The Collected Works of Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb. Charles Lamb
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the London Magazine, of which Hood acted as sub-editor, married Jane Reynolds in 1824. John Hamilton Reynolds (1796–1852), her brother, wrote for the London Magazine over the signature "Edward Herbert." The Odes and Addresses appeared anonymously in the spring of 1825. Coleridge's attribution of the work to Lamb was not very happy; its amazing agility was quite out of his power. But Coleridge occasionally nodded in these matters, or he would not have been equally positive a few years earlier that Lamb was the author of Reynolds' Peter Bell.
In at least two of the odes and addresses the authors followed in Lamb's own footsteps and adapted to their own use some of his thunder. In the address to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster the argument for free admission, as expressed in Lamb's "Letter to Southey" in 1823 (see pages 275–277), is extended, with additional levity; and again in the ode to Mr. Bodkin, the Hon. Secretary to the Society for the Suppression of Mendicity, Lamb's Elia essay on "The Decay of Beggars" is emphasised. According to a copy of the book marked by Hood, now in the possession of Mr. Buxton Forman, Reynolds wrote only the odes to M'Adam, Dymoke, Sylvanus Urban, Elliston and the Dean and Chapter.
Compare Lamb's other remarks on punning in "Popular Fallacies" and "Distant Correspondents."
Page 335, line 9. Peter Pindar … Colman. Peter Pindar was the name assumed by Dr. John Wolcot (1738–1819) when he lashed and satirised his contemporaries in his very numerous odes. Colman was George Colman the younger (1762–1836), the dramatist, and author of Broad Grins, 1802, a collection of free and easy comic verse.
Page 335, foot. The immortal Grimaldi. Joseph Grimaldi (1779–1837), the clown. He did not actually leave the stage until 1828, but his appearances had been only occasional for several years.
Page 336, second stanza. "Berkeley's Foote." This was Maria Foote (1797?-1867), the actress, afterwards Countess of Harrington, who was abandoned by Colonel Berkeley after the birth of two children, and whose woes were made public through a breach-of-promise action brought by her against "Pea Green" Hayes a little later.
Page 337. The Religion of Actors.
New Monthly Magazine, April, 1826. Not reprinted by Lamb; but known to be his by a sentence in a letter to Bernard Barton. This paper is of course as nonsensical as that on Liston.
Page 337, line 4 of essay. A celebrated tragic actor. Referring to the action for criminal conversation brought by Alderman Cox against Edmund Kean, in 1824, in which Kean was cast in £800 damages, and which led during the following seasons to hostile demonstrations against him both in England and America. For many performances he played only to men.
Page 337, line 11 of essay. Miss Pope. See note on page 465.
Page 338, line 1. The present licenser. George Colman the younger, whose pedantic severity was out of all proportion to the freedom which in his earlier play-writing and verse-writing days he had allowed himself. In his evidence before a committee of the House of Commons, in an inquiry into the state of the drama in 1832, he admitted having refused to pass the term "angel," addressed by a lover to his lady, on the ground that "an angel was a heavenly body."
Page 338, line 3. Fawcett. This would be John Fawcett (1768–1837), famous in bluff parts. He was treasurer and trustee of the Covent Garden Theatrical Fund for many years.
Page 338, line 3. The five points. The Five Points of Doctrine, maintained by the Calvinists, were Original Sin, Predestination, Irresistible Grace, Particular Redemption and the Final Perseverance of the Saints.
Page 338, line 4. Dicky Suett. Richard Suett (1755–1805), the comedian of whom Lamb wrote so enthusiastically in "The Old Actors."
Page 338, line 7. Br——'s "Religio Dramatici." I imagine that John Braham, the tenor (1774?-1856), né Abraham, had put forth a manifesto stating that he had embraced the Christian faith; but I can get no information on the subject. See Lamb's other references to Braham in the Elia essay "Imperfect Sympathies."
Page 338, line 8 from foot. Dr. Watts. Dr. Isaac Watts' version of the Psalms, 1719, takes great liberties with the originals, evangelising them, omitting much, and even substituting "Britain" for "Israel."
Page 338, foot. St. Martin's … St. Paul's, Covent Garden. The two parishes in which the chief theatres were situated.
Page 339, line 3. Two great bodies. The Covent Garden Company and the Drury Lane Company.
Page 339, line 7. Mr. Bengough … Mr. Powell. Two useful actors in their day.
Page 339, line 18. Notorious education of the manager. Charles Kemble (1775–1854), then manager of Covent Garden, had been educated at the English Jesuit College at Douay, where his brother, John Philip Kemble, had preceded him.
Page 339, line 20. Mr. T——y. This would probably be Daniel Terry (1780–1829), then manager, with Yates, of the Adelphi. The allusion to him as a member of the Kirk of Scotland probably refers to his well-known adoration and imitation of Sir Walter Scott, whom he closely resembled.
Page 339, line 25. Mr. Fletcher. The Rev. Alexander Fletcher, minister of the Albion Chapel in Moorfields, who was suspended by the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in 1824 for his share in a breach-of-promise case.
Page 339, lines 29 and 30. Miss F——e and Madame V——s. Miss F——e would probably be Miss Foote (see note on page 521). Madame Vestris (1797–1856), the comedienne and wife of Charles James Mathews. It might not be out of place to state that Sublapsarians consider the election of grace as a remedy for an existing evil, and Supralapsarians view it as a part of God's original purpose in regard to men.
Page 339, lines 32 and 33. Mr. Pope … Mr. Sinclair. Alexander Pope (1752–1835), the comedian. John Sinclair (1791–1857), the singer.
Page 339, line 33. Mr. Grimaldi. See the note on page 521. Grimaldi's son Joseph S. Grimaldi made his début as Man Friday in 1814 and died in 1832. The Jumpers were a Welsh sect of Calvinist Methodists.
Page 340, line 7. Mr. Elliston. Robert William Elliston (1774–1831), the comedian, who had been manager of Drury Lane, 1821–1826. Lamb's Elia essays on this character lend point to his suggestion that Elliston leaned towards the Muggletonians, a sect which by that time was almost extinct, after two centuries' existence.