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　　LETTER 259

　　CHARLES LAMB TO JOSEPH COTTLE

　　London, India House,

　　[? May 26th, 1820.]

　　My dear Sir,—I am quite ashamed of not having acknowledged your kind present earlier, but that unknown something, which was never yet discovered, though so often speculated upon, which stands in the way of lazy folks answering letters, has presented its usual obstacle. It is not forgetfulness, nor disrespect, nor incivility, but terribly like all these bad things.

　　I have been in my time a great epistolary scribbler; but the passion, and with it the facility, at length wears out; and it must be pumped up again by the heavy machinery of duty or gratitude, when it should run free.

　　I have read your "Fall of Cambria" with as much pleasure as I did your "Messiah." Your Cambrian poem I shall be tempted to repeat oftenest, as Human poems take me in a mood more frequently congenial than Divine. The character of Llewellyn pleases me more than any thing else, perhaps; and then some of the Lyrical Pieces are fine varieties.

　　It was quite a mistake that I could dislike anything you should write against Lord Byron, for I have a thorough aversion to his character and a very moderate admiration of his genius; he is great in so little a way. To be a poet is to be the man—not a petty portion of occasional low passion worked up into a permanent form of humanity. Shakespear has thrust such rubbishy feelings into a corner-the dark, dusky heart of Don John, in the Much Ado about Nothing. The fact is, I have not seen your "Expostulatory Epistle" to him. I was not aware, till your question, that it was out. I shall inquire, and get it forthwith.

　　Southey is in town, whom I have seen slightly; Wordsworth expected, whom I hope to see much of. I write with accelerated motion; for I have two or three bothering clerks and brokers about me, who always press in proportion as you seem to be doing something that is not business. I could exclaim a little profanely, but I think you do not like swearing. I conclude, begging you to consider that I feel myself much obliged by your kindness, and shall be most happy at any and at all times to hear from you.

　　CHARLES LAMB

　　Dear Sir, yours truly,

　　[Joseph Cottle, the Bristol publisher, had apparently just sent Lamb a copy of his Fall of Cambria, although it had been published some years before. Perhaps Lamb had sent him his Works, and it was a return gift. Cottle's very serious Expostulatory Epistle to Lord Byron (who had cast ridicule upon him and his brother in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers) was issued in 1820, after the publication of Don Juan had begun.

　　Southey arrived in London on May Day, 1820. Wordsworth followed early in

　　June.] The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 5