house rose up in clamorous indignation, demanding justice. The feeling rose far above hisses. I believe at that instant, if they could have got him, they would have torn the unfortunate author to pieces. Not that the act itself was so exorbitant, or 5 of a complexion different from what they themselves would have applauded upon another occasion, in a Brutus or an Appius, but for want of attending to Antonio's words, which palpably led to the expectation of no less dire an event, instead of being seduced by his manner, which seemed to 10 promise a sleep of a less alarming nature than it was his cue to inflict upon Elvira: they found themselves betrayed into an accompliceship of murder, a perfect misprision of parricide, while they dreamed of nothing less. M., I believe, was the only person who suffered acutely from the failure; for G. 15 thenceforward, with a serenity unattainable but by the true philosophy, abandoning a precarious popularity, retired into his fasthold of speculation, the drama in which the world was to be his tiring-room, and remote posterity his applauding spectators at once and actors.

NOTES

I. A CHARACTER OF THE LATE ELIA

BY A FRIEND

London Magazine, January, 1823

This paper was first published by Lamb in the interval between the two series of Essays of Elia. He seems to have intended it partly as a farewell to his readers, and partly as a piece of mystification. With the omission of the latter part, it was reprinted by Moxon in 1833 as an appropriate preface to Lamb's last essays. This apologetic selfrevelation and humorous analysis of his own character, half ironical though it be, shows the causes of his unpopularity and is a valuable commentary on his style.

1. the late Elia. When Lamb began to write for the London Magazine in August, 1820, he assumed the pen name of Elia (pronounced by him Ell-ia) in memory of an obscure Italian clerk of this name whom he had known at the South-Sea House.

13-4. to see his papers collected into a volume. This volume included Elia's twenty-eight contributions to the London Magazine, August, 1820, to November, 1822, and an essay on Valentine's Day from the Indicator of February, 1821. It was issued from the press of Taylor and Hessey, London, 1823. "Eleven years after," says Mr. Charles Kent, "before the author's death, it was already out of print, a stray copy only by rare chance being purchasable at a book-stall."

14-5. the London Magazine appeared in January, 1820, as a monthly under the editorial direction of John Scott. Thirteen months later, when Scott was killed in a duel with Christie of Blackwood's Magazine, the London passed into the hands of Taylor and Hessey. In the five years of its existence, though not financially successful, it had many famous contributors, among them being Lamb, De Quincey, Hazlitt, Procter, Hood, Cary, Cunningham, Montgomery, Keats, Mitford, Reynolds, and Carlyle.

227

17. Saint Bride's: a church just off Fleet Street, London. It is the burial place of Richardson, and is closely associated with Milton, Lovelace, and Dr. Johnson.

19. his friends T. and H.: Taylor and Hessey, the publishers of the London.

111. Janus wept: a play on the name of the Roman god and the pen name of Wainwright, "Janus Weathercock," a contributor to the London of "articles of flashy assumption." This clever, heartless,

voluptuous coxcomb subsequently committed murder.

111-12. The gentle Pr: Bryan Weller Procter, better known as "Barry Cornwall" (1790-1874), a poet of the Cockney school, who made considerable reputation as a writer of sea songs. He was much liked by Lamb and wrote a memoir of him.

113. Allan C. Cunningham (1784-1842), a Scotch poet and man of letters, who was at this time (1823) secretary to Chantrey, a London sculptor. He was the author of popular songs, stories, and biographies of eminent British painters, sculptors, and architects.

1 13. nobly forgetful: a reference to some unappreciative remarks about the Scotch in Lamb's essay on Imperfect Sympathies.

1 14-15. a "Tale of Lyddalcross ": one of Cunningham's Traditional Tales of the Peasantry.

28. a country-boy: Coleridge. See note to Christ's Hospital.

3 24. intimados: intimate friends.

44. Marry: an old English interjection or expletive, derived from Mary.

4 6-7. proceeded a statist: i.e. discoursed as eloquently as a statesman. 4 16. Shacklewell. See note to the South-Sea House.

4 28-29. toga virilis: the garment assumed by a young Roman on reaching manhood.

4 33. This passage, inclosed in brackets, appeared in the London, but was suppressed in the volume of the Last Essays of Elia (1833). 4 34. his cousin Bridget: the author's sister Mary.

57. the East India House. The old house of the East India Company (established in 1600) stood at the corner of Leadenhall and Lime Streets, London.

5 29. facetious Bishop Corbet: Richard Corbet (1582-1635), bishop of Oxford and Norwich. He was the author of Farewell to the Fairies, and other light verse.

5 29. Hoole, John (1727-1803): an English poet who translated Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and other Italian poems. 5 30-31. God assoil him therefor: i.e. May God forgive him for it.

5 31. Walton, Izaak (1593–1683): a noted author who was a shopkeeper in London until the civil war. Lamb wrote of him to Wordsworth as hallowing “any page in which his revered name appears.” His most famous book is the Complete Angler (1653), which Lamb always loved as it were a living friend."

66

61. bon-vivant: jolly companion.

614. "weaved-up follies”: a phrase from Shakespeare's Richard II, IV, i, 228.

II. THE SOUTH-SEA HOUSE

London Magazine, August, 1820

This essay was first printed under the title of Recollections of the South-Sea House. Lamb held a subordinate clerkship in this house for an unknown period between 1789 and 1792. It appears from the official records of the company for the latter year that his brother John was then holding the position of deputy accountant.

615. the Bank: the Bank of England.

6 17. the Flower Pot: a London inn from which the coach for the north started.

618. Dalston or Shacklewell: northern suburbs of London where rents were low, and where consequently many "lean annuitants," persons of small yearly income, resided.

712-13. the two first monarchs of the Brunswick dynasty: George I (1714-1727) and George II (1727-1760).

718. pieces of eight: a name given by the buccaneers to the Spanish piaster, which was divided into eight silver reals. It was first coined in 1479, and was about equal in value to our dollar.

719.

"unsunned heap": a phrase from Milton's Comus, 1. 398. 719. Mammon: a Syriac word meaning riches; personified as the god of riches by Spenser, Faërie Queene, II, 7, and Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 678.

7 21. that famous Bubble: the South-Sea Bubble, a colossal financial scheme which originated about 1711 and collapsed in 1720. It was one of the principal events of George I's reign. For a detailed account of the series of ruinous speculations connected with this and other bubble companies, see Montgomery's English History, p. 311, or Green's Short History of the English People, p. 698.

7 32. a superfœtation of dirt: a secondary engendering, i.e. a double layer, of dirt.

86. Titan. The Titans were a race of giants, children of Uranus (heaven) and Gaea (earth), who made war against the Olympian deities. 86-7. Vaux's superhuman plot: the plot of Guido Vaux, or Guy Fawkes, and other conspirators to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605.

91. Herculaneum: one of the cities buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79. The first systematic excavations were made under French rule between 1806 and 1815.

91. pounce-boxes: boxes with perforated lids for sprinkling a fine powder on manuscript to prevent the ink from spreading.

9 22. Cambro-Briton: a Welshman. ancient Latin name of Wales.

Cambria was the legendary and

927. Maccaronies (properly spelled Macaronies): the name usually applied to English fops during the later part of the eighteenth century. 101. Anderton's: a coffeehouse on Fleet Street.

10 14. Rosamond's Pond: a sheet of water in St. James Park, which was filled up in 1770. It was "long consecrated to disastrous love and elegiac poetry." "Fair Rosamond" was Jane Clifford, the mistress of Henry II, who, according to tradition, was compelled by the jealous Queen Eleanor to poison herself (1176).

10 14-15. Mulberry Gardens: public gardens (now in the grounds of Buckingham Palace), so called from the mulberry trees planted by James I.

10 15. Cheap, the old name of Cheapside, a street rich in historical associations.

10 17. Hogarth, William (1697-1764): the famous English painter. See note on p. 273.

10 18. Noon.

in Hog Lane.

The scene of "Noon " is a French Huguenot chapel

10 19-20. Louis the Fourteenth; King of France, 1643-1715. By his revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which had since 1598 granted to the Huguenots political equality and rights with the Catholics, he drove about fifty thousand industrious Protestant families from France, prostrated the country, and paved the way for the Revolution.

10 22. the Seven Dials: a locality about midway between the British Museum and Trafalgar Square, and once notorious as a center of poverty. It took its name from a column with seven sundials which marked the meeting of seven streets.

10 23. Thomas Tame: he succeeded Evans as deputy cashier in 1793. 10 25-26. Westminster Hall: built by William II. It is now used as an entrance to the Houses of Parliament.