Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/153

 10 s. vii. FEB. 16, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

121

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY JU, 1907.

CONTENTS.-No. 164.

3JOTES : Was Charles Lamb of Jewish Extraction ? 121 Thomas Seward Westminster Changes, 1906, 122 Peti- tion of the Prince of Monaco Oxford Graduates, 1675-84 School Slang at Rossall, 125 Parish Bull and Boar .Blunder of a Translator of the Vulgate Tartar Legend of Alexander the Great " Impecuniosity "" Incon- siderative," 126 Sir Henry Wotton at Venice West Indian Hurricane Lore Stepney Court Eolls Benjamin Kennet, Vicar of Bradford, 127.

QUERIES : " Moaler "Carlo Goldoni's Bicentenary, 127 Hugh Miller of Virginia ' The Cornworthiad' ' Edin- burgh Review ' Attack on Oxford Dean Vaughan's Pupils

Langtry Estate in Ireland Corrodies: " Liber ser- v i ens " Hickford's Room, Brewer Street The English Translator of Sallust The People's Charter : Political Song, 128 Picture of Lady in Red Wolston Sir George Howard, Field-Marshal "Life-Star" Folk-lore, 129 Andrew Marvell Heenvliet and Lord Wotton's Daughter People to be Avoided or Cultivated, 130.

SI EPLI ES : Scott Illustrators, 130 Edinburgh Stage: Bland : Glover : Jordan, 131 Sir John Barnard's De- scendants, 132 "Blue- water "'Collection of Thoughts' Cardinal Wiseman's Tomb Ruskin's Parents " The Mahalla " " The Maghzen," 133 Meaux Abbey Con- -Contraction Religious Houses of Sussex Orwell Town and Haven Healing Springs flowing towards the South, 134" Bossing " St. George's Chapel Yard, Oxford Road, 135 Pictures at Teddington "Popjoy" "Anon"- Californian English : American Coin-Names, 136 Dole Cupboards Genealogy in Dumas " Poor Dog Tray " "The Old Highlander" Monumental Inscriptions: St. Faith Jerusalem Court, Fleet Street, 137.


 * NOTES ON BOOKS : " The Stratford Town Shakespeare "

Lodge's ' Rosalynde ' Maguire's ' Historic Links ' ' Willing's Press Guide.'

'Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

Jioto.

CHARLES LAMB : WAS HE OF JEWISH EXTRACTION ?

WHEREAS, says the Talmud, Ezekiel paints the life and pageantry of Courts with the gorgeousness of an awestruck countryman, Isaiah describes them with the air of a surfeited sightseer. Charles Lamb seems to embrace both aspects of those prophetical figures. When he talks of familiar themes, of his friends and relations, of theatres and actors, of South Sea House or of the old Benchers of the Inner Temple, he is on ground where Leigh Hunt or Hazlitt does not surpass him in sobriety and detachment. His aloofness is superb, and the soul of the Aryan shines resplendently in him. But when he launches into a dissertation on roast pig, or tackles the bewildering topic of Jews, he loses his habitual reserve, and seems to borrow the abandon, the warmth, and the energy of the Semite. Whether in fun or earnest no one knows for certain, but he lays to and 'belabours the unhappy Israelites with the

zeal of a fanatic, and extols the material joys of " crackling " with a savage gusto born of a newly appropriated taste. His apparent affection for sucking-pig displays the warmth of a virtuoso and the keenness of a proselyte. All this time he may be laughing up his sleeve at us. Those habits of mystification were carried to extraordinary lengths, till we never know whether he is not, after all, poking fun at us.

Now, unless I am grossly misled, this unique divergence from his normal style and method can only be accounted for on the assumption of a mental twist due to Semitic in-breeding or cross-fertilization. Of an unhappy fer- ment within him Lamb was quite conscious, for he often alludes to it in the oddest of self-communings and in the most pathetic of self-questionings. Probably his worldly- wise brother (who knew all about it) might have enlightened him, had he thought fit (which he did not).

I have already alluded to Lamb's ingrained love of mystification, which, if my deduc- tions are valid, we may fearlessly set down to hereditary influences and to ancestral instincts. So far, the family history ends in Lincoln, whence John Lamb came up to London to seek his fortune. Lamb's own account of his remarkable parent contains matter for lively speculation. He seems to have been a man of parts and of ability above the common run, with a heart as tender as a woman's. " He had the merriest quips and conceits, and was altogether as brimful of rogueries and inventions as you could desire." Such a man was not " born to serve his brethren," but became in course of time the major domo and the close friend of his employer Salt. His fidelity and devo- tion to Salt's interests were the outcome of gratitude for spontaneous acts of gene- rosity on the part of the famous old Bencher. Now gratitude is one of the root-traits of the Jewish race. However, if John Lamb knew all about the history of his family and of its wanderings, we may be sure the lad, on coming up to town, soon learnt the wisdom of reticence. Jews were not exactly popular idols. The country seethed from end to end with subdued hatred of them, and it flamed out violently when Henry Pelham in 1753 brought in the detested Naturalization Bill. In his daily rambles about the City, John saw around him everywhere the odious " No Jews, no wooden shoes," chalked up on walls and hoardings by a howling and infuriated mob. Well, John's sympathies, we may be sure, were not with the tor- mentors of those hapless wanderers ; for