Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Mary Lamb to Mary Matilda Betham, [4 May? 1815]
[No date. ? Late summer, 1815.]
MY dear Miss
Betham,—My brother and myself return you a thousand thanks for
your kind communication. We have read your poem many times over with increased interest,
and very ![]()
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much wish to see you to tell
you how highly we have been pleased with it. May we beg one favour?—I keep the
manuscript in the hope that you will grant it. It is that, either now or when
the whole poem is completed, you will read it over with us. When I say with us, of course I mean Charles. I know that you have many judicious friends, but I
have so often known my brother spy out errors in a manuscript which has passed
through many judicious hands, that I shall not be easy if you do not permit him
to look yours carefully through with you; and also you must allow him to
correct the press for you.
If I knew where to find you I would call upon you. Should
you feel nervous at the idea of meeting Charles in the capacity of a severe censor, give me a line, and
I will come to you any where, and convince you in five minutes that he is even
timid, stammers, and can scarcely speak for modesty and fear of giving pain
when he finds himself placed in that kind of office. Shall I appoint a time to
see you here when he is from home? I will send him out any time you will name;
indeed, I am always naturally alone till four o’clock. If you are nervous
about coming, remember I am equally so about the liberty I have taken, and
shall be till we meet and laugh off our mutual fears.
Yours most affectionately
M. Lamb.
Mary Matilda Betham (1777-1852)
English poet and miniature painter and friend of Southey, Coleridge and the Lambs. She
was the elder sister of the antiquary Sir William Betham.
Charles Lamb [Elia] (1775-1834)
English essayist and boyhood friend of Coleridge at Christ's Hospital; author of
Essays of Elia published in the
London
Magazine (collected 1823, 1833) and other works.
