Chapter 148

CHARLES LAMB TO B.R. HAYDON

[March, 1827.]

Dear Raffaele Haydon,--Did the maid tell you I came to see your picture, not on Sunday but the day before? I think the face and bearing of the Bucephalus-tamer very noble, his flesh too effeminate or painty. The skin of the female's back kneeling is much more carnous. I had small time to pick out praise or blame, for two lord-like Bucks came in, upon whose strictures my presence seemed to impose restraint: I plebeian'd off therefore.

I think I have hit on a subject for you, but can't swear it was never executed,--I never heard of its being,--"Chaucer beating a Franciscan Friar in Fleet Street." Think of the old dresses, houses, &c. "It seemeth that both these learned men (Gower and Chaucer) were of the Inner Temple; for not many years since Master Buckley did see a record in the same house where Geoffry Chaucer was fined two shillings for beating a Franciscan Friar in Fleet Street." _Chaucer's Life by T. Speght, prefixed to the black letter folio of Chaucer_, 1598.

Yours in haste (salt fish waiting), C. LAMB.

[Haydon's picture was his "Alexander and Bucephalus." The two Bucks, he tells us in his _Diary_, were the Duke of Devonshire and Mr. Agar Ellis. Haydon did not take up the Chaucer subject.]