II. FIRST EDITIONS.

[Arranged Chronologically.]

1796.

[1]

Collation: Bastard Title, 1 page. Title, 1 page. pp. xvi. pp. 188. “Errata,” 1 unnumbered page of Advertisement, “Published by the same author.” Size 6½ × 4.

Note. Coleridge says in the Preface, “The Effusions signed C. L. were written by Mr. Charles Lamb, of the India House—independently of the signature their superior merit would have sufficiently distinguished them.” There are four, viz.: VII. “To Mrs. Siddons.” XI. Beginning “Was it some sweet device of faery land?” XII. Beginning “Methinks how dainty sweet it were, reclin’d.” XIII. “Written at midnight, by the sea-side, after a voyage.”

Price. Johnson Sale, N. Y., 1890, $9.50 [calf, gilt]. Sotheby’s, 1887 [morocco, gilt top], £3 15s.

1797.

[2]

Collation: Title, 1 page. pp. xx. pp. 278. Size 6-11/16 × 4⅛.

Note. Lamb’s contribution was eight Sonnets and a Dedication, viz.: “Fragments,” (6) “A Vision of Repentance,” in Supplement, “Childhood,” “Grandame,” “The Sabbath Bells,” “Fancy,” “The Tomb of Douglas.”

“There were inserted in my former Edition a few Sonnets of my Friend and Old Schoolfellow, Charles Lamb. He has now communicated to me a complete collection of all his Poems—quæ qui non prorsus amet ilium omnes et virtutes et veneres ordore.”

This volume contains two Prefaces, one to the First Edition, signed S. T. C., and one to Second Edition, signed “Stowey, May, 1797,” S. T. C.

Price. Johnson Sale, N. Y., 1890 [calf, gilt top], $8.00. Sotheby’s, 1887 [calf], £1 18s. Sotheby’s, 1888 [calf, gilt], £1 5s. Sotheby’s, 1887 [calf], £1 10s.

1798.

[3]

Collation: Title, 1 page, Double Title, 1 page, Dedication, 1 page. pp. 95. Index, 1 page. Size 6⅝ × 4⅜.

Price. Johnson Sale, N. Y., 1890 [morocco uncut, gilt top], $28.00. Sotheby’s, 1890 [original boards, uncut], £9.

1798

[4]

Collation: Title, 1 page, Dedication, 1 page. pp. 134. Size 6⅝ × 4⅛.

Note. Another edition was published the same year in Birmingham. Printed for Thos. Pearson, pp. 134.

With the exception of the title-page this edition is identical with the London one. Charles Lloyd’s father lived in Birmingham, and it is suggested that a few copies had been struck off there. [Dedication. “This Tale is inscribed in friendship to Marmaduke Thompson, of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge.”]

Price. Dodd & Mead [morocco, gilt. Title in fac-simile], $50.00. New York, 1885 [Full calf, by Bedford], $25.00.

1799

[5]

Collation: Title, 1 page, Advertisement, 1 unnumbered leaf, Contents, 4 unnumbered pages, pp. 300. Size 6⅞ × 4½.

Note. This volume was edited by Robert Southey, and published by Joseph Cottle. Among the distinguished contributors were Coleridge, Southey, Charles Lloyd, George Dyer, Mrs. Opie, Joseph Cottle, etc., etc. Lamb contributed “Living Without God in the World,” pp. 90-92. A second series was published the next year [See Letter to Southey, November 28, 1798], which contained Coleridge’s Poem “This Lime-Tree Bower my Prison, A Poem addressed to Charles Lamb of the India House,” pp. 140-144.

Price. Sotheby’s, 1888 [original boards, uncut], £1. [calf] £1 5s.

1800

[6]

Collation: Title, 1 page, Advertisement, 1 page. (Dramatis Personæ, reverse.) pp. 73. Size 8⅜ × 5.

Note. Lamb wrote the Epilogue to this tragedy, which was produced on December 13, 1800, at Drury Lane. It was a complete failure. [See Letter of Lamb to Manning, December 16, 1800.]

Price. $3.50.

1802

[7]

Collation: Title, 1 page, Dramatis Personæ, 1 page. pp. 128. Size 6½ × 4⅛.

Note. Lamb had written this three years earlier than date of publication, and had showed it to Southey and Coleridge, who tried to dissuade him from publishing it. It was offered to John Kemble in 1799, but declined. The original title for the play was “Pride’s Cure.”

Price. Johnson Sale, N. Y., 1890 [calf, gilt top, uncut], $19.00. Scribner & Welford, 1889 [boards, uncut], $30.00. Dodd & Mead [half morocco, yellow edges], $25.00. Sotheby’s, 1889 [autograph from author], £11 15s. Pearson, 1889 [uncut, original boards], £5 10s.

1807

[8]

Collation: Frontispiece, 1 page, Title, 1 page, Contents, 1 unnumbered page. pp. viii. pp. 178. Advertisement on reverse of last page.

Note. Lamb wrote for this volume “The Witch Aunt,” “First Going to Church,” “The Sea Voyage.” The other tales were by Mary. The copyright for this and “Tales from Shakespear” was sold to Baldwin and Cradock on July 21, 1836, by Mary Ann Lamb, for £15. The original holder, according to the Indenture, was William Godwin.

Price. The Second Edition, 1809, fetched at Sotheby’s, 1888 [original boards], £16 10s. [No quotation found on the First Edition.]

1807

[9]

Collation: Title, 1 page, Preface, 1 page, Prologue, 1 page, Dramatis Personæ, 1 page. pp. 80. Size 8½ × 5.

Note. The Prologue was by Charles Lamb. The tragedy was produced at Drury Lane, December 16, 1807. The subject was taken from an incident in De Foe’s “Roxana.”

Price. Spencer, 1890 [half morocco], £2 5s.

1807

[10]

Collation: Vol I. Frontispiece, 1 page, Title, 1 page. pp. ix. Contents, 1 page, 1 unnumbered page. pp. 235. 10 illustrations. Vol. II. Frontispiece, 1 page, Title, 1 page, Contents, 1 page, 1 unnumbered page. pp. 261. 3 pages of advertisements. Colophon: Printed by T. Davison, Whitefriars.

Note. The greater number of these Tales are written by Mary, viz.: “Tempest,” “As You Like It,” “Winter’s Tale,” “Midsummer Night,” “Much Ado,” “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “Cymbeline,” “All’s Well that Ends Well,” “Pericles,” “Taming of Shrew,” “Comedy of Errors,” “Measure for Measure,” “Twelfth Night;” the others by Charles Lamb: viz., “Othello,” “Merchant of Venice,” “Macbeth,” “King Lear,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hamlet,” “Timon of Athens.” These volumes seem to have been issued in sheep, there being no copies in original boards known. Each volume has ten illustrations, engraved by William Blake, from the designs of Mulready.

Price. Spencer Catalogue, 1890, in the original calf, £22. Dodd & Mead, 1886 [morocco, gilt top], $75. W. E. Benjamin, 1887 [morocco, gilt], $50.00. Sotheby’s, 1888 [morocco, gilt edge], £10. Pickering & Chatto [original calf], £14 14s.

1808

[11]

Collation: Engraved Frontispiece, 1 page, Vignette Title, 1 page, Title, 1 page. pp. vi. pp. 203. Advertisement on reverse of page 203. Size 6⅞ × 4⅛.

Note. “I have done two books since the failure of my farce: they will both be out this summer. The one is a juvenile book—the ‘Adventures of Ulysses,’ intended to be an introduction to the reading of Telemachus! It is done out of the Odyssey, not from the Greek (I would not mislead you) nor yet from Pope’s Odyssey, but from an older translation of one Chapman.” See Letter to Manning, February 26, 1808.

Price. Johnson Sale, New York, 1890 [morocco, gilt], $20. Sotheby’s, 1888 [calf], £3 7s. 6d.—uncut original boards, £3 3s. Sotheby’s, 1889 [calf], £5 12s. 6d. Robson & Kerslake, 1889 [calf, gilt], £8 8s. Sotheby’s, 1889 [calf], £2 6s. J. Pearson [calf, by Bedford], £6 6s. Scribner & Welford [original boards, uncut], $16.00.

1808

[12]

Collation: Bastard Title, 1 page, Title, 1 page. pp. xii. pp. 484. Size 5 × 7¾.

Note. “It is done out of the old Plays at the Museum and out of Dodsley’s Collection, etc. It is to have Notes.” [See Letter to Manning, February 26, 1808.]

Price. Johnson Sale, N. Y., 1890 [morocco, gilt], $7.00. Sotheran, 1890 [uncut], £2 2s. J. Pearson, 1890 [half calf, gilt top, uncut], £3 15s. Scribner & Welford [boards, uncut], $16.50.

1809

[13]

Collation: Vol. I. Frontispiece, 1 page, Title, 1 page, Table of Contents 1 page. pp. 103. 1 page of Advertisement. Colophon: Mercier and Shervet, Printers, No. 32, Little Bartholomew Close, London. Vol. II. Frontispiece, 1 page, Title, 1 page, Table of Contents, 1 page. pp. 104. Colophon: Printed by Mercier and Chervet, No. 32, Little Bartholomew Close, London. Bound in gray paper with green leather backs.

Note. Lamb contributed to this “The Three Friends,” “To a River in which a Child was Drowned,” “Queen Oriana’s Dream,” besides other poems not certainly identified; the rest were by Mary. The Frontispiece to Vol. I. is a little boy seated in a Landscape, with the line “Keep on your own side, do Grey Pate. Page 29.” Vol. II., the Frontispiece is “Penitent Richard standing in a Landscape,” with three lines of poetry. At the time of the Locker Catalogue, 1886, only one perfect copy was known [see Gentleman’s Magazine, July, 1877, for account of its discovery]. It was reprinted at Boston in 1812. A Mrs. Tween, daughter of Lamb’s friend Mr. Randall Norris, has a copy of “Poetry for Children” given her by Mary Lamb.

Price. Sotheby’s, 1888, £35 [Leycester’s Sale, November 12-14].

1811

[14]

Collation: Frontispiece, 1 page, Title, 1 page. pp. 31. Illustrations: Frontispiece to face Title, “The Enchanted Cat;” p. 6, “Minon Asleep;” p. 7, “The Transformation;” p. 10, “Prince Dorus and his Maids;” p. 19, “Claribel Carried Off;” p. 21, “Visit to the Beneficent Fairy;” p. 23, “Prince Dorus Offended;” p. 29, “Truth Brought Home;” p. 31, “Self Knowledge obtains its Reward.” Size 5½ × 4⅜.

Note. Only a few copies known to exist. The authenticity of this volume is established by a reference in Crabb Robinson’s Diary, May 15, 1811. There are two editions, plain and colored, not differing in any other particular. The back cover should be preserved, as it contains a curious woodcut of Prince Dorus (The Long-nosed King) and Aged Fairy. There are copies with Title-page put on cover within a key border.

Price. Dodd & Mead [1888], $175; colored [1888], morocco, $300. Sotheby’s, 1888, £30. Sotheby’s, 1889 [colored, dated 1818], £45. Sotheby’s, 1890, £29 10s. [original boards].

1811 (?).

[15]

Collation: Frontispiece, 1 page, Title, 1 page. pp. 32. Colophon, London: Printed by B. M‘Millan, | Bow Street, Covent Garden |. Illustrations: Frontispiece, “Beauty in her prosperous state.” Face page 4, “Beauty in a State of Adversity.” Page 11, “The Rose Gather’d.” Page 16, “Beauty in the Enchanted Palace.” Page 19, “Beauty visits her Library.” Page 21, “Beauty entertained with invisible music.” Page 28, “The absence of Beauty Lamented.” Page 29, “The Enchantment Dissolved.” Music: Beauty’s Song [music and second verse on reverse]. Size 5⅞ × 4½.

Note. The original is in paper-covered boards, roxburghe backs, with woodcut, underneath which are written the words “‘Go, be a Beast!’ Homer.” The engravings are supposed to be by Maria Flaxman, sister of the sculptor. On page 3 there is a water-mark dated 1810.

Price. Sotheby’s, July 9, 1889 [“Sale of Original Drawings to Martin Chuzzlewit”], etc., fetched £34. Sotheby’s [plates misplaced], 1890, £20.

1813

[16]

Collation: Title, 1 page. pp. viii. Prologue, 1 unnumbered page, Dramatis Personæ, 1 unnumbered page. pp. 72. Size 5½ × 8¾.

Note. The Prologue was written by Lamb and spoken by Mr. Carr. The Play, written in 1797, was originally entitled “Osorio.” It was brought out, revised, and re-named “Remorse,” at Drury Lane, on January 23, 1813, and had a run of twenty nights. The London Times of January 25 said of the Prologue: “The Prologue was, we hope, by some ‘d—d good natured friend,’ who had an interest in injuring the play. It was abominable.”

Price. Scribner & Welford [half calf], $6.50.

1814

[17]

Collation: Frontispiece, 1 page, Title, 1 page, Table of Contents, 1 page. pp. xxxii. pp. 368. Five illustrations, including Frontispiece. Size 8⅛ × 5½.

Note. Charles Lamb contributed sixteen pages to this volume anonymously, viz.: pp. 201-216, entitled “Confessions of a Drunkard.” The author and compiler was Basil Montagu. The Essay, with a few additional pages, was reprinted in the London Magazine, August, 1822, and signed “Elia.”

Price. Sotheby’s, 1888 [calf gilt], £2, 10s. Hitchman’s, 1890 [boards, uncut], 21s. Sotheran’s [calf, by Bedford], £3 10s. Pearson’s, 1889 [boards, uncut], £1 5s. Scribner & Welford, $25.00 [calf].

1818

[18]

Collation: Vol. I. Title, 1 page. pp. ix. 1 unnumbered page. pp. 291. Vol. II. Title, 1 page, Contents, 1 unnumbered page, Inscription, 1 unnumbered page. pp. 259. Advertisement, 2 pages. Size 6⅞ × 4⅛.

Note. The dedication is to Coleridge, and in it Lamb says: “My friend Lloyd and myself came into our first battle (authorship is a sort of warfare) under cover of the great Ajax.” There are two different issues of this date, one on thicker paper and a trifle taller than the other.

Price. Sotheby’s, 1887 [half calf], £1 5s. [calf, uncut], £2. Sotheran [original boards, with book label of Wm. Hazlitt], £5 5s. Sotheby’s, 1889 [original boards], £2 10s. J. Pearson, 1889 [original boards, uncut], £4 4s. Scribner & Welford [original boards, uncut], $25.00.

1823

[19]

Collation: Bastard Title, 1 page, Title, 1 page, Contents, 2 unnumbered pages, pp. 341. Size 7¾ × 5.

Note. These Essays were contributed mainly to the London Magazine between August, 1820, and October, 1822.

Price. Sotheby’s, 1887 [calf], £1. [Elia and Last Essays together] Sotheby’s, 1888 [russia, uncut], £11 15s.

1825-6.

[20]

Collation: Vol. I. Title, 1 page, Double Title, 1 page, Explanatory Address, 1 page, Dedication, 1 unnumbered page. Preface, 1 unnumbered page, Illustration, “Bona Dea,” 1 page. pp. 852. Vol. II. Frontispiece, 1 page, Title, 1 page, Dedication, 1 page, Preface, 1 unnumbered page. pp. viii. pp. 832. General Index, 19 pages.

Note. This was issued in weekly parts and a new title-page printed when bound. The Dedication of the first volume is to Charles Lamb. To these volumes he contributed “The Months,” April 16, 1826 [Vol. II.]; “Reminiscence of Sir Jeffrey Dunstan,” June 22, 1826 [Vol. II.]; “Captain Starkey,” July 21, 1825 [Vol. I.]; “The Ass,” October 5, 1825 [Vol. I.]; “In Re Squirrels,” October 17, 1825 [Vol. I.]; “Remarkable Correspondent,” May i, 1825 [Vol. I.]; “The Humble petition of an unfortunate Day,” August 12, 1826 [Vol. I.]; “Quatrains to the Editor,” July 9, 1825 [Vol. I.].

Price. Sotheby’s, 1889, £2 8s.

1827

[21]

Collation: Frontispiece [Petrarch’s Inkstand], 1 page, Title, 1 page, Preface, 1 unnumbered page. pp. 870.

Note. This, like the other books of Hone, was issued in Parts, every Saturday, commencing January 1, 1827, Lamb’s contributions being, p. 454, “Mrs. Gilpin riding to Edmonton,” and p. 387, “Gone or Going,” and the Introductions to the Garrick plays, which are on pages 56, 67, 80, 96, 112, 128, 150, 162, 178, 192, 209, 224, 243, 256, 280, 291, 304, 320, 338, 352, 368, 394, 400, 417, 440, 449, 467, 480, 500, 514, 530, 547, 578, 595, 610, 642, 663, 676, 690, 704, 724, 737, 770, 784, 800, 817. In a note addressed to Hone, dated January 27, 1827, written on the fly-leaf of a copy of “Specimens of English Dramatic Poets,” Lamb proposed this series, to which the editor gladly acceded. The copy named is now owned in New York.

Price. £1 10s.

1830

[22]

Collation: Vol. I. Bastard Title, 1 page, Frontispiece, 1 page, Title, 1 page, 1 unnumbered page. pp. lxii. Errata, 1 page. pp. 482.—Vol. II. Bastard Title, 1 page, Title, 1 page, pp. xviii. Errata, 1 unnumbered page. pp. 527.—Vol. III. Bastard Title, 1 page, Title, 1 page. pp. xviii. Errata, 1 unnumbered page. pp. 685.

Note. On pages 428-9, Vol. III., appears Lamb’s criticism on “De Foe’s Works of Genius.” [Mr. Wilson says: “The following remarks upon De Foe’s Works of Genius are from the pen of the Author’s highly esteemed friend, Charles Lamb, and are original.”] Pages 636, 7, 8, 9, Lamb’s remarks on “De Foe’s Secondary Novels” appear. These are of so characteristic a nature that they are well worth perusal. [Wilson adds: “To recall the attention of the public to his other fictions, the present writer is happy to enrich his work with some original remarks upon his Secondary Novels, by his early friend Charles Lamb, whose competency to form an accurate judgment upon the subject, no one will doubt who is acquainted with his genius.”]

Price. Scribner & Welford [Full calf], $18.00.

1830

[23]

Collation: Title, 1 page. pp. vii. pp. 150. Size 7⅝ × 4¾.

Note. Dedication to Moxon. “Enfield, 1st June,” 1830. This volume contains “Album Verses,” “Miscellaneous,” “Sonnets,” “Commendatory Verses,” “Acrostics,” “Translations from the Latin of Vincent Bourne,” “Pindaric ode to the Treadmill,” “Epicedium,” and “The Wife’s Trial.”

Price. Scribner & Welford [uncut, original boards], $15.00. Sotheby’s, 1889 [calf], £1 5s. Sotheby’s, 1890 [original boards], £1 10s.

1831

[24]

Collation: Engraved (wood) Frontispiece, 1 page, Engraved (wood) Title, 1 page, Dedication, 1 unnumbered page. pp. 36. [Frontispiece and four illustrations.] Size 6¼ × 3¾.

Note. See “Letter to Moxon, October 24, 1831.” Illustrations, [woodcuts,] should face pages 8, 21, 32, with tail-piece [“To delicate bosoms, that have sighed over the ‘Loves of the Angels,’ this poem is with tenderest regard consecrated”]. The original cover should be preserved.

Price. Sotheby’s, 1888 [calf, gilt edge], £2 3s. Sotheby’s, 1890 [original wrappers], £8.

1833

[25]

Collation: Advertisement, 1 page, Title, 1, Dedication, 1 page, Preface, 1 page, Prologue, 1 page, Dramatis Personæ, 1 page. pp. 120. Size 8¼ × 5.

Note. The Epilogue was written by Charles Lamb and spoken by Miss Ellen Tree. Knowles, in the edition of his plays 1833, speaks of his debt to Lamb, etc.

Price. $2.50.

1833

[26]

Collation: Bastard Title, 1 page, Title, 1 page. pp. xii. pp. 283. Size 8 × 5.

Note. The Preface, somewhat changed, was originally published in the London Magazine and signed Phil-Elia.

Price. Johnson Sale, New York, 1890 [Full morocco, uncut, with First Series], $42.00. Sotheran, London, 1890 [Full calf], £5 10s. [Both Series, half morocco,] £2 10s. J. Pearson, 1890, Both Series [original boards, uncut], £10 10s. Scribner & Welford [morocco gilt on the rough], $60.00.

1796

[27]

Collation: Frontispiece, 1 page, Title, 1 page. pp. xxiv. pp. 123. Size 6¼ × 4.

Note. Canon Ainger states [See page 404 “Elia”] that Southey believed Lamb had a hand in this work. The Preface in particular bears some traces of his peculiar vein. See also Letter from Gutch to Mr. Bliss, page 155, Hazlitt’s “Charles and Mary Lamb.”

Price. New York, 1886, [calf, gilt,] $15.00. Robson & Kerslake [calf, uncut], £3 3s. 1888.