Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Dorothy Wordsworth, 13 November 1810
[Charles Lamb
adds:—]
Mary has left a little space for me to
fill up with nonsense, as the Geographers used to cram monsters in the voids of
their maps & call it Terra Incognita. She has told you how she has taken to
water, like a hungry otter. I too limp after her in lame imita-![]()
| 1810 | COLERIDGE AND WORDSWORTH | 421 |
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tion, but it goes against me
a little at first. I have been aquavorous now for full four days, and it seems a moon. I am full of
cramps & rheumatisms,’ and cold internally so that fire won’t
warm me, yet I bear all for virtues sake. Must I then leave you, Gin, Rum,
Brandy, Aqua Vita?—pleasant jolly fellows—Damn Temperance and them that first
invented it, some Anti Noahite. Coleridge has powdered his head, and looks like Bacchus, Bacchus ever sleek and young. He is going to turn sober, but
his Clock has not struck yet, meantime he pours down goblet after goblet, the
2d to see where the 1st is gone, the 3d to see no harm happens to the second, a
fourth to say there’s another coming, and a 5th to say he’s not
sure he’s the last. William Henshaw is dead. He died
yesterday, aged 56. It was but a twelvemonth or so back that his Father, an
ancient Gunsmith & my Godfather, sounded me as to my willingness to be
guardian to this William in case of his (the old
man’s) death. William had three times broke in
business, twice in England, once in t’other Hemisphere. He returned from
America a sot & hath liquidated all debts. What a hopeful ward I am rid of.
Ætatis 56. I must have taken care of his morals, seen that he did not form
imprudent connections, given my consent before he could have married &c.
From all which the stroke of death hath relieved me. Mrs. Reynolds is the name of the Lady to whom
I will remember you tomorrow. Farewell. Wish me strength to continue.
I’ve been eating jugg’d Hare. The toast & water makes me quite
sick.
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.
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.
Elizabeth Reynolds [née Chambers] (d. 1832)
The daughter of Charles Chambers (d. 1777); she was an older friend of Charles Lamb who
had once been his schoolmistress.
