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Prose

Notes artistic design they gain in the touch of spontaneity. This is what lends them what is called “the
lyrical quality.”

8.2 Lamb’s Humour, Pathos, and Humanity

Lamb’s humour, humanity, and the sense of pathos are all his own; and it is mainly these qualities
which differentiate his essays from those of his contemporaries. His essays are rich alike in wit,
humour, and fun. Hallward and Hill observe in the Introduction to their edition of the Essavs of
Elia : “The terms Wit. Humour and Fun are often confused but they are really different in meaning.
The first is based on intellect, the second on insight and sympathy, the third on vigour and
freshness of mind and body. Lamb’s writings show all the three qualities, but what most
distinguishes him is Humour, for his sympathy is ever strong and active.” Humour in Lamb’s
essays constitutes very like an atmosphere “with linked sweetness long drawn out.” Its Protean
shapes range from frivolous puns, impish attempts at mystification, grotesque buffoonery, and
Rabelaisian verbosity (see, for example, the description of a “poor relation”) to the subtlest ironical
stroke which pierces down to the very heart of life. J. B. Priestley observes in English Humour:
“English humour at its deepest and tenderest seems in him [Lamb] incarnate. He did not merely
create it, he lived in it. His humour is not an idle thing, but the white flower, plucked from a most
dangerous nettle.” What particularly distinguishes Lamb’s humour is its close alliance with pathos.
While laughing he is always aware of the tragedy of life-not only his life, but life in general. That
is why he often laughs through his tears. Witness his treatment of the hard life of chimney
sweepers and Christ’s Hospital boys. The descriptions are touching enough, but Lamb’s treatment
provides us with a humorous medium of perception rich in prismatic effects, which bathes the
tragedy of actual life in the iridescence of mellow comedy. The total effect is very complex, and
strikes our sensibility in a bizarre way, puzzling us as to what is comic and what is tragic.

Style
A word, lastly, about Lamb’s peculiar style which is all his own and yet not his, as he is a
tremendous borrower. He was extremely influenced by some “old-world” writers like Fuller and
Sir Thomas Browne. It is natural, then, that his style is archaic. His sentences are long and rambling,
after the seventeenth-century fashion. He uses words many of which are obsolescent, if not obsolete.
But though he “struts in borrowed plumes”, these “borrowed plumes” seem to be all his own.
Well does a critic say: “The blossoms are culled from other men’s gardens, but their blending is all
Lamb’s own.” Passing through Lamb’s imagination they become something fresh and individual.
His style is a mixture certainly of many styles, but a chemical not a mechanical mixture.” His
inspiration from old writers gives his style a romantic colouring which is certainly intensified by
his vigorous imagination. Very like Wordsworth he throws a fanciful veil on the common objects
of life and converts them into interesting and “romantic” shapes. His peculiar style is thus an asset
in the process of “romanticising” everyday affairs and objects which otherwise would strike one
with a strong feeling of ennui. He is certainly a romantic essayist. What is more, he is a poet.

8.3 Text-A Bachelors Complaint on The Behaviour of Married
As a single man, I have spent a good deal of my time in noting down the infirmities of Married
People, to console myself for those superior pleasures, which they tell me I have lost by remaining
as I am.
I cannot say that the quarrels of men and their wives ever made any great impression upon me, or
had much tendency to strengthen me in those anti-social resolutions, which I took up long ago
upon more substantial considerations. What oftenest offends me at the houses of married persons
where I visit, is an error of quite a different description; — it is that they are too loving.

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