The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Volume V Part 44

Accustom yourself to write familiar letters on common subjects to your friends in England, such as are of a moderate understanding. And think about common things more. There's your friend Holcroft now, has written a play. You used to be fond of the drama. n.o.body went to see it.

Notwithstanding this, with an audacity perfectly original, he faces the town down in a preface, that they _did like_ it very much. I have heard a waspish punster say, "Sir, why did you not laugh at my jest?" But for a man boldly to face me out with, "Sir, I maintain it, you did laugh at my jest," is a little too much. I have seen H. but once. He spoke of you to me in honorable terms. H. seems to me to be drearily dull. G.o.dwin is dull, but then he has a dash of affectation, which smacks of the c.o.xcomb, and your c.o.xcombs are always agreeable. I supped last night with Rickman, and met a merry _natural_ captain, who pleases himself vastly with once having made a Pun at Otaheite in the O. language. 'Tis the same man who said Shakspeare he liked, because he was so _much of the Gentleman_. Rickman is a man "absolute in all numbers." I think I may one day bring you acquainted, if you do not go to Tartary first; for you'll never come back. Have a care, my dear friend, of Anthropophagi!

their stomachs are always craving. But if you do go among [them] pray contrive to _stink_ as soon as you can that you may [? not] hang a [?

on] hand at the Butcher's. 'Tis terrible to be weighed out for 5d.

a-pound. To sit at table (the reverse of fishes in Holland), not as a guest, but as a meat.

G.o.d bless you: do come to England. Air and exercise may do great things.

Talk with some Minister. Why not your father?

G.o.d dispose all for the best. I have discharged my duty.

Your sincere fr'd, C. LAMB.

19th Feb., 1803, London.

[Manning's letter producing this reply is endorsed by Lamb, "Received February 19, 1803," so that he lost no time. Manning wrote: "I am actually thinking of Independent Tartary as I write this, but you go out and skate--you go out and walk some times? Very true, that's a distraction--but the moment I set myself down quietly to any-thing, in comes Independent Tartary--for example I attend chemical lectures but every drug that Mr. Vauquelin presents to me tastes of Cream of Tartar--in short I am become good for nothing for a time, and as I said before, I should not have written now, but to a.s.sure you of my friendly and affectionate remembrance, but as you are not in the same unhappy circ.u.mstances, I expect you'll write to me and not measure page for page. This is the first letter I have begun for England for three months except one I sent to my Father yesterday." Manning returned to London before leaving for China. He did not sail until 1806.

Prester John, the name given by old writers to the King of Ethiopia in Abyssinia. A corruption of Belul Gian, precious stone; in Latin first Joha.n.u.s preciosus, then Presbyter Johannes, and then Prester John. In Sir John Mandeville's _Voiage and Travails_, 1356, Prester John is said to be a lineal descendant of Ogier the Dane.--Hartley would be David Hartley, the metaphysician, after whom Coleridge's son was named.--The reader must go to Chaucer's "Squire's Tale" for Cambuscan, King of Sarra, in Tartary; his horse of bra.s.s which conveyed him in a day wherever he would go; and the ring which enabled his daughter Canace to understand the language of birds.

Holcroft's play was "A Tale of Mystery."

Rickman had returned from Ireland some months previously. The merry natural captain was James Burney (1750-1821), with whom the Lambs soon became very friendly. He was the centre of their whist-playing circle.

Burney, who was brother of Madame D'Arblay, had sailed with Captain Cook.

"The reverse of fishes in Holland." An allusion to Andrew Marvell's whimsical satire against the Dutch:--

The fish ofttimes the burgher dispossessed And sat not as a meat but as a guest.

"Why not your father?" Manning's father was the Rev. William Manning, rector of Diss, in Norfolk, who died in 1810.]

LETTER 105

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS MANNING

March, 1803.

Dear Manning, I send you some verses I have made on the death of a young Quaker you may have heard me speak of as being in love with for some years while I lived at Pentonville, though I had never spoken to her in my life. She died about a month since. If you have interest with the Abbe de Lisle, you may get 'em translated: he has done as much for the Georgics.

HESTER

When maidens such as Hester die, Their place ye may not well supply, Though ye among a thousand try, With vain endeavour.

A month or more hath she been dead, Yet cannot I by force be led To think upon the wormy bed, And her together.

A springy motion in her gait, A rising step, did indicate Of pride and joy no common rate, That flush'd her spirit.

I know not by what name beside I shall it call:--if 'twas not pride, It was a joy to that allied, She did inherit.

Her parents held the Quaker rule, Which doth the human feeling cool, But she was train'd in Nature's school, Nature had blest her.

A waking eye, a prying mind, A heart that stirs, is hard to bind, A hawk's keen sight ye cannot blind, Ye could not Hester.

My sprightly neighbour, gone before To that unknown and silent sh.o.r.e, Shall we not meet, as heretofore, Some summer morning,

When from thy cheerful eyes a ray Hath struck a bliss upon the day, A bliss that would not go away, A sweet forewarning?

[This letter is possibly only a fragment. I have supplied "Hester" from the 1818 text.

The young Quaker was Hester Savory, the daughter of Joseph Savory, a goldsmith of the Strand. She was married July 1, 1802, and died a few months after.

"The Abbe de Lisle." L'Abbe Jacques Delille (1738-1813), known by his _Georgiques_, 1770, a translation into French of Virgil's _Georgics_.]

LETTER 106

CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

[Dated at end: March 5, 1803.]

Dear Wordsworth, having a Guinea of your sister's left in hand, after all your commissions, and as it does not seem likely that you will trouble us, as the phrase is, for some time to come, I send you a pound note, and with it the best things in the verse way I have lit upon for many a day. I believe they will be new to you. You know Cotton, who wrote a 2d part to Walton's Angler. A volume of his miscellaneous poems is scarce. Take what follows from a poem call'd Winter. I omit 20 verses, in which a storm is described, to hasten to the best:--

21 Louder, and louder, still they[1] come, Nile's Cataracts to these are dumb, The Cyclops to these Blades are still, Whose anvils shake the burning hill.

22 Were all the stars-enlighten'd skies As full of ears, as sparkling eyes, This rattle in the crystal hall Would be enough to deaf them all.

23 What monstrous Race is. .h.i.ther tost, Thus to alarm our British Coast, With outcries such as never yet War, or confusion, could beget?

24 Oh! now I know them, let us home, Our mortal Enemy is come, Winter, and all his bl.u.s.tring train Have made a voyage o'er the main.

27 With bleak, and with congealing winds, The earth in s.h.i.+ning chain he binds; And still as he doth further pa.s.s, Quarries his way with liquid gla.s.s.

28 Hark! how the Bl.u.s.terers of the Bear Their gibbous Cheeks in triumph bear, And with continued shouts do ring The entry of their palsied king!

29 The squadron, nearest to your eye, Is his forlorn of Infantry, Bowmen of unrelenting minds, Whose shafts are feather'd with the winds.

30 Now you may see his vanguard rise Above the earthy precipice, Bold Horse, on bleakest mountains bred, With hail, instead of provend, fed.

31 Their lances are the pointed locks, Torn from the brows of frozen rocks, Their s.h.i.+elds are chrystal as their swords, The steel the rusted rock affords.

32 See, the Main Body now appears!

And hark! th' Aeolian Trumpeters.

By their hoa.r.s.e levels do declare, That the bold General rides there.