Charles Lamb. By Alfred Ainger. (Macmillan and Co.)—In order to
make it uniform with his edition of " Elia's " works, Canon Ainger has reprinted and revised his Life of Lamb in the series of " English Men of Letters." The additions or alterations are of no serious importance, but they testify to the biographer's careful research and love of accuracy. In the earlier volume, Mr. Ainger said that Lamb's father survived his wife but a few months; we now learn that the poor old man lived on after her tragical death for more than two years in a "new home at Pentonville, and that Lamb's aunt, instead of surviving her brother, died before him. There is also a little fresh information about Samuel Salt, old Mr. Lamb's master, and the amount is stated of the small pension left to the Lambs on his death. For the first time, the lovely poem on Hester, the manuscript of which is in Canon Ringer's possession, is reproduced with the poet's own punctuation. " That of the last stanza," the author writes, "is specially worth attention, as making the sense clearer than in the lines as usually printed." We quote it as corrected, and think that the improvement is manifest :--
My sprightly neighbour I gone before To that unknown and silent shore, Shall we not meet ? —as heretofore, Some summer morning,
When from thy cheerful eyes a ray Hath struck a bliss upon the day, A bliss that would not go away; A sweet forewarning 1"
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