Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood, [May 1827]
DEAREST Hood,—Your news has spoil’d us a merry meeting. Miss Kelly and we were coming, but your letter
elicited a flood of tears from Mary, and
I saw she was not fit for a party. God bless you and the mother (or should be mother) of your sweet girl
that should have been. I have won sexpence of Moxon by the sex of the dear gone one.
Yours most truly and hers,
[C. L.]
Jane Hood [née Reynolds] (1792-1846)
The daughter of George Reynolds of Christ's Hospital and sister of John Hamilton
Reynolds; in 1825 she married the poet Thomas Hood.
Thomas Hood (1799-1845)
English poet and humorist who wrote for the
London Magazine; he
published
Whims and Oddities (1826) and
Hood's
Magazine (1844-5).
Frances Maria Kelly (1790-1882)
English actress and singer at Drury Lane and elsewhere; Charles Lamb proposed marriage
and later wrote an essay about her (“Barbara S”) in the
London
Magazine (1825).
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.
Edward Moxon (1801-1858)
Poet and bookseller; after employment at Longman and Company he set up in 1830 with
financial assistance from Samuel Rogers and became the leading publisher of literary
poetry.
