the story of Marsyas, who challenged Apollo to a contest of skill, the winner to flay the loser, and Apollo won. Page 155, line 7. Mrs. Battle. There was a haunted Blakesware, but the suggestion that the famous Mrs. Battle 333) died in it was probably due to a sudden whimsical Lamb states in "Dream-Children" that Mrs. Field occupi room. 34. Page 155, line Garden-loving poet. Garden-loving poet. Andrew Marvel From the poem "Upon Appleton House." The punctuate Grosart's edition, 1872, differs considerably. Page 156, line 22. "Resurgam." This was not the motto Plumers. Page 156, line 32. Damotas... Egon. In a letter to Ca in 1796 Lamb supplies the meaning of Damotas: a modern shee one that keeps other people's sheep. Egon is the name for a shep in Virgil's Eclogues and in Theocritus. Page 156, line 33. the Family Name," Lincoln. The hills of Lincoln. See Lamb's sonne Vol. V., page 41. Lamb's father came Page 156, at foot. Those old Ws. Lamb thus disguis name of Plumer. He could not have meant Wards, for Robert did not marry William Plumer's widow till four years after this was printed. Page 157, line 1. Gone over. In the London Magazine Lani written "traversed." Page 157, line 7. Yellow H-shire hair. Hertfordshire. I find that yellow hair is common in this county. It is in Norf Scandinavian legacy-but Lamb is not here, as in "Dream-Childs (see page 377), endeavouring to confuse these counties. Page 157, line 8. My Alice. See note on page 377. Page 157, line 9. Mildred Elia, I take it. After these work the London Magazine, came this passage :— "From her, and from my passion for her for I first learned from a picture-Bridget took the hint of those pretty whimsical which thou mayst see, if haply thou hast never seen them, Reade the margin. But my Mildred grew not old, like the imag Helen." 1. High-born Helen, round your dwelling, Hath been to glory in his pain. "High-born Helen, proudly telling "These twenty years I've lived on tears, This ballad, written in gentle ridicule of Lamb's affection for the kesware portrait, and Mary Lamb's first known poem, was printed the John Woodvil volume, 1802, and in the Works, 1818. Page 157. POOR RELATIONS. London Magazine, May, 1823. Page 158, line 5. A death's head at your banquet. Referring to Egyptian custom of carrying a skeleton through the room at a st to remind the feasters of their necessary end. Page 158, line 6. Agathocles' pot. ant of Syracuse, was a potter. Page 158, line 6. Mordecai ke xvi. 20. Page 158, line 7. Exodus viii. 3, 6; Page 158, line 8. Page 158, line 9. Page 158, line 10. verbs xxvi. 1. The father of Agathocles, Lazarus. See Esther iii. 2 and A lion . . . a frog A mote... See Matthew vii. 3. Page 158, line 10. A pound of sweet. After these words, in the ndon Magazine, came one more descriptive clause-"the bore par ellence." Page 158, line 30. Tide-waiter. A custom-house officer who boards sels as the tide brings them into port. Page 159, line 28. Aliquando sufflaminandus erat. "It was cessary to put the drag on sometimes." "Tanta illi erat velocitas tionis ut vitium fieret. Itaque D. Augustus optime dixit Aterius ster sufflaminandus est" (Seneca). "Such was his rapidity of speech at it passed into a defect. And so Augustus of blessed memory ll observed, Our friend Aterius needs the drag.'" Page 159, line 37. Richard Amlet, Esq. In "The Confederacy" by John Vanbrugh-a favourite part of John Palmer's (see the essay On Some of the Old Actors," page 140). Page 160, line 2. Poor W In the Key Lamb identifies W with Favell, who "left Cambridge because he was asham'd of his father, who was a house-painter there.' Favell has already been mentioned in the essay on "Christ's Hospital" (see page 22 and note). Page 160, line 12. Our tallness. Lamb was diminutive. Page 160, line 21. Nessian venom. Hercules was killed by wearing a shirt, or tunic, soaked in the poisonous blood of the Centaur Nessus. Page 160, line 22. Latimer. Hooker. Latimer was a servitor at Christ's College, Cambridge; Hooker at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Page 161, line 17. Milton. In Paradise "Knew his mounted sign . . ." Adapted from Lost, Book IV., a battle between Satan and the angelic squadron is averted by the display in the heavens of the golden scales, with Satan in the lighter one. up and read his lot in the celestial sign :— Gabriel bids Satan look The Fiend lookt up and knew Lines 1013-1015. Page 161, line 40. At Lincoln. The Lambs, as we have seen, came from Lincolnshire. The old feud between the Above and Below Boys seems now to have abated, but a social gulf between the two divisions of the city remains. Page 162, line 12. Young Grotiuses. Among the works of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) was De Jure Belli et Pacis. Page 162, line 30. My aunt. See note on page 355. Page 162, line 39. John Billet. Probably not the real name. Lamb gives the innkeeper at Widford, in "Rosamund Gray," the name of Billet, when it was really Clemitson. Page 163. STAGE ILLUSION. London Magazine, August, 1825, where it was entitled "Imperfect Dramatic Illusion." This was, I think, Lamb's last contribution to the London, which had been growing steadily heavier and less hospitable to gaiety. Some one, however, contributed to it from time to time papers more or less in the Elian manner. There had been one in July, 1825, on the Widow Fairlop, a lady akin to "The Gentle Giantess." In September, 1825, was an essay entitled "The Sorrows of ** ***” (an ass), which might, both from style and sympathy, be almost Lamb's; but was, I think, by another hand. And in January, 1826, there was an article on whist, with quotations from Mrs. Battle, deliberately derived from her creator. These and other essays are printed in Mr. Bertram Dobell's Sidelights on Charles Lamb, 1903, with interesting comments. The present essay to some extent continues the subject treated of in "The Artificial Comedy," page 141, but it may be taken also as containing some of the matter of the promised continuation of the essay "On the Tragedies of Shakspeare," which was to deal with the comic characters of that dramatist (see Vol. I., page 414). His Page 163, line 28. Jack Bannister. See note on page 394. greatest parts were not those of cowards; but his Bob Acres was justly famous. Sir Anthony Absolute and Tony Lumpkin were perhaps his chief triumphs. He left the stage in 1815. Page 164, line 25. Gatty. Gatty. Henry Gattie (1774-1844), famous for old-man parts, notably Monsieur Morbleu in Moncrieff's "Monsieur Tonson." He was also the best Dr. Caius, in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," of his time. He left the stage in 1833, and settled down as a tobacconist and raconteur at Oxford. Page 164, line 30. Mr. Emery. John Emery (1777-1822), the best impersonator of countrymen in his day. Zekiel Homespun in Colman's "Heir at Law" was one of his great parts. Tyke was in Morton's "School of Reform," produced in 1805, and no one has ever played it so well. He also played Caliban with success. Page 165, line 11. Osric. In "Hamlet." Page 165, line 31. A very judicious actor. identified. Benjamin Wrench (1778-1843) was a dashing comedian, a Wyndham of his day. In "Free and Easy" he played Sir John Freeman. Page 166. TO THE SHADE OF ELLISTON. This actor I have not Englishman's Magazine, August, 1831, where it formed, with the following essay, one article, under the title "Reminiscences of Elliston." Robert William Elliston (1774-1831), actor and manager, famous for his stage lovers, both in comedy and tragedy. His Charles Surface was said to be unequalled, and both in Hotspur and Hamlet he was great. His last performance was in June, 1831, a very short time before his death. Page 166, line 5. WILD OATS. A reference to O'Keeffe's comedy of that name, in which Elliston played Rover. Page 166, line 15. Palace of Dainty Devices. There is an Elizabethan poetical miscellany entitled The Paradise of Dainty Devices, 1576. Page 166, line 25. "Up thither..." Milton's lines (Paradise Lost, III., 445-458) run : Up hither like aerial vapours flew Of all things transitory and vain, when sin All who have their reward on earth, the fruits Of painful superstition and blind zeal, Nought seeking but the praise of men, here find Fit retribution, empty as their deeds; All th' unaccomplished works of Nature's hand, Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mixt, Dissolv'd on Earth, fleet hither, and in vain, Till final dissolution, wander here. Something of the same idea was expressed by Lamb eighteen years earlier in the prologue to Coleridge's Remorse (Vol. V., page 125). Page 166, line 33. Thy Regent Planet. Alluding to Elliston's eccentricities and follies. Page 166, line 38. Thin ghosts. In the London Magazine the passage ran: "Thin ghosts of Figurantes (never plump on earth) admire, while with uplifted toe retributive you inflict vengeance incorporeal upon the shadowy rear of obnoxious author, just arrived :— 'what seem'd his tail The likeness of a kingly kick had on. Yet soon he heals: for spirits, that live throughout Vital in every part, not as frail man In entrails, head, or heart, liver or veins, Can in the liquid texture mortal wound The first quotation is an adaptation of Paradise Lost, II., lines 672-673: what seem'd his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. The second is from Paradise Lost, VI., lines 344-350. Fye on sinful Phantasy. See this song in "The Page 166, line 38. Act V., Scene 5. A la Foppington. In Vanbrugh's "Relapse." His brothers were Minos and Farpeda. "A pure and clear soul." One of the judges of hell. Page 167, line 39. Medusean ringlets. Medusa's locks were changed by Minerva into serpents. Page 167, line 39. "Whip the offending Adam . . Consideration, like an angel, came And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him. " 'Henry V.," Act I., Scene 1, lines 28, 29. In the Englishman's Magazine the article ended, after "Plaudito, et Valeto" ("I praise and say farewell"), with: "Thy friend upon Earth, though thou did'st connive at his d n. The article was signed Mr. H., the point being that Elliston had played Mr. H. at Drury Lane in Lamb's unlucky farce of that name in 1806. Page 168. ELLISTONIANA. See note at the head of "To the Shade of Elliston" above. Page 168, line 4. My first introduction. This paragraph was a footnote in the Englishman's Magazine. Elliston, according to the Memoirs of him by George Raymond, which have Lamb's phrase, Joyousest of once embodied spirits" for motto, opened a circulating library at Leamington in the name of his sons William and Henry, and served there himself at times. |