The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 3 - Books for Children

Mary Lamb, Charles Lamb

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• Publié par: shyaz
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 36
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Books for Children, by Charles and Mary Lamb This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Books for Children The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 Author: Charles and Mary Lamb Release Date: November 19, 2003 [EBook #10130] Language: English *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOOKS FOR CHILDREN *** Produced by William Flis, Keren Vergon, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. [Illustration] BOOKS FOR CHILDREN BY CHARLES AND MARY LAMB EDITED BY E.V. LUCAS WITH A FRONTISPIECEINTRODUCTION The present volume contains all the stories and verses for children which we know Charles and Mary Lamb to have written. The text is that of the first or second editions, as explained in the Notes. The Poetry for Children and Prince Dorus have been set up from the late Andrew W. Tuer's facsimiles. The large edition of this volume contains all the original pictures, together with the apochryphal Beauty and the Beast. In Mr. Bedford's design for the cover of this edition certain Elian symbolism will be found. The upper coat of arms is that of Christ's Hospital, where Lamb was at school; the lower is that of the Inner Temple, where he was born and spent many years. The figures at the bells are those which once stood out from the façade of St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street, and are now in Lord Londesborough's garden in Regent's Park. Lamb shed tears when they were removed. The tricksy sprite and the candles (brought by Betty) need no explanatory words of mine. E.V.L.CONTENTS TALES FROM SHAKESPEAR PAGE Preface 1 The Tempest 3 A Midsummer Night's Dream 13 The Winter's Tale 23 Much Ado About Nothing 33 As You Like It 44 The Two Gentlemen of Verona 58 The Merchant of Venice 69 Cymbeline 81 King Lear 92 Macbeth 106 All's Well that Ends Well 115 The Taming of the Shrew 126 The Comedy of Errors 136 Measure for Measure 148 Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 161 Timon of Athens 173 Romeo and Juliet 184 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 199 Othello 213 Pericles, Prince of Tyre 225 THE ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES Preface 240 CHAPTER I. The Cicons—The fruit of the lotos tree—Polyphemus and the Cyclops—The kingdom of the winds, and god Æolus's fatal present—The Læstrygonian man-eaters 241 CHAPTER II. The House of Circe—Men changed into beasts—The voyage to hell—The banquet of the dead 250 CHAPTER III. The song of the Sirens—Scylla and Charybdis—The oxen of the Sun—The judgment—The crew killed by lightning 262 CHAPTER IV. The Island of Calypso—Immortality refused 269 CHAPTER V. The tempest—The sea-bird's gift—The escape by swimming—The sleep in the woods 273 CHAPTER VI. The Princess Nausicaa—The washing—The game with the ball—The Court of Phæacia and king Alcinous. 277 CHAPTER VII. The songs of Demodocus—The convoy home—The mariners transformed to stone—The young shepherd. 283 CHAPTER VIII. The change from a king to a beggar—Eumæus and the herdsmen—Telemachus 290 CHAPTER IX. The queen's suitors—The battle of the beggars—The armour taken down— The meeting with Penelope 301 CHAPTER X. The madness from above—The bow of Ulysses—The slaughter—The conclusion 308 MRS. LEICESTER'S SCHOOL Dedication 316 Elizabeth Villiers: The Sailor Uncle 319 Louisa Manners: The Farm House 328 Ann Withers: The Changeling 334 Elinor Forester: The Father's Wedding Day 350 Margaret Green: The Young Mahometan 354 Emily Barton: Visit to the Cousins 360 Maria Howe: The Witch Aunt 368 Charlotte Wilmot: The Merchant's Daughter 375 Susan Yates: First Going to Church 378 Arabella Hardy: The Sea Voyage 384 THE KING AND QUEEN OF HEARTS 389 POETRY FOR CHILDREN Envy 404 The Reaper's Child 404 The Ride 405 The Butterfly 406The Peach 407 Chusing a Name 408 Crumbs to the Birds 408 The Rook and the Sparrows 409 Discontent and Quarrelling 410 Repentance and Reconciliation 411 Neatness in Apparel 412 The New-born Infant 412 Motes in the Sun-beams 413 The Boy and the Snake 413 The First Tooth 415 To a River in which a Child was Drowned 416 The First of April 416 Cleanliness 417 The Lame Brother 418 Going into Breeches 419 Nursing 420 The Text 421 The End of May 422 Feigned Courage 424 The Broken Doll 425 The Duty of a Brother 426 Wasps in a Garden 427 What is Fancy? 428 Anger 429 Blindness 429 The Mimic Harlequin 430 Written in the First Leaf of a Child's Memorandum Book 430 Memory 431 The Reproof 432 The Two Bees 432 The Journey from School and to School 434 The Orange 435 The Young Letter-Writer 436 The Three Friends 437 On the Lord's Prayer 442 "Suffer little Children, and Forbid them not, to come unto Me" 443 The Magpye's Nest; or, A Lesson of Docility 445 The Boy and the Sky-lark 447 The Men and Women, and the Monkeys 449 Love, Death, and Reputation 449 The Sparrow and the Hen 450 Which is the Favourite? 451 The Beggar-Man 451 Choosing a Profession 452 Breakfast 453 Weeding 454 Parental Recollections 455 The Two Boys 455 The Offer 456 The Sister's Expostulation on the Brother's learning Latin 456 The Brother's Reply 457 Nurse Green 459 Good Temper 460 Moderation in Diet 460 Incorrect Speaking 462 Charity 462 My Birthday 463 The Beasts in the Tower 464 The Confidant 466 Thoughtless Cruelty 466 Eyes 467 Penny Pieces 468 The Rainbow 469 The Force of Habit 470 Clock Striking 470 Why not do it, Sir, To-day? 471 Home Delights 471 The Coffee Slips 472The Dessert 473 To a Young Lady, on being too Fond of Music 474 Time Spent in Dress 475 The Fairy 476 Conquest of Prejudice 476 The Great-Grandfather 478 The Spartan Boy 479 Queen Oriana's Dream 480 On a Picture of the Finding of Moses by Pharaoh's Daughter 481 David 483 David in the Cave of Adullam 486 THREE POEMS NOT IN "POETRY FOR CHILDREN" Summer Friends 488 A Birthday Thought 488 The Boy, the Mother, and the Butterfly 489 PRINCE DORUS 490 * * * * * NOTES 499 INDEX 523 INDEX OF FIRST LINES 529FRONTISPIECE CHARLES AND MARY LAMB From the Painting by F.S. Cary, in 1834, now in the National Portrait Gallery.TALES FROM SHAKESPEAR (Written 1805-1806. First Edition 1807. Text of Second Edition 1809)PREFACE The following Tales are meant to be submitted to the young reader as an introduction to the study of Shakespear, for which purpose, his words are used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in; and in whatever has been added to give them the regular form of a connected story, diligent care has been taken to select such words as might least interrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote: therefore words introduced into our language since his time have been as far as possible avoided. In those Tales which have been taken from the Tragedies, as my young readers will perceive when they come to see the source from which these stories are derived, Shakespear's own words, with little alteration, recur very frequently in the narrative as well as in the dialogue; but in those made from the Comedies I found myself scarcely ever able to turn his words into the narrative form; therefore I fear in them I have made use of dialogue too frequently for young people not used to the dramatic form of writing. But this fault, if it be as I fear a fault, has been caused by my earnest wish to give as much of Shakespear's own words as possible: and if the "He said" and "She said" the question and the reply, should sometimes seem tedious to their young ears, they must pardon it, because it was the only way I knew of, in which I could give them a few hints and little foretastes of the great pleasure which awaits them in their elder years, when they come to the rich treasures from which these small and valueless coins are extracted; pretending to no other merit than as faint and imperfect stamps of Shakespear's matchless image. Faint and imperfect images they must be called, because the beauty of his language is too frequently destroyed by the necessity of changing many of his excellent words into words far less expressive of his true sense, to make it read something like prose; and even in some few places, where his blank verse is given unaltered, as hoping from its simple plainness to cheat the young readers into the belief that they are reading prose, yet still his language being transplanted from its own natural soil and wild poetic garden, it must want much of its native beauty. I have wished to make these Tales easy reading for very young children. To the utmost of my ability I have constantly kept this in my mind; but the subjects of most of them made this a very difficult task. It was no easy matter to give the histories of men and women in terms familiar to the apprehension of a very young mind. For young ladies too it has been my intention chiefly to write, because boys are generally permitted the use of their fathers' libraries at a much earlier age than girls are, they frequently having the best scenes of Shakespear by heart, before their sisters are permitted to look into this manly book; and therefore, instead of recommending these Tales to the perusal of young gentlemen who can read them so much better in the originals, I must rather beg their kind assistance in explaining to their sisters such parts as are hardest for them to understand; and when they have helped them to get over the difficulties, then perhaps they will read to them (carefully selecting what is proper for a young sister's ear) some passage which has pleased them in one of these stories, in the very words of the scene from which it is taken; and I trust they will find that the beautiful extracts, the select passages, they may chuse to give their sisters in this way, will be much better relished and understood from their having some notion of the general story from one of these imperfect abridgments:—which if they be fortunately so done as to prove delight