Page images
PDF
EPUB

then in the summer-time; but I haven't seen them lately. There's a church at Golder's-green almost as near, and they have been there.'

'Will you tell me what they were like ?' Gilbert asked eagerly.

His heart was beating loud and fast, making a painful tumult in his breast. He felt assured that he was on the track of the people whom the innkeeper had described to him; the people who were, in all probability, Mr. and Mrs. Holbrook.

The lady is very pretty and very young, quite a girl. The gentleman older, dark, and not handsome.'

[ocr errors]

Yes. Has the lady gray eyes, and dark-brown hair, and a very bright expressive face?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Pray try to remember the name of the gentleman to whom the Grange belongs. It is of great importance to me to know that.' 'I'll ask my father, sir,' the girl answered good-naturedly; 'he's pretty sure to know.'

She went across the shop to the old man who was weighing sugar, and bawled her question into his ear. He scratched his head in a meditative way for some moments.

6

'I've heard the name times and often,' he said, though I never set eyes upon the gentleman. William Carly has been bailiff at the Grange these twenty years, and I don't believe as the owner has ever come nigh the place in all that time. Let me see, it's a common name enough, though the gentleman is a baronight. Forster-that's it-Sir something Forster.'

'Sir David ?' cried Gilbert.

'You've hit it, sir.

Sir David Forster-that's the gentleman.' Sir David Forster! He had little doubt after this that the strangers at the Grange had been Marian and her husband. Treachery, blackest treachery, somewhere. He had questioned Sir David, and had received his positive assurance that this man Holbrook was unknown to him; and now, against that there was the fact that the baronet was the owner of a place in Hampshire, to be taken in conjunction with that other fact that a place in Hampshire had been lent to Mr. Holbrook by a friend. At the very first he had been inclined to believe that Marian's lover must needs be one of the worthless bachelor crew with which the baronet was accustomed to surround himself. He had only abandoned that notion after his interview with Sir David Forster; and now it seemed that the baronet had deliberately lied to him. It was, of course, just possible that he was on a false scent after all, and that it was to some other part of the county Mr. Holbrook had brought his bride; but such a coincidence seemed, at the least, highly improbable. There was no occasion for him to remain in doubt very long, however. At the Grange he must needs be able to obtain more definite information.

THE PICKWICK PAPERS

WHILE the cloud of a national sorrow rests on the sunset-splendour of a great career, it cannot be without interest to turn to the dawn of that career and set down a few facts which have suddenly acquired the importance of history. The reputation of Charles Dickens began with Pickwick. His early sketches attracted attention and caused him to be spoken of in literary circles as a young man of singular promise; but it was with Pickwick that he took his position-a position which he held, in spite of all comers, to the day of his death. Everything respecting this work is therefore of moment, even its story; and it is with this rather than with the work itself that we propose to deal. A book which had the good fortune to make such a reputation, and to survive in public estimation thirtyfour years, may be regarded as a sort of public character, and demands a biography. Here are a few materials towards it.

The first ray of light which illumines the gloom' to quote Dickens on Dickens-out of which the Pickwick Papers emerged, is afforded by an advertisement which appeared in the Times of Saturday, March 26th, 1836. As this was the earliest notification the public received of the boon about to be conferred on them-of the fountain of inexhaustible amusement and delight about to be unsealed-we will transcribe the modest announcement. It was in these terms:

THE C

HE PICKWICK PAPERS.-On the 31st of March will be published, to be continued monthly, price One Shilling, the first number of the POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB, containing a faithful record of the Perambulations, Perils, Travels, Adventures, and Sporting Transactions of the Corresponding Members. Edited by Boz. Each Monthly Part embellished with four Illustrations by Seymour. Chapman and Hall, 186 Strand; and of all Booksellers.

On the day in question the hardy annual put forth its first green leaves. Another generation has sprung up since that day; many of the younger admirers of Dickens have never seen the Pickwick Papers in their original form; and it may therefore be worth while to note that the Parts were identical in size and appearance with the author's latest work, the wrapper having of course its special design, which indicated, by the way, the first idea of the workthat of a series of sporting adventures undertaken by cockneys. This idea was determined by the circumstances out of which Pickwick originated. Seymour, the artist, was at that time very popular from having published some hundreds of prints in ridicule of cockney sportsmen, under the title of Sketches by Seymour.' These were

[ocr errors]

afterwards collected; and Peake, the dramatic author, wrote a book to them no easy task from the variety of incidents presented; but he did his work well, dividing the book into four seasons, and then sorting-out the cuts to suit them-fishing for summer, shooting for winter, and so forth. It then occurred to Messrs. Chapman and Hall that here was a vein which might be worked with advantage; and we all know the story of their applying to Charles Dickens, then beginning to be known from his Sketches, to supply letterpress, which in a very short time threw the illustrations utterly into the shade.

[ocr errors]

6

Poor Seymour's connection with the work was very brief. The wrapper was from his pencil, as also were the plates to No. 1— four in number. They are well known. The first represents the 'Club,' illustrating the scene where the immortal Pickwick, in the height of his enthusiasm, mounted into a windsor-chair, on which he had been previously seated, and addressed the club himself had founded. What a study for an artist did that exciting scene present!' The second plate represents Pickwick and his friends in a mêlée with a cabman. The third, Jingle's knowing dog Ponto looking up at the inscription, The gamekeeper has orders to shoot all dogs found in this enclosure.' The fourth, Jingle's encounter with Dr. Slammer at the Bull-inn, Rochester-the town to which the author returned again and again with steady affection, making it the locality of scenes in his last as in his first work. In No. 2 Seymour contributed three plates-there were only three in that number. Before the third number was published a melancholy catastrophe had happened. Seymour had destroyed himself by blowing-out his brains. The sudden loss of the artist put the author and the publishers to the greatest inconvenience. The work had achieved an immense success; had already taken a firm hold on the public, who anxiously awaited the appearance of each monthly instalment, and now it seemed brought to a sudden close. To find another artist was no easy matter at that time, when the style of illustration was to an extent new. They however succeeded, and the current number appeared. It contained two plates only, and those executed in a very inferior style of art. We do not know who was the artist, but they professed to be drawn and etched by R. N. Buss.' The difference in style between these and the preceding plates strikes the eye at once in turning over the early numbers. Buss' evidently would not do; he received his congé; and in the next numberNo. 4-the hand of a fresh artist is perceptible. There, again, are two illustrations. These plates are not signed; but are obviously by Hablot K. Browne, who as Phiz' soon became identified with 'Boz' as the illustrator of his works. These details respecting the illustrations are of moment, in order that collectors may discriminate between the early copies which are already of different degrees

of variety and value. In subsequent editions the publishers took the opportunity of cancelling the two plates in No. 3, and substituting two others by Phiz.' These were great improvements; but copies of the work with the Buss' illustrations are valued for their rarity. No. 5 contained two plates signed Phiz,' that signature being thus used for the first time. Subsequently the two plates in No. 4 were altered, and the plates of Nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8 have been slightly re-touched, but no marked difference is brought out.

The expectations entertained of the possible success of the work by its original projectors appear to have been modest in the extreme. We have it on the authority of Mr. Aked that he received the first order for binding Part 1, and that it was for 400 copies only; so small an order that he was able to execute it himself in one evening, after the workpeople had left. The demand greatly exceeded this scanty supply; but it was after the introduction of Sam Weller that the success of the work became unprecedented. It reached a sale of nearly 40,000 copies a month, and fairly took the country by storm. Nothing else was talked of; and the anxiety to discover the name of the new author who concealed himself under the odd nom de plume was universal; but only by slow degrees did it ooze out and become known to the world at large that Boz' was Charles Dickens. His reception by the public moved the author to issue with No. 10, in December 1836, a brief address; and as this does not appear in any edition of the work-not being intended to be bound up with it—we offer a copy as a relic or curiosity of literature.

6

Ten months have now elapsed since the appearance of the first number of the Pickwick Papers. At the close of the year, and the conclusion of half his task, their author may perhaps, without any unwarrantable intrusion on the notice of the public, venture to say a few words of himself.

He has long been desirous to embrace the first opportunity of announcing that it is his intention to adhere to his original pledge of confining this work to twenty numbers. He has every temptation to exceed the limits he first assigned to himself, that brilliant success, an enormous and increasing sale, the kindest notice, and the most extensive popularity can hold out. They are, one and all, sad temptations to an author; but he has determined to resist them; firstly, because he wishes to keep the strictest faith with his readers; and, secondly, because he is most anxious that when the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club form a complete work, the book may not have to contend against the heavy disadvantage of being prolonged beyond his original plan.

For ten months longer, then, if the author be permitted to retain his health and spirits, the Pickwick Papers will be issued in their present form, and will then be completed. By what fresh adventures they may be succeeded is no matter for present consideration. The author merely hints that he has strong reason to believe that a great variety of other documents still lie hidden in the repository from which these were taken, and that they may one day see the light.

With this short speech Mr. Pickwick's Stage-Manager makes his most grateful bow, adding, on behalf of himself and publishers, what the late eminent Mr. John Richardson, of Horsemonger-lane, Southwark, and the yellow caravan with the brass knocker, always said in behalf of himself and company at the close of every performance: Ladies and gentlemen, for these marks of your favour we beg to return you our sincere thanks; and allow us to inform you, that we shall keep perpetually going on beginning again, regularly, until the end of the fair.'

It would appear that about the May or June of the next year, 1837, the appearance of the work was interrupted. How this happened how one so methodical in all his arrangements could have suffered anything to interfere with the publication of such a work— Mr. Dickens's biographers will probably explain. All the explanation the author gave was comprised in the following address, which was sent out with the July number:

[ocr errors]

186 Strand, June 30th, 1837.

The author is desirous to take the opportunity afforded him by his resumption of this work to state once again, what he thought had been stated sufficiently emphatically before, namely, that its publication was interrupted by a severe domestic affliction of no ordinary kind, that this was the sole cause of the non-appearance of the present number in the usual course, and that henceforth it will continue to be published with its accustomed regularity. However superfluous this second notice may appear to many, it is rendered necessary by various idle speculations and absurdities, which have been industriously propagated during the past month, which have reached the author's ears from many quarters, and have pained him exceedingly. By one set of intimate acquaintances, especially well-informed, he has been killed outright; by another, driven mad; by a third, imprisoned for debt; by a fourth, sent, per steamer, to the United States; by a fifth, rendered incapable of mental exertion for evermore; by all, in short, represented as doing anything but seeking in a few weeks' retirement the restoration of that cheerfulness and peace of which a sad bereavement had temporarily deprived him.'

In the same number appeared a curious Notice to Correspondents,' which has now a singular interest:

'We receive every month an immense number of communications, purporting to be "suggestions" for the Pickwick Papers. We have no doubt that they are forwarded with the kindest intentions; but as it is wholly out of our power to make use of any such hints, and as we really have no time to peruse anonymous letters, we hope the writers will henceforth spare themselves a great deal of unnecessary and useless trouble.'

The last part of the work was issued in October 1837.

Meanwhile the popularity of Pickwick had gone on accumulating. It was seized upon as a subject for dramatisation; and soon rival versions were being played at the various London theatres. The best and most successful adaptation was that at the Strand Theatre, under W. J. Hammond's management. It played a hundred nights; and the house opened its next season with an extended version of the story. Another proof of its popularity lay in the formation of Pickwick clubs convivial gatherings in which the members assumed the names of the characters of the work-in every town in the kingdom. Other indications of enormous success might be added; but it is not our purpose to enter into this branch of the subject, but simply to recall a few facts, and present a relic or two, which will have special interest at a moment when the thoughts of all are full of the greatness of him who has suddenly quitted the scene of his triumphs, and will return to it no more.

W. S.

« PreviousContinue »