without merit. He required that excellence should be combined with
antiquity. A great name was generally to him simply a great name; no more.
If it had lasted through centuries, indeed, as in the case of Michael
Angelo, then he admitted that "a great name implied greatness." He did not
think that greatness lay in the "thews and sinews," or in the bulk alone.
When Nelson was walking on the quay at Yarmouth, the mob cried out in
derision, "What! make that little fellow a captain!" Lamb thought
otherwise; and in regret for the death of that great seaman, he says, "I
have followed him ever since I saw him walking in Pall Mall, _looking just
as a hero should look_" (_i.e._, simply). "He was the only pretence of a
great man we had." The large stage blusterer and ostentatious drawcansir
were never, in Lamb's estimation, models for heroes. In the case of the
first Napoleon also, he writes, "He is a fine fellow, as my barber says;
and I should not mind standing bareheaded at his table to do him service
in his fall." This was in August, 1815.

The famous "Ode to Tobacco" was written in 1805, and the pretty stories
founded on the plays of Shakespeare were composed or translated about the
year 1806; Lamb taking the tragic, and his sister the other share of the
version. These tales were to produce about sixty pounds; to them a sum
which was most important, for he and Mary at that time hailed the addition
of twenty pounds to his salary (on the retirement of an elder clerk) as a
grand addition to their comforts.

Charles was at this period (February, 1806) at work upon a farce, to be
called "Mr. H.;" from which he says, "if it has a 'good run' I shall get
two hundred pounds, and I hope one hundred pounds for the copyright." "Mr.
H." (which rested solely upon the absurdity of a name, which after all was
not irresistibly absurd) was accepted at the theatre, but unfortunately it
had _not_ "a good run." It failed, not quite undeservedly perhaps, for