Chapter 25

“Next comes Nancy. Readers of the old editions of ‘Oliver Twist’ will doubtless recollect how desperately difficult it was to fight against the dreadful impression which Mr. George Cruikshank’s picture of Nancy left upon the mind, and how it required all the assistance of the author’s genius to preserve interest in the stunted, squab, round-faced trull whom the artist had depicted. Accurately delineating every other character in the book, and excelling all his previous and subsequent productions in his etching of ‘Fagin in the Condemned Cell,’ Mr. Cruikshank not merely did not convey the right idea of Nancy, which would have been bad enough, but conveyed the wrong one, which was worse. No such ill-favoured slut would have found a protector in Sikes, who amongst his set and in his profession was a man of mark. We all know Nancy’s position; but just because we know it we are certain she must have had some amount of personal comeliness, which Mr. Cruikshank has entirely denied her. In the reading we get none of the common side of her character, which peeps forth occasionally in the earlier volumes. She is the heroine, doing evil that good may come of it—breaking the trust reposed in her that the man she loves and they amongst whom she has lived may be brought to better lives. With the dread shadow of impending death upon her, she is thrillingly earnest, almost prophetic. Thus, in accordance with a favourite custom of the author, during the interview on the steps at London Bridge, not only does the girl’s language rise from the tone of everyday life and become imbued with dramatic imagery and fervour, but that eminently prosaic old person, Mr. Brownlow, becomes affected in the same manner, saying, ‘before this river wakes to life,’ and indulging in other romantic types and metaphors. This may be scarcely life-like, but it is very effective in the reading, enchaining the attention of the audience and forming a fine contrast to the simple pathos of the dialogue in the murder-scene, every word of which is in the highest degree natural and well-placed. It is here, of course, that the excitement of the audience is wrought to its highest pitch, and that the acme of the actor’s art is reached. The raised hands, the bent-back head, are good; but shut your eyes, and the illusion is more complete. Then the cries for mercy, the ‘Bill! dear Bill! for dear God’s sake!’ uttered in tones in which the agony of fear prevails even over the earnestness of the prayer, the dead, dull voice as hope departs, are intensely real. When the pleading ceases, you open your eyes in relief, in time to see the impersonation of the murderer seizing a heavy club, and striking his victim to the ground.

“Artistically speaking, the story of Sikes and Nancy ends at the point here indicated. Throughout the entire scene of the murder, from the entrance of Sikes into the house until the catastrophe, the silence was intense—the old phrase ‘a pin might have been heard to drop,’ could have been legitimately employed. It was a great study to watch the faces of the people—eager, excited, intent—permitted for once in a life-time to be natural, forgetting to be British, and cynical, and unimpassioned. The great strength of this feeling did not last into the concluding five minutes. The people were earnest and attentive; but the wild excitement so seldom seen amongst us died as Nancy died, and the rest was somewhat of an anti-climax.

“No one who appreciates great acting should miss this scene. It will be a treat such as they have not had for a long time, such as, from all appearances, they are not likely to have soon again. To them the earnestness and force, the subtlety, the _nuances_, the delicate lights and shades of the great dramatic art, will be exhibited by one of the first—if not the first—of its living masters; while those of far less intellectual calibre will understand the vigour of the entire performance, and be specially amused at the facial and vocal dexterity by which the crafty Fagin is, instantaneously changed into the chuckle-headed Noah Claypole.”

* * * * *

Mr. Dickens, as a reader, is an artist of the very first rank; and to say that his reading of the choicest portions of his own works is actually as fine in its way as the works themselves in theirs, is a compliment at once exceedingly high and richly deserved.

During his late visit to America, the great men of the land travelled from far and near to be present at the readings; the poet Longfellow went three nights in succession, and he afterwards declared to a friend that they were “the most delightful evenings of his life.”

FOOTNOTES

{7} This first Sketch was entitled, “_Mrs. Joseph Porter_, ‘_over the Way_.’” The _Monthly Magazine_ in which this appeared was published by Cochrane and M‘Crone, and must not be confounded with _The New Monthly Magazine_, published by Colburn.

{8a} This was the first paper in which Dickens assumed the pseudonym of “Boz.” The previous sketches appeared anonymously.

{8b} Of these Sketches two volumes were collected and published by Macrone (with illustrations by George Cruikshank), in February, 1836, and a third in the December following.

{10} The pamphlet was entitled _Sunday wider Three Heads_: _As it is_; _as Sabbath Bills would make it_; _as it might be made_. By Timothy Sparks. London, Chapman and Hall, 1836, pp. 49 (with illustrations by Hablot K. Browne).

{11} “Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi,” edited by _Boz_. With illustrations by George Cruikshank. In two volumes. London, R. Bentley. 1838.

{15} “Master Humphrey’s Clock,” Vol. I. p. 72.

{18a} “Master Humphrey’s Clock,” Vol. I., pp. 98, 99.

{18b} June 25, 1841.

{24} Kate Field.

{26} _Evenings of a Working Man_, by John Overs, with a Preface relative to the Author, by Charles Dickens. London: Newby, 1844.

{27} _Bentley’s Miscellany_, edited by Mr. Dickens during the years 1837–38.

{28} Dr. Elliotson.

{29} We are told that Overs did not live long after the publication of his little book: “the malady under which he was labouring, terminated fatally the following October.”

{30} _Fraser’s Magazine_, July, 1844.

{31} These five volumes were all gracefully illustrated by John Leech, Daniel Maclise, Clarkson Stanfield, Sir Edwin Landseer, Richard Doyle, and others; and a set of the original issue is now much sought after, and not easily met with.

{33} “Unto this Last.” Chap. I.

{34} The following instances are, by kind permission, selected from an admirable article upon this subject, which appeared in the “Temple Bar” Magazine for September, 1869.

{53} Sir David Wilkie died at sea, on board the _Oriental_, off Gibraltar, on the 1st of June, 1841, whilst on his way back to England. During the evening of the same day his body was committed to the deep.—ED.

{55} The _Britannia_ was the vessel that conveyed Mr. Dickens across the Atlantic, on his first visit to America.—ED.

{61} _Master Humphrey’s Clock_, under which title the two novels of Barnaby Rudge and The Old Curiosity Shop originally appeared.—ED.

{63} “I shall always entertain a very pleasant and grateful recollection of Hartford. It is a lovely place, and I had many friends there, whom I can never remember with indifference. We left it with no little regret.” _American Notes_ (Lond. 1842). Vol. I, p. 182.

{70} See the _Life and Letters of Washington Irving_ (Lond. 1863), p. 644, where Irving speaks of a letter he has received “from that glorious fellow Dickens, in reply to the one I wrote, expressing my heartfelt delight with his writings, and my yearnings toward himself.” See also the letter itself, in the second division of this volume.—ED.

{88} _TENNYSON_, _Lady Clara Vere de Vere_, then newly published in collection of 1842.—ED.

{95} “That this meeting, while conveying its cordial thanks to Charles Dickens, Esq., for his presence this evening, and for his able and courteous conduct as President, cannot separate without tendering the warmest expression of its gratitude and admiration to one whose writings have so loyally inculcated the lessons of benevolence and virtue, and so richly contributed to the stores of public pleasure and instructions.”

{98} The Duke of Devonshire.

{105} _Charlotte Corday going to Execution_.

{113} The above is extracted from Mrs. Stowe’s “Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands,”, a book in which her eaves-dropping propensities were already developed in a sufficiently ugly form.—ED.

{150} Alas! the “many years” were to be barely six, when the speaker was himself destined to write some memorial pages commemorative of his illustrious friend (Cornhill Magazine, February, 1864.)—ED.

{153} Mr. Henry Dodd had proposed to give five acres of land in Berkshire, but, in consequence of his desiring to attach certain restrictions, after a long and unsatisfactory correspondence, the Committee, on 13th January following, rejected the offer. (_Communicated_.)

{161} Claude Melnotte in _The Lady of Lyons_, Act iii. sc. 2.

{177} Mr. B. Webster.

{220} _Romeo and Juliet_, Act III. Sc. 1.

{239} Robert Browning: _Bells and Pomegranates_.

{242} R. H.

{250} _Carlyle’s French Revolution_. Book X., Chapter I.

{259} Henry Thomas Buckle.

{260} This and the Speeches which follow were accidentally omitted in their right places.

{263} Hazlitt’s Round Table (Edinburgh, 1817, vol ii., p. 242), _On Actors and Acting_.

{274} _Vide suprà_, _p._ 268.

{292} An allusion to a well-known Sonnet of Wordsworth, beginning—“The world is too much with us—late and soon,” &c.—ED.

{303} Alluding to the forthcoming serial story of _Edwin Drood_.

{309} The Honourable John Lothrop Motley.

{311} February 26th, 1851. Mr. Macready’s Farewell Benefit at Drury Lane Theatre, on which occasion he played the part of Macbeth.—ED.

{312} MACBETH, Act I., sc. 7.

{316} The Bishop of Ripon (Dr. Longley).

{330} These passages are given by kind permission of Mr. Blanchard Jerrold, who has obligingly allowed us to make free use of this portion of the Memoir of his father. We refer the reader who is desirous of seeing more, to that ably-written biography.—ED.

{334} _The Village Coquettes_: _a Comic Opera in Two Acts_. By CHARLES DICKENS. The music by John Hullah. London: Richard Bentley, 1836.

{336} Produced for the first time at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on Saturday, December 10, 1842. We would fain have given this fine prologue entire, had we felt authorized in doing so.

{337} In “A New Spirit of the Age.” (Lond., 1844), Vol. I., pp. 65–68.

{341} _The Keepsake for_ 1844. _Edited by the Countess of Blessington_, pp. 73, 74.

{349} The reader who desires to further renew his recollections of Mr. Dickens’s Readings is referred to Miss Kate Field’s admirable “Pen Photographs,” published in Boston, in 1868. The little volume is a valuable estimate of the readings recently given in America.

{353a} Extracted (by kind permission) from a criticism by Mr. Edmund Yates.

{353b} Written in 1868.