means merely fanciful, have been found with the portraits of Novalis, of Sir Robert Dudley, styled duke of Northumberland and earl of Warwick [q. v.], and of Antonio Leisman in the Florentine Ritratti de' Pittori. The preternatural keenness of his senses is well attested, and contributed to the illusions which play so large a part in his history. Of late years two splendid monuments have been erected to Shelley by the piety of his son and daughter-in-law; one is in Christchurch minster, Hampshire; the other, designed by Mr. Onslow Ford, R.A., is at University College, Oxford.

THE LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS

SIR LESLIE STEPHEN

[From the Dictionary of National Biography.]

DICKENS, CHARLES (1812-1870), novelist, was born 7 Feb. 1812 at 387 Mile End Terrace, Commercial Road, Landport, Portsea. His father, John Dickens, a clerk in the navy pay office, with a salary of 80l. a year, was then stationed in the Portsmouth dockyard. The wife of the first Lord Houghton told Mr. Wemyss Reid that Mrs. Dickens, mother of John, was housekeeper at Crewe, and famous for her powers of story-telling (WEMYSS REID, in Daily News, 8 Oct. 1887). John Dickens had eight children by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Barrow, a lieutenant in the navy. The eldest, Fanny, was born in 1810. Charles, the second, was christened Charles John Huffam (erroneously entered Huffham in the register), but dropped the last two names. Charles Dickens remembered the little garden of the house at Portsea, though his father was recalled to London when he was only two years old. In 1816 (probably) the family moved to Chatham. Dickens was small and sickly; he amused himself by reading and by watching the games of other boys. His mother taught him his letters, and he pored over a small collection of books belonging to his father. Among them were 'Tom Jones,' the 'Vicar of Wakefield,' 'Don Quixote,' 'Gil Blas,' and especially Smollett's novels, by which he was deeply impressed. He wrote an infantine tragedy called 'Misnar,' founded on the 'Tales of the

Genii.' James Lamert, the stepson of his mother's eldest sister Mary (whose second husband was Dr. Lamert, an army surgeon at Chatham), had a taste for private theatricals. Lamert took Dickens to the theatre, in which the child greatly delighted. John Dickens's salary was raised to 200l. in 1819, and to 350l. in 1820, at which amount it remained until he left the service, 9 March 1825. It was, however, made insufficient by his careless habits, and in 1821 he left his first house, 2 (now 11) Ordnance Terrace, for a smaller house, 18 St. Mary's Place, next to a baptist chapel. Dickens was then sent to school with the minister, Mr. Giles (see LANGTON, Childhood of Dickens). In the winter of 1822-3 his father was recalled to Somerset House, and settled in Bayham Street, Camden Town, whither his son followed in the spring. John Dickens, whose character is more or less represented by Micawber, was now in difficulties, and had to make a composition with his creditors. He was (as Dickens emphatically stated) a very affectionate father, and took a pride in his son's precocious talents. Yet at this time (according to the same statement) he was entirely forgetful to the son's claims to a decent education. In spite of the family difficulties, the eldest child, Fanny, was sent as a pupil to the Royal Academy of Music, but Charles was left to black his father's boots, look after the younger children, and do small errands. Lamert made a little theatre for the child's amusement. His mother's elder brother, Thomas Barrow, and a godfather took notice of him occasionally. The uncle lodged in the upper floor of a house in which a bookselling business was carried on, and the proprietress lent the child some books. His literary tastes were kept alive, and he tried his hand at writing a description of the uncle's barber. His mother now made an attempt to retrieve the family fortunes by taking a house, 4 Gower Street North, where a brass plate announced 'Mrs. Dickens's establishment,' but failed to attract any pupils. The father was at last arrested and carried to the Marshalsea, long afterwards described in 'Little Dorrit.' (Mr. Langton thinks that the prison was the king's bench, where, as he says, there was a prisoner named Dorrett in 1824.) All the books and furniture went gradually to the pawnbroker's. James Lamert had become manager of a blacking warehouse, and obtained a

place for Dickens at 6s. or 7s. a week in the office at Hungerford Stairs. Dickens was treated as a mere drudge, and employed in making up parcels. He came home at night to the dismantled house in Gower Street till the family followed the father to the Marshalsea, and then lodged in Camden Town with a reduced old lady, a Mrs. Roylance, the original of Mrs. Pipchin in 'Dombey and Son.' Another lodging was found for him near the prison with a family which is represented by the Garlands in his 'Old Curiosity Shop.' The Dickenses were rather better off in prison than they had been previously. The maid-of-all-work who followed them from Bayham Street became the Marchioness of the 'Old Curiosity Shop.' The elder Dickens at last took the benefit of the Insolvent Debtors Act, and moved first to Mrs. Roylance's house, and then to a house in Somers Town. Dickens's amazing faculty of observation is proved by the use made in his novels of all that he now saw, especially in the prison scenes of 'Pickwick' and in the earlier part of 'David Copperfield.' That he suffered acutely is proved by the singular bitterness shown in his own narrative printed by Forster. He felt himself degraded by his occupation. When his sister won a prize at the Royal Academy, he was deeply humiliated by the contrast of his own position, though incapable of envying her success. This was about April 1824.

The family circumstances improved. The elder Dickens had received a legacy which helped to clear off his debts; he had a pension and after some time he obtained employment as reporter to the 'Morning Chronicle.' About 1824 Dickens was sent to a school kept by a Mr. Jones in the Hampstead Road, and called the Wellington House Academy. His health improved. His schoolfellows remembered him as a handsome lad, overflowing with animal spirits, writing stories, getting up little theatrical performances, and fond of harmless practical jokes, but not distinguishing himself as a scholar. After two years at this school, Dickens went to another kept by a Mr. Dawson in Henrietta Street, Brunswick Square. He then became clerk in the office of Mr. Molloy in New Square, Lincoln's Inn, and soon afterwards (from May 1827 to November 1828) clerk in the office of Mr. Edward Blackmore, attorney, of Gray's Inn. His salary with Mr. Blackmore rose from 13s. 6d. to 15s. a week. Dickens's energy had only been stimulated

by the hardships through which he had passed. He was determined to force his way upwards. He endeavoured to supplement his scanty education by reading at the British Museum, and he studied shorthand writing in the fashion described in 'David Copperfield.' Copperfield's youthful passion for Dora reflects a passion of the same kind in Dickens's own career, which, though hopeless, stimulated his ambition. He became remarkably expert in shorthand, and after two years' reporting in the Doctors' Commons and other courts, he entered the gallery of the House of Commons as reporter to the 'True Sun.' He was spokesman for the reporters in a successful strike. For two sessions he reported for the 'Mirror of Parliament,' started by a maternal uncle, and in the session of 1835 became reporter for the 'Morning Chronicle.' While still reporting at Doctors' Commons he had thoughts of becoming an actor. He made an application to George Bartley [q. v.], manager at Covent Garden, which seems to have only missed acceptance by an accident, and took great pains to practise the art. He finally abandoned this scheme on obtaining his appointment on the 'Morning Chronicle' (FORSTER, ii. 179). His powers were rapidly developed by the requirements of his occupation. He was, as he says (Letters, i. 438), 'the best and most rapid reporter ever known.' He had to hurry to and from country meetings, by coach and postchaise, encountering all the adventures incident to travelling in the days before railroads, making arrangements for forwarding reports, and attracting the notice of his employers by his skill, resource, and energy. John Black [q. v.], the editor, became a warm friend, and was, he says, his 'first hearty out-and-out appreciator.'

He soon began to write in the periodicals. The appearance of his first article, 'A Dinner at Popular Walk' (reprinted as 'Mr. Minns and his Cousin'), in the 'Monthly Magazine' for December 1833, filled him with exultation. Nine others followed till February 1835. The paper in August 1834 first bore the signature 'Boz.' It was the pet name of his youngest brother, Augustus, called 'Moses,' after the boy in the 'Vicar of Wakefield,' which was corrupted into Boses and Boz. An 'Evening Chronicle,' as an appendix to the 'Morning Chronicle,' was started in 1835 under the management of George Hogarth, formerly a friend of Scott. The 'Monthly Magazine' was unable to pay for the

sketches, and Dickens now offered to continue his sketches in the new venture. His offer was accepted, and his salary raised from five to seven guineas a week. In the spring of 1836 the collected papers were published as 'Sketches by Boz,' with illustrations by Cruikshank, the copyright being bought for 150l. by a publisher named Macrone. On 2 April 1836 Dickens married Catherine, eldest daughter of Hogarth, his colleague on the 'Morning Chronicle.' He had just begun the 'Pickwick Papers.' The 'Sketches,' in which it is now easy to see the indications of future success, had attracted some notice in their original form. Albany Fonblanque had warmly praised them, and publishers heard of the young writer. Messrs. Chapman & Hall, then beginning business, had published a book called 'The Squib Annual' in November 1835, with illustrations by Seymour. Seymour was anxious to produce a series of 'cockney sporting plates.' Chapman & Hall thought that it might answer to publish such a series in monthly parts accompanied by letterpress. Hall applied to Dickens, suggesting the invention of a Nimrod Club, the members of which should get into comic difficulties suitable for Seymour's illustrations. Dickens, wishing for a freer hand, and having no special knowledge of sport, substituted the less restricted scheme of the Pickwick Club, and wrote the first number, for which Seymour drew the illustrations. The first two or three numbers excited less attention than the collected 'Sketches,' which had just appeared. Seymour killed himself before the appearance of the second number. Robert William Buss [q. v.] illustrated the third number. Thackeray, then an unknown youth, applied to Dickens for the post of illustrator; but Dickens finally chose Hablot Knight Browne [q. v.], who illustrated the fourth and all the subsequent numbers, as well as many of the later novels.

The success of 'Pickwick' soon became extraordinary. The binder prepared four hundred copies of the first number, and forty thousand of the fifteenth. The marked success began with the appearance of Sam Weller in the fifth number. Sam Weller is in fact the incarnation of the qualities to which the success was due. Educated like his creator in the streets of London, he is the ideal cockney. His exuberant animal spirits, humorous shrewdness, and kindliness under a mask of broad farce, made him the favourite