Question- Give a critical estimate of Lamb as an essayist.

Or

'Lamb is the prince of English essayist'. Discuss.

Or

Discuss Charles Lamb as an essayist.

Ans-

Charles Lamb has rightly been described as the prince of English essayists. With that incomarable sweetness of disposition, which he could impart to every word he wrote, he also possessed the power to charm in a degree unequalled by any other. It is the charm of his personality characterised by universal love and sympathy, particularly for woman and children and a queer mixture of humour and pathos.

In his essays Lamb shows himself as an egoist, and he uses this literary form as a means of self revelation. Referring to this Cazamian has observed in History of English Literature, "Lamb's personality is unique." He is not a moralist nor a psychologist; his object is not research, analysis or condension, he is above all, an artist. The genius of Lamb lies in his power of usualising memories. As a stylist does he walk in the past gathering to himself the pleasant tricks and mannerisms of by gone writers, just as a girl plucks flowers.

Lamb was a londoner in his habits and outlook, a scorner of the field, but he had a strong dislike for anything commercial or political. He was greatly interested in reading and had made a deep study of Elizabethan writers, particularly dramatists, but never acquired the airs of a scholar. His profound wisdom, which shines through the apparent lightness of his essays, was undoubtedly the result as much of his reading as of his habit of close observation of men and manners, is humanity was boundless, he had genuine love for the weaker portions of creation including men of clay like himself.

His natural sweetness of temper is revealed us in the many autobiographical references scattered in his essays, for in this respect he has faithfully followed the example of Montaigue. His essays are so subjective that they may be read as a kind of autobiography. He is as a rule, so personal and intimate that the reader can hardly escape the charm of his personality. He takes us into his confidence and pours foruth into our ears innumerable little details about himself, abot his childhood and school life, his early poverty and holidays trips, his business and his amusements, his friends and the children "that might have been his.

But he is also found of weaving threads of fiction in a web of truth, and concealing his identity behind a veil of imaginary circumstances. The reader feels that he is there, but one must read between the lines to spot him, and then one shall find a nobility of heart, a gentleness of nature and a sincerity of tone cannot but love. It may be noted, however, that although Lamb is almost always thinking about himself, his egotism is happily free from self-assertion and mixed with a sweetness all own.

The most important factor of Lamb's greatness in his exquisite sense of style. His diction undoubtedly is not altogether modern. He based it upon the masters of 17th century-men like Brown and Fuller with whom he had great natural affinity and through acquaintance. Their influence is all-pervading. We find in Lamb the same love for word-coining the same fondness for alternation and use of compound words and formation of adjectives from proper nouns, and the same frequent use of latinisms. Moreover, Lamb often uses absolute words which could only be found in the writings of the ElizabethAns- It must be noted, however, that he shows great skill in adapting his style to his subject and style must be, his thought are always his own, fresh and original.

Lamb's style, it may be added is eminently suited to his popular humour which finds the best expression in the quaint turns of expression and antique words and humourous comparisons, some of which are farfetched in which he abounds. Humour is indeed the breath of his style. Sometimes it is pure things. At others, it takes the form of wit, involving the play of the mind. But generally it is humour where been murges into reflection in its pursuits of incongruities. Little touches of this humour are found scattered all over his essays. They sometimes take the form of little hits at others as well as at 'himself. But such hits are always innocent of malice.

The peculiar quality of Lamb's personality, as it finds expression, in his style, is a quaint mixture of humour and pathos. The two are as mixed up in the writings as they generally are in life. His humour was largely the effect of a sense of healthy protest against the overwhelming melancholy induced by his style and the morbid taint of his mind.

To sum up, the position of Lamb as an essayist is unique in the history of English Essay. The presence of egotistical element combined with the  autobiography with a peculiar blending of humour and pathos and intimitable style secure for him the title of "the prince of English essayists."

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