The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb
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Chapter 116 : "N.B. I am glad to see Ja.n.u.s veering about to the old quarter. I feared he had
"N.B. I am glad to see Ja.n.u.s veering about to the old quarter. I feared he had been rust-bound.
"C. being asked why he did not like Gold's 'London' as well as ours--it was in poor S.'s time--replied--
"_--Because there is no WEATHERc.o.c.k And that's the reason why._"
The explanation of this note is that "Ja.n.u.s Weatherc.o.c.k"--one of the pseudonyms of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright--after a long absence from its pages, had sent to the previous month's _London Magazine_, May, 1822, an amusing letter of criticism of that periodical, commenting on some of its regular contributors. Therein he said: "Clap Elia on the back for such a series of good behaviour."--Who C. is cannot be said; possibly Lamb, as a joke, intends Coleridge to be indicated; but poor S. would be John Scott, the first editor of the _London Magazine_, who was killed in a duel. C.'s reply consisted of the last lines of Wordsworth's "Anecdote for Fathers; or, Falsehood Corrected."
Accurately they run:--
At Kelve there was no weather-c.o.c.k And that's the reason why.
The hero of this poem was a son of Lamb's friend Basil Montagu.
Gold's _London Magazine_ was a contemporary of the better known London magazine of the same name. In Vol. III. appeared an article ent.i.tled "The Literary Ovation," describing an imaginary dinner-party given by Messrs. Baldwin, Cradock & Joy in February, 1821, at which Lamb was supposed to be present and to sing a song by Webster, one of his old dramatists. Mr. Bertram Dobell conjectures that Wainewright may have written this squib.
Page 137. A DISSERTATION UPON ROAST PIG.
_London Magazine_, September, 1822.
There has been some discussion as to the origin of the central idea of this essay. A resemblance is found in a pa.s.sage in _The Turkish Spy_, where, after describing the annual burnt-offering of a bull by the Athenians, _The Spy_ continues:--
In process of time a certain priest, in the midst of his b.l.o.o.d.y sacrifice, taking up a piece of the broiled flesh which had fallen from the altar on the ground, and burning his fingers therewith, suddenly clapt them to his mouth to mitigate the pain. But, when he had once tasted the sweetness of the fat, not only longed for more of it, but gave a piece to his a.s.sistant; and he to others; who, all pleased with the new-found dainties, fell to eating of flesh greedily. And hence this species of gluttony was taught to other mortals.
"Este," a contributor to _Notes and Queries_, June 21, 1884, wrote:--
A quarto volume of forty-six pages, once in "Charles Lamb's library" (according to a pencilled note in the volume) is before me, ent.i.tled: _Gli Elogi del Porco, Capitoli Berneschi di Tigrinto Bistonio P.A., E. Accademico Ducale de' Dissonanti di Modena.
In Modena per gli Eredi di Bartolmeo Soliani Stampatori Ducali MDCCLXI. Con Licenza de' Superiori_, [wherein] some former owner of the volume has copied out Lamb's prose with many exact verbal resemblances from the poem.
It has also been suggested that Porphyry's tract on _Abstinence from Animal Food_, translated by William Taylor, bears a likeness to the pa.s.sage. Taylor's translation, however, was not published till 1823, some time after Lamb's essay.
These parallels merely go to show that the idea was a commonplace; at the same time it is not Lamb, but Manning, who told him the story, that must declare its origin. Not only in the essay, but in a letter to Barton in March, 1823, does Lamb express his indebtedness to his traveller friend. Allsop, indeed, in his _Letters of Coleridge_, claims to give the Chinese story which Manning lent to Lamb and which produced the "Dissertation." It runs thus:--
A child, in the early ages, was left alone by its mother in a house in which was a pig. A fire took place; the child escaped, the pig was burned. The child scratched and pottered among the ashes for its pig, which at last it found. All the provisions being burnt, the child was very hungry, and not yet having any artificial aids, such as golden ewers and damask napkins, began to lick or suck its fingers to free them from the ashes. A piece of fat adhered to one of his thumbs, which, being very savoury alike in taste and odour, he rightly judged to belong to the pig. Liking it much, he took it to his mother, just then appearing, who also tasted it, and both agreed that it was better than fruit or vegetables.
They rebuilt the house, and the woman, after the fas.h.i.+on of good wives, who, says the chronicle, are now very scarce, put a pig into it, and was about to set it on fire, when an old man, one whom observation and reflection had made a philosopher, suggested that a pile of wood would do as well. (This must have been the father of economists.) The next pig was killed before it was roasted, and thus
"From low beginnings, We date our winnings."
Manning, by the way, contributed articles on Chinese jests to the _New Monthly Magazine_ in 1826.
A preliminary sketch of the second portion of this essay will be found in the letter to Coleridge dated March 9, 1822. See also the letters to Mr. and Mrs. Bruton, January 6, 1823, to Mrs. Collier, November 2, 1824, and to H. Dodwell, October 7, 1827, all in acknowledgment of pigs sent to Lamb probably from an impulse found in this essay.
Later, Lamb abandoned the extreme position here taken. In the little essay ent.i.tled "Thoughts on Presents of Game," 1833 (see Vol. I.), he says: "Time was, when Elia ... preferred to all a roasted pig. But he disclaims all such green-sickness appet.i.tes in future."
Page 141, verse. "Ere sin could blight ..." From Coleridge's "Epitaph on an Infant."
Page 142, line 7 from foot. _My good old aunt_. Probably Aunt Hetty.
See the essay on "Christ's Hospital," for another story of her. The phrase, "Over London Bridge," unless an invention, suggests that before this aunt went to live with the Lambs--probably not until they left the Temple in 1792--she was living on the Surrey side. But it was possibly an Elian mystification. Lamb had another aunt, but of her we know nothing.
Page 143, line 11 from foot. _St. Omer's_. The French Jesuit College.
Lamb, it is unnecessary to say, was never there.
Page 144. A BACHELOR'S COMPLAINT OF THE BEHAVIOUR OF MARRIED PEOPLE.
This is, by many years, the earliest of these essays. It was printed first in _The Reflector_, No. IV., in 1811 or 1812. When Lamb brought his _Works_ together, in 1818, he omitted it. In September, 1822, it appeared in the _London Magazine_ as one of the reprints of Lamb's earlier writings, of which the "Confessions of a Drunkard" (see Vol.
I.)was the first. In that number also appeared the "Dissertation upon Roast Pig," thereby offering the reader an opportunity of comparing Lamb's style in 1811 with his riper and richer style of 1822. The germ of the essay must have been long in Lamb's mind, for we find him writing to Hazlitt in 1805 concerning Mrs. Rickman: "A good-natured woman though, which is as much as you can expect from a friend's wife, whom you got acquainted with as a bachelor."
Page 147, line 6. "_Love me, love my dog_." See "Popular Fallacies,"
page 302, for an expansion of this paragraph.
Page 150. ON SOME OF THE OLD ACTORS.
In February, 1822, Lamb began a series of three articles in the _London Magazine_ on "The Old Actors." The second was printed in April and the third in October of the same year. Afterwards, in reprinting them in _Elia_, he rearranged them into the essays, "On Some of the Old Actors," "On the Artificial Comedy of the Last Century," and "On the Acting of Munden," omitting a considerable portion altogether. The essay in its original tripart form will be found in the Appendix to this volume.
In one of his theatrical notices in _The Examiner_ (see Vol. I.) Lamb remarks, "Defunct merit comes out upon us strangely," and certain critics believe that he praised some of the old actors beyond their deserts. But no one can regret any such excesses.
Page 150, beginning. _Twelfth Night_. When recalling early playgoing days in "Old China," Lamb refers again to this play--Viola in Illyria.
Page 150, foot. _Whitfield, Packer, Benson, Burton, Phillimore_ and _Barrymore_. Whitfield, who made his London debut as Trueman in "George Barnwell" about 1776, was a useful man at Covent Garden and Drury Lane.--John Hayman Packer (1730-1806), known in Lamb's time for his old men. He acted at Drury Lane until 1805.--Benson, who married a sister of Mrs. Stephen Kemble, wrote one or two plays, and was a good subst.i.tute in emergencies. He committed suicide during brain fever in 1796.--Burton was a creditable utility actor at Covent Garden and Drury Lane.--Phillimore filled small parts at Drury Lane.--Barrymore was of higher quality, a favourite character actor both at Drury Lane and the Haymarket.
Page 151, line 6. _Mrs. Jordan_. Mrs. Jordan, born in 1762, ceased to act in England in 1814 and died in 1816. Nell was her famous part, in Coffey's "The Devil to Pay." Miss Hoyden is in Vanbrugh's "Relapse."
Lamb is referring to Viola in Act I., Scene 5, and Act II., Scene 4, of "Twelfth Night."
Page 151, line 8 from foot. _Mrs. Powel_. Mrs. Powel, previously known as Mrs. Farmer, and afterwards Mrs. Renaud, was at Drury Lane from 1788 to 1811. She ended her London career in 1816 and died in 1829.
Page 152, line 8. _Of all the actors_. The _London Magazine_ article began at this point. Robert Bensley (1738?-1817?) was at Drury Lane from 1775 to 1796, when he retired (alternating it with the Haymarket). G.H. Boaden and George Colman both bear out Lamb's eulogy of Bensley as Malvolio; but otherwise he is not the subject of much praise.
Page 152, line 15. _Venetian incendiary_. Pierre in Otway's "Venice Preserved." Lamb appended the pa.s.sage in a footnote in the _London Magazine_.
Page 153, line 12. _Baddeley ... Parsons ... John Kemble_. Robert Baddeley (1733-1794), the husband of Mrs. Baddeley, and the original Moses in the "School for Scandal." William Parsons (1736-1795), the original Crabtree in the "School for Scandal," and a favourite actor of Lamb's. John Philip Kemble (1757-1823), who managed Drury Lane from 1788 to 1801.
Page 153, line 11 from foot. _Of birth and feeling_. In the _London Magazine_ a footnote came here (see page 316).
Page 153, line 6 from foot. _Length of service_. In the _London Magazine_ a footnote came here (see page 316).
Page 154, line 24. _House of misrule_. A long pa.s.sage came here in the _London Magazine_ (see page 317).
Page 154, line 8 from foot. _Hero of La Mancha_. Compare a similar a.n.a.lysis of Don Quixote's character on page 264.
Page 155, line 23. _Dodd_. James William Dodd (1740?-1796).
Page 155, line 24. _Lovegrove_. William Lovegrove (1778-1816), famous in old comedy parts and as Peter Fidget in "The Boarding House."
