[Page 400.] Table-Talk by the Late Elia.
The Athæneum, January 4, May 31, June 7, July 19, 1834. Not reprinted by Lamb.
The phrase, "the late Elia," has reference to the preface to the Last Essays of Elia, published in 1833, in which his death is spoken of.
[Page 400,] line 3 of essay. 'Tis unpleasant to meet a beggar. A different note is struck in the Elia essay "On the Decay of Beggars": "Reader, do not be frightened at the hard words, imposition, imposture—give, and ask no questions."
[Page 400,] line 4 from foot. Will Dockwray. I have not been able to find anything about this Will Dockwray. Such Ware records as I have consulted are silent concerning him. There was a Joseph Dockwray, a rich Quaker maltster, at Ware in the eighteenth century. In the poem "Going or Gone," which mentions many of Lamb's acquaintances in his early Widford days (Widford is only three miles from Ware), there is mentioned a Tom Dockwra, who also eludes research.
[Page 401,] line 15. "We read the 'Paradise Lost' as a task." Johnson, in his "Life of Milton," in the Lives of the Poets, says: "'Paradise Lost' is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is. Its perusal is a duty rather than a pleasure." For other remarks on Milton [see page 428].
[Page 401,] foot. So ends "King Lear." Lamb means that the tragedy is virtually done. There are of course some dozen lines more, after the last of those quoted in Lamb's piecemeal; which I have corrected by the Globe Edition. Lear's praise of Caius—"he's a good fellow ... and will strike"—was applied by Lamb to his father in the character sketch of him in the Elia essay "On the Old Benchers" (see also the essay on the "Genius of Hogarth," for earlier remarks, 1810, on this subject).
[Page 402,] first quotation. "Served not for gain...." From the Fool's song in "Lear," Act II., Scene 4:—