Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to William Hazlitt, 19 February 1806
[Dated at end: Feb. 19, 1806.]
DEAR H.—Godwin has just been
here in his way from Johnson’s.
Johnson has had a fire in his house; this happened
about five weeks ago; it was in the daytime, so it did not burn the house down,
but did so much damage that the house must come down, to be repaired: his
nephew that we met on Hampstead Hill put it out: well, this fire has put him so
back, that he craves one more month before he gives you an answer.
I will certainly goad Godwin (if necessary) to go again this very day four weeks; but
I am confident he will want no goading.
Three or four most capital auctions of Pictures advertised.
In May, Welbore Ellis Agar’s, the
first private collection in England, so Holcroft says. In March, Sir George
Young’s in Stratford-place (where Cosway lives), and a
Mr. Hulse’s at Blackheath,
both very capital collections, and have been announce for some months. Also the
Marquis of Lansdowne’s Pictures
in March; and though inferior to mention, lastly, the Tructhsessian gallery.
Don’t your mouth water to be here?
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| 1806 |
CHARLES LAMB, FUMOSISSIMUS |
337 |
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T’other night Loftus called, whom we have not seen since you went before. We
meditate a stroll next Wednesday, Fast-day. He happened to light upon Mr. Holcroft’s Wife, and Daughter, their first visit at our house.
Your brother called
last night. We keep up our intimacy. He is going to begin a large Madona and
child from Mrs. H. and baby. I fear he goes astray after
ignes fatui. He is a clever man. By the bye, I saw a miniature of his as far
excelling any in his shew cupboard (that of your sister not excepted) as that
shew cupboard excells the shew things you see in windows—an old woman—damn her
name—but most superlative; he has it to clean—I’ll ask him the name—but
the best miniature I ever saw, equal to Cooper and them fellows. But for oil pictures!—what has he [to]
do with Madonas? if the Virgin Mary were alive and
visitable, he would not hazard himself in a Covent-Garden-pit-door crowd to see
her. It an’t his style of beauty, is it?—But he will go on painting
things he ought not to paint, and not painting things he ought to paint.
Manning is not gone to China, but talks
of going this Spring. God forbid!
Coleridge not heard of.
I, going to leave off smoke. In mean time am so smoky with
last night’s 10 Pipes, that I must leave off.
Mary begs her kind remembrances.
Pray write to us—
This is no Letter, but I supposed you grew anxious about
Johnson.
N.B.—Have taken a room at 3/- a week, to be in between 5
& 8 at night, to avoid my nocturnal alias knock-eternal visitors. The first-fruits of my
retirement has been a farce
which goes to manager tomorrow. Wish my ticket luck.
God bless you, and do write.—Yours, fumosissimus,
C. Lamb.
Wednesday, 19 Feb., 1806.
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.
Samuel Cooper (1607 c.-1672)
English miniature painter whose subjects included Charles II and court figures.
William Godwin (1756-1836)
English novelist and political philosopher; author of
An Inquiry
concerning the Principles of Political Justice (1793) and
Caleb
Williams (1794); in 1797 he married Mary Wollstonecraft.
John Hazlitt (1767-1837)
Miniaturist and portrait painter who studied under Joshua Reynolds, the elder brother of
the essayist. A radical and alcoholic, the
Gentleman's Magazine
reported that he “was, like his brother, of an irritable temperament.”
William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
English essayist and literary critic; author of
Characters of
Shakespeare's Plays (1817),
Lectures on the English Poets
(1818), and
The Spirit of the Age (1825).
Fanny Margaretta Holcroft (1785-1844)
The daughter of Thomas Holcroft and his third wife, Dinah Robinson; she was a translator
and novelist.
Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809)
English playwright and novelist; a friend of William Godwin indicted for treason in 1794;
author of
The Road to Ruin (1792). His
Memoirs (1816) were completed by William Hazlitt.
Richard Hulse (1727-1805)
The son of Sir Edward Hulse, first baronet; educated at Charterhouse and St. Peter's
College, Cambridge, he was deputy governor of the Hudson Bay Company (1799-1805).
Joseph Johnson (1738-1809)
London bookseller at St. Paul's Churchyard; he published Erasmus Darwin, Mary
Wollstonecraft, Joseph Priestly, and William Wordsworth.
Louisa Kenney [née Mercier] (1780 c.-1853)
The daughter of the French writer Louis-Sébastien Mercier and former (fourth) wife of
Thomas Holcroft; in 1812 she married the Irish playwright James Kenney.
Mary Anne Lamb (1764-1847)
Sister of Charles Lamb with whom she wrote Tales from Shakespeare (1807). She lived with
her brother, having killed their mother in a temporary fit of insanity.
Thomas Loftus (1806 fl.)
The son of Thomas Loftus of Wisbech, ironmonger; he was William Hazlitt's maternal
cousin.
Thomas Manning (1772-1840)
Educated at Caius College, Cambridge, he traveled in China and Tibet, and was a life-long
friend of Charles Lamb.
Sir George Yonge, fifth baronet (1732-1812)
Educated at Eton and Leipzig, he was MP for Honiton (1754-61) and Old Sarum (1799-1801),
an ally of William Pitt, and was governor of Cape of Good Hope (1799).
