To JOHN FORSTER, [14 FEBRUARY 1843]

Extract in F, IV, i, 293, dated by Forster two days after letter of 12 Feb.

Send me word how you are.⁴ But not so much for that I now write, as to tell you, peremptorily, that I insist on your wrapping yourself up and coming pg 441here in a hackney-coach, with a big portmanteau, to-morrow. It surely is better to be unwell with a Quick and Cheerful (and Co.) in the neighbourhood, than in the dreary vastness of Lincolns-inn-fields. Here is the snuggest tent-bedstead in the world, and there you are with the drawing-room for your workshop, the Q and C for your pal, and 'everythink in a concatenation accordingly.' I begin to have hopes of the regeneration of mankind after the reception of Gregory¹ last night, though I have none of the Chronicle² for not denouncing the villain. Have you seen the note touching my Notes in the blue and yellow?³

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Editor’s Note

⁴ Forster (F, IV, i, 293) says "It was a year of much illness with me, which had ever helpful and active sympathy from him". Longfellow by 21 Mar had heard of his "violent rheumatic fever" (Longfellow to Catherine Norton, Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. A. Hilen, II, 521). Jane Carlyle was also moved by the plight of the solitary bachelor: "Forster … is ill—all that prodigious 'Brummigam enthusiasm' and foaming vitality bottled up in a sick arm chair—very deplorable to see! for I actually went to see him. One is so sorry for a man ill with only a tiger to look after him—tho' his is the pink of Tigers!" (Letters to her Family, 1839–1863, ed. L. Huxley, 1924, p. 91; letter of 2 Mar). He did not however accept CD's invitation to Devonshire Terrace.

Editor’s Note

¹ Barnard Gregory (1796–1852; DNB), journalist; proprietor and editor of the Satirist from its inception in 1831 to its suppression in 1849. Constantly involved in libel actions and several times imprisoned; exposed by Renton Nicholson in the Town (28 July 38); but continued his attacks, especially on the Duke of Brunswick. Had some experience as a Shakespearian actor, and on 13 Feb appeared as Hamlet at Covent Garden, but was hissed from the stage, in what the Theatrical Journal (18 Feb 43) called "the most violently uproarious row … since the famous O.P. riots". A placard was put out by the Punch contributors; Leech was one of those who attended in order to protest and sat with W. J. Linton in a front row: "so soon as Hamlet made his appearance, an outcry, a burst of execration … hisses and hootings, cries of 'Off! off! Blackguard! Scoundrel!' " arose; "Leech was hoarse for days" (W. J. Linton, Memories, 1895, pp. 199–200). A protest had also been concerted beforehand by the Duke of Brunswick and his supporters; Gregory claimed that they had hired "ruffians" to fill the gallery, "sub-marshalled by a low public-house keeper". The Satirist was filled with letters in his defence and protests against the action of Bartley, the stage-manager, who also played Polonius, in stopping the performance after an act and a half in dumb show. The general view, however, was that "it was the burst of popular indignation at the effrontery of a person connected with so obscene a publication appearing before a respectable audience" (Theatrical Journal). Gregory brought an action against the Duke, but lost; he was later found guilty of libelling the Duke and though he fled in disguise was eventually captured and imprisoned.

Editor’s Note

² Macready on 19 Feb was "dissatisfied with the silence of the Examiner (Fonblanque) upon the disgraceful wretch who was allowed to insult decency by coming from his lurking-place … and braving public indignation—the vile emulator of the wretch Bunn, Mr. Gregory" (Diaries, II, 196).

Editor’s Note

³ See To Napier, 21 Jan 43, fn.

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Charles Dickens

Madeline House, Graham Storey, and Kathleen Mary Tillotson (eds), The British Academy/The Pilgrim Edition of the Letters of Charles Dickens, Vol. 3: 1842–1843

Main Text

To JOHN FORSTER, [14 FEBRUARY 1843]

Notes