of the "Wonder of Nature" near the Hague. "That Wonder of Nature is a Church-monument, where an Earl and a Lady are engraven with 365 Children about them, which were all deliver❜d at one Birth." The story tells that a beggar woman with twins asked alms of the Countess, who denying that it was possible for two children to be born at once and vilifying the beggar, that woman cursed her and called upon God to show His judgment upon her by causing her to bear "at one birth as many Children as there are days in the year, which she did before the same year's end, having never born Child before." Howell seems to have been convinced of the authenticity of the story by the spectacle of the christening basin used by the family. The beggar, who spoke on the third day of the year, meant as many days as had been in that year-three. Edith was Southey's wife.] LETTER 35 CHARLES LAMB TO ROBERT SOUTHEY Oct. 18th, 1798. D' EAR Southey, I have at last been so fortunate as to pick up Wither's Emblems for you, that "old book and quaint,' as the brief author of "Rosamund Gray" hath it; it is in a most detestable state of preservation, and the cuts are of a fainter impression than I have seen. Some child, the curse of antiquaries and bane of bibliopolical rarities, hath been dabbling in some of them with its paint and dirty fingers, and in particular hath a little sullied the author's own portraiture, which I think valuable, as the poem that accompanies it is no common one; this last excepted, the Emblems are far inferior to old Quarles. I once told you otherwise, but I had not then read old Q. with attention. I have picked up, too, another copy of Quarles for ninepence!!! O tempora! O lectores!-so that if you have lost or parted with your own copy, say so, and I can furnish you, for you prize these things more than I do. You will be amused, I think, with honest Wither's "Supersedeas to all them whose custom it is, without any deserving, to importune authors to give unto them their books." I am sorry 'tis imperfect, as the lottery board annexed to it also is. Methinks you might modernise and elegantise this Supersedeas, and place it in front of your "Joan of Arc," as a gentle hint to Messrs. Park, &c. One of the happiest emblems and comicalest cuts is the owl and little chirpers, page 63. Wishing you all amusement, which your true emblem-fancier can scarce fail to find in even bad emblems, I remain your caterer to command, C. LAMB. 1798 "ROSAMUND GRAY" 125 Love and respects to Edith. I hope she is well. How does your Calendar prosper? NOTE [This letter contains Lamb's first reference to Rosamund Gray, his only novel, which had been published a little earlier in the year. "Wither's Emblems, an old book and quaint,' was one of the few volumes belonging to old Margaret, Rosamund's grandmother (Chapter I.). See next letter and note. Wither's Emblems was published in 1635; Quarles' in the same year. Wither's "Supersedeas" will be found in the Appendix, page 950. I reproduce the owl and little chirpers from the edition of 1635.] LETTER 36 CHARLES LAMB TO ROBERT SOUTHEY [October 29, 1798.] D' EAR Southey, I thank you heartily for the Eclogue; it pleases me mightily, being so full of picture-work and circumstances. I find no fault in it, unless perhaps that Joanna's ruin is a catastrophe too trite: and this is not the first or second time you have clothed your indignation, in verse, in a tale of ruined innocence. The old lady, spinning in the sun, I hope would not disdain to claim some kindred with old Margaret. I could almost wish you to vary some circumstances in the conclusion. A gentleman seducer has so often been described in prose and verse; what if you had accomplished Joanna's ruin by the clumsy arts and rustic gifts of some countryfellow? I am thinking, I believe, of the song, "An old woman clothed in grey, Whose daughter was charming and young, By Roger's false flattering tongue." A Roger-Lothario would be a novel character: I think you might paint him very well. You may think this a very silly suggestion, and so, indeed, it is; but, in good truth, nothing else but the first words of that foolish ballad put me upon scribbling my "Rosamund." But I thank you heartily for the poem. Not having anything of my own to send you in return-though, to tell truth, I am at work upon something, which if I were to cut away and garble, perhaps I might send you an extract or two that might not displease you; but I will not do that; and whether it will come to anything, I know not, for I am as slow as a Fleming painter when I compose anything. I will crave leave to put down a few lines of old Christopher Marlow's; I take them from his tragedy, "The Jew of Malta. The Jew is a famous character, quite out of nature; but, when we consider the terrible idea our simple ancestors had of a Jew, not more to be discommended for a certain discolouring (I think Addison calls it) than the witches and fairies of Marlow's mighty successor. The scene is betwixt Barabas, the Jew, and Ithamore, a Turkish captive exposed to sale for a slave. BARABAS (A precious rascal.) "As for myself, I walk abroad a-nights, There I enriched the priests with burials, With digging graves and ringing dead men's knells; And in the wars 'twixt France and Germany, Under pretence of serving [helping] Charles the Fifth, Then after that was I an usurer, And with extorting, cozening, forfeiting, I fill'd the jails with bankrupts in a year, And with young orphans planted hospitals, And now and then one hang'd himself for grief, Pinning upon his breast a long great scroll, Now hear Ithamore, the other gentle nature, explain how he spent his time : ITHAMORE (A comical dog.) "Faith, master, in setting Christian villages on fire, One time I was an hostler at [in] an inn, And in the night-time secretly would I steal To travellers' chambers, and there cut their throats. I strowed powder on the marble stones, |