[Mrs. Ayrton (née Arnold) was the wife of William Ayrton, the musical critic (see Letter 223).]

[The letter is addressed to “Miss Humphreys, with Mrs. Paris, Trumpington Street, Cambridge.” Franked by J. Rickman.

This letter contains the first reference in the correspondence to Emma Isola, daughter of Charles Isola, Esquire Bedell of Cambridge University, and granddaughter of Agostino Isola, the Italian critic and teacher, of Cambridge, among whose pupils had been Wordsworth. Miss Humphreys was Emma Isola’s aunt. Emma seems to have been brought to London by Mrs. Paris and left with the Lambs.

1821b

THREE NOTES

551

LETTER 255

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP

552

LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB

May

Note

[Master Mathew is in Ben Jonson’s “Every Man in His Humour.”

Lamb’s “Beaumont and Fletcher,” is in the British Museum. The note quoted by Lamb is not there, or perhaps it is one that has been crossed out. This still remains: “N.B. I shall not be long here, Charles! I gone, you will not mind my having spoiled a book in order to leave a Relic. S. T. C., Oct. 1811.”

[Mrs. Mathews (who was half-sister of Fanny Kelly) described this evening in her Memoirs of her husband, 1839. Her account of Lamb is interesting:—

Mr. Lamb’s first approach was not prepossessing. His figure was small and mean; and no man certainly was ever less beholden to his tailor. His “bran” new suit of black cloth (in which he affected several times during the day to take great pride, and to cherish as a novelty that he had long looked for and wanted) was drolly contrasted with his very rusty silk stockings, shown from his knees, and his much too large thick shoes, without polish. His shirt rejoiced in a wide ill-plaited frill, and his very small, tight, white neckcloth was hemmed to a fine point at the ends that formed part of the little bow. His hair was black and sleek, but not formal, and his face the gravest I ever saw, but indicating great intellect, and resembling very much the portraits of King Charles I. Mr. Coleridge was very anxious about his pet Lamb’s first impression upon my husband, which I believe his friend saw; and guessing that he had been extolled, he mischievously resolved to thwart his panegyrist, disappoint the strangers, and altogether to upset the suspected plan of showing him off.

1821b

COLLIER’S “POETICAL DECAMERON”

553

The Mathews’ were then living at Ivy Cottage, only a short distance from the Grove, Highgate, where the famous Mathews collection of pictures was to be seen of which Lamb subsequently wrote in the London Magazine.]

[Collier’s Poetical Decameron, in two volumes, was published in 1820: a series of imaginary conversations on curious and little-known books. His “Twelfth Night” discoveries will be found in the Eighth Conversation; Collier deduces the play from Barnaby Rich’s Farewell to Military Profession, 1606. He also describes Thomas Lodge’s “Rosalynde,” the forerunner of “As You Like It,” in which is the character Rosader, whom Lamb calls Osrades. His speech for food runs thus:—

It hapned that day that Gerismond, the lawfull king of France banished by Torismond, who with a lustie crew of outlawes lined in that Forrest, that day in honour of his birth, made a feast to all his bolde yeomen, and frolickt it with store of wine and venison, sitting all at a long table vnder the shadow of Limon trees: to that place by chance fortune conducted Rosader, who seeing such a crew of braue men, hauing store of that for want of which hee and Adam perished, hee stept boldly to the boords end, and saluted the Company thus.—Whatsoeuer thou be that art maister of these lustie squires, I salute thee as graciously as a man in extreame distresse may: knowe that I and a fellow friend of mine, are here famished in the forrest for want of foode: perish we must, vnlesse relieued by thy fauours. Therefore if thou be a Gentleman, giue meate to men, and such as are euery way worthie of life: let the proudest Squire that sits at thy table rise and encounter with me in any honourable point of activitie whatsoeuer, and if he and thou proue me not a man, send mee away comfortlesse: if thou refuse this, as a niggard of thy cates, I will haue amongst you with my sword, for rather wil I die valiantly, then perish with so cowardly an extreame (Collier’s Poetical Decameron, 174, Eighth Conversation).

Lamb compares with that the passage in “As You Like It,” II., 7, 88, beginning with Orlando’s “Forbear, and eat no more.”

The character of the ass is quoted by Collier from an old book, The Noblenesse of the Asse, 1595, in the Third Conversation:—

Thou wouldst (perhaps) he should become thy foe, And to that end doost beat him many times; He cares not for himselfe, much lesse thy blowe.

Lamb wrote more fully of this passage in an article on the ass contributed to Hone’s Every-Day Book in 1825 (see Vol. I. of the present edition, page 303).

The line from Gray’s sonnet on the death of Mr. Richard West was this:—

And weep the more because I weep in vain.

1821b

JOHN SCOTT’S DEATH

555

“Scipio, Cæsar,” etc. This line runs, in the epitaph on Sidney, beginning “To praise thy life”—

Scipio, Cicero, and Petrarch of our time!

It is generally supposed to be by Raleigh. The next poem, “Silence Augmenteth Grief,” is attributed by Malone to Sir Edward Dyer, and by Hannah to Raleigh.]

[I assume the date of this note to be summer, 1821, because it was then that Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, the London Magazine’s first publishers, gave it up. The reason was the death of John Scott, the editor, and probably to a large extent the originator, of the magazine. It was sold to Taylor & Hessey, their first number being dated July, 1821.

Scott had become involved in a quarrel with Blackwood, which reached such a pitch that a duel was fought, between Scott and Christie, a friend of Lockhart’s. The whole story, which is involved, and indeed not wholly clear, need not be told here: it will be found in Mr. Lang’s memoir of Lockhart. The meeting was held at Chalk Farm on February 16,1821. Peter George Patmore, sub-editor of the London, was Scott’s second. Scott fell, wounded by a shot which Christie fired purely in self-defence. He died on February 27.

556

LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB

June

Mr. Cary. Henry Francis Cary the translator of Dante and a contributor to the London Magazine.

The London Magazine had four periods. From 1820 to the middle of 1821, when it was Baldwin, Cradock & Joy’s. From 1821 to the end of 1824, when it was Taylor & Hessey’s at a shilling. From January, 1825, to August of that year, when it was Taylor & Hessey’s at half-a-crown; and from September, 1825, to the end, when it was Henry Southern’s, and was published by Hunt & Clarke.]

[John Taylor (1781-1864), the publisher, with Hessey, of the London Magazine was, in 1813, the first publicly to identify Sir Philip Francis with Junius. Taylor acted as editor of the London

1821b

IMPERFECT SYMPATHIES

557

Magazine from 1821 to 1824, assisted by Thomas Hood. Later his interests were centred in currency questions.

“I am here at Margate.” I do not know what review Lamb was writing. If written and published it has not been reprinted. It was on this visit to Margate that Lamb met Charles Cowden Clarke.

“My first contribution.” The first number to bear Taylor & Hessey’s name was dated July, but they had presumably acquired the rights in the magazine before then. Lamb’s first contribution to the London Magazine had been in August, 1820, “The South-Sea House.”

The proof which Lamb returned was that of the Elia essay on “Mackery End in Hertfordshire,” printed in the July number of the London Magazine, in which he quoted a stanza from Wordsworth’s “Yarrow Visited”:—

But thou, that didst appear so fair To fond imagination, Dost rival in the light of day Her delicate creation.

Here should come a scrap from Lamb to Ayrton, dated July 17, 1821, referring to the Coronation. Lamb says that in consequence of this event he is postponing his Wednesday evening to Friday.]

558

LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB

1821

Note

[Hazlitt continued his Table Talk in the London Magazine until December, 1821.

Lamb seems to have been treated foolishly by some newspaper critic; but I have not traced the paragraphs in question.

The proof was that of the Elia essay “Imperfect Sympathies,” which was printed (with a fuller title) in the number for August, 1821. The reference to Jael is in the passage on Braham and the Jewish character.

I do not identify Mr. E. Possibly Elton.

Here should come a further letter to Taylor, dated July 30, 1821, not available for this edition, in which Lamb refers to some verses addressed to him by “Olen” (Charles Abraham Elton: see note to Letter 333) in the London Magazine for August, remonstrating with him for the pessimism of the Elia essay “New Year’s Eve” (see Vol. II. of this edition, page 328).

Lamb also remarks that he borrowed the name Elia (pronounced Ellia) from an old South-Sea House clerk who is now dead.]

[Charles Cowden Clarke (1787-1877) was the son of a schoolmaster who had served as usher with George Dyer at Northampton. Afterwards he established a school at Enfield, where Keats was one of the scholars. Charles Cowden Clarke, at this time a bookseller, remained one of Keats’ friends and was a friend also of Leigh Hunt’s, on whose behalf he seems to have written to Lamb. Later he became a partner of Alfred Novello, the musical publisher, son of Vincent Novello. In 1828 he married Mary Victoria Novello.

Leigh Hunt left England for Italy in November, 1821, to join Shelley and Byron.]

560

LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB

1821

Note

[The explanation of this letter is found in an entry in Crabb Robinson’s Diary, the unpublished portion, which tells us that owing to certain irregularities Rickman, who was Clerk Assistant at the table of the House of Commons, had been obliged to discharge Martin Burney, who was one of his clerks.

Here should come another scrap from Lamb to Ayrton, dated August 14, stating that at to-morrow’s rubber the windows will be closed on account of Her Majesty’s death. Her Majesty was Queen Caroline, whom Lamb had championed. She died on August 7.

Here should come an unavailable letter from Lamb to Allsop, dated October 19, 1821. In it Lamb thanks Allsop for a hare, which had come as from Mr. Talfourd. Lamb decides to divide his gratitude between Allsop and Talfourd. Mary Lamb, he says, has been and is ill. They are at Dalston. The subscription is Piscatorum Amicus, C. L.]

[A further letter to Ayrton, dated from Dalston, October 30, is printed by Mr. Macdonald, in which Lamb speaks of his sister’s illness and the death of his brother John, who died on October 26, aged fifty-eight. It is reasonable to suppose that Lamb, when the above note was written, was unaware of his brother’s death (see note to Letter 267 on page 564). On October 26, however, he had written to the editor of the London Magazine saying that he was most uncomfortably situated at home and expecting some trouble which might prevent further writing for some time—which may have been an allusion to his brother’s illness or to signs of Mary Lamb’s approaching malady.

Here should come a note to William Hone, printed by Mr. Macdonald, evidently in reply to a comment on Lamb’s essay on “Saying Grace.” Also a letter to Rickman. See Appendix II., page 974.]