Johnson's "Lives of
the Poets." Of these last, however, I am not certain. _Mr. Allan
Cunningham_ (the Scottish poet) was author of the "Twelve Tales of Lyddal
Cross;" of the series of stories or papers styled "Traditional
Literature;" and of various other contributions in poetry and prose.
_Mr. John Poole_ contributed the "Beauties of the living Dramatists;"
being burlesque imitations of modern writers for the stage; viz., Morton,
Dibdin, Reynolds, Moncrieff, &c.
_Mr. John Hamilton Reynolds_ wrote, I believe, in every number of the
periodical, after it came into the hands of Taylor and Hessey, who were
his friends. All the papers with the name of Henry Herbert affixed were
written by him; also the descriptive accounts of the Coronation, Greenwich
Hospital, The Cockpit Royal, The Trial of Thurtell, &c.
_Mr. Thomas Hood_ fleshed his maiden sword here; and his first poems of
length, "Lycus the Centaur" and "The two Peacocks of Bedfont" may be found
in the Magazine.
_Mr. George Darley_ (author of "Thomas a Becket," &c.) wrote the several
papers entitled "Dramaticles;" some pieces of verse; and the Letters
addressed to "The Dramatists of the Day."
_Mr. Richard Ayton_ wrote "The Sea Roamers," the article on "Hunting," and
such papers as are distinguished by the signature "R. A."
_Mr. Keats_ (the poet) and _Mr. James Montgomery_ contributed verses.
_Sir John Bowring_ (I believe) translated into English verse the Spanish
poetry, and wrote the several papers which appear under the head of
"Spanish Romances."
_Mr. Henry Southern_ (editor of "The Retrospective Review") wrote the
"Conversations of Lord Byron," and "The Fanariotes of Constantinople," in
the tenth volume.
_Mr. Walter Savage Landor_ was author of the Imaginary Conversation,
between Southey and Porson, in volume eight.
_Mr. Julius (Archdeacon) Hare_ reviewed the works of Landor in the tenth
volume.
_Mr. Elton_ contributed many translations from Greek and Latin authors;
from the minor poems of Homer, from Catullus, Nonnus, Propertius, &c.
Messrs. Hartley Coleridge, John Clare, Cornelius Webb, Bernard Barton, and
others sent poems; generally with the indicating name.
I myself was amongst the crowd of contributors; and was author of various
pieces, some in verse, and others in prose, now under the protection of
that great Power which is called "Oblivion."
Finally, the too celebrated _Thomas Griffiths Wainewright_ contributed
various fantasies, on Art and Arts; all or most of which may be recognized
by his assumed name of Janus Weathercock.
To show the difficulty of specifying the authorship of all the articles
contributed,--even Mr. Hessey (one of the proprietors) was unable to do
so; and indeed, shortly before his death, applied to me for information on
the subject.
By the aid of the gentlemen who contributed--each his quota--to the
"London Magazine," it acquired much reputation, and a very considerable
sale. During its career of five years, it had, for a certain style of
essay, no superior (scarcely an equal) amongst the periodicals of the day.
It was perhaps not so widely popular as works directed to the multitude,
instead of to the select few, might have been; for thoughts and words
addressed to the cultivated intellect only must always reckon upon limited
success. Yet the Magazine was successful to an extent that preserved its
proprietors from loss; perhaps not greatly beyond that point. Readers in
those years were insignificant in number, compared with readers of the
present time, when almost all men are able to derive benefit from letters,
and letters are placed within every one's reach.
On the death of Mr. John Scott, the Magazine, in July, 1821, passed into
the hands of Messrs. Taylor and Hessey; the former being the gentleman who
discovered the identity of Junius with Sir Philip Francis; the latter
being simply very courteous to all, and highly respectable and
intelligent.
John Scott was an able literary man. I do not remember much more of him
than that he was a shrewd and I believe a conscientious writer; that he
had great industry; was, generally, well read, and possessed a very fair
amount of critical taste; that, like other persons, he had some
prejudices, and that he was sometimes, moreover, a little hasty and
irritable. Yet he agreed well, as far as I know, with the regiment of
mercenaries who marched under his flag.
When Taylor and Hessey assumed the management of the "London Magazine"
they engaged no editor. They were tolerably liberal paymasters; the
remuneration for each page of prose (not very laborious) being, if the
writer were a person of repute or ability, one pound; and for each page of
verse, two pounds. Charles Lamb received (very fitly) for his brief and
charming Essays, two or three times the amount of the other writers. When
they purchased the Magazine, the proprietors opened a house in Waterloo
Place for the better circulation of the publication.
It was there that the contributors met once a month, over an excellent
dinner given by the firm, and consulted and talked on literary matters
together. These meetings were very social, all the guests coming with a
determination to please and to be pleased. I do not know that many
important matters were arranged, for the welfare of the Magazine, at these
dinners; but the hearts of the contributors were opened, and with the
expansion of the heart the intellect widened also. If there had been any
shades of jealousy amongst them, they faded away before the light of the
friendly carousal; if there was any envy, it died. All the fences and
restraints of authorship were cast off, and the natural human being was
disclosed.
Amongst others, Charles Lamb came to most of these dinners, always dressed
in black (his old snuff-colored suit having been dismissed for years);
always kind and genial; conversational, not talkative, but quick in reply;
eating little, and drinking moderately with the rest. Allan Cunningham, a
stalwart man, was generally there; very Scotch in aspect, but ready to do
a good turn to any one. His talk was not too abundant, although he was a
voluminous writer in prose. His songs, not unworthy of being compared with
even those of Burns, are (as everybody knows) excellent. His face shone at
these festivities. Reynolds came always. His good temper and vivacity were
like condiments at the feast.
There also came, once or twice, the Rev. H. F. Cary, the quiet gentleness
of whose face almost interfered with its real intelligence. Yet he spoke
well, and with readiness, on any subject that he chose to discuss. He was
very intimate with Lamb, who latterly often dined with him, and was always
punctual. "By Cot's plessing we will not be absent at the Grace" (he
writes in 1834). Lamb's taste was very homely: he liked tripe and cow-
heel, and once, when he was suggesting a particular dish to his friend, he
wrote," We were talking of roast shoulder of mutton and onion sauce; but I
scorn to prescribe hospitalities. "Charles had great regard for Mr. Cary;
and in his last letter (written on his death-bed) he inquired for a book,
which he was very uneasy about, and which he thought he had left at Mrs.
Dyer's. "It is Mr. Cary's book" (he says), "and I would not lose it for
the world." Cary was entirely without vanity; and he, who had traversed
the ghastly regions of the Inferno, interchanged little courtesies on
equal terms with workers who had never travelled beyond the pages of "The
London Magazine." No one (it is said) who has performed anything great
ever looks big upon it.
Thomas Hood was there, almost silent except when he shot out some
irresistible pun, and disturbed the gravity of the company. Hood's labors
were poetic, but his sports were passerine. It is remarkable that he, who
was capable of jesting even on his own prejudices and predilections,
should not (like Catullus) have brought down the "Sparrow," and enclosed
him in an ode. Lamb admired and was very familiar with him. "What a
fertile genius he is!" (Charles Lamb writes to Bernard Barton), "and quiet
withal." He then expatiates particularly on Hood's sketch of "Very Deaf
indeed!" wherein a footpad has stopped an old gentleman, but cannot make
him understand what he wants, although the fellow is firing a pistol into
his ear trumpet. "You'd like him very much," he adds. Although Lamb liked
him very much, he was a little annoyed once by Hood writing a comical
essay in imitation of (and so much like) one of his own, that people
generally thought that Elia had awakened in an unruly mood. Hazlitt
attended once or twice; but he was a rather silent guest, rising into
emphatic talk only when some political discussion (very rare) stimulated
him.
Mr. De Quincey appeared at only one of these dinners. The expression of
his face was intelligent, but cramped and somewhat peevish. He was self-
involved, and did not add to the cheerfulness of the meeting. I have
consulted this gentleman's three essays, of which Charles Lamb is
professedly the subject; but I cannot derive from them anything
illustrative of my friend Lamb's character. I have been mainly struck
therein by De Quincey's attacks on Hazlitt, to whom the essays had no
relation. I am aware that the two authors (Hazlitt and De Quincey) had a
quarrel in 1823, Hazlitt having claimed certain theories or reasonings
which the other had propounded as his own. In reply to Mr. De Quincey's
claims to have had a familiar acquaintance with Charles Lamb (in 1821 and
1823), I have to observe that during these years (when I was almost
continually with him) I never saw Mr. De Quincey at his house, and never
heard Lamb speak of him or refer to his writings on any occasion. His
visits to Lamb were surely very rare.
_John Clare_, a peasant from Northamptonshire, and a better poet than
Bloomfield, was one of the visitors. He was thoroughly rustic, dressed in
conspicuously country fashion, and was as simple as a daisy. His delight
at the wonders of London formed the staple of his talk. This was often
stimulated into extravagance by the facetious fictions of Reynolds. Poor
fellow, he died insane.
About this time Lamb determined to leave London; and in 1823 he moved into
Colebrook Cottage, Islington, a small, detached white house of six rooms.
"The New River, rather elderly by this time" (he says), "runs, if a
moderate walking pace can be so termed, close to the foot of the house;
behind is a spacious garden, &c., and the cheerful dining-room is studded
all over and rough with old books: I feel like a great lord; never having
had a house before."
From this place (which a friend of his christened "Petty Venice") he used
often to walk into London, to breakfast or dine with an acquaintance. For
walking was always grateful to him. When confined to his room in the India
House, he counted it amongst his principal recreations, and even now, with
the whole world of leisure before him, it ranked amongst his daily
enjoyments. By himself or with an acquaintance, and subsequently with
Hood's dog Dash (whose name should have been Rover), he wandered over all
the roads and by-paths of the adjoining country. He was a peripatetic, in
every way, beyond the followers of Aristotle. Walking occupied his
energies; and when he returned home, he (like Sarah Battle) "unbent his
mind over a book." "I cannot sit and think" is his phrase. If he now and
then stopped for a minute at a rustic public house, tired with the
excursive caprices of Dash--beguiled perhaps by the simple attractions of
a village sign--I hold him excusable for the glass of porter which
sometimes invigorated him in his fatigue.
In the course of these walks he traversed all the green regions which lie
on the north and north-east of the metropolis. In London he loved to
frequent those streets where the old bookshops were, Wardour Street,
Princes Street, Seven Dials (where the shop has been long closed): he
loved also Gray's Inn, in the garden of which he met Dodd, just before his
death ("with his buffoon mask taken off"); and the Temple, into which you
pass from the noise and crowd of Fleet Street,--into the quiet and "ample
squares and green recesses," where the old Dial," the garden god of
Christian gardens," then told of Time, and where the still living fountain
sends up its song into the listening air.
Of the Essays of "Elia," [1] written originally for the London Magazine, I
feel it difficult to speak. They are the best amongst the good--his best.
I see that they are genial, delicate, terse, full of thought and full of
humor; that they are delightfully personal; and when he speaks of himself
you cannot hear too much; that they are not imitations, but adoptions. We
encounter his likings and fears, his fancies (his nature) in all. The
words have an import never known before: the syllables have expanded their
meaning, like opened flowers; the goodness of others is heightened by his
own tenderness; and what is in nature hard and bad is qualified
(qualified, not concealed) by the tender light of pity, which always
intermingles with his own vision. Gravity and laughter, fact and fiction,
are heaped together, leavened in each case by charity and toleration; and
all are marked by a wise humanity. Lamb's humor, I imagine, often
reflected (sometimes, I hope, relieved) the load of pain that always
weighed on his own heart.
The first of the Essays ("The South Sea House") appeared in the month of
August, 1820; the last ("Captain Jackson") in November, 1824. Lamb's
literary prosperity during this period was at the highest; yet he was
always loath to show himself too much before the world. After the first
series of Essays had been published (for they are divided into two parts)
he feigned that he was dead, and caused the second series to be printed as
by "a friend of the late Elia." These were written somewhat reluctantly.
His words are, "To say the truth, it is time he [Elia] were gone. The
humor of the thing, if ever there were much humor in it, was pretty well
exhausted; and a two years-and-a-half existence has been a tolerable
duration for a phantom." It is thus modestly that he speaks of essays
which have delighted all cultivated readers.
I want a phrase to express the combination of qualities which constitutes
Lamb's excellence in letters. In the absence of this, I must content
myself with referring to some of the papers which live most distinctly in
my recollection. I will not transcribe any part of his eulogy on Hogarth;
nor of his fine survey of "Lear," that grandest of all tragedies. They are
well known to students of books. I turn for a moment to the Elia Essays
only. In mere variety of subject (extent in a small space) they surpass
almost all other essays. They are full of a witty melancholy. Many of them
may be termed autobiographical, which trebles their interest with most
readers.
Let me recollect:--How he mourns over the ruins of Blakesmoor (once his
home on holidays), "reduced to an antiquity"! How he stalks, ghost-like,
through the desolate rooms of the South Sea House, or treads the avenues
of the Temple, where the benchers ("supposed to have been children once")
are pacing the stony terraces! Then there is the inimitable Sarah Battle
(unconquered even by Chance), arming herself for the war of whist; and the
young Africans, "preaching from their chimney-pulpits lessons of patience
to mankind." If your appetite is keen, by all means visit Bobo, who
invented roast pig: if gay, and disposed to saunter through the pleasant
lanes of Hertfordshire, go to Mackery End, where the Gladmans and Brutons
will bid you welcome: if grave, let your eyes repose on the face of dear
old Bridget Elia, "in a season of distress the truest comforter." Should
you wish to enlarge your humanity, place a few coins (maravedis) in the
palm of one of the beggars (the "blind Tobits") of London, and try to
believe his tales, histories or fables, as though they were the veritable
stories (told by night) on the banks of the famous Tigris. Do not despise
the poorest of the poor--even the writer of valentines: "All valentines
are not foolish," as you may read in Elia's words; and "All fools' day"
may cheer you, as the fool in "Lear" may make you wise and tolerant.
I could go on for many pages--to the poor relations, and the old books,
and the old actors; to Dodd, who "dying put on the weeds of Dominic;" and
to Mrs. Jordan and Dickey Suet (both whom I well remember); to Elliston,
always on the stage; to Munden, with features ever changing; and to
Liston, with only one face: "But what a face!" I forbear. I pass also over
Comberbatch (Coleridge), borrower of books, and Captain Jackson, and
Barbara S. (Miss Kelly), and go to the rest of my little history. The
"Popular Fallacies," which in course of time followed, and were eventually
added to the second series and re-published, are in manner essays also on
a small scale, brief and dealing with abstract subjects more than the
"Elia." It may be interesting to know that Lamb's two favorites were "That
home is home, though it is never so homely," and "That we should rise with
the lark." In the first of these he enters into all the discomforts and
terrible distractions of a poor man's home; in the second he descants on
the luxuries of bed, and the nutritious value of dreams: "The busy part of
mankind," he says, "are content to swallow their sleep by wholesale: we
choose to linger in bed and digest our dreams." The last "Fallacy" is
remarkable for a sentence which seems to refer to Alice W.: "We were never
much in the world," he says; "disappointment early struck a dark veil
between us and its dazzling illusions:" he then concludes with, "We once
thought life to be something; but it has unaccountably fallen from us
before its time. The sun has no purposes of ours to light us to. Why
should we get up?"
It will be observed by the sagacious student of the entire Essays, that
however quaint or familiar, or (rarely, however) sprinkled with classical
allusions, they are never vulgar, nor commonplace, nor pedantic. They are
"natural with a self-pleasing quaintness." The phrases are not affected,
but are derived from our ancestors, now gone to another country; they are
brought back from the land of shadows, and made denizens of England, in
modern times. Lamb's studies were the lives and characters of men; his
humors and tragic meditations were generally dug out of his own heart:
there are in them earnestness, and pity, and generosity, and truth; and
there is not a mean or base thought to be found throughout all.
In reading over these old essays, some of them affect me with a grave
pleasure, amounting to pain. I seem to import into them the very feeling
with which he wrote them; his looks and movements are transfigured, and
communicated to me by the poor art of the printer. His voice, so sincere
and earnest, rings in my ear again. He was no Feignwell: apart from his
joke, never was a man so real, and free from pretence. No one, as I
believe, will ever taste the flavor of certain writers as he has done. He
was the last true lover of Antiquity. Although he admitted a few of the
beauties of modern times, yet in his stronger love he soared backwards to
old acclivities, and loved to rest there. His essays, like his sonnets,
are (as I have said) reflections of his own feelings. And so, I think,
should essays generally be. A history or sketch of science, or a logical
effort, may help the reader some way up the ladder of learning; but they
do not link themselves with his affections. I myself prefer the affections
to the sciences. The story of the heart is the deepest of all histories;
and Shakespeare is profounder and longer lived than Maclaurin, or Malthus,
or Ricardo.
Lamb's career throughout his later years was marked by an enlarged
intercourse with society (it had never been confined to persons of his own
way of thinking), by more frequent absences in the country and elsewhere,
and by the reception of a somewhat wider body of acquaintance into his own
house. He visited the Universities, in which he much delighted: he
fraternized with many of the contributors to the "London Magazine." He
received the letters and calls of his admirers--strangers and others.
These were now much extended in number, by the publication of the Essays
of Elia. I was in the habit of seeing him very frequently at his home: I
met him also at Mr. Cary's, at Leigh Hunt's, at Novello's, at Haydon's,
once at Hazlitt's, and elsewhere. It must have been about this time that
one of his visits (which always took place when the students were absent)
was made to Oxford, where he met George Dyer, dreaming amongst the
quadrangles, as he has described in his pleasant paper called "Oxford in
the Vacation."
Lamb's letters to correspondents are perhaps not quite so frequent now as
formerly. He writes occasionally to his old friends; to Wordsworth, and
Southey, and Coleridge; also to Manning, who is still in China, and to
whom in December, 1815, he had sent one of his best and most
characteristic letters, describing the (imaginary) death and decrepitude
of his correspondent's friends in England; although he takes care (the
next day) to tell him that his first was a "lying letter." Indeed, that
letter itself, humorous as it is, is so obviously manufactured in the
fabulous district of hyperbole, that it requires no disavowal. Manning,
however, returns to England not long afterwards; and then the
correspondence, if less humorous, is also less built up of
improbabilities. He corresponds also with Mr. Barron Field, who is
relegated to the Judicial Bench in New South Wales. Of him he inquires
about "The Land of Thieves;" he wants to know if their poets be not
plagiarists; and suggests that half the truth which his letters contain
"will be converted into lies" before they reach his correspondent. Mr.
Field is the gentleman to whom the pleasant paper on "Distant
Correspondents" is addressed.
In 1822 Charles Lamb and his sister travelled as far as Paris, neither of
them understanding a word of the French language. What tempted them to
undertake this expedition I never knew. Perhaps, as he formerly said, when
journeying to the Lakes, it was merely a daring ambition to see "remote
regions." The French journey seems to have been almost barren of good. He
brought nothing back in his memory, and there is no account whatever of
his adventures there. It has been stated that Mary Lamb was taken ill on
the road; but I do not know this with certainty. From a short letter to
Barron Field, it appears, indeed, that he thought Paris "a glorious
picturesque old city," to which London looked "mean and new," although the
former had "no Saint Paul's or Westminster Abbey." "I and sister," he
writes, "are just returned from Paris. We have eaten frogs! It has been
such a treat! Nicest little delicate things; like Lilliputian rabbits."
But this is all. His Reminiscences, whatever they were, do not enrich his
correspondence. In conversation he used to tell how he had once intended
to ask the waiter for an egg (oeuf), but called, in his ignorance, for Eau
de vie, and that the mistake produced so pleasant a result, that his
inquiries afterwards for Eau de vie were very frequent.
In his travels to Cambridge, which began to be frequent about this time,
his gains were greater. For there he first became acquainted with Miss
Emma Isola, for whom, as I can testify, he at all times exhibited the
greatest parental regard. When he and Mary Lamb first knew her, she was a
little orphan girl, at school. They invited her to spend her holidays with
them; and she went accordingly: the liking became mutual, and gradually
deepened into great affection. The visit once made and so much relished,
became habitual; and Miss Isola's holidays were afterwards regularly spent
at the Lambs' house. She used to take long walks with Charles, when his
sister was too old and infirm to accompany him. Ultimately she was looked
upon in the light of a child; and Charles Lamb, when speaking of her (and
he did this always tenderly), used invariably to call her "Our Emma." To
show how deep his regard was, he at one time was invited to engage in some
profitable engagement (1830) whilst Miss Isola was in bad health; but he
at once replied, "Whilst she is in danger, and till she is out of it, I
feel that I have no spirits for an engagement of any kind." Some years
afterwards, when she became well, and was about to be married, Lamb
writes, "I am about to lose my only walk companion," whose mirthful
spirits (as he prettily terms it) were "the youth of our house." "With my
perfect approval, and more than concurrence," as he states, she was to be
married to Mr. Moxon. Miss Emma Isola, who was, in Charles Lamb's phrase,
"a very dear friend of ours," remained his friend till death, and became
eventually his principal legatee. After her marriage, Charles, writing to
her husband (November, 1833), says, "Tell Emma I every day love her more,
and miss her less. Tell her so, from her loving Uncle, as she has let me
call myself." It was, as I believe, a very deep paternal affection.
The particulars disclosed by the letters of 1823 and 1824 are so generally
unimportant, that it is unnecessary to refer to them. Lamb, indeed, became
acquainted with the author of "Virginius" (Sheridan Knowles), with Mr.
Macready, and with the writers in the "London Magazine" (which then had
not been long established). And he appears gradually to discover that his
work at the India House is wearisome, and complains of it in bitter terms:
"Thirty years have I served the Philistines" (he writes to Wordsworth),
"and my neck is not subdued to the yoke." He confesses that he had once
hoped to have a pension on "this side of absolute incapacity and
infirmity," and to have walked out in the "fine Isaac Walton mornings,
careless as a beggar, and walking, walking, and dying walking;" but he
says, "the hope is gone. I sit like Philomel all day (but not singing),
with my breast against this thorn of a desk."
The character of his letters at this time is not generally lively; there
is, he says, "a certain deadness to everything, which I think I may date
from poor John's (his brother's) loss. Deaths overset one. Then there's
Captain Burney gone. What fun has whist now?" He proceeds, "I am made up
of queer points. My theory is to enjoy life; but my practice is against
it." The only hope he has, he says, is, "that some pulmonary affection may
relieve me." The success which attended the "Elia" Essays did not comfort
him, nor the (pecuniary) temptations of the bookseller to renew them. "The
spirit of the thing in my own mind is gone" (he writes). "Some brains," as
Ben Jonson says, "will endure but one skimming." Notwithstanding his
melancholy humor, however, there is Hope in the distance, which he does
not see, and Freedom is not far off.
It was during this period of Lamb's life (1823) that the quarrel between
him and his old friend Robert Southey took place. Southey had long been
(as was well known) one of the most constant and efficient contributors to
the "Quarterly Review;" and Lamb assigned to him the authorship of one of
the Review articles, in which he himself was scantily complimented, and
his friends Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt denounced. Sir T. Talfourd thinks that
Mr. Southey was not the author of the offending essay. Be that as it may,
Lamb was then of opinion that his old Tory friend was the enemy. In a
letter to Bernard Barton (July, 1823) he writes, "Southey has attacked
'Elia' on the score of infidelity. He might have spared an old friend. I
hate his Review, and his being a Reviewer;" but he adds, "I love and
respect Southey, and will not retort." However, in the end, irritated by
the calumny, or (which is more probable) resenting compliments bestowed on
himself at the expense of his friends, he sat down and penned his famous
"Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esq.," which appeared in the "London
Magazine" for October, 1823, and which was afterwards published amongst
his collected letters.
This letter, I remember, produced a strong sensation in literary circles;
and Mr. Southey's acquaintances smiled, and his enemies rejoiced at it.
Indeed, the letter itself is a remarkable document. With much of Lamb's
peculiar phraseology, it is argumentative, and defends the imaginary
weaknesses or faults, against which (as he guesses) the "Quarterly"
reproofs had been levelled. The occasion having gone by, this letter has
been dismissed from most minds, except that part of it which exhibits
Lamb's championship on behalf of Hunt and Hazlitt, and which is more
touching than anything to be found in controversial literature.
Lamb's letter was unknown to his sister until after it appeared in the
Magazine, it being his practice to write his letters in Leadenhall Street.
It caused her a good deal of annoyance when she saw it in print. It is
pleasant to think, however, that it was the means of restoring the old
intimacy between Southey and Lamb, and also of strengthening the
friendship between Lamb and Hazlitt, which some misunderstanding, at that
time, had a little loosened.
When I was married (October, 1824), Lamb sent me a congratulatory letter,
which, as it was not published by Sir T. Talfourd, and is, moreover,
characteristic, I insert here, from the MS.
"MY DEAR PROCTER: I do agnize a shame in not having been to pay my
congratulations to Mrs. Procter and your happy self; but on Sunday (my
only morning) I was engaged to a country walk; and in virtue of the
hypostatical union between us, when Mary calls, it is understood that I
call too, we being univocal.
"But indeed I am ill at these ceremonious inductions. I fancy I was not
born with a call on my head, though I have brought one down upon it with a
vengeance. I love not to pluck that sort of frail crude, but to stay its
ripening into visits. In probability Mary will be at Southampton Row this
morning, and something of that kind be matured between you; but in any
case not many hours shall elapse before I shake you by the hand.
"Meantime give my kindest felicitations to Mrs. Procter, and assure her I
look forward with the greatest delight to our acquaintance. By the way,
the deuce a bit of cake has come to hand, which hath an inauspicious look
at first; but I comfort myself that that Mysterious Service hath the
property of Sacramental Bread, which mice cannot nibble, nor time moulder.
"I am married myself--to a severe step-wife--who keeps me, not at bed and
board, but at desk and board, and is jealous of my morning aberrations. I
cannot slip out to congratulate kinder unions. It is well she leaves me
alone o' nights--the d-d Day-hag _Business_. She is even now peeping over
me to see I am writing no Love Letters. I come, my dear--Where is the
Indigo Sale Book?
"Twenty adieus, my dear friends, till we meet.
"Yours most truly,
"C. LAMB.
"_Leadenhall, Nov. 11th, '24_."
The necessity for labor continued for some short time longer. At last (in
the beginning of the year 1825) deliverance came. Charles had previously
intimated his wish to resign. The Directors of the East India House call
him into their private room, and after complimenting him on his long and
meritorious services, they suggest that his health does not appear to be
good; that a little ease is expedient at his time of life, and they then
conclude their conversation by suddenly intimating their intention of
granting him a pension, for his life, of two thirds of the amount of his
salary; "a magnificent offer," as he terms it. He is from that moment
emancipated; let loose from all ties of labor, free to fly wheresoever he
will. At the commencement of the talk Charles had had misgivings, for he
was summoned into the "formidable back parlor," he says, and thought that
the Directors were about to intimate that they had no further occasion for
his services. The whole scene seems like one of the summer sunsets,
preceded by threatenings of tempest, when the dark piles of clouds are
separated and disappear, lost and swallowed by the radiance which fills
the whole length and breadth of the sky, and looks as if it would be
eternal. "I don't know what I answered," Lamb says, "between surprise and
gratitude; but it was understood that I accepted their proposal, and I was
told that I was free from that hour to leave their service. I stammered
out a bow, and, at just ten minutes after eight, I went home--forever."
At this time Lamb's salary was six hundred pounds per annum. The amount of
two thirds of this sum, therefore, would be an annuity of four hundred
pounds. But an annual provision was also made for his sister, in case she
should survive him; and this occasioned a small diminution. In exact
figures, he was to receive three hundred and ninety-one pounds a year
during the remainder of his life, and then an annuity was to become
payable to Mary Lamb. His sensations, first of stupefaction, and
afterwards of measureless delight, will be seen by reference to his
exulting letters of this period. First he writes to Wordsworth of "the
good that has befallen me." These are his words: "I came home--forever--on
Tuesday last. The incomprehensibleness of my condition overwhelmed me. It
was like passing from Time into Eternity." * * * "Mary wakes every morning
with an obscure feeling that some good has happened to us."--To Bernard
Barton his words are, "I have scarce steadiness of head to compose a
letter. I am free, B. B.; free as air. I will live another fifty years."
* * * "Would I could sell you some of my leisure! Positively the best thing
a man can have to do is--NOTHING: and next to that, perhaps, Good Works."
--To Miss Hutchinson he writes, "I would not go back to my prison for seven
years longer for ten thousand pounds a year. For some days I was
staggered, and could not comprehend the magnitude of my deliverance--was
confused, giddy. But these giddy feelings have gone away, and my weather-
glass stands at a degree or two above 'CONTENT.' All being holidays, I
feel as if I had none; as they do in heaven, where 'tis all Red Letter
days."
Lamb's discharge or relief was timely and graciously bestowed. It opened a
bright vista through which he beheld (in hope) many years of enjoyment;
scenes in which his spirit, rescued from painful work, had only to disport
itself in endless delights. He had well earned his discharge. He had
labored without cessation for thirty-three years; had been diligent, and
trusted--a laborer worthy of his hire. And the consciousness of this long
and good service must have mingled with his reward and sweetened it. It is
a great thing to have earned your meal--your rest,--whatever may be the
payment in full for your deserts. You have not to force up gratitude from
oblivious depths, day by day, for undeserved bounty. In Lamb's case it
happened, unfortunately, that the activity of mind which had procured his
repose, tended afterwards to disqualify him from enjoying it. The leisure,
that he had once reckoned on so much, exceeded, when it came, the pains of
the old counting-house travail. It is only the imbecile, or those brought
up in complete lazihood, who can encounter successfully the monotony of
"nothing to do," and can slumber away their lives unharmed amongst the
dumb weeds and flowers.
In the course of a short time it appeared that he was unable to enjoy, so
perfectly as he had anticipated, his golden time of "Nothing to do," his
Liberia. He therefore took long walks into the country. He also acquired
the companionship of the large dog Dash, much given to wandering, to whose
erratic propensities (Lamb walking at the rate of fourteen miles a day) he
eventually became a slave. The rambling, inconstant dog rendered the
clear, serene day of leisure almost turbid; and he was ultimately (in
order to preserve for Charles some little remaining enjoyment) bestowed
upon another master. Lamb was always (as I have said) fond of walking, and
he had some vague liking, I suppose, for free air and green pastures;
although he had no great relish specially for the flowers and ornaments of
the country. I have often walked with him in the neighborhood of our great
city; and I do not think that he ever treasured up in his memory the
violets (or other flowers), the songs of birds, or the pictures of sheep
or kine dotting the meadows. Neither his conversation nor writings
afforded evidence that he had done so. It is not easy, therefore, to
determine what the special attractions were that drew him out of London,
which he loved, into the adjoining country, where his walks oftenest lay.
At the time of Lamb's deliverance from office labor, he was living in
Colebrook Row. It was there that George Dyer, whose blindness and absence
of mind rendered it almost dangerous for him to wander unaccompanied about
the suburbs of London, came to visit him on one occasion. By accident,
instead of entering the house door, Dyer's aqueous instincts led him
towards the water, and in a moment he had plunged overhead in the New
River. I happened to go to Lamb's house, about an hour after his rescue
and restoration to dry land, and met Miss Lamb in the passage, in a state
of great alarm: she was whimpering, and could only utter, "Poor Mr. Dyer!
Poor Mr. Dyer!" in tremulous tones. I went up stairs, aghast, and found
that the involuntary diver had been placed in bed, and that Miss Lamb had
administered brandy and water, as a well-established preventive against
cold. Dyer, unaccustomed to anything stronger than the "crystal spring,"
was sitting upright in the bed, perfectly delirious. His hair had been
rubbed up, and stood out like so many needles of iron gray. He did not
(like Falstaff) "babble of green fields," but of the "watery Neptune." "I
soon found out where I was," he cried out to me, laughing; and then he
went wandering on, his words taking flight into regions where no one could
follow. Charles Lamb has commemorated this immersion of his old friend, in
his (Elia) essay of "Amicus Redivivus."
In the summer of 1826 Lamb published, in "Blackwood's Magazine," a little
drama in one act, entitled "The Wife's Trial." It was founded on Crabbe's
poetical tale of "The Confidant;" and contains the germ of a plot, which
undoubtedly might have been worked out with more effect, if Lamb had
devoted sufficient labor to that object.
Amongst the remarkable persons whom Charles became acquainted with, in
these years, was Edward Irving. Lamb used to meet him at Coleridge's house
at Highgate, and elsewhere; and he came to the conclusion that he was (as
indeed he _was_) a fine, sincere, spirited man, terribly slandered. Edward
Irving, who issued, like a sudden light, from the obscure little town of
Annan, in Scotland, acquired, in the year 1822, a wide reputation in
London. He was a minister of the Scotch Church, and before he came to
England had acted as an assistant preacher to Dr. Chalmers. In one of
Charles's letters (in 1835) to Bernard Barton (who had evidently been
measuring Irving by a low Quaker standard), he takes the opportunity of
speaking of the great respect that he entertained for the Scotch minister.
"Let me adjure you" (writes Charles), "have no doubt of Irving. Let Mr.
----[?] drop his disrespect." "Irving has prefixed a dedication, of a
missionary character, to Coleridge--most beautiful, cordial, and sincere.
He there acknowledges his obligations to S. T. C., at whose Gamaliel feet
he sits weekly, rather than to all men living." Again he writes, "Some
friend said to Irving, 'This will do you no good' (no good in worldly
repute). '_That is a reason for doing it_,' quoth Irving. I am thoroughly
pleased with him. He is firm, out-speaking, intrepid, and docile as a
pupil of Pythagoras. "In April, 1825, Lamb writes to Wordsworth to the
same effect. "Have you read the noble dedication of Irving's Missionary
Sermons?" he inquires; and then he repeats Irving's fine answer to the
suggested impolicy of publishing his book with its sincere prefix.
Poor Edward Irving! whom I always deeply respected, and knew intimately
for some years, and who was one of the best and truest men whom it has
been my good fortune to meet in life! He entered London amidst the shouts
of his admirers, and he departed in the midst of contumely; sick, and sad,
and maligned, and misunderstood; going back to his dear native Scotland
only to die. The time has long passed for discussing the truths or errors
of Edward Irving's peculiar creed; but there can be no doubt that he
himself was true and faithful till death, and that he preached only what
he entirely believed. And what can man do more? If he was wrong, his
errors arose from his extreme modesty, his extreme veneration for the
subject to which he raised his thoughts.
In the last year of Edward Irving's life (1834), he was counselled by his
physician to pass the next winter in a milder climate--that "it was the
only safe thing for him." Prevented from ministering in his own church,
where "he had become an embarrassment," he travels into the rural places,
subdued and chastened by his weakness,--to the Wye and the Severn--to the
fine mountains and pleasant places of Wales. Sometimes he thinks himself
better. He quits London (forever) in the early part of September, and on
the 23d of that month he writes to his wife that he is "surely better, for
_his pulse has come to be under 100_." He passes by Cader Idris, and
Snowdon--by Bedgelert to Bangor, "a place of repose;" but gets wet whilst
viewing the Menai Bridge, and had "a fevered night;" yet he is able to
droop on to Liverpool. Thence (the love of his native land drawing him on)
he goes northwards, instead of to the south. He reaches Glasgow, where "he
thinks of organizing a church;" although Dr. Darling "decidedly says that
he cannot humanly live over the winter." Yet he still goes on with his
holy task; he writes "pastoral letters," and preaches, and prays, and
offers kind advice. His friends, from Kirkcaldy and elsewhere, come to see
him, where, "for a few weeks still, he is visible, about Glasgow. In the
sunshine--in a lonely street, his gaunt, gigantic figure rises feebly
against the light." At last he lies down on "the bed from which he is
never to rise;" his mind wanders, and his articulation becomes indistinct;
but he is occasionally understood, and is heard murmuring (in Hebrew)
parts of the 23d Psalm, "The Lord is my Shepherd: He leadeth me beside the
still waters." And thus gradually sinking, at the close of a gloomy Sunday
night in December, he dies.
Mr. Thomas Carlyle, his friend (the friend of his youth), has written an
eloquent epitaph upon him; not partial, for they differed in opinion--but
eloquent, and very touching. I read it over once or twice in every year.
Edward Irving's last words, according to his statement, were, "In life and
in death I am the Lord's." Carlyle then adds, "But for Irving, I had never
known what the communion of man with man means. He was the freest,
brotherliest, bravest human soul mine ever came in contact with; the best
man I have ever (after trial enough) found in this world, or now hope to
find."
So Edward Irving went to the true and brave enthusiasts who have gone
before him. He died on his final Sabbath (7th December, 1834), and left
the world and all its troubles behind him.
[1] The first Essays of Elia were published by Taylor and Hessey under the
title "Elia," in 1823. The second Essays were, together with the "Popular
Fallacies," collected and published under the title of "The Last Essays of
Elia," by Moxon, in 1833.