ll be his [Charles's] death."

Page 138. _Epilogue to "Antonio."_

Had Lamb not sent this epilogue to Manning in the letter of December 13,
1800, we should have no copy of it; for Godwin, by Lamb's advice, did
not print it with the play. Writing to Godwin two days before, Lamb
remarked:-"I have been plotting how to abridge the Epilogue. But I
cannot see that any lines can be spared, retaining the connection,
except these two, which are better out:

"Why should I instance, &c.,
The sick man's purpose, &c.,

and then the following line must run thus,

"The truth by an example best is shown."

See lines 16, 17 and 18.

Godwin's "Antonio," produced at Drury Lane on December 13, 1800, was a
failure. Many years afterwards Lamb told the story of the unlucky first
night (see "The Old Actors" in Appendix to Vol. II. of this edition).
Godwin, its author, was, of course, William Godwin, the philosopher
(1756-1836). Later Lamb wrote the prologue to another of his plays (see
page 140 and note).

Lines 35 and 36. _Suett ... Bannister_. Richard Suett (1755-1805) and
Jack Bannister (1760-1836), two famous comedians of that day. Line 62.
"_Pizarro_." Sheridan's patriotic melodrama, produced May 24, 1799, at
Drury Lane.

* * * * *

Page 140. _Prologue to "Faulkener."_

William Godwin's tragedy "Faulkener" was produced at Drury Lane,
December 16, 1807, with some success. Lamb's letters to Godwin of
September 9 and 17, 1801, suggest that he had a share in the framing of
the plot. Later the play was taken in hand by Thomas Holcroft and made
more dramatic.

According to Godwin's preface, 1807, the story was taken from the 1745
edition of Defoe's _Roxana_, which contains the episode of Susannah
imagining herself to be Roxana's daughter and throwing herself in her
mother's way. Godwin transformed the daughter into a son. Lamb, however,
seems to have believed this episode to be in the first edition, 1724,
and afterwards to have been removed at the entreaty of Southerne,
Defoe's friend (see Lamb's letters to Walter Wilson, Defoe's biographer,
of December 16, 1822, and February 24, 1823). But it is in reality the
first edition which lacks the episode, and Mr. G.A. Aitken, Defoe's
latest editor, doubts Southerne's interference altogether and considers
Susannah's curiosity an alien interpolation. For Lamb's other remarks on
Defoe see also the "Ode to the Tread Mill," page 72 of