The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Volume I Part 63

I felt flattered by the being mingled with the other of Lamb's friends under the initials of my name. I mention it as an anecdote which shows that Lamb's reputation was spread even among lawyers, that a 4 guinea brief was brought to me by an Attorney an entire stranger, at the following a.s.sizes, by direction of another Attorney also a stranger, who knew nothing more of me than that I was Elia's H. C. R.

Page 270, line 3. _Clarkson._ Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846), the great opponent of slavery, whom Lamb met in the Lakes in 1802.

Page 270, line 6. _Dyer._ George Dyer (1755-1841), whom we meet so often in Lamb's writings.

Page 270, line 7. _The veteran Colonel._ Colonel Phillips, Admiral Burney's brother-in-law. He married Susanna Burney, who died in 1800.

Phillips, once an officer in the Marines, had sailed with Cook, and was a witness of his death. He had known Dr. Johnson, and a letter on the great man from his pen is printed in J. T. Smith's _Book for a Rainy Day_.

Page 270, line 9. _W. A._ William Ayrton (1777-1858), the musical critic; in Hazlitt's praise, "the Will Honeycomb of our set."

Page 270, line 12. _Admiral Burney._ Rear-Admiral Burney (1750-1821), brother of f.a.n.n.y Burney, Madame D'Arblay. The Admiral lived in Little James Street, Pimlico. For a further account of this circle of friends see Hazlitt's essay "On the Conversation of Authors" (_The Plain Speaker_). Hazlitt's own share in the gathering ceased after an unfortunate discussion of f.a.n.n.y Burney's _Wanderer_, which Hazlitt condemned in terms that her brother, the Admiral, could not forgive.

Hence, perhaps, to some extent, Hazlitt's description of the old seaman as one who "had you at an advantage by never understanding you." Later, in his essay "On the Pleasures of Hating," also in _The Plain Speaker_, Hazlitt wrote:--

What is become of "that set of whist-players," celebrated by ELIA in his notable _Epistle to Robert Southey, Esq._ (and now I think of it--that I myself have celebrated in this very volume), "that for so many years called Admiral Burney friend?" They are scattered, like last year's snow. Some of them are dead, or gone to live at a distance, or pa.s.s one another in the street like strangers, or if they stop to speak, do it as coolly and try to _cut_ one another as soon as possible. Some of us have grown rich, others poor. Some have got places under Government, others a _niche_ in the _Quarterly Review_. Some of us have dearly earned a name in the world; whilst others remain in their original privacy.

We despise the one, and envy and are glad to mortify the other.

On the next page Hazlitt added:--

I think I must be friends with Lamb again, since he has written that magnanimous Letter to Southey, and told him a piece of his mind!

It was very soon after that Hazlitt began to visit the Lambs once more; and they never were on bad terms again.

Page 270, line 18. _Authors of "Rimini" and "Table Talk."_ Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), whose _Story of Rimini_ was published in 1816; and William Hazlitt (1778-1830), whose _Table Talk_, first series, which appeared in the _London Magazine_, was published in 1821-1822; other series coming later.

Page 271, line 15. _"Here," say you ..._ This is the pa.s.sage in Southey's article to which Lamb refers:--

But if the sincere inquirer would see the authenticity of the Gospels proved by a chain of testimony, step by step, through all ages, from the days of the Apostles, he is referred to the exact and diligent Lardner. Even then, perhaps, it may surprize him to be told that more critical labour, and that too of a severer kind, has been bestowed upon the New Testament, than upon all other books of all ages and countries; that there is not a difficult text, a disputed meaning, or doubtful word, which has not been investigated, not only through every accessible ma.n.u.script, but through every ancient version; and that the most profound and laborious scholars whom the world ever produced, generation after generation, have devoted themselves to these researches, and past in them their patient, meritorious, and honourable lives. Let him read Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament, and he will be satisfied that there is no exaggeration in this statement. The unwearied diligence, the profound sagacity, and the comprehensive erudition with which the New Testament has been scrutinized, and its authenticity ascertained, cannot be estimated too highly; and we will boldly a.s.sert, cannot possibly have been conceived by any person unacquainted with biblical studies. But here, as in the history of the Mosaic dispensation, if the books are authentic, the events which they relate must be true; if they were written by the evangelists, Christ is our Redeemer and our G.o.d:--there is no other possible conclusion.

Page 272, line 5. _The poor child._ Thornton Leigh Hunt, who afterwards became a journalist, dying in 1873, was born in 1810. Lamb was very fond of this little boy, whom he first saw when he visited Leigh Hunt in prison (1813-1815). He addressed a poem to him, ending:--

Thornton Hunt, my favourite child.

Page 272, line 22. _Thomas Holcroft._ Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809), the playwright and miscellaneous author, one of Lamb's friends, was a republican and a freethinker.

Page 272, line 27. _Accident introduced me ..._ The first literary connection between Lamb and Leigh Hunt was set up by _The Reflector_ (see note on page 445). Leigh Hunt, however, tells us in his _Autobiography_ that he had as a schoolboy at Christ's Hospital seen Lamb--then an old boy: he was by nine and a half years Hunt's senior.

Probably Lamb's first real intimacy with Leigh Hunt began with Lamb's visits to him in prison, 1813-1815.

Page 272, line 6 from foot. _An equivocal term._ Hunt's _Story of Rimini_ was reviewed, with Maga's deepest scorn, in _Blackwood_ for November, 1817, under the heading, "The c.o.c.kney School of Poetry."

Precisely what was the equivocal term referred to by Lamb I do not discover; but unfair emphasis was laid by the reviewer on the poem's alleged incestuous character.

Page 273, line 11. _His handwriting._ In the postscript to his private letter (of apology) to Southey (see above), Lamb took this back.

Page 273, line 18. The "_Political Justice._" G.o.dwin's _Enquiry into Political Justice_, 1793, wherein the marriage ceremony meets with little respect.

Page 273, line 28. _Sundry harsh things ... against our friend C._ Perhaps a reference to _The Examiner's_ criticism of _Remorse_, in 1813.

Coleridge, writing to Southey about it, says:--

They were forced to affect admiration of the Tragedy, but yet abuse me they must, and so comes the old infamous _crambe bis millies cocta_ of the "sentimentalities, puerilities, whinings, and meannesses, both of style and thought" in my former writings....

Page 274, line 3. "_Foliage._" Leigh Hunt published _Foliage_ in 1818.

It contains, among other familiar epistles, one to Charles Lamb, reprinted, as was the poem on his son, from _The Examiner_. This is one stanza to Thornton Hunt:--

Ah, first-born of thy mother, When life and hope were new, Kind playmate of thy brother, Thy sister, father too; My light, where'er I go, My bird, when prison bound, My hand in hand companion,--no, My prayers shall hold thee round.

Page 274, line 10. _The other gentleman._ William Hazlitt. Lamb first met Hazlitt about 1805, and they were intimate, with occasional differences, until Hazlitt's death in 1830. Lamb was with him at the end.

Page 275, line 1. _You were pleased (you know where)._ Lamb had been a Unitarian, as had Coleridge and many others of his friends. Later, indeed, he claimed communion with no sect; while Coleridge became as much against Unitarianism as he had once been for it. Southey was himself converted to Unitarianism by Coleridge, in 1794. Later, however, the Church of England had few stouter supporters. What Lamb means by "You know where" I have not been able to discover--a memory possessed possibly only by Lamb and Southey.

Page 275, line 12. _The last time._ The only portion of this "Letter"

which Lamb preserved began at this point. He rewrote this particular paragraph and included the remainder in _Last Essays of Elia_, in 1833, under the t.i.tle, "The Tombs in the Abbey."

Page 276, line 25. _Two s.h.i.+llings._ The fees cannot have been reduced for at least ten years, for in 1833 Lamb reprinted this pa.s.sage as it stood in 1823. The Abbey is not yet wholly free on every day of the week; but there is no charge except to view the chapels, and that has been reduced to sixpence. The first reduction after Lamb's protest was made by Dean Ireland, whose term of office lasted from 1816 to 1842. It was he also who appointed official guides. Lamb was not alone in this protest against the fees. One of Hood and Reynolds' _Odes and Addresses_, 1825, took up the point again.

Page 277, line 20. _Major Andre._ John Andre (1751-1780), a major in the British army in America in the War of Independence. In his capacity as Clinton's Adjutant-General he corresponded with one Arnold, who was plotting to deliver West Point to the British. In the course of his negotiations with Arnold, he crossed into the American lines and was compelled by circ.u.mstances to adopt civilian clothes. Being caught in this costume, he was charged as a spy, and, though every effort was made to save him, was, by the necessities of war, shot as such by Was.h.i.+ngton on October 2, 1780. He died like a hero. The British army donned mourning for his death, and a monument to his memory was erected in Westminster Abbey. Lamb alludes to the mutilation of this monument by the fracture of a nose, but as a matter of fact the whole head of Was.h.i.+ngton had to be renewed more than once. According to Mrs. Gordon's _Life of Dean Buckland_, two heads taken from the monument were returned from America to the Dean many years ago, with the request that they might be replaced. They had been appropriated as relics. Lamb's reference to Transatlantic Freedom was another hit at Southey's Pantisocratic tendencies (see note above) and his _Joan of Arc_ rebel days.

In the _London Magazine_ for December, 1823, under "The Lion's Head," is the following:--

We have to thank an unknown correspondent for the following

SONNET

Occasioned by reading in ELIA'S LETTER to Dr. Southey, that the admirable translator of Dante, the modest and amiable C----, still remained a curate--or, as a waggish friend observed,--after such a _Translation_ should still be without _Preferment_.[70]

O Thou! who enteredst the tangled wood, By that same spirit trusting to be led, That on the first discoverer's footsteps shed The light with which another world was view'd; Thou hast well scann'd the path, and firmly stood With measured niceness in his holy tread, Till, mounting up thy star-illumined head, Thou lookedst in upon the perfect good!

What treasures does thy golden key unfold!

Riches immense, the pearl beyond all price, And saintly truths to gross ears vainly told!

Say, gilds thy earthly path some Beatrice?-- If bread thou want'st, they will but give thee stones, And when thou'rt gone, will quarrel for thy bones!

--AN UNWORTHY RECTOR.

[70] We suspect, by the way, this is not strictly the case, though we believe it is very nearly so.

Page 278. GUY FAUX.

_London Magazine_, November, 1823. Not reprinted by Lamb.

This essay is a blend of new and old. The first portion is new; but at the words (page 279, line 3 from foot) "The Gunpowder Treason was the subject," begins a reprint, with very slight modifications, of an article contributed by Lamb to _The Reflector_, No. II., in 1811, under the t.i.tle "On the Probable Effects of the Gunpowder Treason in this country if the Conspirators had accomplished their Object." _The Reflector_ essay was signed "Speculator."

Page 278, line 1. _Ingenious and subtle writer._ This was Hazlitt, whose article on "Guy Faux," from which Lamb quotes, appeared in _The Examiner_ of November 11, 18 and 25, 1821, signed "Z." Lamb seems to have suggested to Hazlitt this whitewas.h.i.+ng of Guido. See Hazlitt's essay on "Persons one would wish to have seen" (1826), reprinted in _Winterslow_, the report of a conversation "twenty years ago," where, after stating that it was Lamb's wish that Guy Faux should be defended, Hazlitt remarks that he supposes he will have to undertake the task himself. Later in the same essay Hazlitt quotes Lamb as mentioning Guy Faux and Judas Iscariot as two persons he would wish to see; adding, of the conspirator:--

I cannot but think that Guy Faux, that poor, fluttering, annual scarecrow of straw and rags, is an ill-used gentleman. I would give something to see him sitting pale and emaciated, surrounded by his matches and his barrels of gunpowder, and expecting the moment that was to transport him to Paradise for his heroic self-devotion.

Again, in the article on "Lamb" in the _Spirit of the Age_ (1825) Hazlitt wrote:--