Barbauld's and Mrs.
Trimmer's nonsense lay in piles about."
His own domestic affairs struggle on as usual; at one time calm and
pleasant, at another time troubled and uncomfortable, owing to the
frequent recurrence of his sister's malady. In general he bore these
changes with fortitude; I do not observe more than one occasion on which
(being then himself ill) his firmness seemed altogether to give way. In
1798, indeed, he had said, "I consider her perpetually on the brink of
madness." But in May, 1800, his old servant Hetty having died, and Mary
(sooner than usual) falling ill again, Charles was obliged to remove her
to an asylum; and was left in the house alone with Hetty's dead body. "My
heart is quite sick" (he cries), "and I don't know where to look for
relief. My head is very bad. I almost wish that Mary were dead." This was
the one solitary cry of anguish that he uttered during his long years of
anxiety and suffering. At all other times he bowed his head in silence,
uncomplaining.
Charles Lamb, with his sister, left Little Queen Street on or before 1800;
in which year he seems to have migrated, first to Chapel Street,
Pentonville; next to Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane; and finally to
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