Bow Street Runners (as compared with Modern Detectives)? Yes. Vauxhall and Ranelagh in the Last Century? Most decidedly. Don't forget Miss Burney. Smugglers? No. Overdone. Lacenaire ? No. Ditto. Madame Laffarge? No. Ditto. Most decidedly Yes. Fashionable Life Last Century? Debates on the Slave Trade? Yes, generally. But beware of the Pirates, as we did them in the beginning of "Household Words." Certainly I acquit you of all blame in the Bedford case. But one cannot do otherwise than sympathise with a son who is reasonably tender of his father's memory. And no amount of private correspondence, we must remember, reaches the readers of a printed and published statement. I told you some time ago that I believed the arsenic in Eliza Fenning's case to have been administered by the apprentice. never was more convinced of anything in my life than of the girl's innocence, and I want words in which to express my indignation at the muddle-headed story of that parsonic blunderer whose audacity and conceit distorted some words that fell from her in the last days of her baiting. Ever faithfully yours. DLXXVI. LORD LYTTON GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, MY DEAR LYTTON, I am truly delighted to find that you are so well pleased with Fechter in "The Lady of Lyons." It was a labour of love with him, and I hold him in very high regard. Don't give way to laziness, and do proceed with that play. There never was a time when a good new play was more wanted or had a better opening for itself. Fechter is a thorough artist, and what he may sometimes want in personal force is compensated by the admirable whole he can make of a play, and his perfect understanding of its presentation as a picture to the eye and mind. I leave London on the 8th of November early, and sail from Liverpool on the 9th. Ever affectionately yours. DLXXVII. LORD LYTTON MY DEAR LYTTON, "ALL THE YEAR ROUND" OFFICE, Friday, October 25, 1867. I have read the Play1 with great attention, interest, and admiration; and I need not say to you that the art of it the fine construction the exquisite nicety of the touches with which it is wrought out have been a study to me in the pursuit of which I have had extraordinary relish. Taking the Play as it stands, I have nothing whatever to add to your notes and memoranda of the points to be touched again, except that I have a little uneasiness in that burst of anger and inflexibility consequent on having been deceived, coming out of Hegio. I see the kind of actor who must play Hegio, and I see that the audience will not believe in his doing anything so serious. (I suppose it would be impossible to get this effect out of the mother or through the mother's influence, instead of out of the godfather of Hegiopolis?) I as Now, as to the classical ground and manners of the Play. suppose the objection to the Greek dress to be already Defoe would write it "gotten over 99 by your suggestion. I suppose the dress not to be conventionally associated with stilts and boredom, but to be new to the public eye and very picturesque. Grant all that; the names remain. Now, not only used such names to be inseparable in the public mind from stately weariness, but of late days they have become inseparable in the same public mind from silly puns upon the names, and from Burlesque. You do not know (I hope, at least, for my friend's sake) what the Strand Theatre is. A Greek name and a breakdown nigger dance have become inseparable there. do not mean to say that your genius may not be too powerful for such associations; but I do most positively mean to say that you would lose half the play in overcoming them. At the best you would have to contend against them through the first three acts. The old tendency to become frozen on classical ground would be in the best part of the audience; the new tendency to titter on such ground would be in the worst part. And instead I 1The play referred to is founded on the Captives of Plautus, and is entitled The Captives. It has never been acted or published. of starting fair with the audience, it is my conviction that you would start with them against you and would have to win them over. Furthermore, with reference to your note to me on this head, you take up a position with reference to poor dear Talfourd's "Ion" which I altogether dispute. It never was a popular play, I say. It derived a certain amount of out-of-door's popularity from the circumstances under which, and the man by whom, it was written. But I say that it never was a popular play on the stage, and never made out a case of attraction there. As to changing the ground to Russia, let me ask you, did you ever see the "Nouvelles Russes" of Nicolas Gogol, translated into French by Louis Viardot ? There is a story among them called "Tarass Boulba," in which, as it seems to me, all the conditions you want for such transplantation are to be found. So changed, you would have the popular sympathy with the Slave or Serf, or Prisoner of War, from the first. But I do not think it is to be got, save at great hazard, and with lamentable waste of force on the ground the Play now occupies. I shall keep this note until to-morrow to correct my conviction if I can see the least reason for correcting it; but I feel very confident indeed that I cannot be shaken in it. Saturday. I have thought it over again, and have gone over the play again with an imaginary stage and actors before me, and I am still of the same mind. Shall I keep the MS. till you come to town? Believe me, ever affectionately yours. DLXXVIII. W. H. WILLS 26, WELLINGTON STREET, Sunday, November 3, 1867. MY DEAR WILLS, If you were to write me many such warm-hearted letters as you send this morning, my heart would fail me! There is nothing that so breaks down my determination, or shows me what an iron force I put upon myself, and how weak it is, as a touch of true affection from a tried friend. All that you so earnestly say about the good will and devotion of all engaged, I perceived and deeply felt last night. It moved me even more than the demonstration itself, though I do VOL. II. suppose it was the most brilliant ever seen. When I got up to speak, but for taking a desperate hold of myself, I should have lost my sight and voice and sat down again. God bless you, my dear fellow. I am, ever and ever, Your affectionate. DLXXIX. THE HON. MRS. WATSON OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR Round," MY DEAR MRS. WATSON, A thousand thanks for your kind letter, and many congratulations on your having successfully attained a dignity which I never allow to be mentioned in my presence. Charley's children are instructed from their tenderest months only to know me as "Wenerables," which they sincerely believe to be my name, and a kind of title that I have received from a grateful country. Alas! I cannot have the pleasure of seeing you before I presently go to Liverpool. Every moment of my time is preoccupied. But I send you my sincere love, and am always truthful to the dear old days, and the memory of one of the dearest friends I ever loved. Affectionately yours. DLXXX. MISS DICKENS ABOARD THE CUBA, QUEENSTOWN HARBOur, Sunday, November 10, 1867. MY DEAREST MAMIE, We arrived here at seven this morning, and shall probably remain, awaiting our mail, until four or five this afternoon. The weather in the passage here was delightful, and we had scarcely any motion beyond that of the screw. We are nearly but not quite full of passengers. At table I sit next the captain, on his right, on the outside of the table and close to the door. My little cabin is big enough for everything but getting up in and going to bed in. As it has a good window which I can leave open all night, and a door which I can set open too, it suits my chief requirements of it - plenty of air admirably. On a writing-slab in it, which pulls out when wanted, I now write in a majestic manner. Many of the passengers are American, and I am already on the best terms with nearly all the ship. We began our voyage yesterday a very little while after you left us, which was a great relief. The wind is S. E. this morn My ing, and if it would keep so we should go along nobly. dearest love to your aunt, and also to Katie and all the rest. I am in very good health, thank God, and as well as possible. DLXXXI. MISS HOGARTH MY DEAREST Georgy, ABOARD THE CUBA, FIVE DAYS OUT, Wednesday, November 13, 1867. As I wrote to Mamie last, I now write to you, or mean to do it, if the motion of the ship will let me. We are very nearly halfway to-day. The weather was favourable for us until yesterday morning, when we got a headwind which still stands by us. We have rolled and pitched, of course, but on the whole have been wonderfully well off. I have had headache and have felt faint once or twice, but have not been sick at all. My spacious cabin is very noisy at night, as the most important working of the ship goes on outside my window and over my head; but it is very airy, and if the weather be bad and I can't open the window, I can open the door all night. If the weather be fine (as it is now), I can open both door and window, and write between them. Last night, I got a foot-bath under the dignified circumstances of sitting on a camp-stool in my cabin, and having the bath (and my feet) in the passage outside. The officers' quarters are close to me, and, as I know them all, I get reports of the weather and the way we are making when the watch is changed, and I am (as I usually am) lying awake. The motion of the screw is at its slightest vibration in my particular part of the ship. The silent captain, reported gruff, is a very good fellow and an honest fellow. Kelly has been ill all the time, and not of the slightest use, and is ill now. Scott always cheerful, and useful, and ready; a better servant for the kind of work there never can have been. Young Lowndes has been fearfully sick until mid-day yesterday. His cabin is pitch dark, and full of black beetles. He shares mine until nine o'clock at night, when Scott carries him off to bed. He also dines with me in |