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　　LETTER 532

　　CHARLES LAMB TO H.F. CARY

　　[Dated at end:] Datum ab agro Enfeldiensi, Maii die sextâ, 1831.

　　Assidens est mihi bona soror, Euripiden evolvens, donum vestrum, carissime Cary, pro quo gratias agimus, lecturi atque iterum lecturi idem. Pergratus est liber ambobus, nempe "Sacerdotis Commiserationis," sacrum opus a te ipso Humanissimae Religionis Sacerdote dono datum. Lachrymantes gavisuri sumus; est ubi dolor fiat voluptas; nee semper dulce mihi est ridere; aliquando commutandum est he! he! he! cum heu! heu! heu!

　　A Musis Tragicis me non penitus abhorruisse lestis sit Carmen Calamitosum, nescio quo autore linguâ prius vernaculi scriptum, et nuperrimè a me ipso Latine versum, scilicet, "Tom Tom of Islington." Tenuistine?

　　"Thomas Thomas de Islington,

　　Uxorem duxit Die quâdam Solis,

　　Abduxit domum sequenti die,

　　Emit baculum subsequenti,

　　Vapulat ilia posterâ,

　　Aegrotat succedenti, Mortua fit crastina."

　　Et miro gaudio afficitur Thomas luce posterâ quod subsequenti (nempe, Dominicâ) uxor sit efferenda.

　　"En Iliades Domesticas!

　　En circulum calamitatum!

　　Planè hebdomadalem tragoediam."

　　I nunc et confer Euripiden vestrum his luctibus, hâc morte uxoriâ; confer Alcesten! Hecuben! quasnon antiquas Heroinas Dolorosas.

　　Suffundor genas lachrymis, tantas strages revolvens. Quid restat nisi quod Tecum Tuam Caram salutamus ambosque valere jubeamus, nosmet ipsi bene valentes. ELIA.

　　[Mr. Stephen Gwynn gives me the following translation:—

　　Sitting by me is my good sister, turning over Euripides, your gift, dear Cary [a pun here, "carissime care"], for which we thank you, and will read and re-read it. Most acceptable to both of us is this book of "Pity's Priest," a sacred work of your bestowing, yourself a priest of the most humane Religion. We shall take our pleasure weeping; there are times when pain turns pleasure, and I would not always be laughing: sometimes there should be a change—heu heu! for he! he!

　　That I have not shrunk from the Tragic Muses, witness this

　　Lamentable Ballad, first written in the vernacular by I know not

　　what author and lately by myself put into Latin T. T. of Islington.

　　Have you heard it? (See translation of preceding letter.)

　　And Thomas is possessed with a wondrous joy on the following

　　morning, because on the next day, that is, Sunday, his wife must be

　　buried.

　　Lo, your domestic Iliads!

　　Lo, the wheel of Calamities

　　The true tragedy of a week.

　　Go to now, compare your Euripides with these sorrows, this death of

　　a wife! Compare Alcestis! Hecuba! or what not other sorrowing

　　Heroines of antiquity.

　　My cheeks are tear-bedewed as I revolve such slaughter. What more to

　　say, but to salute you Cary and your Cara, and wish you health,

　　ourselves enjoying it.

　　In Mary and Charles Lamb, 1874, by W.C. Hazlitt, in the Catalogue of Charles Lamb's Library, for sale by Bartlett and Welford, New York, is this item:—"Euripidis Tragediae, interp. Lat. 8vo. Oxonii, 1821". "C. and M. Lamb, from H.F. Cary," on flyleaf. This must be the book referred to. Euripides has been called the priest of pity.] The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 6