CHAPTER XXX

CHARLES LAMB AND HAZLITT: ESSAYISTS AND CRITICS

Charles Lamb is a friend of yours whom you may not know yet; but, when you meet him, you will soon find yourself thinking of Charles Lamb as a friend. He is one of the rare persons who attract and deserve everybody's love. Charles Lamb lived all his life in London, where he was born; he went to a famous school, often called the Bluecoat School, because the boys were dressed after that fashion. His first home was in the Temple. "I was born and passed the first seven years of my life in the Temple. Its church, its halls, its gardens, its fountain, its river, I had almost said--for in those young years what was this king of rivers to me but a stream that watered our pleasant places?--these are my oldest recollections."

When he grew up he entered the service of the East India Company and worked there as a clerk all his working life. The offices belonging to the East India Company were known as the South Sea House. People think of this building with interest and affection, because Charles Lamb worked in it. Besides being a clerk, he wrote in his leisure time a series of papers, or essays, which deal with many different subjects in a whimsical, gentle, beautiful style. The manner {210} of writing which Lamb used expressed his nature and abilities perfectly. His work is full of sweet laughter, great penetration, unselfishness, and nobility. No wonder we love Charles Lamb. The essays are known as _The Essays of Elia_. Lamb is supposed to have taken Elia as a pen name from the name of a fellow-clerk in the South Sea House.

Only one sister and one brother out of a rather large family grew up to maturity with Charles Lamb. This sister, whose name was Mary, suffered often from a serious illness, and her brother Charles devoted himself to her care. Mary Lamb also was gifted and lovable. Neither of them married. Charles and Mary Lamb wrote together a book for young people, called _Tales from Shakespeare_.

The history of the attachment between this brother and sister is one of the most beautiful stories we know of family affection. Charles was a gay, happy person, chivalrous and tender-hearted. He loved jokes, but there were sad happenings in his life which he met with great courage. He stammered a little, but he was excellent company, and gathered about him many friends, themselves men of genius, such men as Coleridge and Wordsworth, both great poets; Hazlitt, who was a writer and critic; Crabb Robinson, Procter and Talfourd, whose tastes were the same as his own. Charles Lamb lived from 1775 to 1834. A great deal has been written about him; two especially delightful biographies of Lamb are those written by Canon Ainger and by Mr. E. V. Lucas. {211} One or other of these you should read when you have time.

But, first of all, there are his essays. You will soon discover that you have favourites among these essays. It is likely that you will find much to your liking "Christ's Hospital Five-and-Thirty Years Ago"---this is written about his old school--"Mrs. Battle's Opinions on Whist", "Mackery End, in Hertfordshire", "The Old Benchers of The Inner Temple", "Blakesmoor in H--shire", but above all "A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig", and "Dream Children". You will enjoy almost any of Lamb's essays read aloud by someone who reads well. But begin by reading "A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig" yourself, if you cannot find someone who will read it to you. In this essay Charles Lamb is, of course, writing humorously, such amusing, whimsical humour. It tells how a small Chinese boy, Bo-bo, discovered by accident that roasted meat tastes a great deal better than meat which has not been cooked at all.

Essays, or papers, are short articles which deal with one subject only. They often, but not always, by reason of their style, tell us a great deal about the nature of the man or woman who has written the essay. No one can read Lamb's essays without learning that the writer was lovable, tender-hearted and upright.

Another famous essayist is Francis Bacon, a very able man who lived as long ago as the reign of Queen Elizabeth. His essays are famous; they are not as much concerned with the study of human nature as the essays of Charles Lamb, but are compact with learning, observation and {212} thought. One of his best known and most likable essays is "On Gardens".

Other famous essayists are: Addison, whose Sir Roger de Coverley you may know already; Steele; Swift; a great Frenchman, Montaigne, who lived in the sixteenth century and whose essays people generally read with pleasure when they are middle-aged or older; and Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote _Treasure Island_. Many of his essays are especially beautiful; read "The Lantern-Bearers" when you have an opportunity.

Essays, and books, often contain what is called criticism. Criticism is an explanation, an appreciation, sometimes an analysis, of what has been written in poetry, verse, fiction, history, biography, and other published work; criticism deals as well with art and music.

But we can understand better what criticism is if we read one or two extracts which have been written by critics. Two of Lamb's friends, Coleridge and Hazlitt, were famous critics. Lamb himself was one of the most discerning among English critics. He did not always care for work which was really great, but when he did care for a great piece of work, no one had more perfect understanding than Charles Lamb.

What follows is part of a paragraph written by Coleridge, a poet, of Shakespeare and Milton. We feel an enthusiasm in what Coleridge has written which makes our own hearts glow. This feeling of elevation and happiness, given to us through reading, is one of the tests of great work.

"What then shall we say? even this; that {213} Shakespeare, no mere child of nature; no _automaton_ of genius; no passive vehicle of inspiration, possessed by the spirit, not possessing it; first studied patiently, meditated deeply, understood minutely, till knowledge, become habitual and intuitive, wedded itself to his habitual feelings, and at length gave birth to that stupendous power, by which he stands alone, with no equal or second in his own class; to that power which seated him on one of the two glory-smitten summits of the poetic mountain, with Milton as his compeer, not rival. While the former darts himself forth, and passes into all the forms of human character and passion...; the other attracts all forms and things to himself, into the unity of his own ideal. All things and modes of action shape themselves anew in the being of Milton; while Shakespeare becomes all things, yet for ever remaining himself." Some of this we can understand. Shakespeare and Milton both had great genius. But Shakespeare understood all kinds of human beings and showed them as they really were. Milton changed what he wrote about to be like himself. What Shakespeare did, of course, is the greater work of the two.

It is pleasant to read what the critic William Hazlitt wrote in praise of the essays of his friend Charles Lamb, not for friendship's sake merely, but because he loved and valued the essays. Notice, while Hazlitt seems to write easily and simply, he succeeds in explaining to us at the same time the charm and lasting quality of Charles Lamb as a writer. It is a fine, brief example of one kind of criticism and of the work of a critic.

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"With what a gusto Mr. Lamb describes the inns and courts of law, the Temple and Gray's Inn, as if he had been a student there for the last two hundred years, and had been as well acquainted with the person of Sir Francis Bacon as he is with his portrait or writings! ... He (Lamb) haunts Watling-street like a gentle spirit; ... and Christ's-Hospital still breathes the balmy breath of infancy in his description of it! Whittington and his Cat are a fine hallucination for Mr. Lamb's historic Muse, and we believe he never heartily forgave a certain writer who took the subject of Guy Faux out of his hands. The streets of London are his fairy-land, teeming with wonder, with life and interest to his retrospective glance, as it did to the eager eye of childhood; he has contrived to weave its tritest traditions into a bright and endless romance!" The quotation from Coleridge is taken from his _Biographia Literaria_, and Hazlitt's writing from his book called _The Spirit of the Age and Lectures on English poets_.

Other famous or eminent critics whose writings you may read some day are: Matthew Arnold, a poet as well as critic, whose father was the Dr. Arnold of Engby School that you have read about in _Tom Brown's School Days_; a Frenchman, Sainte-Beuve, one of the clearest, and most delightful of critical writers; another Frenchman, H. A. Taine; and a Dane, Georg Brandes, a learned writer, who was one of the first to show how close the connection is between one literature and another, especially in European literatures.

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