Charles Lamb
"For God's sake, don't make me ridiculous any more by
terming me gentle-hearted in print . . . substitute drunken dog, ragged-head, self-shaven,
odd-eyed, stuttering, or any other epithet which truly and properly belongs to the
gentleman in question."
-- Charles Lamb to Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Expanded Timeline:
1775 Born in Temple, London
1782 Attends Christ Hospital on a scholarship provided by Samuel Salt; meets Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1791 Becomes clerk in the Examiner's Office at South-Sea House (here an Italian clerk named Elia works also)
1792 Works as an apprentice accounting clerk for East India House after Samuel Salt dies
1795 Confined to an asylum for six weeks
1796 His sister, Mary Lamb murders her mother and wounds her father and Aunt in a fit of insanity
1797 Meets William Wordsworth through Coleridge
1798 Rosamund Grey
1799 Lamb's father dies.
Mary returns from the asylum and he cares for her for the rest of his life, although she
is returned to the asylum periodically.
1802 John Woodvil (five-act drama written in 1799)
1804 Meets William Hazlitt through Coleridge.
1806 Mr. H. produced at Drury Lane Theater and booed
1807 Tales From Shakespeare with Mary Lamb
1808 Adventures of Ulysses and Specimens of English Dramatic Poets Who Lived at the Time of Shakespeare
1810 Contributes essays to Reflector (edited by Leigh Hunt)
1818 Collected Works
1819 Marriage proposal to Fanny Kelly rejected
1823 Essays of Elia published
1825 Retires from India House
1833 Last Essays of Elia
1834 Death
Notes on Works:
"Dream Children"
A descriptive piece which uses naming, sense details, comparisons, and mood words.
"Old China"
A comparison and contrast piece, in which Bridget (Lamb's psyeudonem for Mary) and Elia (Lamb's psyeudonem for himself) discuss the past. Bridget argues that it was better in the past when they were poor because they enjoyed what they did have more. Elia argues that it was not the poverty which made the old life better, but their youth.
Websites about Lamb:
Charles
Lamb Collection
Information about the author and the full text of some of his works.
Suggest a website. E-mail ssburris@msn.com.