Charles Lamb: A Memoir

Charles Lamb: A Memoir

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Lamb, by Barry Cornwall
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
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