Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon, [14 July 1831]
COLLIER’S Book would be right acceptable. And also a
sixth vol. just publish’d of Nichols’s Illustrations of the Literary History of
18th Century. I agree with you, and do yet not disagree ![]()
| 1831 | A VISIT TO LORD GREY | 875 |
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with W. W., as to H. It rejoyced my heart to read his friendly spirited mention
of your publications. It might be a drawback to my pleasure, that he has tried
to decry my “Nicky,” but on deliberate re- and reperusal of his censure I
cannot in the remotest degree understand what he means to say. He and I used to
dispute about Hell Eternities, I taking the affirmative. I love to puzzle
atheists, and—parsons. I fancy it runs in his head, that I meant to rivet the
idea of a personal devil. Then about the glorious three days! there was never a
year or day in my past life, since I was pen-worthy, that I should not have
written precisely as I have. Logic and modesty are not among
H.’s virtues. Talfourd flatters me upon a poem which “nobody but I
could have written,” but which I have neither seen nor heard
of—“The
Banquet,” or “Banqueting
Something,” that has appeared in The Tatler. Know you of it? How capitally the
Frenchman has analysed Satan! I was hinder’d, or I was about doing the
same thing in English, for him to put into French, as I prosified Hood’s midsummer fairies. The garden of cabbage
escap’d him, he turns it into a garden of pot herbs. So local allusions
perish in translation. About 8 days before you told me of R.’s interview with the Premier, I, at
the desire of Badams, wrote a letter to
him (Badams) in the most moving terms setting forth the
age, infirmities &c. of Coleridge.
This letter was convey’d to [by] B. to his friend
Mr. Ellice of the Treasury, Brother
in Law to Lord Grey, who immediately
pass’d it on [to] Lord Grey, who assured him of
immediate relief by a grant on the King’s Bounty, which news
E. communicated to B. with a
desire to confer with me on the subject, on which I went up to The Treasury
(yesterday fortnight) and was received by the Great Man with the utmost
cordiality, (shook hands with me coming and going) a fine hearty Gentleman,
and, as seeming willing to relieve any anxiety from me, promised me an answer
thro’ Badams in 2 or 3 days at furthest. Meantime
Gilman’s extraordinary
insolent letter comes out in the Times! As to my acquiescing in this strange step, I told Mr.
Ellice (who expressly said that the thing was renewable
three-yearly) that I considered such a grant as almost equivalent to the lost
pension, as from C.’s appearance and the
representations of the Gilmans, I scarce could think
C.’s life worth 2 years’ purchase. I did
not know that the Chancellor had been previously applied to. Well, after seeing
Ellice I wrote in the most urgent manner to the
Gilmans, insisting on an immediate letter of
acknowledgment from Coleridge, or them in his name to Badams, who not knowing
C. had come forward so disinterestedly amidst his
complicated illnesses and embarrassments, to use up an
interest, which he may so well need, in favor of a stranger; and from that day
not a letter has B. or even myself, ![]()
| 876 | LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB | July |
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received from Highgate, unless that
publish’d one in the Times is meant as a
general answer to all the friends who have stirr’d to do
C. service! Poor C. is
not to blame, for he is in leading strings.—I particularly wish you would read
this part of my note to Mr. Rogers. Now
for home matters—Our next 2 Sundays will be choked up with all the
Sugdens. The third will be free, when we hope you will
show your sister the way to Enfield and leave her with us for a few days. In
the mean while, could you not run down some week day (afternoon, say) and sleep
at the Horse Shoe? I want to have my 2d vol. Elias bound Specimen fashion, and to consult you
about ’em. Kenney has just assured
me that he has just touch’d £100 from the theatre; you are a damn’d
fool if you dont exact your Tythe of him, and with that assurance I rest
John Badams (d. 1833)
Educated at Edinburgh University, he was a Birmingham chemist and friend of Thomas
Carlyle. He married Louisa, daughter of Thomas Holcroft, in 1828.
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.
John Payne Collier (1789-1883)
English poet, journalist, antiquary, and learned editor of Shakespeare and Spenser; his
forgeries of historical documents permanently tarnished his reputation.
Edward Ellice (1783-1863)
British merchant with the Hudson's Bay Company and Whig MP for Coventry (1818-26,
1830-63); he was a friend of Sir Francis Burdett and John Cam Hobhouse.
James Gillman (1782-1839)
The Highgate surgeon with whom Coleridge lived from 1816 until his death in 1834; in 1838
he published an incomplete
Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Charles Grey, second earl Grey (1764-1845)
Whig statesman and lover of the Duchess of Devonshire; the second son of the first earl
(d. 1807), he was prime minister (1831-34).
Thomas Hood (1799-1845)
English poet and humorist who wrote for the
London Magazine; he
published
Whims and Oddities (1826) and
Hood's
Magazine (1844-5).
James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859)
English poet, journalist, and man of letters; editor of
The
Examiner and
The Liberal; friend of Byron, Keats, and
Shelley.
James Kenney (1780-1849)
Irish playwright, author of
The World (1808); he was a friend of
Lamb, Hunt, Moore, and Rogers.
John Nichols (1745-1826)
English printer, editor, biographer, bibliographer, and antiquary; he was the printer of
the
Gentleman's Magazine from 1780 and its sole editor from
1792.
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855)
English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular
Pleasures of Memory (1792),
Columbus (1810),
Jaqueline (1814), and
Italy (1822-28).
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854)
English judge, dramatist, and friend of Charles Lamb who contributed articles to the
London Magazine and
New Monthly
Magazine.
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.
The Times. (1785-). Founded by John Walter, The Times was edited by Thomas Barnes from 1817 to 1841. In the
romantic era it published much less literary material than its rival dailies, the
Morning Chronicle and the
Morning
Post.
