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Dating Lamb's Contributions to the Table Book

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

George Leonard Barnett
George Leonard Barnett*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
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Extract

It is well known that Hone's Table Book of 1827 contains a number of contributions from Charles Lamb, including his Garrick Extracts. It is not so well known, however, that dates assigned by editors to these pieces do not conform to the general policy of dating Lamb's work according to the time of publication. Some of these articles are dated merely by the year; some have been dated by month—incorrectly in two cases; and one or two according to the time of composition. This unsatisfactory solution of a difficulty arises from the fact that the weekly numbers of the Table Book are not dated and are not easily distinguishable from each other. I have not seen any attempt to assign dates to them, but after a careful analysis I have found it possible to do so. As a result, dates previously assigned to Lamb's work in this publication can now be corrected and perfected.

Type
Comment and Criticism
Information
PMLA , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , June 1945 , pp. 602 - 605
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1945

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References

Note 1 in page 603 Further evidence—if more be needed—of the 32-column division is the known fact that Lamb contributed his Garrick Extracts weekly, beginning with the fourth number, and that therefore one of these Extracts must be included in each division (with the exception of Nos. 37, 41, and 49, where they were omitted); the division into 32-column sections is the only one which can be made consistent with this fact. Contributory evidence is the fact that Hone's previous publication, the Every-Day Book, made up its weekly numbers with 32 columns. See F. W. Hackwood, William Hone, His Life and Times (London, 1912), p. 246.

Note 2 in page 603 Hackwood, op. cit., p. 246.

Note 3 in page 603 Ibid., p. 261.—The only exception to the Saturday date was the first number, which, as Hone announced, came out on January 1—this was Monday.

Note 4 in page 603 Huntington Library (HM 13298).

Note 5 in page 604 Vol. i, cols. 803-806.

Note 6 in page 604 Vol. ii, col. 10.

Note 7 in page 604 Mary and Charles Lamb: Poems, Letters, and Remains, pp. 266–267.

Note 8 in page 604 The Works of Charles Lamb, ed. William Macdonald (London & N. Y., 1903–1904), Vol. iv.

Note 9 in page 604 The Letters of Charles Lamb to which are added those of his sister Mary Lamb, ed. E. V. Lucas (London: Dent & Methuen, 1935), iii, 87.

Note 10 in page 604 HM 7521.

Note 11 in page 604 No. 673, iii, 99.

Note 12 in page 604 Lucas' note to Letter No. 673 that the “above” refers to “Lamb's prose version of Hood's poem The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies, printed in the Table Book as ‘The Defeat of Time’” is therefore incorrect. What Lamb refers to as “above” is the main text of his letter (No. 665 in Lucas' edition).

Note 13 in page 605 The fact that Lamb's Maid Marion was mailed to Hone three days before the letter he was answering appeared in print can be no objection to this dating, for it was no less common at that time than now for an editor to submit communications directly to the columnist involved. The assumption is that Hone gave Lamb the “Veiled Spirit's” letter shortly after May 17, when it was written; Lamb took more than a month to write his reply, upon receiving which Hone inserted the query in his very next number, being careful to make page reference notes to it on Lamb's manuscript. Lamb had probably been advised that the letters would appear a week apart, for he began his letter, “A correspondent in your last number….”