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1806

THE PLOT OF "MR. H."

367

every corner. The story is a coxcomb appearing at Bath, vastly rich -all the ladies dying for him-all bursting to know who he isbut he goes by no other name than Mr. H.-a curiosity like that of the dames of Strasburg about the man with the great nose. But I won't tell you any more about it. Yes, I will; but I can't give you an idea how I have done it. I'll just tell you that after much vehement admiration, when his true name comes out, "Hogsflesh," all the women shun him, avoid him, and not one can be found to change their name for him-that's the idea-how flat it is here! -but how whimsical in the farce! and only think how hard upon me it is that the ship is despatched to-morrow, and my triumph cannot be ascertained till the Wednesday after-but all China will ring of it by and by. N.B. (But this is a secret). The Professor has got a tragedy coming out with the young Roscius in it in January next, as we say January last it will be with you-and though it is a profound secret now, as all his affairs are, it cannot be much of one by the time you read this. However, don't let it go any further. I understand there are dramatic exhibitions in China. One would not like to be forestalled. Do you find in all this stuff I have written anything like those feelings which one should send my old adventuring friend, that is gone to wander among Tartars and may never come again? I don't-but your going away, and all about you, is a threadbare topic. I have worn it out with thinking-it has come to me when I have been dull with anything, till my sadness has seemed more to have come from it than to have introduced it. I want you, you don't know how much—but if I had you here in my European garret, we should but talk over such stuff as I have written-so-. Those "Tales from Shakespear" are near coming out, and Mary has begun a new work. Mr. Dawe is turned author: he has been in such a way latelyDawe the painter, I mean-he sits and stands about at Holcroft's and says nothing-then sighs and leans his head on his hand. I took him to be in love-but it seems he was only meditating a work,-"The Life of Morland," the young man is not used to composition. Rickman and Captain Burney are well; they assemble at my house pretty regularly of a Wednesday-a new institution. Like other great men I have a public day, cribbage and pipes, with Phillips and noisy Martin.

Good Heaven! what a bit only I've got left! How shall I squeeze all I know into this morsel! Coleridge is come home, and is going to turn lecturer on taste at the Royal Institution. I shall get £200 from the theatre if "Mr. H." has a good run, and I hope £100 for the copyright. Nothing if it fails; and there never was a more ticklish thing. The whole depends on the manner in which the name is brought out, which I'value myself on, as a chef-d'œuvre.

How the paper grows less and less! In less than two minutes I shall cease to talk to you, and you may rave to the Great Wall of China. N.B. Is there such a wall! Is it as big as Old London Wall by Bedlam? Have you met with a friend of mine, named Ball, at Canton ?-if you are acquainted, remember me kindly to him. May-be, you'll think I have not said enough of Tuthill and the Holcrofts. Tuthill is a noble fellow, as far as I can judge. The Holcrofts bear their disappointment pretty well, but indeed they are sadly mortified. Mrs. H. is cast down. It was well, if it were but on this account, that Tuthill is come home. N.B. If my little thing don't succeed, I shall easily survive, having, as it were, compared to H.'s venture, but a sixteenth in the lottery. Mary and I are to sit next the orchestra in the pit, next the tweedledees. She remembers you. You are more to us than five hundred farces, clappings, &c.

Come back one day.

NOTE

C. LAMB.

[The letter is addressed to T. Manning, Esq., Canton. At the end Lamb adds:

"Holcroft has just writ to me as follows:—

"DEAR SIR, Miss L. has informed us you are writing to Manning. Will you be kind enough to inform him directly from me that I and my family are most truly anxious for his safety; that if praying could bring down blessings on him we should pray morning noon and night; that his and our good friends the Tuthills are once more happily safe in England, and that I earnestly entreat not only a single letter but a correspondence with him whenever the thing [is] practicable, with such an address as may make letters from me likely to find him. In short, dear sir, if you will be kind enough to speak of me to Manning, you cannot speak with greater friendship and respect than I feel.

"Yours with true friendship and kindness.""

In the beginning of this letter we see the first germ of an idea afterwards developed in the letter to Barron Field of August 31, 1817 (see page 500), and again, more fully, in the Elia essay "Distant Correspondents."

Tuthill, afterwards Sir George Leman Tuthill (1772-1835), was the physician, who, on a visit to Paris, was included among the English détenus and held a captive for several years. He was released only after his wife had made a personal appeal to Napoleon on his return from hunting. The words "incredible romantic pretences" refer chaffingly to Manning's application to Napoleon for liberty to return to England two or three years previously.

1 [See Appendix II., page 970.]

1806

"MR. H." FAILS

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Holcroft's "Vindictive Man" was produced at Drury Lane on November 20, 1806. It was a complete failure. His "Road to Ruin," produced in 1792 at Covent Garden, with "Gentleman Lewis as Goldfinch, had been a great success and is still occasionally played. Holcroft was also a very voluminous author and translator, and the partner of his brother-in-law, Mercier, in a printing business, which, however, was unprofitable.

"The dames of Strasburg"-in Tristram Shandy, Vol. IV. "The Professor has a tragedy." This was "Faulkener," for which Lamb wrote the prologue (see Letters Nos. 89 and 90, pages 225 and 228, and Vol. V., page 123). Owing to the capriciousness of Master Betty, the Young Roscius, it was not produced until December 16, 1807, and then with Elliston in the principal part. It was only partially successful, a result for which Godwin blamed Holcroft, who had revised the play.

Mary Lamb's new work was Mrs. Leicester's School.

"Mr. Dawe is turned author." The Life of George Morland, by George Dawe, was published in 1807.

Coleridge's intended series of lectures on Taste was abandoned. He did not actually deliver any until January 12, 1808.]

LETTER 158

CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

[Dated at end: December 11, 1806.]

Mary's Love to all of you-I wouldn't let her write

EAR Wordsworth, Mr. H. came out last night and failed.

DEA I had many fears; the subject was not substantial enough.

John Bull must have solider fare than a Letter. We are pretty stout about it, have had plenty of condoling friends, but after all, we had rather it should have succeeded. You will see the Prologue in most of the Morning Papers. It was received with such shouts as I never witness'd to a Prologue. It was attempted to be encored. How hard! a thing I did merely as a task, because it was wanted --and set no great store by; and Mr. H.—— -!!

The quantity of friends we had in the house, my brother and I being in Public Offices &c., was astonishing but they yielded at length to a few hisses. A hundred hisses-damn the word, I write it like kisses-how different-a hundred hisses outweigh a 1000 Claps. The former come more directly from the Heart-Well, 'tis withdrawn and there is an end.

Better Luck to us

11 Dec.-(turn over).

VOL. VI.-24

C. L..

P.S. Pray when any of you write to the Clarksons, give our kind Loves, and say we shall not be able to come and see them at Xmas -as I shall have but a day or two,—and tell them we bear our mortification pretty well.

NOTE

["Mr. H." was produced at Drury Lane on December 10, with Elliston in the title-rôle. Lamb's account of the evening is supplemented by Hazlitt in his essay "On Great and Little Things" and by Crabb Robinson, a new friend whom he had just made, in his Diary. See Vol. V. of this edition, pages 180 and 368. The curious thing is that the management of Drury Lane advertised the farce as a success and announced it for the next night. But Lamb apparently interfered and it was not played again. Some few years later "Mr. H." was performed acceptably in America.]

LETTER 159

CHARLES LAMB TO SARAH STODDART

December 11 [1806].

Don't mind this being a queer letter. I am in haste, and taken up by visitors, condolers, &c. God bless you!

DE

EAR Sarah,-Mary is a little cut at the ill success of " Mr. H.," which came out last night and failed. I know you'll be sorry, but never mind. We are determined not to be cast down. I am going to leave off tobacco, and then we must thrive. A smoking man must write smoky farces.

Mary is pretty well, but I persuaded her to let me write. We did not apprise you of the coming out of " Mr. H." for fear of ill-luck. You were much better out of the house. If it had taken, your partaking of our good luck would have been one of our greatest joys. As it is, we shall expect you at the time you mentioned. But whenever you come you shall be most welcome.

God bless you, dear Sarah,

Yours most truly,

Mary is by no means unwell, but I made her let me write.

NOTE

C. L.

[Following this should come a letter from Mary Lamb to Mrs. Thomas Clarkson, dated December 23, 1806, not available for this

1806

A LETTER OF REPENTANCE

edition. It also describes the ill success of "Mr. H."

371

"The

blame rested chiefly with Charles and yet it should not be called blame for it was mere ignorance of stage effect. . . he seems perfectly aware why and for what cause it failed. He intends to write one more with all his dearly bought experience in his head, and should that share same fate he will then turn his mind to some other pursuit." Lamb did not write another farce for many years. When he did "The Pawnbroker's Daughter" (see Vol. V. of this edition, page 212)—it deservedly was not acted.]

I

LETTER 160

CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM GODWIN

[No date. ? 1806.]

REPENT. Can that God whom thy votaries say that thou hast demolished expect more? I did indite a splenetic letter, but did the black Hypocondria never gripe thy heart, till thou hast taken a friend for an enemy? The foul fiend Flibbertigibbet leads me over four inched bridges, to course my own shadow for a traitor. There are certain positions of the moon, under which I counsel thee not to take anything written from this domicile as serious.

I rank thee with Alves, Latinè Helvetius, or any of his cursed crew? Thou art my friend, and henceforth my philosopher-thou shalt teach Distinction to the junior branches of my household, and Deception to the greyhaired Janitress at my door.

What! Are these atonements? Can Arcadians be brought upon knees, creeping and crouching?

Come, as Macbeth's drunken porter says, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock-seven times in a day shalt thou batter at my peace, and if I shut aught against thee, save the Temple of Janus, may Briareus, with his hundred hands, in each a brass knocker, lead me such a life. C. LAMB.

NOTE

[I cannot account for this letter in the absence of its predecessor and that from Godwin to which it replies.

"The foul fiend Flibbertigibbet." See "King Lear,” III., 4, 120. "Helvetius "-Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771), author of De L'Esprit, which was condemned by the Sorbonne. "Macbeth's drunken porter." See "Macbeth," II., 3.

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