In July, 1810, an abstinence from all spirituous liquors took place. Lamb
says that his sister has "taken to water like a hungry otter," whilst he
"limps after her" for virtue's sake; but he is "full of cramps and
rheumatism, and cold internally, so that fire don't warm him." It is
scarcely necessary to state that the period of entire abstinence was very
transient.
A quarterly magazine, called "The Reflector," was published in the autumn
of 1810, and contained Essays by Charles Lamb and several other writers.
Amongst these are some of the best of Lamb's earlier writings--namely, the
paper on Hogarth and that on the Tragedies of Shakespeare. It is singular
that these two Essays, which are as fine as anything of a similar nature
in English criticism, should have been almost unnoticed (undiscovered,
except by literary friends) until the year 1818, when Lamb's works were
collected and published. The grand passage on "Lear" has caused the Essay
on the Shakespeare Tragedies to be well known. Less known is the Essay on
Hogarth, although it is more elaborate and critical; the labor being quite
necessary in this case, as the pretensions of Hogarth to the grand style
had been denounced by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
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