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The poetical works of Charles Lamb

A new edition
Lamb, Charles (1775-1834)
  
[dedication]

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POEMS.
  
HESTER.
  
TO CHARLES LLOYD,
  
THE THREE FRIENDS.
  
TO A RIVER IN WHICH A CHILD WAS DROWNED.
  
THE OLD FAMILIAR FACES.
  
A VISION OF REPENTANCE.
  
QUEEN ORIANA'S DREAM.
  
A BALLAD:
  
HYPOCHONDRIACUS.
  
A FAREWELL TO TOBACCO.
  
TO T. L. H.
  
LINES
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SONNETS.
 I. 
I. TO MISS KELLY.
 II. 
II. ON THE SIGHT OF SWANS IN KENSINGTON GARDEN.
 III. 
III.
 IV. 
IV.
 V. 
V.
 VI. 
VI.
 VII. 
VII.
 VIII. 
VIII. THE FAMILY NAME.
 IX. 
IX. TO JOHN LAMB, ESQ. OF THE SOUTH-SEA-HOUSE.
 X. 
X.
 XI. 
XI.
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BLANK VERSE.
  
CHILDHOOD.
  
THE GRANDAME.
  
THE SABBATH BELLS.
  
FANCY EMPLOYED ON DIVINE SUBJECTS.
  
COMPOSED AT MIDNIGHT.
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JOHN WOODVIL.
 1. 
ACT THE FIRST.
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ACT THE SECOND.
  
Scene—An Apartment in Woodvil Hall.
  
Scene—Sherwood Forest.
 3. 
ACT THE THIRD.
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ACT THE FOURTH.
  
Scene—An Apartment in Woodvil Hall.
  
Scene—The Forest.
  
Scene—Another Part of the Forest.
  
Scene.—Woodvil Hall.
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ACT THE FIFTH.
  
[section]
  
Scene—An inner Apartment.
  
THE WITCH.
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ALBUM VERSES,
  
[dedication]
  
IN THE ALBUM OF A CLERGYMAN'S LADY.
  
IN THE AUTOGRAPH BOOK OF MRS. SERGEANT W---.
  
IN THE ALBUM OF EDITH S---.
  
TO DORA W---,
  
IN THE ALBUM OF ROTHA Q---.
  
IN THE ALBUM OF CATHERINE ORKNEY.
  
IN THE ALBUM OF LUCY BARTON.
  
IN THE ALBUM OF MISS ---.
  
IN THE ALBUM OF MRS. JANE TOWERS.
  
IN MY OWN ALBUM.
  
ANGEL HELP .
  
THE CHRISTENING.
  
ON AN INFANT DYING AS SOON AS BORN.
  
THE YOUNG CATECHIST .
  
SHE IS GOING.
  
TO A YOUNG FRIEND,
  
HARMONY IN UNLIKENESS.
  
WRITTEN AT CAMBRIDGE.
  
TO A CELEBRATED FEMALE PERFORMER IN THE “BLIND BOY.”
  
WORK.
  
LEISURE.
  
TO SAMUEL ROGERS, ESQ.
  
THE GIPSY'S MALISON.
  
TO THE AUTHOR OF POEMS,
  
TO J. S. KNOWLES, ESQ.
  
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “EVERY-DAY BOOK.”
  
TO T. STOTHARD, ESQ.
  
TO A FRIEND ON HIS MARRIAGE.
  
THE SELF-ENCHANTED.
  
TO LOUISA M---, WHOM I USED TO CALL “MONKEY.”
  
[O lift with reverent hand that tarnish'd flower]
  
PINDARIC ODE TO THE TREAD MILL.
  
GOING OR GONE.
  
FREE THOUGHTS ON SEVERAL EMINENT COMPOSERS.
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THE WIFE'S TRIAL;
  
Scene.—A Library.
  
Scene.—Servants' Hall.
  
Scene.—Mrs. Selby's Chamber.
  
Scene.—An Apartment, contiguous to the last.
  
Scene.—The Library.
  
Scene.—Mrs. Selby's Chamber.
  
Scene.—A Garden.

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209

[O lift with reverent hand that tarnish'd flower]

[_]

[In a leaf of a quarto edition of the ‘Lives of the Saints, written in Spanish by the learned and reverend father, Alfonso Villegas, Divine, of the Order of St. Dominick, set forth in English by John Heigham, Anno 1630,’ bought at a Catholic book-shop in Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, I found, carefully inserted, a painted flower, seemingly coeval with the book itself; and did not, for some time, discover that it opened in the middle, and was the cover to a very humble draught of a St. Anne, with the Virgin and Child; doubtless the performance of some poor, but pious Catholic, whose meditations it assisted.]

O lift with reverent hand that tarnish'd flower,
That 'shrines beneath her modest canopy
Memorials dear to Romish piety;
Dim specks, rude shapes, of Saints! in fervent hour
The work perchance of some meek devotee,
Who, poor in worldly treasures to set forth
The sanctities she worshipped to their worth,
In this imperfect tracery might see
Hints, that all Heaven did to her sense reveal.
Cheap gifts best fit poor givers. We are told
Of the lone mite, the cup of water cold,
That in their way approved the offerer's zeal.
True love shows costliest, where the means are scant;
And, in her reckoning, they abound, who want.
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