Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to John Payne Collier, 16 May 1821
DEAR J. P.
C.,—Many thanks for the “Decameron:” I have not such a
gentleman’s book in my collection: it was a great treat to me, and I got
it just as I was wanting something of the sort. I take less pleasure in books
than heretofore, but I like books about books. In the second volume, in
particular, are treasures—your discoveries about “Twelfth Night,” etc. What a
Shakespearian essence that speech of Osrades for food!—Shakespeare is coarse to it—beginning “Forbear and eat
no more.” Osrades warms up to
that, but does not set out ruffian-swaggerer. The character of the Ass with
those three lines, worthy to be set in gilt vellum, and worn in frontlets by
the noble beasts for ever—
“Thou would, perhaps, he should become thy foe, And to that end dost beat him many times: He cares not for himself, much less thy blow.” |
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Cervantes, Sterne, and Coleridge,
have said positively nothing for asses compared with this.
I write in haste; but p. 24, vol. i., the line you cannot
appropriate is Gray’s sonnet, specimenifyed by
Wordsworth in first preface to L. B., as mixed of bad and
good style: p. 143, 2nd vol., you will find last poem but one of the collection
on Sidney’s death in Spenser, the line,
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This fixes it to be Raleigh’s: I had guess’d it to be Daniel’s. The last after it,
“Silence augmenteth rage,” I will be crucified if it be
not Lord Brooke’s. Hang you, and all
meddling researchers, hereafter, that by raking into learned dust may find me
out wrong in my conjecture!
Dear J. P. C., I
shall take the first opportunity of personally thanking you for my
entertainment. We are at Dalston for the ![]()
| 554 | LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB | May |
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most
part, but I fully hope for an evening soon with you in Russell or Bouverie
Street, to talk over old times and books. Remember us kindly to Mrs. J. P. C.
Yours very kindly,
Charles Lamb.
I write in misery.
N.B.—The best pen I could borrow at our
butcher’s: the ink, I verily believe, came out of the kennel.
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.
John Payne Collier (1789-1883)
English poet, journalist, antiquary, and learned editor of Shakespeare and Spenser; his
forgeries of historical documents permanently tarnished his reputation.
Samuel Daniel (1562 c.-1619)
Elizabethan sonnetteer, poet, and historian.
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).
Fulke Greville, first baron Brooke (1554-1628)
Elizabethan poet and courtier, counsellor to King James; his writings were imperfectly
collected as
Certaine Learned and Elegant Workes (1633).
Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618)
English soldier, courtier, poet, and historian; after a long imprisonment he was executed
at the behest of Spain.
Scipio Africanus (236 BC-183 BC)
He defeated Hannibal in the Second Punic War at the battle of Zama.
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
English poet, courtier, and soldier, author of the
Arcadia (1590),
Astrophel and Stella (1591) and
Apology for
Poetry (1595).
Edmund Spenser (1552 c.-1599)
English poet, author of
The Shepheards Calender (1579) and
The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596).
Laurence Sterne (1713-1768)
Clergyman and novelist; author of
The Life and Opinions of Tristram
Shandy (1759-67) and
A Sentimental Journey through France and
Italy (1768).
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.
