Brighton is a pretty street,
Worthing is much taken ;
If you can't get any other meat

There's Hogsflesh and Bacon.

The Drury Lane authorities do not seem to have considered the failure as absolute as did Lamb, for on the next day-December II-the bills announced:

**The New Farce of Mr. H-, performed for the first time last night, was received by an overflowing audience with universal applause, and will be repeated for the second time to-morrow.

But the next evening's bill-December 12, 1806-stated that "The New Farce of Mr. H- is withdrawn at the request of the author."

"Mr. H-” did not then disappear altogether from the stage. A correspondent of Notes and Queries, May 26, 1855, remembered seeing it at Philadelphia when he was a boy. The last scene, he says, particularly amused the audience. And in William B. Wood's Personal Recollections of the Stage, 1855, it is recorded of the Philadelphia Theatre, of which he was manager, that in 1812, "Charles Lamb's excellent farce of 'Mr. H- met with extraordinary success, and was played an unusual number of nights." Lamb, however, did not profit thereby.

The little play was published in Philadelphia in 1813 under the title Mr. H- or Beware a Bad Name. A farce in two acts, as performed at the Philadelphia Theatre-Lamb's name not figuring in any way in connection with it.

In England "Mr. H--" was not revived until 1885, when, as a curiosity, it was played by the Dramatic Students' Society. The performance was held at the Gaiety on October 27, 1885, the prologue being spoken by a gentleman made up to resemble Lamb. At the Cheadle Town Hall on October 19 and 20, 1910, “Mr. H— was given again, with the difference that the secret of the name was disclosed from the start.

In Notes and Queries, August 3, 1889, the following amusing playbill was printed, contributed by Mr. Bertram Dobell :

Theatre Royal, English Opera House, Strand.
Particularly Private.

This present FRIDAY, April 26, 1822,
Will be presented a FARCE called

(N.B. This piece was damned at Drury Lane Theatre.)
[Caste follows]

Previous to which a PROLOGUE will be spoken by Mrs. EDWIN. After the Farce (for the first Time in this country, and now performing with immense success in Paris)

A French Petite Comedie, called

Le Comedien D'Etampes.

(N.B. This piece was never acted in London, and may very probably be damned HERE.)

[Caste follows.]

Immediately after which

A LOVER'S CONFESSION, in the shape of a SONG,
by M. EMILE

(From the Theatre de la Poste St. Martin, at Paris.)
To conclude with a Pathetic Drama, in
One Act, called

The Sorrows of Werther.

(N.B. This Piece was damned at Covent Garden Theatre.)
[Caste follows.]

Brothers and Sisters of Charlotte, by six Cherubims

got for the occasion.

Orchestra.

Leader of the Band, Mr. Knight,

Conductor, Mr. E. Knight.

Piano Forte, Mr. Knight, Jun. Harpsichord, Master Knight (that was).
Clavecin, by the Father of the Knights, to come.

Vivat Rex! No Money returned (because none will be taken).
On account of the above surprising Novelty, not an ORDER can
possibly be admitted:

its

But it is requested, that if such a thing finds its way into the front of the house, IT WILL BE KEPT.

Doors open at Half past Six, begin at Half past Seven precisely. The Entrance for all parts of the House at the Private Box Door in Exeter Street.

Lowndes, Printer, Marquis Court, Drury Lane, London.

Mr. Dobell wonders if Lamb had any knowledge of this performance, and he suggests that possibly he had a hand in the bill. Certainly the interpolations concerning damnation are in his

manner.

I add a few notes:

Page 208. The man with the great nose. See Slawkenbergius's tale in Tristram Shandy, Vol. IV.

Page 212. The feeling Harley. Harley was the hero of Henry Mackenzie's novel, The Man of Feeling.

Page 217. Jeremiah Pry. John Poole may have taken a hint here for his farce "Paul Pry," produced in September, 1825. Lamb and he knew each other slightly. Lamb analysed the prying nature again in The New Times early in 1825, in two papers on "Tom Pry" and "Tom Pry's Wife" which will be found in Vol. I. of this edition.

Page 220. Old QWilliam Douglas, fourth Duke of Queensberry (1724-1810), the most notorious libertine of his later days.

Page 224. John, my valet. This is a very similar incident to that described in the Elia essay on the "Old Benchers," where Lovel (John Lamb) warns Samuel Salt, when dressing him, not to allude, at the party to which he is going, to the unfortunate Miss Blandy.

Page 228, line 1. Mother Damnable. There was at Kentish Town a notorious old shrew who bore this nickname in the 17th century.

"THE PAWNbroker's Daughter.”

Page 238. Printed in Blackwood, January, 1830, and not reprinted by Lamb. This little play was never acted. Lamb refers to it in a letter to Bernard Barton-in July, 1829-as "an old rejected farce"; and Canon Ainger mentions a note of Lamb's to Charles Mathews, in October, 1828, offering the farce for production at the Adelphi. The theme is one that seems always to have interested Lamb (see his essay on the "Inconveniences of Being Hanged," Vol. I.).

Page 243, line 3. "An Argument against the Use of Animal Food." Joseph Ritson, 1752-1803, the antiquarian, was converted to vegetarianism by Mandeville's Fable of the Bees. The work from which Cutlet quotes was published in 1802. Pope's motto is from the Essay on Man, I., lines 81-84. Page 243, last line. Mr. Molyneux in training to fight Cribb. Cutlet's rump steak did not avail in either of the great struggles between Tom Cribb and Tom Molineaux. At their first meeting, on December 18, 1810, Molineaux went under at the thirty-third round; and in the return match, on September 28, 1811, Molineaux's jaw was broken at the ninth and he gave in at the eleventh, to the great disappointment of the 20,000 spectators. Mr. Molineaux was a negro.

END OF VOL. IV.

INDEX