The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Volume II Part 29

I give it here in full, merely remarking that the first numerals refer to the pages of the original edition of _Elia_ and those in brackets to the present volume:--

M. . . . Page 13 [7] Maynard, hang'd himself.

G.D. . . " 21 [11] George Dyer, Poet.

H. . . . " 32 [16] Hodges.

W. . . . " 45 [23]

Dr. T----e . " 46 [24] Dr. Trollope.

Th. . . " 47 [24] Thornton.

S. . . " 47 [24] Scott, died in Bedlam.

M. . . " 47 [24] Maunde, dismiss'd school.

C.V. le G. . " 48 [25] Chs. Valentine le Grice.

F. . . . " 49 [25] Favell; left Camb'rg because he was asham'd of his father, who was a house-painter there.

Fr. . . " 50 [26] Franklin, Gramr. Mast., Hertford.

T. . . " 50 [26] Marmaduke Thompson.

K. . . " 59 [30] Kenney, Dramatist. Author of _Raising Wind_, &c.

S.T.C. . . " 60 [31] Samuel Taylor Coleridge. [Not in Lamb's autograph.]

Alice W----n . " 63 [32] Feigned (Winterton).

*** . . " 64 [32] No Meaning.

**** . . " 64 [32] No Meaning.

*** . . " 64 [32] No Meaning.

Mrs. S. . . " 87 [44] Mrs. Spinkes.

R. . . . " 98 [50] Ramsay, London Library, Ludg. St.; now extinct.

Granville S. . " 98 [50] Granville Sharp. [Not in Lamb's autograph.]

E.B. . . " 130 [65] Edward Burney, half-brother of Miss Burney.

B. . . . " 141 [71] Braham, now a Xtian.

*********** . " 170 [85] Distrest Sailors.

J----ll. . " 195 [97] Jekyll.

Susan P. . " 198 [99] Susan Peirson.

R.N. . . " 206 [103] Randal Norris, Subtreasr, Inner Temple.

C. . . . " 216 [108] Coleridge.

F. . . . " 222 [111] Field.

B.F. . . " 238 [118] Baron Field, brother of Frank.

Lord C. . " 243 [121] Lord Camelford.

Sally W----r . " 248 [123] Sally Winter.

J.W. . . " 248 [123] Jas. White, author of _Falstaff's Letters_.

St. L. . . " 268 [133] No meaning.

B., Rector of ---- " 268 [133] No meaning.

The _London Magazine_, with John Scott (1783-1821) as its editor was founded in 1820 by Baldwin, Cradock & Joy. Its first number was dated January, 1820, and Lamb's first contribution was in the number for August, 1820. Lamb had known Scott as editor of _The Champion_ in 1814, but, according to Talfourd, it was Hazlitt who introduced Lamb to the _London Magazine_.

John Scott, who was the author of two interesting books of travel, _A Visit to Paris in 1814_ and _Paris Re-visited_ in 1815, was an admirable editor, and all was going exceedingly well until he plunged into a feud with _Blackwood's Magazine_ in general, and John Gibson Lockhart in particular, the story of which in full may be read in Mr. Lang's _Life and Letters of Lockhart_, 1896. In the duel which resulted Scott was shot above the hip. The wound was at first thought lightly of, but Scott died on February 27, 1821--an able man much regretted.

The magazine did not at first show signs of Scott's loss; it continued to bear the imprint of its original publishers and its quality remained very high. With Lamb and Hazlitt writing regularly this could hardly be otherwise. But four months after the death of Scott and eighteen months after its establishment the _London Magazine_ pa.s.sed into the hands of the publishers Taylor & Hessey, the first number with their imprint being dated August, 1821. Although for a while no diminution of merit was perceptible and rather an access of gaiety--for Taylor brought Hood with him and John Hamilton Reynolds--yet the high editorial standards of Scott ceased to be applied. Thenceforward the decline of the magazine was steady.

John Taylor (1781-1864), senior partner in the firm of Taylor & Hessey, was known as the identifier of Sir Philip Francis with the author of "Junius," on which subject he had issued three books.

Although unfitted for the post, he acted as editor of the _London Magazine_ until it was again sold in 1825.

With the beginning of 1825 Taylor made a change in the magazine. He started a new series, and increased the size and the price. But the experiment did not answer; the spirit had evaporated; and in the autumn he sold it to Henry Southern (1799-1853), who had founded the _Retrospective Review_ in 1820. The last number of the _London Magazine_ to bear Taylor & Hessey's name, and (in my opinion) to contain anything by Lamb, was August, 1825. We have no definite information on the matter, but there is every indication in Lamb's _Letters_ that Taylor was penurious and not clever in his relations with contributors. Scott Lamb seems to have admired and liked; but even in Scott's day payment does not seem to have been prompt. Lamb was paid, according to Barry Cornwall, two or three times the amount of other writers, who received for prose a pound a page. But Lamb himself says that the rate for him was twenty guineas a sheet, a sheet being sixteen pages; and he told Moore that he had received 170 for two years' Elia. In a letter to Barton in January, 1823, Lamb remarks: "B---- [Baldwin] who first engaged me as 'Elia' has not paid me up yet (nor any of us without repeated mortifying appeals)."

The following references to the _London_ in Lamb's letters to Barton tell the story of its decadence quite clearly enough. In May, 1823:--"I cannot but think _the London_ drags heavily. I miss Ja.n.u.s [Wainewright]. And O how it misses Hazlitt--Procter, too, is affronted (as Ja.n.u.s has been) with their abominable curtailment of his things."

Again, a little later, in September:--"The 'London' I fear falls off.--I linger among its creaking rafters, like the last rat. It will topple down, if they don't get some b.u.t.tresses. They have pulled down three, W. Hazlitt, Procter, and their best stay, kind light-hearted Wainwright, their Ja.n.u.s."

In January, 1824, at the beginning of his eight months' silence:--"The London must do without me for a time, a time, and half a time, for I have lost all interest about it."

Again, in December, 1824:--"Taylor & Hessey finding their magazine goes off very heavily at 2s. 6d., are prudently going to raise their price another s.h.i.+lling; and having already more authors than they want, intend to increase the number of them. If they set up against the New Monthly, they must change their present hands. It is not tying the dead carcase of a Review to a half-dead Magazine will do their business."

In January, 1825 (to Sarah Hutchinson):--"You ask about the editor of the Lond. I know of none. This first specimen [of a new series] is flat and pert enough to justify subscribers, who grudge at t'other s.h.i.+lling."

Next month Lamb writes, again to Barton:--"Our second Number [of the new series] is all trash. What are T. & H. about? It is whip syllabub, 'thin sown with aught of profit or delight'. Thin sown! not a germ of fruit or corn. Why did poor Scott die! There was comfort in writing with such a.s.sociates as were his little band of scribblers, some gone away, some affronted away, and I am left as the solitary widow [in one of Barton's poems] looking for watercresses."

Finally, in August, 1825:--"Taylor has dropt the 'London'. It was indeed a dead weight. It was Job in the Slough of Despond. I shuffle off my part of the pack, and stand like Christian with light and merry shoulders."

In addition to Lamb and Hazlitt the _London Magazine_ had more or less regular contributions, in its best days, from De Quincey, Allan Cunningham (Nalla), T.G. Wainewright, afterwards the poisoner, but in those days an amusing weaver of gay artificial prose, John Clare, Bernard Barton, H.F. Cary, Richard Ayton, George Darley, Thomas Hood, John Hamilton Reynolds, Sir John Bowring, John Poole, B.W. Procter; while among occasional writers for it were Thomas Carlyle, Landor and Julius Hare.

The essay, "Stage Illusion," in the number for August, 1825, was, I believe, the last that Lamb contributed. (In this connection see Mr. Bertram Dobell's _Sidelights on Charles Lamb_, 1903.) Lamb then pa.s.sed over to Colburn's _New Monthly Magazine_, where the "Popular Fallacies" appeared, together with certain other of his later essays.