The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Volume V Part 27

The proof-sheets were those of _Wallenstein_. Henry Sampson Woodfall was the famous printer of the _Letters of Junius_.

_Christabel_, Coleridge's poem, had been begun in 1797; it was finished, in so far as it was finished, later in the year 1800. It was published first in 1816.

"_h.o.m.o unius linguae_." Lamb exaggerated here. He had much Latin, a little Greek and apparently a little French. The sentence is in the manner of Burton, whom Lamb had been imitating.

Here should come a letter dated April 23, 1800, to Robert Lloyd, which treats of obedience to parental wish. Lloyd seems to have objected to attend the meetings of the Society of Friends, of which he was a birthright member. Lamb bids him go; adding that, if his own parents were to live again, he would do more things to please them than merely sitting still a few hours in a week.]

LETTER 55

CHARLES LAMB TO S.T. COLERIDGE

[? Spring, 1800.]

By some fatality, unusual with me, I have mislaid the list of books which you want. Can you, from memory, easily supply me with another?

I confess to Statius, and I detained him wilfully, out of a reverent regard to your style. Statius, they tell me, is turgid. As to that other Latin book, since you know neither its name nor subject, your wants (I crave leave to apprehend) cannot be very urgent. Meanwhile, dream that it is one of the lost Decades of Livy.

Your partiality to me has led you to form an erroneous opinion as to the measure of delight you suppose me to take in obliging. Pray, be careful that it spread no further. 'Tis one of those heresies that is very pregnant. Pray, rest more satisfied with the portion of learning which you have got, and disturb my peaceful ignorance as little as possible with such sort of commissions.

Did you never observe an appearance well known by the name of the man in the moon? Some scandalous old maids have set on foot a report that it is Endymion. Dr. Stoddart talks of going out King's Advocate to Malta. He has studied the Civil and Canon Law just three canon months, to my knowledge. _Fiat just.i.tia, ruat caelum._

Your theory about the first awkward step a man makes being the consequence of learning to dance, is not universal. We have known many youths bred up at Christ's, who never learned to dance, yet the world imputes to them no very graceful motions. I remember there was little Hudson, the immortal precentor of St. Paul's, to teach us our quavers: but, to the best of my recollection, there was no master of motions when we were at Christ's.

Farewell, in haste.

C.L.

[Talfourd does not date this letter, merely remarking that it belongs to the present period. Canon Ainger dated it June 22, 1800; but this I think cannot be right when we take into consideration Letter 60 and what it says about Lamb's last letter to Coleridge (clearly that of May 12), and the time that has since elapsed. The birth of Charles Lloyd's first child, July 31, gives us the latest date to which Letter 60 could belong.

"Your theory ..." This may have been contained in one of Coleridge's letters, now lost; I do not find it in any of the known _Morning Post_ articles.]

LETTER 56

CHARLES LAMB TO S.T. COLERIDGE

Monday, May 12th, 1800.

My dear Coleridge--I don't know why I write, except from the propensity misery has to tell her griefs. Hetty died on Friday night, about eleven o'clock, after eight days' illness; Mary, in consequence of fatigue and anxiety, is fallen ill again, and I was obliged to remove her yesterday.

I am left alone in a house with nothing but Hetty's dead body to keep me company. To-morrow I bury her, and then I shall be quite alone, with nothing but a cat to remind me that the house has been full of living beings like myself. My heart is quite sunk, and I don't know where to look for relief. Mary will get better again; but her constantly being liable to such relapses is dreadful; nor is it the least of our evils that her case and all our story is so well known around us. We are in a manner _marked_. Excuse my troubling you; but I have n.o.body by me to speak to me. I slept out last night, not being able to endure the change and the stillness. But I did not sleep well, and I must come back to my own bed. I am going to try and get a friend to come and be with me to-morrow. I am completely s.h.i.+pwrecked. My head is quite bad. I almost wish that Mary were dead.--G.o.d bless you! Love to Sara and Hartley.

C. LAMB.

[Hetty was the Lambs' aged servant.

Here should come a letter from Lamb to Thomas Manning clearly written on May 12, 1800, the same day as that to Coleridge, stating that Lamb has given up his house, and is looking for lodgings,--White (with whom he had stayed) having "all kindness but not sympathy".]

LETTER 57

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS MANNING

[P.M. May 20, 1800.]

Dear Manning,--I feel myself unable to thank you sufficiently for your kind letter. It was doubly acceptable to me, both for the choice poetry and the kind honest prose which it contained. It was just such a letter as I should have expected from Manning.

I am in much better spirits than when I wrote last. I have had a very eligible offer to lodge with a friend in town. He will have rooms to let at midsummer, by which time I hope my sister will be well enough to join me. It is a great object to me to live in town, where we shall be much more _private_, and to quit a house and neighbourhood where poor Mary's disorder, so frequently recurring, has made us a sort of marked people.

We can be nowhere private except in the midst of London. We shall be in a family where we visit very frequently; only my landlord and I have not yet come to a conclusion. He has a partner to consult. I am still on the tremble, for I do not know where we could go into lodgings that would not be, in many respects, highly exceptionable. Only G.o.d send Mary well again, and I hope all will be well! The prospect, such as it is, has made me quite happy. I have just time to tell you of it, as I know it will give you pleasure.--Farewell.

C. LAMB.

[Manning's letter containing the choice poetry has not been preserved.

The friend in town was John Mathew Gutch (1776-1861), with whom Lamb had been at school at Christ's Hospital, who was now a law stationer, in partners.h.i.+p with one Anderson, at 27 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, since demolished.]

LETTER 58

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS MANNING

[No date. ? May 25, 1800.]

Dear Manning, I am a letter in your debt, but I am scarcely rich enough (in spirits) to pay you.--I am writing at an inn on the Ware road, in the neighbourhood of which I am going to pa.s.s two days, being Whitsuntide.--Excuse the pen, tis the best I can get.--Poor Mary is very bad yet. I went yesterday hoping I should see her getting well, then I might have come into the country more chearful, but I could not get to see her. This has been a sad damp. Indeed I never in my life have been more wretched than I was all day yesterday. I am glad I am going away from business for a little while, for my head has been hot and ill. I shall be very much alone where I am going, which always revives me. I hope you will accept of this worthless memento, which I merely send as a token that I am in your debt. I will write upon my return, on Thursday at farthest. I return on Wednesday.--

G.o.d bless you.

I was afraid you would think me forgetful, and that made me scribble this jumble.

Sunday.

[Here probably also should come an unpublished letter from Lamb to Manning, in which Lamb remarks that his G.o.ddess is Pecunia.

In another letter to Manning belonging to the same period, Lamb returns to the subject of poverty:--"You dropt a word whether in jest or earnest, as if you would join me in some work, such as a review or series of papers, essays, or anything.--Were you serious? I want home occupation, & I more want money. Had you any scheme, or was it, as G.

Dyer says, en pa.s.sant? If I don't have a Legacy left me shortly I must get into pay with some newspaper for small gains. Mutton is twelvepence a pound."