style. If I could see any way of getting rid of the objection without rewriting it entirely, I would make some sacrifices. But when I wrote John Woodvil, I never proposed to myself any distinct deviation from common English. I had been newly initiated in the writings of our elder dramatists; Beaumont and Fletcher, and Massinger, were then a first love; and from what I was so freshly conversant in, what wonder if my language imperceptibly took a tinge? The very time which I had chosen for my story, that which immediately followed the restoration, seemed to require, in an English play, that the English should be of rather an older cast than that of the precise year in which it happened to be written. I wish it had not some faults, which I can less vindicate than the language.

1 remain,

My dear Coleridge,

Yours,

With unabated esteem,

C. LAMB.

A Ballad, noting the Difference of Rich and Poor, in the ways of a rich Noble's Palace and a poor Workhouse

Hypochondriacus.

A Farewell to Tobacco

338

339

341

342

343

344

To T. L. H., a Child

348

Ballad, from the German

349

Lines on the celebrated Picture by Leonardo da Vinci, called the Vir

gin of the Rocks

350

SONNETS.

VIII. The Family Name

35-4

IX. To John Lamb, Esq., of the South Sea House

The Witch, a Dramatic Sketch of the Seventeenth Century

397

ALBUM VERSES, &c

In the Album of a Clergyman's Lady

In the Autograph Book of Mrs. Sergeant W

In the Album of Edith S

To Dora W, on being asked by her Father to write in her Album

401

401

402

402

403

403

404

405

405

Written at Cambridge

To a celebrated Female Performer in the "Blind Boy"

Work

Leisure

To Samuel Rogers, Esq.

The Gipsy's Malison

To the Author of Poems published under the Name of Barry Corn

wall

To J. S. Knowles, Esq., on his Tragedy of Virginius.

To the Editor of the "Every-day Book"

To T. Stothard, Esq., on his Illustrations of the Poems of Mr. Rogers
To a Friend on his Marriage

The Self-enchanted

To Louisa M, whom I used to call "Monkey"

Oh lift with Reverent hand

On a Sepulchral Statue of an Infant Sleeping

The Rival Bells

Epitaph on a Dog

The Ballad-singers

To David Cook, of the Parish of Saint Margaret's, Westminster,

Watchman

On a Deaf and Dumb Artist

416

416

417

418

When from thy cheerful eyes a ray
Hath struck a bliss upon the day
A bliss that would not go away,
A sweet forewarning?

TO CHARLES LLOYD,

AN UNEXPECTED VISITER.

ALONE, obscure, without a friend,
A cheerless, solitary thing,

Why seeks my Lloyd the stranger out!
What offering can the stranger bring

Of social scenes, homebred delights,
That him in aught compensate may
For Stowey's pleasant winter nights,
For loves and friendships far away?

In brief oblivion to forego

Friends, such as thine, so justly dear
And be a while with me content
To stay, a kindly loiterer, here:

For this a gleam of random joy

Hath flush'd my unaccustom'd cheek.
And, with an o'ercharged, bursting heart,
I feel the thanks I cannot speak.

Oh! sweet are all the muses' lays,
And sweet the charm of matin bird;
"Twas long since these estranged ears
The sweeter voice of friend had heard.

The voice hath spoke: the pleasant sounds
In mem❜ry's ear in after time

Shall live, to sometimes rouse a tear,
And sometimes prompt an honest rhyme.

For, when the transient charm is fled,
And when the little week is o'er,

To cheerless, friendless solitude

When I return as heretofore,