I have been in my time a great epistolary scribbler; but the pa.s.sion, and with it the facility, at length wears out; and it must be pumped up again by the heavy machinery of duty or grat.i.tude, when it should run free.

I have read your "Fall of Cambria" with as much pleasure as I did your "Messiah." Your Cambrian poem I shall be tempted to repeat oftenest, as Human poems take me in a mood more frequently congenial than Divine. The character of Llewellyn pleases me more than any thing else, perhaps; and then some of the Lyrical Pieces are fine varieties.

It was quite a mistake that I could dislike anything you should write against Lord Byron, for I have a thorough aversion to his character and a very moderate admiration of his genius; he is great in so little a way. To be a poet is to be the man--not a petty portion of occasional low pa.s.sion worked up into a permanent form of humanity. Shakespear has thrust such rubbishy feelings into a corner-the dark, dusky heart of Don John, in the _Much Ado about Nothing_. The fact is, I have not seen your "Expostulatory Epistle" to him. I was not aware, till your question, that it was out. I shall inquire, and get it forthwith.

Southey is in town, whom I have seen slightly; Wordsworth expected, whom I hope to see much of. I write with accelerated motion; for I have two or three bothering clerks and brokers about me, who always press in proportion as you seem to be doing something that is not business. I could exclaim a little profanely, but I think you do not like swearing.

I conclude, begging you to consider that I feel myself much obliged by your kindness, and shall be most happy at any and at all times to hear from you.

CHARLES LAMB

Dear Sir, yours truly,

[Joseph Cottle, the Bristol publisher, had apparently just sent Lamb a copy of his _Fall of Cambria_, although it had been published some years before. Perhaps Lamb had sent him his _Works_, and it was a return gift.

Cottle's very serious _Expostulatory Epistle to Lord Byron_ (who had cast ridicule upon him and his brother in _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_) was issued in 1820, after the publication of _Don Juan_ had begun.

Southey arrived in London on May Day, 1820. Wordsworth followed early in June.]

LETTER 260

CHARLES LAMB TO DOROTHY WORDSWORTH (_Incomplete_)

[May 25, 1820.]

Dear Miss W.--There can be none to whom the last volume of W. W. has come more welcome than to me. I have traced the Duddon in thought and with repet.i.tion along the banks (alas!) of the Lea--(unpoetical name); it is always flowing and murmuring and dashing in my ears. The story of _Dion_ is divine--the genius of Plato falling on him like moonlight--the finest thing ever expressed. Then there is _Elidure_ and _Kirkstone Pa.s.s_--the last not new to me--and let me add one of the sweetest of them all to me, _The Longest Day_. Loving all these as much as I can love poetry new to me, what could I wish or desire more or extravagantly in a new volume? That I did not write to W. W. was simply that he was to come so soon, and that flattens letters....

Yours, C. L.

[I print from Professor Knight's text, in his _Life of Wordsworth_.

Canon Ainger supplies omissions--a reference to Martin Burney's black eye.

The Wordsworths were in town this summer, to attend the wedding of Thomas Monkhouse and Miss Horrocks. We know from Crabb Robinson's _Diary_ that they were at Lamb's on June 2: "Not much was said about his [W. W.'s] new volume of poems. But he himself spoke of the 'Brownie's Cell' as his favourite." The new volume was _The River Duddon, a Series of Sonnets_, ... 1820. "The Longest Day" begins:--

Let us quit the leafy arbour.

Between this letter and the next Lamb wrote and sent off his first contribution to the _London Magazine_ over the signature Elia--"The South-Sea House," which was printed in the number for August, 1820.]

LETTER 261

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP [P.M. July 13, 1820.]

Dear Sir, I do not know whose fault it is we have not met so long. We are almost always out of town. You must come and beat up our quarters there, when we return from Cambridge. It is not in our power to accept your invitation. To-day we dine out; and set out for Cambridge on Sat.u.r.day morning. Friday of course will be past in packing, &c., moreover we go from Dalston. We return from Cam. in 4 weeks, and will contrive an early meeting.

Meantime believe us, Sincerely yours, C. L., &c.

_Thursday_,

[It was during this visit to Cambridge that Lamb wrote his _Elia_ essay on "Oxford in the Vacation."]

LETTER 262

CHARLES AND MARY LAMB TO SAMUEL JAMES ARNOLD

[No date. ? 1820.]

Dear Sir, We beg to convey our kindest acknowledgements to Mr. Arnold for the very pleasant privilege he has favoured us with. My yearly holidays end with next week, during which we shall be mostly in the country, and afterwards avail ourselves fully of the privilege.

Sincerely wishing you crowded houses, etc.,

We remain, Yours truly, CH. & M. LAMB.

[Arnold, brother-in-law of Ayrton, was the lessee of the Lyceum, where Miss Kelly was acting when Lamb proposed to her in 1819.]

LETTER 263

CHARLES LAMB TO BARRON FIELD

London, 16 Aug., 1820.

Dear Field,--Captain Ogilvie, who conveys this note to you, and is now paying for the first time a visit to your remote sh.o.r.es, is the brother of a Gentleman intimately connected with the family of the _Whites_, I mean of Bishopsgate Street--and you will much oblige them and myself by any service or civilities you can shew him.

I do not mean this for an answer to your warm-hearted Epistle, which demands and shall have a much fuller return. We receiped your Australian First Fruits, of which I shall say nothing here, but refer you to ****

of the _Examiner_, who speaks our mind on all public subjects. I can only a.s.sure you that both Coleridge and Wordsworth, and also C. Lloyd, who has lately reappeared in the poetical horizon, were hugely taken with your Kangaroo.

When do you come back full of riches and renown, with the regret of all the honest, and all the other part of the colony? Mary swears she shall live to see it.

Pray are you King's or Queen's men in Sidney? Or have thieves no politics? Man, don't let this lie about your room for your bed sweeper or Major Domo to see, he mayn't like the last paragraph.

This is a dull and lifeless scroll. You shall have soon a tissue of truth and fiction impossible to be extricated, the interleavings shall be so delicate, the part.i.tions perfectly invisible, it shall puzzle you till you return, & [then] I will not explain it. Till then a ... adieu, with kind rem'brces of me both to you & ... [_Signature and a few words torn off_.]

[Barron Field, who was still in New South Wales, had published his poems under the t.i.tle _First-Fruits of Australian Poetry_, and Lamb had reviewed them in _The Examiner_ for January 16, 1820, over his usual signature in that paper, * * * *. "The Kangaroo" is quoted in that review (see Vol. I. of the present edition).

Captain Ogilvie was the brother of a clerk at the India House, who gave Mr. Joseph H. Twich.e.l.l some reminiscences of Lamb, which were printed in _Scribner's Magazine_.

"King's or Queen's men"--supporters of George IV. or Caroline of Brunswick. Lamb was very strongly in favour of the Queen, as his _Champion_ epigrams show (see Vol. IV.).