THOMAS GREG.

Page 113, line 1. The maternal lap.  With the exception of a brief mention on page 33—­“the gentle posture of maternal tenderness”—­this is Lamb’s only reference to his mother in all the essays—­probably from the wish not to wound his sister, who would naturally read all he wrote; although we are told by Talfourd that she spoke of her mother with composure.  But it is possible to be more sensitive for others than they are for themselves.

Page 113, line 3. The play was Artaxerxes.  The opera, by Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778), produced in 1762, founded on Metastasio’s “Artaserse.”  The date of the performance was in all probability December 1, 1780, although Lamb suggests that it was later; for that was the only occasion in 1780-81-82 on which “Artaxerxes” was followed by “Harlequin’s Invasion,” a pantomime dating from 1759, the work of Garrick.  It shows Harlequin invading the territory of Shakespeare; Harlequin is defeated and Shakespeare restored.

Page 113, line 20. The Lady of the Manor.  Here Lamb’s memory, I fancy, betrayed him.  This play (a comic opera by William Kenrick) was not performed at Drury Lane or Covent Garden in the period mentioned.  Lamb’s pen probably meant to write “The Lord of the Manor,” General Burgoyne’s opera, with music by William Jackson, of Exeter, which was produced in 1780.  It was frequently followed in the bill by “Robinson Crusoe,” but never by “Lun’s Ghost,” whereas Wycherley’s “Way of the World” was followed by “Lun’s Ghost” at Drury Lane on January 9, 1782.  We may therefore assume that Lamb’s second visit to the theatre was to see “The Lord of the Manor,” followed by “Robinson Crusoe,” some time in 1781, and his third to see “The Way of the World,” followed by “Lun’s Ghost” on January 9, 1782.  “Lun’s Ghost” was produced on January 3, 1782.  Lun was the name under which John Rich (1682?-1761), the pantomimist and theatrical manager, had played in pantomime.

Page 113, last line. Round Church ... of the Templars.  This allusion to the Temple Church and its Gothic heads was used before by Lamb in his story “First Going to Church” in Mrs. Leicester’s School (see Vol.  III.).  In that volume Mary Lamb had told the story of what we may take to be her first play (see “Visit to the Cousins"), the piece being Congreve’s “Mourning Bride.”

Page 114, line 1. The season 1781-2.  Lamb was six on February 10, 1781.  He says, in his “Play-house Memoranda,” of the same occasion, “Oh when shall I forget first seeing a play, at the age of five or six?”

Page 114, line 3. At school.  Lamb was at Christ’s Hospital from 1782 to 1789.

Page 114, end. Mrs. Siddons in “Isabella." Mrs. Siddons first played this part at Drury Lane on October 10, 1782.  The play was “Isabella,” a version by Garrick of Southerne’s “Fatal Marriage.”  Mrs. Siddons also appeared frequently as Isabella in “Measure for Measure;” but Lamb clearly says “in” Isabella, meaning the play.  Lamb’s sonnet, in which he collaborated with Coleridge, on Mrs. Siddons, which was printed in the Morning Chronicle in December, 1794 (see Vol.  IV.), was written when he was nineteen.  It runs (text of 1797):—­