The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-25

since We quote some stanzas:
When maldens such as Hester die
, Their place ye may not well supply
Though ye among a thousand try,
With vain endeavor.
A month or more hath she been dead.
Yet cannot / by force be led
10 think upon the wormy bed
And her together.
A springy motion In her gait,
a rising step did indicate
or pride and joy no common rate,
That flushed her spirit.
j know not by what name beside
i shall II call-it was not pride.
1t was a JOY 10 that allied,
She did inherit.
In 1904 Coleridge departed for Malta, and
a.terward Lamb made the aoquaint-
ance Of William Eaz t. For a while their
intimacy was close and cordial. The biog-
rapher points out, however, that although
Lamb never wavered in his adm'ration Of
Eazlitt's intellectual gifts, Eazlitt made 1t
very diff cult for the iame of friendship to
burn with any steady r~adiancy. He made
no friends In the ultimate sense OF the word.
Ee valued too much his independence, the
right to say what he thought. He was one
who said what was in his mind, regardless
Of consequences, and he would never have
brooked such an impeachment to this luxury
as a bond of affection. Lamb also spoke
his mind plainly, Lut his plain speech was
seldom unkind. A story Of Lamb related
by Crabb Robinson bears on the matter.
Flow | hate those Blauks!" Lamb once re-
marked in Robinson's hearing. But you
Lave never seen them" said Robinson.
no. Lamb replied, that's just it. That's
why ! hate them. can never hate any one
that ! have once seem" Lamb knew that in
every one was &C me point of 8, mrathy, If
only it could be found. Eazlitt might not
! ave denied tie act, tut he preierredn MOTTO
find it. The present biographer would not
assert that Lamo was social in a great de-
gree, although he was very happy among
his friends; hut Eazlitt was positively anti
social.
In the winter Of 1904 Lamb first met an
other writer who was destined to appreciate
his genius as cordially as any. This was
Thomas D Quincy. Although DE Quincey,
however, always wrote heartily and in the
highest tel rs OF Lamb, Mr.. Lucas doubts II
Lamb cared much for him. The intimacy
never reached the point OF ripeness. 1t is
about the sans date that Lamp utters his
first praise Of Pig-in the shape o: a Drawn
which a friend of his lad sent from Cam.
bridge: Ills, OF all myhobbies, the supreme
/ the eating way. Ee might have sent
sors from the pan, filings, crumplets, chips.
hogs lard. the tender brown judiciously
scalped from a fllet of veal (~dexterously re-
placedby a salamander), the toys OF asr ara
gus, fugitive ~lIvers, runaway gizzards Of
fowls, tie eyes Of martyred pigs, tender
e. 'usions of laxative w~oodcocks, the red
sT avn Of lol listers, leverets' ears n such
pretty flchings common to COOKS, Tut these
al teen ordinary presents, the everyday
courtesies of dish washers to their sweet
hearts. Drawn was a no1le stock
Nv.
In September. 1905, Lamb sends Words
worth a copy Of his verses entitled Fare
we'll to To acco,' and mentions a project
of farce writing. Il have done nothing"
he says, "since the beginning Of last year,
when l lost my newspaper job, and having
had a long idleness / must do something,
or we shall get very poor Lambs salary
in 1906 was El2o, to which was added the
usual India House gratuity, amounting
then to about eco, a sum Of E1o for hoIi-
days and a little extra work money as we'll,
[ ringing the total to a'out GOO. With the
hope of adding to his revenue Lamb wrote
the farce MIR. H." which was played at
Drury Lare onoe-and damned. Lamb
had exrected to get EGO for this piece,
and Lad given to it all the leisure hours
that he could secure in a twelvemonth.
However, he set to work again, and in
January, 1907, Thought out the Tales from
In sending the two little
volumes to Wordsworth, he a that he
responsi' lie for Lear, Macbeth 'Timon,'
Romeo, Hamlet, ''Othello, and occasionally
for a tail Tiece or correction Of grammar,
but for none of the cuts; also for half OF the
r~retace, the lrst Tart Of which was written
by Mary Lamb, to whom also should he
attributed all the rest Of the Tales" Her
was not pull licly associated with the
book until a dozen years later. Lambs
next two books were THE Adventures Of
ULYSSES" | ased on Chapman's translation
Of the Greek, and Specimens Of English
Dran attic Poets Contemporary with Shake
The latter work laid the founda-
ton of Lambs reputation as a critic. Until
its appearance he had teen known, If at
all. only as an experimentalist in verse,
rrose and the drama. To the discerning
eye, on the other hand, there was nothing
tentative about the notes Inc selections
in this new volume. They were the work
of an imaginative critic Of a very high order
who knew his own mind. The purpose
the Specimens" was explained by Lamb
himself as follows: My leading design
Leen to illustrate what may be called
the moral sense Of our ancestors. To
show in what manner they felt when they
placed themselves | y the power Of imagina-
ton in trying situations, in the conflicts
duty and assion or the strife Of con-
duties, what sort Of love and enmity
theirs we're. how their griefs were tempered
and their full swoln joys a ated, how much
Shakespeare shines in the great men,
his contemporaries, and how far in his
mird and manners he surf assed
them and all mankind" We may mention
in RAISING that the Specimens" was fol-
lowed Ly Mrs. Leicester's School" which
Mary Lambs look even more than
the Tales from Shakespeare, for of it's
ten stories all hut three were hers. and
Mr.. Lucas thinks that they were written
any help or hint from her lrother.
Crabb / obinson in his Diary says that
he first met the Lambs they were