Part 45 (2/2)

_Caleb Williams_, the chief novel of William G.o.dwin.

P. 298, n. _He had no idea of pictures_. See p. 212.

_Buffamalco_. Cristofani Buonamico (1262-1351), also known as Buffalmacco, a painter of Florence.

P. 300. _Elliston_, Robert William (1774-1813), actor and later manager of the Drury Lane Theatre.

_still continues_. See p. 224 and n.

ON THE CONVERSATION OF AUTHORS

This is the t.i.tle of Essays III and IV of the ”Plain Speaker.” Our selection begins with the last paragraph of the first, which forms a fitting introduction to the account of one of Lamb's celebrated Wednesday evenings. Lamb tells us that his sister was accustomed to read this essay with unmixed delight.

P. 301. _When Greek meets Greek_. Nathaniel Lee's ”Alexander the Great,”

iv, 2.

_C----_. Coleridge.

P. 302. _small-coal man_. Thomas Britton (1654?-1714), a dealer in small coal, who on the floor of his hut above the coal-shop held weekly concerts of vocal and instrumental music, at which the greatest performers of the day, even Handel, were to be heard.

_And, in our flowing cups_. Cf. ”Henry V,” iv, 3, 51:

”then shall our names Familiar in his mouth as household words ...

Be in their flowing cups freely remember'd.”

P. 303. _the cartoons_. See Hazlitt's account of Raphael's cartoons in ”The Pictures at Hampton Court” (Works, IX, 43).

_Donne_, John (1573-1631), poet and divine. Hazlitt in the ”Lectures on the English Poets” confesses that he knows nothing of him save ”some beautiful verses to his wife, dissuading her from accompanying him on his travels abroad (see p. 318), and some quaint riddles in verse, which the Sphinx could not unravel.” V, 83.

P. 304. _Ned P----_. Edward Phillips. Lamb speaks of him as ”that poor card-playing Phillips, that has felt himself for so many years the outcast of Fortune.” (Works, ed. Lucas, VII, 972.)

_Captain ----_. Rear-Admiral James Burney (1750-1821), brother of f.a.n.n.y Burney the novelist, author of a ”Chronological History of the Voyages and Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean” in five volumes (1803-1817). ”The captain was himself a character, a fine, n.o.ble creature--gentle, with a rough exterior, as became the a.s.sociate of Captain Cook in his voyages round the world, and the literary historian of all these acts of circ.u.mnavigation.” Crabb-Robinson's Diary, 1810.

_Jem White_. James White (1775-1820), of whom Lamb has left us a sketch in the essay ”On the Praise of Chimney-Sweepers”: ”He carried away half the fun of the world when he died.” He wrote, it is supposed with some cooperation from Lamb, the ”Original Letters, etc., of Sir John Falstaff and his Friends” (1796), which were described by Lamb as ”without exception the best imitations I ever saw.” (Works, ed. Lucas, VI, 2.) A review of this book by Lamb, consisting chiefly of specimens, appeared in the Examiner in 1819 (Works, ed. Lucas, I, 191 ff).

_turning like the latter end_. This phrase occurs in one of the extracts in Lamb's review of Falstaff's Letters just mentioned (p. 194).

_A----_. William Aryton (1777-1858), a musical critic and director of the King's Theatre in the Haymarket. In the letter of Elia to Robert Southey (Lamb's Works, I, 230) he is spoken of as ”the last and steadiest left me of that little knot of whist-players, that used to a.s.semble weekly, for so many years, at the Queen's Gate.”

_Mrs. R-----_. Mrs. Reynolds, who had been Lamb's schoolmistress.

_M. B._ Martin Charles Burney, son of Admiral Burney. ”Martin Burney is as odd as ever.... He came down here, and insisted on reading Virgil's 'aeneid' all through with me (which he did,) because a Counsel must know Latin. Another time he read out all the Gospel of St. John, because Biblical quotations are very emphatic in a Court of Justice. A third time, he would carve a fowl, which he did very ill-favoredly, because 'we did not know how indispensable it was for a Barrister to do all those sort of things well. Those little things were of more consequence than we supposed.' So he goes on, hara.s.sing about the way to prosperity, and losing it. With a long head, but somewhat wrong one--harum-scarum. Why does not his guardian angel look to him? He deserves one--: may be, he has tired him out.” Lamb's Works, VII, 855.

_Author of the Road to Ruin_. Thomas Holcroft.

P. 305. _Critique of Pure Reason_, by Kant.

_Biographia Literaria_. Coleridge's account of his literary life, published in 1817.

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