During the first half of these years in the Temple, Charles Lamb had written much that now endears him to us; but little, it is to be feared, that made the great body of contemporary readers aware of his existence.  In 1806 he essayed dramatic authorship, had had his farce, “Mr. H.,” performed at Drury Lane, had been present on the occasion of its solitary appearance when it was incontinently damned, and had himself taken part in the damnatory hissing.  At the beginning of 1807 was published the “Tales from Shakspeare,” for which he and his sister were jointly responsible, and for which they received a sum of sixty guineas; in 1808 came another book for children in “The Adventures of Ulysses,” and in the same year the “Specimens of English Dramatic Poets Contemporary with Shakspeare.”

During the second half of the stay in the Temple—­the years at 4, Inner Temple Lane, which have been regarded as the happiest portion of his life—­Lamb made but slight advance in literary reputation, but he was already firmly established in the favour of the few who had been privileged to know him, to hear his stammered wit, his spoken wisdom.  Though this period from 1809 to 1817 is not marked by the production of notable books, it was during this time that he contributed to Leigh Hunt’s “Reflector,” wrote his “Recollections of Christ’s Hospital” for the “Gentleman’s Magazine,” and his “Confessions of a Drunkard” for a friend’s publication.  Here were most Elia-like precursors of the famous “Essays.”

In the autumn of 1817 the Lambs removed from the Temple in which they had passed the greater part of their lives, taking rooms over a brazier’s shop at 20, Russell Street, Covent Garden, at the corner of Bow Street, where, as Mary Lamb put it, they had “Drury Lane Theatre in sight of our front, and Covent Garden from our back windows.”  Covent Garden, as Charles said, “dearer to me than any garden of Alcinous, where we are morally sure of the earliest peas and ’sparagus.”  One of the first letters from the new lodgings Lamb whimsically addressed as from “The Garden of England.”  The half dozen years during which he lived here forms from a literary point of view the most memorable period of Lamb’s life.  Here he arranged for the publication of the two precious little volumes of his “Works” which were issued in the summer of 1818—­volumes which he found “admirably adapted for giving away,” having no exaggerated idea of the sensation which the publication was likely to make.  That publication was arranged, apparently, at the request of the publishers, the brothers Ollier, whom he now numbered among his friends.  Writing to Southey of the venture he said:  “I do not know whether I have done a silly thing or a wise one, but it is of no great consequence.  I run no risk and care for no censure.”  Here in Russell Street Lamb continued his sociable weekly evenings—­changed from Wednesdays to Thursdays—­here, indeed, he had to chafe anew at the difficulty of having