Chapter 149

CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM HONE [No date. April, 1827.]

Dear H. Never come to our house and not come in. I was quite vex'd.

Yours truly. C.L.

There is in Blackwood this month an article MOST AFFECTING indeed called Le Revenant, and would do more towards abolishing Capital Punishments than 400000 Romillies or Montagues. I beg you read it and see if you can extract any of it. _The Trial scene in particular_.

[Written on the fourteenth instalment of the Garrick Play extracts. The article was in _Blackwood_ for April, 1827. Hone took Lamb's advice, and the extract from it will be found in the _Table Book_, Vol. I., col. 455.

Lamb was peculiarly interested in the subject of survival after hanging. He wrote an early _Reflector_ essay, "On the Inconveniences of Being Hanged," on the subject, and it is the pivot of his farce "The Pawnbroker's Daughter."

"Romillies or Montagues." Two prominent advocates for the abolition of capital punishment were Sir Samuel Romilly (who died in 1818) and Basil Montagu.]