By Mary Lamb.
Page 378. IX.—Susan Yates. "First Going to Church."
By Charles Lamb. John Lamb, the father, came from Lincolnshire, but Charles did not know that county at all. The remark, "to see how goodness thrived," may well have been John Lamb's, or possibly his father's; and Lamb's own first impressions of church, probably acquired at the Temple (which he mentions here by comparison), were, it is easy to believe, identical with the imaginary narrator's. Church bells seem always to have had an attraction for him: he has a pretty reference to them in John Woodvil, and a little poem in Blank Verse, 1798, entitled "The Sabbath Bells."
Page 384. X.—Arabella Hardy. "The Sea Voyage."
By Charles Lamb. Nothing else that Lamb wrote is quite so far from the ordinary run of his thoughts; and nothing has, I think, more charm.
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Page 389. The King and Queen of Hearts This is probably the first of Charles Lamb's books for children. Of its history nothing is known: the proof that Charles Lamb wrote it is to be found in a letter from Lamb to Wordsworth, now in America, dated February 1, 1806, the concluding portion of which, and the only portion that has been printed—beginning "Apropos of Spenser"—will be found in most editions of the correspondence tacked on to the letter dated June, 1806. In the earlier part of this missive Lamb enumerates the books which he has just despatched to Wordsworth by carrier from London. Among these is an edition of Spenser, leading to the "apropos." Also: "there comes W. Hazlitt's book about Human Action for Coleridge; a little song book for Sarah Coleridge; a Box for Hartley …; a Paraphrase on The King and Queen of Hearts, of which I, being the author, beg Mr. Johnny Wordsworth's acceptance and opinion. Liberal Criticism, as G. Dyer declares, I am always ready to attend to."
As Charles Lamb is not known to have written children's books for any one but the Godwins, who in 1806 were still publishing under cover of Thomas Hodgkins' name, in Hanway Street, it is reasonable to assume that if a paraphrase of The King and Queen of Hearts nursery rhyme could be found, bearing Hodgkins' or Godwin's name, and dated 1805 or 1806, Lamb would be its author. That such a work did exist was proved by the advertisements at the end of other of Godwin's juvenile books. In the first edition of Mrs. Leicester's School, 1809, is this announcement:—
"Likewise, the following elegant and approved Publications, containing each of them the Incidents of an agreeable Tale, exhibited in a Series of Engravings, Price 1s. plain, or 1s. 6d. coloured.
"1. The King and Queen of Hearts: showing how notably the Queen made her Tarts, and how Scurvily the Knave stole them away. &c."