Charles
Lamb was born in London in 1775. He studied
at Christ's Hospital where he formed a lifelong friendship with Samuel
Taylor Coleridge. When he was twenty years old Lamb suffered a
period of insanity. His sister, Mary Ann Lamb, had similar problems
and in 1796 murdered her mother in a fit of madness. Mary was confined
to an asylum but was eventually released into the care of her brother.