ID 1108921
Lot 122 | Charles Lamb (1775-1834)
Estimate value
£ 12 000 – 18 000
Series of 20 autograph letters signed ('C. Lamb', 'C.L.', in one case overwriting his signature with 'William Godwin!!!') to William Godwin, mostly n.p., 4 December 1800 - [26 July 1827]
Together approximately 31 pages, various sizes; two letters are written on blank portions of autograph letters signed by William Godwin, 10 March and 11 April 1808, and one on the verso of a blank page from a printed India Office ledger; with an early transcript of one other letter by Lamb to Godwin. Provenance: by descent to 8th Baron Abinger (cited in the 1975 edition of the Letters); Sotheby's, 23 July 1987, lot 85.
'As an author I say to you, an Author, Touch not my Work': on their collaborations for the stage and in books for children. The earliest letter is a good example of Lamb's flippant humour, apologising for making Godwin pay tuppence postage, but itemising the enormous expense Godwin would have incurred (and has therefore saved) if Mary had accompanied him to dine with him. Later the same month, Lamb discusses their collaboration on Godwin's play Antonio, for which Lamb wrote the epilogue, writing on 11 December suggesting cuts to the epilogue, and on 14 December (the day after the play's disastrous opening night), discussing abridgements for the play itself, 'remember, you constituted me Executioner', also suggesting that the Prologue, Epilogue and actors' names should be omitted from the printed edition,and adding in a postscript 'I am emboldened by a little jorum of punch (vastly good) to say, that next to one man I am the most hurt at our ill success'. Two long letters in September 1801 make extensive suggestions for the plotting of Godwin's proposed next play (which was to be loosely based on Defoe's Roxana), advising him to draw on the life of Richard Savage, giving incidents from Savage's life which could be used and sketching a potential structure for the work, though confessing 'I am the worst hand in the world at a plot', and reflecting 'It is always difficult to get rid of a woman at the end of a Tragedy. Men may fight & die; a woman must either take poison, which is a nasty trick, or go mad, which is not fit to be shewn, of retire, which is poor'. A curious group of increasingly querulous letters in November 1803 apologise for not being able to write a review of Godwin's Life of Chaucer, blaming writer's block, and criticising Godwin's 'fondness for filling out the picture by supposing what Chaucer did and how he felt, where the materials are scanty'. On 14 March 1806 he apologises after an argument, 'The foul fiend Flibbertigibbet leads me over four inched bridges to course my own shadow for a traitor. There are certain positions of the Moon, under which I counsel thee not to take any thing written from this domicil as serious'. The lesson is evidently not learned, for three letters in March and April 1808 (two annotated as replies on Godwin's letters to him) object in the strongest terms to Godwin's proposed cuts to his retelling of Homer for children (Adventures of Ulysses): 'I think the terrible seems to me so much to preponderate over the nauseous as to make them rather fine than disgusting ... As an author I say to you, an Author, Touch not my Work. As to a bookseller, I say, Take the work such as it is, or refuse it ... As to a friend, I say, don't plague yourself or me with nonsensical objections. I assure you I will not alter one more word'. The remaining letters concern visits, his health, and literary works, in May 1822 sending Godwin £50 in a moment of financial difficulty: the last, on 26 July 1827, opens 'I have been answering a pretty letter from Mrs Shelley, which brought blushes into my impudent face'.
It was William and Mary Godwin who suggested to the Lambs that they begin writing for children, and published the immensely popular Tales from Shakespear (1807), as well as Adventures of Ulysses.
Letters, ed. E.W. Marrs Jr (1975), 88, 89
| Place of origin: | England, United Kingdom |
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| Place of origin: | England, United Kingdom |
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| Address of auction |
CHRISTIE'S 8 King Street, St. James's SW1Y 6QT London United Kingdom | |||||
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| Auction date | 15.12.2023 |
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| Auction date | 15.12.2023 |
