Introduction
"Dream Children : A Reverie" is a Romantic and Autobiographical Essay written by the famous English essayist Charles Lamb. This essay has been taken from "The Essays of Elia". In the essay Lamb is telling the story of his childhood and youth to his children John and Alice who are dream children.Actually Lamb was a confirmed bachelor and so he had no children. Though Lamb courted Alice Winterton for long seven years, he could not marry his beloved. Charles Lamb had to sacrifice his personal comfort, personal life rather, for taking care of his insane sister Mary Ann Lamb. Mary, introduced as Bridget in this essay , was sent to lunatic asylum for a period of time and ultimately she was released to the care of her brother Lamb. The essayist Charles Lamb was first employed in the South Sea House and later in the East India House Where he worked till his superannuation.
Summary : Charles Lamb has started his essay with a universal expression :" Children love to listen to stories about their elders, when they were children;" Here we find no exception. One evening Lamb's little ones (children) crept to him to hear about their great-grandmother (Lamb's grandmother Mary Field) Mrs. Field. This lady lived in a big house in Norfolk with all dignity though she was the caretaker of this great mansion. The whole story of the 'Ballad of the children in the wood' was carved in wood upon the chimney piece, but the owner of the house replaced it with a marble having no story carved upon it. The owner purchased a new and fashionable building somewhere in the neighbouring country. Mrs. Field lived here alone and kept up all dignity of this big mansion so long she lived and after her death everything of this house decayed. Naturally, all the old and antique ornaments of this great palace were carried away and set up in the new house that looked awkward.
Mrs Field was a lady of great quality and personality. Every one of the locality loved and respected her for her good and pious nature. She knew all the psalms and a great part of the Testament by heart. When she died, all the poor and some of the gentry of the neighbourhood surrounding many miles assembled to attend her funeral. It proves her dignity and acceptability. Lamb's grandmother was a tall, upright and graceful person, an esteemed dancer, but cancer attacked her , bowed her down and stopped her rhythm. It could not robe her good spirit and mental strength. Charles Lamb,when was a boy, used to come here and spent many a hours, many a days, in his grandmother's great house in Norfolk.
Mrs. Field, Lamb says to his children, was not only good and religious, but very courageous also. She lived all alone in this big house which was frequented, she believed, by the apparition of two infants. The child ghosts were seen at midnight gliding up and down the staircase where Mrs. Field slept. She said:"those innocents would do her no harm". Charles was very much afraid of the apparition though the maid did sleep with him. He never came across the infants. Mrs. Field was very good to all her grand children and loved intensely them who got together in the house during holidays.
Charles Lamb says to his children John and Alice about how he spent his days in the big house in his own romantic way. There were the busts of twelve Caesars, the Emperors of Rome, in that house. Lamb gazed upon them in such a meditative way that either the marble heads seemed to be alive again or Lamb himself turned into marble with the Caesars. He roamed in the vast empty rooms of the huge mansion tirelessly , roamed amidst the old worn-out hangings and tapestry. In the specious old-fashioned garden Lamb wandered all alone except the occasional meeting with the solitary gardener. He was not tempted to pluck the peaches or nectarines, he only gained immense pleasure in strolling among the melancholy looking yew trees or the firs. He sank into the fresh grass of the garden enjoying the smell around him and the warmth of the orangery. At the bottom of the garden there was a fish pond where a 'dace' moved to and fro and a 'pike' stood midway down the water still. He gained pleasure more in this busy-idle diversions than all those sweet scented fruits which are the common bait of the children.
Charles Lamb now told about the uncle of John and Alice. Their uncle John L---- was loved most by their grandmother because he was a handsome, brave and spirited boy, king to the rest.Charles liked to be pent up in the house and garden, but John could mount up the most mettlesome horse , roamed the surrounding area and joined the hunters. John drew others' attention and admiration, that of their grandmother specially. When Charles became lame-footed and could not walk for pain, John carried him many a mile. On the other hand, when John became lame-footed Charles could not tolerate him like an ungrateful brother. Once the doctor amputated the limb of John and later he died. After John's death Charles realized the distance between life and death, now he missed John very much and wished to have him again.
Towards the end of the essay Charles Lamb told his children that he courted their mother Alice Winterton for seven years. He found that his daughter Alice took after her mother accurately with the same bright hair, same look. At that point he gazed at John and Alice and felt that both of the children started receding , receding farther and farther ; they gradually grew fainter and at last two mournful features were seen at the uttermost distance. The whole situation impressed upon Lamb the effects of some speech like this : " We are not of Alice, nor of thee, nor are we children at all.The children of Alice call Bartrum father. We are nothing, less than nothing, and dreams. We are only what might have been,....". Suddenly Lamb awoke from his reverie and found that he was sitting on his bachelor's arm-chair, only the faithful Bridget, his sister , was by his side.
