LETTER 52


CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS MANNING

[P.M. March 17, 1800.]

Dear Manning,--I am living in a continuous feast. Coleridge has been
with me now for nigh three weeks, and the more I see of him in the
quotidian undress and relaxation of his mind, the more cause I see to
love him, and believe him a _very good man_, and all those foolish
impressions to the contrary fly off like morning slumbers. He is engaged
in translations, which I hope will keep him this month to come. He is
uncommonly kind and friendly to me. He ferrets me day and night to _do
something_. He tends me, amidst all his own worrying and
heart-oppressing occupations, as a gardener tends his young _tulip_.
Marry come up! what a pretty similitude, and how like your humble
servant! He has lugged me to the brink of engaging to a newspaper, and
has suggested to me for a first plan the forgery of a supposed
manuscript of Burton the anatomist of melancholy. I have even written
the introductory letter; and, if I can pick up a few guineas this way, I
feel they will be most _refreshing_, bread being so dear. If I go on
with it, I will apprise you of it, as you may like to see my thing's!
and the _tulip_, of all flowers, loves to be admired most.

Pray pardon me, if my letters do not come very thick. I am so taken up