unmindful of that older and more
solemn vow which, in the days of their marriage, he had imposed upon
himself, in no instance to control the settled purpose or determination
of his wedded wife;--so that by the chains of a double contract he
seemed bound to abide by her decision in this instance, whatever it
might be.'"

"A tragi-comedy"--Lamb's dramatic version of Crabbe's "Confidante,"
which he called "The Wife's Trial" (see Vol. IV. of this edition).

"Procter has got a wen." This paragraph must be taken with salt. Poor
Hone, however, had the rules of the King's Bench at the time. Beckey was
the Lambs' servant and tyrant; she had been Hazlitt's. Patmore described
her at some length in his reminiscences of Lamb.

"Chatty-Briant"--Chateaubriand.]

LETTER 420

CHARLES LAMB TO MRS. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Enfield, July 26th, 1827.

Dear Mrs. Shelley,--At the risk of throwing away some fine thoughts, I
must write to say how pleased we were with your very kind remembering of
us (who have unkindly run away from all our friends) before you go.
Perhaps you are gone, and then my tropes are wasted. If any piece of
better fortune has lighted upon you than you expected, but less than we
wish you, we are rejoiced. We are here trying to like solitude, but have
scarce enough to justify the experiment. We get some, however. The six
days are our Sabbath; the seventh--why, Cockneys will come for a little
fresh air, and so--

But by _your month_, or October at furthest, we hope to see Islington: I
like a giant refreshed with the leaving off of wine, and Mary, pining
for Mr. Moxon's books and Mr. Moxon's society. Then we shall meet.

I am busy with a farce in two acts, the incidents tragi-comic. I can do
the dialogue _commey fo_: but the damned plot--I believe I must omit it
altogether. The scenes come after one another like geese, not
marshalling like cranes or a Hyde Park review. The story is as simple as
G[eorge] D[yer], and the language plain as his spouse. The characters
are three women to one man; which is one more than laid hold on him in
the "Evangely." I think that prophecy squinted towards my drama.

I want some Howard Paine to sketch a skeleton of artfully succeeding
scenes through a whole play, as the courses are arranged in a cookery
book: I to find wit, passion, sentiment, character, and the like
trifles: to lay in the dead colours,--I'd Titianesque 'em up: to mark
the channel in a cheek (smooth or furrowed, yo