on May 25,
1804, or for a later one. Lamb tells Hazlitt in February, 1806, that he
meditates a stroll on the Fast-Day.

Page 123. _Nonsense Verses_.

Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt, in _Mary and Charles Lamb_, 1874, says: "I found
these lines--a parody on the popular, or nursery, ditty, 'Lady-bird,
lady-bird, fly away home'--officiating as a wrapper to some of Mr.
Hazlitt's hair. There is no signature; but the handwriting is
unmistakably Lamb's; nor are the lines themselves the worst of his
playful effusions." The piece suggests that Lamb, in a wild mood, was
turning his own "Angel Help" (see page 51) into ridicule--possibly to
satisfy some one who dared him to do it, or vowed that such a feat could
not be accomplished.

* * * * *

Page 124. _On Wawd._

Wawd was a fellow-clerk. We have this _jeu d'esprit_ through Mr. Joseph
H. Twichell, an American who had it from a fellow-clerk of Lamb's named
Ogilvie. (See _Scribner's Magazine_, March, 1876.)

Page 124. _Six Epitaphs._

Writing to Southey on March 20, 1799, Lamb says:--"I the other day
threw off an extempore epitaph on Ensign Peacock of the 3rd Regt. of the
Royal East India Volunteers, who like other boys in this scarlet tainted
age was ambitious of playing at soldiers, but dying in the first flash
of his valour was at the particular instance of his relations buried
with military honours! like any veteran scarr'd or chopt from Blenheim
or Ramilies. (He was buried in sash and gorget.) Sed hae sunt
lamentabilis nugae--But'tis as good as some epitaphs you and I have read
together in Christ-Church-yard."

The last five Epigrams were sent to the _New York Tribune_, Feb. 22,
1879, by the late J.H. Siddons. They were found on scraps of paper in
Lamb's desk in the India House. Wagstaff and Sturms were fellow-clerks.
Dr. Drake was the medical officer of the establishment. Captain Dey was
a putative son of George IV. The lines upon him were given to Siddons by
Kenney's son.

Page 126. _Time and Eternity_ and _From the Latin_.

In _The Mirror_ for June 1, 1833, are the two poems, collected under the
general heading "The Gatherer," indexed "Lamb, C., lines by." Mr. Thomas
Hutchinson first printed the second poem; but I do not feel too happy
about it.

* * * * *

Page 127. SATAN IN SEARCH OF A WIFE, 1831.

This ballad was published by Moxon, anonymously, in 1831, although the
authorship was no sec