W. M. THACKERAY.

sitting for the character of Micawber, one of the most humorous and finished of his portraitures. In his next work, Bleak House, he also drew from living originals-Savage Landor and Leigh Hunt. While Dickens was in the blaze of his early fame, The latter, though a faithful, was a depreciatory another master of English fiction, dealing with the sketch, and led to much remark, which its author realities of life and the various aspects of English regretted. In 1850, Dickens commenced a literary society, was gradually making way in public favour, periodical, Household Words, which he carried and attaining the full measure of his intellectual on with marked success until 1859, when, in con- strength. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAYsequence of a disagreement with his publishers (in the legitimate successor of Henry Fielding-was which Dickens was clearly and decidedly in the a native of Calcutta, born in the year 1811. His wrong), he discontinued it, and established another family was originally from Yorkshire, but his journal of the same kind, under the title of All the great-grandfather, Dr Thomas Thackeray, became Year Round. His novels subsequent to Bleak Master of Harrow School. The youngest son of House were-Hard Times, 1854; Little Dorrit, this Dr Thackeray, William Makepeace, obtained 1855; A Tale of Two Cities, 1859; Great Expec- an appointment in the East India Company's tations, 1861; Our Mutual Friend, 1865. During service; and his son, Richmond Thackeray, father part of this time, he was engaged in giving public of the novelist, followed the same career, filling, at readings from his works, by which he realised the time of his death in 1816 (at the early age of large sums of money,* and gratified thousands thirty), the office of Secretary to the Board of of his admirers in England, Ireland, and Scotland. Revenue at Calcutta. The son, with his widowed He also extended his readings to America, having mother, left India, and arrived in England in 1817. revisited that country in 1867, and met with a When I first saw England,' he said in one of brilliant reception. His health, however, suffered his lectures, she was in mourning for the young from the excitement and fatigue of these read- Princess Charlotte, the hope of the empire. I ings, into which he threw a great amount of dra- came from India as a child, and our ship touched matic power and physical energy. The combined at an island on the way home, where my black effects of a love of money and a love of servant took me a walk over rocks and hills, till applause urged him on incessantly long after he we passed a garden where we saw a man walking. should have ceased. He gave his final reading “That is he," said the black man ; "that is Bonain London, March 15, 1870, and in the same parte; he eats three sheep every day, and all the month appeared the first part of a new novel, children he can lay hands on!" There were The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which prom- people in the British dominions besides that poor ised to be one of the best of his long file of black who had an equal terror and horror of the fictions. About half of this novel was written, Corsican ogre.' Young Thackeray was placed in when its author one afternoon, whilst at dinner, the Charterhouse School of London, which had was struck down by an attack of apoplexy. He formerly received as gown-boys or scholars the lingered in a state of unconsciousness for about melodious poet Crashaw, Addison, Steele, and twenty-four hours, and died on the evening of the John Wesley. Thackeray has affectionately com9th of June 1870. He was interred in West- memorated the old Carthusian establishment in minster Abbey. The sudden death of an author several of his writings, and has invested it with a so popular and so thoroughly national, was la- strong pathetic interest by making it the last mented by all classes, from the sovereign down-refuge and death-scene of one of the finest of his wards, as a personal calamity. It was not merely as a humorist-though that was his great distinguishing characteristic that Charles Dickens obtained such unexampled popularity. He was a public instructor, a reformer, and moralist. Ah!' said he, speaking of the glories of Venice,' when I saw those places, how I thought that to leave one's hand upon the time, with one tender touch for the mass of toiling people that nothing could obliterate, would be to lift one's self above the dust of all the doges in their graves, and stand upon a giant's staircase that Samson couldn't overthrow!' Whatever was good and amiable, bright and joyous in our life and nature, he loved, supported, and augmented by his writings; what ever was false, hypocritical, and vicious, he held up to ridicule, scorn, or contempt.

6

The collected works of Dickens have been published in various forms, the best being the Library Edition,' twenty-six volumes, which contains the original illustrations. A Life of Charles Dickens, by his friend and counsellor on all occasions, MR JOHN FORSTER, is published in three volumes.

It may be worthy of note, as illustrating the popularity of Dickens's works and public readings, that, on his death, his real and personal estate amounted to £93,000. Of this, upwards of £40,000 was made by the readings in Great Britain and America.

characters, Colonel Newcome. From the Charterhouse, Thackeray went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and whilst resident there in 1829 he made his first appearance as an author. In conjunction with a college friend (Mr Lettsom), he carried on for a short time a light humorous weekly miscellany entitled The Snob. In 1830-31, he was one of 'at least a score of young English lads who used to live at Weimar for study, or sport, or society; all of which were to be had in the friendly little Saxon capital,' and who were received with the kindliest hospitality by the Grand Duke and Duchess. He did not remain at college to take his degree. His great ambition was to be an artist, and for this purpose he studied at Rome and Paris.† On attaining his majority he became

Lewes's Life of Goethe. At this time Mr Thackeray saw Goethe, and had the good-luck, he says, to purchase Schiller's sword, which formed a part of his costume at the court entertainments. My delight in those days,' he adds, 'was to make caricatures for children. I was touched to find [on revisiting Weimar in 1853] that they were remembered, and some even kept until the present time; and very proud to be told, as a lad, that the great Goethe had looked at some of them.'

A volume of his sketches, fragments, and drawings was published in 1875, copied by a process that gives a faithful reproduction of the original. The volume was entitled The Orphan of Pimlico, and was enriched with a preface and editorial notes by Miss Thackeray. The drawings display the artist's keen sense of humour and perception of character, and are more quaint and amusing than sarcastic.

possessed of a considerable fortune, but some is at first wild, without being fierce, immense woods and losses and speculations reduced his patrimony. plantations enriching the valleys, beautiful streams to be At one time he lent, or rather gave, £500 to Dr seen everywhere. Here, again, I was surprised at the Maginn, and many other instances of his liber- great population along the road; for one saw but few ality might be recorded. Thackeray first became cabins, and there is no village between Glengariff and known through Fraser's Magazine, to which he Kenmare. But men and women were on the banks and in the fields; children, as usual, came trooping up to was for several years a regular contributor, under the car; and the jovial men of the yacht had great the names of Michael Angelo Titmarsh,'' George conversation with most of the persons whom we met on Fitz-Boodle, Esquire,'' Charles Yellowplush,' &c. the road. A merrier set of fellows it were hard to meet. -names typical of his artistic and satirical pre-Should you like anything to drink, sir?' says one, dilections. Tales, criticism, descriptive sketches, commencing the acquaintance; we have the best and poetry were all dashed off by his ready pen. whisky in the world, and plenty of porter in the basket.' They were of unequal merit, and for some time Therewith, the jolly seaman produced a long bottle of attracted little attention; but John Sterling, among grog, which was passed round from one to another; and others, recognised the genius of Thackeray in then began singing, shouting, laughing, roaring for the his tale of The Hoggarty Diamond, and ranked whole journey-British sailors have a knack, pull its author with Fielding and Goldsmith. His away, yeho, boys! Hurroo! my fine fellow, does your style was that of the scholar combined with the mother know you're out? Hurroo! Tim Hurlihy? shrewdness and knowledge of a man of the world. you're a fluke, Tim Hurlihy! One man sang on the roof, one hurrooed to the echo, another apostrophised 'Titmarsh ' had both seen and read much. His the aforesaid Hurlihy, as he passed grinning on a car; school and college life, his foreign travels and a fourth had a pocket-handkerchief flaunting from a pole, residence abroad, his artistic and literary experi- with which he performed exercises in the face of any ences, even his 'losses,' supplied a wide field for horseman whom he met; and great were their yells as observation, reflection, and satire. He was thirty the ponies shied off at the salutation, and the riders years of age or more ere he made any bold push swerved in their saddles. In the midst of this rattling for fame. By this time the mind was fully stored chorus we went along; gradually the country grew and matured. Thackeray never, we suspect, wilder and more desolate, and we passed through a grim paid much attention to what Burke called the mountain region, bleak and bare; the road winding mechanical part of literature-the mere col-round some of the innumerable hills, and once or twice, location of words and construction of sentences; One of these tunnels, they say, is a couple of hundred by means of a tunnel, rushing boldly through them. but, of course, greater facility as well as more yards long; and a pretty howling, I need not say, was perfect art would be acquired by repeated efforts. made through that pipe of rock by the jolly yacht's crew. The great regulators-taste, knowledge of the 'We saw you sketching in the blacksmith's shed at Glenworld, and gentlemanly feeling-he possessed ere gariff,' says one, and we wished we had you on board. he began to write. In 1836, as he has himself Such a jolly life as we had of it!' They roved about related, he offered Dickens to undertake the the coast, they sailed in their vessel, they feasted off the task of illustrating one of his works-Pickwick- best of fish, mutton, and whisky; they had Gamble's but his drawings were considered unsuitable. In turtle-soup on board, and fun from morning till night, the same year he joined with his step-father, and vice versa. Gradually it came out that there was Major Carmichael Smyth, and others in starting a pot, owing to the tremendous rains, a dry corner in their daily newspaper, The Constitutional, which was cabin, and that one of their crew had been ill, and ship-that they slung two in a huge hammock in the continued for about a twelvemonth, but proved a shirked off. What a wonderful thing pleasure is! to be loss to all concerned. Thackeray entered him- wet all day and night; to be scorched and blistered by self of the Middle Temple, and was called to the sun and rain; to beat in and out of little harbours, the bar (May 1848), but apparently without any and to exceed diurnally upon whisky punch. Faith, intention of following the profession of the law. London and an arm-chair at the club are more to the Under his pseudonym of Titmarsh, literary tastes of some men! Cockney and sketcher, he had published several works-The Paris Sketch-book, two volumes, 1840; The Second Funeral of Napoleon, The Chronicle of the Drum, 1841 ; and The Irish Sketch book, 1843. None of these became popular, though the Irish sketches are highly amusing, and contain some of Thackeray's happiest touches. The following incident, for example, is admirably told. The tourist meets with a set of jovial Irish yachtsmen, bound, like himself, for Killarney:

Car-travelling in Ireland.

The Irish car seems accommodated for any number of persons. It appeared to be full when we left Glengariff, for a traveller from Beerhaven and five gentlemen from the yacht took seats upon it with myself; and we fancied it was impossible more than seven should travel by such a conveyance, but the driver shewed the capabilities of his vehicle presently. The journey from Glengariff to Kenmare is one of astonishing beauty; and I have seen Killarney since, and am sure that Glengariff loses nothing by comparison with this most beautiful of lakes. Rock, wood, and sea, stretch around the traveller a thousand delightful pictures; the landscape

The pencil of Titmarsh, in this and some other of his works, comes admirably in aid of his pen ; and the Irish themselves confessed that their people, cabins, and costume had never been more faithfully depicted. About the time that these Irish sketches appeared, their author was contributing, under his alter ego of Fitz-Boodle, to Fraser's Magazine, his tale of Barry Lyndon, which appears to us the best of his short stories. It is a relation of the adventures of an Irish picaroon, or gambler and fortune-hunter, and abounds in racy humour and striking incidents. The commencement of Punch-the wittiest of periodicals-in 1841 opened up a new field for Thackeray, and his papers, signed 'The Fat Contributor,' soon became famous. These were followed by Jeames's Diary and the Snob Papers, distinguished by their inimitable vein of irony and wit; and he also made various contributions in verse. A journey to the East next led to Notes of a Fourney from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, by way of Lisbon, Athens, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, by M. A. Titmarsh. This volume appeared in 1846; and in the following year he

issued a small Christmas book, Mrs Perkins's without seeking to render evil attractive. His Ball. But before this time Thackeray had com- hero, Pendennis, is scarcely a higher model of menced, in monthly parts, his story of Vanity Fair, humanity than Tom Jones, though the difference a Novel without a Hero, illustrated by himself, or, in national manners and feelings, brought about to use his own expression, 'illuminated with the during a hundred years, has saved him from some author's own candles.' The first number appeared of the descents into which Jones was almost in February 1847. Every month added to the perforce drawn. Thackeray's hero falls in love popularity of this work; and ere it was concluded at sixteen, his juvenile flame being a young it was obvious that Thackeray's probationary actress, who jilts him on finding that his fortune period was past-that Michael Angelo Titmarsh is not what she believed it to be. This boyish and George Fitz-Boodle would disappear from passion, contrasted with the character of the Fraser, and their author take his place in his own actress and that of her father-a drunken Irish proper name and person as one of the first of captain-is forcibly delineated. Pendennis is sent English novelists, and the greatest social satirist to the university, gets into debt, is plucked, and of his age. In regularity of story and consistency returns home to his widowed mother, who is ever of detail-though these by no means constitute kind, gentle, and forgiving, but without any strong Thackeray's strength-Vanity Fair greatly excels sense or firmness-another favourite type of charany of his previous works, while in delineation acter with Thackeray. The youth then becomes a of character it stands pre-eminent. Becky Sharp law student, but tires of the profession, and adopts and Amelia Sedley-one recognised as the 'im- that of literature. In this he is ultimately successpersonation of intellect without virtue, and the ful, and by means of his novels and poetry, aided other as that of virtue without intellect '-are not by the services of his uncle, Major Pendennis, he only perfectly original characters, but are drawn obtains an introduction into fashionable society. with so much dramatic power, knowledge of life, A varied career of this kind affords scope for the and shrewd observation, as to render them studies author's powers of description, and for the introin human nature and moral anatomy. Amidst all duction of characters of all grades and pretensions. her selfishness, Becky preserves a portion of the Major Pendennis-an antiquated beau, a military reader's sympathy, and we follow her with unabated Will Honeycomb, and a determined tuft-hunterinterest through her vicissitudes as French teacher, is a finished portrait. The sketches of literary life governess, the wife of the heavy dragoon, the lady-professional writers-may be compared with a of fashion, and even the desperate and degraded similar description in Humphry Clinker; and the swindler. From part of this demoralisation we domestic scenes in the novel are true to nature, could have wished that Becky had been spared by both in their satirical views of life and in incidents her historian, and the story would have been of a tender and pathetic nature. Pendennis was complete, morally and artistically, without it. But concluded in 1850. In the Christmas of that year there are few scenes, even the most cynical and Thackeray republished one of his Titmarsh conhumiliating, that the reader desires to strike out: tributions to Fraser, 1846, a mock continuation all have such an air of truth, and are lively, biting, of Scott's Ivanhoe, entitled Rebecca and Rowena. and humorous. The novelist had soared far This piece was certainly not worthy of resuscitabeyond the region of mere town-life and snobbism. tion. An original Christmas tale was ready next He had also greatly heightened the interest felt in winter-The Kickleburys on the Rhine, in which his characters by connecting them with historical | Mr M. A. Titmarsh was revived, in order to conevents and places. We have a picture of Brussels duct and satirise the Kicklebury family-mother, in 1815; and as Fielding in Tom Jones glanced daughter, courier, and footman, in all their worldly at some of the incidents of the Jacobite rising in pride, vulgarity, and grandeur, as they cross '45, Thackeray reproduced, as it were, the terrors the Channel, and proceed to their destination at and anxieties felt by thousands as to the issue of 'Rougetnoirburg.' This is a clever little satirethe great struggles at Quatre Bras and Waterloo. faithful though bitter, as all continental travellers Having completed Vanity Fair, Thackeray admit; but it was seized upon by the Times newspublished another Christmas volume, Our Street, paper as illustrating that propensity charged upon 1848, to which a companion-volume, Dr Birch and the novelist of representing only the dark side of his Young Friends, was added next year. He human nature-its failings and vices—as if no had also entered upon another monthly serial-real goodness or virtue existed in the world. The his second great work-The History of Pendennis (1849-1850). This was an attempt to describe the gentlemen of the present age-'no better nor worse than most educated men.' And even these educated men, according to the satirist, cannot be painted as they are, with the notorious foibles and selfishness of their education. Since the author of Tom Jones was buried, no writer of fiction among us has been permitted to depict to his utmost powers a man. We must drape him, and give him a certain conventional simper. Society will not tolerate the natural in our art.' This is rather too broadly stated, but society, no doubt, That is something like a sentence (rejoins Titmarsh), considers that it would not be benefited by such not a word scarcely but's in Latin, and the longest and toleration. Thackeray, however, has done more handsomest out of the whole dictionary. That is proper than most men to strip off conventional dis-economy-as you see a buck from Holywell Street put guises and hypocrisies, and he affords glimpses every pinchbeck pin, ring, and chain which he possesses of the interdicted region-too near at times, but | about his shirt, hands, and waistcoat, and then go and

accusation thus brought against Thackeray he repelled, or rather ridiculed, in a reply entitled An Essay on Thunder and Small Beer, prefixed to a second edition of the Christmas volume. One passage on verbal criticism may be quoted as characteristic.

'It has been customary,' says the critic, 'of late years for the purveyors of amusing literature to put forth certain opuscules, denominated Christmas books, with the ostensible intention of swelling the tide of exhilaration, of the old or the inauguration of the new year.' or other expansive emotions, incident upon the exodus