Cheerfulness Breaks In

Abstract

By some of the means we have seen, Lamb was gradually adjusting to his difficult life, sublimating his India House discontent, keeping interested in his friends’ affairs, carrying on as an enthusiastic critic and writer of poetry, and being almost light-hearted as he studied George Dyer. He had even enjoyed a mute love passage (quite one-sided, we may suppose) inspired by a girl who lived opposite in Pentonville. When old John Lamb’s death occurred, it was as though he had already come to terms with that too, so long as Mary made progress. His letters to Southey over the next few months begin to show intimations of Elia as he practises his growing comic gift.

When a poor creature… comes before thee, do not stay to inquire whether the ‘seven small children’… have a veritable existence…. It is good to believe him. ‘A Complaint of the Decay of Beggars in the Metropolis’ (Elia, 120)

I know that if my parents were to live again, I would do more things to please them, than merely sitting still six hours a week. Lamb to Robert Lloyd, 23 April 1799 (M i, 169)

When maidens such as Hester die,

Their place ye may not well supply,

Though ye among a thousand try,

With vain endeavor.

Lamb’s ‘Hester’ (M ii, 107)