Charles Lamb was an English poet, essayist, antiquarian. He is famous for his essays Elia and books tales of children from Shakespeare. He co-authored Tales of Shakespeare with his sister, Mary Lamb.
Lamb was a prominent figure of major literary circles in England. He was a friend with notable literary celebrities such as Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Hazlitt, and William Wordsworth. His principal biographer E. V. Lucas referred to him as “the most lovable figure in English literature.”
Charles Lamb Biography
Charles Lamb was born on 10th February 1775, in London. In 1782, he attended Christ’s Hospital at the age of seven. It was a free boarding school to educate poor children. He befriended his school mate Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In 1789, he left school. He was appointed as a clerk in the East India Company, and he worked there for the next thirty-three years of his life.
Lamb’s sister Mary Lamb stabbed their mother who died in a moment of fretful anger on 22nd September 1796. Mary was temporarily insane and put her in the custody of Charles. In 1799, their father died, and Mary Lamb started living with Charles Lamb for the rest of her life. The only time when Mary was not living with Charles was when she was put in the asylum for the treatment whenever her illness recurred. Lamb was a lifelong guardian of Mary and did not marry because of her. In 1795, he also spent six weeks in an asylum during the winter. His life was badly shattered, and he became an alcoholic. It was his guardianship and responsibility to his sister that he could get a hold on his own sanity.
In 1796, Lamb started his literary career with the publication of his four sonnets by Coleridge in his first volume, Poem on Various Subjects. Lamb published A Tale of Rosamund Gray, a sentimental romance, in 1798 with Charles Lloyd in a volume Blank Verse. Lamb started contributing short articles to newspapers in London by 1901. He had also started writing plays in an attempt to overcome his poverty. He published a blank verse play John Woodville in 1802, which was not successful. In December 1806, Lamb’s two-act circus play, Mr. H., met great admiration at the Drury Lane Theatre.
Charles and Mary together published a collection Tale from Shakespeare in 1807. The collection was a prose adaptation of the plays of Shakespeare for children. The collection was admired by both young and old readers. With the success of this collection, Charles published a children’s version of Homer’s Odyssey and The Adventures of Ulysses in 1808. Another collection in collaboration with Mary was published in 1809 titled Mrs. Leicester’s School, and Poetry for Children.
In 1808, Charles Lamb started a new career by editing the collection Specimens of the English Dramatic Poets Who Lived About the Time of Shakespeare. His comments on this work established his reputation as a critic, and revival in the study of Shakespeare’s contemporaries was started. In 1881, he published other critical books such as “The Tragedies of Shakespeare,” and “On the Genius and Character of Hogarth” in the journal of Leigh Hunt. He published a two-volume collection, The Works of Charles Lamb, in 1818. It is ironic that his literary career has not begun yet.
Lamb has not yet achieved his literary fame; he and Mary were much happy with life. They would invite their friends at their place at Inner Temple Lane to late Wednesday night gatherings. The gatherings would include the Romantic authors William Wordsworth, Coleridge, William Hazlitt, Robert Southey, and Hunt. Lamb also wrote the best letters to these friends in the same year that later got published. These letters were filled with critical comments and revealed the humoristic personality of Lamb.
It was these letters that prepare him for the forthcoming fame as an essayist. He wrote a series of immensely popular essays from 1820 to 1825 in London Magazine. The essays were written under a pseudonym Elia. These essays, like his letters, reveal his humorist personality, emotions, thoughts, and his experiences of life and literature. He also writes on disturbing subjects. His writing deals with past memories to create a sense of stability, calmness, and changelessness in his personality. His essays are implicitly nostalgic and melancholic, along with explicit humor, wit, and humanity. He has a bittersweet tone and remains the hallmark of his literary style. The famous essays he wrote in this time were “Witches and Other Night-Fears,” “A Dissertation upon Roast Pig,” and “Dream Children.”
Mary and Lamb adopted an orphan girl Emma Isola in 1823. Lamb shifted to London for the first time in August 1823. His health was continuously deteriorating, and his prolonged illness during 1824 caused him to retire from the East India Company. He spent his time with Emma Isola on walking trips around Hertfordshire.
In 1833, Lamb shifted to Edmonton to take care of his sister Mary who had been receiving frequent mental attacks. In the same year, Lamb also ended his literary career by writing the last Essay of Elia. Emma Isola married Edward Moxon, a friend of Charles, in the same year, leaving him lonely and depressed. The depression and loneliness got intense with the death of his friend Coleridge in 1834. After five weeks of Coleridge’s death, Lamb also died on 27th December 1834.
Charles Lamb’s Writing style:
The French writer, Montaigne, was the father of the essay, and in the English language, essay writing was introduced by Francis Bacon. The essays of Bacon are very different from that of his model Montaigne. The essays of Montaigne are self-revelatory, tolerant, and humoristic. Whereas, Bacon’s essays are didactic with serious and objective style.
With Bacon, the essay writing in England took the wrong direction, and for almost two centuries, it was slowly moving towards the original pattern set by Montaigne. However, with the essays of Romantic essayists, the essay writing became highly personal, lyrical in nature, and humoristic. And there has been no significant change in essay writing from then onwards.
Charles Lamb is one of the eminent romantic essayists. He has been referred to as the “prince of all essayists” of England. He is called essayist par excellence by Hugh Walker, whose essays must be taken as a model for writing essays. The existing definition of an essay is derived from the essays of Lamb, and his essay is put into criteria for judging the excellence and merit of any essayist. Though he is not as genius as Bacon, brilliant as Thomas Browne, clear as Addison, and energetic as Dr. Johnson, he is most charming of the essayists and excelled from all the essayist’s inability to catch the attention of readers.
A well-known literary figure of the 19th century Romanticism, Charles Lamb is primarily known for his essays of “Elia.” His essays are well-known for irony and wit of common subjects. His works were noticeably known throughout the 19th century and the 20th century for his humorous peculiarities and nostalgia. With his essays, he brought unique warmth in prose of the English Language, which was previously considered to be dull and boring. He uses intense, screaming, and sneering sentences with rounded glow, which makes it melancholic and welcoming at the same time. Lamb uses the genre of prose for his “personal essays.” He wrote about those things which tormented him most and extracted literary delightfulness from it. He talked about his drunkenness and resentment in beautiful sentences.
Charles’s land has a “quaint” or old fashioned style because of its strangeness. He imitated the style of 16th and 17th writers like Milton, Fuller, Burton, Sir Thomas, and Isaac Walton. He also uses the diction and rhythm of these writing according to the subject he is dealing with, due to which, the style of every essay of Lamb is changed. He makes his style charming and prevents it from becoming tiresome and boring. Due to the continuously varying mood, his style is surprising. The following are the distinctive characteristics of Charles Lamb.
Self-revelation in Charles Lamb’s Essays
Charles persistently reveals everything about him to his readers in his essays. This is the striking feature of Bacon’s essays. The shift, from Bacon to Lamb, in the style of essays lies primarily in the shift from formality to informality and objectivity to subjectivity.
Among all of the essays, Charles Lamb is the most autobiographical. For him, his life is full of content to write the essays on. He would repeatedly say the Montaigne words about himself: -“I myself am the subject of my book”. Though, the evolution from objectivity to subjectivity in the essays was initiated by Abraham Cowley by writing the essay “Of Myself,” Charles Lamb completed the evolution.
His essays contain the bits of his life and mending together these bits, an authentic picture of his life can be obtained. There is no essayist born yet who is more personal than Charles Lamb. His essays fully revealed the experiences, whims, past associates and prejudices that he discussed. In the essay “Night Fear,” Lamb portrayed himself as a superstitious and timid boy. Likewise in his essay, “Christ’s hospital,” he revealed his disgusting experiences of school.
He introduced his various family members in his essay “My Relation,” Poor Relations,” and the Old Benchers in the Inner Temple. He discusses his time of adolescence in the essay “Mockery End in Hertfordshire”; professional life in “The, Superannuated Man” and “The South-Sea House.” His essay “Dream Children” is full of his sentimental memories of pathos.
He talks about his predispositions in the essay “The Confessions of a Drunkard” and “Imperfect Sympathies.” His essays “Grace before Meat,” and “A Dissertation upon Roast Pig” are his humoristic essays on gourmandize. In the essay “Dream Children,” Lamb is having a reverie about his imagined children that would have been born if he married his beloved Alice, referring to his attachments with Ann Simmons. When the reverie ends, he says that he found himself sitting quietly in his bachelor arm-chair. He had fallen asleep in the chair with a devoted Briget sitting unchanged from his side but his brother John L was gone forever.
In his essays, Lamb is excessively obsessed with himself that made readers assume that he is egocentric, selfish, and his writing is inartistic and vulgar. Apart from this, Lamb is also egotist, which makes him write offensive accounts. However, his egotism does not have any vulgarity.
Indeed, Lamb is egotist; however, he is not aggressive. He only talks about himself in his essay because it is the only subject he knows closely, not because it assumes himself to be more important than any other subject. Therefore, the egotism of Charles Lamb is not because of arrogance, but because of humility.
The familiarity of Tone in Charles Lamb’s Writings
Charles Lamb started a trend of using Familiar tone in English essays than a formal tone. This trend was then followed by almost all of the essayists. Campton-Rickett says that there was not any other man famous in print media that Lamb and he turned the ordinary conversation into fine art.
The button holding familiarity with Charles Lamb greatly charms the readers. He writes as if he is playing with his readers in a naughty manner, always takes his readers into confidence, and shares his feelings with them. Before Charles Lamb, there is an obvious distance between the writer and readers in the essays. Addison and Francis Bacon wrote his essays as if they were delivering the sermon to the readers standing below them. In the essays of Cowley, the distance between the readers and writer was significantly reduced; Charles Lamb completely eliminated the distance. Charles Lamb addresses his readers as “dear readers.” It appears as if he is addressing his friends. It mocks the familiar English narrow-mindedness and talks to his readers, treating them as men and his friends. His tone of familiarity makes his essay pleasant and Lamb best of associates.
No Didacticism in Essays of Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb does not use his essays for teaching didactic purposes. Essayist before Lamb would use prose mainly for didactic purposes; however, Lamb completely shed this approach in his essays. Because of the didactic nature, Bacon calls his essays counsel civil and moral. The didacticism of Bacon is intense and needs explanations. However, Lamb does not offer nor pretend to offer moral and civil counsels. Lamb’s essays do not carry any “philosophy of life.” He gives personal opinions and views, but they are not on purpose to be examined but just to give an insight into his mind.
Camnian, in his views about Charles Lamb, says that Lamb is neither a psychologist nor a moralist; his purpose of writing not analysse, research or confess. He is nothing but an artist. By his writing, he does not aim to save the pleasure of his readers but himself.
Lamb is not an absolute educator or didactic. However, he does have sound wisdom that he concealed under the good tolerant nature. He appears to be a fool in the play King Lear and Twelfth Night, whose apparently funny and weird words are saturated with surprising sanity. A critic states that though Lamb often put the cap and bells, he was more than a joker or jester; his jokes were full of wisdom.
In his essay “Character of Late Elia,” Charles Lamb gives a character sketch of apparently dead Elia saying that he would include a light humor or joke in the serious decision, however, the jokes would not be irrelevant or hard to understand.
The confused Nature of Charles Lamb’s Essays
Charles lamb essays are of confusing nature and light in touch. This marks his essay distinguished from the rest of the essayist. Charles Lamb does not adhere to the point. He is continuously moving from one point to another. He sometimes ends his essay at a point, which is totally surprising for the readers. He could easily end his essay at any point. Critics and readers criticize Francis Bacon for his distributed thought in essays. However, Lamb knocks down everyone in his outrageous freeness.
His essay “The Old and the New School-master” is the best example of his outrageous freeness in essays. The essay is apparently written to compare the new and the old schoolmaster; the first two pages of the essay are an exaggerated and outrageous description of Lamb’s own ignorance. The point to ponder is what is the connection between Lamb’s ignorance and the subject of the essay?
Similarly, in the essay “Oxford in the Vacation,” a great portion is dedicated to the account of Dyer, his friend. The essay of Charles Lamb is hardly well-patterned and artistic wholes. His essays do not have a proper beginning, middle, and end. Lamb describes his essays as “a sort of unlocked inundated thing.”
Though the essays do not have artistic designs, they have a touch of spontaneity. This makes his essays lyrical and appealing to the readers.
Humor, Pathos, and Humanity
The humor, pathos, and his sense of humanity in Charles Lamb’s essays are the distinctive features that make him different from his contemporary writers. Lamb’s essays are rich in humor, fun, and wit. In the edition of the Introduction to Essays of Elia, the critics, Hill and Hallward, write that the terms humour, wit, and fun are confused most of the time, however, they are completely different in meaning. Wit is based in intellect, humous on sympathy, and fun is based on activeness and freshness of both mind and body. The writing of lamb has all these three qualities, however, what distinguishes him most is his humor. His sympathy is always strong and vigorous.
A charming atmosphere is created in the Lamb’s essays with humor and associated sweetness drawn along with. The fluctuating style of essays ranges from Rabelaisian verboseness, mischievous attempts at mystification, playful pun, and ridiculous frivolity to the subtle irony which penetrates the heart of readers. The best example of his wit and humor is his essay “Poor Relation.” In the book English Humor, J. B. Priestly says that he has embodied the English humor deeply and tenderously. He does not master humor easily, but it is as if he has plucked the white flower from a dangerous nettle.
Humor is also part of the writings of other writers, however, Lamb’s humor is closely aligned with the pathos that mark it distinguishes from others. He is making fun of things, but he is also aware of the tragic nature of life (life in general, not particularly his own). That is why he has a “tearful smile.” He has witnessed the hard and struggling lives of chimney sweepers and the boys at Christ’s Hospital, which made him deeply humanistic. His descriptions of these events are really touching. However, it is also accompanied by humor, and therefore, it has prismatic effects. His treatment of events in such a way momentarily washes away the tragedy of real life. The overall effect of his essays is confusing as the readers do not know what id tragedy and what comedy is.
Charles Lamb as a Remarkable Borrower
Another peculiarity of Lamb’s style, which belongs to him but is not his own. He remarkably borrowed his style from his predecessors. Lambs were greatly influenced by the writers of the “old world.” These writers include Sir Thomas Browne and Fuller. Though his style is archaic, it is natural. He used elongated and rambling sentences like the writers of the 17th century. He, most of the time, uses old words if not out-dated. Charles has borrowed style, but his borrowed style belongs to him. A critic comments about his style as: “The blossoms are culled from other men’s gardens, but their blending is all Lamb’s own.”
The Chemistry of Lamb’s Literary Style
Ideas that passed through the imaginations of Lamb turned out to be fresh and unique. The style of Lamb is a mixture of many styles, and this mixture is not a mechanical mixture but a chemical mixture. His writing style extracts romantic colors from the inspiration of old writers, which is then intensified by strong imagination.
Like Wordsworth, he chooses his ordinary subject and with fanciful imagination makes it interesting and romantic. It is the process of “romanticizing” his subject that makes his essays interesting. Otherwise, the subject of everyday life would make his essays boring. He is not only a romantic essayist but also a romantic poet.