THE WORKS OF CHARLES AND MARY LAMB I. MISCELLANEOUS PROSE (1798-1834) BY THE SAME EDITOR The Life of Charles Lamb Mr. Ingleside Over Bemerton's Listener's Lure One Day and Another Fireside and Sunshine Character and Comedy Old Lamps for New The Hambledon Men The Open Road The Friendly Town Her Infinite Variety Good Company The Gentlest Art The Second Post A Swan and Her Friends A Wanderer in London A Wanderer in Holland A Wanderer in Paris Highways and Byways in Sussex Anne's Terrible Good Nature The Slowcoach Sir Pulteney and The Pocket Edition of the Works of Charles Lamb: I. Miscellaneous Prose; II. Elia; III. Children's Books; IV. Poems and Plays; V. and VI. Letters. [Illustration: _Charles Lamb (aged 30)_ _In the dress of a Venetian Senator._ _From a painting by William Hazlitt._] MISCELLANEOUS PROSE BY CHARLES AND MARY LAMB EDITED BY E. V. LUCAS WITH A FRONTISPIECE METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON _First Published in this form (Fcap. 8vo) in 1912_ _This Work was first Published in Seven Volumes (Demy 8vo) in 1903-5_ PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION This edition is the same as that in seven large volumes published between 1903 and 1905, except that it has been revised and amended and arranged in more companionable shape. Some new matter is included; some doubtful matter has been removed; and the notes, although occasionally enriched, have been reduced in number and often condensed. For completer annotation as well as for portraits and accessory illustrations the old edition must be consulted. The present volume contains all Lamb's prose, with the exception of his work for children, his full notes in the Dramatic Specimens and Garrick Extracts, his prose plays and the Elia essays. The contents have been arranged in their order of publication, the earliest dating from 1798, when Lamb was twenty-three, and the latest belonging to 1834, the year of his death--thus covering the whole of his literary life. In Mr. Bedford's design for the cover of this edition certain Elian symbolism will be found. The upper coat of arms is that of Christ's Hospital, where Lamb was at school; the lower is that of the Inner Temple, where he was born and spent many years. The figures at the bells are those which once stood out from the façade of St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street, and are now in Lord Londesborough's garden in Regent's Park. Lamb shed tears when they were removed. The tricksy sprite and the candles (brought by Betty) need no explanatory words of mine. E. V. L. CONTENTS TEXT NOTE PAGE PAGE Rosamund Gray 1 438