For real
genius is a sort of elemental force that enters the human world, both
for good and evil, and leaves its lasting impression.
genius is a sort of elemental force that enters the human world, both
for good and evil, and leaves its lasting impression.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v06 to v10 - Cal to Fro
At first the rough old soldier threw down his
pen in despair, on noting the polished style of the scholar; but when
he became aware of the gross inaccuracies of his predecessor, who
had never even set foot in America, he determined, so he declares,
to write above all things a faithful narrative of the stirring events
in which he had participated. Thus was completed his 'Historia
## p. 4614 (#404) ###########################################
4614
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España. ' For some reason
this valuable manuscript lay neglected in a private library for about
sixty years.
Finally it fell into the hands of Father Alonso Remor,
a sagacious priest, who published it at Madrid in 1632.
The narrative of this soldier historian, although clumsy, full of
digressions and repetitions, and laying bare his ignorance, simplicity,
and vanity, will nevertheless always be read with far more interest
than the weightier works of Las Casas, Gomara, or Herrera. Pres-
cott explained the secret of its fascination when he said:
"Bernal Diaz, the untutored child of nature, is a most true and literal
copyist of nature. He transfers the scenes of real life by a sort of daguerreo-
type process, if I may so say, to his pages. He is among chroniclers what
Defoe is among novelists.
All the picturesque scenes and romantic
incidents of the campaign are reflected in his pages as in a mirror. The
lapse of fifty years has had no power over the spirit of the veteran. The fire
of youth glows in every line of his rude history, and as he calls up the scenes
of the past, the remembrance of the brave companions who are gone gives, it
may be, a warmer coloring to the picture than if it had been made at an
earlier period. »
A fairly good English translation of the work of Bernal Diaz ap-
peared in London in 1800, under the title of True History of the
Conquest of Mexico. '
FROM THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO›
Translation of Maurice Keatinge: London, 1800
THE CAPTURE OF GUATIMOTZIN
SAND
ANDOVAL at this moment made a signal for the flotilla to close
up to him, and perceived that Guatimotzin was prisoner to
Holguin, who was taking him to Cortés. Upon this he
ordered his rowers to exert their utmost to bring him up to Hol-
guin's vessel, and having arrived by the side of it, he demanded
Guatimotzin to be delivered to him as general of the whole force;
but Holguin refused, alleging that he had no claim whatever.
A vessel which went to carry the intelligence of the great
event, brought also to Cortés, who was then on the summit of the
great temple in the Taltelulco, very near the part of the lake
where Guatimotzin was captured, an account of the dispute be-
tween his officers. Cortés immediately dispatched Luis Marin and
Francisco de Lugo to bring the whole party together to his quar-
ters, and thus to stop all litigation; but he enjoined them not to
omit treating Guatimotzin and his queen with the greatest respect.
## p. 4615 (#405) ###########################################
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
4615
During the interval he employed himself in arranging a state, as
well as he could, with cloths and mantles. He also prepared a
table with refreshments, to receive his prisoners. As soon as
they appeared he went forward to meet them, and embracing
Guatimotzin, treated him and all his attendants with every mark
of respect.
The unfortunate monarch, with tears in his eyes, and sinking
under affliction, then addressed him in the following words:-
«< Malintzin! I have done that which was my duty in the defense
of my kingdom and people; my efforts have failed, and being
now brought by force a prisoner in your hands, draw that pon-
iard from your side and stab me to the heart. ”
Cortés embraced and used every expression to comfort him, by
assurances that he held him in high estimation for the valor and
firmness he had shown, and that he had required a submission
from him and the people at the time that they could no longer
reasonably hope for success, in order to prevent further destruc-
tion; but that was all past, and no more to be thought of it; he
should continue to reign over the people as he had done before.
Cortés then inquired after his queen, to which Guatimotzin re-
plied that in consequence of the compliance of Sandoval with his
request, she and her women remained in the piraguas until Cortés
should decide as to their fate. The general then caused them to
be sent for, and treated them in the best manner his situation
afforded. The evening was drawing on, and it appeared likely
to rain; he therefore sent the whole royal family to Cuyoacan,
under the care of Sandoval. The rest of the troops then returned
to their former quarters; we to ours of Tacuba, and Cortés, pro-
ceeding to Cuyoacan, took the command there, sending Sandoval
to resume his station at Tepeaquilla. Thus was the siege of
Mexico brought to a conclusion by the capture of Guatimotzin
and his chiefs, on the thirteenth of August, at the hour of ves-
pers, being the day of St. Hyppolitus, in the year of our Lord
one thousand five hundred and twenty-one. Glorified by our Lord
Jesus Christ, and Our Lady the Holy Virgin Mary his blessed
mother, Amen!
Guatimotzin was of a noble appearance both in person and
countenance; his features were rather large and cheerful, with
lively eyes.
His age was about twenty-three or four years, and
his complexion very fair for an Indian. His queen, the niece of
Montezuma, was young and very handsome.
## p. 4616 (#406) ###########################################
4616
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
THE MORTALITY AT THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO
say
WHAT I am going to mention is truth, and I swear and
amen to it. I have read of the destruction of Jerusalem, but I
cannot conceive that the mortality there exceeded this of Mex-
ico; for all the people from the distant provinces which belonged
to this empire had concentrated themselves here, where they
mostly died. The streets, the squares, the houses, and the courts
of the Taltelulco were covered with dead bodies; we could not
step without treading on them; the lake and canals were filled
with them, and the stench was intolerable. For this reason, our
troops, immediately after the capture of the royal family, retired
to their former quarters. Cortés himself was for some time ill
from the effect of it.
CORTÉS
I WILL now proceed to describe the person and disposition of
the Marquis [Cortés]. He was of good stature and strongly built,
of a rather pale complexion and serious countenance. His feat-
ures were, if faulty, rather too small; his eyes mild and grave.
His beard was black, thin, and scanty; his hair in the same
manner. His breast and shoulders were broad, and his body
very thin.
He was very well limbed, and his legs rather bowed;
an excellent horseman, and dexterous in the use of arms. He
also possessed the heart and mind which is the principal part of
the business. I have heard that when he was a lad in Hispan-
iola he was very wild about women, and that he had several
duels with able swordsmen, in which he always came off with
victory. He had the scar of a sword wound near his under lip,
which appeared through his beard if closely examined, and which
he received in some of those affairs. In his appearance, man-
ners, transactions, conversation, table, and dress, everything bore
the appearance of a great lord. His clothes were according to
the fashion of the time; he was not fond of silks, damasks, or
velvets, but everything plain, and very handsome; nor did he
wear large chains of gold, but a small one of fine workmanship
bearing the image of Our Lady the Blessed Virgin with her
precious Son in her arms, and a Latin motto; and on the reverse,
St. John the Baptist with another motto. He wore on his finger
a ring with a very fine diamond, and in his cap, which according
to the fashion of that day was of velvet, he bore a medal, the
## p. 4617 (#407) ###########################################
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
4617
head and motto of which I do not recollect; but latterly he wore
a plain cloth cap without any ornament.
His table was always magnificently attended and served, with
four major-domos or principal officers, a number of pages, and a
great quantity of plate, both gold and silver. He dined heartily
at midday, and drank a glass of wine mixed with water, of about
half a pint. He was not nice in his food, nor expensive, except
on particular occasions where he saw the propriety of it. He
was very affable with all his captains and soldiers, especially
those who accompanied him in his first expedition from Cuba.
He was a Latinist, and as I have been told, a bachelor of laws.
He was also something of a poet, and a very good rhetorician;
very devout to Our Holy Virgin and to St. Peter, St. Jago, and
St. John the Baptist, and charitable to the poor. When he swore
he used to say, "By my conscience! " and when he was angry
with any of us his friends, he would say, "Oh! may you repent
it. »
When he was very angry, the veins in his throat and fore-
head used to swell, and when in great wrath he would not utter
a syllable to any one. He was very patient under insults or
injuries; for some of the soldiers were at times very rude and
abusive to him; but he never resented their conduct, although he
had often great reason to do so. In such cases he used only to
"Be silent! " or
say
«< Go away, in God's name, and take care not
to repeat this conduct or I will have you punished. " He was very
determined and headstrong in all business of war, not attending
to any remonstrances on account of danger; an instance of
which he showed in the attack of those fortresses called the
Rocks of the Marquis, which he forced us to scale, contrary
to our opinions, and when neither courage, council, nor wisdom
could give any rational hope of success.
Where we had to erect a fortress, Cortés was the hardest
laborer in the trenches; when we were going into battle, he was
as forward as any.
Cortés was very fond of play, both at cards and dice, and
while playing he was very affable and good-humored. He used
frequently at such times those cant expressions which are cus-
tomary amongst persons who game. In military service he prac-
ticed the most strict attention to discipline, constantly going the
rounds in person during the night, visiting the quarters of the
soldiers and severely reprehending those whom he found with-
out their armor and appointments and not ready to turn out;
## p. 4618 (#408) ###########################################
4618
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
repeating to them the proverb that "It is a bad sheep which
cannot carry own wool. "
On our expedition to Higueras I perceived that he had ac-
quired a habit which I had never before observed in him, and it
was this: after eating, if he did not get his siesta or sleep, his
stomach was affected and he fell sick. For this reason, when
on the journey, let the rain be ever so heavy or the sun ever
so hot, he always reposed for a short time after his repast, a
carpet or cloak being spread under a tree, on which he lay down;
and having slept a short time, he mounted his horse and pro-
ceeded on his journey. When we were engaged in the wars
during the conquest of New Spain, he was very thin and slen-
der; but after his return from Higueras he grew fat, and acquired
a belly. He at this time trimmed his beard, which had now
begun to grow white, in the short fashion. In his early life he
was very liberal, but grew close latterly, some of his servants
complaining that he did not pay them as he ought; and I have
also to observe that in his latter undertakings he never succeeded.
Perhaps such was the will of Heaven, his reward being reserved
for another place; for he was a good cavalier, and very devout
to the Holy Virgin, and also to St. Paul and other Holy Saints.
God pardon him his sins, and me mine; and give me a good
end, which is better than all conquests and victories over Indians.
OF DIVINE AID IN THE BATTLE OF SANTA MARIA DE LA VITORIA
IN HIS account of this action, Gomara says that previous to
the arrival of the main body of the cavalry under Cortés, Fran-
cisco de Morla appeared in the field upon a gray dappled horse,
and that it was one of the holy Apostles, St. Peter or St. Jago,
disguised under his person. I say that all our works and victories
are guided by the hand of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that in
this battle there were so many enemies to every one of us, that
they could have buried us under the dust they could have held
in their hands, but that the great mercy of God aided us through-
out. What Gomara asserts might be the case, and I, sinner as I
am, was not worthy to be permitted to see it. What I did see
was Francisco de Morla, riding in company with Cortés and the
rest upon a chestnut horse; and that circumstance and all the
others of that day appear to me, at this moment that I am
writing, as if actually passing in view of these sinful eyes. But
## p. 4619 (#409) ###########################################
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
4619
although I, unworthy sinner that I am, was unfit to behold either
of those holy Apostles, upwards of four hundred of us were pres-
ent: let their testimony be taken. Let inquiry also be made how
it happened that when the town was founded on that spot, it was
not named after one or other of those holy Apostles, and called
St. Jago de la Vitoria, or St. Pedro de la Vitoria, as it was Santa
Maria, and a church erected and dedicated to one of those holy
saints. Very bad Christians were we indeed, according to the
account of Gomara, who, when God sent us his Apostles to fight
at our head, did not every day after acknowledge and return
thanks for so great a mercy! Would to heaven that it were so;
but until I read the chronicle of Gomara I never heard of it, nor
was it ever mentioned amongst the conquerors who were then
present.
CORTÉS DESTROYS CERTAIN IDOLS
THERE was on the island of Cozumel a temple, and some hid-
eous idols, to which all the Indians of the neighboring districts.
used to go frequently in solemn procession.
Cortés sum-
moned all the caciques and chief persons to come to him, and as
well as he could, by signs and interpretations, explained to them
that the idols which they worshiped were not gods, but evil
things which would draw their souls down to hell, and that if
they wished to remain in a brotherly connection with us, they
must pull them down and place in their stead the crucifix of
our Lord, by whose assistance they would obtain good harvests
and the salvation of their souls; with many other good and holy
reasons, which he expressed very well. The priests and chiefs
replied that they worshiped these gods as their ancestors had
done, because they were kind to them; and that if we attempted
to molest them, the gods would convince us of their power by
destroying us in the sea. Cortés then ordered them to be pros-
trated, which we immediately did, rolling them down some steps.
He next sent for lime, of which there was abundance in the
place, and Indian masons, by whom under our direction a very
handsome altar was constructed, whereon we placed an image of
the Holy Virgin; and the carpenters having made a crucifix,
which was erected in a small chapel close to the altar, mass was
said by the Reverend Father Juan Diaz, and listened to by the
priests, chiefs, and the rest of the natives, with great attention.
·
## p. 4620 (#410) ###########################################
4620
CHARLES DIBDIN
(1745-1814)
TOG HE saying, "Let me make the songs of a nation and I care
not who makes its laws," receives an interesting illustration
in the sea songs of Charles Dibdin. They were written at
a momentous period in English history. The splendid gallantry and
skill of England's sailors, and the genius of her naval commanders,
had made her mistress of the seas, and the key of all combinations
against the French Cæsar. The sterling qualities of the British sea-
man are the inspiration of Dibdin's songs.
Many of these were first given at Dib-
din's monodramatic entertainments at the
Sans Souci Theatre in London, or as parts
of his musical dramas. They appealed at
once to Englishmen, and were sung by
every ship's crew; they fired the national
spirit, and played so important a part in
the quickening of English patriotism that
the government, recognizing their stirring
force in animating the naval enthusiasm
during the Napoleonic wars, granted a pen-
sion of £200 a year to the "Ocean Bard of
England. "
CHARLES DIBDIN
Charles Dibdin was born in 1745, in a
small village near the great seaport of Southampton. His love of
the salt air drew him often to the ocean's shores, where he saw the
ships of all lands pass and repass, and heard the merry sailors'
songs. And yet his own songs, upon which his title to a place in
literature rests, were incidental products of his active mind. He
was an actor, a dramatist, and a composer as well. He wrote some
thirty minor plays and the once popular operettas of The Shep-
herd's Artifice,' 'The Padlock,' The Quaker,' and 'The Waterman. '
He wrote also a 'History of the Stage,' 'Musical Tour through
England,' and an autobiography which bore the title 'Professional
Life,' His two novels are now forgotten, but it is interesting to
recall that for the Stratford Jubilee in honor of Shakespeare, the
words of which were by Garrick, Dibdin composed the much admired
songs, dances, and serenades. He wrote more than thirteen hundred
songs, most of which had of course only a brief existence; but there
## p. 4621 (#411) ###########################################
CHARLES DIBDIN
4621
were enough of them, burning with genuine lyric fire, to entitle him
to grateful remembrance among England's poets.
In all of these songs, whether the theme be his native land or the
wind-swept seas that close it round, love is the poet's real inspira-
tion; love of old England and her sovereign, love of the wealth-
bringing ocean, love of the good ship that sails its waves. This
fundamental affection for the things of which he sings has endeared
the songs of Dibdin to the heart of the British sailor; and in this
lies the proof of their genuineness. His songs are simple and me-
lodious; there is a manly ring in their word and rhythm; they have
the swagger and the fearlessness of the typical tar; they have, too,
the beat of his true heart, his kindly waggery, his sturdy fidelity to
his country and his king. There is nothing quite like them in any
other literature.
SEA SONG
SAILED in the good ship the Kitty,
I
With a smart blowing gale and rough sea;
Left my Polly, the lads call so pretty,
Safe at her anchor. Yo, Yea!
She blubbered salt tears when we parted,
And cried "Now be constant to me! "
I told her not to be down-hearted,
So up went the anchor. Yo, Yea!
And from that time, no worse nor no better,
I've thought on just nothing but she,
Nor could grog nor flip make me forget her,-
She's my best bower-anchor. Yo, Yea!
When the wind whistled larboard and starboard,
And the storm came on weather and lee,
The hope I with her should be harbored
Was my cable and anchor. Yo, Yea!
And yet, my boys, would you believe me?
I returned with no rhino from sea;
Mistress Polly would never receive me,
So again I heav'd anchor. Yo, Yea!
## p. 4622 (#412) ###########################################
4622
CHARLES DIBDIN
G
SONG: THE HEART OF A TAR
YET
ET though I've no fortune to offer,
I've something to put on a par;
Come, then, and accept of my proffer,-
'Tis the kind honest heart of a tar.
Ne'er let such a trifle as this is,
Girls, be to my pleasure a bar;
You'll be rich though 'tis only in kisses,
With the kind honest heart of a tar.
Besides, I am none of your ninnies;
The next time I come from afar,
I'll give you a lapful of guineas,
With the kind honest heart of a tar.
Your lords, with such fine baby faces,
That strut in a garter and star,
Have they, under their tambour and laces,
The kind honest heart of a tar?
POOR JACK
O PATTER to lubbers and swabs, do you see,
'Bout danger, and fear, and the like;
A tight-water boat and good sea-room give me,
And it ain't to a little I'll strike.
Though the tempest topgallant-mast smack smooth should
smite
And shiver each splinter of wood,
Clear the deck, stow the yards, and house everything tight,
And under reef foresail we'll scud:
Avast! nor don't think me a milksop so soft,
To be taken for trifles aback;
For they say there's a Providence sits up aloft,
To keep watch for the life of poor Jack!
I heard our good chaplain palaver one day
About souls, heaven, mercy, and such;
And, my timbers! what lingo he'd coil and belay;
Why, 'twas just all as one as High Dutch;
For he said how a sparrow can't founder, d'ye see,
Without orders that come down below;
## p. 4623 (#413) ###########################################
CHARLES DIBDIN
4623
And a many fine things that proved clearly to me oft
That Providence takes us in tow:
For, says he, do you mind me, let storms ne'er so oft
Take the topsails of sailors aback,
There's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft,
To keep watch for the life of poor Jack!
I said to our Poll (for d'ye see, she would cry
When last we weighed anchor for sea),
What argufies sniveling and piping your eye?
Why, what a young fool you must be!
Can't you see the world's wide, and there's room for us all,
Both for seamen and lubbers ashore ?
And so if to old Davy I go, my dear Poll,
Why, you never will hear of me more.
What then? all's a hazard: come, don't be so soft;
Perhaps I may, laughing, come back;
For d'ye see? there's a cherub sits smiling aloft,
To keep watch for the life of poor Jack.
D'ye mind me? a sailor should be every inch
All as one as a piece of the ship,
And with her brave the world, without offering to flinch,
From the moment the anchor's a-trip.
As for me, in all weathers, all times, sides, and ends,
Naught's a trouble from duty that springs;
For my heart is my Poll's, and my rhino's my friend's,
And as for my life, 'tis the King's.
Even when my time comes, ne'er believe me so soft;
As for grief to be taken aback;
For the same little cherub that sits up aloft
Will look out a good berth for poor Jack.
TOM BOWLING
H
ERE, a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowling,
The darling of our crew;
No more he'll hear the tempest howling,
For Death has broached him to.
His form was of the manliest beauty,
His heart was kind and soft;
Faithful below he did his duty,
But now he's gone aloft.
## p. 4624 (#414) ###########################################
4624
CHARLES DIBDIN
Tom never from his word departed,
His virtues were so rare;
His friends were many and true-hearted,
His Poll was kind and fair:
And then he'd sing so blithe and jolly;
Ah, many's the time and oft!
But mirth is turned to melancholy,
For Tom is gone aloft.
Yet shall poor Tom find pleasant weather,
When He who all commands
Shall give, to call life's crew together,
The word to pipe all hands.
Thus Death, who kings and tars dispatches,
In vain Tom's life has doffed;
For though his body's under hatches,
His soul is gone aloft.
## p. 4624 (#415) ###########################################
## p. 4624 (#416) ###########################################
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## p. 4624 (#417) ###########################################
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## p. 4624 (#418) ###########################################
CHARLES DI ME NR.
## p. 4625 (#419) ###########################################
4625
CHARLES DICKENS
(1812-1870)
W
HEN a great genius arises he makes his place in the world
and explains himself. Criticism does not make him and
cannot unmake him. He may have great defects and great
faults. By exposing them and dwelling upon them, the critics may
apparently nibble him all away. When the critics get through, how-
ever, he remains pretty much the force he was originally.
For real
genius is a sort of elemental force that enters the human world, both
for good and evil, and leaves its lasting impression. It is like a new
river, of waters sweet and bitter, clear and muddy, bearing on its
bosom ships and wrecks, the lovely and the ugly, the incongruous
elements of human life and human contrivance. When it floods and
overflows, the critics run away; when it subsides the critics come
back and begin to analyze it, and say, "It wasn't much of a shower. "
Charles Dickens is to be judged, like any other genius, by what
he created, what he brought into the world. We are not called on to
say whether he was as great as Homer, as Shakespeare, as Cer-
vantes, as Fielding, as Manzoni, as Thackeray. He was always quite
himself, and followed no model, though thousands of writers have
attempted to follow him and acquire the title of being Dickens-y.
For over half a century he had the ear of the English-reading public
the world over. It laughed with him, it cried with him, it hungered
after him. Whatever he wrote, it must read; whenever he read, it
crowded to hear his masterly interpretations; when he acted, it was
delighted with his histrionic cleverness. In all these manifestations
there was the attraction of a most winning personality.
He invented a new kind of irresistible humor, he told stories that
went to the heart of humanity, he amused, he warmed, he cheered
the world. We almost think that modern Christmas was his inven-
tion, such an apostle was he of kindliness and brotherly love, of
sympathy with the poor and the struggling, of charity which is not
condescension. He made pictures of low life, and perhaps unreal
shadows of high life, and vivid scenes that lighted up great periods
of history. For producing effects and holding the reader he was a
wizard with his pen. And so the world hung on him, read him and
re-read him, recited him, declaimed him, put him into reading-books,
diffused him in common speech and in all literature.
In all Eng-
lish literature his characters are familiar, stand for types, and need
no explanation. And now, having filled itself up with him, been
VIII-290
## p. 4626 (#420) ###########################################
4626
CHARLES DICKENS
saturated with him, made him in some ways as common as the air,
does the world tire of him, turn on him, say that it cannot read him
any more, that he is commonplace? If so, the world has made him
commonplace. But the publishers' and booksellers' accounts show
no diminution in his popularity with the new generation.
At a dinner where Dickens was discussed, a gentleman won dis-
tinction by this sole contribution to the conversation:-"There is no
evidence in Dickens's works that he ever read a book. " It is true
that Dickens drew most of his material from his own observation of
life, and from his fertile imagination, which was often fantastic. It
is true that he could not be called in the narrow sense a literary
writer, that he made no literary mosaic, and few allusions to the
literature of the world. Is it not probable that he had the art to
assimilate his material? For it is impossible that any writer could
pour out such a great flood about the world and human nature with-
out refreshing his own mind at the great fountains of literature.
And when we turn to such a tale as 'The Tale of Two Cities,' we
are conscious of the vast amount of reading and study he must have
done in order to give us such a true and vivid picture of the Revo-
lutionary period.
It has been said that Dickens did not write good English, that he
could not draw a lady or a gentleman, that he often makes ear-marks
and personal peculiarities stand for character, that he is sometimes
turgid when he would be impressive, sometimes stilted when he
would be fine, that his sentiment is often false and worked up, that
his attempts at tragedy are melodramatic, and that sometimes his
comedy comes near being farcical. His whole literary attitude has
been compared to his boyish fondness for striking apparel.
There is some truth in all these criticisms, though they do not
occur spontaneously to a fresh reader while he is under the spell of
Dickens, nor were they much brought forward when he was creating
a new school and setting a fashion for an admiring world. His
style, which is quite a part of this singular man, can easily be pulled
in pieces and condemned, and it is not a safe one to imitate. No
doubt he wrought for effects, for he was a magician, and used exag-
geration in high lights and low lights on his crowded canvas. Say
what you will of all these defects, of his lack of classic literary train-
ing, of his tendency to melodrama, of his tricks of style, even of a
ray of lime-light here and there, it remains that he is a great power,
a tremendous force in modern life; half an hour of him is worth a
lifetime of his self-conscious analyzers, and the world is a more
cheerful and sympathetic world because of the loving and lovable
presence in it of Charles Dickens.
A sketch of his life and writings, necessarily much condensed for
use here, has been furnished by Mr. Laurence Hutton.
## p. 4627 (#421) ###########################################
CHARLES DICKENS
4627
THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF DICKENS
BY LAURENCE HUTTON
C
HARLES DICKENS was born at Landport in Portsea, on the 7th of
February, 1812. His childhood was a very unhappy one. He
describes himself in one of his essays as "a very queer, small
boy," and his biographer tells us that he was very sickly as well as
very small.
He had little schooling, and numberless hard knocks,
and rough and toilsome was the first quarter of his journey through
life. Many of the passages in 'David Copperfield' are literally true
pictures of his own early experiences, and much of that work may
be accepted as autobiographical. He was fond of putting himself
and his own people into his books, and of drawing his scenes and
his characters from real life, sometimes only slightly disguised. Tra-
dition says that he built both Mr. Micawber and Mr. Turveydrop out
of his own father; that Mrs. Nickleby was based upon his own
mother; and that his wife, who was the Dora of 'Copperfield' in the
beginning of their married life, became in later years the Flora of
'Little Dorrit. ' The elder Dickens had unquestionably some of the
traits ascribed to the unpractical friend of Copperfield's youth, and
something of the cruel self-indulgence and pompous deportment of
the dancing-master in Bleak House. ' And it was during his father's
imprisonment for debt when the son was but a youth, that Dickens
got his intimate knowledge of the Marshalsea, and of the heart-
breaking existence of its inmates. Some years before 'Copperfield'
was written, he described in a fragment of actual autobiography,
quoted by Forster, the following scene:-
"My father was waiting for me in the lodge [of the Debtor's Prison]; and
we went up to his room, on the top story but one, and cried very much.
And he told me, I remember, to take warning by the Marshalsea, and to
observe that if a man had twenty pounds a year, and spent nineteen pounds
nineteen shillings and sixpence, he would be happy; but that a shilling spent
the other way would make him wretched. "
In these chambers Dickens afterwards put Mr. Dorrit. And while
the father remained in confinement, the son lived for a time in a
back attic in Lant Street, Borough, which was to become the home
of the eccentric Robert Sawyer, and the scene of a famous supper
party given to do honor to Mr. Pickwick "and the other chaps. "
"If a man wishes to abstract himself from the world, to remove
himself from the reach of temptation, to place himself beyond the
possibility of any inducement to look out of the window, he should
by all means go to Lant Street. " Lant Street still exists, as Mr. Pick-
wick found it, and as Dickens knew it between 1822 and 1824. He
## p. 4628 (#422) ###########################################
4628
CHARLES DICKENS
had numerous lodgings, alone and with his family, during those hard
times; all of them of the same miserable, wretched character; and it
is interesting to know that the original of Mrs. Pipchin was his land-
lady in Camden Town, and that the original of the Marchioness
waited on the elder Dickens during his stay in the Marshalsea.
The story of the unhappy drudgery of the young Copperfield is
the story of the young Dickens without exaggeration.
"No words can express the secret agony of my soul as I sunk into this
companionship," he wrote in 1845 or 1846,- «compared these every-day asso-
ciates with those of my happier childhood, and felt my early hopes of grow-
ing up to be a learned and distinguished man crushed in my breast. The
deep remembrance of the sense I had of being utterly neglected and hope-
less; of the shame I felt in my position; of the misery it was to my young
heart to believe that, day by day, what I had learned, and thought, and
delighted in, and raised my fancy and my emulation up by, was passing
away from me, never to be brought back any more, cannot be written. My
whole nature was so penetrated with the grief and humiliation of such con-
siderations, that even now, famous and caressed and happy, I often forget,
in my dreams, that I have a dear wife and children; even that I am a man;
and I wander desolately back to that time of my life. "
In the course of a few years, happily, the cloud lifted; and in 1831,
when Dickens was a youth of nineteen, we find him beginning life as
a reporting journalist. He wrote occasional "pieces" for the maga-
zines, and some faint hope of growing up to be a distinguished and
learned man rose again, no doubt, in his breast. N. P. Willis met
him one day in 1835, when, as Willis expresses it, Dickens was a
"paragraphist" for the London Morning Chronicle. The "paragraph-
ist," according to Willis, was lodging in the most crowded part of
Holborn, in an uncarpeted and bleak-looking room, with a deal table,
two or three chairs, and a few books. It was up a long flight of
stairs, this room; and its occupant "was dressed very much as he has
since described Dick Swiveller-minus the swell look. His hair was
cropped close to his head, his clothes were scant, though jauntily cut;
and after exchanging a ragged office coat for a shabby blue, he stood
by the door collarless and buttoned up, the very personification, I
thought, of a close sailer to the wind.
Not long after this
Macrone sent me the sheets of 'Sketches by Boz,' with a note saying
they were by the gentleman [Dickens] who went with us to Newgate.
I read the book with amazement at the genius displayed in it; and
in my note of reply assured Macrone that I thought his fortune was
made, as a publisher, if he could monopolize the author. " This pic-
ture is very graphic. But it must be accepted with a grain of salt.
The Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-
Day People,' Dickens's first printed book, appeared in 1835. A further
·
## p. 4629 (#423) ###########################################
CHARLES DICKENS
4629
series of papers, bearing the same title, was published the next year.
"Boz" was the nickname he had bestowed upon his younger brother
Augustus, in honor of the Moses of the Vicar of Wakefield. ' The
word, pronounced through the nose, became "Boses," afterwards
shortened to "Boz," which, said Dickens, "was a very familiar house-
hold word to me long before I was an author. And so I came to
adopt it. " The sketches, the character of which is explained in their
sub-title, were regarded as unusually clever things of their kind.
They attracted at once great attention in England, and established
the fact that a new star had risen in the firmament of British letters.
Dickens was married on the 2d of April, 1836, to Miss Catherine
Hogarth, just a week after he had published the first shilling number
of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club: Edited by Boz. '
The work appeared in book form the next year. Its success was phe-
nomenal, and it brought to its author not only fame but a fixed sum
per annum, which is better. It assured his comfort in the present and
in the future, and it wiped out all the care and troubles of his past.
It was in itself the result of an accident. Messrs. Chapman and Hall,
attracted by the popularity of the Sketches, proposed to their author
a series of monthly articles to illustrate certain pictures of a comic
character by Robert Seymour, an artist in their employment. Dickens
assented, upon the condition that "the plates were to be so modified
that they would arise naturally out of the text. " And so between
them Mr. Pickwick was born, although under the saddest of circum-
stances; for only a single number had appeared when Seymour died
by his own hand. Hablot K. Browne succeeded him, signing the name
of "Phiz"; and with "Boz" was "Phiz" long associated in other
prosperous ventures. Mr. Pickwick is a benevolent, tender-hearted
elderly gentleman, who, as the president of a club organized "for the
purpose of investigating the source of the Hampstead ponds," jour-
neys about England in all directions with three companions, to whom
he acts as guide, philosopher, and friend. He is an amiable old
goose, and his companions are equally verdant and unsophisticated;
but since 1837 they have been as famous as any men in fiction. The
story is a long one, the pages are crowded with incidents and with
characters. It is disconnected, often exaggerated, much of it is as
improbable as it is impossible, but it has made the world laugh for
sixty years now; and it still holds its own unique place in the hearts
of men.
From this period the pen of Dickens was never idle for forty-three
years. 'Pickwick' was succeeded by 'Oliver Twist,' begun in Bent-
ley's Magazine in January, 1837, and printed in book form in 1838.
It is the story of the progress of a parish boy, and it is sad and
serious in its character. The hero was born and brought up in a
## p. 4630 (#424) ###########################################
4630
CHARLES DICKENS
workhouse. He was starved and ill-treated; but he always retained
his innocence and his purity of mind. He fell among thieves,- Bill
and Nancy Sykes, Fagin and the Artful Dodger, to whom much pow-
erful description is devoted, but he triumphed in the end. The life
of the very poor and of the very degraded among the people of Eng-
land during the latter end of the first half of the nineteenth century
is admirably portrayed; and for the first time in their existence the
British blackguards of both sexes were exhibited in fiction, clad in
all their instincts of low brutality, and without that glamour of
attractive romance which the earlier writers had given to Jack Shep-
pard, to Jonathan Wild, or to Moll Flanders.
Two dramatic compositions by Dickens, neither of them adding
very much to his reputation, appeared in 1836, to wit:-'The Stran-
ger Gentleman, A Comic Burletta in Three Acts'; and 'The Village
Coquette,' a comic opera in two acts. They were presented upon
the stage towards the close of that year, with fair success.
In 1838 Dickens edited the Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, a cele-
brated clown. His share in the composition of this work was com-
paratively small, and consisted of a Preface, dated February of that
year. It was followed by 'Sketches of Young Gentlemen,' and by
'The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,' both published in
1839. To this latter he signed his name, Charles Dickens, dropping
from that period the pseudonym of "Boz. " The titular hero is the
son of a poor country gentleman. He makes his own way in the
world as the usher of a Yorkshire school, as an actor in a traveling
troupe, and as the clerk and finally the partner in a prosperous
mercantile house in London. Smike, his pupil; Crummles, his theat-
rical manager; Ninetta Crummles, the Infant Phenomenon of the
company, Newman Noggs, the clerk of his uncle Ralph Nickleby,
the Cheeryble Brothers, his employers, are among the most success-
ful and charming of Dickens's earlier creations. "Mr. Squeers and
his school," he says, << were faint and feeble pictures of an existing
reality, purposely subdued and kept down lest they should be deemed
impossible. " That such establishments ceased to exist in reality in
England after the appearance of 'Nickleby,' is proof enough of the
good his pictures did in this and in many other ways.
In 1840-1841 appeared 'Master Humphrey's Clock,' comprising the
two stories of The Old Curiosity Shop' and 'Barnaby Rudge,' which
were subsequently printed separately. The story of Little Nell, the
gentle, lovable inmate of the Curiosity Shop, is one of the most sad
and tender tales in fiction, and Dickens himself confessed that he
was almost heart-broken when she died. Her path was crossed by
Quilp, a cunning and malicious dwarf of hideous appearance, who
consumed hard-boiled eggs, shells and all, for his breakfast; ate his
## p. 4631 (#425) ###########################################
CHARLES DICKENS
4631
prawns with their heads and their tails on, drank scalding hot tea,
and performed so many horrifying acts that one almost doubted that
he was human; and by Christopher Nubbles, a shock-headed, sham-
bling, awkward, devoted lad, the only element of cheerfulness that
ever came into her life. In this book appear Richard Swiveller and
his Marchioness, Sampson and Sarah Brass and Mrs. Jarley, who to
be appreciated must be seen and known, as Dickens has drawn them,
at full length.
Barnaby Rudge was a half-witted lad, who, not knowing what he
did, joined the Gordon rioters-the scenes are laid in the "No
Popery» times of 1779-because he was permitted to carry a flag
and to wear a blue ribbon. The history of that exciting period of
English semi-political, semi-religious excitement is graphically set
down. Prominent figures in the book are Grip the raven, whose cry
was "I'm a devil," "Never say die"; and Miss Dolly Varden, the
blooming daughter of the Clerkenwell locksmith, who has given her
name to the modern feminine costume of the Watteauesque style.
The literary results of Dickens's first visit to the United States, in
1842, when he was thirty years of age, were 'American Notes, for
General Circulation'; published in that year, and containing portions
of 'Martin Chuzzlewit,' which appeared in 1844. His observations in
the 'Notes' upon the new country and its inhabitants gave great
offense to the American people, and were perhaps not in the best
taste. He saw the crude and ridiculous side of his hosts, he empha-
sized their faults, while he paid little attention to their virtues; and
his criticisms and strictures rankled in the sensitive American mind
for many years.
Martin Chuzzlewit, the hero of the novel bearing his name, spent
some time in the western half-settled portion of America, with Mark
Tapley, his light-hearted, optimistic friend and companion. The pic-
tures of the morals and the manners of the men and women with
whom the emigrants were brought into contact were anything but
flattering, and they served to widen the temporary breach between
Dickens and his many admirers in the United States. The English
scenes of 'Chuzzlewit' are very powerfully drawn. Tom and Ruth
Pinch, Pecksniff, Sarah Gamp, and Betsey Prig are among the lead-
ing characters in the work.
In 1843 appeared the 'Christmas Carol,' the first and perhaps the
best of that series of tales of peace and good-will, with which, at
the Christmas time, the name of Dickens is so pleasantly and famil-
iarly associated. It was followed by The Chimes' in 1844, by The
Cricket on the Hearth' in 1845, by The Haunted Man' in 1848, all
the work of Dickens himself; and by other productions written by
Dickens in collaboration with other men. Concerning these holiday
## p. 4632 (#426) ###########################################
4632
CHARLES DICKENS
stories, some unknown writer said in the public press at the time of
Dickens's death:-"He has not only pleased us— - he has softened the
hearts of a whole generation. He made charity fashionable; he
awakened pity in the hearts of sixty millions of people. He made a
whole generation keep Christmas with acts of helpfulness to the
poor; and every barefooted boy and girl in the streets of England
and America to-day fares a little better, gets fewer cuffs and more
pudding, because Charles Dickens wrote. "
In 1846 he produced his 'Pictures from Italy'; 'The Battle of Life,
A Love Story,' and began in periodical form his 'Dealings with the
Firm of Dombey and Son, Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation,'
published in book form in 1847. Here we have the pathetic story of
Little Paul, the tragic fate of Carker, the amusing episode of Jack
Bunsby with his designing widow, and the devotion of Susan Nipper,
Mr. Toots, Captain Cuttle, and Sol Gills to the gentle, patient, lov-
able Florence.
On the 'Personal History of David Copperfield,' published in 1850,
and of Dickens's share in its plot, something has already been said
here. It is perhaps the most popular of all his productions, con-
taining as it does Mr. Dick, the Peggottys, the Micawbers, the Heeps,
Betsey Trotwood, Steerforth, Tommy Traddles, Dora, Agnes, and
Little Em'ly, in all of whom the world has been so deeply interested
for so many years.
'A Child's History of England' and 'Bleak House' saw the light
in 1853. The romance was written as a protest and a warning
against the law's delays, as exhibited in the Court of Chancery; and
it contains the tragedy of Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock, and the
short but touching story of Poor Jo.
'Hard Times,' a tale in one volume, was printed in 1854. It
introduces the Gradgrind family.
'Little Dorrit' appeared in 1857. In this book he returns to the
Debtor's Prison of Micawber and of his own father. Little Dorrit
herself was "the child of the Marshalsea," in which she was born
and brought up; and the whole story is an appeal against the injus-
tice of depriving of personal liberty those who cannot pay their
bills, or meet their notes, however small. Its prominent characters
are the Clennams, mother and son, the Meagleses, Flintwinch, Sir
Decimus Tite Barnacle, Rigaud and Little Cavalletto.
'A Tale of Two Cities,' a remarkable departure for Dickens, and
unlike any of his other works, was the book of the year 1859. It is
conceded, even by those who are not counted among the admirers of
its author, to be a most vivid and correct picture of Paris during the
time of the Revolution, when the guillotine was the king of France.
Its central figure, Sydney Carton, one of the most heroic characters
## p. 4633 (#427) ###########################################
CHARLES DICKENS
4633
in romance, gives his life to restore his friend to the girl whom they
both love.
< The Uncommercial Traveller,' a number of sketches and stories
originally published in his weekly journal All the Year Round, ap-
peared in 1860. They were supplemented in 1868 by another volume
bearing the same title, and containing eleven other papers collected
from the same periodical.
'Great Expectations,' 1861, like 'Copperfield,' is the story of a boy's
childhood told by the boy himself, but by a boy with feelings, sen-
timents, and experiences very different from those of the earlier
work. The plot is not altogether a cheerful one, but many of the
characters are original and charming; notably Joe Gargery, Jaggles,
Wemmick, the exceedingly eccentric Miss Havisham, and the very
amiable and simple Biddy.
'Somebody's Luggage,' 1862; 'Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings,' 1863;
'Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy,' 1864; Dr. Marigold's Prescription,' 1865;
'Mugby Junction,' 1866; and 'No Thoroughfare,' 1867,- Christmas
stories, all of them,- were written by Dickens in collaboration with
other writers.
'Our Mutual Friend,' the last completed work of Dickens, was
printed in 1865. Mr. Boffin, the Golden Dustman with the great
heart, Silas Wegg, Mr. Venus, the Riderhoods, Jenny Wren, the
Podsnaps, the Veneerings, Betty Higden, Mrs. Wilfer, and the "Boo-
fer Lady," are as fresh and as original as are any of his creations,
and show no trace of the coming disaster.
Before the completion of 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' Dickens
died at his home, Gadshill Place, literally in harness, and without
warning, on the 9th of June, 1870.
But six numbers of this last work appeared, in periodical form. .
Its author left no notes of what was to follow, and the Mystery has
never been solved. Mr. Charles Collins, Dickens's son-in-law, however,
in a private letter to Mr. Augustin Daly of New York, who had pro-
posed to dramatize the tale, gave some general outline of the scheme
for Edwin Drood. ' "The titular character," he said, «< was never to
reappear, he having been murdered by Jasper. The girl Rosa, not
having been really attached to Edwin, was not to lament his loss
very long, and was, I believe, to admit the sailor, Mr. Tartar, to
supply his place. It was intended that Jasper should urge on the
search after Edwin, and the pursuit of the murderer, thus endeavor-
ing to divert suspicion from himself, the real murderer.
As to any-
thing further, it would be purely conjectural. "
Besides this immense amount of admirable work, Dickens founded,
conducted, and edited two successful periodicals, Household Words,
established in March 1850, and followed by All the Year Round,.
## p. 4634 (#428) ###########################################
4634
CHARLES DICKENS
beginning in April 1859. To these he contributed many sketches and
stories. He began public readings in London in 1858; and con-
tinued them with great profit to himself, and with great satisfaction
to immense audiences, for upwards of twelve years. He appeared in
all the leading cities of Great Britain; and he was enormously popu-
lar as a reader in America during his second and last visit in 1868.
As an after-dinner and occasional speaker Dickens was rarely
equaled; and as an actor upon the amateur stage, in plays of his
own composition, he was inimitable.
Of his attempts at verse, 'The Ivy Green' is the only one that
is held in remembrance.
A strong argument in favor of what may be called "the staying
qualities of Dickens is the fact that his characters, even in a muti-
lated, unsatisfactory form, have held the stage for half a century or
more, and still have power to attract and move great audiences,
wherever is spoken the language in which he wrote. The dramatiza-
tion of the novel is universally and justly regarded as the most
ephemeral and worthless of dramatic production; and the novels of
Dickens, on account of their length, of the great number of figures
he introduces, of the variety and occasional exaggeration of his dia-
logues and his situations, have been peculiarly difficult of adaptation
to theatrical purposes. Nevertheless the world laughed and cried
over Micawber, Captain Cuttle, Dan'l Peggotty, and Caleb Plummer,
behind the footlights, years after Dolly Spanker, Aminadab Sleek,
Timothy Toodles, Alfred Evelyn, and Geoffrey Dalk, their contempo-
raries in the standard and legitimate drama, created solely and par-
ticularly for dramatic representation, were absolutely forgotten. And
Sir Henry Irving, sixty years after the production of 'Pickwick,' drew
great crowds to see his Alfred Jingle, while that picturesque and
ingenious swindler Robert Macaire, Jingle's once famous and familiar
confrère in plausible rascality, was never seen on the boards, except
as he was burlesqued and caricatured in comic opera.
It is pretty safe to say-and not in a Pickwickian sense that
Pecksniff will live almost as long as hypocrisy lasts; that Heep will
not be forgotten while mock humility exists; that Mr. Dick will go
down to posterity arm-in-arm with Charles the First, whom he could
not avoid in his memorial; that Barkis will be quoted until men cease
to be willin'. And so long as cheap, rough coats cover faith, charity,
and honest hearts, the world will remember that Captain Cuttle and
the Peggottys were so clad.
Раш
Hilto
m
-
## p.
pen in despair, on noting the polished style of the scholar; but when
he became aware of the gross inaccuracies of his predecessor, who
had never even set foot in America, he determined, so he declares,
to write above all things a faithful narrative of the stirring events
in which he had participated. Thus was completed his 'Historia
## p. 4614 (#404) ###########################################
4614
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España. ' For some reason
this valuable manuscript lay neglected in a private library for about
sixty years.
Finally it fell into the hands of Father Alonso Remor,
a sagacious priest, who published it at Madrid in 1632.
The narrative of this soldier historian, although clumsy, full of
digressions and repetitions, and laying bare his ignorance, simplicity,
and vanity, will nevertheless always be read with far more interest
than the weightier works of Las Casas, Gomara, or Herrera. Pres-
cott explained the secret of its fascination when he said:
"Bernal Diaz, the untutored child of nature, is a most true and literal
copyist of nature. He transfers the scenes of real life by a sort of daguerreo-
type process, if I may so say, to his pages. He is among chroniclers what
Defoe is among novelists.
All the picturesque scenes and romantic
incidents of the campaign are reflected in his pages as in a mirror. The
lapse of fifty years has had no power over the spirit of the veteran. The fire
of youth glows in every line of his rude history, and as he calls up the scenes
of the past, the remembrance of the brave companions who are gone gives, it
may be, a warmer coloring to the picture than if it had been made at an
earlier period. »
A fairly good English translation of the work of Bernal Diaz ap-
peared in London in 1800, under the title of True History of the
Conquest of Mexico. '
FROM THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO›
Translation of Maurice Keatinge: London, 1800
THE CAPTURE OF GUATIMOTZIN
SAND
ANDOVAL at this moment made a signal for the flotilla to close
up to him, and perceived that Guatimotzin was prisoner to
Holguin, who was taking him to Cortés. Upon this he
ordered his rowers to exert their utmost to bring him up to Hol-
guin's vessel, and having arrived by the side of it, he demanded
Guatimotzin to be delivered to him as general of the whole force;
but Holguin refused, alleging that he had no claim whatever.
A vessel which went to carry the intelligence of the great
event, brought also to Cortés, who was then on the summit of the
great temple in the Taltelulco, very near the part of the lake
where Guatimotzin was captured, an account of the dispute be-
tween his officers. Cortés immediately dispatched Luis Marin and
Francisco de Lugo to bring the whole party together to his quar-
ters, and thus to stop all litigation; but he enjoined them not to
omit treating Guatimotzin and his queen with the greatest respect.
## p. 4615 (#405) ###########################################
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
4615
During the interval he employed himself in arranging a state, as
well as he could, with cloths and mantles. He also prepared a
table with refreshments, to receive his prisoners. As soon as
they appeared he went forward to meet them, and embracing
Guatimotzin, treated him and all his attendants with every mark
of respect.
The unfortunate monarch, with tears in his eyes, and sinking
under affliction, then addressed him in the following words:-
«< Malintzin! I have done that which was my duty in the defense
of my kingdom and people; my efforts have failed, and being
now brought by force a prisoner in your hands, draw that pon-
iard from your side and stab me to the heart. ”
Cortés embraced and used every expression to comfort him, by
assurances that he held him in high estimation for the valor and
firmness he had shown, and that he had required a submission
from him and the people at the time that they could no longer
reasonably hope for success, in order to prevent further destruc-
tion; but that was all past, and no more to be thought of it; he
should continue to reign over the people as he had done before.
Cortés then inquired after his queen, to which Guatimotzin re-
plied that in consequence of the compliance of Sandoval with his
request, she and her women remained in the piraguas until Cortés
should decide as to their fate. The general then caused them to
be sent for, and treated them in the best manner his situation
afforded. The evening was drawing on, and it appeared likely
to rain; he therefore sent the whole royal family to Cuyoacan,
under the care of Sandoval. The rest of the troops then returned
to their former quarters; we to ours of Tacuba, and Cortés, pro-
ceeding to Cuyoacan, took the command there, sending Sandoval
to resume his station at Tepeaquilla. Thus was the siege of
Mexico brought to a conclusion by the capture of Guatimotzin
and his chiefs, on the thirteenth of August, at the hour of ves-
pers, being the day of St. Hyppolitus, in the year of our Lord
one thousand five hundred and twenty-one. Glorified by our Lord
Jesus Christ, and Our Lady the Holy Virgin Mary his blessed
mother, Amen!
Guatimotzin was of a noble appearance both in person and
countenance; his features were rather large and cheerful, with
lively eyes.
His age was about twenty-three or four years, and
his complexion very fair for an Indian. His queen, the niece of
Montezuma, was young and very handsome.
## p. 4616 (#406) ###########################################
4616
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
THE MORTALITY AT THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO
say
WHAT I am going to mention is truth, and I swear and
amen to it. I have read of the destruction of Jerusalem, but I
cannot conceive that the mortality there exceeded this of Mex-
ico; for all the people from the distant provinces which belonged
to this empire had concentrated themselves here, where they
mostly died. The streets, the squares, the houses, and the courts
of the Taltelulco were covered with dead bodies; we could not
step without treading on them; the lake and canals were filled
with them, and the stench was intolerable. For this reason, our
troops, immediately after the capture of the royal family, retired
to their former quarters. Cortés himself was for some time ill
from the effect of it.
CORTÉS
I WILL now proceed to describe the person and disposition of
the Marquis [Cortés]. He was of good stature and strongly built,
of a rather pale complexion and serious countenance. His feat-
ures were, if faulty, rather too small; his eyes mild and grave.
His beard was black, thin, and scanty; his hair in the same
manner. His breast and shoulders were broad, and his body
very thin.
He was very well limbed, and his legs rather bowed;
an excellent horseman, and dexterous in the use of arms. He
also possessed the heart and mind which is the principal part of
the business. I have heard that when he was a lad in Hispan-
iola he was very wild about women, and that he had several
duels with able swordsmen, in which he always came off with
victory. He had the scar of a sword wound near his under lip,
which appeared through his beard if closely examined, and which
he received in some of those affairs. In his appearance, man-
ners, transactions, conversation, table, and dress, everything bore
the appearance of a great lord. His clothes were according to
the fashion of the time; he was not fond of silks, damasks, or
velvets, but everything plain, and very handsome; nor did he
wear large chains of gold, but a small one of fine workmanship
bearing the image of Our Lady the Blessed Virgin with her
precious Son in her arms, and a Latin motto; and on the reverse,
St. John the Baptist with another motto. He wore on his finger
a ring with a very fine diamond, and in his cap, which according
to the fashion of that day was of velvet, he bore a medal, the
## p. 4617 (#407) ###########################################
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
4617
head and motto of which I do not recollect; but latterly he wore
a plain cloth cap without any ornament.
His table was always magnificently attended and served, with
four major-domos or principal officers, a number of pages, and a
great quantity of plate, both gold and silver. He dined heartily
at midday, and drank a glass of wine mixed with water, of about
half a pint. He was not nice in his food, nor expensive, except
on particular occasions where he saw the propriety of it. He
was very affable with all his captains and soldiers, especially
those who accompanied him in his first expedition from Cuba.
He was a Latinist, and as I have been told, a bachelor of laws.
He was also something of a poet, and a very good rhetorician;
very devout to Our Holy Virgin and to St. Peter, St. Jago, and
St. John the Baptist, and charitable to the poor. When he swore
he used to say, "By my conscience! " and when he was angry
with any of us his friends, he would say, "Oh! may you repent
it. »
When he was very angry, the veins in his throat and fore-
head used to swell, and when in great wrath he would not utter
a syllable to any one. He was very patient under insults or
injuries; for some of the soldiers were at times very rude and
abusive to him; but he never resented their conduct, although he
had often great reason to do so. In such cases he used only to
"Be silent! " or
say
«< Go away, in God's name, and take care not
to repeat this conduct or I will have you punished. " He was very
determined and headstrong in all business of war, not attending
to any remonstrances on account of danger; an instance of
which he showed in the attack of those fortresses called the
Rocks of the Marquis, which he forced us to scale, contrary
to our opinions, and when neither courage, council, nor wisdom
could give any rational hope of success.
Where we had to erect a fortress, Cortés was the hardest
laborer in the trenches; when we were going into battle, he was
as forward as any.
Cortés was very fond of play, both at cards and dice, and
while playing he was very affable and good-humored. He used
frequently at such times those cant expressions which are cus-
tomary amongst persons who game. In military service he prac-
ticed the most strict attention to discipline, constantly going the
rounds in person during the night, visiting the quarters of the
soldiers and severely reprehending those whom he found with-
out their armor and appointments and not ready to turn out;
## p. 4618 (#408) ###########################################
4618
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
repeating to them the proverb that "It is a bad sheep which
cannot carry own wool. "
On our expedition to Higueras I perceived that he had ac-
quired a habit which I had never before observed in him, and it
was this: after eating, if he did not get his siesta or sleep, his
stomach was affected and he fell sick. For this reason, when
on the journey, let the rain be ever so heavy or the sun ever
so hot, he always reposed for a short time after his repast, a
carpet or cloak being spread under a tree, on which he lay down;
and having slept a short time, he mounted his horse and pro-
ceeded on his journey. When we were engaged in the wars
during the conquest of New Spain, he was very thin and slen-
der; but after his return from Higueras he grew fat, and acquired
a belly. He at this time trimmed his beard, which had now
begun to grow white, in the short fashion. In his early life he
was very liberal, but grew close latterly, some of his servants
complaining that he did not pay them as he ought; and I have
also to observe that in his latter undertakings he never succeeded.
Perhaps such was the will of Heaven, his reward being reserved
for another place; for he was a good cavalier, and very devout
to the Holy Virgin, and also to St. Paul and other Holy Saints.
God pardon him his sins, and me mine; and give me a good
end, which is better than all conquests and victories over Indians.
OF DIVINE AID IN THE BATTLE OF SANTA MARIA DE LA VITORIA
IN HIS account of this action, Gomara says that previous to
the arrival of the main body of the cavalry under Cortés, Fran-
cisco de Morla appeared in the field upon a gray dappled horse,
and that it was one of the holy Apostles, St. Peter or St. Jago,
disguised under his person. I say that all our works and victories
are guided by the hand of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that in
this battle there were so many enemies to every one of us, that
they could have buried us under the dust they could have held
in their hands, but that the great mercy of God aided us through-
out. What Gomara asserts might be the case, and I, sinner as I
am, was not worthy to be permitted to see it. What I did see
was Francisco de Morla, riding in company with Cortés and the
rest upon a chestnut horse; and that circumstance and all the
others of that day appear to me, at this moment that I am
writing, as if actually passing in view of these sinful eyes. But
## p. 4619 (#409) ###########################################
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
4619
although I, unworthy sinner that I am, was unfit to behold either
of those holy Apostles, upwards of four hundred of us were pres-
ent: let their testimony be taken. Let inquiry also be made how
it happened that when the town was founded on that spot, it was
not named after one or other of those holy Apostles, and called
St. Jago de la Vitoria, or St. Pedro de la Vitoria, as it was Santa
Maria, and a church erected and dedicated to one of those holy
saints. Very bad Christians were we indeed, according to the
account of Gomara, who, when God sent us his Apostles to fight
at our head, did not every day after acknowledge and return
thanks for so great a mercy! Would to heaven that it were so;
but until I read the chronicle of Gomara I never heard of it, nor
was it ever mentioned amongst the conquerors who were then
present.
CORTÉS DESTROYS CERTAIN IDOLS
THERE was on the island of Cozumel a temple, and some hid-
eous idols, to which all the Indians of the neighboring districts.
used to go frequently in solemn procession.
Cortés sum-
moned all the caciques and chief persons to come to him, and as
well as he could, by signs and interpretations, explained to them
that the idols which they worshiped were not gods, but evil
things which would draw their souls down to hell, and that if
they wished to remain in a brotherly connection with us, they
must pull them down and place in their stead the crucifix of
our Lord, by whose assistance they would obtain good harvests
and the salvation of their souls; with many other good and holy
reasons, which he expressed very well. The priests and chiefs
replied that they worshiped these gods as their ancestors had
done, because they were kind to them; and that if we attempted
to molest them, the gods would convince us of their power by
destroying us in the sea. Cortés then ordered them to be pros-
trated, which we immediately did, rolling them down some steps.
He next sent for lime, of which there was abundance in the
place, and Indian masons, by whom under our direction a very
handsome altar was constructed, whereon we placed an image of
the Holy Virgin; and the carpenters having made a crucifix,
which was erected in a small chapel close to the altar, mass was
said by the Reverend Father Juan Diaz, and listened to by the
priests, chiefs, and the rest of the natives, with great attention.
·
## p. 4620 (#410) ###########################################
4620
CHARLES DIBDIN
(1745-1814)
TOG HE saying, "Let me make the songs of a nation and I care
not who makes its laws," receives an interesting illustration
in the sea songs of Charles Dibdin. They were written at
a momentous period in English history. The splendid gallantry and
skill of England's sailors, and the genius of her naval commanders,
had made her mistress of the seas, and the key of all combinations
against the French Cæsar. The sterling qualities of the British sea-
man are the inspiration of Dibdin's songs.
Many of these were first given at Dib-
din's monodramatic entertainments at the
Sans Souci Theatre in London, or as parts
of his musical dramas. They appealed at
once to Englishmen, and were sung by
every ship's crew; they fired the national
spirit, and played so important a part in
the quickening of English patriotism that
the government, recognizing their stirring
force in animating the naval enthusiasm
during the Napoleonic wars, granted a pen-
sion of £200 a year to the "Ocean Bard of
England. "
CHARLES DIBDIN
Charles Dibdin was born in 1745, in a
small village near the great seaport of Southampton. His love of
the salt air drew him often to the ocean's shores, where he saw the
ships of all lands pass and repass, and heard the merry sailors'
songs. And yet his own songs, upon which his title to a place in
literature rests, were incidental products of his active mind. He
was an actor, a dramatist, and a composer as well. He wrote some
thirty minor plays and the once popular operettas of The Shep-
herd's Artifice,' 'The Padlock,' The Quaker,' and 'The Waterman. '
He wrote also a 'History of the Stage,' 'Musical Tour through
England,' and an autobiography which bore the title 'Professional
Life,' His two novels are now forgotten, but it is interesting to
recall that for the Stratford Jubilee in honor of Shakespeare, the
words of which were by Garrick, Dibdin composed the much admired
songs, dances, and serenades. He wrote more than thirteen hundred
songs, most of which had of course only a brief existence; but there
## p. 4621 (#411) ###########################################
CHARLES DIBDIN
4621
were enough of them, burning with genuine lyric fire, to entitle him
to grateful remembrance among England's poets.
In all of these songs, whether the theme be his native land or the
wind-swept seas that close it round, love is the poet's real inspira-
tion; love of old England and her sovereign, love of the wealth-
bringing ocean, love of the good ship that sails its waves. This
fundamental affection for the things of which he sings has endeared
the songs of Dibdin to the heart of the British sailor; and in this
lies the proof of their genuineness. His songs are simple and me-
lodious; there is a manly ring in their word and rhythm; they have
the swagger and the fearlessness of the typical tar; they have, too,
the beat of his true heart, his kindly waggery, his sturdy fidelity to
his country and his king. There is nothing quite like them in any
other literature.
SEA SONG
SAILED in the good ship the Kitty,
I
With a smart blowing gale and rough sea;
Left my Polly, the lads call so pretty,
Safe at her anchor. Yo, Yea!
She blubbered salt tears when we parted,
And cried "Now be constant to me! "
I told her not to be down-hearted,
So up went the anchor. Yo, Yea!
And from that time, no worse nor no better,
I've thought on just nothing but she,
Nor could grog nor flip make me forget her,-
She's my best bower-anchor. Yo, Yea!
When the wind whistled larboard and starboard,
And the storm came on weather and lee,
The hope I with her should be harbored
Was my cable and anchor. Yo, Yea!
And yet, my boys, would you believe me?
I returned with no rhino from sea;
Mistress Polly would never receive me,
So again I heav'd anchor. Yo, Yea!
## p. 4622 (#412) ###########################################
4622
CHARLES DIBDIN
G
SONG: THE HEART OF A TAR
YET
ET though I've no fortune to offer,
I've something to put on a par;
Come, then, and accept of my proffer,-
'Tis the kind honest heart of a tar.
Ne'er let such a trifle as this is,
Girls, be to my pleasure a bar;
You'll be rich though 'tis only in kisses,
With the kind honest heart of a tar.
Besides, I am none of your ninnies;
The next time I come from afar,
I'll give you a lapful of guineas,
With the kind honest heart of a tar.
Your lords, with such fine baby faces,
That strut in a garter and star,
Have they, under their tambour and laces,
The kind honest heart of a tar?
POOR JACK
O PATTER to lubbers and swabs, do you see,
'Bout danger, and fear, and the like;
A tight-water boat and good sea-room give me,
And it ain't to a little I'll strike.
Though the tempest topgallant-mast smack smooth should
smite
And shiver each splinter of wood,
Clear the deck, stow the yards, and house everything tight,
And under reef foresail we'll scud:
Avast! nor don't think me a milksop so soft,
To be taken for trifles aback;
For they say there's a Providence sits up aloft,
To keep watch for the life of poor Jack!
I heard our good chaplain palaver one day
About souls, heaven, mercy, and such;
And, my timbers! what lingo he'd coil and belay;
Why, 'twas just all as one as High Dutch;
For he said how a sparrow can't founder, d'ye see,
Without orders that come down below;
## p. 4623 (#413) ###########################################
CHARLES DIBDIN
4623
And a many fine things that proved clearly to me oft
That Providence takes us in tow:
For, says he, do you mind me, let storms ne'er so oft
Take the topsails of sailors aback,
There's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft,
To keep watch for the life of poor Jack!
I said to our Poll (for d'ye see, she would cry
When last we weighed anchor for sea),
What argufies sniveling and piping your eye?
Why, what a young fool you must be!
Can't you see the world's wide, and there's room for us all,
Both for seamen and lubbers ashore ?
And so if to old Davy I go, my dear Poll,
Why, you never will hear of me more.
What then? all's a hazard: come, don't be so soft;
Perhaps I may, laughing, come back;
For d'ye see? there's a cherub sits smiling aloft,
To keep watch for the life of poor Jack.
D'ye mind me? a sailor should be every inch
All as one as a piece of the ship,
And with her brave the world, without offering to flinch,
From the moment the anchor's a-trip.
As for me, in all weathers, all times, sides, and ends,
Naught's a trouble from duty that springs;
For my heart is my Poll's, and my rhino's my friend's,
And as for my life, 'tis the King's.
Even when my time comes, ne'er believe me so soft;
As for grief to be taken aback;
For the same little cherub that sits up aloft
Will look out a good berth for poor Jack.
TOM BOWLING
H
ERE, a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowling,
The darling of our crew;
No more he'll hear the tempest howling,
For Death has broached him to.
His form was of the manliest beauty,
His heart was kind and soft;
Faithful below he did his duty,
But now he's gone aloft.
## p. 4624 (#414) ###########################################
4624
CHARLES DIBDIN
Tom never from his word departed,
His virtues were so rare;
His friends were many and true-hearted,
His Poll was kind and fair:
And then he'd sing so blithe and jolly;
Ah, many's the time and oft!
But mirth is turned to melancholy,
For Tom is gone aloft.
Yet shall poor Tom find pleasant weather,
When He who all commands
Shall give, to call life's crew together,
The word to pipe all hands.
Thus Death, who kings and tars dispatches,
In vain Tom's life has doffed;
For though his body's under hatches,
His soul is gone aloft.
## p. 4624 (#415) ###########################################
## p. 4624 (#416) ###########################################
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## p. 4624 (#417) ###########################################
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## p. 4624 (#418) ###########################################
CHARLES DI ME NR.
## p. 4625 (#419) ###########################################
4625
CHARLES DICKENS
(1812-1870)
W
HEN a great genius arises he makes his place in the world
and explains himself. Criticism does not make him and
cannot unmake him. He may have great defects and great
faults. By exposing them and dwelling upon them, the critics may
apparently nibble him all away. When the critics get through, how-
ever, he remains pretty much the force he was originally.
For real
genius is a sort of elemental force that enters the human world, both
for good and evil, and leaves its lasting impression. It is like a new
river, of waters sweet and bitter, clear and muddy, bearing on its
bosom ships and wrecks, the lovely and the ugly, the incongruous
elements of human life and human contrivance. When it floods and
overflows, the critics run away; when it subsides the critics come
back and begin to analyze it, and say, "It wasn't much of a shower. "
Charles Dickens is to be judged, like any other genius, by what
he created, what he brought into the world. We are not called on to
say whether he was as great as Homer, as Shakespeare, as Cer-
vantes, as Fielding, as Manzoni, as Thackeray. He was always quite
himself, and followed no model, though thousands of writers have
attempted to follow him and acquire the title of being Dickens-y.
For over half a century he had the ear of the English-reading public
the world over. It laughed with him, it cried with him, it hungered
after him. Whatever he wrote, it must read; whenever he read, it
crowded to hear his masterly interpretations; when he acted, it was
delighted with his histrionic cleverness. In all these manifestations
there was the attraction of a most winning personality.
He invented a new kind of irresistible humor, he told stories that
went to the heart of humanity, he amused, he warmed, he cheered
the world. We almost think that modern Christmas was his inven-
tion, such an apostle was he of kindliness and brotherly love, of
sympathy with the poor and the struggling, of charity which is not
condescension. He made pictures of low life, and perhaps unreal
shadows of high life, and vivid scenes that lighted up great periods
of history. For producing effects and holding the reader he was a
wizard with his pen. And so the world hung on him, read him and
re-read him, recited him, declaimed him, put him into reading-books,
diffused him in common speech and in all literature.
In all Eng-
lish literature his characters are familiar, stand for types, and need
no explanation. And now, having filled itself up with him, been
VIII-290
## p. 4626 (#420) ###########################################
4626
CHARLES DICKENS
saturated with him, made him in some ways as common as the air,
does the world tire of him, turn on him, say that it cannot read him
any more, that he is commonplace? If so, the world has made him
commonplace. But the publishers' and booksellers' accounts show
no diminution in his popularity with the new generation.
At a dinner where Dickens was discussed, a gentleman won dis-
tinction by this sole contribution to the conversation:-"There is no
evidence in Dickens's works that he ever read a book. " It is true
that Dickens drew most of his material from his own observation of
life, and from his fertile imagination, which was often fantastic. It
is true that he could not be called in the narrow sense a literary
writer, that he made no literary mosaic, and few allusions to the
literature of the world. Is it not probable that he had the art to
assimilate his material? For it is impossible that any writer could
pour out such a great flood about the world and human nature with-
out refreshing his own mind at the great fountains of literature.
And when we turn to such a tale as 'The Tale of Two Cities,' we
are conscious of the vast amount of reading and study he must have
done in order to give us such a true and vivid picture of the Revo-
lutionary period.
It has been said that Dickens did not write good English, that he
could not draw a lady or a gentleman, that he often makes ear-marks
and personal peculiarities stand for character, that he is sometimes
turgid when he would be impressive, sometimes stilted when he
would be fine, that his sentiment is often false and worked up, that
his attempts at tragedy are melodramatic, and that sometimes his
comedy comes near being farcical. His whole literary attitude has
been compared to his boyish fondness for striking apparel.
There is some truth in all these criticisms, though they do not
occur spontaneously to a fresh reader while he is under the spell of
Dickens, nor were they much brought forward when he was creating
a new school and setting a fashion for an admiring world. His
style, which is quite a part of this singular man, can easily be pulled
in pieces and condemned, and it is not a safe one to imitate. No
doubt he wrought for effects, for he was a magician, and used exag-
geration in high lights and low lights on his crowded canvas. Say
what you will of all these defects, of his lack of classic literary train-
ing, of his tendency to melodrama, of his tricks of style, even of a
ray of lime-light here and there, it remains that he is a great power,
a tremendous force in modern life; half an hour of him is worth a
lifetime of his self-conscious analyzers, and the world is a more
cheerful and sympathetic world because of the loving and lovable
presence in it of Charles Dickens.
A sketch of his life and writings, necessarily much condensed for
use here, has been furnished by Mr. Laurence Hutton.
## p. 4627 (#421) ###########################################
CHARLES DICKENS
4627
THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF DICKENS
BY LAURENCE HUTTON
C
HARLES DICKENS was born at Landport in Portsea, on the 7th of
February, 1812. His childhood was a very unhappy one. He
describes himself in one of his essays as "a very queer, small
boy," and his biographer tells us that he was very sickly as well as
very small.
He had little schooling, and numberless hard knocks,
and rough and toilsome was the first quarter of his journey through
life. Many of the passages in 'David Copperfield' are literally true
pictures of his own early experiences, and much of that work may
be accepted as autobiographical. He was fond of putting himself
and his own people into his books, and of drawing his scenes and
his characters from real life, sometimes only slightly disguised. Tra-
dition says that he built both Mr. Micawber and Mr. Turveydrop out
of his own father; that Mrs. Nickleby was based upon his own
mother; and that his wife, who was the Dora of 'Copperfield' in the
beginning of their married life, became in later years the Flora of
'Little Dorrit. ' The elder Dickens had unquestionably some of the
traits ascribed to the unpractical friend of Copperfield's youth, and
something of the cruel self-indulgence and pompous deportment of
the dancing-master in Bleak House. ' And it was during his father's
imprisonment for debt when the son was but a youth, that Dickens
got his intimate knowledge of the Marshalsea, and of the heart-
breaking existence of its inmates. Some years before 'Copperfield'
was written, he described in a fragment of actual autobiography,
quoted by Forster, the following scene:-
"My father was waiting for me in the lodge [of the Debtor's Prison]; and
we went up to his room, on the top story but one, and cried very much.
And he told me, I remember, to take warning by the Marshalsea, and to
observe that if a man had twenty pounds a year, and spent nineteen pounds
nineteen shillings and sixpence, he would be happy; but that a shilling spent
the other way would make him wretched. "
In these chambers Dickens afterwards put Mr. Dorrit. And while
the father remained in confinement, the son lived for a time in a
back attic in Lant Street, Borough, which was to become the home
of the eccentric Robert Sawyer, and the scene of a famous supper
party given to do honor to Mr. Pickwick "and the other chaps. "
"If a man wishes to abstract himself from the world, to remove
himself from the reach of temptation, to place himself beyond the
possibility of any inducement to look out of the window, he should
by all means go to Lant Street. " Lant Street still exists, as Mr. Pick-
wick found it, and as Dickens knew it between 1822 and 1824. He
## p. 4628 (#422) ###########################################
4628
CHARLES DICKENS
had numerous lodgings, alone and with his family, during those hard
times; all of them of the same miserable, wretched character; and it
is interesting to know that the original of Mrs. Pipchin was his land-
lady in Camden Town, and that the original of the Marchioness
waited on the elder Dickens during his stay in the Marshalsea.
The story of the unhappy drudgery of the young Copperfield is
the story of the young Dickens without exaggeration.
"No words can express the secret agony of my soul as I sunk into this
companionship," he wrote in 1845 or 1846,- «compared these every-day asso-
ciates with those of my happier childhood, and felt my early hopes of grow-
ing up to be a learned and distinguished man crushed in my breast. The
deep remembrance of the sense I had of being utterly neglected and hope-
less; of the shame I felt in my position; of the misery it was to my young
heart to believe that, day by day, what I had learned, and thought, and
delighted in, and raised my fancy and my emulation up by, was passing
away from me, never to be brought back any more, cannot be written. My
whole nature was so penetrated with the grief and humiliation of such con-
siderations, that even now, famous and caressed and happy, I often forget,
in my dreams, that I have a dear wife and children; even that I am a man;
and I wander desolately back to that time of my life. "
In the course of a few years, happily, the cloud lifted; and in 1831,
when Dickens was a youth of nineteen, we find him beginning life as
a reporting journalist. He wrote occasional "pieces" for the maga-
zines, and some faint hope of growing up to be a distinguished and
learned man rose again, no doubt, in his breast. N. P. Willis met
him one day in 1835, when, as Willis expresses it, Dickens was a
"paragraphist" for the London Morning Chronicle. The "paragraph-
ist," according to Willis, was lodging in the most crowded part of
Holborn, in an uncarpeted and bleak-looking room, with a deal table,
two or three chairs, and a few books. It was up a long flight of
stairs, this room; and its occupant "was dressed very much as he has
since described Dick Swiveller-minus the swell look. His hair was
cropped close to his head, his clothes were scant, though jauntily cut;
and after exchanging a ragged office coat for a shabby blue, he stood
by the door collarless and buttoned up, the very personification, I
thought, of a close sailer to the wind.
Not long after this
Macrone sent me the sheets of 'Sketches by Boz,' with a note saying
they were by the gentleman [Dickens] who went with us to Newgate.
I read the book with amazement at the genius displayed in it; and
in my note of reply assured Macrone that I thought his fortune was
made, as a publisher, if he could monopolize the author. " This pic-
ture is very graphic. But it must be accepted with a grain of salt.
The Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-
Day People,' Dickens's first printed book, appeared in 1835. A further
·
## p. 4629 (#423) ###########################################
CHARLES DICKENS
4629
series of papers, bearing the same title, was published the next year.
"Boz" was the nickname he had bestowed upon his younger brother
Augustus, in honor of the Moses of the Vicar of Wakefield. ' The
word, pronounced through the nose, became "Boses," afterwards
shortened to "Boz," which, said Dickens, "was a very familiar house-
hold word to me long before I was an author. And so I came to
adopt it. " The sketches, the character of which is explained in their
sub-title, were regarded as unusually clever things of their kind.
They attracted at once great attention in England, and established
the fact that a new star had risen in the firmament of British letters.
Dickens was married on the 2d of April, 1836, to Miss Catherine
Hogarth, just a week after he had published the first shilling number
of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club: Edited by Boz. '
The work appeared in book form the next year. Its success was phe-
nomenal, and it brought to its author not only fame but a fixed sum
per annum, which is better. It assured his comfort in the present and
in the future, and it wiped out all the care and troubles of his past.
It was in itself the result of an accident. Messrs. Chapman and Hall,
attracted by the popularity of the Sketches, proposed to their author
a series of monthly articles to illustrate certain pictures of a comic
character by Robert Seymour, an artist in their employment. Dickens
assented, upon the condition that "the plates were to be so modified
that they would arise naturally out of the text. " And so between
them Mr. Pickwick was born, although under the saddest of circum-
stances; for only a single number had appeared when Seymour died
by his own hand. Hablot K. Browne succeeded him, signing the name
of "Phiz"; and with "Boz" was "Phiz" long associated in other
prosperous ventures. Mr. Pickwick is a benevolent, tender-hearted
elderly gentleman, who, as the president of a club organized "for the
purpose of investigating the source of the Hampstead ponds," jour-
neys about England in all directions with three companions, to whom
he acts as guide, philosopher, and friend. He is an amiable old
goose, and his companions are equally verdant and unsophisticated;
but since 1837 they have been as famous as any men in fiction. The
story is a long one, the pages are crowded with incidents and with
characters. It is disconnected, often exaggerated, much of it is as
improbable as it is impossible, but it has made the world laugh for
sixty years now; and it still holds its own unique place in the hearts
of men.
From this period the pen of Dickens was never idle for forty-three
years. 'Pickwick' was succeeded by 'Oliver Twist,' begun in Bent-
ley's Magazine in January, 1837, and printed in book form in 1838.
It is the story of the progress of a parish boy, and it is sad and
serious in its character. The hero was born and brought up in a
## p. 4630 (#424) ###########################################
4630
CHARLES DICKENS
workhouse. He was starved and ill-treated; but he always retained
his innocence and his purity of mind. He fell among thieves,- Bill
and Nancy Sykes, Fagin and the Artful Dodger, to whom much pow-
erful description is devoted, but he triumphed in the end. The life
of the very poor and of the very degraded among the people of Eng-
land during the latter end of the first half of the nineteenth century
is admirably portrayed; and for the first time in their existence the
British blackguards of both sexes were exhibited in fiction, clad in
all their instincts of low brutality, and without that glamour of
attractive romance which the earlier writers had given to Jack Shep-
pard, to Jonathan Wild, or to Moll Flanders.
Two dramatic compositions by Dickens, neither of them adding
very much to his reputation, appeared in 1836, to wit:-'The Stran-
ger Gentleman, A Comic Burletta in Three Acts'; and 'The Village
Coquette,' a comic opera in two acts. They were presented upon
the stage towards the close of that year, with fair success.
In 1838 Dickens edited the Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, a cele-
brated clown. His share in the composition of this work was com-
paratively small, and consisted of a Preface, dated February of that
year. It was followed by 'Sketches of Young Gentlemen,' and by
'The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,' both published in
1839. To this latter he signed his name, Charles Dickens, dropping
from that period the pseudonym of "Boz. " The titular hero is the
son of a poor country gentleman. He makes his own way in the
world as the usher of a Yorkshire school, as an actor in a traveling
troupe, and as the clerk and finally the partner in a prosperous
mercantile house in London. Smike, his pupil; Crummles, his theat-
rical manager; Ninetta Crummles, the Infant Phenomenon of the
company, Newman Noggs, the clerk of his uncle Ralph Nickleby,
the Cheeryble Brothers, his employers, are among the most success-
ful and charming of Dickens's earlier creations. "Mr. Squeers and
his school," he says, << were faint and feeble pictures of an existing
reality, purposely subdued and kept down lest they should be deemed
impossible. " That such establishments ceased to exist in reality in
England after the appearance of 'Nickleby,' is proof enough of the
good his pictures did in this and in many other ways.
In 1840-1841 appeared 'Master Humphrey's Clock,' comprising the
two stories of The Old Curiosity Shop' and 'Barnaby Rudge,' which
were subsequently printed separately. The story of Little Nell, the
gentle, lovable inmate of the Curiosity Shop, is one of the most sad
and tender tales in fiction, and Dickens himself confessed that he
was almost heart-broken when she died. Her path was crossed by
Quilp, a cunning and malicious dwarf of hideous appearance, who
consumed hard-boiled eggs, shells and all, for his breakfast; ate his
## p. 4631 (#425) ###########################################
CHARLES DICKENS
4631
prawns with their heads and their tails on, drank scalding hot tea,
and performed so many horrifying acts that one almost doubted that
he was human; and by Christopher Nubbles, a shock-headed, sham-
bling, awkward, devoted lad, the only element of cheerfulness that
ever came into her life. In this book appear Richard Swiveller and
his Marchioness, Sampson and Sarah Brass and Mrs. Jarley, who to
be appreciated must be seen and known, as Dickens has drawn them,
at full length.
Barnaby Rudge was a half-witted lad, who, not knowing what he
did, joined the Gordon rioters-the scenes are laid in the "No
Popery» times of 1779-because he was permitted to carry a flag
and to wear a blue ribbon. The history of that exciting period of
English semi-political, semi-religious excitement is graphically set
down. Prominent figures in the book are Grip the raven, whose cry
was "I'm a devil," "Never say die"; and Miss Dolly Varden, the
blooming daughter of the Clerkenwell locksmith, who has given her
name to the modern feminine costume of the Watteauesque style.
The literary results of Dickens's first visit to the United States, in
1842, when he was thirty years of age, were 'American Notes, for
General Circulation'; published in that year, and containing portions
of 'Martin Chuzzlewit,' which appeared in 1844. His observations in
the 'Notes' upon the new country and its inhabitants gave great
offense to the American people, and were perhaps not in the best
taste. He saw the crude and ridiculous side of his hosts, he empha-
sized their faults, while he paid little attention to their virtues; and
his criticisms and strictures rankled in the sensitive American mind
for many years.
Martin Chuzzlewit, the hero of the novel bearing his name, spent
some time in the western half-settled portion of America, with Mark
Tapley, his light-hearted, optimistic friend and companion. The pic-
tures of the morals and the manners of the men and women with
whom the emigrants were brought into contact were anything but
flattering, and they served to widen the temporary breach between
Dickens and his many admirers in the United States. The English
scenes of 'Chuzzlewit' are very powerfully drawn. Tom and Ruth
Pinch, Pecksniff, Sarah Gamp, and Betsey Prig are among the lead-
ing characters in the work.
In 1843 appeared the 'Christmas Carol,' the first and perhaps the
best of that series of tales of peace and good-will, with which, at
the Christmas time, the name of Dickens is so pleasantly and famil-
iarly associated. It was followed by The Chimes' in 1844, by The
Cricket on the Hearth' in 1845, by The Haunted Man' in 1848, all
the work of Dickens himself; and by other productions written by
Dickens in collaboration with other men. Concerning these holiday
## p. 4632 (#426) ###########################################
4632
CHARLES DICKENS
stories, some unknown writer said in the public press at the time of
Dickens's death:-"He has not only pleased us— - he has softened the
hearts of a whole generation. He made charity fashionable; he
awakened pity in the hearts of sixty millions of people. He made a
whole generation keep Christmas with acts of helpfulness to the
poor; and every barefooted boy and girl in the streets of England
and America to-day fares a little better, gets fewer cuffs and more
pudding, because Charles Dickens wrote. "
In 1846 he produced his 'Pictures from Italy'; 'The Battle of Life,
A Love Story,' and began in periodical form his 'Dealings with the
Firm of Dombey and Son, Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation,'
published in book form in 1847. Here we have the pathetic story of
Little Paul, the tragic fate of Carker, the amusing episode of Jack
Bunsby with his designing widow, and the devotion of Susan Nipper,
Mr. Toots, Captain Cuttle, and Sol Gills to the gentle, patient, lov-
able Florence.
On the 'Personal History of David Copperfield,' published in 1850,
and of Dickens's share in its plot, something has already been said
here. It is perhaps the most popular of all his productions, con-
taining as it does Mr. Dick, the Peggottys, the Micawbers, the Heeps,
Betsey Trotwood, Steerforth, Tommy Traddles, Dora, Agnes, and
Little Em'ly, in all of whom the world has been so deeply interested
for so many years.
'A Child's History of England' and 'Bleak House' saw the light
in 1853. The romance was written as a protest and a warning
against the law's delays, as exhibited in the Court of Chancery; and
it contains the tragedy of Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock, and the
short but touching story of Poor Jo.
'Hard Times,' a tale in one volume, was printed in 1854. It
introduces the Gradgrind family.
'Little Dorrit' appeared in 1857. In this book he returns to the
Debtor's Prison of Micawber and of his own father. Little Dorrit
herself was "the child of the Marshalsea," in which she was born
and brought up; and the whole story is an appeal against the injus-
tice of depriving of personal liberty those who cannot pay their
bills, or meet their notes, however small. Its prominent characters
are the Clennams, mother and son, the Meagleses, Flintwinch, Sir
Decimus Tite Barnacle, Rigaud and Little Cavalletto.
'A Tale of Two Cities,' a remarkable departure for Dickens, and
unlike any of his other works, was the book of the year 1859. It is
conceded, even by those who are not counted among the admirers of
its author, to be a most vivid and correct picture of Paris during the
time of the Revolution, when the guillotine was the king of France.
Its central figure, Sydney Carton, one of the most heroic characters
## p. 4633 (#427) ###########################################
CHARLES DICKENS
4633
in romance, gives his life to restore his friend to the girl whom they
both love.
< The Uncommercial Traveller,' a number of sketches and stories
originally published in his weekly journal All the Year Round, ap-
peared in 1860. They were supplemented in 1868 by another volume
bearing the same title, and containing eleven other papers collected
from the same periodical.
'Great Expectations,' 1861, like 'Copperfield,' is the story of a boy's
childhood told by the boy himself, but by a boy with feelings, sen-
timents, and experiences very different from those of the earlier
work. The plot is not altogether a cheerful one, but many of the
characters are original and charming; notably Joe Gargery, Jaggles,
Wemmick, the exceedingly eccentric Miss Havisham, and the very
amiable and simple Biddy.
'Somebody's Luggage,' 1862; 'Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings,' 1863;
'Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy,' 1864; Dr. Marigold's Prescription,' 1865;
'Mugby Junction,' 1866; and 'No Thoroughfare,' 1867,- Christmas
stories, all of them,- were written by Dickens in collaboration with
other writers.
'Our Mutual Friend,' the last completed work of Dickens, was
printed in 1865. Mr. Boffin, the Golden Dustman with the great
heart, Silas Wegg, Mr. Venus, the Riderhoods, Jenny Wren, the
Podsnaps, the Veneerings, Betty Higden, Mrs. Wilfer, and the "Boo-
fer Lady," are as fresh and as original as are any of his creations,
and show no trace of the coming disaster.
Before the completion of 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' Dickens
died at his home, Gadshill Place, literally in harness, and without
warning, on the 9th of June, 1870.
But six numbers of this last work appeared, in periodical form. .
Its author left no notes of what was to follow, and the Mystery has
never been solved. Mr. Charles Collins, Dickens's son-in-law, however,
in a private letter to Mr. Augustin Daly of New York, who had pro-
posed to dramatize the tale, gave some general outline of the scheme
for Edwin Drood. ' "The titular character," he said, «< was never to
reappear, he having been murdered by Jasper. The girl Rosa, not
having been really attached to Edwin, was not to lament his loss
very long, and was, I believe, to admit the sailor, Mr. Tartar, to
supply his place. It was intended that Jasper should urge on the
search after Edwin, and the pursuit of the murderer, thus endeavor-
ing to divert suspicion from himself, the real murderer.
As to any-
thing further, it would be purely conjectural. "
Besides this immense amount of admirable work, Dickens founded,
conducted, and edited two successful periodicals, Household Words,
established in March 1850, and followed by All the Year Round,.
## p. 4634 (#428) ###########################################
4634
CHARLES DICKENS
beginning in April 1859. To these he contributed many sketches and
stories. He began public readings in London in 1858; and con-
tinued them with great profit to himself, and with great satisfaction
to immense audiences, for upwards of twelve years. He appeared in
all the leading cities of Great Britain; and he was enormously popu-
lar as a reader in America during his second and last visit in 1868.
As an after-dinner and occasional speaker Dickens was rarely
equaled; and as an actor upon the amateur stage, in plays of his
own composition, he was inimitable.
Of his attempts at verse, 'The Ivy Green' is the only one that
is held in remembrance.
A strong argument in favor of what may be called "the staying
qualities of Dickens is the fact that his characters, even in a muti-
lated, unsatisfactory form, have held the stage for half a century or
more, and still have power to attract and move great audiences,
wherever is spoken the language in which he wrote. The dramatiza-
tion of the novel is universally and justly regarded as the most
ephemeral and worthless of dramatic production; and the novels of
Dickens, on account of their length, of the great number of figures
he introduces, of the variety and occasional exaggeration of his dia-
logues and his situations, have been peculiarly difficult of adaptation
to theatrical purposes. Nevertheless the world laughed and cried
over Micawber, Captain Cuttle, Dan'l Peggotty, and Caleb Plummer,
behind the footlights, years after Dolly Spanker, Aminadab Sleek,
Timothy Toodles, Alfred Evelyn, and Geoffrey Dalk, their contempo-
raries in the standard and legitimate drama, created solely and par-
ticularly for dramatic representation, were absolutely forgotten. And
Sir Henry Irving, sixty years after the production of 'Pickwick,' drew
great crowds to see his Alfred Jingle, while that picturesque and
ingenious swindler Robert Macaire, Jingle's once famous and familiar
confrère in plausible rascality, was never seen on the boards, except
as he was burlesqued and caricatured in comic opera.
It is pretty safe to say-and not in a Pickwickian sense that
Pecksniff will live almost as long as hypocrisy lasts; that Heep will
not be forgotten while mock humility exists; that Mr. Dick will go
down to posterity arm-in-arm with Charles the First, whom he could
not avoid in his memorial; that Barkis will be quoted until men cease
to be willin'. And so long as cheap, rough coats cover faith, charity,
and honest hearts, the world will remember that Captain Cuttle and
the Peggottys were so clad.
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