Brutus or an
Appius,--but, for want of attending to Antonio's _words_, which palpably
led to the expectation of no less dire an event, instead of being
seduced by his _manner_, which seemed to promise a sleep of a less
alarming nature than it was his cue to inflict upon Elvira, they found
themselves betrayed into an accompliceship of murder, a perfect
misprision of parricide, while they dreamed of nothing less.

"M., I believe, was the only person who suffered acutely from the
failure; for G. thenceforward, with a serenity unattainable but by the
true philosophy, abandoning a precarious popularity, retired into his
fast hold of speculation,--the drama in which the world was to be his
tiring-room, and remote posterity his applauding spectators, at once,
and actors."

* * * * *

"The least shavings of gold are valuable, men say," says Archbishop
Leighton, in his masterly Commentary on Peter; and the veriest trifle
from the pen of such a writer as Charles Lamb should be highly prized by
all readers that are readers. Therefore I think it would be unwise in me
not to print Elia's Postscript to his "Chapter on Ears," and his
Answers to Correspondents. Indeed, I do not know but that they contain
some of the most racy sentences Lamb ever wrote. At any rate, they do
contain some delightful banter and "most ingenious nonsense." In their
pleasantry, archness, and good-natured raillery, these two little
articles of Elia's remind me of some of Addison's happiest papers in the
"Spectator."

Better than anything in Southey's "Doctor" concerning the authorship of
that queer, quaint, delightful book are Elia's affected anger and
indignation against the author of the "Indicator" for attributing the
essays of Elia to their right author. Leigh Hunt must have "laughed
consumedly," as he read the P.S. to the "Chapter on Ears." And in his
Answers to Correspondents how many delightful changes Elia rings upon
the name of the unlucky Peter Bell! How cavalierly he answers
"Indagator," and the others, who are so importunate about the true
locality of his birth,--"as if, forsooth, Elia were presently about to
be passed to his parish "!

* * * * *

P.S. TO THE "CHAPTER ON EARS."

"A writer, whose real name, it seems, is _Boldero_, but who has been
entertaining the town for the last twelve months with some very pleasant
lucubrations under the assumed signature of _Leigh Hunt_,[2]