ing 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.

* * * * *

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."

* * * * *

Page 147. _Epilogue to "The Wife."_

This epilogue was spoken by Miss Ellen Tree.

* * * * *

Page 149. JOHN WOODVIL.

First published in 1802 in a slender volume entitled _John Woodvil: a
Tragedy. By C. Lamb. To which are added Fragments of Burton, the author
of the Anatomy of Melancholy._ The full contents of the book were:--

John Woodvil; Ballad, From the German (see page 29); Helen (see page
28); Curious Fragments, I., II., III., IV.; The Argument; The
Consequence (see Vol. I., page 29, and note; also pages 30 and 35 of the
present volume and notes).

_John Woodvil_ was reprinted by Lamb in the _Works_, 1818, the text of
which is followed here.

If Mr. Fuller Russell was right in his statement in _Notes and Queries_,
April 1, 1882, that Lamb told him he "had lost L25 by his best effort,
_John Woodvil_," we must suppose that the book was published wholly or
partially at his own cost.

The history of the poem which foll