1803 Godwin's Chaucer 293 ceive of the desultory and uncertain way in which I (an author by fits) sometimes cannot put the thoughts of a common letter into sane prose. Any work which I take upon myself as an engagement will act upon me to torment, e.g., when I have undertaken, as three or four times I have, a school-boy copy of verses for Merchant Taylors' boys, at a guinea a copy, I have fretted over them, in perfect inability to do them, and have made my sister wretched with my wretchedness for a week together. The same, till by habit I have acquired a mechanical command, I have felt in making paragraphs. As to reviewing, in particular, my head is so whimsical a head, that I cannot, after reading another man's book, let it have been never so pleasing, give any account of it in any methodical way. I cannot follow his train. Something like this you must have perceived of me in conversation. Ten thousand times I have confessed to you, talking of my talents, my utter inability to remember in any comprehensive way what I read. I can vehemently applaud, or perversely stickle, at parts; but I cannot grasp at a whole. This infirmity (which is nothing to brag of) may be seen in my two little compositions, the tale and my play, in both which no reader, however partial, can find any story. I wrote such stuff about Chaucer, and got into such digressions, quite irreducible into 1 column of a paper, that I was perfectly ashamed to show it you. However, it is become a serious matter that I should convince you I neither slunk from the task through a wilful deserting neglect, or through any (most imaginary on your part) distaste of Chaucer; and I will try my hand again, I hope with better luck. My health is bad and my time taken up, but all I can spare between this and Sunday shall be employed for you, since you desire it: and if I bring you a crude, wretched paper on Sunday, you must burn it, and forgive me; if it proves anything better than I predict, may it be a peaceoffering of sweet incense between us. C. LAMB. [Lamb's review of Godwin's Life of Chaucer, issued in October, 1803, has not been identified. Perhaps it was never completed. Writing to Wordsworth, December 28, 1814, he says that his review of The Excursion is the first he ever did. Lamb's early Merchant Taylors' verses have been lost, but two epigrams that he wrote many years later for the sons of Hessey, the publisher, have been preserved (see the letter to Southey, May 10, 1830).] LETTER 115 CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS POOLE [Dated at end: Feb. 14, 1804.] EAR Sir—I am sorry we have not been able to hear of enquiry. In a day or two something may turn up. Boarding houses are common enough, but to find a family where he would be safe from impositions within & impositions without is not so easy.- I take this opportunity of thanking you for your kind attentions to the Lad I took the liberty of recommending. His mother was disposed to have taken in young F. but could not possibly make room. Temple, 14 Feb., 1804. Your obliged &c C. LAMB. [I do not know to what lads the note refers, but probably young F. was young Fricker, the brother of Mrs. Coleridge and Mrs. Southey. The note is interesting only as giving another instance of Lamb's willing helpfulness to others.] DRC. LETTER 116 CHARLES LAMB TO S. T. COLERIDGE [P.M. March 10, 1804.] RC. I blunderd open this letter, its weight making me conjecture it held an inclosure; but finding it poetry (which is no man's ground, but waste and common) I perused Do you remember that you are to come to us to-night? it. To Mr. Coleridge, Mr. Tobin's, Barnards Inn, Holborn. C. L. [This is written on the back of a paper addressed (to save postage) to Mr. Lamb, India House, containing a long extract from "Madoc in Southey's hand. Coleridge, having been invited by Stoddart to Malta, was now in London on his way thither. Tobin was probably James Webbe Tobin, brother of John Tobin, the solicitor and dramatist. 1804 A Coleridgean Dream 295 Between this letter and the next comes a letter from Lamb to Robert Lloyd, dated at the end March 13, 1804, in which Lamb congratulates Robert Lloyd on his approaching marriage to Hannah Hart. The wedding was celebrated on August 2, 1804.] MY LETTER 117 MARY LAMB TO SARAH STODDART [No date.? March, 1804.] Y dearest Sarah,—I will just write a few hasty lines to say Coleridge is setting off sooner than we expected ; and I every moment expect him to call in one of his great hurrys for this. Charles intended to write by him, but has not: most likely he will send a letter after him to Portsmouth : if he does, you will certainly hear from him soon. We rejoiced with exceeding joy to hear of your safe arrival: I hope your brother will return home in a few years a very rich man. Seventy pounds in one fortnight is a pretty beginning— I envy your brother the pleasure of seeing Coleridge drop in unexpectedly upon him; we talk-but it is but wild and idle talk of following him he is to get my brother some little snug place of a thousand a year, and we are to leave all, and come and live among ye. What a pretty dream. Coleridge is very ill. I dread the thought of his long voyage-write as soon as he arrives, whether he does or not, and tell me how he is. Jamaica bodies... [words illegible]. He has got letters of recommendation to Governor Ball, and God knows who; and he will talk and talk, and be universally admired. But I wish to write for him a letter of recommendation to Mrs. Stoddart, and to yourself, to take upon ye, on his first arrival, to be kind affectionate nurses; and mind, now, that you perform this duty faithfully, and write me a good account of yourself. Behave to him as you would to me, or to Charles, if we came sick and unhappy to you. I have no news to send you; Coleridge will tell you how we are going on. Charles has lost the newspaper; but what we dreaded as an evil has proved a great blessing, for we have both strangely recovered our health and spirits since this has happened; and I hope, when I write next, I shall be able to tell you Charles has begun something which will produce a little money; for it is not well to be very poor— which we certainly are at this present writing. I sit writing here, and thinking almost you will see it tomorrow; and what a long, long time it will be ere you receive this-When I saw your letter, I fancy'd you were even just then in the first bustle of a new reception, every moment seeing new faces, and staring at new objects, when, at that time, every thing had become familiar to you; and the strangers, your new dancing partners, had perhaps become gossiping fireside friends. You tell me of your gay, splendid doings; tell me, likewise, what manner of home-life you lead -Is a quiet evening in a Maltese drawing room as pleasant as those we have passed in Mitre Court and Bell yard?—Tell me all about it, every thing pleasant, and every thing unpleasant, that befalls you. I want you to say a great deal about yourself. Are you happy? and do you not repent going out? I wish I could see you for one hour only. Remember me affectionately to your sister and brother; and tell me, when you write, if Mrs. Stoddart likes Malta, and how the climate agrees with her and with thee. We heard you were taken prisoners, and for several days believed the tale. How did the pearls, and the fine court finery, bear the fatigues of the voyage, and how often have they been worn and admired? Rickman wants to know if you are going to be married yet-satisfy him in that little particular when you write. The Fenwicks send their love, and Mrs. Reynolds her love, and the little old lady her best respects. Mrs. Jefferies, who I see now and then, talks of you with tears in her eyes, and, when she heard you was taken prisoner, Lord! how frightened she was. She has heard, she tells me, that Mr. Stoddart is to have a pension of two thousand a year, whenever he chuses to return to England. God bless you, and send you all manner of comforts and happinesses. Your most affectionate friend, MARY LAMB. How-do? how-do? No time to write. S. T. C. going off in a great hurry. CH. LAMB. 1804 Coleridge Leaves for Malta 297 [Miss Stoddart was now in Malta. Governor Ball was Sir Alexander Ball, to whom Coleridge was to act as private secretary and of whom he wrote some years later in The Friend. "Charles has lost the newspaper "-his work on the Morning Post. Lamb's principal period on this paper had begun after Stuart sold it in September, 1803, and it lasted until February, 1804 (see notes in Vol. II. of this edition). "We heard you were taken prisoners"-by the French. "Mrs. Reynolds "-Lamb's old schoolmistress and pensioner. Mrs. Jefferies I do not know.] LETTER 118 CHARLES LAMB TO S. T. COLERIDGE [P.M. April 4, 1804.] Mary would send her best love, but I write at office. Thursday [April 5]. The I came safe. Μ Y dear C.-I but just received your commission-abounding letter. All shall be done. Make your European heart easy in Malta, all shall be performed. You say I am to transcribe off part of your letters and send to X somebody (but the name is lost under the wafer, so you must give it me) -I suppose Wordswth. I have been out of town since Saturday, the reason I had not your letter before. N.B. N.B. Knowing I had 2 or 3 Easter holydays, it was my intention to have ask'd you if my accompanying you to Portsmth would have been pleasant. But you were not visible, except just at the critical moment of going off from the Inn, at which time I could not get at you. So Deus aliter disposuit, and I went down into Hertfordshire. I write in great bustle indeed-God bless you again. Attend to what I have written mark'd X above, and don't merge any part of your Orders under seal again. C. LAMB. [Addressed to "S. T. Coleridge, Esqr., J. C. Mottley's, Esq., Portsmouth, Hants." Coleridge had left London for Portsmouth on March 27; he sailed for Malta on April 9.] |