"Mrs. Bland." Maria Theresa Bland (1769-1838), a Jewess, and a mezzo-soprano famous in simple ballads, who was connected with Drury Lane for many years.
"Braham is fled." Braham did not sing in London in 1810, but joined Mrs. Billington in a long provincial tour. Phillips was Thomas Philipps (1774-1841), singer and composer.
"Miss B ******." Miss Burrell. See note to letter of Feb. 18, 1818.
"Not my poetry, but Quarles's." In "An Elegie," Stanza 16. Lamb does not quote quite correctly.
"Hazlitt's grammar." A New and Improved Grammar of the English Tongue
… By William Hazlitt, to which is added A New Guide to the English
Tongue by E[dward] Baldwin (William Godwin). Published by M. J. Godwin.
1810.
"A woman begged of me." Lamb told this story at the end of his Elia essay "A Complaint of the Decay of Beggars," in the London Magazine, June, 1822, but the passage was not reprinted in book form. See Vol. II. of this edition.
George Dawe was made A.R.A. in 1809, not R.A. until 1814.
Of the friends on Lamb's list we have already met several. Mr. and Mrs.
Norris were the Randal Norrises. Dr. Stoddart having left Malta was now
practising in Doctors Commons. Mr. and Mrs. Collier were the John Dyer
Colliers, the parents of John Payne Collier, who introduced Lamb to
Henry Crabb Robinson. Both Colliers were journalists. Thompson may be
Marmaduke Thompson of Christ's Hospital. We meet some Buffams later, in
the Moxon correspondence. Mr. Marshall was Godwin's friend. Of Mrs. Lum,
Mr. Dollin, Colonel and Mrs. Harwood, and Mr. Sutton, I know nothing.]