The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb IV | Page 2

accessible poetical work of Charles and Mary Lamb that is known to exist and several poems not to be found in the large edition. There are probably still many copies of album verses which have not yet seen the light. In the London Magazine, April, 1824, is a story entitled "The Bride of Modern Italy," which has for motto the following couplet:--
My heart is fixt:
This is the sixt.--Elia.
but the rest of what seems to be a pleasant catalogue is missing. In a letter to Coleridge, December 2, 1796, Lamb refers to a poem which has apparently perished, beginning, "Laugh, all that weep." I have left in the correspondence the rhyming letters to Ayrton and Dibdin, and an epigram on "Coelebs in Search of a Wife." I have placed the dedication to Coleridge at the beginning of this volume, although it belongs properly only to those poems that are reprinted from the Works of 1818, the prose of which Lamb offered to Martin Burney. But it is too fine to be put among the Notes, and it may easily, by a pardonable stretch, be made to refer to the whole body of Lamb's poetical and dramatic work, although Album Verses, 1830, was dedicated separately to Edward Moxon.
In Mr. Bedford's design for the cover of this edition certain Elian symbolism will be found. The upper coat of arms is that of Christ's Hospital, where Lamb was at school; the lower is that of the Inner Temple, where he was born and spent many years. The figures at the bells are those which once stood out from the fa?ade of St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street, and are now in Lord Londesborough's garden in Regent's Park. Lamb shed tears when they were removed. The tricksy sprite and the candles (brought by Betty) need no explanatory words of mine.
E.V.L.
CONTENTS TEXT NOTE
PAGE PAGE

Dedication 1 307
Lamb's earliest poem, "Mille viae mortis" 3 307
Poems in Coleridge's Poems on Various Subjects, 1796:--
"As when a child ..." 4 308
"Was it some sweet device ..." 4 309
"Methinks how dainty sweet ..." 5 311
"Oh! I could laugh ..." 5 311
From Charles Lloyd's _Poems on the Death of Priscilla?Farmer_, 1796;--
The Grandame 6 312 Poems from Coleridge's Poems, 1797:--
"When last I roved ..." 8