Lamb prints as one:--

The Doctor whisper'd to the Nurse,
And the Surgeon knew what he said.

"The Rose" was blank verse, addressed to Edith Southey. "Cousin
Margaret" was a "Metrical Letter Written from London," in which there
are allusions to Bunyan. The reference to Apollidon is explained by
these lines:--

The Sylphs should waft us to some goodly isle,
Like that where whilome old Apollidon
Built up his blameless spell.]




LETTER 45


CHARLES LAMB TO ROBERT SOUTHEY

March 2Oth, 1799.

I am hugely pleased with your "Spider," "your old freemason," as you
call him. The three first stanzas are delicious; they seem to me a
compound of Burns and Old Quarles, those kind of home-strokes, where
more is felt than strikes the ear; a terseness, a jocular pathos, which
makes one feel in laughter. The measure, too, is novel and pleasing. I
could almost wonder Rob. Burns in his lifetime never stumbled upon it.