Selected Prose
Page 50
8. (p. 303) a Berkleyan: a believer in the idealism of the Irish philosopher George Berkeley (1685–1753).
9. (p. 303) Woe … Kedar: see Psalms 120:5.
10. (p. 303) Ecquid … virtutem: ‘(do you arouse in him) anything like ancient virtue?’ (Aeneid 3, 342–3).
9. To Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1. (p. 306) Theses Quœdam Theologicœ: ‘Certain Theological Propositions’. A protracted disagreement between Lloyd, Coleridge and Lamb prompted this and the previous letter, after which Lamb broke off his correspondence with Coleridge for nearly two years (for details of this, see Marrs, vol. 1, p. 129). After blaming Lamb for taking sides with Lloyd against him, Coleridge wrote to Lloyd: ‘Poor Lamb … if he wants only knowledge, he may apply to me.’ Lloyd showed this to Lamb, who responded with these Certain Theological Propositions.
2. (p. 306) Virtutes … participes: ‘the less shining virtues redolent of earth and man’.
3. (p. 307) vide Poems: an allusion to Coleridge’s ‘To the Author of “The Robbers” ’, 1. 12.
10. To Thomas Manning
1. (p. 307) the Falstaff’s Letters: see Letter 1, note 5 (p. 464).
2. (p. 308) Potosi: a Bolivian city that was at this time a rich silver-mining centre.
3. (p. 308) Bread, and Beer, and Coals: Lamb is referring here to the cries of ‘Bread, Peace and No Pitt’ that people shouted at George III on his way to open parliament in October 1795. The war with France, and Pitt (Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer) introducing an income tax and perpetuating the land tax, meant that England was in the throes of financial panic.
4. (p. 308) the Abbe Sieyes: Abbé Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes (1748–1836) was one of the influential theorists of the French Revolution.
5. (p. 308) Burnet’s Own Times: Bishop Gilbert Burnet (1643–1715) wrote a History of His Own Time (1723–4).
11. To Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1. (p. 309) Miss Wesley: Sarah Wesley (1760–1828), daughter of Charles Wesley.
2. (p. 309) jorum: a large drinking bowl, or large drink.
3. (p. 310) D’Israeli: Isaac D’Israeli (1766–1848), author and father of Benjamin D’Israeli.
4. (p. 311) Woodfall: George Woodfall (1756–1836) and his father, Sampson, were the printers of Coleridge’s translation of Wallenstein.
13. To Robert Lloyd
1. (p. 313) Bishop Taylor: Jeremy Taylor (1613–67), Bishop of Down and Connor and author of various religious works of which Lamb was consistently fond.
2. (p. 314) Sophia’s being brought to bed: Lloyd’s wife, Sophia, gave birth to a son, Charles, later that year.
14. To Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1. (p. 315) the Post: the Morning Post, which Coleridge wrote for in 1798.
2. (p. 315) phlebotomising: blood-letting. The Anatomy of Melancholy by Sir Robert Burton (1577–1640) was another of Lamb’s favourite books.
3. (p. 315) Lambe: this was the spelling used by the Anti-Jacobin in 1798 when it attacked Coleridge, Southey, Lloyd and Lamb (among others) for being radicals.
4. (p. 315) the Anthology: the second volume of the Annual Anthology, edited by Southey, in which Coleridge’s ‘Lewti’ was reprinted.
5. (p. 315) don’t make me ridiculous … verses: in lines 28, 68 and 75 of Coleridge’s poem ‘This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison’, Lamb is referred to as ‘gentle-hearted Charles’.
6. (p. 316) fate ‘and wisest Stewart’ say No: an adaptation of 1. 149 of Milton’s ‘On The Morning of Christ’s Nativity’; Stewart is Daniel Stuart (1766–1846), editor of the Morning Post and the Courier.
7. (p. 316) cum … caeteris: ‘with many books and things’.
16. To Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1. (p. 318) your satire upon me: Coleridge’s poem ‘This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison’.
2. (p. 319) that scandalous piece … Devonshire: a reference to Coleridge’s poem ‘Ode to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire’.
3. (p. 319) Pauper … EST: [Cinna] wants to seem poor and poor he is’ (Martial’s Epigrams, VIII, 1. 19).
4. (p. 319) Mors, Febris, Pallor: Roman deifications of death, sickness or torment, and fear.
17. To Thomas Manning
1. (p. 321) the Tower Militia: the part of the building that Lamb worked in was known as ‘The Tower’.
2. (p. 323) The Farmer’s Boy: a poem by Robert Bloomfield, an agricultural labourer from Suffolk, published in March 1800.
18. To Thomas Manning
1. (p. 323) Ecquid … Archimedes: ‘what does Archimedes have in mind’.
2. (p. 323) impedimenta viarum: ‘obstructions on the way’.
3. (p. 323) racemi … pendentes: ‘branches hanging too high’.
4. (p. 323) Mr Crisp: Manning’s landlord, and a barber by profession.
5. (p. 324) Greek with Porson … Thelwall: Richard Porson (1759–1808) was an editor of Euripides and, from 1792, Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge, John Thelwall (1764–1834) was a friend of Coleridge’s, and a Jacobin reformer.
6. (p. 324) sapit hominem: ‘[whatever] smacks of men’ (Martial, X, 4).
7. (p. 324) Kemble: John Philip Kemble (1757–1823), the actor who was also a manager of Drury Lane. The play Lamb refers to is Pride’s Cure.
19. To Thomas Manning
1. (p. 326) beautiful Quakers of Pentonville: probably a reference to Hester Savory (1777–1803), whom Lamb loved (but did not declare his love to) between 1800 and 1803 when he was living in Pentonville. She is commemorated in a poem of 1803, ‘Hester’.
20. To Thomas Manning
1. (p. 328) the other Professor: William Godwin.
2. (p. 328) Lawsuits … fire cause: a reference to Godwin’s Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Political Justice (Book 2, chapter 2). Godwin imagines that his mother, the Archbishop of Cambrai Fénelon and a chambermaid were caught in a fire in the Archbishop’s Palace and debates which one should be saved if only one of them could be.
3. (p. 328) Deo … nolente: ‘God willing and the devil not willing’.
4. (p. 328) ortolans: a kind of bunting.
21. To William Wordsworth
1. (p. 329) Probably the second volume of the second (1800) edition of Lyrical Ballads.
2. (p. 330) St Leons: a novel by William Godwin, published in 1799.
3. (p. 332) Barbara Lewthwaite: a reference to Wordsworth’s poem ‘The Pet Lamb: A Pastoral’.
4. (p. 332) my Play: John Woodvill: a Tragedy (1800).
22. To Robert Lloyd
1. (p. 332) Walton: Izaak Walton (1593–1683), author of The Compleat Angler.
2. (p. 333) Holy Living … Thomas à Kempis: Lamb is referring to Jeremy Taylor’s The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Thomas à Kempis’s De Imitatione Christi.
3. (p. 333) Priscilla: the Lloyds’ sister (1782–1815) who married Christopher Wordsworth, the poet’s brother.
4. (p. 333) like a bribed haunch: an allusion to Falstaff’s remark to Mistress Ford (The Merry Wives of Windsor V, v), ‘Divide me like a bribe buck, each a haunch’.
23. To Thomas Manning
1. (p. 335) two quotations: respectively, ll. 339–43 of ‘Michael: a Pastoral’, and ll. 98–9 of ‘The Brothers’.
2. (p. 337) that thing to Colman: probably Lamb’s play John Woodvill. The dramatist George Colman (1762–1836) was manager of the Haymarket theatre from 1789 to 1813.
3. (p. 337) a Play on a Persian story: William Godwin’s play Abbas, King of Persia.
24. To Thomas Manning
1. (p. 338) Elijah’s widow: the cruse would always pour oil (Kings 1:17. 12–16).
2. (p. 338) pipkin: an earthenware container for oil.
25. To Robert Lloyd
1. (p. 340) Cooke: George Frederick Cooke (1756–1811), actor.
2. (p. 340) Overreach: Sir Giles Overreach in Massinger’s play A New Way to Pay Old Debts, which Lamb quotes below (V, i, 363–4).
3. (p. 341) Pierre and Jaffier … Young’s Revenge: the references in this paragr
aph are as follows: Pierre, Jaffier and Belvidera are characters in Venice Preserv’d; Monimia in Otway’s The Orphan; Calista in Nicholas Rowe’s The Fair Penitent; and Alexander in Nathaniel Lee’s The Rival Queens. The quotation is from Drayton’s ‘To My Most Dearly-loved Friend Henry Reynolds Esquire, of Poets and Poesie’. All For Love is by Dryden, and The Revenge by Edward Young.
4. (p. 341) Plumstead: one of the Lloyd brothers.
27. To Robert Lloyd
1. (p. 343) benevolent … Brewer: possibly Plumstead Lloyd.
28. To Thomas Manning
1. (p. 344) I am his word-banker: Manning had asked Lamb to keep his letters from abroad.
2. (p. 345) Rumfordizing: Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count von Rumford, was the founder of the Royal Institution, inventor of the Rumford stove and a relentless scientific and philosophical experimenter.
3. (p. 345) Smelfungus: Sterne refers to Smollet in A Sentimental Journey as ‘the lamented smelfungus’.
4. (p. 346) Stuart: Daniel Stuart (1766–1846), proprietor of the Morning Post.
5. (p. 346) Ludisti … abire est: ‘You have played enough, it is time to leave’ (Horace, Epistles 2, 2, 214–15).
6. (p. 346) The Professor’s Rib: in December 1801 Godwin had married Mrs Mary Jane Clairmont.
7. (p. 346) Libera … amicis: ‘Free us writers from our friends’.
8. (p. 346) The Londoner: published in the Morning Post, 1 February 1802. Manning wrote to Lamb (6 April 1802): ‘I like your Londoner very much, there is a deal of happy fancy in it, but it is not strong enough to be seen by the generality of readers. Yet if you would write a volume of Essays in the same stile you might be sure of its succeeding.’
9. (p. 348) Mrs Shandy … Yorick: from Tristram Shandy.
29. To Thomas Manning
1. (p. 349) Stoddart: Sir John Stoddart (1773–1856), a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn, brother of Hazlitt’s first wife, Sarah.
2. (p. 350) the Clarksons: Thomas Clarkson (1760–1846) was a reformer and anti-slavery agitator, becoming Vice-President of the Anti-Slavery Society. His wife, Catherine, was a childhood friend of Crabb Robinson and introduced him to Lamb, Coleridge and Wordsworth.
3. (p. 352) St Gothard: the pass in the Alps through which Manning had just walked.
4. (p. 352) Fenwick: John Fenwick (died 1820), author and editor. He owned and edited the Albion, which Lamb worked for briefly in 1801.
5. (p. 352) nam … repono: ‘here I give up my gloves and the game [of boxing]’ Aenid V, 484.
6. (p. 352) Marshall: Godwin’s amanuensis and literary agent.
7. (p. 352) Holcroft: Thomas Holcroft (1745–1809), dramatist, novelist and translator, imprisoned for high treason in 1794.
30. To Thomas Manning
1. (p. 352) Prester John: an extraordinary Christian potentate who, according to legend (and various travel books, including Mandeville’s), ruled remote regions of Asia and Africa in the twelfth century. Manning was about to sail for China.
2. (p. 353) Hartley’s method: David Hartley (1705–57), English philosopher, physician and psychologist.
3. (p. 353) foolish stories … brass: a reference to Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale.
4. (p. 353) Hellebore: an ancient remedy for mental illness.
5. (p. 354) the reverse of fishes … meat: an allusion to Marvell’s poem ‘The Character of Holland’, ll. 29–30: ‘The fish ofttimes the burgher dispossessed/And sat not as a meat but as a guest.’
31. To Thomas Manning
1. (p. 355) As Wordsworth sings … your love: an allusion to Wordsworth’s poem ‘Poet’s Epitaph’.
32. To Thomas Manning
1. (p. 357) a sequel to ‘Mrs Leicester’: in 1809 Charles and Mary Lamb published Poetry for Children, and second editions of Mrs Leicester’s School and Tales from Shakespeare.
2. (p. 357) Hazlitt … life of Holcroft: Hazlitt continued, so to speak, The Memoirs of Thomas Holcroft, which were published in 1816.
33. To William Wordsworth
1. (p. 361) Alsager: Thomas Alsager (1779–1846), musical and financial writer for The Times. It was after reading Alsager’s copy of the folio of Chapman’s Homer that Keats composed his famous sonnet.
2. (p. 361) Heautontimorumenos: the Self-Tormentor, a comedy by Terence.
3. (p. 362) a curious letter … Habeas Corpus: Capell Lofft (1751–1824), lawyer and philanthropist, wrote to the Morning Chronicle in August 1815. Lucas gives an account of his argument in one of the letters: ‘Bonaparte, with the concurrence of the admiralty, is within the limits of British local allegiance. He is a temporary, considered as private, though not a natural born subject, and as such within the limits of 31 Car. II, the Habeas Corpus Act.’
4. (p. 362) 3 volumes … Drama: A course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature (1815) by von Schlegel, translated by Black.
5. (p. 262) Did you ever read … Pilgrim: De la Sagess (1601) by the French philosopher Pierre Charron, and The Parable of the Pilgrim (1664) by Simon Patrick, Bishop of Chichester and Ely.
34. To William Wordsworth
1. (p. 363) the Revise of the Poems and letter: the proofs of Wordsworth’s ‘Letter to a Friend of Burns’, and his Thanksgiving Ode with Other Short Pieces (1816).
2. (p. 364) mild Arcadians ever blooming: from Pope’s ‘Song by a Person of Quality’, l. 5.
3. (p. 364) Gilman: James Gillman (1782–1839), the doctor Coleridge went to stay with in April 1816. He planned to be there for a month and stayed for the rest of his life.
4. (p. 364) Pleasure of Hope … Petition: ‘The Pleasure of Hope’ (1799) by Thomas Campbell, and Thomas Moss’s ‘The Beggars Petition’, were included in Lamb’s Poems on Several Occasions (1769).
5. (p. 365) a taking: a passion.
35. To William Wordsworth
1. (p. 366) Have you read … Examiner: an unsigned review by Hazlitt in the Examiner, 8 September 1816.
2. (p. 366) the fate of Cinna the Poet: the poet of whom one of the mob in Julius Caesar shouts ‘Tear him for his bad verses’ (111, iii, 31).
3. (p. 366) after all … abuse them: this is Lamb’s mis-remembering of a sentence from Francis Jeffrey’s review of The Excursion in the Edinburgh Review of November 1814, which read: ‘But the truth is, that Mr Wordsworth, with all his perversities, is a person of great powers.’
4. (p. 366) agnomen or agni-nomen: ‘fourth name’ or ‘lamb-name’.
5. (p. 366) H—: Hazlitt.
6. (p. 367) M. would have had ’em … Crispin did for me: William Gifford (1756–1826), of the Quarterly Review, seems to have persuaded the publisher John Murray to reject an offer Barron Field had made to Murray to publish two volumes of Lamb’s essays.
36. To Charles Chambers
1. (p. 368) on account of Quin: the actor James Quin (1693–1766). Portrayed as Jeremy Midford in Smollett’s Humphrey Clinker, he had wanted to send for the head of the cook who ‘had committed felony, on the person of that John Dory, which is mangled in a cruel manner, and even presented without sauce – O Tempora! O Mores!’
2. (p. 368) Apicius and Heliogabalus: see note 6 to ‘Edax on Appetite’ (p. 447).
3. (p. 369) a fine story about Truss: this is Lamb’s story. William Henry Truss was appointed as an extra clerk in the East India House in 1800.
4. (p. 369) Dr Parr … dead: Dr Samuel Parr (1747–1825) was not two months dead until 6 May 1825.
37. To Mrs William Wordsworth
1. (p. 371) Miss Burrell: Fanny Burrell (born 1795), actress and singer.
2. (p. 371) Fanny Kelly: Francis Maria Kelly (1790–1882), actress and singer, to whom Lamb proposed in July 1819. She refused him – apparently, though Lamb may not have known this, for fear of what she took to be the taint of insanity in the family.
3. (p. 371) Lalla Rooks: ‘Lalla Rooke’ (1817), a poem by Thomas Moore (1779–1852).
4. (p. 374) as there seemd to be … Haydons: see Appendix One (p. 435).
38. To Dorothy Wordsworth
&nbs
p; 1. (p. 374) Willy: this letter refers to the visit of Wordsworth’s son William, then nine years old, to the Lambs.
2. (p. 374) Virgilium Tantum Vidi: ‘I saw a man as great as Virgil’ (Ovid, ‘Tristia’, 4, 10, 51).
3. (p. 375) Lord Foppington: a character in Vanbrugh’s play The Relapse.
4. (p. 375) Halley: (1656–1742) second Astronomer Royal, who successfully predicted the re-run of the comet that bears his name.
5. (p. 375) a certain Preface: Wordsworth’s preface to the 1815 edition of his poems.
6. (p. 375) ex traduce: ‘by tradition’.
7. (p. 376) the famous American boy: Zerah Colburn, who was a mathematical prodigy. He was born in Vermont in 1804, and exhibited by his father in America and Europe.
39. To Joseph Cottle
1. (p. 376) your second kind present: a copy of Cottle’s poem ‘Fall of Cambria’. In 1820, Cottle had published an ‘Expostulatory Epistle to Lord Byron’, who had ridiculed Cottle’s brother in ‘English Bards and Scotch Reviewers’.
40. To Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1. (p. 378) Owen: Lamb’s landlord in Russell Street.
41. To William Wordsworth
1 (p. 379) poor John’s Loss: John Lamb (1763–1821), Charles’s elder brother, died in October 1821.