eath of Captain
John Wordsworth, the poet's brother, in the foundering of the
_Abergavenny_ in February, 1805, when Coleridge was in Malta, which were
sent by Mary Lamb to Dorothy Wordsworth, May 7, 1805:--

Why is he wandering on the sea?
Coleridge should now with Wordsworth be.
By slow degrees he'd steal away
Their woe, and gently bring a ray
(So happily he'd time relief)
Of comfort from their very grief.
He'd tell them that their brother dead,
When years have passed o'er their head,
Will be remember'd with such holy,
True, and perfect melancholy,
That ever this lost brother John
Will be their hearts' companion.
His voice they'll always hear, his face they'll always see;
There's nought in life so sweet as such a memory.

* * * * *

SONNETS

Page 43. _To Miss Kelly_.

Frances Maria Kelly (1790-1882)--or Fanny Kelly, as she was usually
called--was Lamb's favourite actress of his middle and later life and a
personal friend of himself and his sister: so close that Lamb proposed
marriage to her. See Lamb's criticisms of Miss Kelly's acting in Vol.
I., and notes. Another sonnet addressed by Lamb to Miss Kelly will be
found on page 59 of the present volume.

Page 43. _On the Sight of Swans in Kensington Garden_. This is, I think,
Lamb's only poem the inspiration of which was drawn from nature.

* * * * *

Page 44. _The Family Name_.

John Lamb, Charles's father, came from Lincoln. A recollection of his
boyhood there is given in the _Elia_ essay "Poor Relations." The
"stream" seems completely to have ended with Charles Lamb and his sister
Mary: at least, research has yielded no descendants.

Crabb Robinson visited Goethe in the summer of 1829. The _Diary_ has
this entry: "I inquired whether he knew the name of Lamb. 'Oh, yes! Did
he not write a pretty sonnet on his own name?' Charles Lamb, though he
always affected contempt for Goethe, yet was manifestly pleased that his
name was known to him."

In the little memoir of Lamb prefixed by M. Amedee Pichot to a French
edition of the _Tales from Shakespeare_ in 1842 the following
translation of this sonnet is given:--

MON NOM DE FAMILLE

Dis-moi, d'ou nous viens-tu, nom pacifique et doux,
Nom transmis sans reproche?... A qui te devons-nous,
Nom qui meurs avec moi? mo