Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon, [Spring 1832]
A POOR mad usher (and schoolfellow of mine) has been
pestering me through you with poetry and petitions. I
have desired him to call upon you for a half sovereign, which place to my
account.
I have buried Mrs.
Reynolds at last, who has virtually at least bequeath’d me
a legacy of £32 per Ann., to which add that my other pensioner is safe housed
in the workhouse, which gets me £10.
Richer by both legacies £42 per Ann.
For a loss of a loss is as good as a gain of a gain.
But let this be between ourselves,
specially keep it from A—— or I shall speedily have candidates for the
Pensions.
Mary is laid up with a cold.
Will you convey the inclosed by hand?
When you come, if you ever do, bring me one Devil’s
Visit, I mean Southey’s; also the Hogarth which is complete, Noble’s I think. Six more letters to do. Bring my bill
also.
William Hogarth (1697-1764)
English satirical painter whose works include
The Harlot's
Progress,
The Rake's Progress, and
Marriage à la Mode.
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.
George Noble (1828 fl.)
Son of Francis (or Edward?) Noble; he was a London engraver who worked on Boydell's
Shakespeare Gallery and was one of the elder John Murray's executors.
Elizabeth Reynolds [née Chambers] (d. 1832)
The daughter of Charles Chambers (d. 1777); she was an older friend of Charles Lamb who
had once been his schoolmistress.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
