The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Volume VI Part 16

LETTER 317

(_Fragment_)

CHARLES LAMB TO MISS HUTCHINSON (?)

A propos of birds--the other day at a large dinner, being call'd upon for a toast, I gave, as the best toast I knew, "Wood-c.o.c.k toast," which was drunk with 3 cheers.

Yours affect'y

C. LAMB.

LETTER 318

CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN BATES DIBDIN

[No date. Probably 1823.]

It is hard when a Gentleman cannot remain concealed, who affecteth obscurity with greater avidity than most do seek to have their good deeds brought to light--to haye a prying inquisitive finger, (to the danger of its own scorching), busied in removing the little peck measure (scripturally a bushel) under which one had hoped to bury his small candle. The receipt of fern-seed, I think, in this curious age, would scarce help a man to walk invisible.

Well, I am discovered--and thou thyself, who thoughtest to shelter under the pease-cod of initiality (a stale and shallow device), art no less dragged to light--Thy slender anatomy--thy skeletonian D---- fleshed and sinewed out to the plump expansion of six characters--thy tuneful genealogy deduced--

By the way, what a name is Timothy!

Lay it down, I beseech thee, and in its place take up the properer sound of Timotheus--

Then mayst thou with unblus.h.i.+ng fingers handle the Lyre "familiar to the D----n name."

With much difficulty have I traced thee to thy lurking-place. Many a goodly name did I run over, bewildered between Dorrien, and Doxat, and Dover, and Dakin, and Daintry--a wilderness of D's--till at last I thought I had hit it--my conjectures wandering upon a melancholy Jew--you wot the Israelite upon Change--Master Daniels--a contemplative Hebrew-- to the which guess I was the rather led, by the consideration that most of his nation are great readers--

Nothing is so common as to see them in the Jews' Walk, with a bundle of script in one hand, and the Man of Feeling, or a volume of Sterne, in the other--

I am a rogue if I can collect what manner of face thou carriest, though thou seemest so familiar with mine--If I remember, thou didst not dimly resemble the man Daniels, whom at first I took thee for--a care-worn, mortified, economical, commercio-political countenance, with an agreeable limp in thy gait, if Elia mistake thee not. I think I sh'd shake hands with thee, if I met thee.

[John Bates Dibdin, the son of Charles Dibdin the younger and grandson of the great Charles Dibdin, was at this time a young man of about twenty-four, engaged as a clerk in a s.h.i.+pping office in the city. I borrow from Canon Ainger an interesting letter from a sister of Dibdin on the beginning of the correspondence:--

My brother ... had constant occasion to conduct the giving or taking of cheques, as it might be, at the India House. There he always selected "the little clever man" in preference to the other clerks. At that time the _Elia Essays_ were appearing in print. No one had the slightest conception who "Elia" was. He was talked of everywhere, and everybody was trying to find him out, but without success. At last, from the style and manner of conveying his ideas and opinions on different subjects, my brother began to suspect that Lamb was the individual so widely sought for, and wrote some lines to him, anonymously, sending them by post to his residence, with the hope of sifting him on the subject. Although Lamb could not _know_ who sent him the lines, yet he looked very hard at the writer of them the next time they met, when he walked up, as usual, to Lamb's desk in the most unconcerned manner, to transact the necessary business. Shortly after, when they were again in conversation, something dropped from Lamb's lips which convinced his hearer, beyond a doubt, that his suspicions were correct. He therefore wrote some more lines (anonymously, as before), beginning--

"I've found thee out, O Elia!"

and sent them to Colebrook Row. The consequence was that at their next meeting Lamb produced the lines, and after much laughing, confessed himself to be _Elia_. This led to a warm friends.h.i.+p between them.

Dibdin's letter of discovery was signed D. Hence Lamb's fumbling after his Christian name, which he probably knew all the time.]

LETTER 319

CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON

[P.M. 3 May, 1823.]

Dear Sir--I am vexed to be two letters in your debt, but I have been quite out of the vein lately. A philosophical treatise is wanting, of the causes of the backwardness with which persons after a certain time of life set about writing a letter. I always feel as if I had nothing to say, and the performance generally justifies the presentiment. Taylor and Hessey did foolishly in not admitting the sonnet. Surely it might have followed the B.B. I agree with you in thinking Bowring's paper better than the former. I will inquire about my Letter to the Old Gentleman, but I expect it to _go in_, after those to the Young Gent'n are completed. I do not exactly see why the Goose and little Goslings should emblematize _a Quaker poet that has no children_. But after all--perhaps it is a Pelican. The Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin around it I cannot decypher. The songster of the night pouring out her effusions amid a Silent Meeting of Madge Owlets, would be at least intelligible. A full pause here comes upon me, as if I had not a word more left. I will shake my brain. Once-- twice--nothing comes up. George Fox recommends waiting on these occasions. I wait. Nothing comes. G. Fox--that sets me off again. I have finished the Journal, and 400 more pages of the _Doctrinals_, which I picked up for 7s. 6d. If I get on at this rate, the Society will be in danger of having two Quaker poets--to patronise.

I am at Dalston now, but if, when I go back to Cov. Gar., I find thy friend has not call'd for the Journal, thee must put me in a way of sending it; and if it should happen that the Lender of it, having that volume, has not the other, I shall be most happy in his accepting the Doctrinals, which I shall read but once certainly. It is not a splendid copy, but perfect, save a leaf of Index.

I cannot but think _the London_ drags heavily. I miss Ja.n.u.s. And O how it misses Hazlitt! Procter too is affronted (as Ja.n.u.s has been) with their abominable curtailment of his things--some meddling Editor or other--or phantom of one --for neither he nor Ja.n.u.s know their busy friend. But they always find the best part cut out; and they have done well to cut also. I am not so fortunate as to be served in this manner, for I would give a clean sum of money in sincerity to leave them handsomely. But the dogs--T. and H. I mean-- will not affront me, and what can I do? must I go on to drivelling? Poor Relations is tolerable--but where shall I get another subject--or who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I a.s.sure you it teases me more than it used to please me. Ch. Lloyd has published a sort of Quaker poem, he tells me, and that he has order'd me a copy, but I have not got it. Have you seen it? I must leave a little wafer s.p.a.ce, which brings me to an apology for a conclusion. I am afraid of looking back, for I feel all this while I have been writing nothing, but it may show I am alive.

Believe me, cordially yours C. LAMB.

[The sonnet probably was Mitford's, which was printed in the June number (see above). Bowring, afterwards Sir John, was writing in the _London Magazine_ on "Spanish Romances."

"The Goose and little Goslings." Possibly the design upon the seal of Barton's last letter.

"Ja.n.u.s." The first mention of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (see note below), who sometimes wrote in the _London_ over the pseudonym Ja.n.u.s Weatherc.o.c.k. John Taylor, Hood and perhaps John Hamilton Reynolds, made up the magazine for press. In the May number, in addition to Lamb's "Poor Relations," were contributions from De Quincey, Hartley Coleridge, Cary, and Barton. But it was not what it had been.

Lloyd's Quaker poem would probably be one of those in his _Poems_, 1823, which contains some of his most interesting work.]

LETTER 320

CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN BATES DIBDIN

[P.M. May 6, 1823.]

Dear Sir--Your verses were very pleasant, and I shall like to see more of them--I do not mean _addressed to me_.

I do not know whether you live in town or country, but if it suits your convenience I shall be glad to see you some evening-- say Thursday--at 20 Great Russell Street, Cov't Garden. If you can come, do not trouble yourself to write. We are old fas.h.i.+ond people who _drink tea_ at six, or not much later, and give cold mutton and pickle at nine, the good old hour. I a.s.sure you (if it suit you) we shall be glad to see you.--

Yours, etc. C. LAMB.

E.I.H., Tuesday, My love to Mr. Railton.

Some day of May 1823. The same to Mr. Rankin, Not official. to the whole Firm indeed.

[The verses are not, I fear, now recoverable. Dibdin's firm was Railton, Rankin & Co., in Old Jury.

Here should come a letter from Lamb to Hone, dated May 19, 1823. William Hone (1780-1842), who then, his stormy political days over, was publis.h.i.+ng antiquarian works on Ludgate Hill, had sent Lamb his _Ancient Mysteries Described_, 1823. Lamb thanks him for it, and invites him to 14 Kingsland Row, Dalston, the next Sunday: "We dine exactly at 4."]

LETTER 321

MARY LAMB TO MRS. RANDAL NORRIS