THE WEEK'S GREAT DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 307, 28 December 1929, Page 6

THE WEEK'S GREAT DAY

• } - DECEMBER 27.—DEATH OF CHARLES LAMB. (Copyrighted.) Ninety-five years ago, on December 27, 18154, Charles Lamb, the most popular of English essayists, died at the age of sixty. He was born in one most historic and romantic spots in old London, namely, "The Temple," where his father, a lawyer's clerk, had his home in his employer's chambers. He received his education at Christ's Hospital School, whose scholars are known as "Bluecoat Boys," a name derived from their quaint dress, which dates back to Tudor days and consists "of a long blue robe, yellow stockings ( and buckled shoes.' At -the age of seventeen Lamb' entered the service of the Honourable East India Company as a clerk, and for the next thirty-three years he endured what he termed "official confinement among his ledgers" at East India House in London. His duties were by no means of a heavy nature, and he himself tells us that tho reason why he left his,office desk at an early hour in the afternoons was because of his late arrival at his poet in the mornings. He Ayas only twenty-one years of age when all his prospects in life were blighted by an awful domestic tragedy. During an attack of insanity his only sister, Mary, stabbed their invalid mother to the heart and was removed to a lunatic asylum. With the help of friends Lamb secured his sister's release from restraint and made himself responsible for her safe keeping. Henceforward he consecrated his life to her care, and it Was with the object of supplementing his clerical salary, which at that time was insufficient for the support of two, that he devoted his leisure to literary work. Mary Lamb had periodical recurrences of her mental trouble, which from time to time necessitated her removal to a madhouse, but when she was normal her mentality was far above the average, and she collaborated with her brother in many of his finest literary efforts. Several of his very popular "Tales from Shakespeare" •were written by her. ' •Lamb was forty-five when he commenced the most famous of his works, "The Essays of Elia," and five years later he was released from his servitude at the desk when the East India Company retired him on a pension of £500 a year. Shortly before his retirement he had moved from London into the country for the sake of his sister's health, and this had deprived him of the greatest of his few pleasures in life, the society of other literary men. In London his evenings had frequently been brightened by the visits of some of the most illustrious writers of the day, including Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and Tom Hood, who were entertained to frugal slippers of bread and cheese in his humble home. The loss of this congenial company and his re ,ular daily attendance at East India House rendered his lift* almost unbearable, and he sank into a state of listlessness which unfitted him for literary woik. His somewhat sudden death in 1834 was mourned not only by his large circle of friends but by the general public, who had grown to know the essayist, and love him so well from the charm and amiability of his writings, and his memory lacked no tribute that affection could bestow, while Wordsworth commemorated in solemn verse the genius, virtues And fraternal devotion of his dead friend, who was laid to rest in tlva churchyard at Edmonton, on the outskirts of London.