homas
Hodgkins, while the books contributed by Godwin were to be signed
Edward Baldwin. In 1806, however, Mrs. Godwin opened a shop at 41
Skinner Street, Snow Hill (now demolished), and published in her own
name as M.J. Godwin & Co., at The Children's Library.

For her the Lambs wrote _The King and Queen of Hearts_ (by Charles
Lamb), 1805; _Tales from Shakespear_, 1807; _The Adventures of
Ulysses_ (by Charles Lamb), 1808; _Mrs. Leicester's School and Poetry
for Children_, 1809; and _Prince Dorus_ (by Charles Lamb), 1811. Mrs.
Godwin translated tales from the French, Godwin contributed _Baldwin's
Fables_, _Baldwin's Pantheon_, and histories of Greece, England and
Rome, and Hazlitt wrote an English Grammar. The principal illustrator
to the firm was William Mulready.

Although Lamb had the most cordial disliking for Mrs. Godwin, he
always stood by his old friend her husband. Between 1811 and 1821
the two men seem to have had little to do with each other; but in
1822 Lamb came to Godwin's assistance to much purpose. The title to
Godwin's house in Skinner Street was successfully contested in that
year, and Godwin became a bankrupt. A fund was therefore set on
foot for him by Lamb and others, Lamb's own contribution being L50.
Godwin, however, never rightly rallied, and thenceforward lived very
quietly, wrote the _History of the Commonwealth_ and _Lives of the
Necromancers_, and died in 1836. Mrs. Godwin survived him until 1841.

Knowing what we do--from Dowden's _Shelley_ and other sources--it is
not possible greatly to admire Godwin's character, nor is the second
Mrs. Godwin a subject for enthusiasm; but the part played by them in
the Lambs' literary life was extremely valuable. Charles Lamb had,
it is true, other stimulus, and without his work for children, sweet
though it is, his name would still be a household word; but Mary Lamb
might, but for the Godwins, have gone almost silent to the grave. Her
writings, with their sweet gravity and tender simplicity, were called
forth wholly by the Bad Baby, as Lamb called Mrs. Godwin.

Lamb's views on the literature of the nursery had crystallised long
before he began to write children's books himself. In a letter to
Coleridge, October 23,1802, he had said:--

"'Goody Two Shoes' is almost out of print. Mrs. Barbauld's stuff has
banished all the old classics of the nursery; and the shopman at
Newberry's hardly deigned to reach them off an old exploded corner
of a shelf, when M