e me."

That was the present essay. Subsequently--at the end of 1832--Moxon
started a weekly paper entitled _The Reflector_, edited by John
Forster, in which the printing of Lamb's essay was begun. It lasted
only a short time, and on its cessation Lamb sent the ill-fated
manuscript to _The Athenaeum_, where it at last saw publication
completed. Of _The Reflector_ all trace seems to have vanished, and
with it possibly other writings of Lamb's.

In _The Athenaeum_ of December 22, 1832, the current _Reflector_ (No.
2) is advertised as containing "An Essay on Painters and Painting by
Elia."

Page 256, line 1 of essay. _Hogarth_. Compare Lamb's criticism of
Hogarth, Vol. I.

Page 256, foot. _Titian's "Ariadne."_ This picture is now No. 35
in the National Gallery. Writing to Wordsworth in May, 1833, it is
amusing to note, Lamb says: "Inter nos the Ariadne is not a darling
with me, several incongruous things are in it, but in the composition
it served me as illustrative." The legend of Ariadne tells that after
being abandoned by Theseus, whom she loved with intense passion, she
was wooed by Bacchus.

Page 258, line 2. _Somerset House._ See note above to the essay on
"Newspapers."

Page 258, line 14. _Neoteric ... Mr. ----_. Probably J.M.W. Turner and
his "Garden of the Hesperides," now in the National Gallery. It is
true it was painted in 1806, but Lamb does not describe it as a
picture of the year and Turner was certainly the most notable
neoteric, or innovator, of that time.

Page 259, line 1. _Of a modern artist._ In _The Athenaeum_ this
had been printed "of M----," meaning John Martin (1789-1854). His
"Belshazzar's Feast," which Lamb analyses below, was painted in 1821,
and made him famous. It was awarded a L200 premium, and was copied on
glass and exhibited with great success as an illuminated transparency
in the Strand. Lord Lytton said of Martin that "he was more original,
more self-dependent, than Raphael or Michael Angelo." Lamb had
previously expressed his opinion of Martin, in a letter to Bernard
Barton, dated June 11, 1827, in a passage which contains the germ
of this essay:--"Martin's Belshazzar (the picture) I have seen.
Its architectural effect is stupendous; but the human figures,
the squalling, contorted little antics that are playing at being
frightened, like children at a sham ghost who half know it to be a
mask, are detestable. Then the _letters_ are nothing more than a
transparency lighted up, s