The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Volume VI Part 80

CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON

[P.M. October 24, 1831.]

To address an abdicated monarch is a nice point of breeding. To give him his lost t.i.tles is to mock him; to withhold 'em is to wound him. But his Minister who falls with him may be gracefully sympathetic. I do honestly feel for your diminution of honors, and regret even the pleasing cares which are part and parcel of greatness. Your magnanimous submission, and the cheerful tone of your renunciation, in a Letter which, without flattery, would have made an "ARTICLE," and which, rarely as I keep letters, shall be preserved, comfort me a little. Will it please, or plague you, to say that when your Parcel came I d.a.m.ned it, for my pen was warming in my hand at a ludicrous description of a Landscape of an R.A., which I calculated upon sending you to morrow, the last day you gave me. Now any one calling in, or a letter coming, puts an end to my writing for the day. Little did I think that the mandate had gone out, so destructive to my occupation, so relieving to the apprehensions of the whole body of R.A.'s. So you see I had not quitted the ship while a plank was remaining.

To drop metaphors, I am sure you have done wisely. The very spirit of your epistle speaks that you have a weight off your mind. I have one on mine. The cash in hand, which, as * * * * * * less truly says, burns in my pocket. I feel queer at returning it (who does not?). You feel awkward at re-taking it (who ought not?) Is there no middle way of adjusting this fine embarra.s.sment? I think I have hit upon a medium to skin the sore place over, if not quite to heal it. You hinted that there might be something under 10 by and by accruing to me _Devil's Money_. You are sanguine--say 7: 10s.--that I entirely renounce and abjure all future interest in, I insist upon it, and "by Him I will not name" I won't touch a penny of it. That will split your Loss one half--and leave me conscientious possessor of what I hold. Less than your a.s.sent to this, no proposal will I accept of.

The Rev. Mr.------, whose name you have left illegible (is it _Sea-gull_?) never sent me any book on Christ's Hospit. by which I could dream that I was indebted to him for a dedication. Did G.D. send his penny tract to me to convert me to Unitarianism? Dear blundering soul!

why I am as old a one-G.o.ddite as himself. Or did he think his cheap publication would bring over the Methodists over the way here? However I'll give it to the pew-opener (in whom I have a little interest,) to hand over to the Clerk, whose wife she sometimes drinks tea with, for him to lay before the Deacon, who exchanges the civility of the hat with him, for him to transmit to the Minister, who shakes hand with him out of Chapel, and he, in all odds, will ---- with it.

I wish very much to see you. I leave it to you to come how you will. We shall be very glad (we need not repeat) to see your sister, or sisters, with you--but for you individually I will just hint that a dropping in to Tea unlook'd for about 5, stopping bread-n-cheese and gin-and-water, is worth a thousand Sundays. I am naturally miserable on a Sunday, but a week day evening and Supper is like old times. Set out _now_, and give no time to deliberation--

_P.S_.--The 2d vol. of Elia is delightful(-ly bound, I mean) and quite cheap. Why, man, 'tis a Unique--

If I write much more I shall expand into an article, which I cannot afford to let you have so cheap.

By the by, to shew the perverseness of human will--while I thought I _must_ furnish one of those accursed things monthly, it seemed a Labour above Hercules's "Twelve" in a year, which were evidently Monthly Contributions. Now I am emanc.i.p.ated, I feel as if I had a thousand Essays swelling within me. False feelings both.

I have lost Mr. Aitken's Town address--do you know it? Is he there?

Your ex-Lampoonist, or Lamb-punnist--from Enfield, Oct. 24, or "last day but one for receiving articles that can be inserted."

[Moxon, finding _The Englishman's Magazine_ unsuccessful, gave it up suddenly after the October number, the third under his direction. His letter to Lamb on the subject is not now forthcoming. The ludicrous description of a landscape by an R.A. is, I imagine, that of the garden of the Hesperides in the _Elia_ essay on the "Barrenness of the Imaginative Faculty in the Production of Modern Art" (see Vol. II.).

Probably Turner's "Garden of the Hesperides" in the National Gallery.

By "Devil's Money" Lamb means money due for _Satan in Search of a Wife_. I do not identify * * * * * *.

"The Rev. Mr. ----." I have not identified this gentleman.

"G.D.... penny tract." I have not found Dyer's tract.

"Mr. Aitken." John Aitken, editor of _Constable's Miscellany_, whom Moxon would have known at Hurst & Co.'s.]

LETTER 539

CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON

[P.M. Dec. 15, 1831.]

Dear M. +S. I know, has an aversion, amounting almost to horror, of H.

He _would not_ lend his name. The other I might wring a guinea from, but he is _very properly_ shy of his guineas. It would be improper in me to apply to him, and impertinent to the other. I hope this will satisfy you, but don't give my reason to H.'s friend, simply, say I decline it.

I am very much obliged to you for thinking of Gary. Put me down seven shillings (wasn't it?) in your books, and I set you down for more in my good ones. One Copy will go down to immortality _now_, the more lasting as the less its leaves are disturbed. This Letter will cost you 3d.--but I did not like to be silent on the above +.

Nothing with my name will sell, a blast is upon it. Do not think of such a thing, unless ever you become rich enough to speculate.

Being praised, and being bought, are different things to a Book. Fancy books sell from fashion, not from the number of their real likers. Do not come at so long intervals. Here we are sure to be.

[S. and H. I do not identify--perhaps Southey and Hunt. Hunt's need of guineas was chronic. The reference to Gary is not very clear. Lamb seems to suggest that he is giving Gary a copy of a book that Gary will not read, but will preserve.

"Nothing with my name." Moxon may perhaps have just suggested publishing a second series of _Elia_.]

LETTER 540

CHARLES LAMB TO JOSEPH HUME'S DAUGHTERS

[No date. 1832.]

Many thanks for the wrap-rascal, but how delicate the insinuating in, into the pocket, of that 3-1/2d., in paper too! Who was it? Amelia, Caroline, Julia, Augusta, or "Scots who have"?

As a set-off to the very handsome present, which I shall lay out in a pot of ale certainly to _her_ health, I have paid sixpence for the mend of two b.u.t.ton-holes of the coat now return'd. She shall not have to say, "I don't care a b.u.t.ton for her."

Adieu, tres aimables!

b.u.t.tons 6d.

Gift 3-1/2

Due from ---- 2-1/2

which pray accept ... from your foolish coatforgetting

C.L.

[Joseph Hume we have met. Mr. Hazlitt writes: "Amelia Hume became Mrs.

Bennett, Julia Mrs. Todhunter. The latter personally informed me in 1888 that her Aunt Augusta perfectly recollected all the circ.u.mstances [of the present note]. The incident seems to have taken place at the residence of Mr. Hume, in Percy Street, Bloomsbury, and it was Amelia who found the three-pence-halfpenny in the coat which Lamb left behind him, and who repaired the b.u.t.ton-holes. The sister who is described as 'Scots wha ha'e' was Louisa Hume; it was a favourite song with her."

Mrs. Todhunter supplied the date, 1832.]

LETTER 541

CHARLES LAMB TO CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE

[P.M. March 5, 1832.]

D'r Sir, My friend Aders, a German merchant, German born, has opend to the public at the Suffolk St. Gallery his glorious Collection of old Dutch and German Pictures. Pray see them. You have only to name my name, and have a ticket--if you have not received one already. You will possibly notice 'em, and might lug in the inclosed, which I wrote for Hone's Year Book, and has appear'd only there, when the Pictures were at home in Euston Sq. The fault of this matchless set of pictures is, _the admitting a few Italian pictures with 'em_, which I would turn out to make the Collection unique and pure. Those old Albert Durers have not had their fame. I have tried to ill.u.s.trate 'em. If you print my verses, a Copy, please, for me.

[The first letter to Charles Wentworth Dilke (1789-1864), a friend of Keats, Hunt and Hood, editor of Dodsley and at this time editor of _The Athenaeum_. Lamb's verses ran thus:--

TO C. ADERS, ESQ.