Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Edward and Emma Moxon, [29 November 1833]
MARY is of
opinion with me, that two of these Sonnets are of a higher grade than any
poetry you have done yet. The one to Emma is so pretty! I have only allowed myself to transpose a
word in the third line. Sacred shall it be for any intermeddling of mine. But
we jointly beg that you will make four lines in the room of the four last. Read
“Darby and Joan,” in Mrs.
Moxon’s first album. There you’ll see how beautiful
in age the looking back to youthful years in an old couple is. But it is a
violence to the feelings to anticipate that time in youth. I hope you and
Emma will have many a quarrel and many a make-up (and
she is beautiful in reconciliation!) before the dark days shall come, in which
ye shall say “there is small comfort in them.” You have
begun a sort of character of Emma in them very sweetly; carry it on, if you
can, through the last lines.
I love the sonnet to my heart, and you shall finish it, and FU be damn’d if I furnish a line towards
it. So much for that. The next best is
To The Ocean
“Ye gallant winds, if e’er your lusty cheeks
Blew longing lover to his mistress’ side, O, puff your loudest, spread the canvas wide,” |
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is spirited. The last line I altered, and have re-altered it as it stood.
It is closer. These two are your best. But take a good ![]()
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deal of time in finishing the first. How proud
should Emma be of her poets!
Perhaps “O Ocean” (though I like it) is
too much of the open vowels, which Pope
objects to. “Great Ocean!” is obvious. “To save sad
thoughts” I think is better (though not good) than for the mind to save
herself. But ’tis a noble Sonnet. “St.
Cloud” I have no fault to find with.
If I return the Sonnets, think it no disrespect; for I look
for a printed copy. You have done better than ever. And now for a reason I did
not notice ’em earlier. On Wednesday they came, and on Wednesday I was
a-gadding. Mary gave me a holiday, and I
set off to Snow Hill. From Snow Hill I deliberately was marching down, with
noble Holborn before me, framing in mental cogitation a map of the dear London
in prospect, thinking to traverse Wardour-street, &c., when diabolically I
was interrupted by
Heigh-ho! Little Barrow!— |
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Emma knows him,—and prevailed on to
spend the day at his sister’s, where was an album, and (O march of
intellect!) plenty of literary conversation, and more acquaintance with the
state of modern poetry than I could keep up with. I was positively distanced.
Knowles’ play, which, epilogued by me, lay on the Piano, alone made me hold up my head. When I came
home I read your letter, and glimpsed at your beautiful sonnet, “Fair art thou as the morning, my young bride,” |
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and dwelt upon it in a confused brain, but determined not to open them
till next day, being in a state not to be told of at Chatteris. Tell it not in
Gath, Emma, lest the daughters triumph! I am at the end of
my tether. I wish you could come on Tuesday with your fair bride. Why
can’t you! Do. We are thankful to your sister for being of the party.
Come, and bring a sonnet on Mary’s birthday. Love to the whole Moxonry, and tell
E. I every day love her more, and miss her less. Tell
her so from her loving uncle, as she has let me call myself. I bought a fine
embossed card yesterday, and wrote for the Pawnbrokeress’s album. She is
a Miss Brown, engaged to a Mr. White.
One of the lines was (I forget the rest—but she had them at twenty-four
hours’ notice; she is going out to India with her husband):— “May your fame And fortune, Frances, Whiten with your name!” |
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Not bad as a pun. I wil expect you before two on
Tuesday. I am well and happy, tell E.
James Sheridan Knowles (1784-1862)
Irish-born playwright, author of
Virginius (1820),
Caius Gracchus (1823),
William Tell (1825)
and
The Hunchback (1832).
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.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
English poet and satirist; author of
The Rape of the Lock (1714)
and
The Dunciad (1728).
