The daily Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1855, 1854-08-17
From Patmore's Friends and Acquantances.
Anecdotes and Gossip about Charles
Lamb.

and Lamb said, ..Ay, that must be all mar
to the lovers of scandal"
Speaking Of Nortilcote, he related story
of him. Illustrating his love for doing and say
ing little malicious things. 1t was at party
at Sir Joshua Reynolds, where Boswell was
present, and they were talking of Malone. and
somebody said that Malone seemed to live IN
Shakespeare. and not to have feein" or tho !
connected with any thing else. Upon which
Northcote said, Then he must have been the
meanest of mankind. The man who sets up
any other man as a sort of God, and worshlps
him to the exclusion of all other things and
thoughts, must be the meanest of men and
everybody" said Northcote, (who was himself
the original relator Of the story) everybody
turned and looked at Boswell
We spoke of L. f. L., and Lamb said" If
she belonged to me, / would lock her up and
feed her on bread and water till she left off
writing poetry. A female poet, or female
author Of any kind, ranks below an actress,
think"
Mr.. - was mentioned. and Lamb said he
seemed to him to be q sort Of L. Z. L. in pam
falcons.
Bernard Barton was mentioned, and Lamb
said that he did not write nonsense, at any
rate-which all the rest OF them did fmeaning
the Magazine poets Of tho day. He was dull
enough but not nonscnsical. Te writes good
English. too. said Lamb. which they do not.
ii. c. r. came in about halfpast eight. and
put a stop to all further cOnvcrsaton--kecping
all the talk to himself.
Sp 'alling of some German story, in which
man is made to meet himseIf-hc himst II hav-
iny changed forms with some one clsc--the
talk turned on what we should think of our
selves if we could see ourselves without know
;,,.r t',,+i hat hn hol
all his life felt a sort of horror come over him
every time he caught a sight of his own face
in the glass and that he was almost afraid to
shave himself, for the same reason. lie sal
that he often wondered how anybody could
sustain an intimacy with him. much less feel
friendship for a man with such Il face. Lamb
said he hoped he had mercy on the BARRIERS,
and always shaved himself
Friday. July l3.-Spcnt the evening at
Leigh Hunts, with the Lambs, Athcrstonc
Mrs. Shelley, and the Gliddons. Lamb talked
admirably about Dryden and some of the Older
poets, in particular of Davcnants "GOndi-
bert" OF this Hunt wanted to show that it
consisted almost entirely of MUNICIPALITIES
which give a most heavy and monoonous eff
feet to the vcrSification; and he read some pas
sagcs to that effect. Lamb would not admit
this, and he real an admirable passage in re-
ply, about Museum of Natural Curiosities to
which Man, the pretended Lord of all other
creatures, hung by the wall, dry, like all the
rest. and even Woman, the Lord of Man. hung
there too" and she dried by him. The eli.
feet of the passage was prOdigious.
He lamb spoke Of Dryden as a prodigious
person, so far as his wonderful power of versi-
fcation went, but not lirst-rate poet, OR even
capable of approaching such-givng instances
Of To la
of Drydens prelaccs as the finest pieces of crit
icism, nevertheless, that had ever been writ
ten, and the better for being contradictory to
each other, because not founded on any pre-
tended rules.
Hunt was asking how it was necessary to
manage in order TO get Coleridge to come and
dine. Lamb replied that he believed he (Cole-
RIDGE was under a kind of watch and ward
abiding to the watchful care taken of him by
the Gilmans, with whom he was then residing.
All" said H., rain is the watch Mrs. G.
and bootless is the ward, (Ir. g. who always
wore shoes.
Lamb repeated one of his own enormous
puns. lie had met Proctor and speaking of
his little girl (thcn an infan) Proctor said
they called her Adelaide "Ah." said Lamb,
"a very good name for her-Addietcad.'
The two following anecdotes are so charac-
taristic that, although they reached me at Sec
ond-hand, and may possibly, therefore, have
been printed before. will not omit them.-
They were told me by James Smith, (of the
Rejected Addresses, at dinner at the late
Charles Matthews:
Lamb and Coeridge were talking together
on the incidents of Coleridgc's early life, when
he was beginning his career in the Church.
and Coleridge was describing some Of the facts
in his usual tone, when he paused, and said ::
"Pray, Mr.. Lamb, did you ever hear me
preach?" "Damn,e,' said Lamb, Il never
heard you do anything else
The other anecdote was of lady-a sort of
social Mrs. Fry-who had been for some time
lecturing Lamb on his Irregularities. AT last
she said, :. But. really. Mr.. Lamb, I'm afraid
all that I'm saying has very little effect on you.
I'm afraid, from your manner of attending to
it, that it will not do YOU much good mo,
ma am said Lamb, Il don't think it will
But as all that you have been saying has gone
in at this ear Uhe one next herr and out at the
other, 1 dare say it will do this gentleman
great deal OF good turning to a stranger who
stood on the other side of him.
ExTRACT-Jean Paul Richter thus describes
his feelings on looking at young bride:
But it made my soul wonder when looked
into that sweet contented face. blooming with
red and white roses, and thought within my