Charles Lamb: A Memoir

Charles Lamb: A Memoir

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Title: Charles Lamb
Author: Barry Cornwall
Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6166] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on November 20, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CHARLES LAMB ***

Carel Lyn Miske, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

CHARLES LAMB
A Memoir
BY BARRY CORNWALL

PREFACE.

In my seventy-seventh year. I have been invited to place on record my recollections of Charles Lamb.
I am, I believe, nearly the only man now surviving who knew much of the excellent "Elia." Assuredly I knew him more intimately than any other existing person, during the last seventeen or eighteen years of his life.
In this predicament, and because I am proud to associate my name with his, I shall endeavor to recall former times, and to bring my old friend before the eyes of a new generation.
I request the "courteous reader" to accept, for what they are worth, these desultory labors of a lover of letters; and I hope that the advocate for modern times will try to admit into the circle of his sympathy my recollections of a fine Genius departed.
No harm--possibly some benefit--will accrue to any one who may consent to extend his acquaintance to one of the rarest and most delicate of the Humorists of England.
B. W. PROCTER. May, 1866.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
Introduction. Biography: Few Events. One predominant. His Devotion to it. Tendency to Literature. First Studies. Influence of Antique Dwellings. Early Friends. Humor. Qualities of Mind. Sympathy for neglected Objects. A Nonconformist. Predilections. Character. Taste. Style.

CHAPTER II.
Birth and Parentage. Christ's Hospital. South Sea House and India House. Condition of Family. Death of Mother. Mary in Asylum. John Lamb. Charles's Means of Living. His Home. Despondency. Alice W. Brother and Sister.

CHAPTER III.
Jem White. Coleridge. Lamb's Inspiration. Early Letters. Poem published. Charles Lloyd. Liking for Burns, &c. Quakerism. Robert Southey. Southey and Coleridge. Antijacobin. Rosamond Gray. George Dyer. Manning. Mary's Illnesses. Migrations. Hester Savory.

CHAPTER IV.
(Migrations.) "John Woodvil." Blackesmoor. Wordsworth. Rickman. Godwin. Visit to the Lakes. Morning Post. Hazlitt. Nelson. Ode to Tobacco. Dramatic Specimens, &c. Inner Temple Lane. Reflector. Hogarth and Sir J. Reynolds. Leigh Hunt. Lamb, Hazlitt, and Hunt. Russell Street and Theatrical Friends.

CHAPTER V.
My Recollections. Russell Street. Personal Appearance. Manner. Tendency of Mind. Prejudices. Alleged Excesses. Mode of Life. Love of Smoking. His Lodgings. His Sister. Costume. Reading aloud. Tastes and Opinions. London. Love of Books. Charity. Wednesday Parties. His Companions. Epitaph upon them.

CHAPTER VI.
London Magazine. Contributors. Transfer of Magazine. Monthly Dinners and Visitors. Colebrook Cottage. Lamb's Walks. Essays of Elia: Their Excellence and Character. Enlarged Acquaintance. Visit to Paris. Miss Isola. Quarrel with Southey. Leaves India House. Leisure. Amicus Redivivus. Edward Irving.

CHAPTER VII.
Specimen of Lamb's Humor. Death of Mr. Norris. Garrick Plays. Letters to Barton. Opinions on Books. Breakfast with Mr. N. P. Willis. Moves to Enfield. Caricature of Lamb. Albums and Acrostics. Pains of Leisure. The Barton Correspondence. Death of Hazlitt. Munden's Acting and Quitting the Stage. Lamb becomes a Boarder. Moves to Edmonton. Metropolitan Attachments. Death of Coleridge. Lamb's Fall and Death. Death of Mary Lamb.
POSTSCRIPT
APPENDIX

CHARLES LAMB.

CHAPTER I.
_Introduction.--Biography: Few Events.--One predominant.--His Devotion to it.--Tendency to Literature.--First Studies.--Influence of Antique Dwellings.--Early Friends.--Humor.--Qualities of Mind.--Sympathy for neglected Objects.--A Nonconformist.--Predilections.--Character.--Taste.-- Style._

The biography of CHARLES LAMB lies within a narrow compass. It comprehends only few events. His birth and parentage, and domestic sorrows; his acquaintance with remarkable men; his thoughts and habits; and his migrations from one home to another,--constitute the sum and substance of his almost uneventful history. It is a history with one event, predominant.
For this reason, and because I, in common with many others, hold a book needlessly large to be a great evil, it is my intention to confine the present memoir within moderate limits. My aim is not to write the "Life and Times" of Charles Lamb. Indeed, Lamb had no influence on his own times. He had little or nothing in common with his generation, which was