[Dated at end:  February 24, 1823.]

Dear W.—­I write that you may not think me neglectful, not that I have any thing to say.  In answer to your questions, it was at your house I saw an edition of Roxana, the preface to which stated that the author had left out that part of it which related to Roxana’s daughter persisting in imagining herself to be so, in spite of the mother’s denial, from certain hints she had picked up, and throwing herself continually in her mother’s way (as Savage is said to have done in his, prying in at windows to get a glimpse of her), and that it was by advice of Southern, who objected to the circumstances as being untrue, when the rest of the story was founded on fact; which shows S. to have been a stupid-ish fellow.  The incidents so resemble Savage’s story, that I taxed Godwin with taking Falconer from his life by Dr. Johnson.  You should have the edition (if you have not parted with it), for I saw it never but at your place at the Mews’ Gate, nor did I then read it to compare it with my own; only I know the daughter’s curiosity is the best part of my Roxana.  The prologue you speak of was mine, so named, but not worth much.  You ask me for 2 or 3 pages of verse.  I have not written so much since you knew me.  I am altogether prosaic.  May be I may touch off a sonnet in time.  I do not prefer Col.  Jack to either Rob.  Cr. or Roxana.  I only spoke of the beginning of it, his childish history.  The rest is poor.  I do not know anywhere any good character of De Foe besides what you mention.  I do not know that Swift mentions him.  Pope does.  I forget if D’Israeli has.  Dunlop I think has nothing of him.  He is quite new ground, and scarce known beyond Crusoe.  I do not know who wrote Quarll.  I never thought of Quarll as having an author.  It is a poor imitation; the monkey is the best in it, and his pretty dishes made of shells.  Do you know the Paper in the Englishman by Sir Rd.  Steele, giving an account of Selkirk?  It is admirable, and has all the germs of Crusoe.  You must quote it entire.  Captain G. Carleton wrote his own Memoirs; they are about Lord Peterborough’s campaign in Spain, & a good Book.  Puzzelli puzzles me, and I am in a cloud about Donald M’Leod.  I never heard of them; so you see, my dear Wilson, what poor assistances I can give in the way of information.  I wish your Book out, for I shall like to see any thing about De Foe or from you.

Your old friend,

C. LAMB.

From my and your old compound. 24 Feb. ’23.

[With this letter compare the letter on September 9, 1801, to Godwin, and the letter on December 16, 1822, to Wilson.

Defoe’s Roxana, first edition, does not, as a matter of fact, contain the episode of the daughter which Lamb so much admired.  Later editions have it.  Godwin says in his Preface to “Faulkener,” 1807, the play to which Lamb wrote a prologue in praise of Defoe (see Vol.  IV.), that the only accessible edition of Roxana in which the story of Susannah is fully told is that of 1745.