says "five years ago"; he means three. Coleridge did not alter the
phrase. It was against this poem that he wrote in pencil on his deathbed
in 1834: "Ch. and Mary Lamb--dear to my heart, yea, as it were, my
heart.--S. T. C. Aet. 63, 1834. 1797-1834 = 37 years!"

"I have hit off the following"--"A Ballad Denoting the Difference
between the Rich and the Poor," first printed among the Imitations of
Burton in the _John Woodvil_ volume, 1802, see Vol. IV.

"And wisest Stewart"--Stuart of the _Morning Post_. Adapted from
Milton's "Hymn on the Nativity"--

"But wisest Fate says no."

"W.'s (Wordsworth's) tragedy" was "The Borderers." The second edition of
_Lyrical Ballads_ was just ready.]




LETTER 62


CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS MANNING
[P.M. August 9, 1800.]

Dear Manning,--I suppose you have heard of Sophia Lloyd's good fortune,
and paid the customary compliments to the parents. Heaven keep the
new-born infant from star-blasting and moon-blasting, from epilepsy,
marasmus, and the devil! May he live to see many days, and they good