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Page 104.  GRACE BEFORE MEAT.

London Magazine, November, 1821.

This was the essay, Lamb suggested, which Southey may have had in mind when in an article in the Quarterly Review he condemned Elia as wanting “a sounder religious feeling.”  In his “Letter to Southey” (Vol.  I.), which contained Lamb’s protest against Southey’s strictures, he wrote:—­“I am at a loss what particular essay you had in view (if my poor ramblings amount to that appellation) when you were in such a hurry to thrust in your objection, like bad news, foremost.—­Perhaps the Paper on ‘Saying Graces’ was the obnoxious feature.  I have endeavoured there to rescue a voluntary duty—­good in place, but never, as I remember, literally commanded—­from the charge of an undecent formality.  Rightly taken, sir, that paper was not against graces, but want of grace; not against the ceremony, but the carelessness and slovenliness so often observed in the performance of it.”

Page 108, line 12 from foot. C——­.  Coleridge; but Lamb may really have said it.

Page 108, foot. The author of the Rambler.  Veal pie with prunes in it was perhaps Dr. Johnson’s favourite dish.

Page 109, line 10. Dagon.  The fish god worshipped by the Philistines.  See Judges xvi. 23 and I Samuel v. for the full significance of Lamb’s reference.

Page 110, line 16. C.V.L. Charles Valentine le Grice.  Later in life, in 1798, Le Grice himself became a clergyman.

Page 110, line 19. Our old form at school.  The Christ’s Hospital graces in Lamb’s day were worded thus:—­

    GRACE BEFORE MEAT

    Give us thankful hearts, O Lord God, for the Table which thou hast
    spread for us.  Bless thy good Creatures to our use, and us to thy
    service, for Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.

    GRACE AFTER MEAT

Blessed Lord, we yield thee hearty praise and thanksgiving for our Founders and Benefactors, by whose Charitable Benevolence thou hast refreshed our Bodies at this time.  So season and refresh our Souls with thy Heavenly Spirit, that we may live to thy Honour and Glory.  Protect thy Church, the King, and all the Royal Family.  And preserve us in peace and truth through Christ our Saviour. Amen.

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Page 110.  MY FIRST PLAY.

London Magazine, December, 1821.

Lamb had already sketched out this essay in the “Table Talk” in Leigh
Hunt’s Examiner, December 9, 1813, under the title “Playhouse
Memoranda” (see Vol.  I.).  Leigh Hunt reprinted it in The Indicator,
December 13, 1820.

Page 111, line 1. Garrick’s Drury.  Garrick’s Drury Lane was condemned in 1791, and superseded in 1794 by the new theatre, the burning of which in 1809 led to the Rejected Addresses.  It has recently come to light that Lamb was among the competitors who sent in to the management the real addresses.  The present Drury Lane Theatre dates from 1812.