Charles Lamb war ein englischer Dichter.
Charles Lamb war 1792–1825 bei der Ostindien-Kompanie als Sekretär angestellt und starb am 27. Dezember 1834 in Edmonton.
Als Schriftsteller trat er zuerst im London Magazine mit Essays auf, in denen er seine heitere Lebensphilosophie vortrug, und welche sich dem Besten anreihen, was die englische Literatur in diesem Fach besitzt.
Seine Gedichte sind meist lyrischen Inhalts, mehr tändelnd als begeistert, aber voll Zartheit und Anmut. Als Typus seiner Poesie kann das von Ferdinand Freiligrath übersetzte Gedicht The old familiar faces gelten.
Allgemeinen Beifall fanden seine Tale of Rosamond Grey und die Tales from Shakespeare 1807, 2 Bde., an welchen auch seine Schwester Mary Ann Anteil hatte.
In seinen Specimens of English dramatic poets who lived about the time of Shakespeare wies er auf die Einfachheit und Reinheit der Diktion der alten Dramatiker hin, die er selbst in seiner Tragödie John Woodvil anstrebte.
Seine Album verses enthalten Gelegenheitsgedichte.
„Leichtgläubigkeit ist eines Mannes Schwäche und eines Kindes Stärke.“
Essays
Credulity is the man's weakness, but the child's strength. - Witches, and Other Night Fears. In: The London Magazine, Oct. 1821, p. 385 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=FsAYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA385&dq=credulity
zitiert in: Stephen Hawking: Das Universum in der Nussschale. Hoffmann & Campe, 2001, Kapitel 2, S. 39
Nothing puzzles me more than time and space, and yet nothing puzzles me less, for I never think about them. - Letter to Mr. Manning, 2nd January 1802, books.google.de http://books.google.de/books?id=vcMdAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA155
Essays
Nothing is to me more distasteful than that entire complacency and satisfaction which beam in the countenances of a new-married couple. - A Bachelor's Complaint of the Behaviour of Married People. books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=LNUeAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA146
Essays
Books think for me. - Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading
John Woodvil, 3. Akt / John Woodvil
Original engl.: "These high and gusty relishes of life, sure, // Have no allayings of mortality in them." - John Woodvil. A Tragedy. Act the Third. books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=O8EwAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA534
„Wie Krankheit die Dimension des Ichs vergrößert!“
Essays
How sickness enlarges the dimensions of a man's self to himself! - The Convalescent. books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=EvtLAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA188
A Dissertation upon Roast Pig; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Essays of Elia (1823)
Letter to Wordsworth (April 26, 1816)
“The Young Catechist” 1827.
“Nay, rather,
Plant divine, of rarest virtue;
Blisters on the tongue would hurt you.”
A Farewell to Tobacco (1805)
Letter to Wordsworth (January 30, 1801)
“Sentimentally I am disposed to harmony; but organically I am incapable of a tune.”
A Chapter on Ears; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Essays of Elia (1823)
My First Play; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Popular Fallacies: XI, That We Must Not Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth.
Last Essays of Elia (1833)
“Thou through such a mist dost show us,
That our best friends do not know us.”
A Farewell to Tobacco (1805)
Autobiographical Recollections (Leslie) ; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“The red-letter days, now become, to all intents and purposes, dead-letter days.”
Oxford in the Vacation.
Essays of Elia (1823)
“Riddle of destiny, who can show
What thy short visit meant, or know
What thy errand here below?”
On an Infant Dying as Soon as Born (1827).
“It is good to love the unknown.”
Valentine's Day; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Essays of Elia (1823)
“When my sonnet was rejected, I exclaimed, 'Damn the age; I will write for Antiquity!”
Letter to Proctor (January 22, 1829), in Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by Subject (2000), p. 526
To the Editor of the Every-Day Book; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Presents, I often say, endear absents.”
A Dissertation upon Roast Pig; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Essays of Elia (1823)
“Any thing awful makes me laugh. I misbehaved once at a funeral.”
Letter to Southey (August 9, 1815)
“Credulity is the man's weakness, but the child's strength.”
Witches, and Other Night Fears.
Essays of Elia (1823)
A Vision Of Repentance, as quoted in Works of Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb.
“A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigor of the game.”
Mrs. Battle's Opinions on Whist; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Essays of Elia (1823)
