“Dear Patmore—Excuse my anxiety—but how is Dash? (I should have asked if Mrs. Patmore kept her rules and was improving—but Dash came uppermost. The order of our thoughts should be the order of our writing.) Goes he muzzled, or aperto ore? Are his intellects sound, or does he wander a little in his conversation?* You cannot be too careful to watch the first symptoms of incoherence. The first illogical snarl he makes, to St. Luke’s with him. All the dogs here are going mad, if you believe the overseers; but I protest they seem to me very rational and collected. But nothing is
* A sly hint, I suspect, to one who did—and does. |
| CHARLES LAMB. | 33 |
| 34 | CHARLES LAMB. |
“What I scratch out is a German quotation from Lessing on the bite of rabid animals; but, I remember, you don’t read German. But Mrs. Patmore may, so I wish I had let it stand. The meaning in English is—‘Avoid to approach an animal suspected of madness, as you would avoid a fire or a precipice:’—which I think is a sensible observation. The Germans are certainly profounder than we.
“If the slightest suspicion arises in your breast, that
all is not right with him (Dash), muzzle him, and
lead him in a string (common packthread will do; he don’t care for twist)
to Hood’s, his quondam master, and
he’ll take him in at any time. You may mention your suspicion or not, as
you like, or as you think it may wound or not Mr.
H.’s feelings. Hood, I know, will
wink at a few follies in Dash, in consideration of
his former sense. Besides, Hood is deaf, and if you hinted
anything, ten to one he would not hear you. Besides, you will have discharged
your con-
| CHARLES LAMB. | 35 |
“We are dawdling our time away very idly and pleasantly, at a Mrs Leishman’s, Chace, Enfield, where, if you come a-hunting, we can give you cold meat and a tankard. Her husband is a tailor; but that, you know, does not make her one. I knew a jailor (which rhymes), but his wife was a fine lady.
“Let us hear from you respecting Mrs. Patmore’s regimen. I send my love in a —— to Dash.
