Another difficulty has been the frequency with which Lamb reprinted some of his earlier poetry. The text of many of his earliest and best poems was not fixed until 1818, twenty years or so after their composition. It had to be decided whether to print these poems in their true order as they were first published—in Coleridge's Poems on Various Subjects, 1796; in Charles Lloyd's ems on the Death of Priscilla Farmer, 1796; in Coleridge's Poems, second edition, 1797; in Blank Verse by Charles Lloyd and Charles Lamb, 1798; and in John Woodvil, 1802—with all their early readings; or whether to disregard chronological sequence, and wait until the time of the Works—1818—had come, and print them all together then. I decided, in the interests of their biographical value, to print them in the order as they first appeared, particularly as Crabb Robinson tells us that Lamb once said of the arrangement of a poet's works: "There is only one good order—and that is the order in which they were written—that is a history of the poet's mind." It then had to be decided whether to print them in their first shape, which, unless I repeated them later, would mean the relegation of Lamb's final text to the Notes, or to print them, at the expense of a slight infringement upon the chronological scheme, in their final 1818 state, and relegate all earlier readings to the Notes. After much deliberation I decided that to print them in their final 1818 state was best, and this therefore I did in the large edition of 1903, to which the student is referred for all variorum readings, fuller notes and many illustrations, and have repeated here. In order, however, that the scheme of Lamb's 1818 edition of his Works might be preserved, I have indicated in the text the position in the Works occupied by all the poems that in the present volume have been printed earlier.
The chronological order, in so far as it has been followed, emphasises the dividing line between Lamb's poetry and his verse. As he grew older his poetry, for the most part, passed into his prose. His best and truest poems, with few exceptions, belong to the years before, say, 1805, when he was thirty. After this, following a long interval of silence, came the brief satirical outburst of 1812, in The Examiner, and the longer one, in 1820, in The Champion; then, after another interval, during which he was busy as Elia, came the period of album verses, which lasted to the end. The impulse to write personal prose, which was quickened in Lamb by the London Magazine in 1820, seems to have taken the place of his old ambition to be a poet. In his later and more mechanical period there were, however, occasional inspirations, as when he wrote the sonnet on "Work," in 1819; on "Leisure," in 1821; the lines in his own Album, in 1827, and, pre-eminently, the poem "On an Infant Dying as Soon as Born," in 1827.
This volume contains, with the exception of the verse for children, which will be found in Vol. III. of this edition, all the accessible poetical work of Charles and Mary Lamb that is known to exist and several poems not to be found in the large edition. There are probably still many copies of album verses which have not yet seen the light. In the London Magazine, April, 1824, is a story entitled "The Bride of Modern Italy," which has for motto the following couplet:—
My heart is fixt:
This is the sixt.—Elia.
but the rest of what seems to be a pleasant catalogue is missing. In a letter to Coleridge, December 2, 1796, Lamb refers to a poem which has apparently perished, beginning, "Laugh, all that weep." I have left in the correspondence the rhyming letters to Ayrton and Dibdin, and an epigram on "Coelebs in Search of a Wife." I have placed the dedication to Coleridge at the beginning of this volume, although it belongs properly only to those poems that are reprinted from the Works of 1818, the prose of which Lamb offered to Martin Burney. But it is too fine to be put among the Notes, and it may easily, by a pardonable stretch, be made to refer to the whole body of Lamb's poetical and dramatic work, although Album Verses, 1830, was dedicated separately to Edward Moxon.
In Mr. Bedford's design for the cover of this edition certain Elian symbolism will be found. The upper coat of arms is that of Christ's Hospital, where Lamb was at school; the lower is that of the Inner Temple, where he was born and spent many years. The figures at the bells are those which once stood out from the façade of St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street, and are now in Lord Londesborough's garden in Regent's Park. Lamb shed tears when they were removed. The tricksy sprite and the candles (brought by Betty) need no explanatory words of mine.
E.V.L.
CONTENTS TEXT NOTE PAGE PAGE
Dedication 1 307
Lamb's earliest poem, "Mille viae mortis" 3 307
Poems in Coleridge's Poems on Various Subjects, 1796:—
"As when a child …" 4 308
"Was it some sweet device …" 4 309
"Methinks how dainty sweet …" 5 311
"Oh! I could laugh …" 5 311
From Charles Lloyd's Poems on the Death of Priscilla
Farmer, 1796;—
The Grandame 6 312
Poems from Coleridge's Poems, 1797:—
"When last I roved …" 8 315
"A timid grace …" 8 315
"If from my lips …" 9 315
"We were two pretty babes …" 9 315
Childhood 9 315
The Sabbath Bells 10 316
Fancy Employed on Divine Subjects 10 316
The Tomb of Douglas 11 316
To Charles Lloyd 12 316
A Vision of Repentance 13 317
Poems Written in the Years 1795-98, and not Reprinted by
Lamb:—
"The Lord of Life …" 16 317
To the Poet Cowper 16 317
Lines addressed to Sara and S.T.C. 17 318
Sonnet to a Friend 18 318
To a Young Lady 18 319
Living Without God in the World 19 319
Poems from Blank Verse, by Charles Lloyd and Charles
Lamb, 1798:—
To Charles Lloyd 21 320
Written on the Day of My Aunt's Funeral 21 320
Written a Year After the Events 22 321
Written Soon After the Preceding Poem 24 322
Written on Christmas Day, 1797 25 322
The Old Familiar Faces 25 322
Composed at Midnight 26 323
Poems at the End of John Woodvil, 1802:—
Helen. By Mary Lamb 28 323
Ballad. From the German 29 324
Hypochondriacus 29 324
A Ballad Noting the Difference of Rich and Poor 30 324
Poems in Charles Lamb's Works, 1818, not Previously
Printed in the Present Volume:—
Hester 32 325
Dialogue Between a Mother and Child. By Mary Lamb 33 325
A Farewell to Tobacco 34 325
To T.L.H. 38 326
Salome. By Mary Lamb 39 —-
Lines Suggested by a Picture of Two Females by
Lionardo da Vinci. By Mary Lamb 41 327
Lines on the Same Picture being Removed. By Mary Lamb 41 327
Lines on the Celebrated Picture by Lionardo da Vinci,
called "The Virgin of the Rocks" 42 327
On the Same. By Mary Lamb 42 327
To Miss Kelly 43 328
On the Sight of Swans in Kensington Garden 43 328
The Family Name 44 328
To John Lamb, Esq 44 329
To Martin Charles Burney, Esq 45 329
Album Verses, 1830:—
Album Verses:—
In the Album of a Clergyman's Lady 46 332
In the Autograph Book of Mrs. Sergeant W—— 46 332
In the Album of Lucy Barton 47 332
In the Album of Miss —— 48 332
In the Album of a very Young Lady 48 332
In the Album of a French Teacher 49 332
In the Album of Miss Daubeny 49 333
In the Album of Mrs. Jane Towers 50 333
In My Own Album 50 333
Miscellaneous:—
Angel Help 51 333
The Christening 52 333
On an Infant Dying as Soon as Born 53 333
To Bernard Barton 55 334
The Young Catechist 56 334
She is Going 57 335
To a Young Friend 57 335
To the Same 58 335
Sonnets:—
Harmony in Unlikeness 58 336
Written at Cambridge 59 336
To a Celebrated Female Performer in the "Blind Boy" 59 336
Work 59 336
Leisure 60 336
To Samuel Rogers, Esq. 60 337
The Gipsy's Malison 61 337
Commendatory Verses:—
To the Author of Poems Published under the Name
of Barry Cornwall 61 338
To R.S. Knowles, Esq. 62 338
To the Editor of the Every-Day Book 63 338
Acrostics:—
To Caroline Maria Applebee 63 339
To Cecilia Catherine Lawton 64 339
Acrostic, to a Lady who Desired Me to Write Her
Epitaph 65 339
Another, to Her Youngest Daughter 65 339
Translations from the Latin of Vincent Bourne:—
On a Sepulchral Statue of an Infant Sleeping 66 340
The Rival Bells 66 340
Epitaph on a Dog 67 340
The Ballad Singers 67 340
To David Cook 69 340
On a Deaf and Dumb Artist 70 340
Newton's Principia 71 340
The House-keeper 71 340
The Female Orators 72 340
Pindaric Ode to the Tread Mill 72 341
Going or Gone 75 341
New Poems in The Poetical Works of Charles Lamb, 1836:—
In the Album of Edith S—— 78 343
To Dora W—— 78 343
In the Album of Rotha Q—— 79 344
In the Album of Catherine Orkney 79 —-
To T. Stothard, Esq. 80 344
To a Friend on His Marriage 80 344
The Self-Enchanted 81 344
To Louisa M——, whom I used to call "Monkey" 82 344
Cheap Gifts: a Sonnet 82 344
Free Thoughts on Several Eminent Composers 83 344
Miscellaneous Poems not collected by Lamb:—
Dramatic Fragment 85 345
Dick Strype; or, The Force of Habit 86 345
Two Epitaphs on a Young Lady 88 346
The Ape 89 346
In tabulam eximii pictoris B. Haydoni 90 347
Translation of Same 90 347
Sonnet to Miss Burney 91 347
To My Friend the Indicator 91 348
On seeing Mrs. K—— B——, aged upwards of eighty,
nurse an infant 92 348
To Emma, Learning Latin, and Desponding 93 349
Lines Addressed to Lieut. R.W.H. Hardy, R.N. 93 349
Lines for a Monument 94 349
To C. Aders, Esq. 94 349
Hercules Pacificatus 95 349
The Parting Speech of the Celestial Messenger
to the Poet 98 349
Existence, Considered in Itself, no Blessing 99 350
To Samuel Rogers, Esq. 100 350
To Clara N—— 101 350
The Sisters 101 350
Love Will Come 102 351
To Margaret W—— 102 351
Additional Album Verses and Acrostics:—
What is an Album? 104 351
The First Leaf of Spring 105 352
To Mrs. F—— 105 352
To M. L—— F—— 106 352
To Esther Field 106 352
To Mrs. Williams 107 352
To the Book 107 353
To S.F. 108 353
To R.Q. 108 353
To S.L. 109 353
To M.L. 109 353
An Acrostic Against Acrostics 109 353
On Being Asked to Write in Miss Westwood's Album 110 353
In Miss Westwood's Album. By Mary Lamb 110 353
Un Solitaire. To Sarah Lachlan 111 353
To S. T 111 354
To Mrs. Sarah Robinson 111 354
To Sarah 112 354
To Joseph Vale Asbury 112 354
To D.A. 113 354
To Louisa Morgan 113 354
To Sarah James of Beguildy 113 354
To Emma Button 114 354
Written upon the Cover of a Blotting Book 114 354
Political and Other Epigrams:—
To Sir James Mackintosh 115 357
Twelfth Night Characters:—
Mr. A—— 115 358
Messrs. C——g and F——e 115 358
Count Rumford 116 358
On a Late Empiric of "Balmy" Memory 116 358
Epigrams:—
"Princeps his rent …" 116 359
"Ye Politicians, tell me, pray …" 116 359
The Triumph of the Whale 116 359
Sonnet. St. Crispin to Mr. Gifford 118 360
The Godlike 118 360
The Three Graves 119 360
Sonnet to Mathew Wood, Esq. 119 361
On a Projected Journey 120 361
Song for the C——-n 120 362
The Unbeloved 120 362
On the Arrival in England of Lord Byron's Remains 121 362
Lines Suggested by a Sight of Waltham Cross 121 363
For the Table Book 122 363
The Royal Wonders 122 363
"Brevis Esse Laboro" 122 363
Suum Cuique 123 363
On the Literary Gazette 123 365
On the Fast-Day 123 365
Nonsense Verses 123 365
On Wawd 124 366
Six Epitaphs 124 366
Time and Eternity 126 366
From the Latin 126 366
Satan in Search of a Wife 127 366
Part 1 128 —-
Part II 133 —-
Prologues and Epilogues:—
Epilogue to Godwin's Tragedy of "Antonio" 138 368
Prologue to Godwin's Tragedy of "Faulkener" 140 369
Epilogue to Henry Siddons' Farce, "Time's a Tell-Tale" 140 369
Prologue to Coleridge's Tragedy of "Remorse" 142 369
Epilogue to Kenney's Farce, "Debtor and Creditor" 143 371
Epilogue to an Amateur Performance of "Richard II." 145 371
Prologue to Sheridan Knowles' Comedy, "The Wife" 146 372
Epilogue to Sheridan Knowles' Comedy, "The Wife" 147 372
John Woodvil 149 372
The Witch 199 392
Mr. H——— 202 392
The Pawnbroker's Daughter 238 397
The Wife's Trial 273 —-
Poems in the Notes:—
Lines to Dorothy Wordsworth. By Mary Lamb 328
Lines on Lamb's Want of Ear. By Mary Lamb 345
A Lady's Sapphic. By Mary Lamb (?) 356
An English Sapphic. By Charles Lamb (?) 357
Two Epigrams. By Charles Lamb (?) 359
The Poetical Cask. By Charles Lamb (?) 363