\ STUDIA IN THE LIBRARY of VICTORIA UNIVERSITY Toronto THE CHARLES DICKENS ORIGINALS CHARLES DICKENS Hy Daniel Maclisc, R.A. THEDICKENSCHARLES ORIGINALS BY EDWIN PUGH AUTHOR OF "CHARLES DICKENS THE APOSTLE OF THE PEOPLE" T. N. FOULIS LONDON fer EDINBURGH 1912 Pa Published November 1912 \o- <c>- Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & Co. At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh PREFACE I AM glad of this opportunity to offer my sincere thanks to all those who have so kindly and cour- teously assisted me in the making of this book : to my friend, Mr. Nat Simmonds, to Sir Melville Macnaghten, C.B.,The Assistant Commissioner of Police, to the Rev. Hume Elliot, The Biblio- phile Society of Boston, U.S.A., Mr. Arthur Humphreys, Switzerland, to Messrs. Atwood & Sons, and especially to the members of the Dick- ens family, Henry Fielding Dickens, Esq., K.C., Mrs. Perugini, and Miss Georgina Hogarth. I am also deeply indebted to Mr. B. W. Matz for the care and pains he has taken in revising the proofs of this book. E. P. ST. ELLAR'S, HARROW WEALD. October 1912. THE LIST OF CHAPTERS i. THE IMMORTAL CHILD PAGE I ii. OF Two WOMEN : I. MARIA BEADNELL . .21 in. OF Two WOMEN : II. MARY HOGARTH . 57 iv. SOME PICKWICKIANS . ., . 81 v. ABOUT SQUEERS AND MR. FANG 99 vi. THE BROTHERS CHEERYBLE AND OTHERS . .121 VH. RELICS FROM THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP . 145 viii. FAMILY PORTRAITS 165 ix. OF ADVENTURES IN HISTORY 197 x. CRIMINAL PROTOTYPES 235 xi. THE GREAT GROTESQUES 265 xii. MINOR CHARACTERS 285 xin. SOME DICKENS' CONTEMPORARIES 311 xiv. DICKENS HIMSELF 331 INDEX 341 THE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CHARLES DICKENS Frontispiece By DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. CHARLES DICKENS FACE 8 Silhouette by permission of the Connoisseur. LEIGH HUNT . 16 Engraved by H. MEYER from a drawing by J. WAYTER. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR 24 The original of LAWRENCE BOYTHORN in Bleak House. MARIA BEADNELL 40 Reproduced by kind permission of the Bibliophile Society, Boston, U.S.A. MARY HOGARTH 56 By H. K. BROWN. By permission of Miss GEORGINA HOGARTH. HENRY BURNETT, BROTHER-IN-LAW OF CHARLES DICKENS 72 The original of NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. JUDGE L. GAZALEE 80 SAM VALE 88 The original of SAM WELLER. THE HONOURABLE Miss MONCKTON, AFTERWARDS LADY COOK 96 Mezzotint by J. JACOBS after REYNOLDS. The original of MRS. LEO HUNTER in Pickwick. SERJEANT BOMPAS 104 The original of SERJEANT BUZFUZ. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD BROUGHAM . .112 Engraved by D. J. POUND from a photograph by MAYALL. WILLIAM GRANT 128 DANIEL GRANT 136 THE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS JOHN DICKENS PAGE 144 By JOHN W. GILBERT. By permission of N. P. DICKENS, K.C. MRS. COOPER (LITTLE DORRIT) . .152 "THE DUET" 168 Picture by FRANK STONE, father of MARCUS STONE, R.A. Introducing TENNYSON resting chin in hand gazing at performers, with DICKENS in foreground. Miss HO- GARTH is one of the figures at the piano. MRS. JOHN DICKENS 184 By JOHN W. GILBERT. By permission of N. P. DICKENS, K.C. THE CHILDREN OF CHARLES DICKENS WITH GRIP THE RAVEN 200 From a drawing by DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. By permis- sion of Miss PERUGINI. PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD . .216 LORD MANSFIELD 224 LORD GEORGE GORDON 232 BRYAN WALLER PROCTER (BARRY CORNWALL) . 248 LORD GRENVILLE 256 SAMUEL CARTER HALL 264 SIR ROBERT PEEL 272 MRS. HAYES (POLLY TOODLE) 280 INSPECTOR FIELD 296 The original of INSPECTOR BUCKETT. JUDGE TALFOURD 3 12 JOHN FORSTER 328 MRS. By C. B. PERUGINI. Bequeathed by JOHN FORSTER to the Victoria and Albert Museum. CHAPTER ONE THE IMMORTAL CHILD CHARLES DICKENS ORIGINALS CHAPTER ONE THE IMMORTAL CHILD THERE ARE MANY PORTRAITS OF Charles Dickens but that which ; portrait photo- graphy has made most familiar to the world is perhaps the least expressive of his personality. It shows him as a worn and haggard man, with scanty grizzled locks, and a deeply-lined face. It is the portrait of a man prematurely old and wise and tired. It as little reflects the character of the author of Pickwick and all that magnificent sequ- ence of books which culminated in DavidCopper- field^ the bald head and fat flaccid face of Shak- espeare thefaceofoneenjoyingasleek,prosper- ous,and smug middle-age reflects thecharacter of the author of Romeo andJuliet, or A Midsum- mer Nighfs Dream. But you will observe here certain reservations. It is not suggested that this portrait of Dickens at fifty does not look like the portrait of the author of Bleak House or Hard Times or Little Dorrit. And the original of that bourgeois Shakespeare of the Stratford-on-Avon bust might quite con- ceivably have written The Tempest or KingLear or Coriolanus. We have only a feeling of vague disillusion when we try to realise that men of such a commonplace exterior were the mighty genius- es who have created a new world for us. And here, I think, our instinct is right. These 3 THE DICKENS ORIGINALS bored-looking, sophisticated men of affairs are not the men who penned those flaming masterpieces which have so stirred and thrilled us. These men are as the shrivelled husks of that immortal shin- ing soul which once irradiated the beautiful bloomy flesh and fired the rich red blood of appropriate youth. There was a time when the treasures that these god-like beings by nature divine, human only by grace poured forth in such rare abund- ance, were as diamonds flashing on the fair skin of a delicate bosom now are young girl's ; they as pearls concealed in the craggy rugged oyster- shell. Dickens himself was acutely, whimsically con- scious of this sad difference between the Ideal and the Real which does so plague and vex the inveter- ate hero-worshipper. Whilst on a visit to Edin- burgh he wrote : " Walking up and down the hall of the courts of law (which was full of advocates, writers to the signet, clerks, and idlers) was a tall, burly, handsome man of eight and fifty, with a gait like O'Connell's, the bluest eyes you can imagine, and long hair longer than mine falling down in a wild wayunder the broad brimof his hat. He had on a surtout coat, a blue checked shirt ; the collar standing up and kept in its place with a wisp of neckerchief no and a black ; waistcoat, large poc- ket-handkerchief thrust into his breast, which was all broad and open. At his heels followed a wiry, 4 THE IMMORTAL CHILD sharp-eyed, shaggy devil of a terrier, dogging his steps as he went slashing up and down, now with one man beside him, now with another, and now quite alone, but always at a fast, rolling pace, with his head in the air, and his eyes as wide open as he could get them. I guessed it was Wilson, and it was. A bright, clear-complexioned, mountain- looking fellow, helooks as though he hadjust come down from the Highlands, and had never in his life taken pen in hand. But he has had an attack of paralysis in his right arm within this month. He winced when I shook hands with him, and once or twice when we were walking up and down slipped as if he had stumbled on a piece of orange-peel. is a to talk to He greatfellowto look at, and ; and, if you could divest your mind of the actual Scott, is just the figure you would put in his place." And, echoing Dickens, theportrait that I would put in the place of that well-known latter-day photograph is the portrait of himself at twenty- seven, painted byMaclise : a portrait that justifies Mrs. Carlyle in saying that his face was as if made of steel. More soberly Forster describes him as one whose "look of youthfulness first attracted you, and then a candour and openness of expression which made you sure of the qualities within. The features were very good. He had a capital fore- head a firm with wide nostril ; nose, full, ; eyes wonderfully beaming with intellect, and running 5 THE DICKENS ORIGINALS over with humour and cheerfulness and a rather ; prominent mouth, strongly marked with sensi- bility. The head was altogether well-formed and symmetrical, and the air and carriage of it were extremely spirited. The hair . was then of a rich brown and most luxuriant abundance, and the face . had hardly a vestige of hair or whisker ; but there was that in the face as I first recollect it which no time could change, and which remained implanted on it unalterably to the last. This was the quickness, keenness, and practical power, the eager, restless, energetic outlook on each several feature, that seemed to tell so little of a student or writer of books, and so much of a man of action and business in the world. Light and motion flashed from every part of it. ... * ' What a face is his to meet in a drawing-room ! wrote Leigh Hunt to me, the morning after I had made them known to each other. ' It has the life and soul in it of fifty human beings.' In such sayings are expressed not alone the restless and resistless vivacity and force of which I have spoken, but that also which lay beneath them, of steadiness and hard endurance." Yes, that was indeed the typeof face which one would associate with all, except perhaps three or four, of the Dickens books. But it was not the face of the man who wrote in the preface to his next book after David Copperfield, when his high spirits had begun to flag and the fount of his 6 THE IMMORTAL CHILD inspiration to bubble up a little less freely and brightly: "InBleakHouscl have purposely dwelt upon the romantic side of familiar things.