Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to William Hone, [6 March 1833]
DEAR Friend—Thee hast sent a Christian epistle to
me, and I should not feel clear if I neglected to reply to it, which would have
been sooner if that vain young man, to whom thou didst intrust it, had not kept
it back. We should rejoice to see thy outward man here, especially on a day
which should not be a first day, being liable to worldly callers in on that
day. Our little book is delayed
by a heathenish injunction, threatened by the man Taylor. Canst thou copy and send, or bring with thee, a vanity
in verse which in my younger days I wrote on friend Aders’ pictures? Thou wilt find it in the book called the
Table Book.
Tryphena and Tryphosa, whom the world calleth Mary and Emma, greet you with me.
Ch. Lamb.
6th of 3d month 4th day.
Charles Aders (1780-1846)
London merchant and art collector who was a friend of Lamb and Coleridge and purchased
works by William Blake.
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.
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 Taylor (1781-1864)
Publisher of the
London Magazine and poems of John Keats, and a
prolific writer in his own right.
