E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Elia.
A nom de plume adopted by Charles Lamb. (Essays of Elia.)
“The adoption of this signature was purely accidental. Lamb’s first contribution to the London Magazine was a description of the old South-Sea House, where he had passed a few months’ novitiate as a clerk, … and remembering the name of a gay light-hearted foreigner, who fluttered there at the time, substituted his name for his own.”—Talfourd.
