Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Thomas Manning, [5 April 1800]
C. L.’s moral sense
presents her compliments to Doctor
Manning, is very thankful for his medical advice, but is happy
to add that her disorder has died of itself.
Dr. Manning, Coleridge has left us, to go into the north, on a visit to his
god Wordsworth. With him have flown all
my splendid prospects of engagement with the “Morning Post,” all my
visionary guineas, the deceitful wages of unborn scandal. In truth, I wonder
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| 1800 | THE “IMITATIONS OF BURTON” | 161 |
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you took
it up so seriously. All my intention was but to make a little sport with such
public and fair game as Mr. Pitt,
Mr. Wilberforce, Mrs. Fitzherbert, the Devil, &c.—gentry
dipped in Styx all over, whom no paper javelin-lings can touch. To have made
free with these cattle, where was the harm? ’twould have been but giving
a polish to lampblack, not nigrifying a negro primarily. After all, I cannot
but regret my involuntary virtue. Damn virtue that’s thrust upon us; it
behaves itself with such constraint, till conscience opens the window and lets
out the goose.
I had struck off two imitations of Burton, quite abstracted from any modern
allusions, which it was my intent only to lug in from time to time to make
’em popular. Stuart has got these,
with an introductory letter; but, not hearing from him, I have ceased from my
labours, but I write to him to-day to get a final answer. I am afraid they
won’t do for a paper. Burton is a scarce gentleman,
not much known; else I had done ’em pretty well.
I have also hit off a few lines in the name of Burton, being a conceit of “Diabolic
Possession.” Burton was a man often assoiled by
deepest melancholy, and at other times much given to laughing and jesting, as
is the way with melancholy men. I will send them you: they were almost
extempore, and no great things; but you will indulge them. Robert Lloyd is come to town. He is a good
fellow, with the best heart, but his feelings are shockingly unsane. Priscilla meditates
going to see Pizarro at
Drury Lane to-night (from her uncle’s) under cover of coming to dine with
me . . . heu! tempora! heu! mores!—I
have barely time to finish, as I expect her and Robin
every minute.—Yours as usual.
Robert Burton (1577-1640)
English clergyman and satirist; author of
The Anatomy of
Melancholy (1621).
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
Maria Anne Fitzherbert [née Smythe] (1756-1837)
The consort of the Prince of Wales whom she married in 1785 as her third husband; the
marriage was regarded as illegitimate since she was a Catholic.
Robert Lloyd (1778-1811)
The son of Charles Lloyd sen., he was the younger brother of the poet and a friend of
Charles Lamb; he was a bookseller and printer in Birmingham.
Thomas Manning (1772-1840)
Educated at Caius College, Cambridge, he traveled in China and Tibet, and was a life-long
friend of Charles Lamb.
William Pitt the younger (1759-1806)
The second son of William Pitt, earl of Chatham (1708-1778); he was Tory prime minister
1783-1801.
Daniel Stuart (1766-1846)
Originally its printer, he was proprietor of the
Morning Post from
1795-1803; in about 1800 he became part-proprietor and editor of
The
Courier.
William Wilberforce (1759-1833)
British statesman, evangelical Christian, and humanitarian who worked for the abolition
of slavery. He was an MP for Yorkshire aligned with Fox and Sheridan.
Priscilla Wordsworth [née Lloyd] (1781-1815)
The daughter of Charles Lloyd sen., and sister of the poet; in 1804 she married
Christopher Wordsworth, brother of the poet.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
Morning Post. (1772-1937). A large-circulation London daily that published verse by many of the prominent poets of
the romantic era. John Taylor (1750–1826), Daniel Stuart (1766-1846), and Nicholas Byrne
(d. 1833) were among its editors.
