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Unit 6: Charles Lamb -Dream Children : Detailed Study

instead of moping about in solitary corners, like some of us, he would mount the most mettlesome Notes
horse he could get, when but an imp no bigger than themselves, and make it carry him half over
the county in a morning, and join the hunters when there were any out — and yet he loved the old
great house and gardens too, but had too much spirit to be always pent up within their boundaries
— and how their uncle grew up to man’s estate as brave as he was handsome, to the admiration
of every body, but of their great-grandmother Field most especially; and how he used to carry me
upon his back when I was a lame- footed boy — for he was a good bit older than me — many a
mile when I could not walk pain; — and how in after life he became lame-footed too, and I did not
always (I fear) make allowances enough for him when he was impatient, and in pain, nor remember
sufficiently how considerate he had been to me when I was lame- footed; and how when he died,
though he had not been dead an hour, it seemed as if he had died a great while ago, such a
distance there is betwixt life and death; and how I bore his death as I thought pretty well at first,
but afterwards it haunted and haunted me; and though I did not cry or take it to heart as some do,
and as I think he would have done if I had died, yet I missed him all day long, and knew not till
then how much I had loved him. I missed his kindness, and I missed his crossness, and wished
him to be alive again, to be quarrelling with him (for we quarreled sometimes), rather than not
have him again, and was as uneasy without him, as he their poor uncle must have been when the
doctor took off his limb. Here the children fell a crying, and asked if their little mourning which
they had on was not for uncle John, and they looked up, and prayed me not to go on about their
uncle, but to tell them, some stories about their pretty dead mother. Then I told how for seven long
years, in hope sometimes, sometimes in despair, yet persisting ever, I courted the fair Alice W—
n; and, as much as children could understand, I explained to them what coyness, and difficulty,
and denial meant in maidens — when suddenly, turning to Alice, the soul of the first Alice looked
out at her eyes with such a reality of re-presentment, that I became in doubt which of them stood
there before me, or whose that bright hair was; and while I stood gazing, both the children
gradually grew fainter to my view, receding, and still receding till nothing at last but two mournful
features were seen in the uttermost distance, which, without speech, strangely impressed upon me
the effects of speech; “We are not of Alice, nor of thee, nor are we children at all. The children of
Alice called Bartrum father. We are nothing; less than nothing, and dreams. We are only what
might have been, and must wait upon the tedious shores of Lethe millions of ages before we have
existence, and a name” — and immediately awaking, I found myself quietly seated in my bachelor
arm-chair, where I had fallen asleep, with the faithful Bridget unchanged by my side — but John
L. (or James Elia) was gone for ever.
Self-Assessment
1. Choose the correct options:
(i) Charles spent six weeks in an psychiatric hospital during

(a) 1795 (b) 1790 (c) 1798 (d) 1790
(ii) Charles collected essays-under the title, Essays of Elia, were published in
(a) 1825 (b) 1824 (c) 1822-1823 (d) 1829
(iii) Lamb’s beloved sister kept in a private mad house in Islington called
(a) Prison (b) Mad House
(c) Fisher House (d) Safe House
(iv) Grandmother Field was tall and upright but later she bowed down by a disease called
(a) Tuberculosis (b) Fever
(c) Cancer (d) None of these

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