The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Volume VI Part 83

Of the measureless Bethams Lamb wrote in similar terms, but more fully, in an article in the _New Times_ in 1825, ent.i.tled "Many Friends" (see Vol. I.).

On April 9, 1834, Landor wrote to Lady Blessington:--

I do not think that you ever knew Charles Lamb, who is lately dead.

Robinson took me to see him.

"Once, and once only, have I seen thy face, Elia! once only has thy tripping tongue Run o'er my heart, yet never has been left Impression on it stronger or more sweet.

Cordial old man! what youth was in thy years, What wisdom in thy levity, what soul In every utterance of thy purest breast!

Of all that ever wore man's form,'tis thee I first would spring to at the gate of Heaven."

I say _tripping_ tongue, for Charles Lamb stammered and spoke hurriedly.

He did not think it worth while to put on a fine new coat to come down and see me in, as poor Coleridge did, but met me as if I had been a friend of twenty years' standing; indeed, he told me I had been so, and shewed me some things I had written much longer ago, and had utterly forgotten. The world will never see again two such delightful volumes as "The Essays of Elia;" no man living is capable of writing the worst twenty pages of them. The Continent has Zadig and Gil Bias, we have Elia and Sir Roger de Coverly.

Mrs. Fields, writing in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for April, 1866, on Landor, says that Landor told her of his visit to Lamb and said that Lamb read to him some poetry and asked his opinion of it. Landor said it was very good, whereupon Lamb laughed and called Landor the vainest of men, for it was his own.

In a letter to Southey the lines differed, ending thus:

Few are the spirits of the glorified I'd spring to earlier at the gate of Heaven.]

LETTER 550

CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON

[Late 1832.]

A poor mad usher (and schoolfellow of mine) has been pestering me _through you_ with poetry and pet.i.tions. I have desired him to call upon you for a half sovereign, which place to my account.

I have buried Mrs. Reynolds at last, who has _virtually at least_ bequeath'd me a legacy of 32 per Ann., to which add that my other pensioner is safe housed in the workhouse, which gets me 10.

Richer by both legacies 42 per Ann.

For a loss of a loss is as good as a gain of a gain.

But let this be _between ourselves_, specially keep it from A----- or I shall speedily have candidates for the Pensions.

Mary is laid up with a cold.

Will you convey the inclosed by hand?

When you come, if you ever do, bring me one _Devil's Visit_, I mean _Southey's_; also the Hogarth which is complete, n.o.ble's I think. Six more letters to do. Bring my bill also. C.L.

[I do not identify the usher. Mrs. Reynolds, Lamb's first schoolmistress, we have met. The other pensioner I do not positively identify; presumably it was Morgan, Coleridge's old friend, to whom Lamb and Southey had each given ten pounds annually from 1819.

A----- I cannot positively identify. Perhaps the philanthropic Allsop.

Southey's "Devil's Visit" was a new edition of _The Devil's Walk_ ill.u.s.trated by Thomas Landseer.

n.o.ble's "Hogarth." n.o.ble was the engraver.]

LETTER 551

CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON

[No date. Winter, 1832.]

Thank you for the books. I am ashamed to take tythe thus of your press.

I am worse to a publisher than the two Universities and the Brit. Mus.

A[llan] C[unningham] I will forthwith read. B[arry] C[ornwall] (I can't get out of the A, B, C) I have more than read. Taken altogether, 'tis too Lovey; but what delicacies! I like most "King Death;" glorious 'bove all, "The Lady with the Hundred Rings;" "The Owl;" "Epistle to What's his Name" (here may be I'm partial); "Sit down, Sad Soul;" "The Pauper's Jubilee" (but that's old, and yet 'tis never old); "The Falcon;"

"Felon's Wife;" d.a.m.n "Madame Pasty" (but that is borrowed);

Apple-pie is very good, And so is apple-pasty; But-- O Lard! 'tis very nasty:

but chiefly the dramatic fragments,--scarce three of which should have escaped my Specimens, had an antique name been prefixed. They exceed his first. So much for the nonsense of poetry; now to the serious business of life. Up a court (Blandford Court) in Pall Mall (exactly at the back of Marlbro' House), with iron gate in front, and containing two houses, at No. 2 did lately live Leishman my taylor. He is moved somewhere in the neighbourhood, devil knows where. Pray find him out, and give him the opposite. I am so much better, tho' my hand shakes in writing it, that, after next Sunday, I can well see F[orster] and you. Can you throw B.C. in? Why tarry the wheels of my Hogarth?

CHARLES LAMB.

["I am worse to a publisher." There is a rule by which a publisher must present copies of every book to the Stationers' Hall, to be distributed to the British Museum, the Bodleian, and Cambridge University Library.

"A.C.... B.C." Allan Cunningham's _Maid of Elvar_ and Barry Cornwall's _English Songs_, both published by Moxon. This is Barry Cornwall's "King Death":--

KING DEATH

King Death was a rare old fellow!

He sate where no sun could shine; And he lifted his hand so yellow, And poured out his coal-black wine.

_Hurrah! for the coal-black Wine!_

There came to him many a Maiden, Whose eyes had forgot to shine; And Widows, with grief o'erladen, For a draught of his sleepy wine.

_Hurrah! for the coal-black Wine!_

The Scholar left all his learning; The Poet his fancied woes; And the Beauty her bloom returning, Like life to the fading rose.

_Hurrah! for the coal-black Wine!_

All came to the royal old fellow, Who laugh'd till his eyes dropped brine, As he gave them his hand so yellow, And pledged them in Death's black wine.

_Hurrah!--Hurrah!_ _Hurrah! for the coal-black Wine!_

By the "Epistle to What's his Name" Lamb refers to some lines to himself which had been printed first in the _London Magazine_ in 1825, ent.i.tled "The Epistle to Charles Lamb." See in the Appendix.

"Madame Pasty." Procter had some lines on Madame Pasta.

"My Specimens." Lamb's _Dramatic Specimens_, which very likely suggested to Procter the idea of "Dramatic Fragments."

Under the date November 30, 1832, an unsigned letter endorsed "From Charles Lamb to Professor Wilson" is printed in Mrs. Gordon's _"Christopher North:" A Memoir of John Wilson_. Although in its first paragraph it might be Lamb's, there is evidence to the contrary in the remainder, and I have no doubt that the endors.e.m.e.nt was a mistake. It is therefore not printed here.]