The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 4: Poems and PlaysLamb, Charles
General
The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 4: Poems and Plays
Lamb, Charles
English drama; English poetry
In the picture Gillray introduced "Coleridge" as a donkey offering a
volume of "Dactylics," and Southey as another donkey, flourishing a
volume of "Saphics." Behind them, seated side by side, poring over a
manuscript entitled "Blank Verse, by Toad and Frog," are a toad and frog
which the Key states to be Lloyd and Lamb. It was in reference to this
picture that Godwin, on first meeting Lamb, asked him, "Pray, Mr. Lamb,
are you toad or frog?"
Page 21. _To Charles Lloyd._
_The Monthly Magazine_, October, 1797. Signed.
Lamb sent these lines to Coleridge in September, 1797, remarking: "The
following I wrote when I had returned from Charles Lloyd, leaving him
behind at Burton, with Southey. To understand some of it you must
remember that at that time he was very much perplexed in mind." Lloyd
throughout his life was given to religious speculations which now and
then disturbed his mind to an alarming extent, affecting him not unlike
the gloomy forebodings and fears that beset Cowper. On this particular
occasion he was in difficulty also as to his engagement with Sophia
Pemberton, with whom he was meditating elopement and a Scotch marriage.
Page 21. _Written on the Day of my Aunt's Funeral._
"This afternoon," Lamb wrote to Coleridge on February 13, 1797, "I
attend the funeral of my poor old aunt, who died on Thursday. I own I am
thankful that the good creature has ended all her days of suffering and
infirmity. She was to me the 'cherisher of infancy.' ..." Lamb's Aunt
Hetty was his father's sister. Her real name was Sarah Lamb. All that we
know of her is found in this poem, in the _Letters_, in the passages in
"Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago," and "My Relations;" in
the story of "The Witch Aunt," in _Mrs. Leicester's School_, and in a
reference in one of Mary Lamb's letters to Sarah Stoddart, where,
writing of her aunt and her mother,--"the best creatures in the
world,"--she speaks of Miss Lamb as being "as unlike a gentlewoman as
you can possibly imagine a good old woman to be;" contrasting her with
Mrs. Lamb, "a perfect gentlewoman." The description in "The Witch Aunt"
bears out Mary Lamb's letter.
After the tragedy of September, 1796, Aunt Hetty was taken into the
house of a rich relative. This lady, however, seems to have been of too
selfish and jealous a disposition (see Lamb's letter to Coleridge,
December 9, 1796) to exert any real effort to make her guest comfortable
or happy. Hence Aunt Hetty returned to her nephew.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account