Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth, 1 February 1806
[Dated at end: February 1st, 1806.]
DEAR Wordsworth—I have seen the Books which you ordered, booked at
the White Horse Inn, Cripplegate, by the Kendal waggon this day 1st Feby. 1806;
you will not fail ![]()
| 1806 | BOOKS FOR WORDSWORTH | 333 |
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to see after
them in time. They are directed to you at Grasmere. We have made some
alteration in the Editions since your sister’s directions. The handsome quarto Spencer which she authorized Mary to buy for £2. 12. 6, when she brought it
home in triumph proved to be only the Fairy
Queen: so we got them to take it again and I have procured
instead a Folio, which luckily contains, besides all the Poems, the view of the State of Ireland,
which is difficult to meet with. The Spencer, and the
Chaucer, being noble old books, we
did not think Stockdale’s modern
volumes would look so well beside them; added to which I don’t know
whether you are aware that the Print is excessive small,
same as , or
smaller, not calculated for eyes in age; and Shakespear is one of the last books one should like to give up,
perhaps the one just before the Dying Service in a large Prayer book. So we
have used our own discretion in purchasing Pope’s fine Quarto in six volumes, which may be
read ad ultimam horam vitæ. It is bound like Law Books
(rather, half bound) and the Law Robe I have ever thought as comely and
gentlemanly a garb as a Book would wish to wear. The state of the purchase then
stands thus, | | Urrey’s Chaucer | £1 . 16 — |
| | Pope’s Shakespeare | 2 . 2 — |
| | Spenser |
14 — |
| | Milton | 1 . 5 — |
| | Packing Case &c. |
3 . 6 |
| | | ————— |
| | | 6 . — . 6 |
Which your Brother immediately
repaid us. He has the Bills for all (by his desire) except the
Spenser, which we took no bill with (not looking to
have our accounts audited): so for that and the Case he took a separate receipt
for 17/6. N.B. there is writing in the Shakespear: but it
is only variæ lectiones which some careful gentleman, the
former owner, was at the pains to insert in a very neat hand from 5
Commentators. It is no defacement. The fault of
Pope’s edition is, that he has comically and
coxcombically marked the Beauties: which is vile, as if you were to chalk up
the cheek and across the nose of a handsome woman in red chalk to shew where
the comeliest parts lay. But I hope the noble type and Library-appearance of
the Books will atone for that. With the Books come certain Books and Pamphlets
of G. Dyer, Presents or rather
Decoy-ducks of the Poet to take in his thus-far obliged friends to buy his
other works; as he takes care to inform them in M.S. notes to the Title Pages,
“G. Dyer, Author of other Books printed for
Longman &c.” The books
have lain at your dis-![]()
| 334 | LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB | Feb. |
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patchful brother’s a
12 months, to the great staling of most of the subjects. The three Letters and
what is else written at the beginning of the respective Presents will ascertain the division of the Property. If not, none of
the Donees, I dare say, will grudge a community of property in this case. We
were constrained to pack ’em how we could, for room. Also there comes
W. Hazlitt’s book about Human Action,
for Coleridge; a little song book for
Sarah Coleridge; a Box for Hartley which your Brother was to have sent,
but now devolved on us—I don’t know from whom it came, but the things
altogether were too much for Mr. (I’ve forgot his name) to take charge
of; a Paraphrase on the King and Queen
of Hearts, of which I being the Author beg Mr. Johnny Wordsworth’s acceptance and
opinion. Liberal Criticism, as G. Dyer declares, I am
always ready to attend to!—And that’s all, I believe. N.B. I must remain
Debtor to Dorothy for 200 pens: but really Miss Stoddart (women are great gulfs of
Stationery), who is going home to Salisbury and has been with us some weeks,
has drained us to the very last pen: by the time S. T. C.
passes thro’ London I reckon I shall be in full feather. No more news has
transpired of that Wanderer. I suppose he has found his way to some of his
German friends.
A propos of Spencer
(you will find him mentioned a page or two before, near enough for an a
propos), I was discoursing on Poetry (as one’s apt to deceive onesself,
and when a person is willing to talk of what one likes, to believe that he also
likes the same: as Lovers do) with a Young
Gentleman of my office who is deep read in Anacreon Moore, Lord
Strangford, and the principal Modern Poets, and I happen’d
to mention Epithalamiums and that I could shew him a very fine one of
Spencer’s. At the mention of this, my Gentleman,
who is a very fine Gentleman, and is brother to the Miss Evans who Coleridge
so narrowly escaped marrying, pricked up his ears and exprest great pleasure,
and begged that I would give him leave to copy it: he did not care how long it
was (for I objected the length), he should be very happy to see any thing by him. Then pausing, and looking sad, he
ejaculated Poor Spencer! I begged to know the reason
of his ejaculation, thinking that Time had by this time softened down any
calamities which the Bard might have endured—“Why, poor
fellow!” said he “he has lost his Wife!”
“Lost his Wife?” said I, “Who are you talking
of?” “Why, Spencer,” said
he. “I’ve read the Monody he wrote on the occasion, and a very pretty thing it is.” This led to an
explanation (it could be delay’d no longer) that the sound
Spencer, which when Poetry is talk’d of
generally excites an image of an old Bard in a Ruff, and sometimes with it dim
notions of Sir P. Sydney and perhaps
Lord Burleigh, had raised in my
Gentleman a quite ![]()
| 1806 | “THE KING AND QUEEN OF HEARTS” | 335 |
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contrary image of The
Honourable William Spencer, who has
translated some things from the German very prettily, which are publish’d
with Lady Di. Beauclerk’s Designs.
Nothing like defining of Terms when we talk. What blunders
might I have fallen into of quite inapplicable Criticism, but for this timely
explanation.
N.B. At the beginning of Edm. Spencer (to prevent mistakes) I have
copied from my own copy, and primarily from a book of Chalmers on Shakspear, a Sonnet of Spenser’s
never printed among his poems. It is curious as being manly and rather
Miltonic, and as a Sonnet of Spenser’s with nothing
in it about Love or Knighthood. I have no room for remembrances; but I hope our
doing your commission will prove we do not quite forget you.
Lady Diana Beauclerk [née Spencer] (1734-1808)
The eldest daughter of Charles Spencer, third duke of Marlborough; an artist and lady of
the bedchamber to Queen Charlotte (1762-68), she was married in 1757 to Frederick St John,
second Viscount Bolingbroke, and following an adulterous relationship, in 1768 to Topham
Beauclerk.
George Chalmers (1742-1825)
Scottish antiquary ridiculed by Edmond Malone for defending Ireland's forgeries in
An Apology for the Believers in the Shakspear Papers (1797).
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 c.-1400)
English Poet, the author of
The Canterbury Tales (1390 c.).
Hartley Coleridge [Old Bachelor] (1796-1849)
The eldest son of the poet; he was educated at Merton College, Oxford, contributed essays
in the
London Magazine and
Blackwood's, and
published
Lives of Distinguished Northerns (1832).
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
Sara Coleridge (1802-1852)
The daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge; in 1829 she married Henry Nelson Coleridge
(1798-1843); she translated, edited her father's works, and wrote for the
Quarterly Review.
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.
William Evans (1781-1826)
The son of Maurice and Charlotte (Lloyd) Evans and younger brother of Coleridge's Mary
Evans; he was a friend and colleague of Charles Lamb at East India House and proprietor of
The Pamphleteer (1813-1828).
Sarah Hazlitt [née Stoddart] (1774-1840)
The daughter of John Stoddart (1742-1803), lieutenant in the Royal Navy; she married
William Hazlitt in 1808 and was divorced in 1822.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
English essayist and literary critic; author of
Characters of
Shakespeare's Plays (1817),
Lectures on the English Poets
(1818), and
The Spirit of the Age (1825).
Mary Anne Lamb (1764-1847)
Sister of Charles Lamb with whom she wrote Tales from Shakespeare (1807). She lived with
her brother, having killed their mother in a temporary fit of insanity.
Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842)
A leading London publisher whose authors included Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, and
Moore.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Irish poet and biographer, author of the
Irish Melodies (1807-34),
The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and
Lalla
Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
English poet and satirist; author of
The Rape of the Lock (1714)
and
The Dunciad (1728).
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
English poet, courtier, and soldier, author of the
Arcadia (1590),
Astrophel and Stella (1591) and
Apology for
Poetry (1595).
William Robert Spencer (1770-1834)
English wit and author of society verse. He was the son of Lord Charles Spencer, second
son of the third duke of Marlborough, educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford. Spencer
was a friend of Fox, Sheridan, and the Prince of Wales.
Edmund Spenser (1552 c.-1599)
English poet, author of
The Shepheards Calender (1579) and
The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596).
John Stockdale (1749 c.-1814)
London bookseller born in Cumberland; he was proprietor of the
London
Courant from 1781, and the father of the bookseller John Joseph Stockdale.
Mary Todd [née Evans] (1770-1843)
The daughter of Maurice and Charlotte (Lloyd) Evans; Coleridge's first love, she married
Fryer Todd in 1795.
Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855)
The sister of William Wordsworth who transcribed his poems and kept his house; her
journals and letters were belatedly published after her death.
John Wordsworth (1803-1875)
The son of William Wordsworth, educated at New College, Oxford; he was the rector at
rector of Moresby, near Whitehaven (1828), Brigham (1832-75) and Plumblands (1840-75) in
Cumberland.
Richard Wordsworth (1768-1816)
The son of John Wordsworth and the elder brother of the poet William Wordsworth; he was a
London attorney.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
