arts, and actions sinister,
I came at first to be a Minister;
And now I am no longer Minister,
I still retain my actions sinister.

* * * * *

Page 116. _Two Epigrams_. _The Examiner_, March 22, 1812.

These epigrams have no signature, but the second of them was reprinted
in _The Poetical Recreations of "The Champion"_ (1822) with Lamb's
signature, R. et R., appended, and a note saying that it was written in
the last reign, together with an announcement that it had not appeared
in _The Champion_, but was inserted in that collection at the author's
request. By Princeps and the heir-apparent is meant, of course, the
Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., who had just entered upon office
as Regent. The epigrams refer to his transfer of confidence, if so it
may be called, from the Whig party to the Marquis Wellesley, Perceval
and the Tory party. The circumstance that the Prince of Wales was also
Duke of Cornwall is referred to in the first epigram. The second of the
epigrams is copied into one of Lamb's Commonplace Books with the title
"On the Prince breaking with his Party."

Page 116. _The Triumph of the Whale_.

_The Examiner_, March 15, 1812. Reprinted in _The Poetical Recreations
of "The Champion,"_ signed R. et R., with a note stating that it had not
appeared in _The Champion_, but was collected with the other pieces by
the author's request.

The subject of the verses was, of course, the first gentleman in Europe.
_The Examiner_ was never over-nice in its treatment of the prince, and
it was in the same year, 1812, that Leigh Hunt, the editor, and his
brother, the printer, of the paper were prosecuted for the article
styling him a "libertine" and the "companion of gamblers and demireps"
(which appeared the week following Lamb's poem), and were condemned to
imprisonment for it. Lamb's lines came very little short of expressing
equally objectionable criticisms; but verse is often privileged.
Thelwall--and Lamb--showed some courage in reprinting the lines in 1822,
when the prince had become king. Talfourd relates that Lamb was in the
habit of checking harsh comments on the prince by others with the
smiling remark, "_I_ love my Regent."

In Galignani's 1828 edition of Byron this piece was attributed to his
lordship.

* * * * *

Page 118. _St. Crispin to Mr. Gifford._

_The Examiner_, October 3 an