The publishing business was started in 1805 on Mrs. Godwin’s initiative.  At first, owing to the undesirability of connecting the name of a political and moral firebrand like Godwin with books for children, it was arranged that the business, which was in Hanway Street, Oxford Street, should bear the name of the manager, Thomas Hodgkins, while the books contributed by Godwin were to be signed Edward Baldwin.  In 1806, however, Mrs. Godwin opened a shop at 41 Skinner Street, Snow Hill (now demolished), and published in her own name as M.J.  Godwin & Co., at The Children’s Library.

For her the Lambs wrote The King and Queen of Hearts (by Charles Lamb), 1805; Tales from Shakespear, 1807; The Adventures of Ulysses (by Charles Lamb), 1808; Mrs. Leicester’s School and Poetry for Children, 1809; and Prince Dorus (by Charles Lamb), 1811.  Mrs. Godwin translated tales from the French, Godwin contributed Baldwin’s Fables, Baldwin’s Pantheon, and histories of Greece, England and Rome, and Hazlitt wrote an English Grammar.  The principal illustrator to the firm was William Mulready.

Although Lamb had the most cordial disliking for Mrs. Godwin, he always stood by his old friend her husband.  Between 1811 and 1821 the two men seem to have had little to do with each other; but in 1822 Lamb came to Godwin’s assistance to much purpose.  The title to Godwin’s house in Skinner Street was successfully contested in that year, and Godwin became a bankrupt.  A fund was therefore set on foot for him by Lamb and others, Lamb’s own contribution being L50.  Godwin, however, never rightly rallied, and thenceforward lived very quietly, wrote the History of the Commonwealth and Lives of the Necromancers, and died in 1836.  Mrs. Godwin survived him until 1841.

Knowing what we do—­from Dowden’s Shelley and other sources—­it is not possible greatly to admire Godwin’s character, nor is the second Mrs. Godwin a subject for enthusiasm; but the part played by them in the Lambs’ literary life was extremely valuable.  Charles Lamb had, it is true, other stimulus, and without his work for children, sweet though it is, his name would still be a household word; but Mary Lamb might, but for the Godwins, have gone almost silent to the grave.  Her writings, with their sweet gravity and tender simplicity, were called forth wholly by the Bad Baby, as Lamb called Mrs. Godwin.

Lamb’s views on the literature of the nursery had crystallised long before he began to write children’s books himself.  In a letter to Coleridge, October 23,1802, he had said:—­