Part 4

3. Where does the author state that he is a social lion? Where does he deny that he is a snob?

4. Where does he bring Little Billee in contact with Punch?

5. What did the Laird call M. le general Comte de la Tour-aux-Loups?

6. In what places does the author compare Gecko to a dog?

7. How old was Trilby when she died?

8. What was Little Billee's physical explanation of his inability to love?

9. What verbal description of one of the heroes contradicts almost every one of the author's drawings of him?

10. What incident of the story is inconsistent with the author's own argument in behalf of the nude in art?

"Dear Sir: The above questions are covered by our copyright, but in view of the popular interest in 'Trilby,' you may wish to reproduce them. We should be more than pleased to have you do so, if you will give us credit.

Yours very truly,

JAMES S. METCALFE,

Editor and Manager _Life's Monthly Calendar_."

The Songs in "Trilby"

Dr. Thomas Dunn English wrote the words of "Ben Bolt" in New York, in 1842, when he was a young man of three-and-twenty. Mr. N. P. Willis had asked him to write a sea-song for _The New Mirror_, and so he wound up the last stanza with an allusion to "the salt-sea gale!" As a sea-song, "Ben Bolt" is not a success; but it has been sung on every sea and in every land where the English tongue is spoken. At Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1848, an English journalist named Hunt quoted the words (from a defective memory) to Nelson Kneass, who was attached to the local theatre; and, adapted by Kneass to a German melody, the song, in a somewhat garbled version, was introduced in a play called "The Battle of Buena Vista." In Helen Kendrick Johnson's "Our Familiar Songs, and Those Who Made Them" (Henry Holt & Co., 1881), the story of its vogue in England as well as in America is told effectively. Not only were ships and steam-boats named in its honor, but a play was built upon its suggestions, and as recently as in 1877 an English novelist made the memories evoked by the singing of the song a factor in the development of his catastrophe. Its revival at the hand of Mr. du Maurier is the latest and perhaps the most striking tribute to its hold upon the popular heart. To the author himself--in his ripe old age a member of the LIIId Congress--its fame is seemingly a bore, for he is quoted as saying:--"I am feeling very well and enjoying life as well as an old man can, but this eternal 'Ben Bolt' business makes me so infernally weary at times that existence becomes a burden. The other night, at a meeting of a medical association at my home in Newark, some one proposed that all hands join in singing 'Ben Bolt,' whereupon I made a rush for the door, and came very near forgetting the proprieties by straightway leaving home. However, I recovered my equilibrium and rejoined my friends. I don't think that General Sherman ever grew half so tired of 'Marching Through Georgia' as I have of that creation of mine, and it will be a blessed relief to me when the public shall conclude to let it rest."

Apropos of the use made of the song in "Trilby," _Harper's Bazar_ published the words and music; whereupon the author sent this letter to the editor:--

"It is very pleasing to an old man like myself to have the literary work of a half-century since dragged to light and commended, as has been the case with 'Ben Bolt' of late. I was flattered by seeing my likeness--or, rather, the likeness of a younger man than myself--in your pages; but I must protest against some errors which, in spite of careful editing, enter into your transcription of the song. The words of the original were:--

'Don't you remember the school, Ben Bolt, With the master so cruel and grim, And the shaded nook in the running brook, Where the children went to swim?'

"This has been changed in the song, as usually sung, to read:--

'With the master so kind and so true. And the little nook by the clear-running brook, Where we gathered the flowers as they grew?'

"You have copied this, but in a better shape, with the exception of changing the rhythm. I must protest against this change, because the school-masters of between sixty and seventy years since were, to my memory, 'cruel and grim'; they were neither kind nor true. They seemed to think the only way to get learning into a boy's head was by the use of the rod. There may have been exceptions, but I never met them. At all events, 'what I have written I have written.'"

BEN BOLT

I

Oh, don't you remember, Sweet Alice, Ben Bolt? Sweet Alice, whose hair was so brown, Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile, And trembled with fear at your frown! In the old churchyard, in the valley, Ben Bolt, In a corner obscure and alone, They have fitted a slab of the granite so gray. And Alice lies under the stone!

II

Under the hickory tree, Ben Bolt, Which stood at the foot of the hill, Together we've lain in the noon-day shade, And listened to Appleton's mill. The mill-wheel has fallen to pieces, Ben Bolt, The rafters have tumbled in, And a quiet that crawls round the walls as you gaze, Has followed the olden din.

III

Do you mind the cabin of logs, Ben Bolt, At the edge of the pathless wood, And the button-ball tree with its motley limbs, Which nigh by the door-step stood? The cabin to ruin has gone, Ben Bolt, The tree you would seek in vain; And where once the lords of the forest waved, Grows grass and the golden grain.

IV

And don't you remember the school, Ben Bolt, With the master so cruel and grim, And the shaded nook in the running brook, Where the children went to swim? Grass grows on the master's grave, Ben Bolt, The spring of the brook is dry, And of all the boys who were schoolmates then, There are only you and I.

V

There is change in the things I loved, Ben Bolt, They have changed from the old to the new; But I feel in the depths of my spirit the truth, There never was change in you. Twelve-months twenty have past, Ben Bolt, Since first we were friends--yet I hail Thy presence a blessing, thy friendship a truth, Ben Bolt, of the salt-sea gale!

* * * * *

TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRITIC:--

In your columns of "Trilbyana" I have seen no mention of the fact that George W. Cable, in his "Dr. Sevier"--a thousand times better novel and better work, in every way, than "Trilby,"--has introduced the old song "Ben Bolt" with wonderful effect. It is strange that the old melody should have appealed to the two men, so widely apart, and it is but fair that the American's first, and most skilful, use of it should have due recognition.

PHILADELPHIA.

JOHN PATTERSON.

* * * * *

TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRITIC:--

Du Maurier says that there is but one verse of the little French song, which Trilby sings with so much effect--"Au clair de la lune." He mistakes; there is another, running thus:--

"Je n'ouvrirai pas la porte, J'ouvre bien la porte, A un vieux savetier, A un patissier, * * * * * Qui m'apporte des brioches * * * * Dans un tablier."

The two missing lines have escaped the memory of the writer.

AUBURN, N. Y.

S. M. COX.

* * * * *

Your correspondent, S. M. Cox, offers some more verses of "Mon Ami Pierrot." They do not quite agree with those taught me, shortly after the Revolution of 1848, by an old French gentleman. You will notice that the French of the last verse is quite "eighteenth-century" in style and diction.

II III

Je n'ouvre pas ma porte Mais j'ouvre bien ma porte A des savetiers, A des officiers, Ils ont des alenes, Ils ont des pistoles, C'est pour me piquer. C'est pour me les bailler.

PARIS, 1 Jan., 1895. B. F.

* * * * *

Mr. du Maurier was correct in saying that there is only one verse of "Au Clair de la Lune"; yet there are possibly, and probably, a thousand made in imitation of it, which go to the same air. We quote from the San Francisco _Argonaut_:--

"It is to be observed that these _amateurs de Trilby_ do not go the length of singing 'Au Clair de la Lune,' even repeating the first stanza twice, as Trilby did. But perhaps they are as ignorant concerning the song as is Mr. du Maurier, who declares there is but one verse. There are four. The first is given in 'Trilby' thus:--

'Au clair de la lune, Ma chandelle est morte.... Mon ami Pierrot! Je n'ai plus de feu! Prete-moi ta plume Ouvre-moi ta porte Pour ecrire un mot. Pour l'amour de Dieu!'

The second runs:--

'Au clair de la lune Va chez la voisine-- Pierrot repondit: Je crois qu'elle y est, Je n'ai pas de plume, Car, dans sa cuisine, Je suis dans mon lit. On bat le briquet.'

The third stanza contains the point of the song:--

'Au clair de la lune Qui frappe de la sorte? S'en va Arlequin Il dit a son tour: Frapper chez la brune Ouvre-moi ta porte Qui repond soudain: Pour le dieu d'amour.'

The fourth stanza continues in the same strain, and it goes farther."

* * * * *

"MALBROUCK S'EN VA'T EN GUERRE"

Malbrouck s'en va-t'en guerre-- _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ Malbrouck s'en va-t'en guerre.... Ne sais quand reviendra! Ne sais quand reviendra! Ne sais quand reviendra!

Il reviendra-z-a Paques-- _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ Il reviendra-z-a Paques.... Ou ... a la Trinit!

La Trinite se passe-- _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ La Trinite se passe.... Malbrouck ne revient pas!

Madame a sa tour monte-- _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ Madame a sa tour monte, Si haut qu'elle peut monter!

Elle voit de loin son page-- _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ Elle voit de loin son page, Tout de noire habille!

"Mon page--mon beau page!-- _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ Mon page--mon beau page! Quelles nouvelles apportez?"

"Aux nouvelles que j'apporte-- _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ Aux nouvelles que j'apporte, Vos beaux yeux vont pleurer!"

"Quittez vos habits roses-- _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ Quittez vos habits roses, Et vos satins broches!"

"Le Sieur Malbrouck est mort-- _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ Le Sieur--Malbrouck--est--mort! Est mort--et enterre!"

* * * * *

There is no more eloquent description of the effect of music on an impressionable nature than du Maurier gives of the impression made upon Little Billee by the singing of Adam's "Cantique de Noel" at the Madeleine on Christmas Eve.

CANTIQUE DE NOEL

Minuit, Chretiens, c'est l'heure solennelle, Ou l'homme Dieu descendit jusqu'a nous, Pour effacer la tache originelle Et de son Pere arreter le courroux. Le monde entier tressaille d'esperance A cette nuit qui lui donne un sauveur. Peuple a genoux! attends la delivrance! Noel, Noel, voici le Redempteur!

A Search for Sources

TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRITIC:--

The liquid name, "Trilby," of du Maurier's heroine having been duly run down to its source, will a slight excursus be amiss as to the origin of the affectionate title applied by the novelist on his charming little hero--"Little Billee"? Evidently the name, together with certain descriptive touches, has been taken from Thackeray's ballad, "Little Billee." This racy skit, as many doubtless know, is in the best vein of the great humorist's inimitable burlesque. It narrates the tragic cruise of

"Three sailors of Bristol city Who took a boat and went to sea,"

the second stanza running thus:--

"There was gorging Jack, and guzzling Jimmy _And the youngest, he was Little Billee_. Now when they got as far as the Equator They'd nothing left, but one split pea."

And the unpleasant ultimatum being arrived at, that "We've nothing left, us must eat we," the poem continues:--

"Says gorging Jack to guzzling Jimmy, With one another we shouldn't agree, There's little Bill, _he's young and tender_, We're old and tough, so let's eat he."

Here, I say, we have the origin of the novelist's "Little Billee," while, in the italicized phrases, we have also du Maurier's, "the third, he was little Billee" (page 6), and "he was young and tender, was little Billee."

It would be sheer nonsense, of course, to urge against the famous novelist any charge of unacknowledged borrowing in matters so entirely trivial. The point is merely a curious one of origins; a little siccatine botanizing, so to speak, on the _folia disjecta_ that have been wonderfully spun by du Maurier's genius into a fabric of grace and beauty so rare as is this "Trilby." Nor, indeed, should the further fact be a detraction from the gifted author of "Trilby," that his indebtedness to Thackeray is obviously greater than in the minutiae under consideration--that, in fact, he has caught from the great immortal the note of much that is best in his book. In his limpid, graceful simplicity of words, and their easy, natural flow--in his delicate, playful humor, and tender but not overwrought pathos, we discover a careful study of found only a few general remarks about fairies, their habits and habitations, nothing in the least resembling the story of Jeannie's lover. Perhaps Nodier was mistaken about his source. As he travelled in the Highlands, he may possibly have "collected" the tale at first hand, and, there being no folk-lore societies in those early days of romanticism, he was not aware of the honor that thus accrued to him. It cannot have evolved itself from a mere hint. We appeal to Mr. Lang to take up and follow the chase farther. He might be worse occupied than in tracing out the original John Trilby MacFarlane, and whence he got his English-sounding name, his fairy powers and his connection with Saint Columba--the last probably from Nodier himself, who may have been reading Montalembert's "Monks of the West" before setting out upon his pilgrimage. Mr. Dole, by the way, irreverently converts the Dove of the Churches into a "Saint Columbine," unknown to any respectable hagiographer. Think, Mr. Lang, what a delightful coil this romancing Frenchman, let loose among your Hielan' men, fairies, monks and Scotch novels, has made for you to straighten out, and how many strange discoveries may be made while you are about the job!

Miss Smith (2) has prepared another translation of Nodier's story, and, though there is little choice between her version and Mr. Dole's, we prefer it. It seems a trifle less exact, but it is more idiomatic; and, if anything, she perhaps intensifies the local color a little, which does not do the tale any harm. Her book is got up in tartan cover; Mr. Dole's has a design adapted from Paul Konewka.

* * * * *

Mr. Richard Mansfield has secured from Estes & Lauriat the right to dramatize and produce Mr. Dole's translation of Nodier's "Trilby, le Lutin d'Argail."

Nodier's "Trilby, le Lutin d'Argail"

It was not long after the appearance of "Trilby" that our readers detected the French origin of the name of Mr. du Maurier's heroine. The story of the unearthing of this delightful French fairy-tale may be followed in this series of communications to _The Critic_:

On looking over Roche's "Prosateurs Francais," I find that one of the "plus jolis" contes of Charles Nodier (1788-1844) is entitled "Trilby"; therefore the title of du Maurier's much-bought novel is not original with him. I should be pleased if any reader of _The Critic_ would inform me as to the plot of Nodier's story.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI RECTORY,

WM. J. MCCLURE,

MT. KISCO, N. Y., 29th Oct., 1894.

* * * * *

The following lines occur in the "Reponse a M. Charles Nodier" of Alfred de Musset:--

"Non pas cette belle insomnie Du genie Ou Trilby vient, pret a chanter, T'ecouter."

This would seem to offer some clue to the origin of the name chosen by Mr. du Maurier for his heroine. Can you enlighten me as to the identity of the "Trilby" referred to by Musset?

RIDGEFIELD, CONN., 19 Nov., 1894.

ROSWELL BACON.

* * * * *

In answer to the request of your correspondent in _The Critic_ of Nov. 17, I find the tale of "Trilby" in my copy of the "Contes de Charles Nodier, illustres par Tony Johannot." "Trilby" is the story of a household fairy of Scotland (a "Lutin familier de la Chaumiere"). It is fantastic and touching, but it has nothing in common with du Maurier's "Trilby."

LEESBURGH, VIRGINIA, 20 Nov., 1894.

I. L. P.

* * * * *

From the recent contributions to "Trilbyana" in your columns, it would appear as if the name of Trilby (originally Scotch or Irish?) were not uncommon in the writings of French authors. Charles Nodier, in his _conte_, says that M. de Latouche--a contemporary--wrote on the same subject, "ou cette charmante tradition etait racontee en vers enchanteurs"--which gives one to suppose that "Trilby" was the name of his enchantress; though, perhaps, he refers to the old story of "Le Diable Amoureux." I find, moreover, that Balzac takes the name for a type in his "Histoire des Treize: Ferragus: Vol. I. Scenes de la Vie Parisienne" (page 48 of edition of 1843):--"Pour developper cette histoire dans toute la verite de ses details, pour en suivre le cours dans toutes ses sinuosites, il faut ici divulguer quelques secrets de l'amour, se glisser sous les lambris d'une chambre a coucher, non pas effrontement, mais a la maniere de Trilby [the opposite to du Maurier's Trilby], n'effaroucher ni Dougal, ni Jeannie, n'effaroucher personne," etc.

TUXEDO PARK, 26 Nov., 1894.

E. L. B.

* * * * *

(_Boston Evening Transcript, 1 Dec. 1894._)

"The Listener was asked the other day where du Maurier got the name of Trilby--a sweet and pleasant word, neither English nor French, which seemed to suit so perfectly the adorable young person of his creation. He was able to answer, more by accident certainly than as the result of erudition, that the name was not invented by du Maurier but belongs to the French classics--possibly to Scottish folk-lore. In the year 1822 there was first published in Paris a _nouvelle_, by Charles Nodier, afterward a member of the French Academy, entitled, "Trilby, or the Fay of Argyle"; it was a sort of fairy-story, in which a fay is in love with a mortal woman, and the woman is very far from being indifferent to his sentiment. This 'Trilby' attained a considerable degree of popularity; it became, indeed, a French classic; Sainte-Beuve has particularly praised the charm of its style. * * * In his preface to the story, Nodier says: 'The subject of this story is derived from a preface or a note to one of the romances of Sir Walter Scott, I do not know which one.' This is a very indefinite acknowledgment While Nodier may have got his subject from Scott, the Listener doubts if he got the name 'Trilby' from him. It is just the sort of name that a French writer would give to a Scotch fay. Nevertheless, Trilby may be a real Scotch elfin. The Listener would hardly claim personal acquaintance with them all.

"Du Maurier's 'Trilby' is curiously prefigured, in part at least, in Nodier's; and yet there is not the smallest thing that the most jealous critic could call a plagiarism; it is a legitimate parentage. As you go on with Nodier's story, you love his Trilby more and more, as you do du Maurier's, until you think that there was never so bewitching a fairy; and your love for Trilby is interwoven with your love for Jeannie, his mortal sweetheart, just as your love for du Manner's Trilby is forever mixed up with your tender sentiment for Little Billee. You feel a sort of enchantment over you like the hypnotism that you are under in du Maurier's strange book. And both stories, while abounding in wit and pretty things, are deeply tragical. It has been said of Nodier's 'Trilby' that it belongs to the realm of the _supra-sensible_, and so, in large measure, certainly does du Maurier's. Du Maurier has confessed his obligation flatly in giving his story the very name that Nodier's bore. It is conceivable that the image of the Frenchman's haunting fairy dwelt with him until he resolved to reincarnate the adorable elf in the body of a girl as adorable. He gave his Trilby a Scotch ancestry to connect her the more naturally with the _lutin d'Argail_; and her fairy ancestry will easily account not only for her early prankishness, but for her later unreality. But it is a prefiguring merely, and not a direct suggestion. Whatever du Maurier's 'Trilby' lacks, it isn't originality!"

* * * * *

(_From Mr. C. E. L. Wingate's Boston Letter in The Critic of 20 April, 1893._)

It appears that the first mention of the French book appeared in _The Critic_, last November. It was in the same month that Mr. Bradford Torrey * * * happened to find a copy of Nodier's "Trilby" in the Boston Athenaeum. He took the book to his friend, Mr. J. E. Chamberlin of _The Youth's Companion_, who began its translation at once. A few days later appeared a note in _The Critic_ from a correspondent in Virginia. Thinking that secrecy was no longer worth while, Mr. Chamberlin wrote his paragraphs for the _Transcript_ "Listener" column, incorporating a bit of translation. This was printed on Dec. 1. Miss Minna C. Smith went to Roberts Bros. at once, to ask them if they would consider the publication of a translation of the romance by her _Transcript_ confrere, and Mr. F. Alcott Pratt replied that they would like very much to see that gentleman's work. Circumstances made Mr. Chamberlin decide not to finish the translation, and he gave Miss Smith his idea and a few pages of the manuscript for a Christmas present. During several weeks following she was engaged upon her careful translation. The Scotch words and names of localities in her manuscript were corrected by Mr. J. Murray Kay of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., an accomplished Scot, who walked through Argyle with his daughters last summer. On March 19, an article on Charles Nodier's story, foreshadowing Miss Smith's translation, appeared in the _Transcript_. On the morning of March 20, Mr. Dana Estes sent for Mr. Nathan Haskell Dole and asked him to make a translation, which was done with remarkable rapidity, and put out on March 29. Learning of this, Lamson, Wolffe & Co. hurried on Miss Smith's book, which had been in the hands of their printer at the Collins press for days, advertised it on Thursday and brought it out on Saturday, in Scotch plaid covers.

This firm of Lamson, Wolffe & Co., by the way, has just been dissolved for a novel reason. Mr. Wolffe is a member of the class of '95 at Harvard. The publication of "Trilby, the Fairy of Argyle" called the attention of the faculty to his publishing business, and he was asked to give it up, or else forfeit his degree. He chose the former alternative, and although the firm name will remain Lamson, Wolffe & Co., a new and, for the present, silent member of the firm has added capital and scholarship to the house.

* * * * *

"Trilby, the Fairy of Argyle"

_By Charles Noder. 1. Translated from the French, with introduction, by Nathan Haskell Dole. Estes & Lauriat. 2. From the French by Minna Caroline Smith. Boston: Lamson, Wolffe & Co._