e past, Lamb
promptly fixed upon Sir Thomas Browne and Fulke Greville. How many of
us in such a debate to-day would as promptly name Charles Lamb!

During the first half of these years in the Temple, Charles Lamb had
written much that now endears him to us; but little, it is to be
feared, that made the great body of contemporary readers aware of his
existence. In 1806 he essayed dramatic authorship, had had his farce,
"Mr. H.," performed at Drury Lane, had been present on the occasion of
its solitary appearance when it was incontinently damned, and had
himself taken part in the damnatory hissing. At the beginning of 1807
was published the "Tales from Shakspeare," for which he and his sister
were jointly responsible, and for which they received a sum of sixty
guineas; in 1808 came another book for children in "The Adventures of
Ulysses," and in the same year the "Specimens of English Dramatic
Poets Contemporary with Shakspeare."

During the second half of the stay in the Temple--the years at 4,
Inner Temple Lane, which have been regarded as the happiest portion of
his life--Lamb made but slight advance in literary reputation, but he
was already firmly established in the favour of the few who had been
privileged to know him, to hear his stammered wit, his spoken wisdom.
Though this period from 1809 to 1817 is not marked by the production
of notable books, it was during this time that he contributed to Leigh
Hunt's "Reflector," wrote his "Recollections of Christ's Hospital" for
the "Gentleman's Magazine," and his "Confessions of a Drunkard" for a
friend's publication. Here were most Elia-like precursors of the
famous "Essays."

In the autumn of 1817 the Lambs removed from the Temple in which they
had passed the greater part of their lives, taking rooms over a
brazier's shop at 20, Russell Street, Covent Garden, at the corner of
Bow Street, where, as Mary Lamb put it, they had "Drury Lane Theatre
in sight of our front, and Covent Garden from our back windows."
Covent Garden, as Charles said, "dearer to me than any garden of
Alcinous, where we are morally sure of the earliest peas and
'sparagus." One of the first letters from the new lodgings Lamb
whimsically addressed as from "The Garden of England." The half dozen
years during which he lived here forms from a literary point of view
the most memorable period of Lamb's life. Here he arranged for the
publication of the two precious little volumes of his "Works" which
were