LAMB, CHARLES, an English poet and essayest, was b. in the temple, on Feb. 18, 1775, and received his education at Christ's hospital, where he had Coleridge for a school-fellow With Coleridge, WoMsworth, Hunt, Hazlitt, and other distinguished men of his time, lie lived in affectionate intimacy. In 1792 he became a clerk in one of the departments of the India house; and in 1825 he was allowed to retire with a pen sion granted by the directors. His first poems .appeared in a small in which venture Coleridge and Lloyd were his partners. In 1801 he published John 11Toodvii, drama, in which he looks upon man and nature with the eye of an Elizabethan. His Essays cf Elia were originally published in the London Magazine. Lamb was never married; lie lived with an only sister, who was subject to insane fits—in one of which she killed her mother—and for whom he cherished the tenderest affection. He died in
London, on December 27, 1834. After his death, Mr. Justice Talfourd published two volumes of his Letters; and these, in 1848, he supplemented by the Final Memorials, in which, for the first time, the world became acquainted Nvith the story of his sister.
The poems of Lamb were never widely read, nor are they yet; his reputation rests entirely upon his criticisms and his Essays. The critical remarks appended to his Speci mens of English Dramatic Poems are of the highest value, while his Essay on the Genius of Hogarth is considered by many the finest critical paper in the language. In the quali ties of grace, quaintness, and a certain tenderness of humor, "a smile on the lip, and a tear in the eye," the Essays of Elia are unique; the author is reflected in them with all his whims, his wit, his poetic instinct, his charity, and his odd ways.