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Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Letter To Southey
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Appendix I
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List of Letters
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Letter To Southey
Vol. I., page 226

In the London Magazine for December, 1823, under “The Lion’s Head,” is the following:—

We have to thank an unknown correspondent for the following

Sonnet
Occasioned by reading in Elia’s Letter to Dr. Southey, that the admirable translator of Dante, the modest and amiable C——, still remained a curate—or, as a waggish friend observed,—after such a Translation should still be without Preferment.*
O Thou! who enteredst the tangled wood,
By that same spirit trusting to be led,
That on the first discoverer’s footsteps shed
The light with which another world was view’d;

* We suspect, by the way, this is not strictly the case, though we believe it is very nearly so.

983
Thou hast well scann’d the path, and firmly stood
With measured niceness in his holy tread,
Till, mounting up thy star-illumined head,
Thou lookedst in upon the perfect good!
What treasures does thy golden key unfold!
Riches immense, the pearl beyond all price,
And saintly truths to gross ears vainly told!
Say, gilds thy earthly path some Beatrice?—
If bread thou want’st, they will but give thee stones,
And when thou’rt gone, will quarrel for thy bones!
—An Unworthy Rector.
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