Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon, [late 1832]
THANK you for the books. I am ashamed to take tythe
thus of your press. I am worse to a publisher than the two Universities and the
Brit. Mus. A[llan] C[unningham] I will
forthwith read. B[arry] C[ornwall] (I can’t get out of
the A, B, C) I have more than read. Taken altogether, ’tis too Lovey; but what
892 | LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB | 1832 |
delicacies! I like most “King Death;” glorious ’bove all,
“The Lady with the Hundred Rings;”
”The Owl;” “Epistle to What’s his Name”
(here may be I’m partial); “Sit down, Sad
Soul;” “The Pauper’s
Jubilee” (but that’s old, and yet ’tis never old);
“The Falcon;” “Felon’s Wife;” damn “Madame Pasty” (but that is borrowed); Apple-pie is very good, And so is apple-pasty; But —— O Lard! ’tis very nasty: |
but chiefly the dramatic fragments,—scarce three of which should have
escaped my Specimens, had
an antique name been prefixed. They exceed his first. So much for the nonsense
of poetry; now to the serious business of life. Up a court (Blandford Court) in
Pall Mall (exactly at the back of Marlbro’ House), with iron gate in
front, and containing two houses, at No. 2 did lately live
Leishman my taylor. He is moved somewhere in the
neighbourhood, devil knows where. Pray find him out, and give him the opposite.
I am so much better, tho’ my hand shakes in writing it, that, after next
Sunday, I can well see F[orster] and
you. Can you throw B. C. in? Why tarry the wheels of my
Hogarth?
Allan Cunningham [Hidallan] (1784-1842)
Scottish poet and man of letters who contributed to both
Blackwood's and the
London Magazine; he was author of
Lives of the most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and
Architects (1829-33).
John Forster (1812-1876)
English man of letters and friend of Charles Lamb and Leigh Hunt who was editor of
The Examiner (1847-55) and the biographer of Goldsmith (1854),
Landor (1869), and Dickens (1872-74).
William Hogarth (1697-1764)
English satirical painter whose works include
The Harlot's
Progress,
The Rake's Progress, and
Marriage à la Mode.
Bryan Waller Procter [Barry Cornwall] (1787-1874)
English poet; a contemporary of Byron at Harrow, and friend of Leigh Hunt and Charles
Lamb. He was the author of several volumes of poem and
Mirandola, a
tragedy (1821).