ESSAYS, LETTERS, AND POEMS,

BY

CHARLES LAMB.

}

WILLIS P. HAZARD, 190 CHESTNUT ST.,

PHILADELPHIA.

ΤΟ

MARTIN CHARLES BURNEY, Esq.

FORGIVE me, BURNEY, if to thee these late
And hasty products of a critic pen,
Thyself no common judge of books and men,

In feeling of thy worth I dedicate.

My verse was offered to an older friend;
The humbler prose has fallen to thy share:

Nor could I miss the occasion to declare,
What spoken in thy presence must offend-
That, set aside some few caprices wild,

Those humorous clouds that flit o'er brightest days,

In all my threadings of this worldly maze,
(And I have watched thee almost from a child),

Free from self-seeking, envy, low design,

I have not found a whiter soul than thine.

ON THE TRAGEDIES OF SHAKSPEARE, CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE

TO THEIR FITNESS FOR STAGE-REPRESENTATION

CHARACTERS OF DRAMATIC WRITERS, CONTEMPORARY WITH SHAKS-

PEARE

79

102

SPECIMENS FROM THE WRITINGS OF FULLER, THE CHURCH HISTORIAN 126

ON THE GENIUS AND CHARACTER OF HOGARTH; WITH SOME REMARKS

ON A PASSAGE IN THE WRITINGS OF THE LATE MR. BARRY

ON THE POETICAL WORKS OF GEORGE WITHER

137

LETTERS, UNDER ASSUMED SIGNATURES, PUBLISHED IN

"THE REFLECTOR :".

THE LONDONER

. 163

173

ON BURIAL SOCIETIES; AND THE CHARACTER OF AN UNDERTAKER . 176

ON THE DANGER OF CONFOUNDING MORAL WITH PERSONAL DE-

FORMITY; WITH A HINT TO THOSE WHO HAVE THE FRAMING OF

ADVERTISEMENTS FOR APPREHENDING OFFENDERS

183

BOOK WHICH BELONGED TO ROBERT BURTON, THE FAMOUS

AUTHOR OF THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY

227

MR. H

A FARCE IN TWO ACTS

237