CHARLES LAMB BY ALFRED AINGER London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1888 The right of translation and reproduction is reserved. PREFACE TO NEW EDITION THIS Memoir was originally published in the "Men of Letters Series," edited by Mr. John Morley. In revising it for the present Edition, I have not materially altered its form and scale, but in the six years that have elapsed since its first appearance new facts have come to light, especially affecting the earlier and more obscure years of Charles Lamb's life. The archives of the Inner Temple, the Burial Registers of various churches, the Will of Samuel Salt, the more careful arrangement of Lamb's Letters, besides information from private sources, have enabled me to make additions to the second and third chapters of this book, whereby the early career of Lamb is now told more fully and accurately than before. Some footnotes have also been added. References in the book to Lamb's Letters are to my Edition of his Correspondence, in two volumes, uniform with the present. TULLIBELTON, Perth, A. A. 133460 AUTHORITIES CONSULTED 1. The Essays of Elia, and other writings, in prose and verse, of Charles Lamb. 2. Letters of Charles Lamb, with a Sketch of his Life by Thomas Noon Talfourd. 3. Final Memorials of Charles Lamb, etc., by Thomas 4. Charles Lamb: A Memoir, by Barry Cornwall Remains, by W. Carew Hazlitt 6. Gillman's Life of Coleridge, vol. i. 7. Cottle's Early Recollections of Coleridge . 1837 1848 1866 9. My Friends and Acquaintance, by P. G. Patmore 10. Autobiography of Leigh Hunt 1874 1838 1836 1854 1867 1839 15. Memoir of Charles Mathews (the elder), by Mrs. 11. Memoirs of William Hazlitt, by W. Carew Hazlitt. 12. Literary Reminiscences, by Thomas Hood (in Hood's Own). 16. Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey |