One of the wonders of Eric G. Wilson’s biography of Charles Lamb is his recreation of Lamb’s time.
Lamb lived from 1775 to 1834. Some of the commonplaces of his day are barely comprehensible to us.
In those days people could pay two pence admission to a large insane asylum. Admission entitled people to run through the wards and make fun of the patients.
Another example of the barely believable is the attempted assassination of King George in 1800.
The king was at Royal Theatre to see a comedy.
In those days it was the custom to sing “God Save the King” before the show. The orchestra struck up the tune, and everyone stood to sing. The king rose to receive the honor.
As he did, a veteran who’d served honorably and been wounded several times drew a pistol and shot at the king. The shot missed, and the old soldier was hauled off.
King George insisted that the show go on.
Many people enjoyed it, but King George did not and nodded off.
Imagine being a fiction writer and having to cover the same material today. If the story were set in our time rather than in Lamb’s, security officers would have to cancel the show for reasons of national security and King George would have to suffer horribly from the trauma.
Fiction writers would have to tell the story that way for it to be believable.
• Sources: Eric G. Wilson, Dream-Child: A Life of Charles Lamb; Yale University Press, 2022, p. 86. Several posts mention this book, beginning with “A new biography of Charles Lamb,” Aug. 20, 2022.
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