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Page 143. Epilogue to “Debtor and Creditor."

“Debtor and Creditor” was a farce by James Kenney (1780-1849), Lamb’s friend, with whom he stayed at Versailles in 1822.  The play was produced April 20, 1814.  Gosling’s experiences as a dramatic author seem to have been curiously like Lamb’s own.  See note to “Mr. H.” on page 392.

Line 12. They never bring the Spanish. Spanish, old slang for money.

Line 40. Polito’s. Polito at one time kept the menagerie in Exeter Change.

Line 42. Larry Whack. Larry Whack is referred to in the play.  Says Sampson, on one occasion:  “Who be I?  Come, that be capital!  Why, ben’t I Sampson Miller?  Didn’t I bang the Darby Corps at York Races ... and durst Sir Harry Slang bring me up to town to fight Larry Whack, the Irish ruffian?...”

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Page 145. Epilogue to an Amateur Performance of “Richard II."

This epilogue, says Canon Ainger, who first printed it, was written for a performance given by the family of Barren Field in 1824.  The family of Henry Field, Barron’s father, would perhaps be more accurate; for Barron Field was childless.  The verses, which I print by permission of Miss Kendall, Miss Field’s residuary legatee, were given to Canon Ainger by the late Miss M.L.  Field, of Hastings.  In his interesting note he adds of this lady (to whom Lamb addressed the verses on page 106), “she told me that she (then a girl of 19) sat by the side of Lamb during the performance.  She remembered well, she said, that in course of the play a looking glass was broken, and that Lamb turned to her and whispered ‘Sixpence!’ She added that before the play began, while the guests were assembling, the butler announced ’Mr. Negus!’—­upon which Lamb exclaimed, ‘Hand him round!’”

Lamb refers in the opening lines to Edmund Kean and John Philip Kemble.

In this connection it may be interesting to state that Lamb told Patmore that he considered John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster, the grandest name in the world.

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Page 146. Prologue to “The Wife."

The original form of the prologue to James Sheridan Knowles’ comedy, not hitherto collected in any edition of Lamb’s writings, is preserved in the Forster collection in the South Kensington Museum.  It was sent to Moxon, for Knowles, in April, 1833, and differs considerably.  See the large edition of this work.  It is curious that the prologue was not attributed to Lamb when the play was printed.  Knowles wrote in the preface:  “To my early, my trusty and honoured friend, Charles Lamb, I owe my thanks for a delightful Epilogue, composed almost as soon as it was requested.  To an equally dear friend, I am equally indebted for my Prologue.”

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Page 147. Epilogue to “The Wife."