s own wedding present to them was the
portrait of Milton which his brother, John Lamb, had left to him.

* * * * *

Page 81. _The Self-Enchanted_.

First printed in _The Athenaeum_, January 7, 1832.

* * * * *

Page 82. _To Louisa M---, whom I used to call "Monkey."_

First printed in Hone's _Year Book_ for December 30, 1831, under the
title "The Change." (See the verses "The Ape," on page 89, and note, the
forerunner of the present poem, addressed also to Louisa Martin.)

Page 82. _Cheap Gifts: a Sonnet_.

First printed in _The Athenaeum_, February 15, 1834.

* * * * *

Page 83. _Free Thoughts on Several Eminent Composers_. Lamb was very
fond of these lines, which he sent to more than one of his friends. The
text varies in some of the copies, but I have not thought it necessary
to indicate the differences. Its inspiration was attributed by him both
to William Ayrton (1777-1858), the musical critic, and to Vincent
Novello (1781-1861), the organist, composer and close friend of Lamb. In
a letter to Sarah Hazlitt in 1830 Lamb copies the poem,
remarking--"Having read Hawkins and Burney recently, I was enabled to
talk [to Ayrton] of Names, and show more knowledge than he had suspected
I possessed; and in the end he begg'd me to shape my thoughts upon
paper, which I did after he was gone, and sent him."

So Lamb wrote to Mrs. Hazlitt. But to Ayrton, when he sent the verses,
he said:--"[Novello] desiring me to give him my real opinion respecting
the distinct grades of excellence in all the eminent Composers of the
Italian, German and English schools, I have done it, rather to oblige
him than from any overweening opinion I have of my own judgment in that
science."

Both these statements are manifestations of what Lamb called his
"matter-of-lie" disposition. To Mrs. Hazlitt he thought that Ayrton's
name would be more important; to Ayrton, Novello's.

The verses, whatever their origin, were written by Lamb in Novello's
Album, with this postscript, signed by Mary Lamb, added:--

The reason why my brother's so severe,
Vincentio, is--my brother has no _ear_;
And Caradori, his mellifluous throat
Might stretch in vain to make him learn a note.
Of common tunes he knows not anything,
Nor "Rule Britannia" from "God save the King."
He rail at Handel! He the gamut quiz!