“December 5, 1826.—Spent the evening at Lamb’s. When I went in, they (Charles and his sister) were alone, playing at cards together.
“I took up a book on the table—
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“Speaking of Northcote, he related a story of him, illustrating his love for doing and saying little malicious things. It was at a party at Sir Joshua Reynolds’s, where Boswell was present, and they were talking of Malone, and somebody said that Malone seemed to live in Shakespeare, and not to have a feeling or thought connected with anything else; upon which Northcote said—‘Then he must have been the meanest of mankind. The man who sets up any other man as a sort of God, and worships him to the exclusion of all other things and thoughts, must be the meanest of men;—and everybody,’ said Northcote (who was himself the original relator of the story), ‘everybody turned and looked at Boswell.’
“We spoke of L. E. L., and Lamb said—‘If she belonged to me, I would lock her up and feed her on bread and water till she left off writing poetry. A female poet, or female author of any kind, ranks below an actress, I think.’
“—— was mentioned, and Lamb said
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“Bernard Barton was mentioned, and Lamb said that he did not write nonsense, at any rate—which all the rest of them did (meaning the Magazine poets of the day). He was dull enough; but not nonsensical. ‘He writes English, too,’ said Lamb, ‘which they do not.’
“H. C. R. came in about half-past eight, and put a stop to all further conversation— keeping all the talk to himself.
“Speaking of some German story, in which a man is made
to meet himself—he himself having changed forms with
some one else—the talk turned on what we should think of ourselves, if we could
see ourselves without knowing that it was ourselves.
R. said that he had all his life
felt a sort of horror come over him every time he caught a sight of his own
face in the glass; and that he was almost afraid to shave himself for the same
reason. He said that he often wondered how anybody could sustain an intimacy
with, much less feel a friendship for, a man with such a face. Lamb said—‘I hope you have
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“Speaking of names, Lamb said—‘John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster,’ was the grandest name in the world. On this R. spoke of a Spanish pamphlet he had lately met with, describing the Reformation, in which all the English names were changed to Spanish ones, and the fine effect it had. It began by relating that a great prince named Don Henriquez (Henry VIII.) was married to a beautiful princess called La Donna Catalina (Queen Catherine)—that he was under the influence of a wily priest named il Cardinal Bolseo (Wolsey), who advised him to divorce his chaste wife la Donna Catalina, and unite himself to a foul though beautiful witch named La Donna Anna Volena (Anna Boleyn). Jane Seymour was called La Donna Joanna Sumaro, and her house (at Greenwich) the castle of Grenuccio.
