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

Charles Lamb was born on February 10,
lf75, in No. . Crown Office row, in the Tenn
pie, lodgings which the elder Lambs en-
ployer allowed him to occupy. In October,
1852, at the age Of between 7 and 8, the little
boy entered Christ's Hospital. 1t is inter-
osting to note that among the other new
boys was one Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
then nearly 10, the son of a clergyman in
Devonshire. For our knowledge Of Lamb
az he appeared in his blue coat we must
20 to some "reminiscences of him which a
school fellow wrote for Talfourd. Lamb"
We are told, was an amiable, gentle boy,
very sensible and keenly observing, in
dulged by his school fellows and by his
master OF account OF his infrmity Of speech.
HE was all his life a stutterer.l His coun-
te1ance WIS mild, his complexion clear
brown, with a n expression that might lead
you to think that he was Of Jewish descent
His eyes were not both Of the same color;
one was hazel, the other had specks OF gray
In the iris, mingled as we see red spots in
the bloodstone. His step was plantigrade,
which made his walk slow and peculiar,
adding to the staid appearance Of his figure.
! never heard his name mentioned with
out tho addition Of Charles. although, az
there was no other boy Of the name of Lamb,
the addition was unnecessary; but there
was an implied kindness in it, and it wus a
proof that his gentle manner excite tho
Kindness" q.
Chief among Lambs school fellows,
both in interest and friendline,s to him
self, was Coleridge. Writing in 1920, Lamb
says: Come back into memory, like us
thou vert in the day spring Of thy ~fancies.
with hope like a fiery column before thee
the dark pillar not yet turred-Samuel
Taylor Coleridge-logician, metaphysician,
bard. How nave I seen the casual passer
through the ~cloister stand still, ent RANGED
with admiration (while he waived the dis
proportion between the speech and the
garb of the young Miraudula) to hear thee
unfold in thy deep and sweet intonations
the myst cries Of Iamblicaus, or Plotinus
tfor even in those years thou waxedst not
pale at such phosophic draught) or recit ing
Horoer in his Greek or Pindar. while the
walls of the old Grey Friars reechoed to the
accents of the inspired charity boyl"
From Christ's HOSPITAL Coleridge vent to
Cambridge, but Lamb could not afford a
university career. He had to go to work
to earn a living, and in November, 1889,
being then nearly Is. he left Cnrist's
Hospital. Thanks to his fathers employer,
Samuel Salt, or some of the ~latter's friends,
he obtained in September, 1901, a clerkslip
ab:the South Sea HOUSE. and five or six
months later he secured through the same
agencies a rost in the accountants depart
ment Of the East India House, which he was
destined to occupy for three and thirty
years. II seems that not until a clerk had
served three probationary years was any
salary given to him. Lamb, therefore, was
not in the receipt OF money until April,
i7p5, when he began to earn forty pounds a
year. The next year his stipend rose to
E7o.
In 17e4 or 1795 Lamb fell in love with a
HertfordsLire young woman, Anna Sim
mons, the Anna o. the Sonnets and the
Alice of the Essays, Later Lamb wrote in
-pream Children" that the children of his
Alice (Anna Simmons) called Bartram
father" She married a ~rawnbroker named
Bartram in Princess street, Leicester Square,
and Lamb in later life was known now and
again to have loitered on the pavement, hor-
ing to catcha glimpse OF her face. Mr.. Lucas
roints out that had Lamb and his Anna ever
been betrothed little but sorrow could have
& come of it; for the ira gedy OF September.
I79e-the killing of his mother by his sister
Mary-would either "a We broken the engage
ment, or Lamb, by marrying, would prob
ably AVE been unable to give his sister a
home, and thus would have lost the COM
partnership without which he would not
nave been the Charles Lamb that wc know
and honor.