The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Volume V Part 65

Mary's Love to all of you--I wouldn't let her write--

Dear Wordsworth, Mr. H. came out last night and failed.

I had many fears; the subject was not substantial enough. John Bull must have solider fare than a _Letter_. We are pretty stout about it, have had plenty of condoling friends, but after all, we had rather it should have succeeded. You will see the Prologue in most of the Morning Papers.

It was received with such shouts as I never witness'd to a Prologue. It was attempted to be encored. How hard! a thing I did merely as a task, because it was wanted--and set no great store by; and Mr. H.----!!

The quant.i.ty of friends we had in the house, my brother and I being in Public Offices &c., was astonishing--but they yielded at length to a few hisses. A hundred hisses--d.a.m.n the word, I write it like kisses--how different--a hundred hisses outweigh a 1000 Claps. The former come more directly from the Heart--Well, 'tis withdrawn and there is an end.

Better Luck to us--

C. L.

11 Dec.--(turn over).

P.S. Pray when any of you write to the Clarksons, give our kind Loves, and say we shall not be able to come and see them at Xmas--as I shall have but a day or two,--and tell them we bear our mortification pretty well.

["Mr. H." was produced at Drury Lane on December 10, with Elliston in the t.i.tle-role. Lamb's account of the evening is supplemented by Hazlitt in his essay "On Great and Little Things" and by Crabb Robinson, a new friend whom he had just made, in his _Diary_. See Vol. IV. of this edition. The curious thing is that the management of Drury Lane advertised the farce as a success and announced it for the next night.

But Lamb apparently interfered and it was not played again. Some few years later "Mr. H." was performed acceptably in America.]

LETTER 160

CHARLES LAMB TO SARAH STODDART

December 11 [1806].

Don't mind this being a queer letter. I am in haste, and taken up by visitors, condolers, &c. G.o.d bless you!

Dear Sarah,--Mary is a little cut at the ill success of "Mr. H.," which came out last night and _failed_. I know you'll be sorry, but never mind. We are determined not to be cast down. I am going to leave off tobacco, and then we must thrive. A smoking man must write smoky farces.

Mary is pretty well, but I persuaded her to let me write. We did not apprise you of the coming out of "Mr. H." for fear of ill-luck. You were much better out of the house. If it had taken, your partaking of our good luck would have been one of our greatest joys. As it is, we shall expect you at the time you mentioned. But whenever you come you shall be most welcome.

G.o.d bless you, dear Sarah,

Yours most truly, C. L.

Mary is by no means unwell, but I made her let me write.

[Following this should come a letter from Mary Lamb to Mrs. Thomas Clarkson, dated December 23, 1806. It again describes the ill success of "Mr. H." "The blame rested chiefly with Charles and yet it should not be called blame for it was mere ignorance of stage effect ... he seems perfectly aware why and for what cause it failed. He intends to write one more with all his dearly bought experience in his head, and should that share same fate he will then turn his mind to some other pursuit."

Lamb did not write another farce for many years. When he did--"The p.a.w.nbroker's Daughter" (see Vol. IV.)--it deservedly was not acted.]

LETTER 161

CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM G.o.dWIN

[No date. ? 1806.]

I repent. Can that G.o.d whom thy votaries say that thou hast demolished expect more? I did indite a splenetic letter, but did the black Hypocondria never gripe _thy_ heart, till them hast taken a friend for an enemy? The foul fiend Flibbertigibbet leads me over four inched bridges, to course my own shadow for a traitor. There are certain positions of the moon, under which I counsel thee not to take anything written from this domicile as serious.

_I_ rank thee with Alves, Latine Helvetius, or any of his cursed crew?

Thou art my friend, and henceforth my philosopher--thou shall teach Distinction to the junior branches of my household, and Deception to the greyhaired Janitress at my door.

What! Are these atonements? Can Arcadians be brought upon knees, creeping and crouching?

Come, as Macbeth's drunken porter says, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock--seven times in a day shall thou batter at my peace, and if I shut aught against thee, save the Temple of Ja.n.u.s, may Briareus, with his hundred hands, in each a bra.s.s knocker, lead me such a life.

C. LAMB.

[I cannot account for this letter in the absence of its predecessor and that from G.o.dwin to which it replies.]

LETTER 162

CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

[Dated at end: January 29, 1807.]

Dear Wordsworth--

We have book'd off from Swan and Two Necks, Lad Lane, this day (per Coach) the Tales from Shakespear. You will forgive the plates, when I tell you they were left to the direction of G.o.dwin, who left the choice of subjects to the bad baby, who from mischief (I suppose) has chosen one from d.a.m.n'd beastly vulgarity (vide Merch. Venice) where no atom of authority was in the tale to justify it--to another has given a name which exists not in the tale, Nic Bottom, and which she thought would be funny, though in this I suspect _his_ hand, for I guess her reading does not reach far enough to know Bottom's Xtian name--and one of Hamlet, and Grave digging, a scene which is not hinted at in the story, and you might as well have put King Canute the Great reproving his courtiers-- the rest are Giants and Giantesses. Suffice it, to save our taste and d.a.m.n our folly, that we left it all to a friend W. G.--who in the first place cheated me into putting a name to them, which I did not mean, but do not repent, and then wrote a puff about their _simplicity_, &c., to go with the advertis.e.m.e.nt as in my name! Enough of this egregious dupery.--I will try to abstract the load of teazing circ.u.mstances from the Stories and tell you that I am answerable for Lear, Macbeth, Timon, Romeo, Hamlet, Oth.e.l.lo, for occasionally a tail piece or correction of grammar, for none of the cuts and all of the spelling. The rest is my Sister's.--We think Pericles of hers the best, and Oth.e.l.lo of mine--but I hope all have some good. As You Like It we like least.

So much, only begging you to tear out the cuts and give them to Johnny, as "Mrs. G.o.dwin's fancy."

C. L.

Thursday, 29 Jan., 1807.

Our Love to all.

I had almost forgot,

My part of the Preface begins in the middle of a sentence, in last but one page after a colon thus

:--_which if they be happily so done &c_.

the former part hath a more feminine turn and does hold me up something as an instructor to young Ladies: but upon my modesty's honour I wrote it not.

G.o.dwin told My Sister that the Baby chose the Subjects. A fact in Taste.