“A CHARACTER OF THE LATE ELIA

    “BY A FRIEND

“This gentleman, who for some months past had been in a declining way, hath at length paid his final tribute to nature.  He just lived long enough (it was what he wished) to see his papers collected into a volume.  The pages of the LONDON MAGAZINE will henceforth know him no more.

“Exactly at twelve last night his queer spirit departed, and the bells of Saint Bride’s rang him out with the old year.  The mournful vibrations were caught in the dining-room of his friends T. and H.; and the company, assembled there to welcome in another First of January, checked their carousals in mid-mirth and were silent.  Janus wept.  The gentle P——­r, in a whisper, signified his intention of devoting an Elegy; and Allan C——­, nobly forgetful of his countrymen’s wrongs, vowed a Memoir to his manes, full and friendly as a Tale of Lyddal-cross.”

Elia had just been published when this paper appeared, and it was probably Lamb’s serious intention to stop the series.  He was, however, prevailed to continue.  T. and H. were Taylor & Hessey, the owners of the London Magazine.  Janus was Janus Weathercock, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright; P——­r was Bryan Waller Procter, or Barry Cornwall, who afterwards wrote Lamb’s life, and Allan C——­ was Allan Cunningham, who called himself “Nalla” in the London Magazine.  “The Twelve Tales of Lyddal Cross” ran serially in the magazine in 1822.

Page 171, line 9 from foot. A former Essay.  In the London Magazine “his third essay,” referring to “Christ’s Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago.”

Page 172, line 7. My late friend.  The opening sentences of this paragraph seem to have been deliberately modelled, as indeed is the whole essay, upon Sterne’s character of Yorick in Tristram Shandy, Vol.  I., Chapter XI.

Page 172, line 12 from foot. It was hit or miss with him.  Canon Ainger has pointed out that Lamb’s description of himself in company is corroborated by Hazlitt in his essay “On Coffee-House Politicians":—­

I will, however, admit that the said Elia is the worst company in the world in bad company, if it be granted me that in good company he is nearly the best that can be.  He is one of those of whom it may be said, Tell me your company, and I’ll tell you your manners.  He is the creature of sympathy, and makes good whatever opinion you seem to entertain of him.  He cannot outgo the apprehensions of the circle; and invariably acts up or down to the point of refinement or vulgarity at which they pitch him.  He appears to take a pleasure in exaggerating the prejudices of strangers against him; a pride in confirming the prepossessions of friends.  In whatever scale of intellect he is placed, he is as lively or as stupid as the rest can be for their lives.  If you think him odd and ridiculous, he becomes more and more so every minute, a la folie, till he is a wonder gazed at by all—­set him against a good wit and a ready apprehension, and he brightens more and more ...

P.G.  Patmore’s testimony is also corroborative:—­