Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Thomas Manning, [21 August 1800]
DEAR Manning,—I am going to ask a favour of you, and am at a loss how to
do it in the most delicate manner. For this purpose I have been looking into
Pliny’s Letters, who is ![]()
| 1800 | GEORGE DYER MATHEMATICIAN | 181 |
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noted to have had the best grace in begging
of all the ancients (I read him in the elegant translation of Mr. Melmoth), but not finding any case there exactly similar
with mine, I am constrained to beg in my own barbarian way. To come to the
point then, and hasten into the middle of things, have you a copy of your Algebra to give away? I do not
ask it for myself; I have too much reverence for the Black Arts ever to
approach thy circle, illustrious Trismegist! But that worthy man and excellent
Poet, George Dyer, made me a visit
yesternight, on purpose to borrow one, supposing, rationally enough I must say,
that you had made me a present of one before this; the omission of which I take
to have proceeded only from negligence; but it is a fault. I could lend him no
assistance. You must know he is just now diverted from the pursuit of Bell Letters by a paradox, which he has heard his
friend Frend (that learned
mathematician) maintain, that the negative quantities of mathematicians were
meræ nugæ, things scarcely in
rerum naturâ, and smacking
too much of mystery for gentlemen of Mr. Frend’s
clear Unitarian capacity. However, the dispute once set a-going has seized
violently on George’s pericranick; and it is
necessary for his health that he should speedily come to a resolution of his
doubts. He goes about teasing his friends with his new mathematics; he even
frantically talks of purchasing Manning’s
Algebra, which shows him far gone, for, to my knowledge, he has not
been master of seven shillings a good time. George’s
pockets and . . .’s brains are two things in nature which do not abhor a
vacuum. . . . Now, if you could step in, in this trembling suspense of his
reason, and he should find on Saturday morning, lying for him at the
Porter’s Lodge, Clifford’s Inn,—his safest address—Manning’s Algebra, with a neat manuscriptum in
the blank leaf, running thus, From The Author! it
might save his wits and restore the unhappy author to those studies of poetry
and criticism, which are at present suspended, to the infinite regret of the
whole literary world. N.B.—Dirty books [? backs], smeared leaves, and
dogs’ ears, will be rather a recommendation than otherwise. N.B.—He must
have the book as soon as possible, or nothing can withhold him from madly
purchasing the book on tick. . . . Then shall we see him sweetly restored to
the chair of Longinus—to dictate in smooth
and modest phrase the laws of verse; to prove that Theocritus first introduced the Pastoral, and Virgil and Pope brought it to its perfection; that Gray and Mason (who always hunt in couples in
George’s brain) have shown a great deal of
poetical fire in their lyric poetry; that Aristotle’s rules are not to be servilely followed, which
George has shown to have imposed great shackles upon
modern genius. His poems, I find, are to consist of two vols.—reasonable
octavo; and a third ![]()
| 182 | LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB | August |
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book will exclusively
contain criticisms, in which he asserts he has gone pretty
deeply into the laws of blank verse and rhyme—epic poetry, dramatic
and pastoral ditto—all which is to come out before Christmas. But above all he
has touched most deeply upon the
Drama, comparing the English with the modern German stage, their merits and
defects. Apprehending that his studies (not to mention
his turn, which I take to be chiefly towards the lyrical
poetry) hardly qualified him for these disquisitions, I modestly inquired what
plays he had read? I found by George’s reply that he
had read Shakspeare, but that was a good while since: he calls him a
great but irregular genius, which I think to be an original and just remark.
(Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger, Ben Jonson,
Shirley, Marlowe, Ford, and the
worthies of Dodsley’s
Collection—he confessed he had read none of them, but professed his
intention of looking through them all, so as to be
able to touch upon them in his book.) So
Shakspeare, Otway, and I believe Rowe, to whom he was naturally directed by Johnson’s Lives, and these not read
lately, are to stand him in stead of a general knowledge of the subject. God
bless his dear absurd head!
By the by, did I not write you a letter with something
about an invitation in it?—but let that pass; I suppose it is not agreeable.
N.B. It would not be amiss if you were to accompany your
present with a dissertation on negative quantities.
Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)
Athenian philosopher and scientist who studied under Plato; the author of
Metaphysics,
Politics,
Nichomachean Ethics, and
Poetics.
Francis Beaumont (1585-1616)
English playwright, often in collaboration with John Fletcher; author of
The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607).
George Dyer (1755-1841)
English poet, antiquary, and friend of Charles Lamb; author of
Poems
and Critical Essays (1802),
Poetics: or a Series of Poems and
Disquisitions on Poetry, 2 vols (1812),
History of the
University and Colleges of Cambridge, 2 vols (1814) and other works.
John Fletcher (1579-1625)
English playwright, author of
The Faithful Shepherdess (1610) and
of some fifteen plays in collaboration with Francis Beaumont.
John Ford (1586-1639 c.)
Jacobean playwright who collaborated with Thomas Dekker and others; the author of
'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1633). His works were edited by William
Gifford.
William Frend (1757-1841)
Educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, he abandoned a clerical career to become an
advocate for Unitarianism and leader of the London Corresponding Society. He was the tutor
and friend of Lady Byron.
Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
English poet, author of “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” “Elegy written in a
Country Churchyard,” and “The Bard”; he was professor of history at Cambridge
(1768).
Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
English dramatist, critic, and epigrammatist, friend of William Shakespeare and John
Donne.
Longinus (50 fl.)
Greek rhetorician about whom nothing is recorded; author of
On the
Sublime. His dates are entirely uncertain.
Thomas Manning (1772-1840)
Educated at Caius College, Cambridge, he traveled in China and Tibet, and was a life-long
friend of Charles Lamb.
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Elizabethan poet and dramatist, author of
The Jew of Malta and
Dr. Faustus.
William Mason (1725-1797)
English poet, the friend and biographer of Thomas Gray; author of
Odes (1756),
Elfrida (1752), and
The
English Garden (4 books, 1772-81).
Philip Massinger (1583-1649)
Jacobean playwright; author of
A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1625);
his works were edited by William Gifford (1805, 1813).
William Melmoth (1710 c.-1799)
Educated at Lincoln's Inn and Magdalene College, Cambridge, he was a poet, essayist, and
notable translator.
Thomas Otway (1652-1685)
English tragic poet; author of
The Orphan (1680) and
Venice Preserved (1682).
Pliny the younger (61-112 c.)
Roman letter-writer, the adopted nephew of Pliny the elder; the eighteenth-century
translation by William Melmoth was frequently reprinted.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
English poet and satirist; author of
The Rape of the Lock (1714)
and
The Dunciad (1728).
Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718)
English poet, playwright, editor of Shakespeare, and poet laureate (1715); author of
The Fair Penitent (1703) and
Jane Shore
(1714).
James Shirley (1596-1666)
Royalist poet who left some forty plays, including
The Traitor
(1631),
The Gamester (1633), and
The Lady of
Pleasure (1635).
Theocritus ( 300 BC c.-260 BC c.)
Greek pastoral poet whose Sicilian verse was imitated by Virgil and many later
poets.
Virgil (70 BC-19 BC)
Roman epic poet; author of
Eclogues,
Georgics, and the
Aenead.
