And the last stanza began with the word "For," and italicised the words _And some are taken from me_. I am inclined to think from this italicisation that it was Mary Lamb's new seizure that was the real impulse of the poem. The poem was dated January, 1798. Lamb printed it twice--in 1798 and 1818. * * * * * Page 26. _Composed at Midnight_. On the appearance of Lamb's _Works_, 1818, Leigh Hunt printed in _The Examiner_ (February 7 and 8, 1819) the passage beginning with line 32, entitling it "A HINT to the GREATER CRIMINALS who are so fond of declaiming against the crimes of the poor and uneducated, and in favour of the torments of prisons and prison-ships in this world, and worse in the next. Such a one, says the poet, 'on his couch Lolling, &c.'" * * * * * Page 28. POEMS AT THE END OF JOHN WOODVIL, 1802. The volume containing _John Woodvil_, 1802, which is placed in the present edition among Lamb's plays, on page 149, included also the "Fragments of Burton" (see Vol. I.) and two lyrics. Page 28. _Helen_. Lamb sent this poem to Coleridge on August 26, 1800, remarking:--"How do you like this little epigram? It is not my writing, nor had I any finger in it. If you concur with me in thinking it very elegant and very original, I shall be tempted to name the author to you. I will just hint that it is almost or quite a first attempt." The author was, of course, Mary Lamb. In his _Elia_ essay "Blakesmoor in H----shire" in the _London Magazine_, September, 1824, Lamb quoted the poem, stating that "Bridget took the hint" of her "pretty whimsical lines" from a portrait of one of the Plumers' ancestors. The portrait was the cool pastoral beauty with a lamb, and it was partly to make fun of her brother's passion for the picture that Mary wrote the lines. The poem was reprinted in the _Works_, 1818. * * * * * Page 29. _Ballad from the German_. This poem was written for Coleridge's translation of "The Piccolimini," the first part of Schiller's "Wallenstein," in 1800--Coleridge supplying a prose paraphrase (for Lamb knew no German) for the purpose. The original is Thekla's song in Act II., Scene 6:-- Der Eichwald brauset, die Wolken ziehn, Das Mägdlein wandelt an Ufers Grün, Es bricht sich die Welle mit Macht, mit Macht, Und sie singt hinaus in die finstre Nacht, Das Auge von Weinen getrübet. Das Herz ist gestorben, die Welt ist leer, Und welter giebt sie dem Wunsche nichts mehr. Du Heilige, rufe dein Kind zurück, Ich habe genossen das irdische Glück, Ich habe gelebt und geliebet. Coleridge's own translation of Thekla's song, which was printed alone in later editions of the play, ran thus:--