The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Volume I Part 54

Later, this intention was somewhat modified, with the purpose of benefiting rather the reduced or embarra.s.sed parents than the very poor.

The London history of the school is now ended. The boys have gone to Suss.e.x, where, near Horsham, the new buildings have been erected, and the old Newgate Street structure has been demolished to make room for offices, warehouses, and an extension of St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

John Lamb's appeal for his son Charles to be received into Christ's Hospital is dated March 30, 1781, and it states that the pet.i.tioner has "a Wife and three Children, and he finds it difficult to maintain and educate his Family without some a.s.sistance." One of the children, John Lamb jr., then aged nearly eighteen, should, however, have been practically self-supporting. The presentation was made by Timothy Yeats, a friend of Samuel Salt, who himself signed the necessary bond for 100 and made himself responsible for the boy's discharge. Lamb was admitted July 17, 1782, and clothed October 9, 1782; he remained until November 23, 1789.

The notes that follow apply solely to the few points in the text that call for remark. More exhaustive comments on Lamb and Christ's Hospital will be found in the notes to the _Elia_ essay on the same subject.

Page 163, line 23. _The old Grey Friars._ This monastery had been suppressed by Henry VIII. It was reinhabited by the Christ's Hospital boys; but was in great part destroyed in the Fire of London, the cloisters alone remaining. The other old part of Christ's Hospital, as this generation knows it, dates from after the Fire.

Page 165, line 9 from foot. _Philip Quarll's Island_. One of the imitations of _Robinson Crusoe_. The full t.i.tle ran: _The Hermit: or the unparalleled sufferings and surprising adventures of Mr. Philip Quarll, an Englishman, who was lately discovered by Mr. Dorrington, a Bristol Merchant, upon an uninhabited island in the South Seas; where he has lived above Fifty Years, without any human a.s.sistance, still continues to reside, and will not come away, 1727._ Lamb refers again to these excursions in his _Elia_ essay on "Newspapers."

Page 168, line 8 from foot. _The Rev. James Boyer._ Lamb writes more fully of his old schoolmaster in the _Elia_ essay. Boyer was elected 1776, and retired in 1799, when the governors presented him with a staff. He died in 1814.

Page 170, line 4 from foot. _Grecians._ Lamb writes more fully of the Grecians in his _Elia_ essay. He was himself never more than Deputy-Grecian.

Page 171, line 4 from foot. _William Wales._ William Wales was appointed 1776, and died 1798. The King's Boys are now called "Mathemats," i.e., Members of the Royal Mathematical Foundation for Sea Service. Leigh Hunt says of William Wales in his _Autobiography_: "He was a good man, of plain, simple manners, with a heavy large person and a benign countenance. When he was at Otaheite, the natives played him a trick while bathing, and stole his small-clothes; which we used to think a liberty scarcely credible."

Page 172, line 5 from foot. _Processions ... at Easter._ The boys when in London visited the Lord Mayor on Easter Tuesday.

Page 173, line 4. _St. Matthew's day._ September 21. Speech Day is now at the end of the Summer Term.

Page 173, line 8. _Barnes ... Markland ... Camden._ Joshua Barnes (1654-1712), Greek scholar and antiquary; Jeremiah Markland (1693-1776), Greek scholar; and William Camden (1551-1623), the antiquary--all Christ's Hospital boys.

Page 173, line 18. _The carol._ I cannot give the words of this particular carol. Mr. E. H. Pearce, the latest historian of Christ's Hospital, tells me that it was probably not a school carol peculiar to Christ's Hospital, like the Easter anthems (which were composed annually), but an ordinary Christmas hymn. "An old Crug," _i.e._, Old Christ's Hospitaller, wrote to _Notes and Queries_, December 22, 1855, asking if any reader could supply the missing stanzas of a Christmas carol which the Blue Coat boys used to sing fifty years before. This was one stanza (from memory):--

The wise men of the Eastern globe did spy A blazing star in the bright glittering sky; And well they knew it fully did portend, Christ came to the earth for some great end.

Page 174. TABLE-TALK IN "THE EXAMINER."

In 1813 Leigh Hunt added to his paper, _The Examiner_, a more or less regular collection of notes under the heading "Table-Talk." At first they were unsigned, but on May 30 he announced that each contributor would in future have his own mark. From unmistakable evidence--for example, the similarity between the "Playhouse Memoranda" on page 184, and the _Elia_ essay "My First Play"--we may confidently consider Lamb to be the author of all those pieces signed, like that, , seven of which are here included. The first contribution thus signed was the note on "Reynolds and Leonardo da Vinci," on page 174, usually printed in editions of Lamb's works as "The Reynolds Gallery."

Lamb had other signatures in _The Examiner_. The Dramatic Criticisms and Reviews of Books, pages 217 to 234, were signed with four stars; the notice of "Don Giovanni in London" (see page 215) was signed , and "Valentine's Day" (in _Elia_) was signed * * *.

Page 174. I.--REYNOLDS AND LEONARDO DA VINCI.

_The Examiner_, June 6, 1813.

Lamb had very little admiration for Sir Joshua Reynolds. See also his remarks in the essay on "Hogarth," page 88 for example.

Page 174, line 1 of essay. _The Reynolds' Gallery._ The exhibition of 142 of Sir Joshua Reynolds' works, held in 1813 at the Shakespeare Gallery in Pall Mall, afterwards the British Inst.i.tution. The Marlborough Club now stands on its site. Reynolds had died in 1792.

Page 174, line 9 of essay. _Mrs. Anne Clark._ The notorious Mary Anne Clarke (1776-1852), the mistress of Frederick, Duke of York. After keeping London society in a state of ferment for some years, by reason of her disclosures and claims, she was, in 1813, condemned to nine months' imprisonment for libel. Lamb has a very humorous pa.s.sage about this lady in a letter to Manning on March 28, 1809. Reynolds, it need hardly be said, did not paint her, since, when he died, she was but sixteen and a n.o.body.--Kitty Fisher was Catherine Maria Fisher, who died in 1767, and was painted by Sir Joshua several times. A very notorious person in her early days; afterwards she married an M.P.

Page 174, line 7 from foot. _Mrs. Long._ Mrs. Long was Amelia Long, wife of Charles Long, afterwards first Baron Farnborough.--Reynolds painted a number of Infant Jupiters and Bacchuses. His "Infant Samuel"

is well known. Few pictures of that time have been more often reproduced.

Page 176. II.--[THE NEW ACTING.]

_The Examiner_, July 18, 1813.

This note adds still another to Lamb's many remarks on the stage, and stands as a kind of trial sketch for the papers on "The Old Actors,"

which Lamb contributed to the _London Magazine_ nine years later. "The New Acting" is also noteworthy in containing Lamb's earliest praises of Miss Kelly, the favourite actress of his later years, of whom he always wrote so finely.

Page 176, line 4 of essay. _Parsons and Dodd._ William Parsons (1736-1795), the comedian. Foresight in Congreve's "Love for Love" was one of his best parts. James William Dodd (1740?-1796), famous for his Aguecheek, in "Twelfth Night," which Lamb extols in "The Old Actors."

Page 176, line 10 of essay. _Bannister and Dowton._ Two actors of a later generation. John Bannister (1760-1836), whom Lamb admired as Walter in Morton's "Children in the Wood," left the stage in 1815; William Dowton (1764-1851), famous as Falstaff, left the stage in 1836.

Page 176, line 6 from foot. _Russell's Jerry Sneak._ Samuel Thomas Russell (1769?-1845), celebrated for his Jerry Sneak in Foote's "Mayor of Garratt." Russell left the stage in 1842.

Page 177, line 8. _Liston's Lord Grizzle._ John Liston (1776?-1846), the comedian, whose bogus biography by Lamb will be found at page 292 of this volume. Lord Grizzle is a character in Fielding's "Tom Thumb."

Page 177, line 12. _Nicolaus Klimius._ Baron Holberg's _Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum_ was translated into English under the t.i.tle _A Journey to the World Underground_, 1742. It describes the surprising subterranean adventures of a Norwegian divinity student.

Page 177, line 19. _Mrs. Mattocks, Miss Pope and Mrs. Jordan._ Isabella Mattocks (1746-1826), comedienne, took leave of the stage in 1808; Jane Pope (1742-1818), famous as Audrey in "As You Like It," retired in the same year; and Dorothea Jordan (1762-1816), the greatest comedienne of her time, left the London stage in 1814.

Page 177, line 24. _Mrs. Abingdon ... Mrs. Cibber, etc._ Frances Abington (1737-1815) left the stage in 1799. Mrs. Susannah Maria Cibber (1714-1766) and Anne (or Nance) Oldfield (1683-1730) were, of course, before Lamb's time.

Page 177, line 25. _Whole artillery of charms._ Lamb is here recalling Colley Cibber's account of Mrs. Bountiful's Melantha in _Marriage a la Mode_ in his _Apology_.

Page 177, line 34. _Miss Kelly._ Lamb's friend, Frances Maria Kelly (1790-1882), of whom he wrote so much (see pages 217 to 223 of the present volume, and "Barbara S----" in _Elia_ essays. See also note to "Miss Kelly at Bath," page 486).

Page 177, at foot. _The Glovers ... Johnstons ... St. Legers_. Mrs.

Julia Glover (1779-1850), the original Alhadra in Coleridge's "Remorse"

in 1813. Mrs. Johnstone, a well-known Elvira in "Pizarro." She made her London debut in 1797. Mrs. Saint Ledger (_nee_ Williams) made her London debut in 1799, and began well, but declined into pantomime.

Page 178, line 1. _Miss Candour_. Probably a misprint for Mrs. Candour in "The School for Scandal," a part created by Miss Pope.

Page 178. III.--[BOOKS WITH ONE IDEA IN THEM.]

_The Examiner_, July 18, 1813. Reprinted by Leigh Hunt in _The Indicator_, December 13, 1820, under the t.i.tle of Table Talk, together with the notes on "Gray's _Bard_" and "Playhouse Memoranda," on pages 181 and 184 of the present volume. Leigh Hunt thus introduced these reprints:--

It has been a great relief to us during our illness (from which, we trust, we are now recovering) to find that the re-publication of some former pieces from other periodical works has not been disapproved. Being still compelled to make up our numbers in this way, we have the pleasure of supplying the greater part of the present one with some Table-Talk, with which a friend entertained us on a similar occasion a few years ago in _The Examiner_. To the reader who happens not to be acquainted with them they will be acceptable for very obvious reasons: those who remember them, will be glad to read them again; and as for ourselves, besides the other reasons for being gratified, we feel particular satisfaction in recalling to the author's memory as well as our own, some genuine morsels of writing which he appears to have forgotten.

Page 178, line 11., _Patrick's "Pilgrim." The Parable of the Pilgrim_, 1664, by Simon Patrick, Bishop of Ely (1626-1707), which bears a curious accidental likeness to Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_. Writing to Wordsworth, in 1815, Lamb says: "Did you ever read Charron on _Wisdom_ or Patrick's _Pilgrim_? If neither, you have two great pleasures to come." The particular pa.s.sage quoted from Patrick is in one of Lamb's Commonplace Books.

Page 178, line 22. _Single-Speech Hamiltons_. William Gerard Hamilton (1729-1796). He entered Parliament in 1754, and made his famous maiden speech in 1755. It was not, however, by any means his only speech, although his nickname still prevails.

Page 178, line 24. _Killigrew's play_. "The Parson's Wedding," a comedy, by Thomas Killigrew (1612-1683). Lamb included this speech of the Fine Lady under the heading Facetiae in his extracts from the Garrick plays in Hone's _Table Book_, 1827.

Page 178, line 32. _Charron on "Wisdom_." Two translations of the Sieur de Charron, _De la Sagesse_, might have been read by Lamb: Dean Stanhope's (1697) and Samson Lennard's (1612). Probably it was Lennard's, since the pa.s.sage may be found on page 129 of his 1670 edition, a quarto, and page 145 in the 1640 edition, whereas in Stanhope it is page 371. Lennard's translation runs thus (Book I., Chap. 39):--

The action of planting and making man is shameful, and all the parts thereof; the congredients, the preparations, the instruments, and whatsoever serves thereunto is called and accounted shameful; and there is nothing more unclean, in the whole Nature of man. The action of destroying and killing him [is] honorable, and that which serves thereunto glorious: we guild it, we enrich it, we adorn ourselves with it, we carry it by our sides, in our hands, upon our shoulders. We disdain to go to the birth of man; every man runs to see him die, whether it be in his bed, or in some public place, or in the field. When we go about to make a man, we hide ourselves, we put out the candle, we do it by stealth. It is a glory and pomp to unmake a man, to kill himself; we light the candles to see him die, we execute him at high noon, we sound a trumpet, we enter the combat, and we slaughter him when the sun is at highest. There is but one way to beget, to make a man, a thousand and a thousand means, inventions, arts to destroy him. There is no reward, honour or recompense a.s.signed to those that know how to encrease, to preserve human nature; all honour, greatness, riches, dignities, empires, triumphs, trophies are appointed for those that know how to afflict, trouble, destroy it.

Page 178, last line. _What could Pope mean?_

What made (say Montaigne, or more sage Charron) Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon?