Imatges de pàgina
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That was a thought which many a winter night
Had kept her sleepless: and when prudent love
In something better than a servant's state
Had placed her well at last, it was a pang
Like parting life to part with her dear girl.

One summer, Charles, when at the holidays
Return'd from school, I visited again
My old accustom'd walks, and found in them
A joy almost like meeting an old friend,
I saw the cottage empty, and the weeds
Already crowding the neglected flowers.
Joanna, by a villain's wiles seduced,

Had play'd the wanton, and that blow had reach'd
Her grandam's heart. She did not suffer long;
Her age was feeble, and this mortal grief

Brought her grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.

Lamb's comment on "The Ruined Cottage" when Southey sent it to him in October, 1798, is interesting: "It pleases me mightily, being so full of picture work and circumstances. I find no fault in it, unless perhaps that Joanna's ruin is a catastrophe too trite; and this is not the first or second time you have clothed your indignation, in verse, in a tale of ruined innocence. The old lady, spinning in the sun, I hope would not disdain to claim some kindred with old Margaret. I could almost wish you to vary some circumstances in the conclusion. A gentleman seducer has so often been described in prose and verse. What if you had accomplished Joanna's ruin by the clumsy arts and rustic gifts of some country-fellow?"

Finally it may be remarked that in Barry Cornwall's Dramatic Scenes (1819) is a fragment entitled "Rosamund Gray," which from the evidence of its few opening lines was to have been a blank-verse adaptation of Lamb's theme. It runs thus:

ROSAMUND GRAY. (A FRAGMENT1)
Once-but she died-I knew a village girl

(Poor Rosamund Gray,) who, in my fancy, did

Surpass the deities you tell me of.

Haply you may have passed her; and indeed

Her beauty was not made for all observance,

If beauty it might be called. It was a sick
And melancholy loveliness, that pleased

But few; and somewhat of its charm, perhaps,
Owed to the lonely spot she dwelt in-I
Knew her from infancy; a shy, sad girl;
And gossips when they saw her, oftentimes
Would tell her future fortunes. They would note
Her deep-blue eyes, which seemed as they already
Had made fast friends with sorrow, and would say
Hers was an early fate: that she would pine
From grief-neglect-or cast her youth away
On love without requital.-She grew a woman:
Yet, when from some long absence I returned,
I knew again the pretty child I left.
Her hair of deepest chesnut, (that which once
Fell in thick shining clusters,) 'round a brow
Pale as Greek marble, wandered tastefully:
But still these were the same blue eyes, and still
Their melancholy splendour; bearing now
Proof of the gossips' prophecy. . . .

The latter part of this Poem is lost.

Page 31.

CURIOUS FRAGMENTS.

John Woodvil, 1802, and Works, 1818.

Lamb engaged upon these experiments in the manner of Burton, always a favourite author with him, at the suggestion of Coleridge. We find him writing to Manning (March 17, 1800): "He [Coleridge] has lugged me to the brink of engaging to a newspaper, and has suggested to me, for a first plan, the forgery of a supposed manuscript of Burton, the anatomist of melancholy." Writing again to Manning a little later, probably in April, 1800 (the letter is dated wrongly October 5, 1800, in editions of the correspondence), Lamb mentions having submitted two imitations of Burton to Stuart, the editor of the Morning Post, and states also that he has written the lines entitled Conceipt of Diabolic Possession "-originally, in the John Woodvil volume, a part of these "Fragments," but afterwards, in the Works, separated from them. In August, 1800, Lamb tells Coleridge he has written the ballad in the manner of the "Old and Young Courtier," also originally part of these "Fragments," and mentions further that Stuart had rejected the proposed contribution.

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Of Lamb's imitations the first two are most akin to the original in spirit, but the whole performance is curiously happy and a perfect illustration of his fellowship with the Elizabethans. Our language probably contains no more successful impersonation of any author: for the time being Lamb's mind approximated to that of Burton, while reserving enough individuality to make a new thing as well as a very subtle and exact echo. The Burton extracts and the Letters of Sir John Falstaff, written four or five years earlier (in which Lamb certainly had a hand: see pp. 191 and 464), represent in prose the same devotion to the Elizabethans that John Woodvil represents in verse. With 1800, when Lamb was twenty-five, this immediately derivative impulse ceased; but it is certain that, without such interesting exercises in the manner of his favourite period, his ripest work would have been far less rich. In addition to these conscious experiments I should perhaps mention the Dramatic Specimens, the Tales from Shakespeare, wherein only Shakespearian words were to be used, and the Adventures of Ulysses; but probably the Falstaff Letters laid the foundation of Lamb's literary Elizabethanising, while John Woodvil and the Burton extracts increased his zeal and knowledge.

In the John Woodvil volume, 1802, the "Curious Fragments" comprised four extracts. Extracts I. and II. were as they now are. Extract III. consisted of the following verses :—

EXTRACT III

A CONCEIPT OF DIABOLICAL POSSESSION

By myselfe walking,

To myselfe talking,

When as I ruminate
On my untoward fate,
Scarcely seem I

Alone sufficiently

Black thoughts continually

Crowding my privacy;
They come unbidden,
Like foes at a wedding,
Thrusting their faces
In better guests' places,
Peevish and malecontent,
Clownish impertinents,

Dashing the merriments:
So in like fashions

Dim Cogitations

Follow and haunt me,
Striving to daunt me,
In my heart festering,
In my ears whispering,
"Thy friends are treacherous,
"Thy foes are dangerous,
"Thy dreams ominous.'
-Fierce Anthropophagi,

Spectra, Diaboli,

What scared St. Anthony,

Hobgoblins, Lemures,
Dreams of Antipodes,
Night-riding Incubi
Troubling the phantasie,
All dire illusions
Causing confusion,
Figments hereticall,
Scruples fantasticall,
Doubts diabolicall,
Abaddon vexeth me,
Mahu perplexeth me,
Lucifer teareth me,

It ran

Jesu Maria! libera nos ab his tentationibus, orat, implorat, R. B. Peccator.1 Extract IV. was originally the third as the essay now stands. as now until the present close, when came the following passage :"The fruit, issue, children, of these my morning meditations, have been certain crude, impolite, incomposite, hirsute, (what shall I say?) verses, noting the difference of rich and poor, in the ways of a rich noble's palace and a poor workhouse. "Sequuntur.

"THE ARGUMENT.

"In a costly palace Youth meets respect:
In a wretched workhouse Age finds neglect.

"EVINCED THUS:

"In a costly palace Youth goes clad in gold;
In a wretched workhouse Age's limbs are cold:
There they sit, the old men, by a shivering fire,
Still close and closer cowering, warmth is their desire.

"In a costly palace, when the brave gallants dine,
They have store of good venison, with old Canary wine,
With singing and musick to heighten the cheer;
Coarse bits, with grudging, are the pauper's best fare.

"In a costly palace Youth is still carest,

By a train of attendants, which laugh at my young Lord's jeste;
In a wretched workhouse the contrary prevails,

Does Age begin to prattle? No man heark'neth to his tales.

"In a costly palace, if the child, with a pin,

Do but chance to prick a finger, strait the Doctor is call'd in;
In a wretched workhouse men are left to perish

For want of proper cordials, which their old age might cherish.

"In a costly palace Youth enjoys his lust;

In a wretched workhouse Age, in corners thrust,

Thinks upon the former days, when he was well to do,

Had children to stand by him, both friends and kinsmen too.

"In a costly palace Youth his temples hides

With a new devised peruke, that reaches to his sides
In a wretched workhouse Age's crown is bare,
With a few thin locks just to fence out the cold air.

'In peace, as in war, 'tis our young gallants' pride,

To walk, each one i' the streets, with a rapier at his side,
That none to do them injury may have pretence;
Wretched Age, in poverty, must brook offence.

1 Jesu, Son of Mary, deliver us from these temptations, is the prayer and entreaty of R. B., a sinner.-ED.

"THE CONSEQUENCE.

"Wanton Youth is oft times haught and swelling found,
When Age for very shame goes stooping to the ground.

"THE CONCLUSION-Dura Paupertas!"

The differences in text between the 1802 and 1818 editions are very slight. They are merely changes of punctuation and spelling-some twenty-four in all-with the exception that on page 34, last line but one, "common sort" was originally "mobbe." Concerning this change Mr. Thomas Hutchinson, in The Athenæum, December 28, 1901, has an interesting note. Lamb, he says, made it "for the best of good reasons, because in the meantime he had recollected that to attribute the word mob to the pen of Robert Burton was to commit a linguistic anachronism. The earliest known examples of mob occur in Shadwell (1688) and Dryden (1690), whereas Burton died in January, 1640." I might add that "jokers was another anachronism; since, according to the New English Dictionary, its first use is in the works of T. Cooke, 1729. "Inerudite" and "incomposite" seem to have been Lamb's coinage, but they are very Burtonian. The New English Dictionary gives Lamb's reference alone to the word "hebetant," meaning making dull.

I am indebted to Mr. W. J. Craig for some notes on the names and words in the Burton fragments—the first of which is based upon the chapter on "Love Melancholy" in the Analysis, where change of place is recommended to the despairing and melancholy lover (see particularly Part III., Sec. 2, Mem. 5, Subsec. 2). Pliny is Plinius Secundus, author of the Natural Historie, to which Burton is much indebted. Mandeville, Sir John Maundeville the traveller: Burton somewhere writes, "I would censure all Pliny's, Solinus', Strabo's, Sir John Mandeville's, Olaus Magnus', Marcus Polus' lies.” Fienus was Jean Fyens, born at Turnhoutin, author of De Flatibus, 1582. The work De Monstris is probably imaginary, as are many of Lamb's quotations. To Aelianus Montaltus' work, De Morbis Capitis, Burton often refers. Christopherus a Vega wrote De Art. Med., in which is a chapter "De Melancholia" which attracted Burton. Coryate was Thomas Coryate, author of the Crudities, 1611, not, I believe, mentioned in Burton. Hieronymus Wolfius wrote Dial Præfix. Genituris Leovitii, from which Burton quotes. He wrote, I think, no book on the world's epitome. The Sanazarro who is said by Lamb to have praised it, would be the author of the Arcadia which preceded Sidney's and to which he is said to be indebted. Polydore was Polydore Vergil, who died at Urbino (where he was born) in 1555 and was for a while Archdeacon of Wells-the author of a Latin chronicle of England, to whom Burton often refers. Æneas Silvius is Æneas Silvius Piccolomini, afterwards Pius II., several of whose sarcasms are quoted by Burton. The Corderius which a Corydon could scarcely construe (page 32, line 10) was probably drawn by Lamb from the Eclogues of Virgil. Aldobrandus (page 32, line 15) was perhaps a slip of Lamb's pen for Ulysses Aldrovandus, born at Bologna, 1527, who spent his life in

preparing a natural history. Melancthon is not Philip Melancthon, but the reformer. Cornutus, probably a jest of Lamb's, who was continually amused by the idea which the name conveys (see note to "A Vision of Horns"). Hippocrates (died B.C. 361?) and Avicenna are doctors frequently mentioned by Burton. Chaucer in his Prologue mentions Avicen.

In the second extract Bodinus was Jean Bodin, born at Angers, 1530 (?), the author of at least three books which Burton mentions: the Methodus Historica, Universæ Nature Theatrum and De la Demonomanie. Also De Republica. Trincauellius was Vittore Trincavella, a physician, born at Venice, 1496, author of Consilia Medica. Lemnius was Louis Lemmens, born at Ziriczee, in Zealand, 1505, called by Burton Lemnius the physician, author of De Occultis Natura Miraculis. Alcuin attached himself to Charlemagne and assisted him in educational reforms. Galen was of course the physician. Anianus, called by Burton Annianus, was a Latin poet of the time of Trajan, and Raymond Lully, the alchemist, whose works Lamb possessed, as he tells us elsewhere. Villanovus (Arnoldus of Villa Novo), at the beginning of the third extract, is the last of the names. Burton credits him with the Book of Heroical Love.

To treat exhaustively of the words, in addition to what has been said above of three or four of them, would enlarge this note beyond all bounds; but certain phrases require a little explanation. For example: "Bezo las manos" (page 35, line 2) was a Spanish phrase, meaning hand kissings, salutes, which was then coming into English. Thomas Heywood's "Fortune by Land and Sea" has "give them the joy, the bon jour, the besilus manus,' and Browne's Religio Medici has "with a Bezo las Manos to Fortune." "A Croesus, a Crassus" (page 35, line 36) is from Burton almost direct. We read, II., 271, 3 (Nimmo's ed.): "Tis not his wealth can vindicate him, let him have Job's inventory, sint Cræsi et Crassi licet, non hos Pactolus aureas undas agens, eripiat unquam è miseriis, Croesus or rich Crassus cannot now command health or get himself a stomach." "Cunning Gnathoes" (page 36, line 2)-Gnatho was the parasite in the "Eunuchus" of Terence. Burton also uses him in this way.

Lamb's affection for Burton was profound. His own copy was a quarto of 1621, which is now, I believe, in America. The following passage from John Payne Collier's An Old Man's Diary (for 1832) is interesting in this connection :—

This led him [Lamb] to ask me, whether I remembered two or three passages in his book of books, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, illustrating Shakespeare's notions regarding Witches and Fairies. I replied that if I had seen them, I did not then recollect them. I took down the book, the contents of which he knew so well that he opened upon the place almost immediately: the first passage was this, respecting Macbeth and Banquo and their meeting with the three Witches: "And Hector Boethius [relates] of Macbeth and Banco, two Scottish Lords, that, as they were wandering in woods, had their fortunes told them by three strange women." I said that I remembered to have seen that passage quoted, or referred to by more than one editor of Shakespeare. "Have you seen this quoted," he inquired, "which relates to fairies? Some put our fairies into this rank, which have been in former times adored with much superstition, with sweeping their houses and setting of a pail of clean water, good victuals and the like; and then they should

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