Johnson (p. 275 and earlier) was the bookseller (or, in modern terms, publisher) with whom Lamb was negotiating Hazlitt's business, re Ned Search, etc.

LETTERS CXXXVII.-CXLIX. (pp. 276-299).-This Phillips was secretary to the Rt. Hon. Charles Abbott, Speaker of the House of Commons. He and the Burneys were amongst Lamb's more especial "whist-boys," and Lamb afterwards refers to "his few hairs bristling up at the charge of a revoke, which he declares impossible.' Mr Tobin (p. 282) was a solicitor, living in Barnard's Inn. His brother did at last get a piece accepted; but along with the news, which almost turned his head, came doctor's orders to be off to the West Indies if he would save his life; and he died on the voyage, the first or second day out. The Tobin of this letter is the one spoken of in "Last Essays of Elia" as "Poor Tobin," for he had lost his sight; but he seems by all accounts to have been an energetic talker. The 66 young Roscius of p. 288 was of course young Betty, the boy actor. The (alleged) newspaper account of Hazlitt's suicide, at p. 296, and what follows, are but fragments of an extensive and sustained hoax, for fuller accounts of which I must refer the reader to Mr W. Carew Hazlitt's book "Lamb and Hazlitt." The next letter, to Hazlitt's father, is about more serious business-Hazlitt's courtship of Sarah Stoddart-and is, be it remarked, an outstanding example of Lamb's amazing moral versatility.

LETTERS CLII.-CLXI. (pp. 306-319).-Lamb had sent in to Godwin the MS. of his "Adventures of Ulysses," and some incidents were found open to objection. Mrs Clarke (p. 314) was, or had been, the mistress of the Duke of York, and had been brought into renown by some parliamentary questions and answers-see "Critical Essays," p. 318. The two volumes of Juvenile Poetry (p. 315) were "Poetry for Children." Green's Tu Quoque is so printed in Talfourd, as if Green were the author and Tu Quoque the play, and the error has been perpetuated here by an intermission (alas, too frequent!) of editorial vigilance. But the author of "Green's Tu Quoque, or the City Gallant" was Joseph Cooke. The

rich auditors in Albemarle Street would be the audience of fashionables who attend, or used to attend, lectures at the Royal Institution, where Coleridge (vide p. 304) had lately lectured. The book for children on Titles of Honour has not been found, but I am inclined to think it may have existed. Epistemon (p. 325) is, of course, Mary. Hazlitt, who had more respect for her intelligence than that of any woman he had ever known, probably called her so (Gr. 'ETTμwv, the knowing, the wise, or sagacious one).

LETTER CLXXV. (p. 336).-The form of address Dear Resuscitate has reference to Coleridge's habit of being, or of fancying himself, on the point of death. On another occasion Lamb, in a letter to Gillman, excuses himself for not troubling a dead man (sc. Coleridge) about a certain small matter.

LETTERS CLXXIX.-CXCI. (pp. 348-373).-Burton (p. 348) is Burton Junior (sc. Charles Lamb), who had evidently sent Wordsworth a copy a copy of the Champion containing his Melancholy of Tailors-see "Essays and Sketches." Gifford is Christian - named (pp. 350-52) Baviad because of his satire, with that title, upon the Della-Cruscan poets, and Shoemaker because he had been apprenticed to that calling, which is probably the most intellectual calling in the world, meaning by that, a calling in which there are more men of splendid brain and of a habit of shrewd, independent thinking, than in any other. Thomas Massa Alsager, one of the multitude of strong men whom Lamb knew, but to whom no letters of his are extant, was a Times journalist, great on finance and greater still on music. Hence "Alsinger." Capel Lofft, mentioned later, was a whig lawyer and heterodox publicist. William Ayrton (p. 369), who now comes into the correspondence, was a musical critic, impresario, and Musical Director at the King's Theatre, or Italian Opera. Miss Hutchinson (p. 370) was Mrs Wordsworth's sister-in-law. "Louisa, the daughter of Mr Topham," etc. (p. 372), begins a jumble of true and false, not worth disentangling. But it was true that Mrs Holcroft had become Mrs Kenney. Fanny (p. 375) would be her daughter, Fanny Holcroft.

LETTERS CXCIII. - CC. (pp. 376-391).—Morganelsewhere called for inscrutable reasons Morgan Demigorgon-was a friend, as all his family were hearty friends, of Coleridge. The letter to the Kenneys has hitherto been dated 1826, though that would seem incredible. The inquisitive lady (p. 382) was Mrs Godwin. The reader will not miss the abounding humour of the three dots on the next page, nor suppose they indicate any editorial sin of omission. Barron Field (p. 387) had, in the previous year, received a judgeship in New South Wales. Mr C. Chambers (p. 389) was the brother of a colleague of Lamb's at the India House, and, it would seem, worthy to be the son of such a gourmet as his father is famed to have been; and, on this account, also deemed worthy by Lamb to be "the only depository of" -an unrevealed secret.

LETTERS CCII.-CCXIII. (pp. 396-413).-There is a similar letter from Wordsworth to Collier, bespeaking his interest for the projected course of lectures. The course was delivered in January following. The date of the letter to Haydon (p. 396) is fixed by Crabb Robinson's memorable description of the supper at which Lamb encountered the Comptroller of Stamps and, in his own exquisite way of putting it, "recoiled from him so strangely." The Messrs Ollier were young men, brothers, and seem to have started as publishers after Lamb's becoming acquainted with them. One of them was a graceful author, but their chief grace is that they not only published the famous "Works" but, according to the traditional account, were the originators and instigators of the decision to collect the scattered Scripta Pre-Eliana. The "Peter Bell" (p. 404), which Lamb had received a week ago, was a sort of advance burlesque of Wordsworth's manner, written by Hood's brother-in-law and collaborator, J. Hamilton Reynolds. Hence it was that Shelley called his version "Peter Bell the Third." Mrs Bruton, the glorious woman (p. 407), is also glorified in the essay Mackery End in Hertfordshire. of this edition, p. 148. of a few pages back. printed here by the

See "Essays of Elia," vol i. Mrs Gold was the Miss Burrell The letters to Miss Kelly are kind permission kind permission of Mr John

Hollingshead. For more concerning the topic, the reader is referred to the Preface to "Critical Essays" (vol. iii. of this Edition). Miss Kelly's reply was as follows:

HENRIETTA STREET, July 20th 1819. An early and deeply rooted attachment has fixed my heart on one from whom no worldly prospect can well induce me to withdraw it. But while I thus frankly and decidedly decline your proposal, believe me, I am not insensible to the high honour which the preference of such a mind as yours confers upon me-let me, however, hope that all thought upon this subject will end with this letter, and that you will henceforth encourage no other sentiment towards me than esteem in my private character and a continuance of that approbation of my humble talents which you have already expressed so much and so often to my advantage and gratification.

Believe me I feel proud to acknowledge myself

Your obliged friend

F. M. KELLY.

To C. LAMB, ESQ.

In Lamb's second letter there is a play upon the word "bones," it having a technical meaning as applied to the bone or ivory tablets belonging to members of the theatre, who could lend them for an evening to pass in a friend.

66

LETTERS CCXV.-CCXVIII. (pp. 415-420).—The disgraceful purpose of the nice letter to Joseph Cottle was to secure a copy of his portrait for an illustrated edition of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" which Hunt was then planning to bring out, and which was to contain a portrait gallery of all the damned and spurned ones. Lamb himself, to mention a detail, had been of the number. The Willy whose intellectuals are reported upon on pp. 417-420 is, of course, William Wordsworth, junior.

LETTERS CCXIX.-CCXXIII. (pp. 420-421).—Allsop was perhaps the most sincere and reverential admirer among the many admirers whom Lamb's genius, and the charm of his character, drew around him. Himself a man of excep

XI.

2 F

446

NOTES TO "LETTERS "

tionally serious mind, taking the social condition of mankind much to heart, a reformer, a Radical, almost a revolutionist, he yet found no difficulty in accepting Lamb in toto; relishing all his gaiety, allowing for all his irresponsibleness, his affectation of short views and poco-curantism—and has, in fact, written some of the finest things about him. The briefness and datelessness of these letters are due to the fact that Allsop was in business in London, was in the way of seeing the Lambs almost weekly, and that these were but hasty notes, of acknowledgment or invitation, scribbled at the India House and probably given to the office boy to take round to Mr Allsop's.

LETTERS CCXXIV.-CCXXVI. (pp. 421-423). The lines on Coleridge were in Lloyd's "Desultory Thoughts in London," lately published. The Manchester Sonnet was a sonnet on the Manchester Massacre. The Marine Sonnet seems to be "Fancy in Nubibus," but why it is said to be "about Brownie I cannot guess. For Barron Field's First Fruits of Australian Poetry, see "Critical Essays." The W. W. whom J. Proctor (p. 423) is invited to meet may either have been Walter Wilson or William Wordsworth. Lamb was in the habit of sharing as widely as possible the great joy he took in a visit from Wordsworth, and would invite as many friends as he could for that night. But I do not find that Wordsworth was still in London in November 1820, though he had been in town for a good many weeks in the late summer.

LETTER CCXXVII. (p. 423).—This letter has hitherto been dated vaguely—and probably at random-1824. I have brought it forward here because it has every mark of being the first form-suggestion-nucleus-of the essay on The Two Races of Men, which appeared in the “London Magazine" in December 1820.