The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Volume II Part 31

Page 12, line 11. _"Strike an abstract idea."_ I do not find this quotation--if it be one; but when John Lamb once knocked Hazlitt down, during an argument on pigments, Hazlitt refrained from striking back, remarking that he was a metaphysician and dealt not in blows but in ideas. Lamb may be slyly remembering this.

Page 12, line 15. C----. Cambridge. Dyer added a work on _Privileges of the University if Cambridge_ to his _History_.

Page 12, line 8 from foot. _Our friend M.'s._ Basil Montagu, Q.C.

(1770-1851), legal writer, philanthropist, editor of Bacon, and the friend of Wordsworth and Coleridge. The Mrs. M. here referred to was Montagu's third wife, a Mrs. Skepper. It was she who was called by Edward Irving "the n.o.ble lady," and to whom Carlyle addressed some early letters. A.S. was Anne Skepper, afterwards Mrs. Bryan Waller Procter, a fascinating lady who lived to a great age and died as recently as 1888. The Montagus then lived at 25 Bedford Square.

Page 13, line 17. _Starts like a thing surprised._ Here we have an interesting example of Lamb's gift of fused quotation. Wordsworth's line in the "Ode on Intimations of Immortality,"

Tremble like a guilty thing surprised,

and Shakespeare's phrase in "Hamlet" (Act I., Scene 1, line 148),

Started like a guilty thing,

were probably both in his mind as he wrote.

Page 13, line 24. _Obtruded personal presence._ In the _London Magazine_ the following pa.s.sage came here:--

"D. commenced life, after a course of hard study in the 'House of pure Emanuel,' as usher to a knavish fanatic schoolmaster at ***, at a salary of eight pounds per annum, with board and lodging.

Of this poor stipend, he never received above half in all the laborious years he served this man. He tells a pleasant anecdote, that when poverty, staring out at his ragged knees, has sometimes compelled him, against the modesty of his nature, to hint at arrears, Dr. *** would take no immediate notice, but, after supper, when the school was called together to even-song, he would never fail to introduce some instructive homily against riches, and the corruption of the heart occasioned through the desire of them--ending with 'Lord, keep thy servants, above all things from the heinous sin of avarice. Having food and raiment, us therewithal be content. Give me Agar's wish,'--and the like;--which to the little auditory, sounded like a doctrine full of Christian prudence and simplicity,--but to poor D. was a receipt in full for that quarter's demands at least.

"And D. has been under-working for himself ever since;--drudging at low rates for unappreciating booksellers,--wasting his fine erudition in silent corrections of the cla.s.sics, and in those unostentatious but solid services to learning, which commonly fall to the lot of laborious scholars, who have not the art to sell themselves to the best advantage. He has published poems, which do not sell, because their character is in.o.btrusive like his own,--and because he has been too much absorbed in ancient literature, to know what the popular mark in poetry is, even if he could have hit it. And, therefore, his verses are properly, what he terms them, _crotchets;_ voluntaries; odes to Liberty, and Spring; effusions; little tributes, and offerings, left behind him, upon tables and window-seats, at parting from friends'

houses; and from all the inns of hospitality, where he has been courteously (or but tolerably) received in his pilgrimage. If his muse of kindness halt a little behind the strong lines, in fas.h.i.+on in this excitement-craving age, his prose is the best of the sort in the world, and exhibits a faithful transcript of his own healthy natural mind, and cheerful innocent tone of conversation."

The foregoing pa.s.sage called forth a protest from one W.K.

necessitating the following reply from Lamb, which was printed in the _London Magazine_, under the "Lion's Head," for December, 1820:--

"Elia requests the Editor to inform W.K. that in his article on Oxford, under the initials G.D., it is his ambition to make more familiar to the public, a character, which, for integrity and single-heartedness, he has long been accustomed to rank among the best patterns of his species. That, if he has failed in the end which he proposed, it was an error of judgment merely. That, if in pursuance of his purpose, he has drawn forth some personal peculiarities of his friend into notice, it was only from the conviction that the public, in living subjects especially, do not endure pure panegyric. That the anecdotes, which he produced, were no more than he conceived necessary to awaken attention to character, and were meant solely to ill.u.s.trate it. That it is an entire mistake to suppose, that he undertook the character to set off his own wit or ingenuity. That, he conceives, a candid interpreter might find something intended, beyond a heartless jest. That G.D., however, having thought it necessary to disclaim the anecdote respecting Dr. ----, it becomes him, who never for a moment can doubt the veracity of his friend, to account for it from an imperfect remembrance of some story he heard long ago, and which, happening to tally with his argument, he set too hastily to the account of G.D. That, from G.D.'s strong affirmations and proofs to the contrary, he is bound to believe it belongs to no part of G.D.'s biography. That the transaction, supposing it true, must have taken place more than forty years ago. That, in consequence, it is not likely to 'meet the eye of many who might be justly offended.'

"Finally, that what he has said of the Booksellers, referred to a period of many years, in which he has had the happiness of G.D.'s acquaintance; and can have nothing to do with any present or prospective engagements of G.D., with those gentlemen, to the nature of which he professes himself an entire stranger."

The result of the protest was that Lamb omitted the pa.s.sage objected to when he collected _Elia_ in 1823. It might well be restored now; but I have preferred to print everything in the body of this edition as Lamb arranged it for press.

Page 14. CHRIST'S HOSPITAL FIVE AND THIRTY YEARS AGO.

_London Magazine_, November, 1820.

This essay, which is based upon the "Recollections of Christ's Hospital" in Vol. I., is a curious blend of Lamb's own experiences at school with those of Coleridge. Both boys entered at the same time--on July 17, 1782: Coleridge was then nearly ten, Lamb was seven and a half. Coleridge was "clothed" on July 18 and went to Hertford for a while; Lamb was clothed on October 9. Lamb left the school in November, 1789, Coleridge in September, 1791.

The school which Lamb knew is now no more. The boys are now all in new buildings in the midst of green fields near Horsham, many miles from Lamb's city and its roar.

Page 14, line 15. _The worthy sub-treasurer._ Randal Norris (see note to "A Death-Bed"). I have not been able to discover the cause of his influence.

Page 14, lines 18, 19. _Crug ... piggins._ Crug is still current slang. In the school museum one of these piggins is preserved.

Page 14, line 25. _Three banyan days._ Three vegetarian days.

Coleridge complains (in a letter to Poole) that he was never sufficiently fed except on Wednesdays. He gives the following table of food:--

Our diet was very scanty. Every morning a bit of dry bread and some bad small beer. Every evening a larger piece of bread, and cheese or b.u.t.ter, whichever we liked. For dinner,--on Sunday, boiled beef and broth; Monday, bread and b.u.t.ter, and milk and water; Tuesday, roast mutton; Wednesday, bread and b.u.t.ter, and rice milk; Thursday, boiled beef and broth; Friday, boiled mutton and broth; Sat.u.r.day, bread and b.u.t.ter, and pease-porridge. Our food was portioned; and, excepting on Wednesdays, I never had a bellyfull. Our appet.i.tes were damped, never satisfied; and we had no vegetables.

Page 14, line 8 from foot. _Caro equina._ Horseflesh. Mr. Pearce's chapter on food at the school in his excellent _Annals of Christ's Hospital_ is very interesting, and records great changes.

Rotten-roasted or rare, _i.e._, over-roasted or under-done.

Page 15, line 3. _The good old relative._ Aunt Hetty, or more properly, Sarah Lamb. Compare the "Lines written on the Day of my Aunt's Funeral," Vol. IV.:--

I have not forgot How thou didst love thy Charles, when he was yet A prating schoolboy: I have not forgot The busy joy on that important day, When, childlike, the poor wanderer was content To leave the bosom of parental love, His childhood's play-place, and his early home, For the rude fosterings of a stranger's hand, Hard, uncouth tasks, and schoolboys' scanty fare.

How did thine eyes peruse him round and round And hardly knew him in his yellow coats, Red leathern belt, and gown of russet blue.

Page 15, line 13. _I was a poor friendless boy._ Here Lamb speaks as Coleridge, who came all the way from Ottery St. Mary, in Devons.h.i.+re (not Calne, in Wilts.h.i.+re), and had no London friends. In _John Woodvil_ Lamb borrowed St. Mary Ottery again (see Vol. IV.). Coleridge has recorded how unhappy he was in his early days at school.

Page 15, line 12 from foot. _Whole-day-leaves._ In this connection the following pa.s.sage from Trollope's _History of Christ's Hospital_, 1834, is interesting:--

Those days, on which _leave_ is given to be absent from the Hospital during the whole day, are called _whole-day leaves_.... A _ticket_ is a small oval medal attached to the b.u.t.ton-hole, without which, except on leaves, no boy is allowed to pa.s.s the gates. Subjoined is a list of the holidays, which have been hitherto kept at Christ's Hospital; but it is in contemplation to abridge them materially. Of the policy of such a measure great doubts may fairly be entertained, inasmuch as the vacations are so short as to give sufficient respite neither to master nor scholar; and these occasional breaks, in the arduous duties of the former more especially, enable him to repair the exhausted energies of body and mind by necessary relaxation. If those days, which are marked with an asterisk, fall on a Sunday, they are kept on the Monday following; and likewise the state holidays.

HOLIDAYS KEPT AT CHRIST'S HOSPITAL

Jan. 25. St. Paul's conversion.

*30. King Charles's martyrdom.

Feb. 2. Candlemas Day.

24. St. Matthias.

Shrove Tuesday.

Ash Wednesday.

March 25. Lady Day.

April 23. St. George.

25. St. Mark.

May 1. St. Philip and St. James.

*29. Restoration of King Charles II.

Ascension Day.

Whit Monday.

Whit Tuesday.

June 11. St. Barnabas.

24. St. John Baptist.

29. St. Peter.

July 25. St. James.

Thursday after St.

James. (Nurses' Holiday.) Aug. 24. St. Bartholomew.

Sept. *2. London burnt.

*21. St. Matthew.

29. St. Michael.

Oct. 18. St. Luke.

*23. King Edward VI. born.

28. St. Simon and St. Jude.

Nov. 1. All Saints.

*5. Gunpowder Plot.

*9. Lord Mayor's Day.

*17. Queen Elizabeth's birthday.

30. St. Andrew.