The Letters of Charles Dickens Volume Iii Part 38

I have lost no time in answering this, but you must brace up your energies to write him a short note too, and another for the Queen.

If you are in Paris, shall I ascertain what authority I shall need from you to receive the half-year, which I suppose will be shortly due? I can receive it as usual.

With all good wishes and congratulations, seasonable and unseasonable,

Always faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.]

DEVONs.h.i.+RE TERRACE, _Monday Morning, Dec. 30th, 1850._

MY DEAR MRS. WATSON,

As your letter is _decided_, the scaffolding shall be re-erected round Charley's boots (it has been taken down, and the workmen had retired to their respective homes in various parts of England and Wales) and his dressing proceeded with. I have been very much pleased with him in the matter, as he has never made the least demonstration of disappointment or mortification, and was perfectly contented to give in. (_Here I break off to go to Boxall._) (_Here I return much exhausted._)

Your time shall be stated in the bills for both nights. I propose to rehea.r.s.e on the day, on Thursday and Friday, and in the evening on Sat.u.r.day, that we may try our lights. Therefore:

{will come on Tuesday, 7th January, as there must be a {responsible person to anathematise, and as the company NATHAN {seem so slow about their dresses, that I foresee the AND {strong probability of Nathan having a good deal to do STAGE CARPENTER {at Rockingham without respect.

WILSON will come on Sat.u.r.day, 11th January.

TUCKER will come on Sat.u.r.day, 11th January.

I shall be delighted to see your brother, and so no more at present from

Yours ever, COLDSTREAM FREELOVE DOCTOR d.i.c.kENS.

P.S.--As Boxall (with his head very much on one side and his spectacles on) danced backward from the canvas incessantly with great nimbleness, and returned, and made little digs at it with his pencil, with a horrible grin on his countenance, I augur that he pleased himself this morning.

"Tag" added by Mr. d.i.c.kens to "Animal Magnetism," played at Rockingham Castle.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM.--TAG.

[After LA FLEUR says to the Marquis: "Sir, return him the wand; and the ladies, I daresay, will fall in love with him again."]

DOCTOR. I'm cheated, robbed! I don't believe! I hate Wand, Marquis, Doctor, Ward, Lisette, and Fate!

LA FLEUR. Not me?

DOCTOR. _You_ worse, you rascal, than the rest.

LA FLEUR. (_bowing_). To merit it, good sir, I've done my best.

LISETTE. (_sharply_). And I.

CONSTANCE. I fear that I too have a claim Upon your anger.

LISETTE. Anger, madam? Shame!

He's justly treated, as he might have known.

And if the wand were a divining one It would have turn'd, within his very hands, Point-blank to where your handsome husband stands.

CONSTANCE (_glancing at_ DOCTOR). I would it were the wand of Harlequin, To change his temper and his favour win.

JEFFREY (_peeping in_). In that case, mistress, you might be so kind As wave me back the eye of which I'm blind.

MARQUIS (_laughing and examining it_). 'Tis nothing but a piece of senseless wood, And has no influence for harm or good.

Yet stay! It surely draws me towards those Indulgent, pleasant, smiling, beaming rows!

It surely charms me.

ALL. And us too.

MARQUIS. To bend Before their gen'rous efforts to commend; To cheer us on, through these few happy hours, And strew our mimic way with real flowers.

[_All make obeisance._

Stay yet again. Among us all, I feel One subtle, all-pervading influence steal, Stirring one wish within one heart and head, Bright be the path our host and hostess tread!

Blest be their children, happy be their race, Long may they live, this ancient hall to grace Long bear of English virtues n.o.ble fruit-- Green-hearted ROCKINGHAM! strike deep thy root

FOOTNOTES:

[8] The last illness of Mrs. White's mother.

[9] Dr. Gottfried Kinkel, a distinguished scholar and Professor in the University of Bonn, who was at that time undergoing very rigorous State imprisonment in Prussia, for political reasons. Dr. Kinkel was afterwards well known as a teacher and lecturer on Art in London, where he resided for many years.

[10] The part of the lawyer in "Used Up." It was _not_ played after all by Mr. Watson, but by Mr. (now Sir William) Boxall, R.A., a very old and intimate friend of Mr. and Mrs. Watson, and of Charles d.i.c.kens.

[11] This part, finally, was played by Charles d.i.c.kens, junior.

[12] Mr. Stafford and Mr. Stopford, who both acted in the plays at Rockingham.

1851.

NARRATIVE.

In February this year, Charles d.i.c.kens made a short bachelor excursion with Mr. Leech and the Hon. Spencer Lyttelton to Paris, from whence we give a letter to his wife. She was at this time in very bad health, and the little infant Dora had a serious illness during the winter. The child rallied for the time, but Mrs. d.i.c.kens continued so ill that she was advised to try the air--and water--of Malvern. And early in March, she and her sister were established in lodgings there, the children being left in London, and Charles d.i.c.kens dividing his time between Devons.h.i.+re Terrace and Malvern. He was busily occupied before this time in superintending the arrangements for Mr. Macready's last appearance on the stage at Drury Lane, and for a great dinner which was given to Mr.

Macready after it on the 1st March, at which the chair was taken by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. With him Charles d.i.c.kens was then engaged in maturing a scheme, which had been projected at the time of the amateur play at Knebworth, of a Guild of Literature and Art, which was to found a provident fund for literary men and artists; and to start which, a series of dramatic performances by the amateur company was proposed. Sir E. B. Lytton wrote a comedy, "Not so Bad as We Seem," for the purpose, to be played in London and the provinces; and the Duke of Devons.h.i.+re turned one of the splendid rooms in Devons.h.i.+re House into a theatre, for the first occasion of its performance. It was played early in May before her Majesty and the Prince Consort, and a large audience. Later in the season, there were several representations of the comedy (with a farce, "Mr. Nightingale's Diary," written by Charles d.i.c.kens for himself and Mr. Mark Lemon) in the Hanover Square Rooms.

But in the interval between the Macready banquet and the play at Devons.h.i.+re House, Charles d.i.c.kens underwent great family trouble and sorrow. His father, whose health had been declining for some time, became seriously ill, and Charles d.i.c.kens was summoned from Malvern to attend upon him. Mr. John d.i.c.kens died on the 31st March. On the 14th April, Charles d.i.c.kens had gone from Malvern to preside at the annual dinner of the General Theatrical Fund, and found his children all well at Devons.h.i.+re Terrace. He was playing with his baby, Dora, before he went to the dinner; soon after he left the house the child died suddenly in her nurse's arms. The sad news was communicated to the father after his duties at the dinner were over. The next day, Mr. Forster went to Malvern to break the news to Mrs. d.i.c.kens, and she and her sister returned with him to London, and the Malvern lodgings were given up. But Mrs. d.i.c.kens being still out of health, and London being more than usually full (this being the year of the Great Exhibition), Charles d.i.c.kens decided to let the town house again for a few months, and engaged the Fort House, Broadstairs, from the beginning of May until November. This, which was his longest sojourn at Broadstairs, was also the last, as the following summer he changed his seaside resort, and never returned to that pretty little watering-place, although he always retained an affectionate interest in it.

The lease of the Devons.h.i.+re Terrace house was to expire this year. It was now too small for his family, so he could not renew it, although he left it with regret. From the beginning of the year, he had been in negotiation for a house in Tavistock Square, in which his friend Mr. Frank Stone had lived for some years. Many letters which follow are on the subject of this house and the improvements Charles d.i.c.kens made in it. His brother-in-law, Henry Austin--himself an architect--superintended the "works" at Tavistock House, as he did afterwards those at Gad's Hill--and there are many characteristic letters to Mr. Austin while these works were in progress.

In the autumn, as a letter written in August to Mr. Stone will show, an exchange of houses was made--Mr. Stone removing with his family to Devons.h.i.+re Terrace until his own new house was ready--while the alterations in Tavistock House went on, and Charles d.i.c.kens removed into it from Broadstairs, in November.

His eldest son was now an Eton boy. He had been one of the party and had played a small part in the play at Rockingham Castle, in the Christmas holidays, and his father's letters to Mrs. Watson at the beginning of this year have reference to this play.

This year he wrote and published the "Haunted Man," which he had found himself unable to finish for the previous Christmas. It was the last of the Christmas _books_. He abandoned them in favour of a Christmas number of "Household Words," which he continued annually for many years in "Household Words" and "All the Year Round," and in which he had the collaboration of other writers. The "Haunted Man" was dramatised and produced at the Adelphi Theatre, under the management of Mr. Benjamin Webster. Charles d.i.c.kens read the book himself, at Tavistock House, to a party of actors and actresses.