The minor writings of Charles Dickens, a bibliography and sketch

The Book-Lover's Library.

; Edited by
Henry B. Wheatley, F.S.A.

•x K

THE

MINOR WRITINGS

OF

CHARLES DICKENS

A BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SKETCH

FREDERIC Gf^KITTON

AUTHOR OF " CHARLES DICKENS BY PEN AND PENCIL,"
"DICKENS AND HIS ILLUSTRATORS," ETC.

LONDON

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW
1900

PREFACE.

\ffE present volume, following that
on "The Novels of Charles
Dickens" published in 1897,
completes the bibliographical history of the
various writings of the Novelist, dating
from the time when his first printed paper
appeared in the Monthly Magazine, De
cember, 1833, until " that fatal day" in
Jttne, 1870, when his prolific pen was
finally laid aside, never again to delight
us by its humour or affect us to tears by
its pathos.

No such comprehensive and exact account
of Dickens' s literary productions has hitherto
been attempted as that which (I venture
to hope) is accomplished in this volume and

vi Preface.

its predecessor. The labour involved has
naturally proved exacting, for it necessitated
considerable research in unfamiliar fields
— an observation which more particularly
applies to the present work. At least one
important point has been achieved — viz., the
compilation of a complete list of Dickens 's
ephemeral contributions to periodical litera
ture, notably to those journals of which he
himself was editor. By reason of their
anonymity, the numerous articles furnished
by him to Household Words can only
be identified by means of internal evidence,
so that a most careful perusal of the
entire set of nineteen volumes became im
perative before it was possible to draw
up a list of the papers for which " the
Chief" was ostensibly responsible. The
late Mr. Charles Dickens the younger, who
had recently been over the same ground,
endorsed the list (thus prepared) of the
writings which I attributed to his father ;
it may, therefore, be safely assumed that

Preface. vii

every article here catalogued was written
by Dickens, instances of collaboration being
duly noted. With respect to All the Year
Round my task was simplified owing to
the fact that, by great good-fortune, I
discovered in the possession of Mr. W. H.
Howe an "office" set of that journal, in
which had been inscribed against each
article, etc., the name of the author thereof
— satisfactory and conclusive proof as to
its origin.

The identification of several papers not
previously recognised as emanating from
Dickens 's pen was rendered feasible by
the existence of the original MSS. in the
Forster Collection at the South Kensington
Museum. Among them will be found the
autographs of a number of the Novelist's
contributions to that defunct journal, The
Examiner, which Forster edited during the
'forties.

When preparing this work I naturally
availed myself of certain out-of-the-way

viii Preface.

information afforded by the Dickens Biblio
graphies of Messrs. James Cook, R. H.
Shepherd, and C. P. Johnson; while I
am also much indebted to Mr. John F.
Dexter s "Hints to Dickens Collectors.'"

FREDERIC G. KITTON.

ST. ALBANS,

March, 1900.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

"SKETCHES BY BOZ " .... I
"AMERICAN NOTES" . . . .18
" PICTURES FROM ITALY " . .24
"HARD TIMES" 28

CHRISTMAS BOOKS: —

"A Christmas Carol" . . -33
" The Chimes " . . . -37
" The Cricket on the Hearth " . 46
"The Battle of Life" ... 49
"The Haunted Man" ... 56

MISCELLANEOUS PROSE WRITINGS : —

"Sunday Under Three Heads" . 61
"Sketches of Young Gentlemen"

and " Sketches of Young Couples " 64
"A Child's History of England" . 67
"The Loving Ballad of Lord
Bateman " 70

x Contents.

ARTICLES AND SHORT STORIES IN ENG
LISH AND AMERICAN JOURNALS : —

PAGE

Bentley's Miscellany . . .76
Hood's Magazine . . . .80

The Keepsake 81

The Comhill Magazine . . .82
The Examiner . . . .84
The New York Ledger ... 88
The Atlantic Monthly . . .92
Our Young Folks . . . -93
The Daily News . . . -95
Household Words . .107, 123, 149
All the Year Round . 118, 137, 160

INDEPENDENT PUBLICATIONS WITH
WHICH DICKENS WAS ASSOCIATED AS
EDITOR OR CONTRIBUTOR : —

"Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi" . 177
"The Pic Nic Papers" . . .183
" Evenings of a Working Man " . 185
"Legends and Lyrics" . . . 189
" Religious Opinions of the late Rev.
Chauncy Hare Townshend " . 191

Contents. xi

PLAYS : —

PAGE

" Misnar, the Sultan of India" and
"OThello" 194

"The Strange Gentleman" . . 196
"The Village Coquettes" . . 199

"Is She His Wife? or, Something
Singular ! " . . . . . 207

"The Lamplighter" . . .210
"Mr. Nightingale's Diary" . .213
"No Thoroughfare" . . . 215

"The Frozen Deep" and "The
Lighthouse" 218

POEMS, SONGS, AND OTHER RHYMES . 221

APPENDIX : —

Dickens Plagiarised .... 234

" The Mystery of Edwin Drood " —
Unauthorised Continuations, etc. 245

THE MINOR WRITINGS OF
CHARLES DICKENS.

'SKETCHES BY BOZ."

HHE story of Charles Dickens's
initial attempt in the art of the
novelist is duly set forth in the
Preface to the first Cheap Edition
of "Pickwick" (1847), where the Author
himself describes how his first effusion,
addressed to the editor of the Monthly
Magazine, was "dropped stealthily one
evening at twilight, with fear and trembling,
into a dark letter-box, in a dark office,
up a dark court, in Fleet Street " ; and
how, when it " appeared in all the glory
of print," he walked down to Westminster
Hall, and turned into it for half-an-hour

2 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

because his eyes " were so dimmed with
joy and pride, that they could not bear
the street, and were not fit to be seen
there." In " David Copperfield " we may
find another obvious reference to this
early experience of the Novelist, for in the
forty-third chapter he observes, in the
person of his hero : " I have taken with
fear and trembling to authorship. I wrote
a little something, in secret, and sent it to a
magazine. Since then, I have taken heart
to write a good many trifling pieces."

The modest contribution to which
Dickens alluded as his earliest effort in
fiction was called " A Dinner at Poplar
Walk," but was afterwards published as
" Mr. Minns and his Cousin." It is not
generally known that this Sketch, in its
manuscript form, was entitled " A Sunday
out of Town," as indicated by a letter
written in December, 1833, by the future
Novelist to Mr. W. H. Kolle, an intimate
friend of his youth, in which he referred
to the acceptance and appearance of his
first published piece of writing. In that
interesting communication he begs " Mrs.
K.'s criticism of a little paper of mine
{the first of a series), in the Monthly (not
the New Monthly *) Magazine of this

* The Monthly Magazine had been in existence
more than a quarter of a century, and was

" Sketdies by Boz^ 3

month ; I haven't a copy to send, but if
the number falls in your way, look for the
article. It is the same that you saw lying
on my table, but the name is transmogri
fied from ' A Sunday out of Town ' to
' A Dinner at Poplar Walk.' " That the
budding Novelist was considerably excited
by the success of his " little paper " is a
fact hinted at in the same letter, where
he says : " I am so dreadfully nervous
that my hand shakes to such an extent
as to prevent my writing a word legibly."
He had evidently decided, in the event of
the article being accepted, to contribute
others of a similar nature — a determina
tion that took effect in the appearance of
a series of Sketches, chiefly of a humorous
character. It appears that for a time they
failed to attract special attention, but were
generally spoken of in literary circles as
clever and graphic.

In 1836 the editorship of the Monthly
Magazine was assumed by Mr. James
Grant, a well-known journalist and author,
vrho so greatly admired Dickens's
Sketches that he desired to arrange with
the young writer (whose name he then

published at half-a-crown. Its success brought
about the advent of the New Monthly Magazine,
started by Colburn under the editorship of
Thomas Campbell, the poet.

4 TJu Minor Writings of Dickens.

for the first time ascertained) for a con
tinuance of them. Hitherto these articles
had been contributed gratuitously and
without introduction of any kind ; but
Dickens, suspecting that they were worthy
of pecuniary reward, suggested a modest
compensation for them, otherwise he
could not enter into any fresh negotiations,
as he was about to be married, and would
be compelled to devote his attention to
more profitable work. Mr. Grant, in his
new capacity as editor, thereupon agreed
to pay for them; but the sum of half-a-
guinea per page, as proposed by Dickens,
proved too heavy a tax on the pecuniary
resources of the magazine, which was
not in the flourishing condition it once
had been. " Only imagine," wrote Mr.
Grant, "Mr. Dickens offering to furnish
me with a continuation, for any length
of time which I might have named, of
his ' Sketches by Boz ' for eight guineas
a sheet, whereas in little more than six
months from that date he could — so great
in the interval had his popularity become
— have got a hundred guineas per sheet
of sixteen pages from any of the leading
periodicals of the day ! "

The following nine Sketches, which are
of a humorous character, appeared in the
Monthly Magazine: —

"Sketches by Bos."

1833-

Dec. A Dinner at Poplar

Walk.

1834.

Jan. Mrs. Joseph Porter,
"over the way."

Feb. Horatio Sparkins.

April. The Bloomsbury
Christening.

May. The Boarding-
House.

Aug.
Oct.

Jan.
Feb.

The Boarding-
House. No. II.

The Steam Excur
sion.
1835.

Passage in the Life
of Mr. Watkins
Tottle. Chapter
the First.

Do. Chapter the
Second.

It is worthy of note that these Sketches
bore no signature until August, 1834,
when he adopted the pseudonym of
" Boz " (his nom de guerre in the Morning
Chronicle) — a very familiar household
word to him, being the nickname of
his youngest brother Augustus, whom he
" had dubbed Moses, in honour of the
Vicar of Wakefield; which, being face
tiously pronounced through the nose
became Boses, and, being shortened,
became Boz."

As already intimated, Mr. Grant (as
editor of the Monthly Magazine) was
compelled sorrowfully to decline receiving
any more of the Sketches when they
ceased as voluntary offerings. Happily,
before this crisis was reached, Dickens
discovered a more remunerative medium
for his articles. From a letter, dated
" 13, Furnival's Inn, Tuesday Evening,
January 2oth, 1835,"* written by him

* The year is incorrectly given as 1837 in
"The Letters of Charles Dickens," Vol. III., 5.

6 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

to Mr. George Hogarth, his future father-
in-law, who was then arranging for an
evening edition of the Morning Chronicle,
we learn that Dickens was desired to
prepare an original paper for the first
number of that journal ; further, that
he expressed his willingness to write a
series of articles having an attractive title,
in the style of his already-published
Sketches; and, lastly, that he suggested
some remuneration for them (" of course,
of no great amount ") in addition to his
ordinary salary as a reporter for the
Chronicle. This reasonable stipulation
was cordially acceded to by the principal
editor of the Morning Chronicle, John
Black, the "father" of the London
Press, to whom Dickens afterwards re
ferred as his " first hearty out-and-out
appreciator," and his weekly stipend was
accordingly raised from five guineas to
seven. On Saturday, January 3ist, 1835,
was issued the first number of the
Evening Chronicle, which contained,
under the heading of Sketches of London
— No. I. (For The Evening Chronicle)"
an article on " Hackney-Coach Stands,"
signed "Boz." The remainder of these
memorable contributions (of which there
were twenty) appeared at uncertain in
tervals in the following order: —

"Sketches by Boz."

Jan. 31.

l835- „
Hackney -Coach

May
June

1:

Our Parish.
The River.

Stands.

tt

18.

Our Parish.

Feb. 7.

Gin Shops.

•

3°-

The Pawn

Early Coaches.

broker's Shop.

", 28'.

The Parish.

July

14.

Our Parish.

Mar. 7.

"The House."

The Streets —

J7-

London Recrea

Morning.

tions.

28.

Our Parish— Mr.

Apr. 7.

Public Dinners.

Bung's Narra

Bellamy's.

tive.

" 16*.

Greenwich Fair.

Aug.

ii.

Private Thea

» 23.

Thoughts about

tres.

People.

n

20.

Our Parish.

May 9.

Astley's.

At the end of the last Sketch there is
an intimation that the subject would be
continued, but more than twelve months
elapsed before Dickens again contributed
to the columns of the Chronicle. During
the interval, however, he supplied several
papers to Belts Life in London. The
editor of this sporting journal, Vincent
Dowling, is credited with being one of the
first to discern Dickens's genius for de
scriptive writing and character-sketching,
and was apparently instrumental in secur
ing the young writer's services on behalf
of that popular periodical, to which
Dickens contributed twelve Sketches
(signed "Tibbs"), having the general title
of "Scenes and Characters." The
following is a complete list : —

1835.

Sept. 27. Seven Dials.
Oct. 4. Miss Evans and
" The Eagle."

Oct. ii. The Dancing

Academy.

,, 1 8. Making a Night
of it.

8 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

Oct. 25. Love and Oy
sters.

Nov. i. Some Account
of an Omnibus
Cad.

Nov. 22. The Vocal

Dress-Maker.
„ 20. The Prisoners'
Van.

Dec. 13. The Parlour.
,, 27.*"Christmas Fes
tivities.

1836.

Jan. 3. The New Year.
„ 17. The Streets at
Night.

During 1836 Dickens furnished two
articles in the same humorous vein, and
bearing the signature of " Boz," to Vol. I.
of " The Library of Fiction," published
by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, and then
edited by Charles Whitehead, an author
of considerable ability. Whitehead was
previously on the staff of the Monthly
Magazine, and it was he who induced
Dickens to write " The Tuggses at
Ramsgate" and "A Little Talk about
Spring and the Sweeps " (illustrated by
Seymour and Buss respectively) for the
above-mentioned work.

A new series of the "Sketches," four
in number, were published in the Morning
Chronicle and reprinted in the Evening
Chronicle, with titles and dates as

under : —

1836.

Meditations in Monmouth-Street(4(-£-' |ePj' a*'{j-
\_E.C., Sept. 26th.

Doctors'

Vauxhall Gardens by Day j %£• Oc^ 2^th-

"Sketches by Boz? 9

About this time Dickens became ac
quainted, through Harrison Ainsworth,
with the publisher John Macrone, of
St. James's Square. To him the young
author sold the entire copyright of the
" Sketches," First and Second Series, for
^£100, " without any reserve whatever,"
as testified by the original receipt for that
sum, dated January 5th, 1837. Forster
states : " He had sold the copyright for
a conditional payment of (I think) a
hundred and fifty pounds." The exact
amount had evidently been forgotten by
Dickens, as, in a letter addressed to his
solicitor, Mr. Thomas Mitton, in May, 1839,
he wrote : " For the first edition of the
first series I had, three or four days after
the publication, ;£ioo. ... I think for
the first edition of the second series I
had ^150, but I am not certain what
the previous amount may have been. . . .
First and last by those books I had some
^400. Macrone had some ,£4,000, and
the copyrights were purchased back again "
[by Chapman and Hall] " for ^"2,000."
According to the Original Agreement
(sold at the Wright Sale in 1899) the last-
mentioned amount should be ^2,250.

Early in 1836 a selection from the
published articles, supplemented by eight
new papers, was issued by Macrone in two

io The Minor Writings of Dickens.

duodecimo volumes, price one guinea,
with sixteen etchings by George Cruik-
shank, the full title being "Sketches by Boz,
Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-
Day People." Concerning his collabora
tion with George Cruikshank, Dickens
remarks in the Preface (dated " Furnival's
Inn, February, 1836 ") that " this is their
first voyage in company, but it may not
be the last." The first volume (pp. [viii.]
348) contains twenty-one articles, as follow :
Our Parish * (in six chapters) ; Miss Evans
and "The Eagle"; Shops and their
Tenants t ; Thoughts about People ; A
Visit to Newgate t ; London Recreations ;
The Boarding-House (in two chapters) ;
Hackney-Coach Stands ; Brokers' and
Marine-Store Shops t ; The Bloomsbury
Christening ; Gin Shops ; Public Dinners ;
Astley's ; Greenwich Fair ; The Prisoners'
Van (two long opening paragraphs omitted
from the original Sketch) ; A Christmas
Dinner (first called " Christmas Festivi
ties," and concluding paragraph omitted
in this form). The second volume
(pp. [iv.] 342) contains fourteen articles,
viz. : Passage in the Life of Mr. Watkins
Tottle (in two chapters) ; The Black
Veilt; Shabby-Genteel People t; Horatio

* The first chapter was entitled " The Parish."
•)• Specially written for this edition.

" Sketches by £02" 1 1

Sparkins ; The Pawnbroker's Shop ; The
Dancing Academy ; Early Coaches ; The
River ; Private Theatres ; The Great
Winglebury Duel * ; Omnibuses * ; Mrs.
Joseph Porter ; The Steam Excursion ;
Sentiment.*

So successful were the " Sketches " that
a second edition was issued in the
following August, followed by a third
and fourth in 1837, each edition being
entirely reset and printed by different
firms, and no two editions being alike
in type or pagination. In the Preface
to the second edition the Author wrote :
"If the pen that designed these little
outlines should present its labours to the
Public frequently hereafter; if it should
produce fresh sketches, and even con
nected works of fiction of a higher
grade, they have only themselves to
blame. They have encouraged a young
and unknown writer, by their patronage
and approval ; they have stimulated him
to fresh efforts, by their liberality and
praise ; and if they will be guilty of such
actions, they must be content to bear the
consequences which naturally result from
them."

The Second Series of the " Sketches "
were published by Macrone in 1837, but
* Specially written for this edition.

1 2 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

the etched title bears the date 1836. The
volume (pp. [viii.j 377)* is uniform in
size and character with the two which
preceded it, and contains the following
twenty articles : The Streets by Morning ;
The Streets by Night ; Making a Night of
it; Criminal Courts t; Scotland- Yard; The
New Year ; Meditations in Monmouth-
Street; OurNext-Door Neighbours t; The
Hospital Patient t; Seven Dials; The Mis
taken Milliner (originally entitled "The
Vocal Dress-Maker ") ; Doctors' Com
mons ; Misplaced Attachment of Mr.
John Dounce (originally " Love and
Oysters ") ; Vauxhall Gardens by Day ;
A Parliamentary Sketch, with a Few

* Mr. J. F. Dexter has favoured me with the
result of a very elaborate collation made by him
of the Second Series of the " Sketches," from
which it appears that the work in its first state
is marked by a number of typographical blunders.
For example, in the List of Illustrations, the title
of one of the plates, "Vauxhall Gardens by Day,''
is entered twice, vis., as facing title and p. 216
respectively ; the latter should have referred
to the plate illustrating " Mr. Minns and his
Cousin," which really faces p. 263. In several
instances the pagination of the text is defective,
blemishes which enhance the value of the edition
from a " collector's " point of view, as they in
dicate the absolutely first issue of the work.
Similar inaccuracies are observable in the First
Complete Edition.

f Specially written for this edition.

"Sketches by Boz" 13

Portraits (originally " The House " and
" Bellamy's ") ; Mr. Minns and his Cousin
(originally " A Dinner at Poplar Walk ") ;
The Last Cab-Driver, and the First
Omnibus Cad (originally " Some Account
of an Omnibus Cad ") ; The Parlour Orator
(originally "The Parlour"); The First
of May (first published in " The Library
of Fiction " under the title of " A Little
Talk about Spring and the Sweeps ") ;
The Drunkard's Death.* Ten etchings
(in the second edition, twelve) were
contributed by George Cruikshank, the
price of the volume being fifteen shillings.
The Preface is dated " Furnival's Inn,
December 17, 1836."

The First Complete Edition of the two
Series, with a Preface dated " London,
May 15, 1839," was issued by Chapman
and Hall in twenty monthly parts, demy
octavo, at one shilling each, the first
appearing in November, 1837, and the
last in June, 1839. The alteration in
size necessitated the re-etching by Cruik
shank of the illustrations, one of the
original subjects, "The Free and Easy,"
being cancelled, and thirteen new designs
added. This edition included all the
Sketches in the First and Second Series,
and one additional article, viz., "The
* Specially written for this edition.

14 The Minor Writings oj Dickens.

Tuggses at Ramsgate," previously pub
lished in " The Library of Fiction " — the
entire collection of fifty-six papers being
rearranged under the headings — "Seven
Sketches from Our Parish,"* "Scenes,"
"Characters," "Tales." The work, on
completion, was issued in one volume
(pp. [viii.] 526), price one guinea.

It had previously been the intention of
Macrone to publish a similar edition in
monthly parts, in the belief that the
marked popularity achieved by " Pick
wick," then being issued in serial form by
Chapman and Hall, would tend to increase
the sale of the " Sketches." Having pur
chased the copyright " without any reserve
whatever," he was both legally and
morally justified in doing this ; but Dickens
vigorously protested against such a pro
ceeding, and, in a letter addressed to
Forster on the subject, wrote : " I have
a very natural and most decided objection
to being supposed to presume upon the
success of ' Pickwick,' and thus foist this
old work upon the public in its new dress
for the mere purpose of putting money in
my own pocket." He also pointed out
that the fact of his name being before the

* The title of the seventh Sketch is "Our
Next-Door Neighbours," reprinted from the
Second Series.

"Sketches by Bos." 15

town, attached to three publications at
the same time, must prove seriously
prejudicial to his reputation ; and that
Macrone had never hinted his intention of
publishing the " Sketches" in this manner
when he obtained possession of the copy
right. Negotiations were opened for the
repurchase of the copyright, and Dickens
hastily arranged with Chapman and Hall to
acquire it, jointly with himself and Forster,
at the unreasonable sum of ^"2,250.
Macrone died shortly afterwards, when
an attempt was made to hold Dickens
liable, as a partner in the publication of
the " Sketches," for some of his debts —
a claim which, in a letter to Mr. Thomas
Mitton, his solicitor (dated "May ijth,
1839 "), he altogether repudiated, and
absolutely refused to pay the money, for
the reason that he " never was a partner,
. . . never signed any agreement to be a
partner, . . . never claimed or received
one sixpence as a partner in the publica
tion of that work."

The first Cheap Edition of " Sketches
by Boz," with a frontispiece by George
Cruikshank, was issued by Messrs. Chap
man and Hall at three shillings and
sixpence. It contained a new Preface,
dated " London, October, 1850," in
which the author stated that he had

1 6 Tlie Minor Writings of Dickens.

" not felt it right either to remodel or
expunge, beyond a few words and
phrases here and there," although he
fully realised that the " Sketches " had a
good many imperfections, " often being
extremely crude and ill-considered, and
bearing obvious marks of haste and in
experience ; particularly in that section
of the present volume which is comprised
under the general head of ' Tales.' "

Copies of the first edition of the First
Series of "Sketches by Boz" (two volumes)
are very scarce in its original dark green
cloth or uncut form, the price varying
from ;£i8 to ^20 ; those of the Second
Series (one volume, pink cloth) are cata
logued at from ^3 to £4. Copies of the
New Edition (one volume) fetched from
^20 to ^25 in parts, as published, and
in cloth (uncut) from ^5 to £1 IQJ.
Odd numbers of the Monthly Magazine
have been disposed of at £1 each by
the booksellers, while an original pink
wrapper (that in which each part of the
" Sketches " was issued) is valued at ten
shillings, as being desirable for inserting
in a bound copy of the work.

Several of the characters in the
" Sketches" had their prototypes in real life.
A lawyer's clerk, named Potter, figures in
the Sketch entitled "Making a Night of it,"

"Sketches by Boz" 17

and undoubtedly it is the same individual
who appears as Jones in another Sketch
called "Misplaced Attachment of Mr.
John Bounce," who is there referred to
as a barrister's clerk, " capital company
— full of anecdote ! " and having, like the
real Potter, a penchant for " the play."
Mr. Percy Noakes, the hero of that
humorous tale, "The Steam Excursion,"
was also drawn from life. Mr. W. J.
Hardy, F.S.A., informs me that there
is a tradition in his family that his uncle,
Mr. Peter Hardy, an actuary by profession,
unconsciously posed for the portrait. The
originals of the Old Lady and the Half-
pay Captain (in one of the sketches of
" Our Parish ") were near neighbours of
the Dickens family during their residence
at Chatham. The retired corn-chandler,
Mr. Octavius Budden (in the Sketch
entitled " Mr. Minns and his Cousin "), is
said to have been a member of a family
of that name in Chatham — a cognomen
which is still familiar in the locality.

AMERICAN NOTES."

|O early as 1839 Dickens seriously
entertained the idea of journey
ing to the United States. It
occurred to him while projecting
"Master Humphrey's Clock" that it
would impart a novelty and freshness to
such a work if it included a series of
papers written by himself, either in Ireland
or America, descriptive of the places and
people he saw, and introducing local
traditions, etc., in the style of Washington
Irving's "Alhambra."

It was not, however, until 1841 that
Dickens's thoughts again reverted to his
proposed visit to America; and early in
the following year he and his wife left
Liverpool for the States. The Novelist
had already informed Chapman and Hall
that he intended keeping a note-book,
and publishing it at half-a-guinea, or
thereabouts. In the beginning of the
summer he returned to England, and soon
18

"American Notes!' 19

found himself at Broadstairs, whither he
took all available memoranda to assist him
in preparing his "American Notes." In
July he wrote to Professor Felton from
this favourite seaside resort : " I have
looked over my journal, and have decided
to produce my American trip in two
volumes. I have written about half the
first since I came home, and hope to be
out in October. This is ' exclusive news,'
to be communicated to any friends to
whom you may like to entrust it." Two
months later, when the work was nearly
completed, he addressed a letter to Long
fellow, in which he also stated his resolution
to publish the American Visit, and added :
" I have spoken very honestly and fairly ;
and I know that those in America for
whom I care will like me better for the
book. A great many people will like me
infinitely the worse, and make a devil of
me straightaway."

The Author desired the opinion of
Forster respecting the proposed title and
the following motto, which, being objected
to, was omitted :

" In reply to a question from the Bench, the
Solicitor for the Bank observed, that this kind
of notes circulated the most extensively, in those
parts of the world where they were stolen and
forged.— Old Bailey Report"

2O The Minor Writings of Dickens,

Dickens had also prepared a chapter,
headed " Introductory, and Necessary to
be Read," which was intended to lead off
the " Notes," but Forster and other friends
advised its suppression, because they con
sidered that it might at the time be
misunderstood in America. Dickens
agreed to abandon his wish to print the
portion referred to, but did this so
reluctantly that Forster felt impelled " to
undertake for its publication, when a more
fitting time should come." A favourable
occasion, as he surmised, arrived when
he was preparing for press his second
volume of "The Life," where it accordingly
appears. This chapter, so characteristic
of the writer, gives the plan of the book
and the intentions of the Author, and
explains that the work is simply what it
claimed to be — a record of his impressions
from day to day during his hasty travels
in America, etc.

The " Notes " punctually appeared on
October i8th, 1842, and were immediately
in great demand. Writing to Professor
Felton on the last day of the year, Dickens
said : " The American book has been a
most complete and thorough-going suc
cess. Four large editions have now been
sold and paid for, and it has won golden
opinions from all sorts of men. ..." Lord

"American Notes." 21

Jeffrey congratulated Dickens on selling
3,000 copies in one week, and in putting
;£i,ooo into his pocket ; and Forster,
although preferring the freshness of first
impressions in the Author's letters from
the States, thoroughly endorsed Lord
Jeffrey's opinion when he said : " You have
been very tender to our sensitive friends
beyond sea, and my whole heart goes
along with every word you have written.
I think that you have perfectly accom
plished all that you profess or undertake
to do, and that the world has never yet
seen a more faithful, graphic, amusing,
kind-hearted narrative." The book was
not very favourably received in America ;
indeed, the author was abused and vilified
unmercifully in nearly every American print.
Emerson, however, thought that " the
lesson was not quite lost, that it held bad
manners up, so that churls would see the
deformity "; and Longfellow, writing to the
poet Sumner, spoke of the book as "jovial
and good-natured, and at times very
severe," adding : " You will read with
delight and, for the most part, approba
tion." The late Mr. Charles Dickens
the younger was doubtless right in his
contention that the real cause of the
intense anger which " American Notes "
excited in certain quarters was the fact

22 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

that the Novelist was an Abolitionist, who
spoke courageously against the slavery
system; and in 1887, when travelling
in almost every part of the United States,
he found that all the anger and ill-feeling
that were aroused by his father's two
books (" American Notes " and " Martin
Chuzzlewit") had passed away, and that
modern Americans, as a rule, look in
differently upon the whole trouble as a
matter of ancient history.

"American Notes for General Circula
tion " was issued in two volumes, post
octavo, brown cloth, at one guinea, by
Chapman and Hall in 1842. Collation:
Vol. I., pp. xvi., one unnumbered page,
and pp. 308; Vol. II., pp. [vii.] 306.
There is a Dedication, but no Preface,
in the first issue. In the earliest copies
of Vol. I. the preliminary pages, though
only eight in number, are paged up to
sixteen, an oversight which was remedied
before the first edition was exhausted, so
that impressions even of this issue will
be found with the revised pagination.
This curious error is explained in Forster's
biography (Vol. II., pp. 13-17), where is
introduced the proposed " Introductory
Chapter " already alluded to, which pro
bably had been printed before it was
decided to suppress it, so that the original

"American Notes" 23

pagination could not be altered without
reprinting the whole. The price of a
first edition of the " Notes " ranges from
£2 to £2 IQS.

Several editions were published in the
original form, a fourth being advertised
before the end of the year. The first
Cheap Edition contained a Preface
(dated "London, June 22, 1850"), with
a frontispiece representing the Britannia
steamship, drawn by C. Stanfield, R.A.
Those editions of the "Notes" which
were published during and after 1868
contain a Postscript, consisting of the
friendly expressions of regard publicly
uttered by Dickens in New York during
that year, and which were reprinted in
All the Year Round on June 6th, 1868,
under the title, " A Debt of Honour."

The original MS. of " American Notes "
is at South Kensington. Evidently
Dickens once intended to present it to
Professor Felton, for, in a letter addressed
to him, dated December 3131, 1842, he
says : " The book I was to have given
Longfellow for you is not worth sending
by itself, being only a Barnaby. But I
will look up some manuscript for you
(I think I have that of the ' American
Notes ' complete), and will try to make the
parcel better worth its long conveyance."

PICTURES FROM ITALY."

|N 1844 Dickens enjoyed a pro
longed holiday in Italy, and a
-few months prior to his depar
ture from England the pro
prietor of the Morning Chronicle (the
paper with which he was associated in
his reporting days, and to which he /after
wards occasionally sent a gratuitous con
tribution) expressed his readiness to offer
him a very substantial honorarium — even
as much as twenty guineas a week — for
letters from Italy, for publication in that
journal ; " but," said the Novelist, " it
wouldn't do."

This visit to Italy lasted nearly twelve
months, during which period he not only
wrote his second Christmas book, " The
Chimes," but industriously gathered
material descriptive of the scenery and
various remarkable institutions, as well as
noting the social aspects of the people,
obviously with a view to future publica-

24

" Pictures from Italy? 25

tion. What a contrast did this lovely
land of hoary antiquity present in
comparison with the garish modernity of
the United States, and how different were
his experiences of the two countries !
In Italy everything went smoothly enough,
which was greatly owing to the fact that
he was fortunate in securing the services
of Louis Roche, a native of Avignon, a
man full of resource, and the prince of
couriers, who figures as the " Brave C." in
Dickens's letters, and subsequently in the
" Pictures."

Most of his epistles at this time were
addressed to Forster. "It is a great
pleasure to me," he observed, in a letter
dated April i3th, 1845, "to find that you
are really pleased with these shadows in
the water, and think them worth looking
at. Writing at such odd places, and
in such odd seasons, I have been half
savage with myself, very often, for not
doing better. ... If we should determine,
after we have sat in council, that the
experiences they relate are to be used,
we will call B.[radbury] and E.[vans]
to their share and voice in the matter."
Again referring to the subject on June yth,
he said : " I am in as great doubt as
you about the letters I have written you
with these Italian experiences. I cannot

26 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

for the life of me devise any plan of using
them to my own satisfaction, and yet
think entirely with you that in some form
I ought to use them."

In the autumn of the same year
Dickens seriously entertained the thought
of launching a new morning paper, to be
called The Daily News, himself officiating
as editor-in-chief. The initial number
of that flourishing journal appeared on
January 2ist, 1846, and on the sixth
page appeared the first instalment of the
series of seven letters penned during his
stay in Italy, and here printed under the
general title of " Travelling Sketches —
Written on the Road," these being suc
ceeded by others at irregular intervals.
The " Sketches " constituted a marked
innovation in journalism, and, as such,
was doubtless regarded in many quarters
as an experiment of doubtful propriety.
Dickens's connection with The Daily News
was brief, being only of six weeks' dura
tion ; for the work proved distinctly
uncongenial, and he soon grew tired of
it. Shortly after he relinquished his
editorial responsibilities, the " Travelling
Sketches" were reprinted in book form
as " Pictures from Italy," with five addi
tional chapters, only two out of the twelve
papers retaining their original titles. The

" Pictures from Italy'.' 27

little foolscap octavo volume was pub
lished for the Author by Messrs. Bradbury
and Evans, with vignette illustrations on
wood by Samuel Palmer ; the binding was
a dark blue cloth, and the price 6s.
Collation : One unnumbered page of
Contents, and pp. 270 ; no Dedication
or Preface. Owing to some defect in
the paper, this book is nearly always
found with the edges discoloured. It
passed through two editions, the first
issue being usually valued at from i$s.
to £1. The first Cheap Edition ap
peared in 1865 in conjunction with "Hard
Times." Portions of the original MS.
of the " Travelling Letters " are included
in the Forster Collection at South
Kensington.

"HARD TIMES."

|N April ist, 1854, this story
was begun in Household Words,
and continued as a serial until
its completion. Dickens sub
mitted to Forster the following alternative
titles, with a view to obtaining his
opinion as to the most suitable. " It
seems to me," he wrote, "that there are
three very good ones among them. I
should like to know whether you hit upon
the same."

1. According to Cocker.

2. Prove It

3. Stubborn Things.

4. Mr. Gradgrind's

Facts.

5. The Grindstone.

6. Hard Times.

7. Two and Two are

Four.

8. Something Tangible.

p. Our Hard-headed

Friend.

10. Rust and Dust.
'II. Simple Arithmetic.

12. A Matter of Calcu

lation.

13. A Mere Question

of Figures.

14. The Gradgrind

Philosophy.

The three titles selected by Forster were

Nos. 2, 6, and n ; the three preferred by

28

"Hard Times" 29

Dickens were Nos. 6, 13, and 14 ; and as
No. 6 had been favoured by both, that title
was determined upon. Other designations
were also considered, such as : Fact ;
Hard-headed Gradgrind; Hard Heads
and Soft Hearts ; Heads and Tales ;
Black and White ; but these were speedily
discarded as being inappropriate.

When engaged upon the tale, Dickens
was again harassed by anxiety occasioned
through publishing by instalments ; the
weekly portion, however, proved less trying
than the usual monthly one, for its com
parative brevity made it easier for him
to come up to time, although he found
it more perplexing to get sufficient interest
every week within the limited space at his
disposal. "The difficulty of the space,"
he remarked to Forster, after a few
weeks' trial, " is CRUSHING. Nobody can
have an idea of it who has not had an
experience of patient fiction-writing with
some elbow-room always, and open places
in perspective. In this form, with any
kind of regard to the current number,
there is absolutely no such thing." The
final chapter was written at Boulogne in
July, 1854, and in a note to Forster
(written just before the close of the tale)
the Author said : " I am three parts mad,
and the fourth delirious, with perpetual

30 Tlie Minor Writings of Dickens.

rushing at 'Hard Times.' I have done
what I hope is a good thing with Stephen,*
taking his story as a whole ; and hope
to be over in town with the end of the
book on Wednesday night. ... I have
been looking forward through so many
weeks and sides of paper to this Stephen
business, that now — as usual — it being
over, I feel as if nothing in the world,
in the way of intense and violent rushing
hither and thither, could quite restore my
balance." Concerning his motive in
writing " Hard Times," a story based on
"philosophical radicalism," Dickens ob
served, in a letter to Charles Knight :
" My satire is against those who see
figures and averages, and nothing else —
the representatives of the wickedest and
most enormous vice of this time — the
men who, through long years to come,
will do more to damage the really useful
truths of political economy than I could
do (if I tried) in my whole life. ..."
This story more than doubled the

* Stephen Blackpool, the power-loom weaver
in Mr. Bounderby's factory. His favourite
expression, " It's aw a muddle," strikes the key
note of this " socialistic " romance. Mrs. Oliphant
considered the episode of Stephen and Rachel
" one of the best pieces of serious writing
Dickens ever did."

"Hard Times." 31

circulation of Household Words; and
among those who were most emphatic in
praising the book was Professor Ruskin, who
thus expressed himself concerning it : —

"Allowing for his manner of telling them,
the things he tells us are always true. I wish
that he could think it right to limit his brilliant
exaggeration to works written only for public
amusement; and when he takes up a subject
of high national importance, such as that which
he handled in ' Hard Times,' that he would
use severer and more accurate analysis. . . .
He is entirely right in his main drift and pur
pose in every book he has written ; and all of ft* f)
them, but especially ' Hard Times,' should be
studied with close and earnest care by persons
interested in social questions. They will find
much that is partial, and, because partial,
apparently unjust ; but if they examine all the
evidence on the other side, which Dickens seems
to overlook, it will appear, after all their trouble,
that his view was the finally right one, grossly
and sharply told." *

Dickens, when writing " Hard Times,"
was anxious to verify the principal details
of a strike in a manufacturing town,
and travelled to Preston with that in
tention. He was somewhat disappointed,
however, for he wrote to Forster : " I am
afraid I shall not be able to get much
here. Except the crowds at the street-
corners reading the placards pro and con ;

* " Unto this Last " by John Ruskin, 1862.

32 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

and the cold absence of smoke from the
mill-chimneys ; there is very little in the
streets to make the town remarkable. I
am told that the people 'sit at home
and mope.' The delegates with the
money from the neighbouring places
come in to-day to report the amounts
they bring ; and to-morrow the people
are paid. When I have seen both these
ceremonies, I shall return. . . ." It is
interesting to know that Coketown, where
the principal incidents take place, was in
tended as a representation of Manchester.
"Hard Times. For These Times,"
after its appearance at weekly intervals in
Household Words between the dates of
April ist and August i2th, 1854, was
immediately published in volume form,
post octavo, cloth, at 5*., by Bradbury and
Evans. The story is divided into Three
Books, contains no Preface, and was
Inscribed to Thomas Carlyle. Collation :
pp. [viii.] 352. A copy of the first issue is
usually priced at from £\ 5^. to ;£i i$s.
" Hard Times " was included in the first
Cheap Edition (Third Series), 1865, with
" Pictures from Italy," and has a frontis
piece by A. B. Houghton. The original
MS., the first written in the Novelist's
favourite blue ink, is included in the
Forster Collection at South Kensington.

CHRISTMAS BOOKS.

I.

"A CHRISTMAS CAROL" (1843).

|T was during such odd moments
of leisure as were left to the
Novelist out of the time taken
up by two numbers of " Martin
Chuzzlewit " that the theme of the " Carol "
first occurred to Dickens, and the writing
of the touching little story effected. He
described to Sir E. Bulwer Lytton with
what a strange mastery the subject seized
him, and how, for many weeks, he was
so closely occupied with his " little Carol "
(as he affectionately termed it) that he
"never left home before the owls went
out, and led quite a solitary life." In
a letter (dated "January 2nd, 1844")
to Professor Felton, he said that he wept
over it, "and laughed and wept again,
and excited himself in a most extra
ordinary manner in the composition ;
and thinking whereof he walked about

33 3

34 TJie Minor Writings of Dickens.

the black streets of London, fifteen and
twenty miles many a night when all the
sober folks had gone to bed." And
when it was done he "broke out like
a madman ! "

The " Christmas Carol " was written
at i, Devonshire Terrace, York Gate,
Regent's Park, the Author's residence
from 1840 to 1851. Never had such
a book so brilliant an outset; its
popularity was extraordinary, and by
every post he received letters from
complete strangers, telling him about their
homes and hearths, and how this same
" Carol " was read aloud there, and kept
on a little shelf by itself. "Indeed,"
wrote Dickens, "it is the greatest success,
as I am told, that this ruffian and rascal
has ever achieved." Thackeray's opinion
as to the merits of the little book is one
of the most delightful and genial criticisms
ever penned; Lord Jeffrey, too, was
enthusiastic in his praise, and, in a letter
to the Novelist, said : " You should be
happy yourself, for you may be sure you
have done more good by this little
publication, fostered more kindly feelings,
and prompted more positive acts of
beneficence than can be traced to all the
pulpits and confessionals in Christendom
since Christmas, 1842." Fully appre-

Christmas Books. 35

ciating the kindly criticisms which greeted
him on all sides, Dickens declared to
his friend Mr. Thomas Mitton : " I knew
I meant a good thing, and when I see
the effect of such a little whole as that,
on those for whom I care, I have a strong
sense of the immense effect I could pro
duce with an entire book. ... I am sure
it will do me a great deal of good ; and I
hope it will sell well."

The Author's desires were amply realised,
for the first edition of six thousand copies
was disposed of the first day, and a few
days later no less than two thousand of
the three printed for second and third
editions had been secured by the trade.
The proceeds of the sale, however, proved
sadly disappointing, Dickens having set his
" heart and soul upon a Thousand clear,"
instead of which only ^726 were received
by him from a sale of fifteen thousand
copies, — the deficiency having originated
(says Forster) in "a want of judgment
in adjusting the expenses of production
with a more equable regard to the
selling price." This disappointment, so
closely following a soreness which had
just arisen in regard to a clause in the
" Chuzzlewit " agreement, resulted in a
temporary severance of the Author's con
nection with Chapman and Hall.

36 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

The full title reads thus : " A Christmas
Carol, in Prose: Being a Ghost Story
of Christmas." It contains eight illus
trations by John Leech, viz., four full-
page etchings and four woodcuts, and
was published by Chapman and Hall
in 1843 at tne price of 5^. Collation:
two unnumbered pages, Preface, and
Contents, and pp. 166. The size is
foolscap octavo, and the original binding
was in brown cloth (afterwards changed to
crimson), having a gilt design on cover
and back. The title-page is printed in
red and blue ; it appears, however, that
a few copies are extant which have the
title-page in red and green, and it is con
jectured that, although dated 1844, these
may possibly have been struck off at the
same time as the others to enable the
Author to determine which was preferable,
in which case they may also be considered
as first issues.* The second edition was
bound in dull red cloth, having the same
gilt designs; on the title-page of some
of the later impressions appears the
imprint of Bradbury and Evans, owing to
a subsequent change of publishers.

The first Cheap Edition (issued in 1852
by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, in one

* There exist a few copies of an 1844 edition
with the title-page printed in red and blue.

Christmas Books. 37

volume with the later Christmas books)
had a new Preface, and a woodcut frontis
piece by Leech, reproduced from one of
his own etchings.

A copy of the genuine first (or brown
cloth) edition is catalogued at from
£4 to £6 ; it should have on the
first page " Stave I," afterwards altered
to "Stave One," to match the headings
of later chapters ; the colour of the end
papers should be green.

Upon the publication of the " Carol,"
Dickens presented the manuscript to Mr.
Thomas Mitton, his old schoolfellow and
afterwards his solicitor. In 1875 it was
sold to a London bookseller for ^50, and
has since become the property of Mr.
Stuart M. Samuel.

II.

"THE CHIMES" (1845).

The second Christmas book was written
during a visit to Italy in 1844, when
Dickens and his family were staying at
the old Palazzo Peschiere, Genoa, in the
autumn of that year. Although surrounded
by glorious scenery, the environment
counted for little indeed when the Novelist

38 T/te Minor Writings of Dickens.

first set himself seriously to work, for it
seemed (he said) as if he had plucked
himself out of his proper soil when he
left Devonshire Terrace, and could take
root no more until he returned to it.
Even after deciding upon the subject for
this Christmas story he was unable to
find a title until an idea for it occurred
to him one morning when, resolute, but
not in the humour for work, a maddening
peal of chimes arose from the city beneath
him — such a clashing of bells that made
his ideas " spin round and round till they
lost themselves in a whirl of vexation
and giddiness, and dropped down dead."
Two days later Forster received a letter
containing merely the phrase, " We have
heard THE CHIMES at midnight, Master
Shallow ! " this implying that a suitable
designation for the little book had been
definitely agreed upon.

Dickens's craving for the London streets,
whence he derived so much inspiration,
presently became more confirmed, and
he sadly missed his long night-walks in
and about the metropolis. Nevertheless,
he determined to begin, his notion for the
new book being an endeavour to make
a great blow for the poor. " Something
powerful, I think I can do," he wrote, on
October 8th, "but I want to be tender

Christmas Books. 39

too, and cheerful ; as like the ' Carol ' in
that respect as may be, and as unlike it
as such a thing can be. The duration of
the action will resemble it a little, but
I trust to the novelty of the machinery
to carry that off; and if my design be
anything at all, it has a grip upon the
very throat of the time." Dickens's object
was to convert Society, as he had con
verted Scrooge in the " Carol," by showing
"that its happiness rested on the same
foundations as those of the individual;
which are mercy and charity not less than
justice." The hero of his imagination
was to be a seedy London ticket-porter,
who, in his anxiety not to distrust or think
hardly of the rich, has fallen into the
opposite extreme of distrusting the poor,
from which distrust he was to be reclaimed.
Forster frequently received letters from
Dickens while the writing of the story
was proceeding, and in one of these he
remarked that, with his " steam very much
up," he found it a great trial to have no
one to whom he could expatiate upon his
day's work. " And I want," he added,
" a crowded street to plunge into at night.
And I want to be ' on the spot ' as it
were." Apart from these disadvantages,
he found his then mode of life favourable
to progress, for in the next letter he said :

4O Tfie Minor Writings of Dickens.

"I am in regular, ferocious excitement
with the ' Chimes ' ; get up at seven ;
have a cold bath before breakfast ; and
blaze away, wrathful and red-hot, until
three o'clock or so ; when I usually knock
off (unless it rains) for the day. ... I am
fierce to finish in a spirit bearing some
affinity to those of truth and mercy, and
to shame the cruel and the canting. I
have not forgotten my catechism. 'Yes
verily ; and with God's help, so I will.' "

Within a week the Novelist completed
the first part (or "Quarter") of "The
Chimes," and sent it to Forster with an
intimation that he hoped to despatch an
instalment "every Monday until the whole
is done." Referring to the story, he
observed : " It has a great hold upon
me, and has affected me, in the doing, in
divers strong ways, deeply, forcibly." At
the same time he gave Forster a general
idea of the plot, this constituting a good
illustration of his method in all his
writing. When, after another week had
elapsed, the Novelist despatched the
second part (or " Quarter "), he announced
his intention of enlarging his plan, and
intimated the assurance that he was " still
in stout heart with the tale." " I think
it well-timed," he continued, "and a good
thought; and as you know I wouldn't

Christmas Books. 41

say so to anybody else, I don't mind
saying freely thus much. It has great
possession of me every moment in the
day; and drags me where it will. . . .
I hope you will like it. ..." Another
interval of a few days brought the third
portion, the preparation of which had
cost him so much. The earnestness and
excitable energy with which he carried
on the work wrought havoc with him, and
writing to his biographer he observed :
"This book (whether in the Hajji Baba
sense or not I can't say, but certainly in
the literal one) has made my face white in
a foreign land. My cheeks, which were
beginning to fill out, have sunk again;
my eyes have grown immensely large ;
my hair is very lank ; and the head inside
the hair is hot and giddy. Read the
scene at the end of the third part, twice.
I wouldn't write it twice, for some
thing. . . ." After notifying that he had
changed the name of the heroine from
Jessie to Lilian, he proceeds : " To
morrow I shall begin afresh (starting the
next part with a broad grin, and ending
it with the very soul of jollity and happi
ness); and I hope to finish by next
Monday at the latest. . . . Since I con
ceived, at the beginning of the second
part, what must happen in the third, I

42 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

have undergone as much sorrow and
agitation as if the thing were real ; and
have wakened up with it at night. I
was obliged to lock myself in when I
finished it yesterday, for my face was
swollen for the time to twice its proper
size, and was hugely ridiculous. ... I
am going for a long walk, to clear my
head. I feel that I am very shaky from
work, and throw down my pen for the
day." His next communication stated
that the tale was at last completed.
"Third of November, 1844. Half- past
two, afternoon. Thank God ! I have
finished the 'Chimes.' This moment.
I take up my pen again to-day, to say
only that much ; and to add that I have
had what women call ' a real good cry ! ' "
Thus we discover how earnest he was,
how great the mental tension which
caused the highly strung nerves to relax
when his labours were concluded ! When
writing to Lady Blessington at this time,
he said : " I shut myself up for a month
close and tight, over my little Christmas
book, ' The Chimes.' All my affections
and passions got twined and knotted up
in it, and I became as haggard as a
murderer, long before I wrote 'The
End.'" To Mr. Thomas Mitton he ex
pressed the belief that he had, in this

Christmas Books. 43

story, "written a tremendous book, and
knocked the ' Carol ' out of the field. It
will make a great uproar, I have no
doubt."

Dickens was now eager to try its effect
upon his friends, and upon Carlyle par
ticularly ; so a meeting was arranged
for December 3rd * at Forster's residence.
The private reading was notable in being
the forerunner of those Public Readings
with which the Novelist subsequently de
lighted innumerable audiences both at
home and abroad.

Before this interesting incident occurred,
Forster read the story (for dramatic pur
poses) to Gilbert A'Beckett, who, as
Dickens informed his wife, " cried so-
much and so painfully that Forster didn't
know whether to go on or stop ; and he
called next day to say that any expression
of his feeling was beyond his power."
In a postscript to this letter he added :
" If you had seen Macready last night,
undisguisedly sobbing and crying on the
sofa as I read, you would have felt, as
I did, what a thing it is to have power."

Writing to Douglas Jerrold, the Novelist
pointed out that in this little book he
had " tried to strike a blow upon that
part of the brass countenance of wicked

* Not December 2nd, as stated by Forster.

44 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

Cant, when such a compliment is sorely
needed at this time, and I trust that
the result of my training is at least the
exhibition of a strong desire to make it
a staggerer. If you should think at the
end of the four rounds (there are no more)
that the said Cant, in the language of
Belts Life, ' comes up piping,' I shall
be very much the better for it."

" The Chimes," when published, hardly
created the excitement which the author
anticipated ; nevertheless, the profits
greatly exceeded those of the " Carol,"
for they amounted to nearly ^1,500 on
the sale of the first twenty-thousand copies.
Lord Jeffrey, who believed that Dickens
had succeeded in his object, and that
therefore " all the tribe of selfishness, and
cowardice, and cant " would hate him
and accuse him of wicked exaggeration,
after expressing his sincere admiration
of the story, declared that the good and
the brave were with its Author, and the
truth also.

It was distinctly a story " with a
purpose." Here the Novelist introduces
Sir Peter Laurie, a well-known Alderman
of the City of London, who had been
making himself conspicuous by his deter
mination to "put down" everything, in
cluding suicide, and the remarks of

Christmas Books. 45

Alderman Cute (for whose portrait Sir
Peter unconsciously posed) were nearly
a transcript of those to which the garrulous
old city magistrate gave utterance from the
bench. The irate alderman did not forget
the attack, and retaliated soon afterwards
by publicly ridiculing Dickens's description
of Jacob's Island and the Folly Ditch in
" Oliver Twist " ; whereupon the Novelist,
in the Preface to the first' Cheap Edition
of that story, jocularly alluded to the
incident, and treated his judicial critic as
one whose observations on this subject
were unworthy of serious consideration.

" The Chimes : a Goblin Story of some
Bells that rang an Old Year out and a
New Year in," was issued at $s. by
Chapman and Hall at Christmas time,
1844; the printed date, however, is 1845
It contains a frontispiece and title en
graved on steel from designs by Maclise,
and eleven woodcuts by Maclise, Doyle,
Leech, and Stanfield. Collation : One
unnumbered page of Illustrations, and
pp. 175. There is no Preface or Dedica
tion.* The little foolscap octavo volume
was bound in crimson cloth, with a design

* Forster incorrectly states that " The Chimes "
was dedicated to Lord Jeffrey. He confuses it
with "The Cricket on the Hearth," which was
so dedicated.

46 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

in gold on side and back. The present
value of a copy of the very scarce first
edition is £2. This issue has the pub
lishers' names engraved on the plate of
title-page ; copies of later editions, where
the imprint appears below the plate, are
valued at from 15^. to £\.

Mr. J. F. Dexter possesses a most
interesting impression of " The Chimes,"
in which many of the woodcuts had not
been printed in the spaces left for them.
On examination it was found that the
lower part of the woodcut on p. 125
differed from that in the published book,
for Leech misunderstood his author, and
instead of drawing Richard " with matted
hair," he depicted a figure entirely different
from what Dickens intended. As the
mistake was promptly discovered and
rectified, it may be assumed that Mr.
Dexter's copy of the book, in respect of
this illustration, is unique.

The original MS. of " The Chimes " is
at South Kensington.

III.

•" THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH " (1846).

In 1845 Dickens revived a long-
cherished idea of establishing a weekly

Christmas Books. 47

periodical, the proposed features of which
he then briefly summarised. The title
was to be " The Cricket," with the motto,
" A cheerful creature that chirrups on the
Hearth. Natural History"; and the
new venture was intended to " put every
body in a good temper, and make such
a dash at people's fenders and arm-chairs
as hasn't been made for many a long
day." The Novelist consulted Forster
as to the merits of his scheme, who
thought there was much to approve in it ;
but the project was temporarily aban
doned* in favour of a far more serious
adventure, in which Dickens and many
of his friends were involved, viz., the
founding of the Daily News, which pre
sently monopolised much valuable time
and attention.

In the notion respecting the proposed
weekly publication we discover the germ
of the third Christmas story. " It would
be a delicate and beautiful fancy for a
Christmas book," thought the Novelist,
"making the Cricket a little household
god — silent in the wrong and sorrow of the
tale, and loud again when all went well
and happy." In comparison with " The
Chimes," there is very little to chronicle

* It was renewed a few years later, and
realised in the publication of Household Words.

48 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

a propos of this small volume. The story
was not commenced until late in 1845,
and the writing of it did not run so
smoothly and uninterruptedly as could
have been desired. In October the
Author announced that he was at a dead
lock : " Sick, bothered, and depressed.
Visions of Brighton come upon me ; and
I have a great mind to go there to finish
my second part, or to Hampstead. I
have a desperate thought of Jack Straw's.
I never was in such a bad writing cue as
I am this week, in all my life." This
condition was doubtless brought about
by the worry and anxiety attendant upon
the preparations for the new daily paper,
at which he was then actively assisting.
" The Cricket on the Hearth. A Fairy
Tale of Home," when completed, was
" printed and published for the Author "
(under a special agreement) by Bradbury
and Evans, in December, 1845, although
the date on the title-page is 1846 ; so
great was the demand for the work that
the sale doubled that of both its pre
decessors. It contained a Dedication to
Lord Jeffrey, and was illustrated with
fourteen woodcuts by Doyle, Stanfield,
Leech, Landseer, and Maclise, the latter
designing the frontispiece and title-page.
Collation : Two unnumbered pages of

Christmas Books. 49

Dedication and Illustrations, and pp. 174.
The volume is a foolscap octavo, bound
in crimson cloth, with gold designs on
side and back, and its price was 5^.
A clean and perfect copy of the first
edition is usually catalogued at 15^.

The original MS. of " The Cricket on
the Hearth " is in the possession of the
Novelist's sister-in-law, Miss Hogarth.

IV.
"THE BATTLE OF LIFE" (1846).

Dickens decided to begin his next
Christmas tale early in the year. On
March 2nd, 1846, he wrote to Lady
Blessington : " Vague thoughts of a new
book are rife within me just now : and
I go wandering about at night into the
strangest places, according to my usual
propensity at such a time, seeking rest,
and finding none." In June he observed
to Forster, writing from Rosemont, near
Lausanne : " An odd, shadowy, undefined
idea is at work within me, that I could
connect a great battlefield somehow with
my little Christmas story. Shapeless
visions of the repose and peace pervading
it in after-time ; with the corn and grass
growing over the slain, and people singing

5O The Minor Writings of Dickens.

at the plough ; are so perpetually floating
before me, that I cannot but think there
may turn out to be something good in
them when I see them more plainly."

" What do you think, as a name for the
Christmas book, of ' The Battle of Life ' ? "
again wrote Dickens to Forster at a rather
later date. " It is not a name I have
conned at all, but has just occurred to
me in connection with that foggy idea.
If I can see my way, I think I will take
it next, and clear it off. If you knew
how it hangs about me, I am sure you
would say so too. It would be an im
mense relief to have it done, and nothing
standing in the way of ' Dombey.' " The
suggested title for the next Christmas
venture, although finally decided upon,
was not yet definitely fixed, for in a
subsequent letter the Novelist expressed
a doubt "whether the book should be
called 'The Battle of Life. A Love
Story' — to express both a love story in
the common acceptation of the phrase,
and also a story of love."

Dickens was then engaged upon
"Dombey and Son," and when he in
timated his intention of writing another
little annual at the same time, Forster
warned him against possible trouble and
vexation that might arise in attempting

Christmas Books. 51

to deal with both stories simultaneously.
The Novelist, who made light of the grave
admonition at first, soon realised the
difficulty of getting each narrative into
its place, and this, coupled with a " craving
for streets " which he could not satisfy
in the little Swiss town, caused him at
times to seriously contemplate the total
relinquishment of the Christmas book for
that year, in order that he might con
centrate his entire attention upon the
more important story. On September 2oth,
when in a sanguine mood, he wrote :

" I cancelled the beginning of a first
scene — which I have never done before —
and, with a notion in my head, ran
wildly about and about it, and could not
get the idea into any natural socket. At
length, thank Heaven, I nailed it all at
once ; and after going on comfortably
up to yesterday from half-past nine to
six, I was last night in such a state of
enthusiasm about it that I think I was
an inch or two taller. I am a little cooler
to-day, with a headache to boot; but I
really begin to hope you will think it a
pretty story, with some delicate notions
in it agreeably presented, and with a good
human Christmas ground- work. I fancy
I see a great domestic effect in the last
part."

52 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

A few days later the Novelist became
rather despondent, and expressed to
Forster " a most startling piece of intelli
gence " — viz., that he feared there would
be no Christmas book that year, although
he had written nearly a third of it. " It
promises to be pretty," he said ; " quite
a new idea in the story, I hope ; but to
manage it without the supernatural agency
now impossible of introduction, and yet
to move it naturally within the required
space, ... I find to be a difficulty so
perplexing — the past ' Dombey ' work
taken into account — that I am fearful of
wearing myself out if I go on, and not
being able to come back with the necessary
freshness and spirit." The theme of the
tale and the purport of each character in
it were quite clear in his mind, but the
prospect of being jaded by overwork
greatly terrified him, and made him " sick,
giddy, and capriciously despondent."
Nevertheless, he determined to go to
Geneva, in the hope that a change of
scene would enable him to make one
effort more, for he was greatly averse to
abandoning the story, of which " fourteen
or fifteen close MS. pages, that have
made me laugh and cry," were already
reposing on his desk. On arriving at
Geneva he became really ill, but soon

Christmas Books. 53

recovered, and was again at work upon
the little tale, although even then he
found it difficult to make up his mind
what he could do with it. In a letter
dated October 3rd he seemed more
hopeful, notwithstanding certain dis
quietudes of authorship and physical
suffering ; for he wrote : "I hope and
trust, now, the Christmas book will come
in due course ! ! ! " In fact, he meant to
make a great effort to finish it on the zoth
of that month, which, indeed, he effected,
and the concluding chapters were punctu
ally sent to Forster for his opinion and
suggestions, together with a note referring
to certain portions of the tale, and con
taining the remark : " I really do not know
what this story is worth. I am so floored :
wanting sleep, and never having had my
head free from it for this month past."
The Christmas work off his mind, it
was a relief to get back to " Dombey " ;
but his head still troubled him, while
for a week he dreamed " that the ' Battle
of Life ' was a series of chambers im
possible to be got to rights or got out
of, through which " (he added) " I
wandered drearily at night. On Saturday
night I don't think I slept an hour. I
was perpetually roaming through the story,
and endeavouring to dovetail the revolu-

54 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

tion* here into the plot. The mental
distress, quite horrible."

The book was published on December
iQth, 1846, and on that day Dickens
joyfully informed his wife that twenty-
three thousand copies had already
been sold ! Five weeks later he an
nounced that it had "shot far ahead
of its predecessors " ; but there is
no doubt that this, one of the least
interesting of the series of Christmas
Books, did not meet with so much
public approbation as was accorded to
its predecessors.

Dickens, it appears, was thoroughly
wretched at having to use for so short a
story the idea upon which " The Battle
of Life" was based. "I did not see its
full capacity," he wrote to Bulwer Lytton,
" until it was too late to think of another
subject, and I have always felt that I
might have done a great deal better if I
had taken it for the ground-work of a
more extended book. But for an in
superable aversion I have to trying back
in such a case, I should certainly forge
that bit of metal again, as you suggest —
one of these days perhaps."

" The Battle of Life. A Love Story,"

* A reference to the then recently proposed
expulsion of the Jesuits from Switzerland.

Christmas Books. 55

was published by Bradbury and Evans in
1846, and contained thirteen woodcut
illustrations by Maclise, Doyle, Leech, and
Stanfield. Collation: Two unnumbered
pages of Dedication and Illustrations,
and pp. 175. It was issued at 5^.,
uniform in size and general appearance
with its predecessors, the gilt designs on
side and back being designed by Maclise.
The little book was " cordially inscribed "
to the Author's English friends in Switzer
land — a dedication which he declared
was " printed in illuminated capitals " on
his heart. There was only one edition
of the work, of which three issues were
circulated ; of the first very few must
have been sold, as it is met with only
once in about a hundred copies. The
various issues can be distinguished by
the slight differences in the illustrated
title ; the first has " A Love Story " in a
simple scroll, and underneath are the
publishers' names and address, with date ;
the second (which is the scarcest) has
" A Love Story " in a scroll borne by a
cherub, and below it appears the pub
lishers' imprint without the date; while
in the third the imprint is omitted
altogether.

The value of a copy of the first and
second issues is £2 ; of the third, los.

56 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

The original MS. consists of fifty quarto
pages, crowded with corrections, and
every leaf .was mounted by Dickens
himself. A propos of this interesting
autograph, it is recorded that when a
lady (an intimate friend) showed him
with great pride a manuscript which
she had preserved of some play written
by him when very young, the Novelist,
fearing the possibility of its appearing in
print as one of his "early writings," made
a bargain with her by offering in exchange
the manuscript of " The Battle of Life "
(just then completed) ; this being effected,
he had the satisfaction of putting the
boyish production into the fire. In
1884 the MS. of "The Battle of Life"
was catalogued by a London bookseller at
;£i6o ; it realised ^400 at the sale of the
Wright Collection (Sotheby's, 1899).

V.

"THE HAUNTED MAN" (1848).

In the autumn of 1846, during his stay
at Lausanne, Dickens informed Forster
that he had been " dimly conceiving a
very ghostly and wild idea," which he
supposed he ought to reserve for his next
Christmas Book. " It will mature," he

Christmas Books. 57

said, "in the streets of Paris by night,
as well as in London," and the notion he
had in his mind ultimately took the form
of the story entitled " The Haunted
Man." The opening pages were written
at Broadstairs during the following autumn,
and these he sent to Forster, intimating
that he must finish the book in less than
a month if it was to be done at all,
" Dombey " having now become very
importunate. In fact, that novel so
engrossed his attention towards its com
pletion that he began to have serious
doubts whether it would be advisable to
go on with the Christmas tale. " Would
there be any distinctly bad effect," he
enquired, " in holding this idea over for
another twelvemonth ? saying nothing
whatever until November ; and then
announcing in the Dombey that its
occupation of my entire time prevents
the continuance of the Christmas series
until next year, when it is proposed to be
renewed. There might not be anything
in that but a possibility of an extra lift
for the little book when it did come —
eh ? " On the other hand, he felt that it
would be regrettable not only to lose the
proceeds of the sale, but to leave any
gap at Christmas firesides which he ought
to fill. Nevertheless, it was decided to

58 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

postpone the story as suggested, and in
the letter that closed his holiday at that
favourite watering-place he wrote to
Forster : "At last I am a mentally
matooring of the Christmas book — or, as
poor Macrone used to write, ' booke,'
' boke,' ' buke,' etc." In the winter of
1848 the little story was completed,
giving the author very little trouble in its
composition. On January 3rd there was
a " christening " dinner at Devonshire
Terrace in honour of the occasion, at
which many of the Novelist's intimate
friends were present.

The full title of the story is "The
Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain.
A Fancy for Christmas time." It was
published by Bradbury and Evans in
December, 1848, at $s., and in the
customary form — foolscap octavo, crimsonv
cloth, with gold decoration (holly and
mistletoe) on side and back. The
frontispiece and pictorial title-page were
designed by Sir John Tenniel, who co-oper
ated with Stanfield, F. Stone, and Leech in
preparing the remaining fourteen woodcut
illustrations. Collation : One unnumbered
page of Illustrations, and pp. 188. The
work contains no Dedication or Preface.

Many thousands of the first issue of
" The Haunted Man " must have been

Christmas Books. 59

printed, as they were not all disposed of
even a year before the Author's death,
notwithstanding the fact that the sale
began with a subscription of twenty thou
sand. It is, therefore, by no means a scarce
book, and the present value does not
exceed ten or twelve shillings. Although
considered as the least interesting of the
Christmas stories, the public received
" The Haunted Man " with almost as
much favour as its predecessors. It was
the last of the Christmas books, their
place being to a certain extent taken by
the Yule-tide numbers of Household Words
and All the Year Round, in the produc
tion of which many well-known writers
enjoyed the privilege of collaboration.

The original MS. of "The Haunted
Man" has mysteriously disappeared, and it
is feared that it may possibly have been
destroyed. Members of the Dickens
family were under the impression that it
remained with other MSS. in Forster's
possession, and were therefore much
surprised when, at his death, this particular

autograph was not forthcoming.

* * * *

Three of the Christmas books, viz.,
"The Chimes," "The Battle of Life,"
and "The Haunted Man," are occasionally
to be met with in an uncut state in yellow

60 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

boards, these being " remainder " copies
purchased by W. H. Smith and Sons for
sale at the railway-stations at one shilling
each, but now worth much more. The
stories were separately published in 1885
by Routledge and Sons, bound in crimson
cloth, in imitation of the first issues, with
all the original designs, the plates in the
" Carol," however, being uncoloured. All
the Christmas books ran through many
editions in their original form, and have
also been published as a series in one
volume. They were thus included in the
first Cheap Edition of Dickens's works,
1852 (Chapman and Hall), with a frontis
piece by Leech, copied from one of his
designs in the first edition, and containing
a new Preface. In 1869 they appeared as
a Collected Edition in one volume (demy
octavo, same publishers, pp. 465), with
most of the original illustrations, and sub
sequently re-issued in this form, without
date, to range with the "green leaf" series.
In 1878 the five works were given in
the Household Edition, with twenty-six
woodcut illustrations by E. G. Dalziel.
Mention should also be made of an excel
lent series of reprints by Messrs. Pears,
published during the years 1892-95, pro
fusely illustrated with drawings specially
designed by the late Charles Green, R.I.

MISCELLANEOUS PROSE
WRITINGS.

HE first of the little brochures
produced by Dickens during the
"Pickwick" era, entitled,

"SUNDAY UNDER THREE HEADS;

" As it is : As Sabbath Bills would make
it : As it might be made" (1836),

was originally announced in Part III. of
" The Library of Fiction " (Chapman and
Hall, 1836). It constituted a strong plea
for the poor, being written with direct
reference to a Bill " for the better observ
ance of the Sabbath," which the House
of Commons had then recently thrown
out by a small majority. Sir Andrew
Agnew, M.P., brought about an agitation
advocating the enforcement of more rigid
laws respecting Sunday observance, and
Charles Dickens strongly resented these

61

62 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

proposals on the ground that the execu
tion of fresh laws would press far more
heavily upon the poor than upon the rich,
and earnestly pleaded for the encourage
ment of Sabbath excursions and harmless
Sunday amusements, in order to counter
act the tendency towards certain forms
of dissipation which then usually charac
terised the habits of plebeian Londoners
on the Lord's Day. Although he did not
approve of a Parisian Sunday, yet he saw
no moral objection to a game of cricket
after church, or the playing of bands in
the open air, accompanied by innocent
and decorous dancing. Dickens was
doubtless somewhat premature in enter
taining these broad views and in suggest
ing their adoption, as the time was hardly
ripe for their general acceptance; but
public opinion has changed considerably
during the last two decades, and to-day
we can boast of a National Sunday League,
whose object is to promote a more intelli
gent observance of the Sabbath than that
advocated by Sir Andrew Agnew and his
party. A few years ago the League issued
a pamphlet containing several quotations
from "Sunday Under Three Heads," in
order to strengthen the arguments in
favour of the opening of public museums,
art galleries, and libraries on the Sabbath.

Miscellaneous Prose Writings. 63

This booklet was written pseudonymously,
Dickens adopting the nom de guerre of
" Timothy Sparks." It was published at
2S. by Chapman and Hall in 1836 (pp.
[v.] 49), with three full-page wood-en
gravings drawn by Hablot K. Browne,
who also designed three typical heads for
the title-page, which were reprinted on
the wrapper. The work is prefaced by a
Dedication " To the Right Reverend the
Bishop of London."

Owing to its great scarcity, copies of
the first edition are valued at from ^7 to
-£8, entirely uncut copies occasionally
realising in the auction-room as much as
^15, as only a very few were issued in
this state, the majority of copies having
scraped edges. At one time this rare
pamphlet could be acquired for a few
pence, the explanation being that years
ago a bookseller named Chidley, who
purchased "remainders," came into pos
session of a number of copies which the
publishers had failed to dispose of, and
these he placed upon the market before
the work was considered as a desideratum.
In some impressions the date has been
erased, probably by Chidley himself, who
doubtless hoped to pass them off as a new
publication. As an instance of curious
fluctuations in price, it is stated that a

64 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

Manchester bookseller once sold a copy
of the book for threepence, the same
copy shortly afterwards realising eight
guineas !

Dickens never cared to reprint " Sunday
Under Three Heads " ; it had served its
purpose at the time, and he subsequently
attached no value to it. There are, how
ever, at least two so-c2\\Q& facsimiles, which,
although readily distinguishable by experts,
are likely to deceive the unwary. The
first was issued by Jarvis and Son in 1884,
with an Introduction and an additional
grey wrapper, while the other bears the
imprint of a Manchester firm.

"SKETCHES OF YOUNG GENTLEMEN"
(1838), AND "SKETCHES OF YOUNG
COUPLES" (1840).

In the fragment of a diary kept by
Dickens early in 1838, he wrote, under
date January 8th : " I began the ' Sketches
of Young Gentlemen ' to-day. One hun
dred and twenty-five pounds for such a
little book, without my name to it, is
pretty well. This and the ' Sunday,' by-
the-bye, are the only two things I have
not done as Boz." The dozen Sketches
in the little volume here referred to,
which are hardly in advance of the earlier

Miscellaneous Prose Writings. 6$

" Sketches by Boz," were evidently written
to order, as a kind of protest against a
very ungallant attack upon the fair sex
in a similar production entitled " Sketches
of Young Ladies," by " Quiz," published
by Chapman and Hall in 1837. The un-
avowed author of the latter was E. Cas-
well, but the style so much resembled
Dickens's that many attributed the author
ship to him. It comprises a series of
chapters humorously descriptive of the
idiosyncrasies of " two dozen classes of
Young Ladies"; while Dickens, under
cover of anonymity, sums up the Young
Gentlemen in the same arbitrary fashion.

About two years later a second collec
tion of humorous papers by Dickens was
issued, entitled " Sketches of Young
Couples " ; they were eleven in number,
and prefaced by a facetious Introduction,
suggested by the Queen's announcement
of her approaching marriage. In a letter
to Thomas Mitton, February izth, 1844,
the author stated that he received ^200
for the " Young Couples," — " a poor thing
of little worth, published without my
name."

The " Sketches of Young Gentlemen "
were published by Chapman and Hall
in 1838, pp. [viii.] 76, illustrated boards,
price 3*. The present value of a copy

66 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

as issued is about ^3, while that of its
predecessor, being still scarcer, realises a
pound or two more. There have been
several editions of "Sketches of Young
Gentlemen," including one published in
1849 at a shilling, in a limp wrapper, the
plates in these cheap reprints being very
inferior impressions of the originals.

The full title of Dickens's second book
let reads thus : " Sketches of Young
Couples, With an Urgent Remonstrance
to the Gentlemen of England, being
Bachelors or Widowers, in the present
alarming Crisis." It was announced as
" by the Author of ' Sketches of Young
Gentlemen,' " and published at 3^. by
Chapman and Hall in 1840, pp. 92, in
cluding title and half-title. The " Urgent
Remonstrance " is an appeal to bachelors
and widowers " to take immediate steps
for convening a Public meeting, to con
sider of the best and surest means of
averting the dangers with which they
are threatened by the recurrence of
Bissextile, or Leap Year," and to adopt
measures for resisting and counteracting
the "evil designs" of single ladies, etc.,
etc.

The size of the little volumes is duo
decimo, and each contains six etched
illustrations by "Phiz."

Miscellaneous Prose Writings. 67

The " Sketches of Young Couples " must
have had a very limited sale as a first
edition, for it is seldom met with, and the
price of a copy in fine condition readily
realises from ^5 to £6.

The MSS. of both works are in the
Forster Collection at South Kensington.

"A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND"
(1851-52-53).

The late Miss Mamie Dickens has
stated that she remembered only one
occasion on which her father employed
an amanuensis. Miss Georgina Hogarth
then acted in that capacity, and to
her the Novelist dictated nearly the
whole of the "Child's History of
England " ; at this time Dickens was
excessively busy, being simultaneously
engaged upon " Bleak House " and the
editing of Household Words. Miss Hogarth
remembers that he dictated the " History ""
to her "while walking about the room,,
as a relief after his long, sedentary
imprisonment."

" A Child's History of England " was
written primarily for publication as a
serial in Household Words, the instalments
covering a period of nearly three years. A
portion was prepared, and the work finally

68 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

completed, at Boulogne during the latter
year, as indicated by a letter • written to
Forster in September, 1853 : "I finished
the little History yesterday, and am trying
to think of something for the Christmas
number " [of Household Words\ The
Author availed himself of Keightley's
" History of England " as the basis of his
own book, as evidenced by a copy of
that work containing marks and mar
ginal notes in Dickens's autograph. The
" History " — a theme altogether outside
his usual range of authorship — was com
piled with the view of bringing it down
to the comprehension of youth ; this
assertion is borne out by the Dedica
tion : " To my own dear children, whom
I hope it will help, by and by, to read
with interest larger and better books upon
the same subject." In 1853, when quite
a youth, Mr. Marcus Stone, R.A., was
the recipient of a copy of " A Child's
History of England" as a present from
the Author, who in a note intimated that
the book was true, " though it may be
sometimes not as genteel as history has
a habit of being."

"A Child's History of England," com
prising forty-five chapters, first appeared
as a serial in Household Words, at irregular
intervals, from January 25th, 1851, to

Miscellaneous Prose Writings. 69

December loth, 1853, inclusive. It was
then divided into thirty-seven chapters,
and issued complete in book form by
Bradbury and Evans in three small vol
umes, bound in dark red cloth, with gold
design on cover, price los. 6d., each
volume containing a frontispiece by F. W.
Topham, surrounded by an ornamental
border.

The following are the sub-titles, dates,
and collations : —

Vol. I., " England from the Ancient
Times, to the death of King John," 1852,
pp. [xi.] 210.

Vol. II., " England from the Reign of
Henry the Third, to the Reign of Richard
the Third," 1853, pp. [viii.] 214.

Vol. III., " England from the Reign of
Henry the Seventh, to the Revolution of
1688," 1854, pp. [viii.] 321.

Some editions have later dates, and are
not otherwise distinguishable from the
first issue.

In a letter to Douglas Jerrold, May 3rd,
1843, Dickens said : " I am writing a
little history of England for my boy, which
I will send you when it is printed for him,
though your boys are too old to profit by
it." This allusion was made ten years
prior to the production of "A Child's
History of England," and had reference

7O The Minor Writings of Dickens,

to an altogether different work, which was
never completed.*

A copy of the original edition of the
" History " is priced at from ^"3 to ^4.
Of the numerous reprints special mention
must be made of the first cheap issue in
the " Charles Dickens " edition, published
by Chapman and Hall, post octavo, cloth,
in one volume, with four illustrations on
wood by Marcus Stone, R.A.

Two of the chapters (ii. and vi.) of
" A Child's History of England " are in
Dickens's autograph, and the remainder
in that of Miss Hogarth. The original
MS. is in the Forster Collection.

"THE LOVING BALLAD OF LORD
BATEMAN " (1839).

Considerable controversy has been ex
cited respecting the authorship of the
humorous version of an ancient broadside
song, " The Loving Ballad of Lord Bate-
man," which was so admirably illustrated
by George Cruikshank. Some literary ex
perts incline to the belief that Dickens
was responsible for its production, while
others favour Thackeray. Among the
latter was G. A. Sala, who considered the

* Vide " Letters of Charles Dickens," Vol. I.,
85-

Miscellaneous Prose Writings. 71

work to be mainly that of the author of
" Vanity Fair," especially the lines about
"The Proud Young Porter" and "The
Young Bride's Mother," which, he thought,
were "thoroughly and inimitably Thac-
kerayian." Mr. J. F. Dexter states posi
tively that the Preface and Notes were
written by Dickens for Cruikshank, and
supports his contention by declaring that
the artist told him on three different
occasions that " Boz " was the actual
author of the Notes. Mr. C. P. Johnson
expressed the same opinion when pre
paring his " Hints to Collectors" (1885) ;
but some three years later, on becoming
possessed of a scrap-book containing
" The Famous History of Lord Bateman,"
partly in Thackeray's own writing and
partly in print, with characteristic illustra
tions by Thackeray himself, he was con
verted to Sala's views, and subsequently
included particulars of the quaint ballad
in his Bibliography of Thackeray.

We are told that George Cruikshank
sang the song at a dinner of the Anti
quarian Society, at which both Dickens
and Thackeray were present; Thackeray
said : " I should like to print that ballad
with illustrations," but the artist demurred,
remarking that he intended doing so
himself. There is also the evidence

72 T/te Minor Writings of Dickens.

of Mr. Henry Burnett, who forwarded
the following interesting communication
to the Athenteum, February 25th, 1888 : —

" I know ' Lord Bateman ' was not written by
Dickens. I was at his house when Cruikshank
first sang it after supper. Dickens was pleased
at the effect produced by the singer, and we
laughed much. It was often sung after, and
one night Dickens said, ' Cruikshank, why don't
you publish that and illustrate it, and let Burnett
write out the tune as you sing it to him ? ' An
arrangement was made, and at my house I put
down the notes without any care — the G clef
all on one side, and many notes falling over.
When he sent me a book after publication I
found he had copied exactly my carelessness
into his book, at which we had many a laugh
also. ... I think it may be by Cruikshank or
made up from some former ' Lord Bateman ' ;
but certainly Dickens never wrote it, as it was
at first new to him."

Mrs. Thackeray Ritchie contributed
to Harper's New Monthly Magazine,
December, 1892, an interesting comment
upon " Lord Bateman : a Ballad," which
was illustrated with previously unpublished
drawings by her father. These humorous
designs were accidentally discovered in
an unsuspected drawer of a table that
stood in a nursery, and it was only when
it fell over with a crash one day that the
drawer containing the drawings declared
itself. Mrs. Ritchie says : " My own

Miscellaneous Prose Writings. 73

impression (for which I have absolutely
no foundation) is that the Notes sound
like Mr. Dickens's voice, and the ballad
like my own father's." Mr. Trueman, a
friend of Cruikshank, is convinced from
his own observation that the whole thing
was written by Thackeray for the artist ;
while Miss Hogarth's impression is that
Dickens compiled the Notes to assist
Cruikshank, but she has no certain
recollection of the matter.

Respecting the discovery of the
Thackeray-illustrated version of " The
Loving Ballad," to which allusion has just
been made, Mr. M. H. Spielmann sug
gests that "Thackeray was intending to
produce these elaborate drawings, but in
the face of Cruikshank's work desisted
from publication."

" The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman "
was published in 1839 by Charles Tilt,
Fleet Street, and Mustapha Syried, Con
stantinople. Collation : pp. 40. Whether
regarded as a Dickens or a Thackeray
item, a copy of the first edition of this
curious work realises about ^5. It
was issued in a green cloth cover, with
an illustration by George Cruikshank
stamped on it in gold, which cover
should be preserved. Besides the eleven
etched illustrations by Cruikshank there

74 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

is a page of music; and it must be
pointed out that the genuine first edition
has the pagination in the middle, not in
the corner, as in subsequent editions.
There are several reprints, and it will be
observed that the plates in the later issues
have been slightly altered and otherwise

touched up.

# * * *

The authorship of certain works has
been wrongly attributed to Dickens, and,
owing to the assumption that he was
actually responsible for them, those pro
ductions have often realised high prices.
The earliest of such writings is entitled
"More Hints on Etiquette," published
by Charles Tilt in 1838; but a careful
examination justifies the opinion that the
Novelist had a very small share (if any)
in this amusing " skit " upon a similar
work, " Hints on Etiquette and the
Usages of Society," issued two years
previously by the firm of Longman, Rees,
Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman.

" Sergeant Bell and his Raree Show,"
published by Thomas Tegg in 1839, nas
also been incorrectly associated with
Dickens. It seems, however, that in
1835 Tegg desired the Novelist to state
upon what terms he would supply the
letterpress, and that ^120 was the sum

Miscellaneous Prose Writings. 75

originally named by Dickens, which was
afterwards reduced to ;£ioo. The pub
lisher's son (known as " Peter Parley ")
declared with some authority that all
negotiation with the Novelist fell through,
so that " Sergeant Bell " evidently eman
ated from another pen.

Three little brochures, entitled " Lizzie
Leigh" (1850), "A Curious Dance
Round a Curious Tree" (1852), and
"Drooping Buds" (1852), have been
incorrectly ascribed to Dickens, and big
prices have accordingly been paid for
them. It has, however, been conclusively
proved that the authorship belongs to
Mrs. Gaskell, W. H. Wills, and Henry
Morley respectively.* These papers
originally appeared in Household Words,
and it is more than probable that Dickens,
in his capacity as editor of that journal,
added here and there a touch of his own.

* Further particulars concerning these little
productions are given in my article, "Pseudo-
Dickens Rarities," published in the Athenaeum,
September nth, 1897.

ARTICLES AND SHORT STORIES
IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN
JOURNALS.

Bentley's Miscellany (1837-39).

j]T the time of the publication of
"Pickwick," Richard Bentley,
of New Burlington Street, an
nounced his intention of estab
lishing a periodical to be called The
Wits' Miscellany, and he was anxious to
secure the services of a very capable
writer to act as conductor of the new
journal. He therefore approached the
author of " The Pickwick Papers," offering
him £20 a month if he would undertake
the editorship, an arrangement to which
the now famous " Boz " readily consented,
the Agreement being duly signed on
August 22nd, 1836.

Before its introduction to the public
the name of the projected magazine was
76

Articles and Short Stories. 77

changed to Bentley's Miscellany, the
initial number of which was launched
on January ist, 1837. It having been
stipulated that Dickens should furnish
the magazine with a serial story, we find
in the second number the opening chapters
of "Oliver Twist," which was continued
from month to month until its conclusion
in March, 1839, with illustrations by
George Cruikshank.

During his connection with the Mis
cellany the Novelist contributed several
items of minor importance, including
some humorous papers re the "Mudfog
Association," these constituting a satire on
the proceedings at the meetings of learned
Societies. Mr. Pickwick's " Theory of
Tittlebats " is similarly a burlesque of the
doings of fussy pseudo-scientists.

The following is a list of Dickens's
contributions to Bentley's Miscellany : —

VOL. I.
1837-

Jan. " Public Life of Mr. Tulrumble, once

Mayor of Mudfog." Signed " Boz,''
with an illustration by George
Cruikshank. Pp. 49-63.

Feb. Opening chapters of " Oliver Twist,"

continued as a serial until its con
clusion in March, 1839.

March. " Stray Chapters by ' Boz.' " Chapter I.,
The Pantomime of Life. Pp. 29 1 -297 .

78 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

May. "Stray Chapters by 'Boz.'" Chapter II.,
Some Particulars concerning a Lion.

PP- SIS-SIS-

Editor's Address on the Completion of
the First Volume. Signed " Boz,"
and dated " London, June, 1837."
Pp. iii.-iv.

VOL. II.

Oct. "Full Report of the First Meeting of the
Mudfog Association for the Advance
ment of Everything." Signed "Boz."

Pp. 397-413.

Address, signed "Boz," and dated
"30th November, 1837."

VOL. IV.

1838.

Aug. "Mr. Robert Bolton, the 'Gentleman
connected with the Press.'" Pp.
204-206.

Sept. "Full Report of the Second Meeting
of the Mudfog Association for the
Advancement of Everything." Un
signed, with two illustrations by
George Cruikshank. Pp. 209-227.

VOL. V.

1839.

Feb. " Familiar Epistle from a Parent to
a Child aged two years and two
months." Signed "Boz." Pp. 219-220.

The third number of the Miscellany
contained a curious production from the
Novelist's pen, which was inserted among

Articles and Short Stories. 79

the advertisements as a leaflet ; it was
entitled "Extraordinary Gazette," and
written in a style parodying a Royal speech,
while at the head of this remarkable
announcement appeared a humorous
wood-engraving designed by " Phiz," in
which he gives a full-length portrait of
the youthful " Boz."

At the close of 1838 Dickens retired
from the editorship of the magazine,
marking the event with a genial vale
dictory "Epistle." Addressing the Mis
cellany as the "child aged two years and
two months," he says : "I resign you to
the guardianship and protection of one
of my most intimate and valued friends,
Mr. Ainsworth, with whom, and with you,
my best wishes and warmest feelings will
ever remain. I reap no gain or profit by
parting from you. Nor will any conveyance
of your property be required, for, in this
respect, you have always been literally
'Bentley's' miscellany, and never mine."
So useful was his influence, even at this
time, and so popular had his writings
become, that an Agreement was drawn up
between himself and Bentley, in which
the Author signified his assent to receive
an honorarium of ^40 a month (just
twice the amount of his editorial
stipend), merely for lending his name to

8o The Minor Writings of Dickens.

the Miscellany for a period of two
years.*

With the exception of- the two Addresses
and the " Familiar Epistle," all the minor
contributions to the Miscellany were re
printed for the first time in 1880, and
published in a collected form under the
general title of "The Mudfog Papers, etc."
(one volume, pp. [iv.] 198), by Richard
Bentley and Son. The original MSS. are
still in Mr. George Bentley's possession,
and, although covered with corrections,
erasures, and additions, may be easily de
ciphered, for at that date Dickens wrote a
clearer and bolder hand than in later years.

Hood's Magazine (1844).

When the author of the pathetic " Song
of the Shirt" founded the journal that
bore his cognomen, his friend Charles
Dickens rendered valuable assistance by
contributing to the new venture a satirical
sketch, upon which he bestowed the title,
"Threatening Letter to Thomas Hood,
from an Ancient Gentleman." In this
amusing paper, beginning " Mr. Hood,

* The original Agreement was sold at Sotheby's
in June, 1891, and realised £10 IDS. The MS.
of the Prospectus, in the autograph of Dickens,
was sold in the same rooms on July 23rd, 1870,
for £10.

Articles and Short Stories. 81

Sir, The Constitution is going at last ! "
the Author proceeds to give him warning
of that portentous event, and endeavours
to prove the accuracy of his deductions.
The Letter (signed "Constant Reader,"
and dated " April 23rd, 1844 ") was written
at the time when " General" Tom Thumb
excited a perfect furore, being received
with honour by the Queen. This form of
hero-worship struck Dickens in so forcible
a manner that he cynically remarked that
the way to obtain the favour of the Court,
and to attain fame, is not by means of in
tellectual qualifications, but rather through
being a freak of nature — such as a giant
or a dwarf. This contribution was printed
in the first volume of Hood's Magazine
and Comic Miscellany, May, 1844, pp. 409-
414. The journal was issued in parts,
that containing the " Threatening Letter"
being valued at from £i to ^i IQS.

The Keepsake (1844 and 1852).

In 1844 Dickens composed a set of
verses, entitled "A Word in Season,"
for The Keepsake, edited by Lady Bles-
sington. In 1852 he was induced by
his friend Miss Power to write a short
story, " To be Read at Dusk," for publi
cation in the same fashionable annual,

6

82 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

then under her editorship. This tale really
comprises two stones, both of a tragic
character, the first being that of an English
bride, as narrated by a Genoese courier,
while the other is a ghostly legend, drama
tically told by a German courier. The
volume in which it first appeared (pp. 117-
131) is valued at 155., if in good condition ;
collectors, however, endeavour to secure
it in the scarcer form it subsequently
assumed — viz., as a small octavo pamphlet
of nineteen pages, with the title, "To be
Read at Dusk, by Charles Dickens,
London, 1852." Strange to say, only
one copy of this pamphlet is known. The
type was re-set, and differs from that used
in The Keepsake, although the work was
executed by the same printer. The price
demanded in 1891 for this presumably
unique impression was ^26 55-. !

Cornhill Magazine (1864).

Dickens was particularly grieved and
distressed when the sad intelligence
reached him of Thackeray's sudden death.
In a speech delivered on March 2Qth,
1858, he referred to his brother-novelist
as one for whose genius he entertained
the warmest admiration, whom he re
spected as a friend, and as one who not
only did honour to literature, but in whom

Articles and Short Stories. 83

literature was honoured. Unhappily, in
the autumn of that year there began an
unfortunate estrangement between the
two great writers, which had its origin
in the then recent publication of an article
by Edmund Yates in Town Talk. This
misunderstanding, however, was rectified
shortly before Thackeray joined the
" great majority," and it is recorded
that when the two famous novelists met
for the last time at the Athenaeum Club
in the late autumn of 1863, the un
restrained impulse of both was to extend
the hand of forgiveness and fellowship.

At the earnest solicitation of Mr. Smith
(of Smith, Elder, and Co.) and some of
his friends, Dickens agreed to write a
memorial tribute to the author of " Vanity
Fair," for publication in what was his
own journal. " I have done what I
would most gladly have excused myself
from doing," he wrote to Wilkie Collins
on January 24th, 1864. This beautiful
and affecting " In Memoriam," which
appeared in the Cornhill Magazine for
February, 1864 (pp. 129-132), proves-
that all trace of their estrangement had
vanished. "We had our differences of
opinion," the writer averred, declaring that
" no one can be surer than I of the
greatness and goodness of his heart."

84 TJte Minor Writings of Dickens,

The Examiner (1839-41, 1843, 1848-49).

At one period of its career The Ex
aminer enjoyed the privilege of numbering
amongst its staff such writers as William
Hazlitt and Charles Lamb, with Leigh
Hunt in the editorial chair. In the pages of
this now defunct journal, during Forster's
editorship, Dickens rather enjoyed poking
a little fun at Sir Robert Peel and the
Tories in the form of satirical verses,
to which more detailed reference is made
in another chapter. The Novelist also
contributed to the literary and theatrical
columns of The Examiner, more frequently,
indeed, than is generally supposed. In
1839, f°r example, he expressed "his
hearty sympathy with Lockhart's handling
of certain passages in his admirable Life
of Scott that had drawn down upon him
the wrath of the Ballantynes," and subse
quently he favourably noticed a book by
Thomas Hood, to which, however, he
privately alluded as " rather poor, but I
have not said so, because Hood is too,
and ill besides."

Of the later prose essays in The
Examiner^ special reference must be made
to a friendly article on George Cruik-
shank's etchings of "The Drunkard's
Children," and to a heartily eulogistic

Articles and Short Stories. 85

criticism (written at Forster's request)
of John Leech's pictures, a propos of the
separate publication of that artist's designs
executed for Mr. Punch's gallery. The
following is a list of Dickens's con
tributions to The Examiner, so far as
they can be identified : —

1839-
March 31.

1840.

(?)

1841.

Aug. 7.

14.

1843.
March 4.

The Examiner.

Notice of Mr. John Gibson Lockhart's
pamphlet, "The Ballantyne Hum
bug Handled."

Notice of Hood's " Up the Rhine." *

" The Fine Old English Gentleman.
New Version (to be said or sung-
at all Conservative dinners)." A
Squib in verse, of eight stanzas,
forty-eight lines. P. 500.

" The Quack Doctor's Proclamation."
A Squib in verse, of nine stanzas,
thirty-six lines. P. 5*7-

" Subjects for Painters. After Paul
Pindar." A Squib in verse, seventy
lines. P. 532.

" Macready as ' Benedick.'" f P. 132.

* Although specially alluded to in Forster's
Life, Vol. I., 161, I have failed to discover this
paper.

•f Original MS. in the Forster Collection,
South Kensington.

86 TJie Minor Writings of Dickens.

June 3. " Report of the Commissioners ap
pointed to enquire into the condition
of the persons variously engaged in
the University of Oxford.* P. 339.
This apparently burlesque Report
thus concludes : —

" All of which we humbly certify to
your Majesty,
"THOMAS TOOKE (L.S.),
"T. SOUTHWOOD SMITH (L.S.),
" LEONARD HORNER (L.S.),
" ROBERT J. SAUNDERS (L.S.).
" Westminster, June isi, 1843."
1848.

June 24. " The Chinese Junk." * P. 403. De
scription of the Keying, just then
brought to England, and exhibited
at the East India Docks.

July 8. Notice of " The Drunkard's Chil
dren," * a Sequel to " The Bottle."
In eight plates by George
Cruikshank. P. 436.

Aug. 19. Notice of the " Narrative of the
Expedition sent by Her Majesty's
Government to the river Niger
in 1841, under the command of
Captain H. D. Trotter, R.N." *
By Captain William Allen, R.N.,
Commander of H.M.S. Wilberforce,
and T. R. H. Thomson, M.D., one
of the Medical Officers of the Ex
pedition. Pp. 531-533.

Dec. 9. Notice of " The Poetry of Science ;
or, Studies of the Physical
Phenomena of Nature." * By
Robert Hunt. Pp. 787-788.

* Original MS. in the Forster Collection,
South Kensington.

Articles and Short Stories. 87

Dec. 1 6. "American Panorama."* Pp. 805-
806. Describing ' a very remarkable
Exhibition" at the Egyptian
Hall, Piccadilly — viz., Banvard's
Panorama of the Mississippi and
Missouri Rivers.

„ 30. Notice of " The Rising Generation." *
A series of twelve drawings on
stone, by John Leech. P. 838.
1849.

July 21. Notice of "European Life and
Manners, in Familiar Letters to
Friends." * By Henry Colman.
Pp. 452-453-

Dec. 15. " Court Ceremonies.'' * Pp. 785-786.
A comment upon Queen Adelaide's
funeral obsequies, and a recom
mendation that less pomp and
ceremony should be observed in
connection with such ceremonies.

The dates of the following contributions
to The Examiner have not been traced,
but the original MSS. are in the Forster
Collection : —

1. "London Crime." Contains allusions to

Sir Peter Laurie and his intention to "put
down suicide."

2. "Judicial Special Pleading." Refers to

Baron Alderson's Chartism.

3. " Edinburgh Apprentice School Association."

Expresses approval of the Annual Report
of "this excellent Educational Society."

4. " Macready as ' King Lear,' at the Hay-

market Theatre.

* Original MS. in the Forster Collection,
South Kensington.

88 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

5. " ' Virginie,' by M. Latour de St. Ytres

(English version), and Douglas Jerrold's
' Black-eyed Susan,' at the Marylebone
Theatre."

6. " The Tooting Farm." Refers to a pauper

children's farming establishment at Toot
ing, where a virulent epidemic had broken
out.

7. " The Paradise at Tooting." Strongly con

demning such institutions as the above.
A trial at law was held with reference to
the Tooting case in 1849, at which date
these articles must have been published,
probably .under altered titles.

The Forster Collection also includes a
" galley " proof of an article having correc
tions in the autograph of Dickens, to
whom the authorship of the paper should
undoubtedly be attributed. It is entitled
" ' The Spirit of Chivalry ' in Westminster
Hall," and vigorously criticises the ac
tion of Government officials respecting
Maclise's cartoon (completed in December,
1847), their treatment of which caused
the artist keen disappointment.

The New York Ledger (1859).

The late Mr. Robert Bonner, proprietor
of this influential American journal, ap
proached Dickens in 1859 with a request
that he should furnish him with a short
tale for publication in the New York

Articles and Short Stories. 89

Ledger. Although the proffered hono
rarium was the very munificent sum of
a thousand pounds, the Novelist was at
first loth to consent ; but, his objections
being overcome by such generous terms,
he eventually yielded to Mr. Bonner's
pressing demands. " I thought," he wrote,
"that I could not be tempted at this
time to engage in any undertaking, how
ever short, but the literary project which
will come into active existence next
month.* But your proposal is so hand
some that it changes my resolution, and
I cannot refuse it. ... I will endeavour
to be at work upon the tale while this
note is on its way to you across the
water." The brief story took the form
of "a romance of the real world," and
was entitled " Hunted Down," narrating
the history of an assurance effected on
the life of Mr. Alfred Becksmith by Mr.
Julius Slinkton, of the Middle Temple,
whom he (Slinkton) attempts to poison,
but, foiled in his object, destroys himself.
Particular interest centres in the fact
that the prototype of Julius Slinkton, the
rascal of the story, was the notorious
Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, a clever
essayist, artist, and critic — the "Janus
Weathercock " of the London Magazine,
* "A Tale of Two Cities/'

9O The Minor Writings of Dickens.

the confrere of Northcote, Campbell, and
Charles Lamb, the friend of Talfourd,
Bulwer, and of Dickens himself.* A
murderer and forger of the most con
summate kind, he insured the lives of
young and innocent girls, and then
poisoned them in so crafty a manner that
the crime could never be brought home
to him, until at length the insurance
offices, yearning to be rid of this mon
strous caitiff, offered to forego the capital
charges if he would plead guilty to a
transportable felony. This he did, and,
being sent to New South Wales, was
liberated after a time on ticket-of-leave.
For a while he earned a struggling liveli
hood as a miniature-painter at Sydney,
but he died at last in abject misery and
abandonment. Before transportation he
was temporarily incarcerated in Newgate
prison, and here Dickens, accompanied
by Forster, Macready, and Hablot
Browne, saw the man who, a short time
previously, had been a shining light in
literary and artistic circles ; so great was
the change in his personal appearance
that Macready was horrified to recognise
in him one whom he had familiarly known
in former years, and at whose table he

* Wainewright was also the prinnim mobile
of Bulwer Lytton's novel "Lucretia."

Articles and Short Stories. 91

had dined. The principal facts of this
deplorable and pathetic career will be
found incorporated in that of the detest
able Julius Slinkton.

In a little memorandum-book which
Dickens once kept for jotting down hints
for future stories, we discover, in the follow
ing lines, the germ of" Hunted Down " : —

"Devoted to the Destruction of a man. Re
venge built up on love. The secretary in the
Wainewright case, who had fallen in love (or
supposed he had) with the murdered girl."

Then comes a hint of the villain in
the story: —

"The man with his hair parted straight up
the front of his head, like an aggravating gravel-
walk. Always presenting it to you. ' Up here,
if you please. Neither to the right nor left.
Take me exactly in this direction. Straight up
here. Come off the grass ' "

" Hunted Down" was published in the
New York Ledger of August zoth and
27th and September 3rd, 1859, with
seven woodcut illustrations; it then ap
peared in All the Year Round on August
4th and nth, 1860 (pp. 397-400, 422-427).
The only reprint in a separate form was
issued by John Camden Hotten, Piccadilly,
iGmo, green wrappers, pp. 89 [1870],

92 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

with the following title : " Hunted Down ;
a Story by Charles Dickens. With
some account of Thomas Griffiths Waine-
wright, the poisoner." A woodcut on
the title-page represents "The Fatal
House, No. 12, Conduit Street, W.," and
it is worthy of remark that the scarce
little book, originally priced at 6^., now
realises £i. At Christmas, 1870, the
same publisher introduced the story in
the Piccadilly Annual, prefaced by a
short explanatory introduction ; in this
form its present value is $s. or 6s.
" Hunted Down " is included in the later
English editions of the Novelist's works.

The Atlantic Monthly (1868 and 1869).

After Dickens's return from America
in 1868, his friend James T. Fields (of
the publishing firm Ticknor and Fields,
Boston, U.S.A.) persuaded Dickens to
prepare a story for the Atlantic Monthly,
for which the same substantial sum of
;£i,ooo was paid, although the writing of
it occupied the author but a few days.
It is entitled "George Silverman's Ex
planation," and appeared in the Atlantic
Monthly during the months of January,
February, and March, 1868 (pp. 118-123,
145-149, 277-283) ; reprinted in All the

Articles and Short Stories. 93

Year Round on February ist, i5th, 29th,
1868 (pp. 180-183, 228-230, 276-281),
since when it has been included in the
later English editions of the Novelist's
works. The present value of the three
numbers of the Atlantic Monthly, as
above, is from i$s. to ^i. The little
story has also been issued in pamphlet
form, square i2mo, pp. 53, pink wrappers,
undated.

In the following year Fields, Osgood,
and Co. secured for the same magazine an
article from Dickens "On Mr. Fechter's
Acting," which was intended as a means
of introducing the great tragedian to the
American public — an admirable and
enthusiastic analysis of the dramatic
genius of his friend, whose performance of
the part of Obenreizer in "No Thorough
fare," contributed so much to the success
of that play. This article, absolutely the
Novelist's last casual piece of writing, was
published in the Atlantic Monthly,
August, 1869 (pp. 242-244), and bears
the Author's signature.

Our Young Folks (1868).

About two years previously Dickens
had engaged to write another tale for
Ticknor and Fields, the first instalment

94 Tfo Minor Writings of Dickens.

of which was published simultaneously
with the opening chapters of " George
Silverman's Explanation." The story was
entitled " Holiday Romance," and concern
ing it the Author forwarded the following
letter (dated July 25th, 1867) to Mr.
Fields : " I hope the Americans will see
the joke of ' Holiday Romance.' The
writing seems to me so like children's,
that dull folk? (on any side of any water)
might perhaps rate it accordingly. I
should like to be beside you when you
read it, and particularly when you read
the Pirate's story. It made me laugh to
that extent that my people here thought
I was out of my wits, until I gave it to
them to read, when they did likewise."
To Forster he observed : " I hope it
is droll, and very child-like ; though the
joke is a grown-up one besides. You
must try to like the Pirate story, for
I am very fond of it."

" Holiday Romance " was published in
Our Young Folks, an Illustrated Magazine
for Boys and Girls, during the months of
January, March, April, and May, 1868 (pp.
1-7, 129-136, 193-200, 257-263). It con
tains a portrait of the Author, together with
four illustrations by Mr. (afterwards Sir)
John Gilbert, and initial-letter designs by
G. G. White and S. Eytinge.

Articles and Short Stories. 95

The story was reprinted in All the Year
Round (January 25th, February 8th,
March i4th, April 4th, 1868, pp. 156-159,
204-208, 324-327, 396-399), and has
since been included in the later editions of
the Novelist's works. The price usually
demanded for the above-mentioned num
bers of Our Young Folks is j£i.

Although Dickens received the very
substantial fee of ^1,000 for this little
work, the American publishers did not
obtain exclusive rights, as incorrectly
stated in their announcement of the story.
Regarding the " thousand pound prices,"
Forster remarks : " There are no other
such instances, I suppose, in the history
of Literature." As he truly observes,
these stories — viz., " George Silverman's
Explanation " and " Holiday Romance " —
principally claim notice by reason of the
astounding sums the Author received for
them, as neither contains more than
half the quantity of a shilling number
of his ordinary serials, while their merits
as literary productions are by no means
conspicuous.

The Daily Neivs (1846 and 1861).

During the early 'forties Dickens found
an occasional vent for his radical views

g6 TJie Minor Writings of Dickens.

by writing articles for the Morning
Chronicle — the paper with which he was
connected in his juvenile days, both as
reporter and as author of those remarkable
papers subsequently known as " Sketches
by Boz." Certain of these political articles
having excited public comment, the pro
prietors eagerly mooted the question as to
what payment he would demand for regular
contributions, the sum of ten guineas an
article being then suggested by them ; it
was afterwards considered preferable, how
ever, that he should undertake to write
voluntarily, and leave the amount of
remuneration to be adjusted by results.
Then came another proposal — viz., in
the event of the Novelist going abroad
(as he then anticipated), could he con
template the idea of preparing a weekly
letter for the Chronicle? The result of
these endeavours to secure his services
is briefly summarised in the following
letter (dated March loth, 1844) from
Dickens to his solicitor-friend : —

" MY DEAR MITTON : Easthope is such a
damned screw, and it is so impossible to fix
him to anything, that I thought it best not to
•dally, but to do something — or the good men of
the past, if they heard I was standing out on
a question of finances (which they would be
sure to do from him), might think I had rather

Articles and Short Stories. 97

forgotten Fred's quick appointment and rapid
removal. So I said to Doyle, ' I won't make
any bargain with him at all, or haggle like a
peddler, but I'll write a leader now and then,
and leave him in June to send me a cheque for
the whole. He shall set his own value on them ;
and if he sets too little, the shame is his, and
not mine.' He would pay ANY THING, he says,
for letters from Italy, but that wouldn't do. I
have no doubt he would pay 20 guineas a week.
But it wouldn't do.

" I send you a paper with my first article in
it, the second leader.* When you have read
it send it me back, as I have no other. . . .
"Faithfully Yours,

"C. D."

This attempt to induce the Novelist
to thus favour the Morning Chronicle
was practically ineffectual. The subject,
however, is worthy of notice, because in
the consultation that was held to decide
the question lay the germ of another
newspaper enterprise, which was soon to
be developed. The foregoing events oc
curred immediately prior to the Novelist's
departure for Italy in 1844 ; and on his
return to England in the following year
the desire to establish a periodical was
very strong within him. He at first
entertained the notion of a cheap weekly

* This leader appeared in the Morning
Chronicle, March gth, 1844, and has reference
to agricultural interests.

98 TJie Minor Writings of Dickens.

journal to be called The Cricket which
was to " put everybody in a good temper,
and make such a dash at people's fenders
and arm-chairs as hasn't been made for
many a long day." This proposal was
discarded in favour of a larger scheme,
which, in its extent and its danger, was
(says Forster) " more suitable to the wild
and hazardous enterprises of that pro
digious year of excitement and disaster."
It was nothing less than the founding
in London of a daily newspaper, about
which he was so keen that Forster, knowing
what would be involved by so vast an
undertaking, endeavoured in vain to
dissuade him from embarking upon it.
But Dickens's will prevailed, and the
result was the institution of the Daily
JVews, that successful journal which claims
to be the oldest Liberal daily paper in
the Metropolis.

The prospectus announced that the
paper would be free from personal in
fluence and party bias, and that the most
attractive feature would be the " Literary
Department," because of its being under
the personal direction of the Novelist.
The first number appeared on January
2ist, 1846, the publishers (Bradbury and
Evans) supplying the necessary capital.*

* A facsimile reprint of No. I was issued by

Articles and Short Stories, 99

Money was freely disbursed by the
wealthy shareholders in advertising, and
it is said that specimen copies were
despatched to almost every man in the
kingdom. Dickens had secured the
services of many prominent writers, while
he himself held the editorial reins, with
a salary of ^2,000 a year. Under such
conditions, it is not surprising to find
the initial sheet a really brilliant one.
The year that ushered in the new paper
was a time of great political disquietude ;
indeed, the very day which saw its advent
was that which followed Peel's speech
for the repeal of the Corn Laws, an
agitation which the Liberal party so
warmly supported, and upon which the
Daily News immediately began to con
centrate its activity.

In the first number of the Daily News
appears the beginning of a series of
" Travelling Sketches — Written on the
Road, by Charles Dickens," which were
continued at irregukr intervals until
March 2nd. It is believed, from internal
evidence, that the Editor also had a hand
in the opening Address, and doubtless
there are other unacknowledged con-

the proprietors on January 2ist, 1896, together
with a special Jubilee edition of the paper, giving
an account of its origin and history.

ioo Tlu Minor^Writings of Dickens.

tributions by him in subsequent issues. In
the initial impression an unfortunate mis
print in the price of Stocks (the numerals
93 being accidentally transposed) caused
the Daily News to be regarded somewhat
contemptuously by " city " men, and in
the second issue there is a good-humoured
letter protesting that the arrangements
were by no means perfect. It has lately
transpired that both the letter and the
editorial rejoinder were written by Dickens,
who had probably heard some unfavour
able comments ; the former is quite in
the Dickensian vein, and is therefore
worthy of quotation : —

" To THE EDITOR OF THE ' DAILY NEWS.'

"SiR, — Will you excuse my calling your
attention to a variety of typographical errors in
your first number ? Several letters are standing
on their heads, and several others seem to have
gone out of town ; while others, like people
who are drawn from the militia, appear by
deputy, and are sometimes very oddly repre
sented. I have an interest in the subject, as
I intend to be, if you will allow me,

"YOUR CONSTANT READER.

" 2ist January, 1846."

The reply runs thus : —

"We can assure our good-humoured corre
spondent that we are quite conscious of the
errors he does us the favour to point out so
leniently. The very many inaccuracies and

Articles and Short Stories. 101

omissions in our first impression are attributable
to the disadvantageous circumstances attending
the production of a first number. They will
not occur, we trust, in any other.

" ED. ' DAILY NEWS.' "

Dickens threw himself into the work
with characteristic energy; but, as his
friends anticipated, he very quickly dis
covered that the editing of a daily political
paper, with all its incessant labour and
supervision, was for him impossible.
Although supported by a thoroughly
efficient staff, comprising such men as
John Forster, Douglas Jerrold, Mark
Lemon, Father Mahony, W. J. Fox,
Albany Fonblanque, Charles Mackay,
and W. H. Wills,* he soon sickened of
the mechanical drudgery involved in the
production of a daily newspaper. On
February gth he wrote to Forster that
he was "tired to death and quite worn
out," and had just resigned his editorial
functions, — a result for which his friend
and colleague was not altogether un-

* "No doubt," observes Mrs. Oliphant, "his
relations with his staff would be delightfully
genial, and his room in the office was a
pleasant haunt, much frequented by his friends ;
but the publisher admitted to one of Dickens's
latest biographers that ' he was not sure that
the work did not sometimes begin after the
editor had left ' ! "

IO2 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

prepared. He remained in office, how
ever, until the end of the seventeenth
number, when Forster reluctantly assumed
the reins for the remainder of the year.
Owing to the series of " Travelling
Letters " having begun, Dickens's name
could not at once be withdrawn, and for
a time during which they were still to
appear he consented to furnish occasional
correspondence on important social
questions. In a little more than four
months, however, his connection with the
paper had ceased. The Novelist afterwards
looked upon this experience in journalism
with certain feelings of melancholy regret ;
but of this there can be no doubt, that
had he continued to remain editor of the
Daily News he must have sacrificed the
best part of a superb literary career.

The following list represents Dickens's
acknowledged contributions to the Daily
News : —

1846.

Jan. 21. "Travelling Sketches," No. I. [From
Paris to Chalons.]

„ 24. " Travelling Sketches," No. 2. Lyons,
the Rhone, and the Goblin of
Avignon.

,, „ " The British Lion. A New Song, but
an Old Story." Signed "Catnach."

„ 31. "Travelling Sketches," No. 3. Avig
non to Genoa.

Articles and SJwrt Stories. 103

Feb. 4. " Crime and Education." Letter (i \
cols.) signed " Charles Dickens,"
urging the claims of Ragged Schools,
and descriptive of the writer's visit
to one on Saffron Hill.

„ 9. " Travelling Sketches," No. 4. A
Retreat at Albaro.

„ 14. "The Hymn of the Wiltshire
Labourers." Five stanzas. Signed
"Charles Dickens."

„ 16. "Travelling Sketches," No. 5. First
Sketch of Genoa. The Streets,
Shops, and Houses.

,, 26. " Travelling Sketches," No. 6. In

Genoa.

March 2. "Travelling Sketches," No. 7. In
Genoa, and out of it.

„ 9, 13, 16. "Letters on Social Ques
tions. — Capital Punishment." Three
lengthy Letters, signed " Charles
Dickens."

1861.

Nov. 23. "The Election for Finsbury." Letter
signed " Charles Dickens."

The "Travelling Sketches" were after
wards printed as a volume, under the title
of "Pictures from Italy," with illustrations
by Samuel Palmer.

An interesting incident in the history
of the Daily News is the production of
a trial or "dummy" paper, the object
of which was to test the completeness of
the printing arrangements. This " bogus "
issue is dated January igth, but it was
actually machined on the night of the

IO4 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

1 7th; and "although every care was
taken," says Mr. Thomas Britton, the
late publisher, " to keep the specimen
copies quite private, some of them must
have gone astray; hence an occasional
bet which I have been called on to decide
regarding the date of the first publication
of the paper." The fictitious number " is
mainly composed of debates, news, and
messages, apparently made up, for the
most part, from other papers. It has,
however, a somewhat incoherent descrip
tion of the execution of the murderer
Tapping at Newgate, evidently from the
pen of Charles Dickens — for it foreshadows
his three eloquent letters on Capital
Punishment which appeared a few weeks
later, as well as his letters on the hanging
of the Mannings, husband and wife * —
together with a humorous leading article,
in which his hand is no less manifestly
traceable. The latter takes the form of
an indignant protest against the supposed

* Published in the Times, November I4th and
19th, 1849. These letters, which led to the
abolition of public executions, were reprinted
as an eight-page pamphlet, containing an in
troductory note by the publisher (Dyson, High
Street, Shoreditch), dated November 2ist, 1849.
To a certain extent Mrs. Manning was the proto
type of Mdlle. Hortense, in " Bleak House."

Articles and Short Stories. 105

conduct of a jury at the Old Bailey in
acquitting, by a verdict of 'justifiable
homicide,' 'a person named Jones, said
to be of prepossessing and modest ex
terior,' on an indictment for ' wilfully and
maliciously occasioning the death of five
bricklayers, seven carpenters, two furniture-
warehouse porters, three painters, and a
plasterer.' The person named Jones is
stated to have lured the unfortunate men
to the performance in certain premises
in Whitefriars of various feats of bodily
strength and supernatural muscular exer
tion, to which they fell an untimely
sacrifice. The trial, I need hardly say,
was purely imaginary, the burlesque
comment being written for the amuse
ment of the Author's colleagues and
coadjutors, who were aware of the haste
and pressure under which Mr. Jones, who
was the master-printer, had been induced
at short notice to undertake the work
of preparing the rooms and offices in
Bouverie Street for the reception of the
editor and his staff. An interest now
lies in the fact of its being an unknown
skit by Dickens, albeit its humour
and significance have in great degree
vanished." *

* Mr. Moy Thomas, in the Jubilee number
of the Daily News, January 2ist, 1896.

io6 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

There exists an impression of the first
number of the Daily News which is
invested with special interest, for this
particular copy (now somewhat faded and
tattered) contains in the right upper
corner of the front page the following
memorandum in the autograph of Mrs.
Charles Dickens : " Brought home by
Charles at two o'clock in the morning,
January 2ist. Catherine Dickens." The
writing has been duly verified ; but the
lady was probably mistaken in the hour,
for it must have been later in the day
when the machining of the edition was
completed.

Of the Daily News MSS. in the
autograph of Dickens the following are
in the Forster Collection at South
Kensington : The Original Prospectus ;
the two first Letters on Social Ques
tions, apparently incomplete ; " Travel
ling Letters," No. 7, incomplete, the first
three pages in the Author's handwriting,
the remainder only corrected and altered
by him, and "Travelling Letters," No. 8,
all in the handwriting of the Author,
except pp. 4 and 5, which were corrected
and altered by him.

Articles and Short Stories. 107

HOUSEHOLD WORDS AND ALL
THE YEAR ROUND.

Household Words (1850-1859).

For some years prior to the appearance
of Household Words Dickens entertained
a keen desire to found a periodical
publication over which he could exercise
entire control. In 1845 he wrote: "I
really think I have an idea, and not a
bad one, for a periodical. I have turned
it over, the last two days, very much in
my mind ; and think it positively good.
I incline still to weekly ; price three half
pence, if possible ; partly original, partly
select; notices of books, notices of
theatres, notices of all good things, notices
of all bad ones; Carol philosophy,
cheerful views, sharp anatomization of
humbug, jolly good temper ; papers always
in season, put to the time of year ; and
a vein of glowing, hearty, generous,
mirthful, beaming reference in everything
to Home, and Fireside. And I could
call it, sir, —

"THE CRICKET.

" 'A cheerful creature that chirrups on the
hearth.' — Natural History."

The proposed weekly paper, however,

io8 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

was not thus designated, the above title
being reserved for his second Christmas
Book. Four years later, when engaged
upon "David Copperfield," the subject
was again revived, in a letter to Forster
dated September 24th : " The old notion
of the Periodical, which has been agi
tating itself in my mind for so long,
I really think is at last gradually
growing into form " ; and a few days later
he further intimated that his idea was
that of " a weekly journal, price either
three-halfpence or twopence, matter in
part original and in part selected, and
always having, if possible, a little good
poetry." After detailing a number of
subjects suitable for the proposed journal,
he adds : " Now to bind all this together,
and to get a character established as it
were which any of the writers may maintain
without difficulty, I want to suppose a
certain SHADOW, which may go into any
place, by sunlight, moonlight, starlight,
firelight, candlelight, and be in all houses,
and all nooks and corners, and be sup
posed to be cognisant of everything,
and go everywhere, without the least
difficulty. . . ."

The idea of such " a kind of semi-
omniscient, omnipresent, intangible
creature" as this project assumed in the

Articles and Short Stories. 109

Novelist's mind was doubtless an excel
lent one; but Forster did not consider
its realisation altogether feasible, and had
grave doubts as to its success. Eventually
the scheme took a different form — viz., that
of a weekly miscellany of general literature,
comprising short stories of himself and
others, papers upon important social
questions, and articles upon subjects of
general public interest; accordingly, at
the close of 1849, a preliminary announce
ment of the intended venture was made.
Dickens did not think it would do to
adopt the title first proposed by him,
"The Shadow," as it did not entirely
" express the notion of its being a cheerful,
useful, and always welcome Shadow."
Then came the following, with comments
thereon : —

" THE ROBIN. With this motto from Goldsmith,
' The redbreast, celebrated for its affection to man
kind, continues with us, the year round.1"

" MANKIND. This I think very good."

"CHARLES DICKENS. A weekly journal de
signed for the instruction and entertainment of
all classes of readers. 4 Conducted by himself.' "
(This was characterised as " a strange idea, but
with decided advantages.")

These tentative titles were succeeded
by others, some of which were decidedly

1 1 o The Minor Writings of Dickens.

more appropriate. " I really think," wrote
the Novelist, " if there be anything wanting
in the other name " [the last-mentioned],
" that this is very pretty, and just supplies
it. The Household Voice. I have
thought of many others, as — The House
hold Guest. The Household Face. The
Comrade. The Microscope. The High
way of Life. The Lever. The Rolling
Years. The Holly Tree (with two lines
from Southey for a motto). Everything.
But I rather think the Voice is it."
Presently came " Household Words. This
is a very pretty name," of which the final
choice was made, supplemented by an
appropriate quotation from Shakespeare's
Henry V.\ "Familiar in their mouths as
Household Words."

A few weeks before the initial number
was launched Dickens observed: "We
hope to do some solid good, and we
mean to be as cheery and pleasant as
we can." His fame enabled him to secure
the services of a band of promising young
writers, as well as a strong contingent of
authors and journalists who had already
won their spurs in the field of Literature.
Among those to whom he made a special
appeal for assistance on behalf of the new
venture was Mrs. Mary Howitt, and the
following letters a propos of the subject

Articles and Short Stories, ill

are now printed for the first time, by the
kind permission of Miss Hogarth* : —
" DEVONSHIRE TERRACE,

" Tuesday Evening,
" Nineteenth February, 1850.
"DEAR MRS. HOWITT,

"I address this note to Mr. Howitt no
less than to you. You will easily divine its pur
pose I dare say — or at all events you would,
if you knew what companions of mine you
have ever been.

"You may have seen the first dim announce
ments of the new cheap literary weekly journal
I am about to start. Frankly, I want to say to
you that if you would ever write for it you
would delight me, and I should consider myself
very fortunate indeed in enlisting your assistance.
" I propose to print no names of contributors
either in my own case or any other, and to give
established writers the power of reclaiming
their papers after a certain time. I hope any
connexion with the enterprise would be satis
factory and agreeable to you in all respects —
as I should most earnestly endeavour to make
it — and I should be proud to give you, person
ally, any explanation you might like to have.

" If I wrote a book, I could say no more than
I mean to suggest to you in these few lines.
All that I leave unsaid, I leave to your generous
understanding.

" Believe me always,
" Faithfully yours,

"CHARLES DICKENS.
"Mrs. Howitt."

On February 23rd the Novelist thus
* For access to these letters I am indebted to
Messrs. Noel Conway and Co., of Birmingham.

H2 The Minor Writings of Dickens,

explained certain points concerning which
Mrs. Howitt requested further informa
tion : —

" The kind of papers of which I stand most
in need are short stories, with such a general
purpose in them as we all three have in all
we do. But I only mention this, as a direct
answer to a direct question. Whatever you
may write earnestly and at your own pleasure,
will be most welcome to me. All social evils,
and all home affections and associations, I am
particularly anxious to deal with. As to time,
all that my modesty will permit me to say on
this head is, no time can be too soon. I am
getting a great mass of matter together, from
a variety of sources. I purpose beginning on
the 3<3th of March, and it will be necessary to be
always three weeks in advance. Some foreign
arrangements render this obligatory."

The first number of Household Words
appeared on Saturday, March 3oth, 1850,
price zd., with an Introduction, or " Pre
liminary Word," by the Editor himself.
It was his constant and deliberate en
deavour to make the paper appeal to all
classes. " KEEP ' HOUSEHOLD WORDS '
IMAGINATIVE!" was the "solemn and
continual Conductorial Injunction " which
three years afterwards he impressed upon
his coadjutor, W. H. Wills, the Novelist's
second self in the management of the
journal. It soon became apparent that

Articles and Short Stories. 113

in Household Words Dickens had struck
the right vein, for his popularity would
ensure the good fortune of the paper,
while he would not be under the necessity
of preparing the whole of the text himself.
The new journal quickly proved a financial
success, and in a letter to the Rev.
J. White on July i3th, 1850, Dickens
said : " ' Household Words ' goes on
thoroughly well. It is expensive, of
course, and demands a large circulation ;
but it is taking a great and steady stand,
and I have no doubt already yields a good
round profit."

When Household Words was inaugurated
the only regular staff-contributors of origi
nal articles were W. H. Wills, and R. H.
Home (author of " Orion," the " farthing
epic "), with the Editor himself, who,
however, soon gathered around him
many of the best writers of the day. The
younger scribes imitated, more or less,
the pronounced literary style of their
"Chief" (as they proudly called him);
but in most cases the Dickensian feeling
imparted to their articles and stories is
principally due to the fact that the Editor
often added touches of his own in the
proofs, interpolating thoroughly charac
teristic illustrations and metaphors, which
much improved the subjects so treated,

8

114 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

although at the same time it laid their
authors open to the taunt of having slavishly
copied the " Master." Sala has pointed
out that the strict preservation of the
anonymity had certain evil consequences
to the young writers, not the least of
which was that many of their contributions
were attributed to Dickens, and sometimes
reprinted with his name; this, he con
tended, was decidedly unfair to the rising
authors, whose literary and commercial
prospects were unwittingly retarded by
the suppression of their names. Besides
this, such anonymity, always so jealously
preserved, considerably enhances the diffi
culty of identifying all the papers written
entirely by the Editor ; indeed, any at
tempt to do so thus becomes practically
impossible.

In 1844 Bradbury and Evans entered
into an Agreement with Dickens by which
they acquired an interest in all the works
he might write, or in any periodical he
might originate, during a term of seven
years. Household Words was the joint
property of Dickens, Bradbury and Evans,
W. H. Wills, and Forster. Dickens was
to have one-half part as share, the printers
one-fourth, and Wills and Forster one-
eighth respectively ; it was agreed " that
Dickens was to be editor, and in that

Articles and Short Stories. 115

capacity should exercise absolute control
over the literary department, and over
all agreements, rates of payment made
in respect of that department ; and should
be entitled, so long as he continued editor,
to receive ^500 per annum, and to be
paid in addition for any literary articles
h : might contribute, as well as to partici
pate in any profits that might accrue to
him as part proprietor. Mr. Forster con
tributed without remuneration, and Mr.
Wills was to receive ^8 a week as sub
editor, in addition to his profits as part
proprietor." *

On June lyth, 1858, the printers of
Household Words learned from a common
friend that Dickens had resolved to cease
his connection with them because a " per
sonal " statement which had just appeared
in Household Words (denying the ac
curacy of certain rumours respecting the
Novelist's separation from his wife) was not
reprinted in Punch, of which they were
the proprietors. Although no previous
request for the insertion had been made
either to the printers or the editor,
Dickens determined to dissolve partner
ship, and, by publicly announcing this,
forced Bradbury and Evans to an un
willing recourse to the Court of Chancery
* Town Talk, April gth, 1859.

Il6 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

to restrain him from advertising the
discontinuance of Household Words.
After offering ^"1,000 to the printers for
their share, and various other business
proposals having been made and rejected,
the journal (with the copyright) was sold
on May i6th, 1859, under a decree in
Chancery, so that the printers had i.o
further interest in its continuance. The
sale (conducted by Messrs. Hodgson, of
Chancery Lane) also included the House
hold Narrative of Current Events, a
monthly compendium of news edited by
George Hogarth — an entirely separate
publication, which, not being a success,
stopped at about the seventieth number, so
that sets are now rare.* The " lot " was
eventually knocked down for ^3,500 to
Mr. Arthur Smith (brother of Albert
Smith, the novelist), who acted on
Dickens's behalf. The foolish estrange
ment between Dickens and Mark Lemon
(then the editor of Punch), brought about
by this unfortunate affair, went on until,
years afterwards, Clarkson Stanfield on
his death-bed besought Dickens to resume
his friendship with the man with whom,
after all, he had no cause for quarrel.

* There also appeared in 1856-57 the House
hold Words Almanack, which was partially
illustrated.

Articles and Short Stories. 117

So Dickens sent Lemon a kindly letter
when " Uncle Mark " appeared as " Fal-
staff " in amateur theatricals ; and " when
Stanfield was buried the two men " (says
Mr. M. H. Spielmann, in his " History of
Punch ") " clasped hands over his open
grave." On the death of Dickens some
of the most touching and beautiful verses
that ever appeared in Punch were devoted
to the Novelist's memory.

Having relinquished all connection with
Household Words, Bradbury and Evans
immediately started a new periodical, called
Once a Week, the first number of which
was published on July 2nd, 1859. In
Town Talk of that year it was stated that
there was a chance of Thackeray becom
ing editor of Household Words if Bradbury
and Evans could buy the property.

The final issue of Household Words
(No. 479) bears date May 28th, 1859, and
contains the following contribution by
Dickens : —

" A Last Household Word.

" The first page of the first of these Nineteen
Volumes, was devoted to a Preliminary Word
from the^ writer by whom they were projected,
under •whose constant supervision they have
been produced, and whose name has been (as
his pen and himself have been), inseparable
from the Publication ever since.

1 1 8 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

" The last page of the last of these Nineteen
Volumes, is closed by the same hand.

" He knew perfectly well, knowing his own
rights, and his means of attaining them, that
it could not be but that this Work must stop, if
he chose to stop it. He therefore announced,
many weeks ago, that it would be discontinued
on the day on which this final Number bears
date. The Public have read a great deal to the
contrary, and will observe that it has not in the
least affected the result."

So concluded the series of Household
Words. In 1858, under the title of
" Reprinted Pieces," thirty-one sketches
that appeared in this periodical from 1850
to 1856 were for the first time collected and
acknowledged in the eighth volume of the
Library Edition of Dickens's Works (Chap
man and Hall, pp. 153-435), among them
being the Novelist's contributions to the
Christmas Numbersof 1 850, 185 2, and 1 853.

In 1868 a cheap re-issue of Household
Words was begun by Messrs. Ward, Lock,
and Tyler, the first part appearing on
May ist, price 6d., and continued until
the completion of the set of nineteen
volumes, each being bound in a stiff
wrapper, printed in colours.

All the Year Round (1859-1869).

A month before the last appearance of
Household Words there was published,

Articles and Short Stories. 119

at the same price, the initial number of
a new journal under Dickens's auspices,
which was destined to take the place of the
earlier periodical ; or rather, the latter was
to be incorporated with the younger paper
under a fresh name. On the first page
of the concluding number of Household
Words it was stated that the publication
would "merge into the new weekly publica
tion, All the Year Round, and the title,
Household Words, will form a part of the
title-page of All the Year Round." * The
title, as before, gave some little trouble,
and it is curious that one of the first
names thought of for Household Words
should foreshadow, in the motto which
accompanied it, the selected title of the
new series. Several titles were submitted
to Forster for his opinion, to whom
Dickens wrote on January 24th, 1859 :
" Don't you think this is a good name
and quotation? I have been quite de
lighted to get hold of it for our title.

"Household Harmony.

"'At last by notes of Household Harmony.' —
Shakespeare"

* It was not until May 28th, 1859, the date
of the final issue of Household Words, that the
title of All the Year Round included the line,
" with which is incorporated Household Words."

I2O The Minor Writings of Dickens.

Acting upon the advice of his friend,
this was rejected, as were the following : —

The Hearth. Seasonable Leaves. Twopence.

The Forge. Evergreen Leaves. English Bells.

The Crucible. Home. Weekly Bells.

The Anvil of the Home-Music. The Rocket.

Time. Change. Good Humour.

Charles Dickens's Time and Tide.

Own.

To Wilkie Collins he sent a copy of
this list, for he could " make no way "
until he had got a name. It is a strange
coincidence that the list enclosed in the
letter to Mr. Collins should begin with
"Query. — Once a Week" that being
the identical title adopted by Bradbury
and Evans for their new periodical, which
started some five months later ! Follow
ing this came the designation which was
eventually accepted, together with three
of the proposed names to which he gave
the preference — viz., (i) Weekly Bells ;
(2) The Forge ; (3) Evergreen Leaves.
" If The Forge only," he remarked,
"some motto, explaining title, something
like ' We beat out our ideas on this." *

* In the " Letters of Charles Dickens " (Vol. I.,
219), a quotation from Longfellow is given as
a suitable motto for The Forge. Presumably
by an oversight, the titles proposed for All the
Year Round are printed on the same page of
the " Letters " as titles suggested for Household
Words.

Articles and Short Stories. 121

On January 28th, 1859, Dickens exultingly
wrote to Forster : " I have just hit upon
a name that I think really an admirable
one — especially with the quotation before
it, in the place where our present H. W.
quotation stands.

" ' The story of our lives, from year to year.'
— Shakespeare.

" All the Year Round.

11 A weekly journal conducted by Charles
Dickens."

The first number is dated April 3oth,
1859, and contains the opening chapters
of "A Tale of Two Cities." In the
prospectus Dickens promised an identity
of principle in its conduct with that of
its predecessor ; and not only was his own
personality as prominent as ever, but
he still retained the services of the staff
of writers with whom he had previously
co-operated, strengthened eventually by
others.

So successful was All the Year Round
at the outset that the circulation of the
fifth number trebled that of the con
cluding number of Household Words,
both being issued simultaneously. With
reference to the result of the first quarter's
account of the sale, Dickens wrote :

122 The Minor Writings of Dickens,

" So well has All the Year Round gone
that it was yesterday able to repay me,
with five per cent, interest, all the
money I advanced for its establishment
(paper, print, etc., all paid, down to the
last number), and yet to leave a good
^500 balance at the bankers ! "

Just previous to the completion of the
twentieth volume Dickens announced,
in an Address to his readers, the com
mencement of an entirely new series,
principally with the object of enabling
him to carry out some desirable technical
improvements which could not otherwise
be effected. He also made the impor
tant intimation that the Extra Christmas
Number would be abolished, because of
the probability of its becoming tiresome
through the vast quantity of imitations
that were issued. This Address, with
only an alteration of the first sentence,
also closed the last page of the last
number of the twentieth volume. The
Second Series of All the Year Round
began on December 5th, 1868, a decora
tive woodcut heading being introduced
as a new feature in the first and succeed
ing numbers, while larger type was adopted
than hitherto. The initial page contained
an announcement " To the Public,"
signed by Dickens, in which he denies

Articles and Short Stories. 123

the report (then current) that he had
relinquished the editorship.

With the assistance of the late Mr.
Charles Dickens the younger, rendered
but a few weeks prior to his death, I am
enabled to compile the following list of
his father's writings in Household Words,
which list I believe to be as complete as
it is possible to make it, internal evidence
being the only clue to authorship : —

"HOUSEHOLD WORDS."

Serial Contributions.

1851.

Jan. 25 to Dec. 10. A Child's History of
England.*

1854.

April I to Aug. 12. Hard Times. For these
Times.*

Occasional Papers.

1850.

March 30. A Preliminary Word. Pp. 1-2.
„ „ The Amusements of the People.

First Paper. Pp. 13-15.*
April 6. A Child's Dream of a Star. Pp. 25-

26.
„ „ Perfect Felicity in a Bird's-Eye

View. Pp. 36-38.
„ 13. The Household Narrative. P. 49.

* Original MS. in the Forster Collection.

1 24 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

April 13. The Amusements of the People.

Second Paper. Pp. 57-60.*
May ii. From the Raven in the Happy

Family. First Paper. Pp. 156-

Pp.

June 8.

July

N

Aug.

Sept.
Oct.

IS

Dec. 14

18. The Begging-Letter Writer.
169-172.*

25. A Walk in a Workhouse. Pp. 204-

207.

From the Raven in the Happy
Family. Second Paper. Pp. 241-
242.
Old Lamps for New Ones. Pp. 265-

267.

22. The Sunday Screw. Pp. 289-292.
20. The Ghost of Art. Pp. 385-387.
27. A Detective Police Party. First

Paper. Pp. 409-414.
10. A Detective Police Party. Second

Paper. Pp. 457-460.
From the Raven in the Happy
Family. Third Paper. Pp. 505-

507.
Three "Detective" Anecdotes. Pp.

577-580.
A Poor Man's Tale of a Patent. Pp.

73-75-

26. Lively Turtle. Pp. 97-99.

A December Vision. Pp. 265-267.

24.

14.
19-

Feb. 22.

1851.
"Births. — Mrs. Meek, of a Son."

PP- 505-507.
March 8. A Monument of French Folly. Pp.

553-558.
„ 22. Bill-Sticking. Pp. 601-606.

* Original MS. in the Forster Collection.

Articles and Short Stories. 125

May IO. The Guild of Literature and Art.

Pp. 145-147.
June 14. On Duty with Inspector Field. Pp.

265-270.
„ 28. A Few Conventionalities. Pp. 1*313-

3I5-

Aug. 2. Our Watering-Place. Pp. 433-436.
„ 23. Whole Hogs. Pp. 505-507.

30. A Flight. Pp. 529-533.
Oct. II. Our School. Pp. 49-52.

1852.
July 31. Our Honourable Friend. Pp. 453-

455-

Aug. 28. Our Vestry. Pp. 548-552.
Oct. 9. Our Bore. Pp. 73-76.

„ 30. Lying Awake. Pp. 145-148.
Nov. 27. Trading in Death. Pp. 241-245. L

I853-

Feb. 5. Down with the Tide. Pp. 481-485.
June II. The Noble Savage. Pp. 337-339.
Oct. I. Frauds on the Fairies. Pp. 97-100.
Dec. 31. The Long Voyage. Pp. 409-412.

1854-
March 25. The late Mr. Justice Talfourd. Pp.

117-118.
Nov. 4. Our French Watering-Place. Pp.

265-270.

1855-

Feb. 3. That Other Public. * Pp. 1-4.
„ 17. Prince Bull: a Fairy Tale. Pp. 49-

51-

April 21. The Thousand and One Humbugs.
First Paper. Pp. 265-267.

1 26 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

April 28. The Thousand and One Humbugs.

Second Paper. Pp. 289-292.
May 5. The Thousand and One Humbugs.

Third Paper. Pp. 313-316.
June 16. By Rail to Parnassus. Pp. 477-480.

„ 23. Smuggled Relations. Pp. 481-483.
Aug. 4. The Great Baby. Pp. 1-4.

„ II. Our Commission. Pp. 25-27.

„ 25. The Worthy Magistrate. P. 73.
Sept. 29. Out of Town. Pp. 193-196.

1856.

Jan. 26. A Nightly Scene in London. Pp.

25-27.

Feb. 2. The Friend of the Lions. Pp. 61-63.
May 3. Proposals for a National Jest-Book.

Pp. 361-364*
June 14. The Demeanour of Murderers. Pp.

505-507-
„ 28. Out of the Season. Pp. S53-556-

1857.

Aug. I. Curious Misprint in the Edinburgh
Review. Pp. 97-100.

1858.
June 12. Personal. P. 601.

1859-

Feb. 5. Douglas Jerrold. Pp. 217-222.
May 28. All the Year Round. [An Address.]

P. 601.
A Last Household Word. P. 620.

* Original MS. in Mr. J. F. Dexter's Collection.

Articles and Short Stories. 127

The following were written in collabora
tion with other writers : —

Serial Contributions.

Oct. 3 to 31. The Lazy Tour of Two Idle
Apprentices. (With Wilkie
Collins.)

Occasional Papers.
1850.

March 30. Valentine's Day at the Post-Office.

(With W. H. Wills.) *
April 27. Pet Prisoners.
May 4. The Heart of Mid-London. (With

W. H. Wills.) *
June I. A Popular Delusion. (With W. H.

Wills.) *
July 6. The Old Lady in Threadneedle

Street (With W. H. Wills.) *
Sept. 7 and 21. Two Chapters on Bank-Note For

geries. (With W. H. Wills, part

of second Chapter by Dickens.)
Sept. 21. Foreigners' Portraits of Englishmen. f
Nov. 16. Household Words and English Wills.

1851.

Feb. i. Plate Glass. (With W. H. Wills.) *
April 5. Spitalfields. (With W. H. Wills.) *

* Reprinted in " Old Leaves : Gathered from
Household Words," by W. H. Wills (1860).

f Proof corrected by Dickens in the Forster
Collection.

128 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

April 26. The Metropolitan Protectives. (With

W. H. Wills.) *

June 7. Epsom. (With W. H. Wills.) *
Sept. 6. One Man in a Dockyard. (With

R. H. Home.)*
Dec. 6. My Uncle. (With W. H. Wills.) *

1852.

Jan. 17. A Curious Dance Round a Curious
Tree. (With W. H. Wills.) *

March 20. Post-Office Money Orders. (With
W. H. Wills.) *

April 24. A Plated Article. (With W. H.
Wills.) *

March 19. Received, A Blank Child. (With

W. H. Wills.) *
June 4. Idiots. (With W. H. Wills.) *

1854.
Jan. 21. Fire and Snow.

1855-
Feb. IO. Gaslight Fairies.

Notes on Occasional Papers.

" A Child's Dream of a Star" (1850).—
In a letter to Forster, enclosing the MS.,
March i4th, 1850, Dickens wrote : —

"Looking over the suggested contents of
number two at breakfast this morning, I felt an

* Reprinted in "Old. Leaves: Gathered from
Household Words," by W. H. Wills (1860).

Articles and Short Stories. 129

uneasy sense of there being a want of some
thing tender, which would apply to some uni
versal household knowledge. Coming down on
the railroad the other night (always a wonder
fully suggestive place to me when I am alone),
I was looking at the stars, and revolving a little
idea about them. Putting now these two things
together, I wrote the enclosed little paper,
straightway ; and should like you to read it
before you send it to the printers (it will not
take you five minutes), and let me have a proof
by return."

His sister Fanny and he (as children)
used to wander at night about a church
yard near their house at Chatham, looking
up at the stars ; she died about two years
before the " Child's Dream " was written,
and the sad event re-awakened the early
associations which made her memory dear
to him. In 1871 the touching story was
reprinted by Fields, Osgood, and Co.,
Boston, U.S.A. (pp. 15). The small
quarto volume contained eleven illustra
tions by Hammatt Billings, engraved on
wood by W. J. Lin ton. In 1886 it was
again issued in a separate form (pp. n)
by White, Stokes, and Allen, printed on
ivorine as a Christmas booklet, in a
fancy wrapper and case, with vignette
illustration.

"Whole Hogs" (1851).— A protest
against the extreme views entertained

1 30 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

by advocates of Temperance and Vege
tarianism.

" Our School " (185 1). — A reminiscence
of Wellington House Academy, where
Dickens received part of his education,
1824-26. Mr. Owen P. Thomas, a fellow-
pupil, states that "the names of course
are feigned; but, allowing for slight
colouring, the persons and incidents
described are all true to life, and easily
recognisable by any one who attended
the school at the time." In the article
mention is made of " a serving-man,
whose name was Phil"; this oddity (Mr.
Robert Langton states) was really in
existence at Chatham during Dickens's
boyhood there, and afterwards appeared
as Phil Squod in "Bleak House."

"Trading in Death" (1852).— Apropos
of the State Funeral of the Duke of
Wellington. On November 22nd, 1852,
Dickens wrote to the Hon. Mrs. Watson: —

" I have written for Household Words of this
next publication-day an article on the State
funeral, showing why I consider it altogether a
mistake, to be temperately but firmly objected
to ; which I daresay will make a good many of
the admirers of such things highly indignant.
It may have right and reason on its side, how
ever, none the less."

"Frauds on the Fairies" (1853).— A

Articles and Short Stories. 131

protest against George Cruikshank's
"Fairy Library." On July 27th, 1853,
Dickens wrote to W. H. Wills : —

" I have thought of another article to be
called ' Frauds on the Fairies,' a propos of
George Cruikshank's editing. Half playfully and
half seriously, I mean to protest most strongly
against alteration, for any purpose, of the
beautiful little stories which are so tenderly and
humanly useful to us in these times, when the
world is too much with us, early and late ; and
then to re-write ' Cinderella' according to Total
Abstinence, Peace Society, and Bloomer prin
ciples, and expressly for their propagation.

" I shall want his book of ' Hop o' my Thumb '
(Forster noticed it in the last Examiner)^ and
the most simple and popular version of
' Cinderella ' you can get me. I shall not be
able to do it until after finishing ' Bleak House,'
but I shall do it the more easily for having the
books by me. . . ."

This article elicited a defensive reply
from the artist in Part 2 of George
Cruikshank's Magazine, February, 1854 ;
and it is said that Dickens's rebuke most
seriously affected the sale of the " Fairy
Library."

"Our French Watering-Place" (1854).
— A description of Boulogne, being a
companion picture to Broadstairs in "Our
Watering-Place." It contains (wrote
Dickens) "a faithful portrait of our

132 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

landlord there," whose name is given
in the article as " M. Loyal Devasseur."

"That Other Public" (1855).— The
original MS. (n pp., octavo) realised £26
at Sotheby's in April, 1895, having been
previously catalogued by a London book
seller at ;£io.

" The Thousand and One Humbugs "
(1855). — In April, 1855, Dickens wrote to
Forster : " I have rather a bright idea, I
think, for Household Words this morning ;
a fine little bit of satire : an account of an
Arabic MS. lately discovered very like the
' Arabian Nights ' — called the Thousand
and One Humbugs, with new versions of
the best known stories." Forster states
that this idea was abandoned, whereas the
articles duly appeared on the dates given.

" The Demeanour of Murderers "
(1856). — Bears upon the trial of William
Palmer, the Rugeley poisoner, who was
executed at Stafford for the murder of
Cook in November, 1855.

" Curious Misprint in the Edinburgh
Review " (1857). — A retort-courteous upon
a trenchant criticism of " Little Dorrit."
The misprint here alluded to is the name
of Mr. Rowland Hill. In a letter to
Macready, Dickens wrote : —

" I hope you have seen my tussle with the
Edinburgh. I saw the chance last Friday week,

Articles and Short Stories. 133

as I was going down to read the ' Carol ' in
St. Martin's Hall. Instantly turned to, then and
there, and wrote half the article, flew out of bed
early nezt morning, and finished it by noon.
Went down to Gallery of Illustration (we acted
that night), did the day's business, corrected
the proofs in Polar costume in dressing-room,
broke up two numbers of Household Words to
get it out directly, played in ' Frozen Deep ' and
'Uncle John,' presided at supper of company,
made no end of speeches, went home and gave
in completely for four hours, then got sound
asleep, and next day was as fresh as you used
to be in the far-off days of your lusty youth."

" Personal " (1858). — This is the famous
statement respecting the Novelist's separa
tion from his wife, — an indignant protest
against an anonymous libel which im
plicated others as well as himself. Forster
considered its publication as most in
judicious, and held that Dickens had
altogether exaggerated the public im
portance of the rumour as well as the
extent of its circulation. He agreed to
suppress the statement if a certain dis
tinguished man whom he named should
disapprove of his intention ; unhappily, the
Novelist's views were endorsed, and the
protest duly appeared.*

* It is believed that the only instance of Dickens
suppressing any of his MSS. was in the case of
an article intended for Household Words on
"The Comedie Francaise," which was considered
likely to offend his friend M. Regnier.

1 34 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

Notes on Collaborated Papers.

"The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Appren
tices" (1857). — Written conjointly with
Wilkie Collins. To the first of these
five chapters Dickens contributed all up
to the top of the second column of
p. 316 ; to the second, all up to the white
line in the second column of p. 340 ; to
the third, all except the reflections of Mr.
Idle (pp. 363-365); and the whole of
the fourth part. All the rest was by
Wilkie Collins. This is according to
Forster, but it must be admitted that
portions of the fifth chapter, describing
Doncaster and the Races, are very
Dickensian. These papers were the result
of a tour made by the two novelists, con
cerning which some whimsical experiences
are narrated in Dickens's correspondence
of that date, but which are not recorded
in the published account.

The notion of the proposed trip was
thus broached by Dickens in a letter to
Wilkie Collins, dated August 29th, 1857 : —

" MY DEAR COLLINS, — Partly in the grim despair
and restlessness of this subsidence from excite
ment,* and partly for the sake of Household

* Caused by readings and theatrical perform
ances in the Provinces, in aid of the Douglas
Jerrold fund.

Articles and Short Stories. 135

Words, I want to cast about whether you and
I can go anywhere — take any tour — see any
thing — whereon we could write something
together. Have you any idea tending to any
place in the world ? Will you rattle your head
and see if there is any pebble in it which we
could wander away and play at marbles with ?
We want something for Household Words, and
I want to escape from myself. For, when I do
start up and stare myself seedily in the face, as
happens to be my case at present, my blankness
is inconceivable — indescribable — my misery
amazing. I shall be in town on Monday. Shall
we talk then? Shall we talk at Gad's Hill?
What shall we do ? As I close this I am on my
way back by train.

" Ever faithfully

"C. D."

The first intimation Forster received of
the trip was about the same time in the
following letter :—

" I have arranged with Collins that he and I
will start next Monday on a ten or twelve days'
expedition to out-of-the-way places, to do (in
inns and coast corners) a little tour in search
of an article and in avoidance of railroads. I
must get a good name for it, and I propose it
in five articles, one for the beginning of every
number in the October part."

Portions of the " Lazy Tour " were re
printed for the proprietor of the inn
where the two novelists stayed. It ap
peared as a pamphlet of seven pages (in
an illustrated wrapper), entitled " Sly's,

1 36 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

King's Arms Hotel, Lancaster," and
contained engravings of the entrance-hall
and ancient staircase in the hotel. In
the prefatory Note the reader is reminded
of " the remarkable story of the Bridal
Chamber," which constitutes the fourth
chapter of the " Lazy Tour," and which
forms the subject of these extracts. Until
a few years ago there existed at the King's
Arms, Lancaster, a famous bed of black
oak in the room known as the " Bridal
Chamber," connected with which there
is a romantic legend. Doubtless, Dickens
had heard of this, and, when resuscitating
it for Household Words, threw around it
a halo of his wondrous fancy. It is said
that a piece of bride-cake is still served
out to each guest after dinner at the inn
(now a modern building), in memory of
the legendary bride.

In 1890 Chapman and Hall reprinted
"The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Appren
tices " for the first time (one volume,
demy octavo), in conjunction with " No
Thoroughfare " and " The Perils of Certain
English Prisoners," illustrated by Arthur
Layard.

"Valentine's Day at the Post-Office "
(1850). — Written conjointly with W. H.
Wills. In a letter (dated from Brighton,
March i2th, 1850) to his coadjutor,

Articles and Short Stories. 137

Dickens remarked : " I have made a
correction or two in my part of the
post-office article." This is satisfactory
evidence of collaboration.

All the Year Round (1859-1869).

In All the Year Round the plan was
adopted of giving the names of the writers
of the principal serial stories, but the
individual papers continued to be pub
lished anonymously.

As Dickens began with " Sketches by
Boz," so he finished his literary career
with similar brief papers in All the Year
Round, upon which he bestowed the
general title of "The Uncommercial
Traveller." Forster tells us that " of all
the societies, charitable or self-assisting,
which his tact and eloquence in the chair
so often helped, none had interested him
by the character of its service to its mem
bers and the perfection of its manage
ment so much as that of the Commercial
Travellers." This probably accounts for
his adoption of such a title for his sketches
in All the Year Round, in which he makes
many allusions to memories of his early
days and of well-remembered places. On
their first appearance the whole series of
articles went by the general designation

138 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

of " The Uncommercial Traveller " ; but
when reprinted in volume form each
paper had a separate title given to it for
the convenience of reference.
^1 have fortunately been enabled to
examine a complete "office" set of All
the Year Round, in which each article has
appended the name of the author, written
by a member of the printing staff, so that
any doubt that may have arisen in respect
of authorship has thus been satisfactorily
disposed of. The following list therefore
represents a complete catalogue of
Dickens's contributions : —

ALL THE YEAR ROUND.
Serial Stories.

1859-
April 30 to Nov. 26. A Tale of Two Cities.*

1860.

Aug. 4 to II. Hunted Down. A Story in Two
Portions.

I 860-6 I.

Dec. I, 1860, to Aug. 3, 1861. Great Expecta
tions.

1868.
Jan. 25, Feb. 8, March 14, April 4. Holiday

Romance. In Four Parts.
Feb. I, 15, 29. George Silverman's Explanation.

* Original MS. in the Forster Collection.

Articles and Short Stories. 139

Occasional Papers.

1859-
April 30. The Poor Man and His Beer. Pp.

13-16.
Sept. 24. Five New Points of Criminal Law.

P. 517.
Dec. 24. Leigh Hunt. A Remonstrance.

Pp. 206-208.

„ 31. The Tattlesnivel Bleater. Pp. 226-
229.

1860.
Jan. 28. The Uncommercial Traveller. [First

Series] * : —

(l) His General Line of Business.
The Shipwreck. Pp. 32 1 - 326.
Feb. 1 8. (2) Wapping Workhouse. Pp. 392-

396.
„ 25. (3) Two Views of a Cheap Theatre.

Pp. 416-421.
March 10. (4) Poor Mercantile Jack. Pp. 462-

466.
„ 24. (5) Refreshments for Travellers.

Pp. 512-516.

April 7. (6) Travelling Abroad. Pp. 557-562.
,, 21. (7) The Great Tasmania's Cargo.

Pp. 37-40.
May 5. (8) City of London Churches. Pp.

85-89.
„ 26. (9) Shy Neighbourhoods. Pp. 155-

159-
June 16. (10) Tramps. Pp. 230-234.

* These Sketches first appeared merely under
this general title, but when reprinted in book
form (1861) a distinctive designation was given
to each Sketch.

140 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

June 30. (u) Dullborough Town. Pp. 274-

278.

July 21. (12) Night Walks. Pp. 348-352.

Aug. 18. (13) Chambers. Pp. 452-456.

Sept. 8. (14) Nurses' Stories. Pp. 517-521.

„ 29. (15) Arcadian London. Pp. 588-591.

Oct. 13. ( 1 6) The Italian Prisoner. Pp. 13-17.

1862.
March I. The Young Man from the Country.

Pp. 540-542.
„ 8. An Enlightened Clergyman. P. 558.

1863.

March 21. Rather a Strong Dose. Pp. 84-87.
April 4. The Martyr Medium. Pp. 133-136.
May 2. The Uncommercial Traveller.

[Second Series] * :—
(i) The Calais Night Mail. Pp. 229-

233-
„ 16. (2) Some Recollections of Mortality.

Pp. 276-280.
June 6. (3) Birthday Celebrations. Pp. 348-

352.

„ 20. (4) The Short-Timers. Pp. 397-401.
July 4. (5) Bound for the Great Salt Lake.

Pp. 444-449-
„ 18. (6) The City of the Absent. Pp. 493-

496.
Aug. I. (7) An old Stage-Coaching House.

Pp. 540-543-

„ 15. (8) The Boiled Beef of New Eng
land. Pp. 588-591.

* As in the case of the First Series, these
Sketches bore no distinctive title until reprinted
in book form. All except No. 4 were thus
issued in 1868, in addition to those in the First
Series.

Articles and Short Stories. 141

Aug. 29. (9) Chatham Dockyard. Pp. 12- 16.
Sept. 12. (10) In the French-Flemish Country.

Pp. 61-65.
„ 26. (ll) Medicine Men of Civilisation.

Pp. 108-111.
Oct. 24. (12) Titbull's Almshouses. Pp. 205-

210.
Dec. 26. Note (signed). P. 419.

1867.
June i. The late Mr. Stanfield. P. 537.

1868.

June 6. A Debt of Honour. P. 610.
Sept. 19 and 26. New Series of All the Year
Round. Pp. 337, 361. (Editorial
announcement, signed. Re
printed Nov. 28. P. 596.)
Oct. IO. The Ruffian. By the Uncommercial

Traveller. Pp. 421-424.

Dec. 5. To the Public. P. I. (Editorial para
graph, signed.)
„ „ New Uncommercial Samples * : —

(i) Aboard Ship. Pp. 12-17.
„ 19. (2) A Small Star in the East. Pp. 6l-
66.

* This Series, together with the Two Series
of "The Uncommercial Traveller" and the
paper en titled "The Ruffian," were first reprinted
in the Illustrated Library Edition (Chapman
and Hall, 1875), with the exception, however,
of "A Fly-leaf in a Life," which is not included
in any of the Collected Editions.

142 The Minor Writings of Dickens.
1869.

Jan. 2. New Uncommercial Samples (con
tinued) : —
„ (3) A Little Dinner in an Hour. Pp

108-111.

„ 1 6. (4) Mr. Barlow. Pp. 156-159.
Feb. 13. A Slight Question of Fact. P. 253.
„ 27. New Uncommercial Samples (con
tinued) : —

(5) On an Amateur Beat. Pp. 300-303.
May 22. (6) A Fly-leaf in a Life. Pp. 589-591.
June 5. (7) A Plea for Total Abstinence. Pp.

July 24. Lander's Life. Pp. 181-185.

The following were written in collabora
tion with other writers : —

1859.

April 30. Occasional Register. Wanted — Found
— Missing. (Of these paragraphs
Dickens contributed the first six,
the ninth, tenth, and fifteenth.)

May 7- Occasional Register. Wanted — Found
— Missing. (Of these paragraphs
Dickens contributed the second,
fifth, seventh, eighth, and twelfth.)

1860.
Jan. 21. Without a Name (opening paragraph).

1864.

Dec. 24. The Spirit of Nelson (opening para
graph).

Articles and Short Stories. 143
1866.

May 19. Our Suburban Residence. Private
Character (opening paragraph).

1868.
April IO. Robert Keeley.

Notes on Occasional Papers.

"The Poor Man and his Beer" (1859).
— An account of a working-men's club (still
flourishing) at Rothamsted,nearSt. Albans,
established by Mr. (now Sir) J. B. Lawes,
the eminent agriculturist.* This institu
tion enabled the agricultural labourers of
the parish to have their pipes and beer
independent of the public-house, and the
description of it was the occupation of
a drive between Rothamsted and London
(twenty-five miles), the Novelist refusing
Mr. Lawes's offer of a bed, saying that
he could arrange his ideas on the journey.
The " Friar Bacon " in the article was
meant for Mr. Lawes ; " Philosewers "
was the name bestowed upon the Author's
brother-in-law, Mr. Henry Austin, who
accompanied Dickens (here designated
the " Dreary one ") on the expedition, in
allusion to his (Mr. Austin's) connection

* Incorrectly referred to by Forster as the
Rev. J. B. Lawes.

144 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

with a sanitary commission. The "quaint
old house " so vividly portrayed faithfully
depicts Sir JohnLawes's picturesque Tudor
mansion at Rothamsted. The authorship
of some verses, entitled ''The Black
smith," in the same number, has been
attributed to Dickens; but they really
formed part of a series of " Trade Songs,"
composed by Bryan W. Procter (" Barry
Cornwall ").

" Arcadian London " (1860). — In 1861
this sketch was reproduced in raised type
for the use of the blind.

"Dullborough Town" (1860).— The
city of Rochester is thinly disguised under
this title.

"The Italian Prisoner" (1860).— The
" generous and gentle English nobleman "
who saved the life of Giovanni Carlavero,
the Italian political prisoner, and to
whom the latter sent (by favour of Charles
Dickens) a gigantic demijohn of wine as
an expression of gratitude for his delivery
from bondage, is said to have been Lord
Dudley Coutts Stuart, brother of the
first Marquis of Bute. He was in the
House of Commons for many years, and
particularly devoted himself to the in
terests of exiled Poles, who had found
.an asylum in England. Of him Dickens
said : " He is dead in these days when

Articles and Short Stories, 145

I relate the story, and exiles have lost
their best British friend."

"An Enlightened Clergyman" (1862). —
Refers to a public reading of "The
Bloomsbury Christening " from " Sketches
by Boz," and to certain objections raised
by the Rev. T. S. Coles, of Stowmarket
Vicarage.

" Rather a Strong Dose " and " The
Martyr Medium" (1863).— Refer to
Spiritualism and D. D. Home, the Spirit
Medium.

"Aboard Ship" (1868).— It was after
Dickens's return from America in 1868
that he began the series of papers called
"New Uncommercial Samples." They
commenced on December 5th of that
year with an article entitled "Aboard
Ship," opening with a graphic account of
his homeward voyage. In a letter to
Mrs. James T. Fields, dated December
1 6th, he wrote : —

" I trust, my dear Eugenius, that you have
recognised yourself in a certain Uncommercial,
and also some small reference to a name rather
dear to you ? "

The matter alluded to will be found
in the third paragraph.

"A Small Star in the East " (1868).—
In the above letter Dickens also directs
attention to his second " Sample," descrip-

10

146 T/u Minor Writings of Dickens.

tive of a visit to the homes of labourers
in East London : —

" As an instance of how strangely something
comic springs up in the midst of the direst
misery, look to a succeeding Uncommercial,
called ' A Small Star in the East.' ... I have
described, with exactness, the poor places into
which I went, and how the people behaved, and
what they said. I was wretched, looking on ;
and yet the boiler-maker and the poor man
with the legs filled me with a sense of drollery
not to be kept down by any pressure."

Hardly any of the " Uncommercial "
papers are devoid of personal interest or
illustration, and one may discover in
them the special kind of remedy resorted
to by their Author for those attacks of
insomnia which so often distressed him
at this time. He used sometimes to rise
from his bed directly after lying down,
and would go out and come home tired
at sunrise. " My last special feat," he
wrote, " was turning out of bed at two,
after a hard day, pedestrian and otherwise,
and walking thirty miles into the country
to breakfast." Many of his experiences
and impressions of these nightly peram
bulations are naturally embodied in these
articles.

The First Series of " The Uncommercial
Traveller," consisting of seventeen papers,

Articles and Short Stories. 147

were published in one volume (crown
octavo, lilac-coloured cloth, price 6s.), by
Chapman and Hall in 1861, with a Preface
dated " December, 1860 " (pp. 264). It
passed through three editions, the present
value of the first, if in a fine state, being
^3. The first Cheap Edition, with a
woodcut frontispiece by G. J. Pinwell,
was issued by the same publishers in 1865,
this having eleven additional papers, the
last being numbered 18 instead of 28,
an error that was repeated in two or
three subsequent editions. The Illustrated
Library Edition, 1875 (same publishers),
contained eight new papers, making
thirty-six in all, with eight illustrations
by G. J. Pinwell. One, entitled "A Fly
leaf in a Life," was, for some unrecorded
reason, omitted from the collected editions.
In 1896 Messrs. Macmillan and Co.
published in New York an edition of
Reprinted Pieces, edited by Charles
Dickens the younger, which contains
several additional papers. In 1898 Mr.
George Redway published a volume en
titled " To be Read at Dusk," consisting
of a collection of sketches, stories, and
essays by Dickens, reprinted for the first
time from Household Words, All the Year
Round, and other serials.

By a codicil in his will Dickens

148 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

transferred the property of All the Year
Round to his eldest son, and formally
resigned the editorship. Accordingly, in
the issue bearing date June 25th, 1870 —
i.e., sixteen days after the Novelist's death *
— we find in a " Personal " announcement,
signed " Charles Dickens, Junior," that it
was his father's wish he "should succeed
him in the management of the Journal
so long associated with his name," and
a further intimation that the same authors
would continue to contribute to, and the
same spirit pervade, its pages as hitherto.
From this time until December 2nd, 1871,
the abbreviated word "Jun."was added
to the line " Conducted by Charles
Dickens," when, at the latter date, this
word was dispensed with.

Charles Dickens the younger subse
quently established a new periodical with
the old name of Household Words, but
differing in character from the famous
original. After April, 1895, All the Year
Round was incorporated with this publica
tion, which, curiously enough, is the
reverse of what happened when, in 1859,
Household Words was merged into its

* No mention was made in the journal of
this sad event until this date, probably be
cause the two intervening numbers had already
been stereotyped.

Articles and Short Stories. 149

successor. The demise of Mr. Charles
Dickens the younger in the early autumn
of 1896 necessitated a change in the
literary management of Household Words,
the covers of the September and subse
quent numbers bearing the altered legend,
" Founded by Charles Dickens."

THE EXTRA CHRISTMAS NUMBERS OF
HOUSEHOLD WORDS (1850-1858).

For these Yuletide publications Dickens
sought assistance in collaboration, al
though he always had in view the
desirability that his own contributions
should express and explain themselves
when republished apart from their en
vironment. In each series of the brief
tales which made their appearance col
lectively every December, those furnished
by the Novelist shone conspicuously, many
of them being considered among his
very best descriptive character-sketches
— indeed, nothing is " more astonishing
in them " (as Professor Ward remarks)
" than his continual freshness."

Mr. Percy Fitzgerald informs us that
" the time when ' the Christmas Number '
had to be got ready was always one of
pleasant expectancy and alacrity. It was
an object for all to have a seat in ' a

150 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

vehicle ' which travelled every road, and
reached the houses of a quarter of a
million persons. With his usual con
scientious feeling of duty to the public,
Dickens laboured hard, first, to secure
a good and telling idea ; and second, to
work it out on the small but effective
scale with which he had latterly grown
unfamiliar, owing to his habit of dealing
with large canvases."

Each of the Extra Christmas Numbers*
of Household Words contains matter equal
to one number and a-half, and was
published at threepence ; each of those
in All the Year Round equalled two
numbers, the price being fourpence.
These special issues had no wrappers
until 1863, when a blue paper cover
was added, a feature that was con
tinued in the succeeding numbers. It is
curious that no general title was bestowed
upon either collection of tales in respect
to the first two numbers. The following
are Dickens's contributions to the House
hold Words annuals : —

1850.
"A Christmas Tree."— This was the

* So called, to distinguish it from the ordinary
weekly issues published at Christmas time.

Articles and Short Stories. 151

opening story of the initial Christmas
Number, and, like the remaining eight
tales constituting the series, was essen
tially seasonable in character.

1851.

" What Christmas is as we Grow Older."
—The number for this year also began
with Dickens's contribution, which was
thus entitled.

1852.

" A ROUND OF STORIES BY THE
CHRISTMAS FIRE."

Of this series of ten short tales, two
were furnished by Dickens — viz., "The
Poor Relation's Story" and "The Child's
Story." Writing to another contributor,
the Rev. James White, he said : " I propose
to give the number some fireside name,
and to make it consist entirely of short
stories supposed to be told by a family
sitting round the fire. / dorit care about
their referring to Christmas at all ; nor do I
design to connect them together otherwise
than by their names." This sufficiently
explains the somewhat strange fact that
none of these brief narratives contains the
usual Christmas allusions.

152 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

1853-

" ANOTHER ROUND OF STORIES BY THE
CHRISTMAS FIRE."

Of the nine tales the Novelist was
responsible for two — viz., "The School
boy's Story" and "Nobody's Story."
The former (originally proposed for the
first " Round of Stories ") was written in
Italy, and it is interesting to learn that
the name of the hero, Old Cheeseman,
was that of one of Dickens's schoolfellows
at Chatham.

1854.
"THE SEVEN POOR TRAVELLERS."

Dickens's share of this Christmas
Number contains a graphic description
of the celebrated Charity at Rochester,
founded in the sixteenth century by
Richard Watts (a Rochester celebrity,
who represented that ancient city in
Parliament from 1563 to 1571) for ''Six
Poor Travellers, who, not being Rogues
or Proctors,* may receive gratis for one

* The meaning of the word " proctor " was
set at rest by the late Sir Francis Palgrave. It
refers to those who had letters of procuration
from some hospital or lazar-house to beg on
behalf of the inmates. These men, who were

Articles and Short Stories. 153

Night, Lodging, Entertainment, and Four-
pence each." Dickens, accompanied by
Mark Lemon, visited this quaint Institution
on May nth, 1854, in order to learn
something of the administration of Richard
Watts's bequest, with a view, doubtless, of
dealing with the subject in this Christmas
Number, to which he contributed a couple
of chapters — viz., " The First [Poor
Traveller]" and "The Road." The
former opens with an account of the
Charity, where it is contended that
the recipients were not so courteously
treated as Richard Watts intended by his
will. The Author then proceeds to relate
the pathetic story of Richard Doubledick,
concerning which he wrote to his friend
M. de Cerjat (January 3rd, 1855), when
sending him a copy of the number : " The
first ten pages or so — all under the head
of ' The First Poor Traveller ' — are written
by me, and I hope you will find, in the
story of the soldier which they contain,
something that may move you a little.

exempted from the laws against sturdy beggars,
seem generally to have borne a bad character,
and are several times referred to in the literature
of the sixteenth century. The proctor of Doctors'
Commons, of whom we read in " David Copper-
field," was "a sort of monkish attorney," and
must not therefore be confounded with the
begging fraternity above alluded to.

1 54 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

It moved me not a little in the writing,
and I believe has touched a vast number
of people." In a letter to the late
Mr. Arthur Ryland, formerly Mayor of
Birmingham, he wrote : " The idea of
that little story obtained such strong
possession of me when it came into my
head, that it cost me more time and tears
than most people would consider likely." *
The Novelist's account of the treat to
the Six Poor Travellers (the visitor him
self making the Seventh) is, of course,
wholly imaginary, although many still
believe that everything actually occurred
as related.t It is pleasant, however, to
learn that within very recent years a
lady in Rochester, doubtless inspired by
Dickens's romance, gave a Christmas

* Vide " A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land,*
by W. R. Hughes, F.L.S. (1891).

f Mr. H. W. Lucy seems to have been under
this impression. His " Faces and Places" (1892)
contains a chapter entitled " Christmas Eve at
Watts's," showing how the author availed him
self of the privilege afforded by this Charity by
representing himself as a " paper-stainer " on
his way to London, with only three-halfpence in
his pocket. The author, after vividly depicting
the place, professes surprise on being told by
the matron that Dickens did not visit the insti
tution at Christmas, and that there had never
been any of those festivities which the Novelist
has so graphically described.

Articles and Short Stories. 155

feast to the Poor Travellers who sought
the shelter of Watts's establishment at
this season, and it is recorded that those
who, on Christmas Eve, 1888, and their
successors on Christmas night, fore
gathered within the quaint two-storied
structure still standing in the High Street
of Rochester, found themselves in a
position similar to that of the fictitious
Poor Travellers ; for not only did the
ordinary supper of the house swell into
a hot dinner of roast beef and plum
pudding, washed down with good beer,
but for each man there was a seasonable
card, a pair of cuffs, a full tobacco-pouch,
a pipe, a box of lights, and a sixpenny-
piece !

In 1884 the Charity Commissioners
drew up a scheme by which they pro
posed to divert the funds of this ancient
charity, a suggestion that was received in
Rochester with warm opposition. Happily,
it has not been carried into effect, for
it would have meant the total extinction
of the Poor Travellers' refuge, and of a
Charity the direct personal touch of which
is a valuable factor in it, and which has
certainly been of lasting service to many
who have availed themselves of it.

1 56 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

1855-
"THE HOLLY-TREE INN."

" The Guest," "The Boots," and " The
Bill" constituted Dickens's share of the
seven stories in this number. The re
mainder was written by Wilkie Collins,
to whom Dickens said, in a letter dated
from Paris, December izth, 1855 : —

"The botheration of that No. has
been prodigious. The general matter was
so disappointing, and so impossible to be
fitted together or got into the frame, that
after I had done the Guest and the Bill,
and thought myself free for a little Dorrit
again, I had to go back once more (feel
ing the thing too weak), and do the
Boots. Look at said Boots ; because I
think it's an odd idea, and gets something
of the effect of a Fairy Story out of the
most unlikely materials."

In "The Boots" was related, with a
charming naturalness and spirit, the elope
ment of two little children of the mature
ages of eight and seven respectively, who
were determined to get married at Gretna
Green. That the story did not exceed
the bounds of probability is proved by
the romantic elopement of two children,
aged seven and four respectively, which
actually took place in Flintshire in 1884

Articles and Short Stories. 157

The young gentleman dressed at half-past
three and left his home, while the young
lady joined him afterwards, and they drove
together to Wrexham, whence they pro
ceeded to Liverpool. The parents of the
young lovers, obtaining a clue as to their
whereabouts, hurriedly followed them, and,
after some exhortation and remonstrance,
succeeded in inducing them to return
home.

1856.
"THE WRECK OF THE GOLDEN MARY."

This number was planned by Dickens
and Wilkie Collins in Paris during the
winter of 1855-56. It contains only three
chapters, the first of which, entitled " The
Wreck," was written by Dickens, and
the remainder by Collins. The second
chapter includes some verses by Dickens,
" A Child's Hymn," which made so
favourable an impression upon a clergy
man, the Rev. R. H. Davies, that he was
induced to express his gratitude to the
Author for having thus conveyed to his
innumerable readers such a true religious
sentiment.

In writing to the Rev. James White,
Dickens said : " The number has done
Household Words great service, and has

158 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

decidedly told upon its circulation." As
a matter of fact, it reached the unprece
dented sale of a hundred thousand copies.
Mr. Robert Lang ton states that a
neighbour of Dickens at Chatham, George
Stroughill, had a sister named Lucy, who
was a special favourite and little sweetheart
of the then youthful Charles. The little
girl's head being adorned with beautiful
golden locks, it seems probable that she
was the prototype of " Golden Lucy " in
the story.

1857-

"THE PERILS OF CERTAIN ENGLISH
PRISONERS, AND THEIR TREASURE
IN WOMEN, CHILDREN, SILVER, AND
JEWELS."

It appears that this simple narrative, in
three chapters, was suggested by the
Cawnpore and Lucknow tragedies, then
engrossing public attention. The first
and third instalments, entitled "The Island
of Silver-Store " and " The Rafts on the
River," were written by Dickens, and the
rest by Wilkie Collins. The original
MS. of the entire story is crowded with
notes and corrections by both writers.
The plot was sketched by Wilkie Collins,
aided by hints and suggestions from

Articles and Short Stories. 159

Dickens, who composed the title-page.
At the sale of Wilkie Collins's MSS.
(Sotheby's, June i8th, 1890) this desirable
autograph realised ^200. In the first
leaf is inserted the following letter : —

"TAVISTOCK HOUSE,
"Saturday, Sixth February, 1858.

" MY DEAR WILKIE,

" Thinking it may one day be interesting
to you — say, when you are weak in both feet,
and when I and Doncaster are quiet and the
great race is over — to possess this little Memorial
of our joint Christmas work, I have had it put
together for you, and now send it on its coming
home from the Binder.

" Faithfully Yours,

" CHARLES DICKENS. "

1858.

"A HOUSE TO LET."

A series of six stories, of which the
third, entitled " Going into Society," was
written by Dickens. The notion was first
conceived by the Novelist in September,
1858, when he wrote to Wilkie Collins : —

" Do you see your way to making a Christmas
number of this idea that I am going very briefly
to hint ? Some disappointed person, man or
woman, prematurely disgusted with the world,
for some reason or no reason (the person should
be young, I think) retires to an old lonely house,

160 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

or an old lonely mill, or anything you like,
with one attendant, resolved to shut out the
world and hold no communion with it. The one
attendant sees the absurdity of the idea, pretends
to humour it, but really thus to slaughter it.
Everything that happens, everybody that comes
near, every breath of human interest that floats
into the old place from the village, or the heath,
or the four cross-roads near which it stands, and
from which belated travellers stray into it,
shows beyond mistake that you can't shut out
the world ; that you are in it, to be of it ; that
you get into a false position the moment you try
to sever yourself from it; and that you must
mingle with it and make the best of it, and
make the best of yourself in the bargain. If
we could plot out a way of doing this together,
I would not be afraid to take any part. If we
could not, could we plot out a way of doing it,
and taking in other stories by other hands? If
we could not do either (but I think we could),
shall we fall back upon a round of stories
again ? "

THE EXTRA CHRISTMAS NUMBERS OF
ALL THE YEAR ROUND (1859-1867).

"THE HAUNTED HOUSE."

It has been said that the idea of this
number may have been suggested by a
work, published a few months previously,
entitled " A Night in a Haunted House :
a Tale of Facts," by the author of
"Karan," who dedicated his book to
Charles Dickens. William Howitt was

Articles and Short Stories. 161

much interested in the supernatural, and
when Dickens expressed to him his own
doubts on the subject, he sent a letter
to one of the weekly papers, stating that
the Novelist had requested him to point
out some house supposed to be haunted.
" I named to him two," observed
Howitt, " that at Cheshunt, formerly in
habited by the Chapmans, and one at
Wellington, near Newcastle. Never seen
former, but had the latter." Thereupon
Dickens, accompanied by Wilkie Collins,
W. H. Wills, and John Hollingshead,
went to Cheshunt, visited the domicile
said to be favoured by inhabitants of the
spirit world, and communicated to Howitt
the fact that it had been greatly enlarged,
commanded a high rent, "and is no
more disturbed than this house of
mine."

To this number Dickens contributed
three of the eight chapters of which it
consists — viz., "The Mortals in the
House," "The Ghost in Master B.'s
Room," and "The Ghost in the Corner
Room." He was also responsible for the
opening paragraphs of all the remaining
chapters except "The Ghost in the Picture-
Room," which is in rhyme. Forster
points out that the second contribution
incidentally mentions a true occurrence

ii

1 62 Tlie Minor Writings of Dickens.

in the Author's boyhood; the particular
passage referred to makes mention of the
sale of his own little bed and other
domestic items during a time of dire dis
tress, which items went for a mere song.
" So I heard mentioned, and I wondered
what song, and thought what a dismal
song it must have been to sing ! " The
prototype of Mr. Undery, in the first
chapter, was his friend and solicitor Mr.
Fred Ouvry, who is referred to as being
able to play whist "better than the
whole Law List, from the red cover at
the beginning to the red cover at the
end."

That Dickens often experienced much
difficulty regarding these Christmas
Numbers, in putting within a framework
by himself several fictions by separate
writers, is indicated by the following letter,
printed by Forster, in which special allu
sion is made to "The Haunted House."
" As yet," he wrote on November 25th,
1859, "not a story has come to me in
the least belonging to the idea (the
simplest in the world ; which I myself
described in writing, in the most elaborate
manner) ; and every one of them turns,
by a strange fatality, on a criminal trial ! "
It had all to be set right by him.

Articles and Short Stories. 163

1860.
" A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA."

This number comprises a single story
in five chapters, of which the greater
portion was written by Dickens ; that is
to say, he contributed nearly all the first
chapter, " The Village," and the whole of
the second and the last chapters, " The
Money " and " The Restitution," while the
intervening chapters contain insertions
by him. Wilkie Collins was responsible
for a share of Chapter I., the whole of
Chapter IV., and certain parts of "The
Club Night " — not the stories introduced.*

The scene is laid at Clovelly, Dickens
and Wilkie Collins making a journey
together in Devonshire and Cornwall
in November, 1860, for the purposes of
this story. One of the characters depicted,
Captain Jorgan, was drawn from an
American seaman, Captain Morgan, to
whom Dickens was very partial, and in

* In an "office" set of All the Year Round I
find that the following portions of Chapter III. —
" The Club Night " — are acknowledged as having
been written by Dickens : Detached section of
second column on p. 19 ; detached portions im
mediately preceding and succeeding verses (by
R. Buchanan) on pp. 24 and 25 respectively;
and conclusion of chapter (nearly two columns)
PP- 3°-3 1-

164 The Minot Writings of Dickens.

a letter addressed to that gentleman he
expressed a hope that he had seen this
Christmas Number, and added : " Here
and there, in the description of the sea
going hero, I have given a touch or two
of remembrance of Somebody you know ;
very heartily desiring that thousands of
people may have some faint reflection
of the pleasure I have for many years
derived from the contemplation of a most
amiable nature and most remarkable
man."

"A Message from the Sea" contained
one woodcut — the only illustration that
appeared in All the Year Round. The
story was dramatised under its original title,
and published by G. Holsworth, Welling
ton Street, Strand, in 1861. This was
probably the play which the manager of
the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, announced
for dramatic representation, and to which
Dickens (in a letter to The Times, January
1 2th, 1861) objected for certain substantial
reasons.

1861.
"TOM TIDDLER'S GROUND."

To this number Dickens contributed
three of the seven chapters — viz., I.
"Picking up Soot and Cinders"; VI.

Articles and Short Stories. 165

" Picking up Miss Kimmeens " ; VII.
" Picking up the Tinker."

In the summer of 1861 Dickens passed
a week with Lord Lytton at Knebworth,
and there met Mr. (afterwards Sir) Arthur
Helps, with whom and Lord Orford he
visited a remarkable personage named
James Lucas, locally known as "the
Hertfordshire Hermit." This strange
creature, who was a well-educated man,
the son of a prosperous West India
merchant, lived under peculiar circum
stances at Redcoats Green, near Stevenage,
and his various eccentricities are sum
marised in the " Dictionary of National
Biography." Dickens immortalised him
as Mr. Mopes in "Tom Tiddler's Ground,"
at which Lucas was much incensed. The
" Hermit " died of apoplexy in 1874, and
was buried in Hackney churchyard. The
Hertfordshire village so humorously por
trayed in the first chapter is believed to
be Stevenage.

1862.
"SOMEBODY'S LUGGAGE."

Writing to Forster regarding this number,
Dickens said : " I have been at work
with such a will that I have done the
opening and conclusion of the Christmas

1 66 The Minor Writings oj Dickens.

number. They are done in the character
of a waiter, and I think are exceedingly
droll. The thread on which the stories
are to hang, is spun by this waiter, and
is, purposely, very slight ; but has, I
fancy, a ridiculously comical and un
expected end. The waiter's account of
himself includes (I hope) everything you
know about waiters, presented humor
ously." This refers to his own share
of the Christmas story, "Somebody's
Luggage," to which he contributed the
following chapters : I. " His Leaving It
Till Called For " ; II. " His Boots " ; VII.
"His Brown-Paper Parcel"; X. "His
Wonderful End." It is surmised that
the Novelist was also responsible for a
portion of the third chapter, entitled
" His Umbrella."

In a letter to Wilkie Collins, dated
October 4th, 1862, Dickens gave a list
of proposed titles for chapters, this being
slightly altered in the published version.
The chapter on " His Black Bag " was
an after-thought ; " His Writing-Desk " was
originally written simply " His Desk " ;
" His Hat-Box " was changed from " His
Collar-Box"; while "His Brown-Paper
Parcel " first appeared in the plural. The
original MS. of" His Brown-Paper Parcel,"
comprising eleven closely-written octavo

Articles and Short Stones. 167

pages, characteristically corrected and
altered by erasions, additions, etc., is now
in America.

Writing from Paris of what he was
himself responsible for in the articles left
" by Somebody with his wonderful Waiter,"
Dickens stated to Forster that in one of
them he had made the tale a camera
obscura of French places and styles of
people, having founded it on something
he had noticed in a French soldier. This
was the tale of Little Bebelle, which had
a small French corporal for its hero.

1863.
"MRS. LIRRIPER'S LODGINGS."

"The triumph of Dickens's achieve
ments in these days," says Forster, "was
Mrs. Lirriper. She took her place at
once among people known to everybody ;
and all the world talked of Major Jemmy
Jackman and his friend the poor elderly
lodging-house keeper of the Strand, with
her miserable cares, and rivalries and
worries, as if they had both been as long
in London and as well known as Norfolk
Street itself. A dozen volumes could not
have told more than those dozen pages
did." The number consists of seven
chapters, of which Dickens wrote two —

1 68 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

viz., " How Mrs. Lirriper carried on the
Business " and " How the Parlours added
a few Words." This was the first Christ
mas Number issued with a wrapper.

1864.
"MRS. LIRRIPER'S LEGACY."

So great was the interest excited by
his last Christmas Number that Dickens
decided to give a sequel, which was
similarly successful. To this he con-
tributed the opening and concluding
chapters — viz., " Mrs. Lirriper relates how
she went on, and went over," and " Mrs.
Lirriper relates how Jemmy topped up."
In "Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy" there was
no falling off in the fun and laughter.

A propos of the Lirriper stories, Mr.
Percy Fitzgerald recollects the Novelist
lamenting that in them he had wasted
much that would have been valuable for a
novel.

1865.
" DOCTOR MARIGOLD'S PRESCRIPTIONS."

Dickens had scarcely concluded "Our
Mutual Friend" when he attacked his
Christmas Number for 1865. Becoming
somewhat wearied with a labour of in
vention which the novel involved, and

Articles and Stort Stories. 169

feeling generally overworked, he diverted
his thoughts into this new channel, when
" suddenly, the little character that you
will see," he informed Forster, " and all
belonging to it, came flashing up in the
most cheerful manner, and I had only
to look on and leisurely describe it."
This was " Doctor Marigold's Prescrip
tions," one of the most pleasing of all
his popular annuals, and an excellent
example of the Novelist's humour and
pathos. " If people at large understand
a Cheap Jack," he remarked to his
biographer, "my part of the Christmas
number will do well. It is wonderfully
like the real thing, of course a little re
fined and humoured." Again he said:
" I do hope that in the beginning and
end of this Christmas number you will
find something that will strike you as
being fresh, forcible, and full of spirits."

To this number he contributed three
out of eight chapters : I. "To be Taken
Immediately"; VI. "To be Taken with
a Grain of Salt " (i.e., the portion de
scribing the trial for murder) ; VII. "To
be Taken for Life." He found ample
material for his character-sketches of Dr.
Marigold, Chops the Dwarf, and other
similar personages in the story, in the
neighbourhood of Gad's Hill, especially

1 70 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

on the Dover road, where may invariably
be seen numerous travelling caravans
and their inmates wending their way.

Presumably this Christmas Number
was published in November, 1865, as
Forster states that Dickens then informed
him that the sale had gone up, in the
first week, to two hundred and fifty
thousand ; but there is a little incon
sistency here, for, in a letter to Miss
Mary Boyle, written several weeks later,
the Novelist said : " ' Dr. Marigold ' has
just now accomplished his two hundred
thousand ! "

1866.
" MUGBY JUNCTION."

In this number the names of the
authors were printed for the first time.
Dickens himself contributed the first
four papers — viz., " Barbox Brothers " (in
three chapters) ; " Barbox Brothers & Co." ;
"Main Line. The Boy at Mugby";
" No. i Branch Line. The Signal-Man."
Referring to its great success, Dickens
wrote to Macready (December 28th,
1866) : " ' Mugby Junction ' turned, yes
terday afternoon, the extraordinary number
of two hundred and fifty thousand ! "

Mr. George Dolby tells us that this

Articles and Short Stones, i/i

Christmas Number originated in a cir
cumstance that happened during one of
Dickens's journeys in connection with his
reading tours. On arriving at Rugby
the Novelist entered the refreshment-
room, where the appurtenances "were
wretched and the manners of the woman
in charge deplorable." When Uickens
extended his hand for sugar and milk for
his coffee the woman snatched them
away, saying that he should not have
them until the coffee was paid for. A
page in buttons was so amused at the
incident that he burst out into an un
controllable fit of laughter, and this self
same youth subsequently appeared as
" The Boy at Mugby." The prototype
of " Lamps " was a lamp-foreman at
Tilbury railway-terminus, named Chipper-
field, who proudly averred that the
Novelist not only had many conversations
with him, but gave him a copy of the
Christmas Number in which he is en
shrined. Chipperfield died in August,
1899, in his eighty-third year.

The sale of the number was enormous
both in England and America, over
seventy thousand copies being disposed
of in the latter country within a fortnight
after the day of publication.

172 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

1867.
"No THOROUGHFARE."

It has been surmised that Dickens took
the title of this, his last Christmas story,
from the notice-boards which were put
up at points where private roads or foot
paths abut on public roads away from
Cobham Park, not far from his Gad's
Hill residence.* The story, which con
sists of an Overture and Four Acts, was
composed by Dickens and Wilkie Collins,
each contributing an equal part. When
the time was almost ripe for this number,
Dickens wrote to his coadjutor (May ist,
1867):-

"Of course I know nothing of your arrange
ments when I ask you the following question :

"Would you like to do the next Christmas No.
with me — we two alone, each taking half? Of
course I assume that the money question is
satisfactorily disposed of between you and Wills.
Equally, of course, I suppose our two names to
be appended to the performance.

" I put this to you, I need hardly say, before
having in any way approached the subject in
my own mind as to contrivance, character,
story, or anything else. . . ."

Dickens was responsible for " The
Overture," portions of the First and

* Vide " A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land,"
by W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., 1891.

Articles and Short Stories. 173

Fourth Acts, and the whole of Act III.
During Dickens's absence in America
(1867-68), Wilkie Collins transformed
" No Thoroughfare " into a play for
Fechter, with a view to which it had
been originally planned ; it was first
published in 1867, and is very scarce in
this form. In an unpublished letter to
the late Fred Chapman (of Chapman
and Hall), dated May nth, 1873, Collins
recalled (as far as he was able) the
exact nature of his collaboration with
Dickens, and thus wrote : —

" It is impossible for me to indicate correctly
my share in the Acts jointly written (I. and IV.),
— we purposely wrote so as to make discoveries
of this difficult, if not impossible. I inserted
passages in his chapters and he inserted
passages in mine. I can only tell you that we
as nearly as possible halved the work. We put
the story together in the Swiss chalet at Gad's
Hill, and we finished the Fourth Act side by
side at two desks in his bedroom at Gad's Hill.

" As everything connected with his writing is
part of the literary history of England, I may
add that the Scenes and Acts of the dramatic
version of this story were arranged by Dickens
and Fechter, while I was engaged in completing
a work of my own. The ' scenario ' was then
placed in my hands, and the Drama was entirely
written by me." *

* The original letter is in the collection of
Mr. J. F. Dexter, and is now printed for the
first time.

1 74 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

American playwrights soon seized upon
the story, and an unauthorised version,
entitled " Identity ; or, No Thorough
fare," by Louis Lequel, was performed at
Conway's Park Theatre, Brooklyn, New

York, in January, 1868.

* * * *

With the New Series of All the Year
Round, which began on December 5th,
1868, Dickens discontinued the issue
of the Christmas Numbers. We are
assured that he never had such a demand
for any of his writings as for these
Christmas pieces in his popular periodical,
the sale having reached before he died to
nearly three hundred thousand. At the
end of July, 1868, he informed Mr. Wills
by letter of his difficulties in fixing upon
a good idea for the ensuing Christmas
Number, and how reluctant he was to
abandon it altogether. " I cannot quite
make up my mind," he said, " to give in
without another fight for it. I offered
one hundred pounds reward at Gad's to
anybody who could suggest a notion to
satisfy me." Nothing of importance came
of it, however, and when announcing, on
the completion of the twentieth volume
(November 28th, 1868), his intention of
discontinuing this favourite feature of his
journal, the Novelist wrote : " The Extra

Articles and Short Stories. 175

Christmas Number has now been so
extensively, and regularly, and often
imitated, that it is in danger of becom
ing tiresome. I have therefore resolved
(though I cannot add, willingly) to abolish
it at the highest tide of success." This
decision was not at all well received by
the Press, which emphatically declared
that, to the majority of readers, the
absence of the Christmas Number would
be a national disappointment. "No
Thoroughfare" was actually the last so
far as the Novelist was concerned; but
these annual issues were resumed in
1871, under the editorship of the late
Charles Dickens the younger, who in
troduced a new feature in the form of an
Extra Summer Number in 1877 and 1878.

The Christmas Numbers of Household
Words (1851-58) were re-issued in volume
form by Ward, Lock, and Tyler (1870),
while those of All the Year Round
(1859-67) were similarly published by
Chapman and Hall, and at the office of
the journal.

The various chapters written by Dickens
for the Christmas Numbers have been
issued independently of those contributed
by other writers, first in the "Charles
Dickens" edition (1871) of his works.
A selection from his earlier Christmas

1 76 T/ie Minor Writings of Dickens.

Stories was included in " Reprinted
Pieces," published by Chapman and
Hall, 1858, and in 1898 the same firm
issued the Christmas Numbers in their
entirety, with illustrations by A. Jules
Goodman.

INDEPENDENT PUBLICATIONS
WITH WHICH DICKENS WAS
ASSOCIATED AS EDITOR OR
CONTRIBUTOR.

" MEMOIRS OF JOSEPH GRIMALDI " (1838).

|HE autobiography of the famous
clown was edited by Dickens
in 1837 for Bentley, at which
time he was simultaneously en
gaged upon " Pickwick " and Bentley's
Miscellany. Dickens has himself recorded
that, when a child, he went to see
Grimaldi at the Theatre Royal, Rochester,
" in whose honour," he says, " I am
informed, I clapped my hands with great
precocity."

We read in the Preface that Grimaldi,
after retiring from the stage in 1826,
devoted his leisure to the composition of
his Memoirs, and that he expired five
months subsequent to their completion.
He had handed his manuscript for re
vision to Mr. Thomas Egerton Wilks,

177

12

178 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

who pruned it of its redundancies (for
" Joe " had been exceedingly diffuse),
added some matter which he had gleaned
in conversations with its writer, and
otherwise rendered it suitable for printing.
With the consent of Grimaldi's executor,
Wilks disposed of the manuscript to
Bentley, by whom Dickens was employed
to edit it. The preparation of this manu
script, of which there was an immense
quantity, involved much wearisome
labour. Dickens, undeterred by the
formidable task, did everything that was
possible to enrich the material ; for ex
ample, he was greatly struck by several
dramatic incidents in the narrative, and,
thinking that they might be related in
a more attractive manner, he actually
re-wrote these passages, besides further
varying the form of the work throughout,
" and making such other alterations as he
conceived would improve the narration
of the facts, without any departure from
the facts themselves." Bentley afterwards
acknowledged that whatever is good in
these "Memoirs "was the result of such
corrections and alterations, although it
was impossible to convert the material
into a book upon which Dickens himself
could look with pleasure or satisfaction.
It must not be understood that the

Independent Publications. 179

Novelist, pen in hand, sat at his desk and
effected these emendations with his own
hand, for we are assured by Forster that,
" except the Preface " [or " Introductory
Chapter"] "he did not write a line of
this biography, such modifications and
additions as he made having been dictated
by him to his father; whom I found
often in the supreme enjoyment of the
office of amanuensis."* That the
Novelist could imbue the " dry bones "
of his subject with his own peculiar view
of humour is evidenced in the amusing
anecdote of "Mr. Mackintosh's Covey,"
which he narrated in his inimitable style.

Dickens was busily engaged upon the
" Memoirs " during the latter part of
1837, and he completed the actual editing
on January 5th, 1838. " Grimaldi speeds
but twaddles," he observed to Forster, in
an undated and unpublished letter; in
deed, his own modest estimate of the
book was briefly summarised in that
very expressive word " twaddle." Great,
therefore, was his surprise when, in the
first week of its publication, it enjoyed
a ready sale. " Seventeen hundred

* Forster is not quite accurate here, as
Dickens was also responsible for the concluding
chapter, which refers to the death of Grimaldi
and other personal details.

i8o The Minor Writings of Dickens.

Grimaldi' s have been already sold," he
wrote, his astonishment breaking out in
thirty notes of exclamation, "and the
demand increases daily !!!!!!!!!!!!!

It seems that the critics soon dis
covered faults in the book. When it was
suggested, as a salient objection to the
handling by Dickens of such a subject,
that he could never have seen Grimaldi,
he was impelled to reply, and had even
prepared a sarcastically-humorous letter
for Seniley's Miscellany, as " from editor
to sub-editor," which it was thought
desirable to suppress. In the opening
remark, which Forster has printed in
the " Life," the Novelist points out, to " a
gentleman unknown," who was credited
with originating the calumny, that in " the
dark ages of 1819 and 1820" he had
beheld the great clown, and again saw
him act "in the remote times of 1823,"
although he was willing to concede that
he "had not arrived at man's estate when
Grimaldi left the stage," and therefore
the writer's recollections of his acting
were shadowy and imperfect. The ex
planatory fragment thus concludes : " But
the deduction of this pleasant gentleman
that therefore the Grimaldi book must
be bad, I must take leave to doubt. I

Independent Publications. 181

don't think that to edit a man's biography
from his own notes it is essential you
should have known him, and I don't
believe that Lord Braybrooke had more
than the very slightest acquaintance with
Mr. Pepys, whose memoirs he edited two
centuries after he died."

The book was published (in two
volumes, post octavo) by Richard Bentley,
1838, with the following title : " Memoirs
of Joseph Grimaldi. Edited by ' Boz.'
With Illustrations by George Cruikshank."
Collation : Vol. I., pp. xix., one un
numbered page (" Embellishments "), and
pp. 288, with a portrait of Grimaldi en
graved on steel by W. Greatbatch after
a painting by S. Raven, and six etchings ;
Vol. II., pp. [ix.] 263, with six etchings.
The Preface (pp. xi.-xix.) is dated
" Doughty Street, February, 1838."

The first issue was in pink cloth.
Another, with the same title-page, ap
peared in a binding of very dark cloth,
where the final plate, entitled " The Last
Song," has a crudely-executed border com
posed of pantomimic characters, which,
however, was soon removed. In 1886
Mr. George Bentley stated that the only
copies found with the border are those
issued in Mr. Tegg's binding, and he
concluded (from Dickens's query to the

1 82 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

Fleet Street publisher, "What about
that border round ' The Last Song ' ? ")
that the Novelist considered that Mr.
Tegg had added the border.*

The value of those copies containing
the bordered plate exceeds that of other
impressions, probably because of their
comparative scarcity. Copies of either
issue realise prices ranging from £6 to
;£io, according to condition.

The book has been several times re
printed. An important edition is that
published by Bentley in 1846, "with
Notes and Additions, revised by Charles
Whitehead," and reprinted by G. Rout-
ledge and Co. in 1853. A writer in
Notes and Queries (September nth, 1886)
remarks that the fact that Dickens took
little or no pains to verify the various
statements made in Grimaldi's MSS. is
clearly demonstrated by the requisite
appearance in this edition of Whitehead's
Notes, "data which long ere this should
have been deftly incorporated with the
text proper." Mr. J. F. Dexter, in
his "Hints to Collectors," refers to
these Notes as "supposed to have been
written by Charles Whitehead, but in
reality supplied by J. H. Burn"; he
further describes this edition as two
* Notes and Queries, September nth, 1 886.

\

Independent Publications. 183

volumes, 121110, bound up in one in
red cloth, with only ten of the original
etchings by Cruikshank, and a coloured
frontispiece — the latter being a full-length
portrait (engraved in aquatint by J. Harris,
from a drawing by S. de Wilde) of Joe
Grimaldi as Clown in the Pantomime
of "Mother Goose." This is the only
edition in which the tinted portrait ap
pears, and it seems strange that two of
the Cruikshank etchings should have
been withdrawn. It is usually priced at
about ,£3. A Cheap (" Author's ") Edition,
with Raven's portrait and the twelve
etchings by Cruikshank, was issued by
George Routledge and Sons in 1884.

"THE Pic NIC PAPERS" (1841).

Owing to the non-acceptance of his
unacted farce, called " The Lamplighter,"
by the theatrical management for whom
it was prepared, Dickens converted the
little play into a humorous narrative
entitled "The Lamplighter's Story," which,
a few years later, the Novelist included
among other literary productions — in
cluding tales, essays, and poems — gratui
tously written by various authors in aid
of the widow and children of his first
publisher, Macrone, who died in great

1 84 The Minor Writings of Dickens

poverty. This collection, with " The
Lamplighter's Story " occupying the lead
ing position, was issued under the general
title of " The Pic Nic Papers," the sale of
which (although, perhaps, not very large)
enabled the Novelist to place something
like ^300 in the hands of the grateful
recipient. Although extremely busy with
" Master Humphrey's Clock," Dickens
found time not only to write a Preface,
but to edit the entire contents of the
work, and it may truly be said that if
he had enjoyed the most liberal treatment
at Macrone's hands he could not have
exerted himself more generously in aid
of this charitable undertaking.

In a letter to Edmund Yates (dated
March zgth, 1859), having reference to
"The Pic Nic Papers," Dickens explained
that the publisher, Colburn, requiring
an additional volume for trade purposes,
supplemented the two volumes com
prising the voluntary papers by a third,
consisting of an American reprint. " Of
that volume I didn't know and don't know
anything," the Novelist emphatically ob
served, which effectually disposes of a
libellous statement in Dr. Mackenzie's
" Life of Dickens " (1870), where he is
accused of having helped himself, when
matter ran short, out of "Charcoal

Independent Publications. 185

Sketches," by J. C. Neal, of Philadelphia,
without so much as acknowledging the
source of his material !

The full title of the book reads
thus : " The Pic Nic Papers. By Various
Hands. Edited by Charles Dickens.
With illustrations by George Cruikshank,
Phiz, etc." It was published in three
volumes (post octavo, green cloth) by
Henry Colburn in 1841. The first two
illustrations are etchings by Cruikshank,
which are followed by six others bearing
the familiar signature of " Phiz " ; the six
plates in the third volume are the work
of R. J. Hamerton. " The Lamplighter's
Story" occupies pp. 1-32. Collation:
Vol. I., pp. vi., one unnumbered page,
and pp. 323 (four illustrations); Vol. II.,
one unnumbered page and pp. 298 (four
illustrations) ; Vol. III., pp. 378 (six
illustrations). The price of a clean and
uncut copy is about £5. There are
several editions of the book in one
volume, copies of which are valued at los.

" EVENINGS OF A WORKING MAN " (1844).

Some three years later Dickens per
formed a kind and graceful act in
generously aiding a poor carpenter named
John Overs, who was dying of consump-

1 86 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

tion. During his leisure moments Overs
had composed several poems and verses,
hoping by their publication to leave some
small provision for his wife and children.
The Novelist's friend Dr. Elliotson, who
had shown extraordinary kindness to the
unfortunate man,* informed the Novelist
that Overs could not return to his old
work, and his sympathetic allusions to
the sufferer induced Dickens to take a
particular interest in the sad case. Overs
had already applied to him for help to
get his literary productions into notice,
in response to which the Novelist
endeavoured to prevent him from in
curring the perils of authorship. How
ever, after a personal interview, Overs
wrote Dickens a manly, straightforward,
but modest letter, explaining " how
limited his ambition was, soaring no
higher than the establishment of his wife
in some light business, and the better
education of his children." Dickens was
therefore induced to assist him, and used
his influence in causing several of the

* Dickens wrote to Macready : " What a good
fellow Elliotson is. He kept him [Overs] in his
room a whole hour, and has gone into his case
as if he were Prince Albert; laying down all
manner of elaborate projects. . . ." (Vide
"Letters of Charles Dickens," Vol. I., 49).

Independent Publications. 187

verses to be inserted in Taifs Edinburgh
Magazine.

When, at last, Overs became too ill
for his ordinary occupation, Dickens
further aided him in his literary labours by
putting a few books in his way, giving him
an occasional word of advice, and reading
his compositions with him whenever an
opportunity presented itself. Eventually
the project of issuing some of these
stories in volume form was entertained,
and the Novelist promised to write an
Introduction, which he did, in addition
to editing the stories themselves. These
papers were considered by Dickens to
" possess some points of real interest,"
and he stated that, when preparing them
for publication, he " never altered them,
otherwise than by recommending con
densation now and then," nor had he
made any emendation in the proofs beyond
the ordinary corrections for the press,
"desiring them to be his" [Overs']
"genuine work, as they have been his
sober and rational amusement."

The " Evenings of a Working Man,"
so much strengthened by the Preface,
was eventually published by Newby, who
apparently had offered a certain sum for
the work, thereby taking upon himself all
possible risk of pecuniary loss. The

1 88 Tlie Minor Writings of Dickens.

volume, appropriately dedicated to Dr.
Elliotson, was fairly successful, however;
but the sick man did not long survive to
enjoy his good-fortune, his malady termi
nating fatally in a few months. When at
the point of death he suddenly demanded
writing materials, and made up a small
parcel (which it was his last conscious
act to direct) for him who had acted so
generously on his behalf. This was found
to contain a copy of his little book, in
which he had inscribed the Novelist's
name, supplemented by the words, " With
his devotion," the unassuming and affect
ing character of this incident affecting
Dickens considerably.

Mr. J. Hain Friswell, who referred to
the Preface as "a sweet bit of simple
narrative, charming us with its truth,"
wrote : " John Overs is now no more.
His book, slight and sketchy, is forgotten ;
but the help given to a lowly fellow-
labourer in the field of literature should
be remembered along with the benevo
lence of Johnson and the true Christian
charity of Goldsmith."

This collection of stories assumed the
form of a duodecimo volume, in brown
cloth binding with gilt edges, having the
following title : " Evenings of a Working
Man, being the Occupation of his Scanty

Independent Publications. 189

Leisure. By John Overs. With a Preface
relative to the Author, by Charles Dickens."
It was published in 1844 by T. C. Newby,
72, Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square.
Collation : pp. xiii., one unnumbered
page, and pp. 205. The Preface, dated
" London, June, 1844," occupies eight
and a-half pages. The Dedication was
written by Dickens, who, probably, was
also responsible for the title. Only one
edition was issued, copies now being
valued at from £\ to £\ icxr. A few
impressions were uncut, and these realise
about ^3 each.

" LEGENDS AND LYRICS " (1866).

In Household Words Dickens had been
giving to the world " the pure and pathetic
verse " of a writer who adopted the nom
de guerre of " Mary Berwick," but whose
real patronymic had not then been revealed
to the Novelist. Both Dickens and his
editorial colleague, W. H. Wills, were
much puzzled by the anonymity of the
poet, whose proffered contributions to
the weekly journal they recognised as
very different from the shoal of rhymes
perpetually pouring in upon them. The
identity of the writer, however, was dis
closed in a curious and unexpected

190 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

manner, for it happened that, accepting
an invitation to dine with his friends
the Procters at Christmas time in 1854,
Dickens found himself vis-ci-vis with the
daughter of his host, Miss Adelaide Anne
Procter, to whom he spoke (as of a sub
ject with which she would be sure to
sympathise) of Miss Berwick's work, and
of the especial interest he had in her.
Miss Procter, unable any longer to keep
up the innocent deception, declared
herself to be the actual Miss Berwick,
much to the astonishment and delight of
the Novelist. " You have given me a
new sensation," he afterwards wrote to
her. " I did not suppose that anything
in this singular world would surprise me,
but you have done it."

Several years later, Miss Procter pre
pared for press a new edition (with
additions) of her collected verses, and
Dickens furnished an Introduction, con
taining some interesting biographical
details respecting the clever daughter of
his dear friend "Barry Cornwall." Un
happily, Miss Procter did not live to see
the publication of her little volume. When
forwarding the MS. of the Introduction
(after it had been "set up") to Mrs. Procter
on October 29th, 1865, Dickens wrote :
" The printers have cut it across and

Independent Publications. 191

mended it again, because I always expect
them to be quick, and so they distribute
my ' copy ' among several hands, and
apparently not very clean ones in this
instance."

The full title of the new edition reads
thus : " Legends and Lyrics, by Adelaide
Anne Procter. With an Introduction by
Charles Dickens." It was issued (quarto)
by Bell and Daldy in 1866, and contained
a portrait of Miss Procter engraved on
steel, and illustrations by W. C. T.
Dobson, A.R.A., and other artists.
Collation : pp. [xvi.] 330. The Intro
duction, which occupies eleven pages,
is now prefixed to every issue of these
popular poems. The present value of
the 1866 edition is from ^i ictf. to £2,
for it is not easily obtainable.

" RELIGIOUS OPINIONS OF THE LATE
REV. CHAUNCY HARE TOWNSHEND "
(1869).

The Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend,
a tall, shy man, with something of the
Quixote in his face, was one of the quiet
" worshippers " of Charles Dickens. He
had been a clergyman, whose later views
on the subject of religion could hardly
be considered strictly orthodox. He was

192 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

an old friend of the Novelist, and in 1859
dedicated to him a book of verse, entitled
" The Three Gates," of which he was the
author. Mr. Townshend died during
Dickens's absence in the United States.
In his will he appointed Dickens his
literary executor, leaving him a legacy of
;£i,ooo, partly, no doubt, to compensate
him for the labour involved in arranging
and reducing to book form an accumula
tion of his manuscript notes, consisting
for the most part of innumerable jottings
on scattered bits of paper. Dickens
accepted this strange trust, amused at the
grotesqueness of the office thus thrust
upon him. Speaking of these papers,
he wrote to Mr. William Farrer (one of
the partners of Mr. Frederic Ouvry, his
solicitor) : —

" Those that I have, in which Mr. Townshend's
religious opinions are recorded, are of so desul
tory and incomplete a kind that it becomes an
extraordinarily difficult task to pick out the
materials for an intelligible volume from the
whole mass. If there be no more of such papers
still in reserve, the volume must be got together,
however disheartening the process; and I have
the materials indexed and abstracted with 'that
view. I presume that the cost of its printing
and publication will be paid by the estate ?
No bookseller would entertain the notion of
buying it, or taking the risk of it, I am certain.
And I doubt whether a score of copies will ever

Independent Publications. 193

get into public circulation ; extra sixteen copies
demanded by the privileged public libraries."

Dickens told Mr. Percy Fitzgerald he
could do no more than put this com
plicated material in proper order, and fit
it for the press, and this he did in his
own conscientious fashion — a task which
occupied his rare moments of leisure
during the summer of 1868. In the
following year the book was published in
one volume, crown octavo, green cloth
(pp. [viii.] 293), by Chapman and Hall.
Besides editing the work, Dickens con
tributed a two-page Preface, but for which
it probably would have speedily died a
natural death. The volume, however,
realises about ^i, being valued merely
as a Dickens item. It may be added
that the Novelist presented to Mr.
Townshend the original manuscript of
"Great Expectations," which, according
to the terms of the reverend gentleman's
will, now finds a resting-place in the
museum at Wisbech, Cambs.

PLAYS.
" MISNAR, THE SULTAN OF INDIA," AND

" OTHELLO."

j|N a letter to Mrs. William Howitt,
dated September yth, 1859,
Dickens said : " Do you care to
know that I was a great writer
at eight years old or so — was an actor
and a speaker from a baby ? " His
biographer assures us that as a mere
child the future Novelist became famous
in his own juvenile circle for having
composed a play; and Dickens himself,
referring in after years to his precocious
histrionic ability, remarked: "My first
attempts at authorship were certain
tragedies achieved at the mature age of
eight or ten, and represented to over
flowing nurseries."

Dickens's earliest essay in dramatic

authorship was probably that which he

entitled " Misnar, the Sultan of India,"

founded, no doubt, on one of the " Tales

194

Plays. 195

of the Genii " — a book that formed part
of the small but precious library in the
boy's room at Chatham. A second youth
ful achievement, written in 1833, was
entitled "OThello" (part of the Great
Unpaid) — a travesty of Shakespeare's play
of " Othello." The original MS. of this
crude performance was preserved by Mr.
John Dickens, who gave it away piecemeal
to his friends as a souvenir of his famous
son,* having first inscribed upon each leaf
some particulars concerning the play, such
as the following : —

"This page is from an unpublished Travesty
written by Mr. Charles Dickens, for private
performance in his own family (1833), and in
his own handwriting.

" The 'Great Unpaid ' was,

"Your humble servant,

"JOHN DICKENS.
"ALPHINGTON, 6 June, 1842."

One of the earliest printed playbills
in which Dickens's name is included
in the cast is dated April 27th, 1833,
the occasion being private theatricals in

* One of these fragments realised ^35 at the
Wright Sale (Sotheby's. 1899). In "Mrs. Joseph
Porter over the Way" ("Sketches by Boz")
there is an amusing account of an amateur
performance of " Othello," which may possibly be
a reminiscence of his own little drama.

196 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

a hired hall, when he, with some relatives
and friends, sustained various parts. The
most important item in the triple bill
was an opera called " Clari," which was
followed by "the favourite interlude of
'The Married Bachelor,'" and "The Farce
of Amateurs and Actors." Perhaps Dickens
was also responsible for a portion, at least,
of the text of the minor compositions.

"THE STRANGE GENTLEMAN" (1836).

Although, from this time, Literature
claimed the principal share of Dickens's
attention, it did not entirely monopolise
it. The stage ever possessed attractions
for him ; and as soon as he terminated his
connection with the Reporters' Gallery —
that is, at the close of the Session of 1836
— he was induced to take considerable
interest in the then newly built St. James's
Theatre, which was under the manage
ment of John Braham, the famous English
tenor. He even essayed to write ("as a
practical joke," the Author afterwards ex
plained) a small farce, in aid of Braham's
•enterprise, called " The Strange Gentle
man," adapting it from " The Great
Winglebury Duel " (one of the " Sketches
by Boz "), the " comic burletta " having
no special feature distinguishing it from

Plays. 197

the original tale, unless it be the effective
bustle of the opening. The initial per
formance took place on September zpth,
1836, on the first night of the season,
J. P. Harley (Braham's stage-manager, for
whom the farce was expressly written)
assuming the title-role, thus giving some
vitality to a play which really possessed
no great merit. Dickens was a constant
visitor at the theatre during its repre
sentation ; indeed, it is said that he once
took a part in it, and that his debut on the
public stage was not very satisfactory.
" The Strange Gentleman " met with a
fair measure of success, running sixty
nights, and the Author himself was
delighted with the performances, declaring
Harley's impersonation to be the best
thing he ever did, although he confessed
to Macready that he did not hold the
burlesque itself in any estimation.

The whimsical little play consists of the
mistakes made at an inn on the North road,
where the various personages, arriving
with separate objects, are led into a series
of misconceptions as to each other's
identity and purposes. The incidents
which arise are ingeniously contrived, and
produce exceedingly grotesque situations,
Harley's droll acting of the Strange
Gentleman exciting a continual roar of

198 TJie Minor Writings of Dickens.

laughter. It may be mentioned that
among the ladies in the cast were the
Misses Smith, nieces of the famous Kitty
Stephens, afterwards Countess of Essex,
and Madame Sala, the mother of G. A.
Sala, who made a favourable debut on
this occasion.

The full title of the play, which was not
published until the following year,* runs
thus : —

" THE STRANGE GENTLEMAN ; a comic Burletta,
in Two Acts. By ' Boz.' First performed at the
St. James's Theatre, on Thursday, September 29th,
1836. London: Chapman and Hall, 1 86, Strand.
MDCCCXXXVII."

It appeared- in a lavender-coloured
wrapper, and with a frontispiece by
" Phiz." Collation : One unnumbered
page, and pp. 46. Mr. J. F. Dexter
believes that some copies of the first
edition must have been issued without a
frontispiece, as it is the exception to
find an impression containing it. It was
reprinted some years later, minus the
frontispiece, but Mr. F. W. Pailthorpe
etched one for it after publication. This
reprint is an excellent imitation of the

* A printed copy of the play was in circulation
at the theatre when first performed in 1836.

Plays. 199

original, from which it can hardly be
distinguished. An unauthorised repro
duction has also been circulated, and, as
it bears no indication that it is merely a
reprint, collectors should be wary of
purchasing it as an original impression.

Being, perhaps, the rarest of Dickens's
writings, it is not surprising that a
much-enhanced value attaches to a genuine
first edition of " The Strange Gentleman,"
a copy of which very few Dickens
collectors possess. Its present price is
from ,£15 to £20 with the frontispiece,
and from ^8 to £10 without it. An
extraordinary sum was realised at
Sotheby's in August, 1892, for a copy
(in the original wrapper) of this play,
which was disposed of for £45. At the
sale of the Wright Collection in 1899 a
copy of the first edition, containing the
original drawing by " Phiz " for the
frontispiece, was purchased for ^84.
Copies of the original playbills, not
easily obtainable, are valued at a guinea
apiece.

"THE VILLAGE COQUETTES" (1836).

In 1835 Dickens became acquainted
with a musical composer of the same age
as himself, who afterwards became known

2OO The Minor Writings of Dickens.

as Government inspector of musical in
struction in elementary schools. This
was John Hullah, who, a year or two
prior to their first meeting, had set to
music some portion of an opera called
" The Gondolier," and, being captivated
by the title, it occurred to him that he
and Dickens might combine their forces.
" Boz " entered into the scheme at once,
but preferred making the drama an
English one. "I have a little story by
me," he wrote to Hullah, " which I have
not yet published, which I think would
dramatize well. If you approve of my
idea, it is done in a twinkling ; if not,
I will work out your original notion ; but
I will frankly confess that, while I am
at home in England, I am in Venice
abroad indeed." The title of "The
Gondolier" was abandoned, and a novel
subject having presented itself to Dickens,
it was, after many consultations, put
forward as "The Village Coquettes," of
which certain songs, duets, and concerted
pieces soon formed constituent parts.
This " comic opera " was offered to, and
accepted by, the lessee of the St. James's
Theatre, Mr. Braham, who highly ap
preciated it, and expressed an earnest
desire to be the first to introduce its
Author to the public as a dramatic writer.

Plays. 20 1

Harley wrote, after reading the opera :
" It's a sure card — nothing wrong there.
Bet you ten pound it runs fifty nights.
Come ; don't be afraid. You'll be the
gainer by it, and you mustn't mind
betting ; ifs a capital custom." *

" The Village Coquettes " was played
for the first time on December 6th, 1836,
with Braham himself in the cast-t In
his Preface to the published play Dickens,
in an apologetic vein, remarked that " the
libretto of an opera must be, to a certain
extent, a mere vehicle for the music ; and
that it is scarcely fair or reasonable to
judge it by those strict rules of criticism
which would be justly applicable to a
five-act tragedy, or a finished comedy."

"The Village Coquettes" was dedi
cated to J. P. Harley, who took part in
the performance. In this play John
Parry, junior, made his debut on the
London stage, afterwards becoming emi
nent as a skilled vocalist and harpist.

* The phrases italicised are playful adoptions
of two favourite expressions of Martin Stokes,
the character which Harley assumed in " The
Village Coquettes."

f "Life of John Hullah." By his Wife (1886).
Although " The Strange Gentleman " was the
first to be performed, it is evident that the
writing of " The Village Coquettes " had pre
viously engaged Dickens's attention.

2O2 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

The Dedication assumed the form of a
letter addressed to Harley, thus : —

"Mv DEAR SIR, — My dramatic bantlings are
no sooner born, than you father them. You
have made my ' Strange Gentleman ' exclusively
your own ; you have adopted Martin Stokes
with equal readiness ; and you still profess your
willingness to do the same kind office for all
future scions of the same stock.

" I dedicate to you, the first play I ever
published; and you made for me, the first play
I ever produced : — the balance is in your favour,
and I am afraid it will remain so.

" That you may long contribute to the amuse
ment of the public, and long be spared to shed
a lustre, by the honour and integrity of your
private life, on the profession which for many
years you have done so much to uphold, is the
sincere and earnest wish of, my dear Sir,
" Yours most faithfully,

" CHARLES DICKENS.

"December i$th, 1836."

The operetta was represented in London
nineteen times during the season, and
afterwards in Edinburgh, under the
management of Mr. Ramsay, a friend of
Sir Walter Scott. Its merits, however,
were based upon the songs set to Hullah's
music rather than upon the play itself.
Harley, whose reputation is said to have
been established on this occasion, highly
commended these songs.

The play has been described as a

Plays. 203

compound of General Burgoyne's " Lord
of the Manor " and Douglas Jerrold's
" Rent Day," being also reminiscent
of " Love in a Village " and Column's
"John Bull." Sala witnessed the initial
representation, and, although but a boy
of ten years old at the time, retained a
vivid impression of the event, perhaps
because, on going behind the scenes
with his mother, he set eyes for the first
time upon the great Master of Fiction
who eventually did so much to shape the
destiny of the eminent journalist. The
play was similarly memorable to Forster,
for a copy of it was sent to him, and
was thus the means of bringing him into
personal communication with Dickens,
although, curiously enough, he has re
corded nothing of interest respecting the
operetta itself.

According to an announcement that
appeared in the playbill on December yth
and following nights, " this Burletta
experienced one of the most triumphant
receptions ever known." Although much
praised by prominent musical journals,
a few critics spoke disparagingly of " The
Village Coquettes," which gave rise to the
following letter (December nth, 1836)
from Dickens to John Hullah : —

"Have you seen The Examiner 1 It is rather

204 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

depreciatory of the opera ; but, like all inveterate
critiques against Braham, so well done I
cannot help laughing at it, for the life and soul
of me. I have seen The Sunday Times, The
Dispatch, and The Satirist, all of which blow
their critic trumpets against unhappy me most
lustily. Either I must have grievously awakened
the ire of all the 'adapters' and their friends,
or the drama must be decidedly bad. I haven't
made up my mind yet which of the two is the
fact."

The Author, however, was not at all
depressed by the unfavourable comments
passed upon his libretto. Indeed, as
time progressed he began to realise that
there was some truth in them, and when,
in 1843, it was proposed to revive "The
Village Coquettes," he vigorously objected.

"Pray tell that besotted to let the

opera sink into its native obscurity," he
remarked to R. H. Home. " I did it
in a fit of damnable good nature long
ago, for Hullah, who wrote some very
pretty music to it. I just put down for
everybody what everybody at the St.
James's Theatre wanted to say and do,
and that they could say and do best, and
I have been most sincerely repentant ever
since." He further averred that both the
operetta and the farce of " The Strange
Gentleman " were done " without the
least consideration or regard to reputation,"

Plays. 205

and added that he " wouldn't repeat them
for a thousand pounds apiece." Dickens
devoutly wished these "dramatic bant
lings " to be forgotten, and about a year
before his death, when asked by Mr.
Frederick Locker whether he possessed
a copy of " The Village Coquettes," his
reply was, " No ; and if I knew it was in
my house, and if I could not get rid of
it in any other way, I would burn the
wing of the house where it was ! "

The operetta, although subsequently
acted, was published before " The Strange
Gentleman." The title-page reads as
follows : —

"THE VILLAGE COQUETTES: A Comic Opera.
In Two Acts. By Charles Dickens. The Music
by John Hullah. London : Richard Bentley,
New Burlington Street, 1836."

It contained seventy-one pages of text
(demy octavo), and a Dedication to J. P.
Harley. The opera was also printed and
published in 1837 by Bradbury and Evans,
and sold for iod. in the theatre, while
the management of the theatre sold
pamphlets containing the musical portion
of the play. The words of the opera
were reprinted in facsimile by R. Bentley
in 1878, the title of which bears on the
reverse the statement that it is a reprint ;

206 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

a frontispiece for this was etched by
F. W. Pailthorpe a year later, and it
was issued independently. Other title-
pages have been printed, not by Mr.
Bentley, in which is omitted the notifica
tion as to "reprint," so that collectors
should be cautious. A copy of the
rare first edition in sheets was recently
purchased at auction for nine guineas,
but such an impression sometimes realises
;£io or ;£i2. A particularly fine copy
was sold at Sotheby's in 1889 for ^"25.
Six or seven years ago a mass of waste-
paper from a printer's warehouse was
returned to the mills to be pulped, and
would certainly have been destroyed had
not one of the workmen employed upon
the premises caught sight of the name
" Charles Dickens " upon some of the
sheets. The whole parcel was carefully
examined, and the searchers were
rewarded by the discovery of nearly
a hundred copies of " The Village
Coquettes " in quires, clean and unfolded.
These were passed into the market, and
the price at once fell to something like
^"5. The genuine facsimile reprint by
Bentley may be obtained for 5^. or 6s.

Not many days after the performance
of the opera in Edinburgh the theatre
was destroyed by fire, together with the

Plays. 207

score and separate parts; a few copies
of these were recovered, but the con
ceited music perished utterly.

"Is SHE His WIFE? OR, SOMETHING
SINGULAR!" (1837).

While Forster makes but bare refer
ence to "The Strange Gentleman" and
"The Village Coquettes," he seems to
have been entirely ignorant of the exist
ence of a third play by Charles Dickens,
entitled "Is She His Wife? or, Some
thing Singular ! " This comic burletta
first saw the light at the St. James's
Theatre on March 6th, 1837, with J. P.
Harley in the principal role. This piece
was a farce, pure and simple, the cast of
which included only six characters, and
a propos of which Sala had a distinct
recollection of his mother having im
personated the part of Mrs. Peter Limbury,
although he could not recall that the
burletta was the production of Charles
Dickens. A printed copy of the farce
which found its way into the extensive
collection of Dickensiana formed by the
late Mr. W. R. Hughes, of Birmingham,
contains this note in Sala's autograph :
" In the playbill of the St. James's Theatre
for the 6th March, 1837, no author's name

208 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

is announced, as that of the play ' Is She
His Wife ? ' ; but the piece was again per
formed, on the 1 3th March, on the occa
sion of Mr. Harley's benefit, and it was
then announced on the bill of the day
that ' Is She His Wife ? ' was by ' Boz.' "
Another MS. note informs us that " Miss
Allison, or Alison, subsequently became
the celebrated actress Mrs. Seymour, and
was afterwards married (or morganatically
so) to Charles Reade." Mr. Richard
Herne Shepherd, in an interesting article
contributed by him in 1880 to a now-
defunct journal, The Pen, thus wrote
concerning " Is She His Wife ? " : " The
existence of such a piece first became
vaguely known to or vaguely suspected
by me from a loose mention of it in the
Era Almanack of 1868-69, or thereabouts,
at the time I was preparing for the press
a collection of Dickens's Speeches, in the
Introduction to which I reproduced with
out addition or comment the same lax
statement, which, however, has since
proved to be perfectly accurate." Mr.
Shepherd opportunely discovered some
of the original playbills, which definitely
decided the question of authorship.

It is highly probable that a copy of the
original issue of " Is She His Wife ? " is
not extant in this country. That such a

Plays. 209

copy existed about 1876 is proved by the
fact that Mr. Osgood, the well-known
publisher of Boston, U.S., obtained one
from an English collector, who had pur
chased it from the stock of T. H. Lacy,
the theatrical bookseller, for £6. It was
a pamphlet, demy octavo, of some thirty
pages, without wrapper, and (it is believed)
published in England at the time the
play was acted. From this, the only
known copy of the little farce, Mr. Osgood
produced a reprint, bearing the title :
" Is SHE His WIFE ? OR, SOMETHING
SINGULAR ! A Comic Burletta in One
Act. By Charles Dickens. Boston :
James R. Osgood and Co. 1877." It
was published at 2s.

This reprint (a i2mo volume of eighty
pages) is apparently the earliest form in
which the play is to be found in type,
for the original copy was consumed in
the fire which destroyed the business
premises of Messrs. Osgood in December,
1879. Should, therefore, a copy of the
first issue unexpectedly come to light, it
would create a sensation amongst biblio
philes. The American reprint is valued
at from i$s. to 2os., being somewhat
scarce. The original playbills realise a
guinea apiece, but are seldom met with ;
a few of them, however, were discovered

14

2io The Minor Writings of Dickens.

amongst a lot of rubbish during the
alterations at the St. James's Theatre
some years ago, and these were quickly
pounced upon by collectors. The play
has also been reprinted by J. R. Osgood,
Boston, U.S. ("Vest-pocket" series,
price 2s.), and as a pamphlet (pp. 22, buff
wrapper), the latter having neither date
nor publisher's imprint.

"THE LAMPLIGHTER" (1838).

Concerning the three dramatic pieces
written by Dickens for the St. James's
Theatre, it may be remarked that nothing
but their rarity and Dickens's name have
preserved them from oblivion. The fol
lowing undated letter from the Novelist
to J. P. Harley refers to overtures or
negotiations for a fourth play, which,
apparently, was never written, not, at any
rate, for Braham's theatre : —

" I have considered the terms on which I
could afford just now to sell Mr. Braham the
acting copyright in London of an entirely new
piece for the St. James's Theatre ; and I could
not sit down to write one in a single act of
about one hour long, under a hundred pounds.
For a new piece in two acts, a hundred and fifty
pounds would be the sum I should require.

" I do not know whether, with reference to
arrangements that were made with any other

Plays. 2 1 1

writers, this may or may not appear a large
item. I state it merely with regard to the value
of my own time and writings at this moment ;
and in so doing I assure you I place the re
muneration below the mark rather than above it.
" As you begged me to give you my reply
upon this point, perhaps you will lay it before
Mr. Braham. If these terms exceed his inclina
tion or the ability of the theatre, there is an
end of the matter, and no harm done."

In the Theatrical Observer of November
i5th, 1837, we find the following state
ment : " Mr. Charles Dickens, author of
the ' Pickwick Papers,' has received
most liberal offers from Mr. Macready to
write for Covent Garden, but we are in
formed that they have been declined. . . .
It is confidently said that ^500 down,
together with contingent advantages, were
promised by the manager for a comedy
in five acts." There is evidence, how
ever, that in 1838 the Novelist had agreed
to prepare a play for the famous actor-
manager, as, in a letter of that date, ad
dressed to Macready, Dickens explained
that the delay in delivering the MS. of
the said play, called "The Lamplighter,"
was caused by the demand made upon
his time by " Nicholas Nickleby," which
then occupied his attention, and he pro
mised on its conclusion to apply himself
to the new piece. When completed,

212 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

Dickens read aloud the " unfortunate
little farce" (as he subsequently termed
it) in the green-room of the theatre;
"unfortunate" it decidedly was, for the
actors could not agree about it, so that the
play, although it went through rehearsal,
was never really presented before an
audience. When Macready appealed to
the Author to withdraw it he magnani
mously consented, declaring that he had
" no other feeling of disappointment
connected with this matter " but that
arising from this failure in an attempt to
serve his friend.* Dickens decided to
adapt it to another purpose by converting
it into a tale called " The Lamplighter's
Story," which was published in the "Pic
Nic Papers," there being only slight
differences between the two versions.

The MS. of the play, not in Dickens's
handwriting, was discovered by Mr.
Shepherd in the Forster Library, from
which it was reprinted in the form of
a pamphlet of forty-five pages (i2mo,
blue wrapper), with the title as follows : —

"THE LAMPLIGHTER. A Farce. By Charles
Dickens (1838). Now first printed from a manu
script in the Forster Collection at the South
Kensington Museum. London, 1879."

* Vide "Dickens and the Stage." By T
Edgar Pemberton

Plays. 2 1 3

Only two hundred and fifty copies were
issued. The present value is about £1.

"MR. NIGHTINGALE'S DIARY" (1851).

• As the result of some theatrical perform
ances instituted by Dickens and Lord
Lytton at Knebworth in 1850, it was
proposed that a " Guild of Literature and
Art " should be founded, by which it was
intended that impoverished authors and
artists* should derive pecuniary aid and a
free residence. In order, therefore, to
raise funds for developing this project,
Dickens and Lord Lytton, with their co
adjutors in the good cause, entered heartily
into the scheme by carrying out a series
of dramatic performances, both in London
and the Provinces. A very successful
farce, entitled " Mr. Nightingale's Diary,"
the. joint production of Dickens and
Mark Lemon, was produced in aid of
this meritorious work, the first repre
sentation taking place at Devonshire
House on May 27th, 1851, following the
second representation of Lord Lytton's
new comedy, " Not so Bad as We Seem ;
or, Many Sides to a Character." * It

* Forster incorrectly gives the date of the first
performance of Lord Lytton's play as May 27th,
the true date being May l6th.

214 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

had been Dickens's intention to prepare a
humorous piece to succeed this comedy,
and indeed he had completed the first
scene, which, as he told Forster, had
" more farcical points than you commonly
find in farces"; but he -could not develop
the plot to his satisfaction, and so obtained
absolution. Then Mark Lemon's "Mr.
Nightingale's Diary " was substituted,
to which, however, Dickens contributed
so many jokes and so much Gampish
humour that it became more closely
identified with the author of " Martin
Chuzzlewit" than with the genial editor
of Punch. The cast included the names
of Dudley Costello, Augustus Egg, R.A.,
Mark Lemon, Wilkie Collins, and Dickens
himself, who impersonated no less than
five different characters (including Sam
Weller and Mrs. Gamp — "not the real
Mrs. Gamp, but only a near relation "),
besides indulging in a broadsword combat
fought £ la Crummies. This, perhaps,
gave the performance the character of
a " variety " entertainment, although, as
a play, it proved a wonderful success.
The first edition of the play was privately
printed. Collation: one unnumbered page,
and pp. 26, with the title : —

"MR. NIGHTINGALE'S DIARY : A Farce. In
one Act. By [blank]. London : 1851."

Plays. 2 1 5

This issue is practically unobtainable,
the only copy known being that in the
Forster Collection. There is, however,
an American edition, published at 2s.
(pp. 96, " Vest-pocket " series), which,
although scarce, is more readily met with.
Title :—

" MR. NIGHTINGALE'S DIARY : A Farce in one
Act. By Charles Dickens. Boston : James R.
Osgood and Company, late Ticknor and Fields,
and Fields, Osgood, and Co.

The price of the American edition is
from 15.?. to ^i.

"No THOROUGHFARE" (1867).

This was the title bestowed upon the
Christmas Number of All the Year
Round, 1867, which was written con
jointly by Dickens and Wilkie Collins.*
During Dickens's last visit to America
in 1867-68, Collins prepared a stage ver
sion of " No Thoroughfare " for Charles
Fechter, the actor, whose advice was
obtained with respect to technical details.
Dickens was responsible for the " Pro
logue " of the Drama, which replaces the
"Overture" of the Story, written ex
clusively by him. The original narrative

* Vide pp. 172-174.

2i6 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

is divided into four acts, instead of five,
as in the dramatic version. The play,
in which the incidents are presented
somewhat differently from the original
tale, was produced at the Adelphi Theatre
during Dickens's absence in the United
States, being first performed on Boxing
Night of 1867, with Fechter as Obenreizer,
and Webster as Joey Ladle.

It seems that, when engaged upon this
romance, the authors departed from the
usual custom of English writers, inasmuch
as^ they framed the plot and created the
charpenterie of the work with the undis
guised object of making it a stage play,
after having first published it in the form
of a novel. The popularity of " No
Thoroughfare " at the Adelphi, and subse
quently in Paris and America, was beyond
all question. Dickens, however, did not
at first feel assured of its success, being
"reduced to the confines of despair by
its length," and if he could have rehearsed
it he would " have taken the best part
of an hour out of it." He therefore
experienced considerable delight in re
ceiving intimations from England of its
very favourable reception, both by the
public and the press, thanks, for the
most part, to Fechter's superb acting.
Much to Dickens's annoyance, the

Plays. 217

" pirates " were busy with the play in
America within ten days of the arrival
there of the Christmas Number of All the
Year Round, and mangled versions were
given everywhere, threats of injunctions
notwithstanding. As a matter of fact,
it was doubtful whether Dickens could
have prevented this wholesale infringe
ment of his rights, for, as he wrote to
Fechter, "Why should they pay for the
piece as you act it, when they have no
actors, and when all they want is my
name, and they can get that for nothing ? "
" No Thoroughfare " was translated
into French for representation at the
Paris Vaudeville Theatre, when it appeared
as " L'Abime." Dickens went to the
French capital for the express purpose of
superintending the rehearsals, and assisting
at the first performances, whence he
returned highly pleased with its success
in this form. The play was printed by
a New York publisher, 1868 (pp. 40),
with the following title : —

"No THOROUGHFARE. A Drama. In five
Acts and a Prologue. By Charles Dickens and
Wilkie Collins. As first performed at the New
Royal Adelphi Theatre, London, December 26th,
1867. New York : Robert M. de Witt, Publisher,
No. 33, Rose Street."

In 1882 Mr. R. H. Shepherd repro-

218 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

duced it in his " Plays and Poems of
Charles Dickens" (Vol. II., 69-180);
but the copyright of the play being
the property of Wilkie Collins, an in
junction was obtained, and the book
immediately suppressed, only a very few
copies getting into circulation. A new
edition of Mr. Shepherd's volume was
issued in 1885, from which "No
Thoroughfare" was omitted, its place
being taken by Dickens's " Sketches of
Young Gentlemen " and " Sketches of
Young Couples."

The imperfect MS. of " No Thorough
fare" realised ^22 at Sotheby's in June,
1890, at the sale of Wilkie Collins's
Library.

"THE FROZEN DEEP" (1856), AND "THE
LIGHTHOUSE" (1855).

It is stated by Forster that "No
Thoroughfare " was the only story Dickens
ever helped himself to dramatise. He
was not aware of the fact, nor have other
biographers recorded, that the Novelist
was responsible for much of the text of
Wilkie Collins's play "The Frozen Deep,"
and contributed the words of a poem as
a Prologue to the same writer's drama of
"The Lighthouse," together with the

Plays. 219

text of " The Song of the Wreck," to be
introduced therein ; also that he wrote
the words to the incidental music in both
of these plays. The dramatised version
of "The Frozen Deep" was written in
1856,* and performed for the first time at
Dickens's house on January 6th, 1857;
it has never been published, and widely
differs from the story as rearranged in
narrative form for reading in America,
and for publication in Temple Barm 1874.
The MS. contains many additions and
corrections by Dickens. The original MS.
Prompt-book (also unpublished) includes
about forty pages in his autograph,
besides innumerable notes and corrections
by the same hand. The MSS. of " The
Frozen Deep " and the prompt-book
realised ^300 at Sotheby's in June,
1890. A printed copy of the Play, con
taining stage-directions written in the
margins, etc., was a much-valued item in
the late Mr. W. R. Hughes's collection of
Dickensiana, which will shortly be dis
persed by Messrs. Sotheby. On the title-
page and buff-coloured wrapper of this
impression (believed to be a prompt-copy,
and very rare) is the following : " The

* It was during the acting of "The Frozen
Deep " that the plot of " A Tale of Two Cities "
took shape in the Author's imagination.

22O The Minor Writings of Dickens.

Frozen Deep : a Drama in Three Acts.
By Wilkie Collins [not published]. 1 866."
Collation : pp. 46. Placed with the pam
phlet are autograph plans of the stage for
the different Acts, list of costumes, etc.

Dickens himself assumed the principal
parts in both " The Frozen Deep " and
"The Lighthouse," absolutely electrifying
his audiences by the histrionic capacity
he displayed. Carlyle testified to his
wonderful ability on the stage, declaring
that he was " a born actor," and compared
his wild picturesqueness in " The Light
house" to that of the famous figure in
Poussin's bacchanalian dance in the
National Gallery. Those who were
privileged to see the extraordinary ver
satility and power of his impersonations
will agree with the veteran banner-bearer
at one of the theatres, who said, " Ah,
Mr. Dickens, if it hadn't been for them
books, what an actor you would have
made ! "

\

POEMS, SONGS, AND OTHER
RHYMES.

|T is stated that, when a mere lad,
Dickens actually composed the
words of some of the songs
which he then sang before
appreciative audiences. Mr. John Payne
Collier has recorded some interesting
particulars of a dinner-party where he
first met the future Novelist, then but a
stripling. After the repast the precocious
boy sang two songs, one of which, entitled
" Sweet Betsey Ogle," was his own com
position.* Of this song only a single
verse is printed in the "Diary," but Mr.
Collier's own copy of the book includes
a transcript of the entire production,
together with that of a " monopolylogue
written by Dickens, like those of the
elder Mathews." On the margin of the
latter Mr. Collier chronicled the following
fact : " V. Dowling gave me this song,.

* Vide "An Old Man's Diary " (1871-72).

221

222 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

and said it was written by C. Dickens " ;
the subject of the " monopolylogue " — a
MS. consisting of 6 pp., quarto — is the
narration of the adventures and mishaps
of a tailor and his friend at the Epping
Hunt.

The boy's uncle, Mr. Barrow, informed
Mr. Collier that the youthful Dickens had
been employed by Warren, of blacking
fame, and had written puff verses for
him, which Mr. Collier, on hearing a
specimen, declared to be very laughable
and clever for such a purpose, and in
some respects even " Peter Pindaric."
Another very juvenile effort is to be
found in Dickens's MS. play of "OThello "
(1833), which travesty includes a humorous
solo of eight lines, sung by Cassio to the
air of one of Moore's melodies, " When
in death I shall calm recline."

Dickens's little opera, " The Village
Coquettes" (1836), includes several
rhymes of his own composition, written
professedly for John Hullah's music.
They are characterised by considerable
feeling and graceful sentiment, some
of them becoming deservedly popular,
chiefly perhaps on account of the bright
and pleasant music to which the words
are wedded. Harley, who assumed the
principal role, greatly admired the songs,

Poems, Songs, and other Rhymes. 223

declaring that they had a good deal of
Sheridan's sprightliness combined with
the tenderness of Moore's lyrics. The
management of the St. James's Theatre,
where this " Comic Opera " was produced,
had on sale the musical portion of the
play (in pamphlet form, i2mo, 16 pp.,
price io*/.), which bore the following
title :—

" SONGS, CHORUSES, and CONCERTED PIECES, in
the Operatic Burletta of The Village Coquettes,
as produced at the St. James's Theatre. The
Drama and Words of the Songs by ' Boz.' The
Music by John Hullah. The Music is published
by Messrs. Cramer and Co., 201, Regent Street.
Printed by Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars.
1837."

Several editions of these songs have
been published, but only two copies of
the first edition are known to exist.

When Harley's benefit took place, during
the performance of " Is She His Wife ? "
(1837), the event was marked by a little
extra diversion in the shape of a song
introduced into this play, "edited" ex
pressly for him by Dickens. He sang it
in the character of Mr. Pickwick, probably
because of the general popularity of the
gaitered beau, and related, to a Scotch
air, his experiences of "A White Bait

224 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

Dinner at Blackwall." What has become
of the song ? When the St. James's
Theatre was altered a few years ago by
Messrs. Hare and Kendal, a pile of acting
copies of dramas, etc., was sold as waste-
paper, and amongst these were four out
of the 'six parts of "Is She His Wife?"
written by the theatrical copyist, in which
the names of the performers and the parts
they were to assume were in the autograph
of Dickens ; but Harley's part was not
to be found.

In the sixth chapter of " The Pickwick
Papers" we find that famous ballad of
three 'verses entitled "The Ivy Green,"
perhaps the most popular of all Dickens's
verse. Mr. Henry Burnett (the Novelist's
brother-in-law) set this song to music at
Dickens's request, and sang it amongst
literary men and artists scores of times,
it being an especial favourite with Landor.
" It was not written for ' Pickwick,' " says
Mr. Burnett. " On its being so much
admired he " [Dickens] " said it should go
into a monthly number, and it did." The
favourite setting of " The Ivy Green "
is undoubtedly that by the veteran Henry
Russell, who states that for the music of
this, one of his most successful com
positions, he received the magnificent sum
of ten shillings ! The ballad proved so

Poems, Songs, and other Rhymes. 225

popular that it must have been sold in
tens of thousands.

In "Pickwick" (chap, xxviii.) we also
find the familiar rhyme called " A
Christmas Carol," the five stanzas of which
that merry old soul, Mr. Wardle, sang
" in a good, round, sturdy voice." It was
afterwards set to music, to the air of
" Old King Cole," and published in the
" Book of British Song " (New Edition-
George Virtue), with an illustration drawn
by Alfred Crowquill. The next chapter
of "Pickwick" contains the lugubrious
song of Gabriel Grub, having reference to —

" Brave lodgings for one, brave lodgings for one,
A few feet of cold earth when life is done,"

to which he gives melancholy utterance
just before that memorable interview with
the Goblin. As a set-off, there are many
humorous verses in "Pickwick," notably
those with which Sam Weller obliged his
coaching friends prior to joining Mr.
Pickwick in the Fleet. After declaring
that he was " not wery much in the habit
o' singin' vithout the instrument," he
launched out "with a wild and beautiful
legend" — the " Romance" of Dick Turpin
— rendered in Sam's own vernacular. The
two stanzas have been set to music by

15

226 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

Sir Frederick Bridge, Mus.D., organist of
Westminster Abbey.

Respecting Mrs. Leo Hunter's "Ode to
an Expiring Frog," also in the pages of
"Pickwick," we are told in the book that
this effusion appeared originally in a lady's
magazine, and " created an immense sen
sation." Mr. Percy Fitzgerald remarks that
the "Ode" always seemed to him a "very
perfect piece of burlesque, not by any
means overstrained — the common fault in
burlesque — but having the earnestness
that is certain to be found in genuine
performances of the kind." The lines
which embroiled Mr. Potts with the
susceptible Winkle, entitled " Lines to a
Brass Pott," are almost as good in this
way. In December, 1886, Punch printed
an " improved " version of Mrs. Leo
Hunter's lines, which was called an " Ode
to an Expiring Fog."

A doggerel rhyme, entitled " The
Teetotal Excursion," belonging to this
period, is described in the London
Singer's Magazine (circa 1839) as "an
original Comic Song, written by ' Boz,'
and sung at the London Concerts." This
has not been chronicled by bibliographers,
nor has previous mention been made of
the appearance, in a subsequent issue of
the same work (circa 1840), of a ballad

Poems, Songs, and other Rhymes. 227

(also attributed to " Boz ") entitled "The
Old Man and the Child," which is probably
identical with Squire Norton's song in
" The Village Coquettes."

During the Tory interregnum in 1841
Dickens contributed anonymously to
The Examiner (then edited by Forster)
three political squibs, which were intended
to help the Liberals in their fight against
their opponents. The first of these, con
sisting of eight stanzas, appeared on
August 7th, with the title of "The Fine
Old English Gentleman (to be said or
sung at all Conservative dinners)" ; the
second, nine stanzas in length, published
on August 1 4th, was called " The Quack
Doctor's Proclamation," and has a " Tol
de rol " chorus, to be sung to the tune
of "A Cobbler there was " ; while the
third effusion (eleven stanzas) was printed
on August 2ist, headed "Subjects for
Painters (after Peter Pindar)." Con
cerning these productions Forster remarks :
" I doubt if he ever enjoyed anything
more than the power of thus taking part
occasionally, unknown to outsiders, in
the sharp conflict the press was waging
at the time." It is probable that other
similar rhymes, prompted by events of
the hour, were anonymously composed
by the Novelist at that period, both in

228 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

the pages of The Examiner and elsewhere,
but they lie buried beyond easy reach of
discovery.

In 1841-42 Dickens took great interest
in the work of a young and then unknown
writer, J. Westland Marston, who had
just composed his maiden play — a tragedy
entitled " The Patrician's Daughter."
Writing to Macready on November i2th,
1842, he said: "The more I think of
Marston's play, the more sure I feel that
a prologue to the purpose would help it
materially, and almost decide the fate of
any ticklish point on the first night. Now
I have an idea (not easily explainable in
writing but told in five words), that would
take the prologue out of the conventional
dress of prologues, quite. Get the curtain
up with a dash, and begin the play with
a sledge-hammer blow. " If, on considera
tion, you should agree with me, I will
write the prologue heartily." The tragedy
(the first new play of the season) was
produced at Drury Lane on December i oth,
1842, when the Prologue, consisting of
forty-eight dignified and vigorous lines,
was recited by Macready. The first
edition of " The Patrician's Daughter — a
Tragedy in Five Acts, by J. Westland
Marston, 1841," appeared as an octavo
pamphlet in wrappers, its present value

Poems, Songs, and otfier Rhymes. 229

(chiefly on account of the Prologue) being
from i$s. to 2os. The Prologue itself
was reprinted in the Theatrical Journal
and Stranger's Guide for December lyth,
1842, and it is given with some variations
in the first volume of the " Letters,"
pp. 77-78, as well as in a complete form
in R. H. Shepherd's " Plays and Poems
of Charles Dickens " (1882).

In a letter to Forster, dated July, 1843,
Dickens wrote : " I have heard, as you
have, from Lady Blessington, for whose
behalf I have this morning penned the
lines I send you herewith. But I have
only done so to excuse myself, for I have
not the least idea of their suiting her ;
and I hope she will send them back to
you for The Examiner" The allusion
here is to " a clever and pointed Parable
in verse " (so Forster designated it), en
titled " A Word in Season," a thoughtful
little poem of four stanzas composed for
The Keepsake (1844), then edited by
the Countess of Blessington. The poem,
which begins, " They have a superstition
in the East," was described by the London
Review (November i6th, 1867) as "a
graceful and sweet apologue, reminding
one of the manner of Hood," and
Blanchard Jerrold has referred to a British
Museum reader, who (in 1870) queried

230 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

anent these lines : " May I commend
them, and the thoughts which they suggest
about the religious difficulty, to the Vice-
President of the Committee in Council,
to Bishop Wilberforce, and to Mr.
Gathorne Hardy?"* The volume of
The Keepsake containing these verses is
usually catalogued at 7^. or 8s.

Occasional contributions in verse from
the pen of Dickens were published in the
columns of the Daily News, the earliest
of which appeared on January 24th, 1846.
This production of five stanzas (signed
" Catnach ") is similar in character to
his political squibs in The Examiner,
although not so dignified in tone, and
is called "The British Lion — A New
Song, but an Old Story," to be sung to
the tune of "The Great Sea-Snake."
On St. Valentine's Day of the same year
the Daily News printed " The Hymn of
the Wiltshire Labourers," signed by
Dickens, which bears the impress of quite
a different train of thought. These five
verses were elicited by a speech by Lucy
Simpkins at one of the night meetings
of the wives of agricultural labourers at
Brem Hill, Wilts, held to petition for

* Vide "A Day with Dickens (The Best of
AU Good Company)," by Blanchard Jerrold ( 187 1 ).

Poems, Songs, and other Rhymes. 231

Free Trade, and are prefaced by the
following quotation : —

" Don't you all think that we have had a great
need to cry to our God to put it in the hearts
of our greaseous Queen and her members of
Parlerment to grant us free bread ? "

In 1855 Dickens prepared the Prologue
for Wilkie Collins's powerful drama " The
Lighthouse," and contributed to the
same play " The Song of the Wreck."
Upon the latter he evidently intended to
bestow a different title : " I have written,"
he informed his brother-novelist, " a little
ballad for Mary— ' The Story of the
Ship's Carpenter and the Little Boy, in
the Shipwreck.' " When the piece was
performed on June iQth, 1855, at
Dickens's residence, Tavistock House,
this song was sung by his eldest daughter,
Mary (who impersonated Phoebe in the
play), to the music composed by George
Linley for Miss Charlotte Young's
pretty ballad "Little Nell," of which
Dickens was very fond, and which his
daughter had been in the habit of singing
to him constantly since she was quite
a child. The MSS. of the Prologue
(twenty-two lines) and of the Song (five
verses) realised eleven guineas each at
Sotheby's in June, 1890, during the sale

232 The Minor Writings of Dickens.

of Wilkie Collins's collection of auto
graphs.

The Christmas Number of Household
Words for 1856, entitled "The Wreck
of the Golden Mary," is especially re
markable for a Child's Hymn, consisting
of five verses, of which Dickens was the
composer, beginning with the words,
" Hear my prayer, O Heavenly Father."

So far as the novels are concerned,
we may discover here and there some
humorous versification, such as the
parodies of popular melodies by Mrs.
Jarley's poet, and the impromptu rhymes
of Silas Wegg and Jenny Wren in "Our
Mutual Friend." In the initial chapter
of " Little Dorrit," too, there is Monsieur
Rigaud's song, beginning, "Who passes
by this road so late?" which has been
set to music by H. R. S. Dalton, and
published (circa 1857) by J. H. Jewell,
of Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury.

Mr. R. H. Home (the author of
" Orion ") is said to have been the first
to point out that many of the tender
passages in Dickens's prose writings are
virtually blank verse, of irregular metre
and rhythm, which Southey, Shelley, and
some other poets have occasionally
adopted. Examples of such metrical
composition will be found in the

Poems, Songs, and. other Rhymes. 233

description of Little Nell's funeral, in
the concluding paragraph of " Nicholas
Nickleby," in the word-painting of Niagara
Falls in "American Notes," and in
a passage in "A Child's History of
England," beginning, " The English broke
and fled." Dickens always endeavoured
to prevent involuntary versification, and
desired Forster to break up the rhythm
whenever he detected it in the proofs,
explaining that, when unusually touched
or excited by his subject, he was apt to
run into blank verse.

APPENDIX.

DICKENS PLAGIARISED.

1ERHAPS no work in English
Literature has been so frequently
seized upon by the cunning
plagiarist as " The Pickwick
Papers," the enormous popularity of which
induced a host of enterprising publishers
to issue works bearing similar titles, or
having in some direct or indirect manner
an ostensible connection with Dickens's
admired production. A certain E. Lloyd,
of Wych Street, figures prominently among
the fraternity. About 1837 he issued
a little work in eleven parts (making a
total of ninety-two pages), with seventeen
woodcut illustrations, upon which he
audaciously bestowed the plagiaristic
title, "Sketch Book by 'Bos,'" which pur-

234

Dickens Plagiarised. 235

ported to contain a " Great Number of
Highly Interesting and Original Tales,
Sketches," etc., etc. The Preface was
signed " ' Bos,' Brompton Square."

Lloyd also has his imprint upon three
Pickwickian plagiarisms — viz., " Posthu
mous Papers of the Cadgers' Club," with
sixteen engravings (circa 1837); "The
Posthumourous Notes of the Pickwickian
Club, containing the Humourous Adven
tures of Christopher Pickwick, Esq., Percy
Tupnall, Esq., Matthew Winkletop, Esq./'
edited by " Bos," and published in two
volumes (circa 1842), with woodcut illus
trations, the work first appearing in a
hundred and twelve numbers, each bearing
the title of " The Penny Pickwick " ; and
"Pickwick in America," the latter com
prising the " Adventures of that Illustrious
Individual and his Learned Companions
in the United States ; Extraordinary
Jonathanisms, collected by Mr. Snod-
grass ; and the Sayings, Doings, and
Mems. of the facetious Sam Weller." This
was edited and prefaced by "Bos," and
contained forty-six illustrations, being
issued in forty-four numbers, pp. 350.
At about the same time Lloyd was re
sponsible for the "Pickwickian Songster,"
having "all the Popular, Rum, Comic,
and Sentimental Songs of the Day,"

236 Appendix.

and a woodcut illustration representing
a dance by Pickwickian characters.
The same publisher also announced a
work entitled " Lloyd's Everlasting En
tertainments; or, Pickwickian Shadows," to
be issued in penny numbers, but it is
doubtful whether it ever appeared.

Other back-street publishers likewise
entered the fray. Contemporary with
" The Pickwick Papers " appeared the
" Posthumous Papers of the Wonder
ful Discovery Club" (W. M. Clark,
Warwick Lane, 1838), which was edited by
" Poz," with eleven illustrations designed
by "Squib" and engraved by "Point";
"The Pickwick Comic Almanac for 1838,"
illustrated by Robert Cruikshank ; " Pick
wick Treasury of Wit," published in Dublin
in 1840; "The Pickwick Songster";
" Mr. Pickwick's Collection of Songs,"
with woodcuts, including an engraving
of Yates as Mr. Pickwick ; " Sam Weller's
Jest-Book" (1837), with Cruikshank's
illustrations ; " Sam Weller's Favourite
Song-Book" (1837), with woodcuts; and
"The Sam Weller Scrap Sheet," con
taining forty woodcut portraits of " all the
Pickwick Characters, enriched with poetic
effusions by A. Snodgrass, Esq., M.P.C."

In addition to this series of books and
pamphlets having plagiaristic Pickwickian

Dickens Plagiarised. 237

titles, there is that more familiar produc
tion, "Pickwick Abroad; or, The Tour
in France," by a comparatively well-known
writer of that day, G. W. M. Reynolds.
This ostensible " continuation " of the
adventures of Mr. Pickwick and his friends
across the Channel is profusely illustrated
v/ith steel plates by "Alfred Crowquill"
(Forrester) and John Phillips, and wood
cuts by Bonner, and was published in
parts by Thomas Tegg, Cheapside, in
1839 (pp. [xvi.] 528). In his Preface the
author confesses to a feeling of pride and
satisfaction in the contemplation of " the
successful termination of his labour in
the twenty parts to which no other imitator
of the 'Immortal Boz' has yet attained."
The work, although of no great merit, has
apparently been well received, having
often been republished.

Two other plagiaristic productions are
yet to be chronicled. The first is entitled
" The Adventures of Marmaduke Midge,
the Pickwickian Legatee," by the author
of " Tyburn Tree," etc., with woodcut
illustrations, published by G. Vickers, in
the Strand (N.D.) ; the other takes the
form of a contribution to the Metropolitan
Magazine, September, 1838, under the
title of " Winkle's Journal (Omitted from
the Pickwick Papers)." Concerning the

238 Appendix.

latter, the editor writes : " We insert these
papers as* they have been transmitted to
us. Our readers will decide how far Mr.
Winkle's Journal is adapted to add to the
amusement so extensively afforded by the
publication of the Pickwick Papers."
This effusion is prefaced by a letter
addressed to "My dear Boz," in which
the signatory, Nathaniel Winkle, offers
a few anecdotes of his former life.

Literary pirates were not very busy,
apparently, with " Oliver Twist," as I
find but two plagiarisms recorded. " The
Life and Adventures of Oliver Twiss, the
Workhouse Boy," edited by " Bos," with
numerous illustrations, was published in
parts by the indefatigable Lloyd circa
1839 ') tne other, entitled simply " Oliver
Twiss," by " Poz," is very rare, and was
issued in numbers, at a penny each, these
bearing the imprint of several London
booksellers of no repute. Under the title
appears the notification, " Copyright
secured by Act of Parliament," which (as
Mr. Charles Dickens the younger truly
remarked) is " so sublime a piece of im
pudence as almost to take rank as a
real stroke of genius."

Dickens was so incensed by these
bastard productions that, on the eve of
the appearance of the first number of

Dickens Plagiarised. 239

"Nickleby," he issued an emphatic Pro
clamation, which was inserted in various
reviews and magazines at the time. It
commenced thus : —

"WHEREAS we are the only true and lawful
Boz,' and WHEREAS it hath been reported to us,
who are commencing a New Work to be called —
'The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,
that some dishonest dullards, resident in the
cellars and bye-streets of this town, impose upon
the unwary and credulous, by producing cheap
and wretched imitations of our delectable Works.
And WHEREAS we derive but small comfort under
this injury, from the knowledge that the dis
honest dullards aforesaid, cannot, by reason of
their mental smallness, follow near our heels,
but are constrained to keep along by dirty and
little frequented ways, at a most respectful and
humble distance behind.

"And WHEREAS, in like manner, as some other
vermin are not worth the killing for the sake of
their carcases, so these kennel pirates are not
worth the powder and shot of the law, inasmuch
as whatever damages they may commit, they are
in no condition to pay any.

"THIS IS TO GIVE NOTICE

" Firstly,

"To PIRATES.

" That we have at length devised a mode of
execution for them, so summary and terrible,
that if any gang or gangs thereof presume to
hoist but one thread of the colours of the good
ship Nickleby, we will hang them on gibbets
so lofty and enduring, that their remains will
be a monument of our just vengeance to all

240 Appendix.

succeeding ages ; and it shall not lie in any
power of any Lord High Admiral on earth to
cause them to be taken down again. . . ." [etc.]

Apparently this curious threat pro
duced no effect, as the objectionable
plagiarisms were as numerous as ever.
For instance, E. Lloyd was again to the
front with a remarkable production entitled
" Nickelas Nickelbery," by " Bos," which
contained " the Adventures, Mis-adven
tures, — Chances, Mis-chances, — Fortunes,
Mis-fortunes, — Mys-teries, — Mis-eries, —
and Mis-cellaneous Manoeuvres of the
Family of Nickelbery." It was issued in
penny weekly numbers and fourpenny
monthly parts, profusely illustrated, and
parodied the whole of the story and char
acters under slightly altered names. Then,
in 1840, appeared "Scenes from the Life
of Nickleby Married," which was also
issued in parts, with green wrappers and
twenty-one etchings by " Quiz," in the
style of " Phiz," but artistically much
inferior. This ambitious work, comprising
more than five hundred pages of text,
" edited by ' Guess,' " and purporting to be
a sequel to Dickens's story, contained an
account of " certain remarkable passages
and strange adventures that befel the
Nickleby Family." "The Nickleby
Papers," by " Poz," was another of these

Dickens Plagiarised. 241

wonderful compilations ; it was issued in
penny numbers, and, although said to be
stupid and dull, had a ready sale. Con
cerning it Dr. Mackenzie, in his Life of
Dickens, states that the narrative begins ten
years after the close of the real story, and
re-introduces Squeers, who had served
out his seven years' transportation in
Botany Bay, but whose morals had not
been improved by the change of scene.
This book seems to have had a great
attraction for the lower class of Londoners.
When explaining to George Cattermole
the details of his projected new work,
" Master Humphrey's Clock," Dickens
pointed out that a reason for issuing it
in weekly parts instead of monthly was
that the imitators might be baffled. These
literary pirates, however, were not so easily
disposed of. The threats hurled at them
in the " Nickleby " Proclamation had little
effect, and the pilfering of which Dickens
had just cause of complaint continued
until 1841, when he dropped down upon
the publishers and completely crushed
them, although not before they had issued
a valedictory address in the fourth part
of one of their objectionable productions,
wherein they stated their grievances,
accepted the situation, and posed in the
light of "injured innocents." This par-

16

242 Appendix.

ticular publication was issued by the
irrepressible Lloyd in 1840, and was
entitled " Mister Humfries' Clock. ' Bos,'
Maker. A Miscellany of Striking Interest " ;
it appeared in twelve parts, with woodcut
illustrations. One of the most glaring
instances of this form of piracy may be
found in Parley's Penny Library, which
contains selections, in the character of
dialogues, from " Master Humphrey's
Clock " ; these were illustrated by means
of crude woodcuts, some of them being
enlarged copies of individual characters
depicted in the original work. Notwith
standing that the publishers inserted a
portrait of the Novelist, and a fulsome
dedication to "the living Shakespeare,"
Dickens was not to be conciliated ; on the
contrary, he not only vigorously denounced
them for this wholesale appropriation, but
brought an action, in 1842, for infringe
ment of copyright, gaining his cause with
heavy damages, and thus closing the
career of Parley's Penny Library. In the
following year there appeared an entirely
new publication called The New Parley
Library, edited by Mr. E. L. Blanchard.
It should, in justification, be said that the
original " Peter Parley " (Samuel Griswold
Goodrich, of America) had nothing what
ever to do with either publication. In

Dickens Plagiarised, 243

1842 appeared a volume bearing the pla-
giaristic title of " Master Timothy's Book
case; or, the Magic Lanthorn of the
World," the author being G. W. M.
Reynolds ; it contains ten engravings on
steel, and one of the tales introduced
purposes to give an account of "Mr.
Pickwick's Marriage."

Notwithstanding Dickens's legal triumph
over the piratical publishers in connection
with their raid upon " Master Humphrey's
Clock," they considered his next work a
subject for plunder; but, owing to a
decisive action on the part of the Novelist,
and the very strong view taken of the
case by Vice-Chancellor Knight Bruce,
who gave judgment without even hearing
Serjeant Talfourd for the prosecution, the
catchpenny publications were suppressed,
and their proprietors " beaten flat, bruised
bloody, battered, smashed, squelched,
and utterly undone." This accounts for
the fact that no plagiarisms of "Martin
Chuzzlewit" are recorded.

In 1847, Just after the appearance of
the fourth number of " Dombey and Son,"
a Strand bookseller started a publication
entitled "Dombey and Daughter," which
he described as a "moral fiction," and
it was announced in the following con
ceited manner : —

244 Appendix.

" This work is from the pen of one of the
first Periodical writers of the day ; and is, in
literary merit (though so low in price), in no
way inferior to Mr. Dickens's admirable work,
Dombey and Son. Those who are reading
Dombey and Son should most assuredly order
Dombey and Daughter; it is a production oi
exalted intellect, written to sustain moral ex
ample and virtuous precept, deeply to interest,
and sagely to instruct. Order of any bookseller
or newsvendor. One penny will test the truth
of this announcement."

The author was Renton Nicholson,
notorious as the " Lord Chief Baron " of
the equally notorious "Judge and Jury"
Club — a bacchanalian entertainment which
flourished near Covent Garden for some
years. " Dombey and Daughter " was
completed in a volume of ninety-four
pages, with twelve woodcuts, and con
cluded with a postscript as arrogantly
offensive as the preliminary announcement.

Two other similar publications are
recorded. The earlier of these was a
burlesque called " Dombey and Son
Finished," and it appeared in a well-known
periodical of the day, The Man in the
Moon (1848), with illustrations by Albert
Smith. The second work is of American
origin, and bears the title of " Dolby
and Father : or, Incongruity " (New York,
1868), and purported to be by " Buz"; it
comprised nearly sixty pages of text.

"THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN
DROOD."

UNAUTHORISED CONTINUATIONS, ETC.

|N enterprising American writer is
responsible for a sequel to
" Edwin Drood," in a work called
"John Jasper's Secret" (Peterson
and Brothers, 1871, pp. 408), in the
Preface to which the hope is expressed that
a benefit as well as a pleasure is thus con
veyed to the world "on setting partially
at rest the multitudinous speculations to
which the non-explanation of the ' Mystery '
has given rise." This work, the authorship
of which has been wrongly attributed
to Wilkie Collins, first appeared as a
serial in a weekly journal called The
Chimney Corner (New York and London,
1871), and was afterwards published (from
October, 1871, to May, 1872) by a
London firm in eight monthly shilling
parts with green pictorial wrappers, of
245

246 Appendix.

uniform size with the original story, and
having woodcut illustrations, the latter
being borrowed from the American work.
The full title of the English edition (the
sub-title is slightly different from that in
the Transatlantic production) is " John
Jasper's Secret ; being a narrative of
Certain Events following and explaining
' The Mystery of Edwin Drood ' "
Publishing Offices, No. 342, Strand, 1872
(pp. 252). As a literary curiosity, it is
often catalogued at nearly double the
price of Dickens's unfinished novel.

A work of a similar character, and
n three volumes, was launched by
Remington and Co. in 1878. It was
entitled "A Great Mystery Solved: being
a Sequel to 'The Mystery of Edwin
Drood,"' the author, Gillan Vase, stat
ing in the Preface (dated "Hanover,
July 12, 1878") that he commenced it
as an amusement, and was induced to
publish the book when it eventually
assumed large proportions. A curious
production in the form of a volume on
Spiritualism, entitled " Rifts in the Veil,"
by W. H. Harrison (London, 1878), is
described as "an alleged post-mortem
work by Charles Dickens," and purports
to contain particulars of a continuation
of " Edwin Drood," which is said to have

" The Mystery of Edwin Drood." 247

been inspired by a medium, the article
occupying thirty closely printed pages.
A like production, and perhaps the
most remarkable of all these unauthor
ised "continuations," emanates from
America ; it has the following diffuse,
not to say " uncanny," title : " The
Mystery of Edwin Drood. Part the
Second by the Spirit Pen of Charles
Dickens, through a Medium ; embracing
also that Part of the Work which was
published prior to the Termination of the
Author's Earth-Life." It contained two
Prefaces (by the " Medium " and Author
respectively, the latter signed and dated
by the publisher, " Thos. P. James,
Brattleboro', Vt. — September 25, 1873"),
and a "Dedication to the Poor" (pp. [xvi.]
488).

The nom de guerre " Orpheus C. Kerr "
is associated with the authorship of at
least three Adaptations of " Edwin Drood."
One of these appeared in the Piccadilly
Annual (1870); a second took the form
of a booklet (undated), entitled "The
Mystery of Mr. E. Drood," and was issued
by Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Tyler ; but
the third and most striking of this trio of
publications is " The Cloven Foot " (New
York and London, 1870), which is really
an extended version of the last-mentioned

248 Appendix.

work ; here the story is made to conform
to American Scenes, Characters, Customs,
and Nomenclature. An " outgrowth " of
Dickens's uncompleted tale, entitled" The
Welfleet Mystery," by Mrs. C. A. Read,
appeared in the Weekly Budget during
1885, with illustrations.

INDEX.

A'BECKETT, GILBERT, 43.
" Aboard Ship," 145.
Agnew, Sir A., 61, 62.
Ainsworth, W. H., 9, 79.
All the Year Round, 23, 59,
91, 92, 93, 95, 118-123, 137-
149; first number, 119;
proposed titles, 119-121 ;
success of, 122 ; New
Series, 122 ; Dickens's
Contributions, 138-143 ;
Notes on Occasional
Papers, 143-146 ; Extra
' Christmas Numbers, 160-

176, 215.

"AMERICAN NOTES," 18-23 ;
first idea of, 18 ; at work
upon, 19 ; proposed motto,
19 ; suppressed chapter,
20; publication and sale,
20-21 ; criticisms, 20-22 ;
collation, 22 ; error in
first issue, 22 ; present
value, 23 ; First Cheap
Edition, 23 ; frontispiece,
23 ; manuscript of, 23.
" Another Round of Stories
by the Christmas Fire,"
152-

"Arcadian London," 144.
Atlantic Monthly, The, 92-

93-
Austin, H., 143.

"BARRY CORNWALL"
(pseud.), see " Procter,
B. W."

" BATTLE OF LIFE, THE,'
49-56; first thoughts of,
49-50 ; title, 50 ; at work
upon, 51-54 ; sale of, 54 ;
illustrations, 55 ; various
issues, 55; present values,
55 ; manuscript of, 56.

Bell's Life in London, 7, 44.

Bentley, R., 76, 177, 178,
181, 205, 206.

Bentley's Miscellany, 76-80
177, 1 80.

Billings, H., 129.

Black, John, 6.

" Blacksmith, The," 144.

Blanchard, E. L., 242.

" Bleak House," 67, 130, 131.

Blessington, Countess of,
42, 49. 81, 229.

" Bloomsbury Christening,

The," 145-
249

250

Index.

Bonner, R., 88, 89.
Boulogne, 131-132.
Boyle, Mary, 170.
" Boz," origin of pseu
donym, 5.
Bradbury and Evans, 25, 27,

32, 36, 48, ss, 58, 69, 114,

115, 117, 205.
Braham, J., 196, 197, 200,

201, 204, 210-211.
" British Lion, The," 230.
Broadstairs, 131.
Browne, H. K. ("Phiz"),

63, 66, 79, 90, 185, 199.
Bruce, Justice, 243.
Burnett, H. , recollections

of "Lord Bateman," 72;

music for " The Ivy

Green," 224.
Burn, J. H., notes for

" Grimaldi," 182.
Buss, illustration by, 8.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, let
ters on, 104.

Carlyle, dedication to, 32 ;
and the " Christmas
Carol," 43 ; opinion of
Dickens's acting, 220.

Cerjat, M. de, 153.

Chapman and Hall, 8 et seq,

Chapman, F., 173.

"Charcoal Sketches," 184-
185.

"Child's Dream of a Star,
A," 128-129.

"CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENG
LAND, A," 67-70 ; first ap
pearance of, 68-69; illus

trations, 69, 70 ; first cheap
issue, 70 ; present value,
70 ; manuscript of, 70 ;
versification in, 233.

"Child's Hymn, A," 157,
232.

" Child's Story, The," 151.

" CHIMES, THE," 24, 37-46 ;
idea for title, 38 ; purpose
°f> 39i 43-44 > a' work
upon, 39-42 ; a Reading
of, 43 ; sale of, 44 ; criti
cisms, 44-45 ; illustrations,
45, 46 ; collation, 45 ;
present value, 46; manu
script of, 46.

Chimney Corner, The, 245.

CHRISTMAS BOOKS, 33-60 ;
" remainder " copies, 60 ;
reprints, 60 ; First Cheap
Edition, Collected Edi
tion, Household Edition,
and Pears' Edition, 60 ;
illustrations, 60.

" CHRISTMAS CAROL, A,"
33-37, 43, 133; at work
upon, 33-34 ; criticisms,
34 ; sale of, 35 ; collation,
36; illustrations, 36-37;
various issues, 36-37; First
Cheap Edition, 36-37 ; pre
sent value, 37 ; manuscript
of, 37.

CHRISTMAS NUMBERS, EX
TRA, 122, 149-176, 215.

" Christmas Tree, A," 150-
151.

"Cloven Foot, The, "247-248.

Colburn, H., 184, 185.

Index.

251

Collier, J. P., 221, 222.

Collins, Wilkie, 83, 161, 166,
214, 232, 245 ; and " The
Lazy Tour of Two Idle
Apprentices," 134-135; and
"The Holly-Tree Inn,"
156; and " The Wreck of
The Golden Mary," 157 ;
and " The Perils of Cer
tain English Prisoners,"
158-159 ; and "A Message
from the Sea," 163 ; and
" No Thoroughfare," 172-
J73i 215-218; and "The
Frozen Deep," 218 ; and
" The Lighthouse," 231.

Cornhill Magazine, The,
82-83.

"Cornwall, Barry "(pseud. ),
see" Procter, B. W."

Costello, D., 214.

" CRICKET on THE HEARTH,
THE," 46-49 ; idea for, 47 ;
at work upon, 48 ; illus
trations, 48 ; collation,
48-49 ; present value, 49 ;
manuscript of, 49.

" Crowquill, Alfred " (».*.,
Forrester), illustrations
by, 237.

Cruikshank, G., illustra
tions for "Sketches by
Boz," 10, 13, 15 ; and
" Lord Bateman," 70-73 ;
and Bentleys Miscellany,
77-78 ; and "The Drunk
ard's Children," 84 ; and
" The Fairy Library,"
131 ; and "Memoirs of

Grimaldi," 181, 183 ; and

"The Pic Nic Papers,"

185.
"Curious Dance Round a

Curious Tree, A," 75.
" Curious Misprint in The

Edinburgh Review" 132-

Daily News, The, 95-106;
first idea, 98 ; initial num
ber, 98-100 ; "Travelling
Sketches " in, 99, 102-103 ;
spurious issue, 103-105 ;
manuscripts, 106.

Dalton, H. S., 232.

Dalziel, E. G., illustrations
by, 60.

" David Copperfield," 153
(note).

" Debt of Honour, A," 23.

" Demeanour of Murderers,
The," 132.

Dexter, J. F., 71, 173 (note),
182, 198.

Dickens, C., the younger,
123, 238 ; re " American
Notes," 21-22; and "Re
printed Pieces," 147 ; and
Household Words, 148-
149; and All the Year
Round, 175.

- Fanny, 129.

- John, and " Memoirs
of Grimaldi," 179 ; and
travesty of " Othello," 195.

- Mamie [Mary], 67, 231.
Dobson, W. C. T., R.A.,

illustrations by, 191.

252

Index.

" Doctor Marigold's Pre
scriptions," 168-170.

Dolby, G., 170.

'"Dombey and Son," 50, 52,
S3. S7! plagiarisms, 243-
344.

Dowling, V., 7.

Doyle, R., illustrations for
"The Chimes," 45 ; for
"The Cricket on the
Hearth," 48 ; for " The
Battle of Life," 55.

•"Drooping Buds," 75.

" Dullborough Town," 144.

Edinburgh Review, The,

132.

Egg, Augustus, R.A., 214.
Elliotson, Dr. , 186 (and note),

188.
" Enlightened Clergyman,

An," 145.

Era Almanack, 208.
Evening Chronicle, 6, 8.
•" EVENINGS OF A WORKING

MAN," 185-189 ; collation

and present value, 189.
Examiner, The, 84-88, 131,

203, 229 ; political verses,

227, 230.
•" Extraordinary Gazette,"

79-
Eytinge, S., illustrations

by, 94-

" FAIRY LIBRARY," protest
against Cruikshank's ver
sion, 131.

Farrer, W., 192.

Fechter, acting in "No

Thoroughfare," 93, 173,

215-
Felton, Professor, 19, 20, 23,

33-
Fields, J. T., 92, 94.

Mrs. J. T., 145.

Osgood and Co., 93.

"First Poor Traveller,

The," 153-154-
Fitzgerald, P., 149, 168, 193,

226.
" Fly-leaf in a Life, A,"

147.

Forster, J., 14 el seq.
" Frauds on the Fairies,"

130-131.

Friswell, J. H., 188.
" FROZEN DEEP, THE," 133,

218-219 > first performance,

219 ; manuscript of, 219 ;

prompt-book, 219.

GASKELL, MRS., 75.

George Cruikshank's Maga
zine, 131.

" George Silverman's Ex
planation," 92-93, 94, 95.

Gilbert (Sir) J., illustra
tions by, 94.

Goodman, A. J., illustra
tions by, 176.

Goodrich, S. G., 242.

Grant, J., 3, 4, 5.

"Great Expectations," man
uscript of, 193.

"Great Mystery Solved,
A," 246.

Index.

253

"Great Winglebury Duel,

The," 196.
Green, C., illustrations by,

60.

Grimaldi, see ' ' Memoirs of."
Guild of Literature and Art,

The, 213.

HAMERTON, R. J., illustra
tions by, 185.

"HARD TIMES," 27, 28-32;
proposed titles, 28-29; at
work upon, 29-30; criti
cisms, 30-31 ; original of
Coketown, 32 ; collation,
32 ; present value, 32 ;
First Cheap Edition, 32 ;
illustrations, 32 ; manu
script of, 32.

Harley, J. P., and "The
Strange Gentleman," 197 ;
and " The Village Co
quettes," 201-202, 205 ; and
"Is She His Wife?" 207-
208 ; and " The Lamp
lighter," 210, 223.

" Haunted House, The,"
163-162.

" HAUNTED MAN, THE," 56-
60 ; first idea of, 56-57 ;
illustrations, 58 ; collation,
58 ; sale, 59 ; manuscript

°f, 59-

Hazlitt, W., 84.
Helps, (Sir) Arthur, 165.
Hertfordshire Hermit, The,

165.

Hill, (Sir) Rowland, 132.
" Hints on Etiquette," 74.

Hogarth, G., 6, 116.

Georgina, Miss, 67, 73,

in.

" Holiday Romance," 94-95.

Hollingshead, J., 161.

" Hoily-Tree Inn, The," 156-
i57-

Hood's Magazine, 80-81.

Hood, T., 84.

Home, R. H., 204, 232.

Houghton, A. B., illustra
tion by, 32.

" Household Narrative,"
116.

Household Words, 28, 31,
32, 47, 59, 67, 68, 75, 107-
118, 120 (note), 123-137,
149-160, 189 ; first ideas
for, 107-109 ; proposed
titles, 109-110 ; scheme of,
112 ; initial number, 112 ;
" Personal " statement,
115; sale of, 116 ; last
number, 117-118 ; re-issue,
118; Dickens's Contribu
tions to, 123-128 ; Notes on
Occasional Papers, 128-
133 ; Notes on Colla
borated Papers, 134-137 ;
Extra Christmas Num
bers, 149-160.

" House to Let, A," 159.

Howitt, Mrs., 110-112, 194.

William, 160, 161.

Hughes, W. R., 207.

Hullah, J., 200, 203 ; his
music for ' ' The Village
Coquettes," 202, 222-223.

" Hunted Down," 89-92 \.

254

Index.

price paid for, 89 ; first

appearance of, 91 ; reprint,

91-92.

Hunt, Leigh, 84, 139.
"Hymn of the Wiltshire

Labourers, The," 230-231.

"!N MEMORIAM " (Thacke
ray), 83.

Involuntary Versification,
232-233.

" Is SHE His WIFE ?" 207-
210, 223-224; scarcity of,
208-209 ; reprints, 209-210;
present value, 209 ; play,
bills, 209.

"Italian Prisoner, The,''
144-145.

JEFFREY, LORD, criticism
of ' ' American Notes," 21 ;
of " A Christmas Carol,''
34 ; of " The Chimes," 44 ;
dedication to, 48.

Jerrold, Blanchard, 229.

Douglas, 43, 69.

" John Jasper's Secret,"
245-246.

Johnson, C. P., 71.

Judge and Jury Club, 244.

Keepsake, The, 81-82 ; verses

in, 229, 230.
"Kerr, Orpheus C."

(pseud.), 247.
Knight, C., 30.
Kolle, W. H., 2.

LAMB, C., 84, 90.
"Lamplighter's Story,
The," 183, 184, 185, 212.

" LAMPLIGHTER, THE," 183,
310-213; manuscript, 211,
212 ; failure of, 212 ; re
print, 212 ; present value,
213.

Landseer, Sir E. , R. A., illus
tration by, 48.

Langton, R., 158.

Laurie, Sir P., 44-45.

Lawes, (Sir) J. B., 143.

Layard, A., illustrations by,
136.

" Lazy Tour of Two Idle
Apprentices, The," 134-

136.

Leech, John, illustrations
for the "Christmas
Carol," 36-37 ; for " The
Chimes,"45, 46 ; for "The
Cricket on the Hearth,"
48; for "The Battle of
Life," 55 ; for "The
Haunted Man," 58 ; his
drawings of " The Rising
Generation," 85, 87.

"LEGENDS AND LYRICS," 189-
191 ; collation and present
value, 191.

Lemon, Mark, 116-117; and
"Mr. Nightingale's
Diary," 213, 214.

" Library of Fiction, The,"
8, 14, 61.

" LIGHTHOUSE, THE," 218-
220 ; manuscript, 231.

Linley, G., 231.

"Little Dorrit," 132, 156;

rhymes in, 232.
i " Little Nell " (ballad), 231 .

Index.

255

" Little Talk about Spring
and the Sweeps, A," 8,

13-

<( Lizzie Leigh," 75.

Lloyd, E., 234-242.

Locker, F., 205.

London Review, The, 229.

London Singer's Magazine,
The, Songs by "Boz,"
226-227.

Longfellow, 19.

" LOVING BALLAD OF LORD
BATEMAN, THE," 70-74 ;
conjectures as to author
ship, 70-73; collation, 73;
present value, 73 ; re
prints, 74.

Lucas, J. (the Hertfordshire
Hermit), 165.

Lucy, H. W., and Watts's
Charity, 154 (note).

Lytton, Sir E. Bulwer (also
Lytton, Lord), 33, 54, 165 ;
and the Guild of Litera
ture and Art, 213.

MACKENZIE, DR., 184, 241.

Maclise, D., R.A., illustra-
tions for "The Chimes,"
43 ; for " The Cricket on
the Hearth," 48 ; for " The
Battle of Life," 35.

Macready, 90, 132, 197 ; and
" The Chimes," 43 ; and
" The Lamplighter," 211-
212 ; and " The Patri
cian's Daughter," 228.

Macrone, J., 9, u, 14, 13, 38,
183.

"Man in the Moon, The,"
244.

Manuscripts, 23, 27, 67, 70,
80, 83, 86, 87, 106, 123, 124,
126, 132, 133 (note), 158-
159, 166-167, 177-179, 182,
190-191, 192, 193, 193, 211,
212, 218, 219, 231.

Marston, J. Westland, 228.

" Martin Chuzzlewit, 22, 33,
35, 243-

" Mary Berwick " (pseud.),
see "Procter, A. A."

"Master Humphrey's
Clock," 18, 184, 241 ; pla
giarisms, 242-243.

" MEMOIRS OF JOSEPH GRI-
MALDI," 177-183 ; Dickens's
estimate of, 179 ; sale of,
179-180; criticisms, 181 ;
illustrations, 181-183; bor
dered plate, 181-182 ; pre
sent value, 182 ; manu
script of, 177-179, 182.

" Message from the Sea, A,"
163-164.

Metropolitan Magazine,
The, 237.

Miscellaneous Prose Writ
ings, 61-75.

" MISNAR, THE SULTAN OF
INDIA," 194.

Mitton, T., 9, 13, 35, 37, 42,
63, 96.

Monthly Magazine, The, i,
2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 16.

"More Hints on Etiquette,"

74-

Morley, H., 73.

256

Index.

Morning Chronicle, The, 5,
6, 7, 8, 24, 96, 97 (note).

"MR. NIGHTINGALE'S
DIARY," 213-215 ; first per
formance, 213 ; cast of
characters, 214 ; collation,
214 ; present value of re
print, 215.

" Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy,"
168.

"Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings,"
167-168.

Mudfog Papers, The, 77-78,
80.

" Mugby Junction, "170-171.

" Mystery of Edwin Drood,
The," unauthorised con
tinuations, etc., 245-248.

NATIONAL SUNDAY LEAGUE,
62.

Newby, T. C., 187, 189.

New Monthly Magazine,
The, a.

New Parley Library, The,
34*.

"New Uncommercial
Samples," 145.

New York Ledger, The, 88-
92.

"Nicholas Nickleby," 211,
233 > plagiarisms, etc.,
239-241.

Nicholson, Renton, 244.

"Nobody's Story," 152.

"No THOROUGHFARE," 93,
136, 172-174 ; dramatised,
173-174, 215-218; first per
formance, 216; piracies of,

217 ; French translation
of, 217.

"Not so Bad as We Seem,"
213.

OLIPHANT, MRS., 30.

" Oliver Twist," 45, 77 j
plagiarisms, etc., 238.

Once a Week, 117, 120.

"On Mr. Fechter's Acting,"
93, and see 173, 215.

Orford, Lord, 165.

" Orpheus C. Kerr"(pseud.),
247.

Osgood, Mr., 209, 210.

" O'THELLO," 194-195, 222 ;
manuscript of, 195.

" Our French Watering-
Place," 131-132.

" Our Mutual Friend," 168 ',
rhymes in, 232.

" Our School," 130.

Our Young Folks, 93-95.

Ouvry, F., 162, 192.

Overs, John, 185-189.

PAILTHORPE, F. W., illus
trations by, 198, 206.

Palmer, S., illustrations by,
27, 103.

Parley's Penny Library, 242.

Parry, J., junior, 201.

' ' Patrician's Daughter,
The," 228-229 ; present
value, 229 ; reprint, 229.

Peel, Sir Robert, 84.

Pen, The, 208.

"Perils of Certain English

Index.

257

Prisoners, The," 136, 158-

i59-

" Personal," 133.
" Peter Parley " (pseud.), 75,

342'

Phillips, J., 237.

"Phiz" (pseud.), see
" Browne, H. K."

Piccadilly Annual, The, 92.

"Pickwick Papers, The,"
i, 14; rhymes in, 224-226;
plagiarisms, etc., 234-238.

" Pic NIC PAPERS, THE,"
183-183,212; illustrations,
185 ; collation and present
value, 183.

" PICTURES FROM ITALY,"
24-27, 32, 102-103 ; proto
type of "Brave C.," 25;
at work upon, 25-26 ; first
appearance of, 26 ; re
printed, 26-27 i illustra
tions, 27, 103 ; collation,
27 ; present value, 27 ;
First Cheap Edition, 27 ;
manuscript of, 27.

Pinwell, G. J., illustrations
by, 147-

" Plays and Poems of
Charles Dickens, The,"
218, 229.

" Poor Man and His Beer,
The," I43-M4-

" Poor Relation's Story,
The," 151.

Power, Miss, 81.

Procter, A. A., 190, 191.

B. W., 144, 152-153

(note), 190.

Procter, Mrs., 190.
Prototypes of characters,

16-17, 25, 130, 131-132, 143,

145, 152, 158, 162, 163, 165,

167, 171.
"Pseudo-Dickens Rarities,"

75 (note).
Punch, 115, 116, 117, 226.

" Quiz " (pseud.), 65.

" RATHER A STRONG DOSE,"
145-

Raven, S., 181.

Read, Mrs. C. A., 248.

Reade, C., 208.

" RELIGIOUS OPINIONS OF
THE LATE REV. CHAUNCY
HARE TOWNSHEND," 191-
193; manuscript notes, 192-
193 ; collation and present
value, 193 ; manuscript
of, 193.

"Reprinted Pieces," n8,
147, 176.

Reynolds, G. W. M., 237,
243.

" Rifts in the Veil," 246-247.

Ritchie, Mrs., 72.

" Round of Stories by the
Christinas Fire, A," 151.

Routledge and Sons, G., 182,
183.

Ruskin, Professor, his criti
cism of "Hard Times,"

31-

Russell, H., 224.
Ryland, A., 154.

17

258

Index.

SALA, G. A., 198 ; on anony
mity, 114 ; and " The
Village Coquettes," 203 ;
and " Is She His Wife ? "
207-208.

Madame, 198, 207.

" Schoolboy's Story, The,"
152.

" Sergeant Bell and his
Raree Show," 74-75.

" Seven Poor Travellers,
The," 152-155.

Seymour, R., illustrations
by, 8.

Shepherd, R. H., 212, 217,
229 ; on " Is She His
Wife?" 208.

Six Poor Travellers, The,
see " Watts's Charity."

" SKETCHES BY Boz," 1-17,
96, 137, 145, 195 (note), 196 ;
first Sketch, 2-3 ; copy
right, 9, 14-15 ; First
Series, 9-11; Second
Series, 11-13 > collation
of Second Series, 12
(note) ; First Complete
Edition, 13 ; illustrations,
jo, 13, 15 ; First Cheap
Edition, 15-16 ; present
values, 16 ; prototypes of
characters, 16-17 ; plagiar
ism, 234-235.

"SKETCHES OF YOUNG
COUPLES," 65-66, 218 ;
manuscript of, 67.
" SKETCHES OF YOUNG
GENTLEMEN," 64-66, 218 ;
manuscript of, 67.

"Sketches -of Young
Ladies," 65.

"Small Star in the East,
A," 145-146-

Smith, Mr. (Smith, Elder
and Co.), 83.

Albert, 244.

Arthur, 116.

The Misses, 198.

" Somebody's Luggage,'1
165-167.

"Song of the Wreck, The,"
219, 231 ; manuscript of,
931.

Spielmann,M.H.,on "Lord
Bateman," 73, 117.

"Spirit of Chivalry, The,"
88.

Stanfield, C., R. A. , frontis
piece for "American
Notes," 23; illustrations
for "The Chimes," 45 ; for
"The Cricket on the
Hearth," 48; for "The
Battle of Life," 55; for
" The Haunted Man," 58 ;
and Mark Lemon, 116-
117.

Stephens, Kitty, 198.

Stone, F., A.R.A., illustra
tions by, 58.

Marcus, R.A., 68, 70.

"STRANGE GENTLEMAN,
THE," 196-199, 204 ; first
performance, 197 ; colla
tion, 198 ; frontispiece,
198 ; present value, 199 ;
playbills, 199.

Sumner, 21.

Index.

259

"Sunday out of Town,

A," 3.

" SUNDAY UNDER THREE
HEADS," 61-64 ; illustra
tions, 63 ; collation, 63 ;
present value, 63-64 ; re
prints, 64.

Tail's Edinburgh Maga-

fine, 187.
" Tale of Two Cities, A,"

131, 219.

Talfourd, Serjeant, 243.

Tegg, T., 74, 237.

Temple Bar, 219.

Tenniel, (Sir) J., illustra
tions by, 58.

Thackeray, 117 ; on the
" Christmas Carol," 34 ;
and "Lord Bateman," 70,
71, 73; "In Memoriam,"
82-83.

" That Other Public," 132.

Theatrical Journal, 229.

Theatrical Observer, 211.

Thomas, Owen P., 130.

"Thousand and One Hum
bugs, The,'1 132.

" Three Gates, The," 192.

" Tibbs " (pseud.), 7.

Ticknor and Fields, 92,
93-

Times, The, 164.

"Timothy Sparks" (pseud.),
63-

" To be Read at Dusk," 81-
82, 147-

"Tom Tiddler's Ground "
164-165.

Topham, F. W., illustra
tions by, 69.

Townshend, Rev. C- H.
191-193.

Town Talk, 83, 117.

" Trading in Death," 130.

" Travelling Sketches," 26,
99, 102-103.

Trueman, Mr., on "Lord
Bateman, " 73.

" Tuggses at Ramsgate,
The," 8, 14.

" UNCLE JOHN," Dickens's
acting in, 133.

" Uncommercial Traveller,
The," 137-138, 139-141
(notes), 146-147 ; First
Cheap Edition and Illus
trated Library Edition,
147.

" VALENTINE'S DAY AT THE
POST-OFFICE," 136-137.

Vase, Gillan, 246.

"VILLAGE COQUETTES,
THE," 199-207 ; first per
formance, 201 ; described
and criticised, 203-204 ;
Dickens's opinion of, 204 ;
collation, 305 ; reprint,
205-206 ; frontispiece, 206 ;
present value, 206.

WAINEWRIGHT, T. G., 89,

90.
Ward, Lock, and Tyler, 118

i?5-

Ward, Professor, 149.
Watson, HOD Mrs., 130.

260

Index.

Watts, Richard, 152.
Watts's Charity, Rochester,

152-i5S, and see 154 (note).
" Welfleet Mystery, The,"

248.
" What Christmas is as we

Grow Older," 151.
White, G. G., illustrations

by, 94.

Rev. J., 113, 157.

Whitehead, C., 8, 182.
" Whole Hogs," 129-130.
Wilde, S. de, 183.
Wilks, T. Egerton, 177.
Wills, W. H., 161, 189 ; and

' ' A Curious Dance Round

a Curious Tree," 75 ; and
Household Words, 112,
113, 114, 131, 174; colla
boration with Dickens,
127, 128, 136.

"Winkle's Journal," 237-
238.

' ' Word in Season, A," 229.

" Wreck of the Golden
Mary, The," 157-158 ; " A
Child's Hymn," 232.

YATES, E., 184; and Town

Talk, 83.
Young, Miss C, 231.

Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row, London.

University of Toronto
Library

Acme Library Card Pocket

Under Pat. "Kef Index Pile*
Made by LIBRARY BUREAU