Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton, 28 August 1827
I have left a place for a wafer, but can’t find it
again.
DEAR B. B.—I
am thankful to you for your ready compliance with my wishes. Emma is delighted with your verses, to which I
have appended this notice “The 6th line refers to the child of a dear
friend of the author’s, named Emma,”
without which it must be obscure; and have sent it with four Album poems of my
own (your daughter’s with your heading, requesting it a place next mine) to a
Mr. Fraser, who is to be editor of a
more superb Pocket
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book than has yet appeared by far! the
property of some wealthy booksellers, but whom, or what its name, I forgot to
ask. It is actually to have in it schoolboy exercises by his present Majesty and the late Duke of York, so Lucy will come to Court; how she
will be stared at! Wordsworth is named
as a Contributor. Frazer, whom I have slightly seen, is
Editor of a forth-come or coming Review of foreign books, and is intimately
connected with Lockhart, &c. so I
take it that this is a concern of Murray’s. Walter Scott
also contributes mainly. I have stood off a long time from these Annuals, which
are ostentatious trumpery, but could not withstand the request of Jameson, a particular friend of mine and
Coleridge.
I shall hate myself in frippery, strutting along, and vying
finery with Beaux and Belles
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Your taste I see is less simple than mine, which the difference of our
persuasions has doubtless effected. In fact, of late you have so
frenchify’d your style, larding it with hors de combats, and au
desopoirs, that o’ my conscience the Foxian blood is quite dried out of
you, and the skipping Monsieur spirit has been infused. Doth Lucy go to Balls? I must remodel my lines,
which I write for her. I hope A. K.
keeps to her Primitives. If you have any thing you’d like to send
further, I don’t know Frazer’s address, but I sent mine thro’ Mr. Jameson, 19 or 90 Cheyne Street, Totnam
Court road. I dare say an honourable place wou’d be given to them; but I
have not heard from Frazer since I sent mine, nor shall
probably again, and therefore I do not solicit it as from him.
Yesterday I sent off my tragi comedy to Mr. Kemble. Wish it luck. I made it all (’tis blank
verse, and I think, of the true old dramatic cut) or most of it, in the green
lanes about Enfield, where I am and mean to remain, in spite of your peremptory
doubts on that head.
Your refusal to lend your poetical sanction to my Icon, and
your reasons to Evans, are most sensible. May be I may hit
on a line or two of my own jocular. May be not.
Do you never Londonize again? I should like to talk over
old poetry with you, of which I have much, and you I think little. Do your
Drummonds allow no holydays? I would willingly come
and w[ork] for you a three weeks or so, to let you loose. Would I could sell or
give you some of my Leisure! Positively, the best thing a man can have to do is
nothing, and next to that perhaps—good works.
I am but poorlyish, and feel myself writing a dull letter;
poorlyish from Company, not generally, for I never was better, nor took more
walks, 14 miles a day on an average, with a sporting dog—Dash—you would not know the plain Poet, any more than he doth
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| 748 | LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB | August |
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cognize James Naylor trick’d out au deserpoy (how do you spell
it.) En Passant, J’aime entendre da mon bon homme sur
surveillance de croix, ma pas l’homme figuratif—do you
understand me?
Bernard Barton (1784-1849)
Prolific Quaker poet whose verse appeared in many of the literary annuals; he was an
acquaintance of Charles Lamb.
Lucy Barton (1808 c.-1898)
The daughter of the Quaker poet Bernard Barton; she married the poet Edward Fitzgerald in
1856, but they soon separated. She published religious works.
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.
William Fraser (1805 c.-1852)
The brother of James Fraser of
Fraser's Magazine; a friend of
Thomas Carlyle, he edited
The Bijou and
Foreign Review and
Critical Miscellany. R. S. Mackenzie described him as a dandy.
Frederick Augustus, Duke of York (1763-1827)
He was commander-in-chief of the Army, 1798-1809, until his removal on account of the
scandal involving his mistress Mary Anne Clarke.
Robert Jameson (1774-1854)
Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh University and author of
System of Mineralogy, 3 vols (1804-08).
Robert Sympson Jameson (1796-1854)
A childhood friend of Derwent Coleridge, he was educated at the Middle Temple and pursued
a career as a jurist in Canada; in 1825 he was unhappily married to the writer Anna
Brownell Jameson.
Charles Kemble (1775-1854)
English comic actor, the younger brother of John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons.
Anne Knight [née Waspe] (1792-1860)
Quaker writer for children, the daughter of Jonathan Waspe; in 1818 she married James
Knight. She was a Woodbridge friend and of Bernard Barton, not the Quaker abolitionist of
the same name (1786-1862).
Letitia Elizabeth Landon [L. E. L.] (1802-1838)
English poet who came to attention through the
Literary Gazette;
she published three volumes in 1825. She was the object of unflattering gossip prior to her
marriage to George Maclean in 1838.
John Lockhart (1761-1842)
The son of William Lockhart of Birkhill; he was minister of Cambusnethan (1786) and the
College Church, Glasgow (1796). He was the father of John Gibson Lockhart.
Emma Lamb Moxon [née Isola] (1809-1891)
The orphaned daughter of Charles Isola adopted by Charles and Mary Lamb; after working as
a governess she married Edward Moxon in 1833.
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
James Naylor (1618-1660)
Early Quaker evangelist who gave offence to both George Fox and religious authorities; he
was convicted of blasphemy and spent his later years in prison.
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.
