Beauty and the Beast. By Charles Lamb. With an Introduction
by Andrew Lang. (Field and Taer.)—Though the name of Charles Lamb appears on the title.page of this pretty little reprint, it is by no means certain, as Mr. Lang remarks, that it was really his work. It was published by Mr. Godwin, and Lamb certainly did some work of the kind for the house. It is also known that Wordsworth was asked to versify the story, and naturally declined ; and it is possible that what he declined might have come into Lamb's hands, though Wordsworth himself mentioned William Taylor, of Norwich, as a likely man to undertake it. The internal evidence proves nothing. It is just the kind of verse that Lamb might have written for a piece of task-work. In fact, it is as good as it needed to be. Mr. Lang adds, of course, a little disquisition on the story, and Sods it among the Kaffir, and in a variety of other places. The famous "Cupid and Psyche" is, he thinks, a development of it. He goes on to give an interesting analysis of the story, with illustrations and resemblances gathered from other popular tales. It only remains to say that
Lamb's verses, if they are his, have had due honour done to them by printing, paper, and illastxationa. For the last purpose, the old pictures have been reproduced, not without improvement.
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