Selected Short Fiction (64 page)

Dickens published a series of sketches in
All the Year Round
under the heading of ‘The Uncommercial Traveller' at intervals between 1860 and 1869. All but the last of the selections presented here appeared in the inaugural group of sketches, published in 1860 and subsequently collected in
The Uncommercial Traveller
(1861) [1860].

First published in
All the Year Round
(28 January 1860). The text here is that of the Charles Dickens Edition of The
Uncommercial Traveller
(1868).

First published in
All the Year Round
(24 March 1860). The text here is that of the Charles Dickens Edition of
The Uncommercial Traveller
(1868).

1
(p. 168)
practised thieves with the appearance and manners ofgentlemen.
In a similar vein, in his 1841 preface to Oliver
Twist,
Dickens contrasted his own treatment of underworld characters with that of novelists such as Harrison Ainsworth who show ‘thieves by scores - seductive fellows (amiable for the most part), faultless in dress, plump in pocket, choice in horseflesh, bold in bearing, fortunate in gallantry, great at a song, a bottle, pack of cards or dice-box, and fit companions for the bravest'. However, Dickens's insistence upon the literality of his own work, whether in
Oliver Twist
or in this particular sketch, cannot be completely taken at face value. As George H. Ford has pointed out, although Dickens ‘may have wanted to be considered an accurate social historian, his art consisted in the transmutation of a strong impression, sometimes derived from an actual scene, into convincing illusion'
(Dickens and His Readers,
[1955; reprinted New York: Norton, 1965], p. 134).

2
(p. 169)
Sir Richard Mayne.
(1796-1868), commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police.

3
(p. 172)
like Dr Johnson, Sir, you like to dine.
Boswell says about Samuel Johnson, ‘I never knew any man who relished good eating more than he did. When at table, he was totally absorbed in the business of the moment his looks seemed rivetted to his plate; nor would he, unless when in very high company, say one word, or even pay the least attention to what was said by others, till he had satisfied his appetite, which was so fierce, and indulged with such intenseness, that while in the act of eating, the veins of his forehead swelled, and generally a strong perspiration was visible'
(Boswell's Life of Johnson,
edited by George Birkbeck Hill, revised by L. F. Powell, vol. I [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934], p. 468).

First published in
All the Year Round
(7 April 1860). The text here is that of the Charles Dickens Edition of The
Uncommercial Traveller
(1868).

1
(p. 178)
‘Blow, blow, thou winter wind.'
From Shakespeare's
As You Like It,
II, vii, 174.

2
(p. 179)
Sterne's Maria.
The half-witted French girl of volume 9 of
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy
(1760-67) who reappears in
A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy
(1768).

3
(p. 185)
nursery rhyme about Banbury Cross and the venerable lady who rode in state there.
From the nursery rhyme which begins ‘Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross'. In modern versions, the lady is usually described as ‘fine', but, in some earlier versions, she was termed ‘old'.

4
(p. 186)
a new Gesler in a Canton of Tells, and went in highly deserved danger of my tyrannical life.
Austrian bailiff of the canton of Uri, killed, according to Swiss legend, by William Tell.

5
(p. 186)
Don Quixote on the back of the wooden horse.
From part Two, chapter 41, of
Don Quixote
(1605-15) by Miguel de Cervantes.

First published in
All the Year Round
(5 May 1860). The text here is that of the Charles Dickens Edition of
The Uncommercial Traveller
(1868).

1
(p. 193)
comet vintages.
Wine produced in a comet year, which is supposed to possess unusually fine flavour.

2
(p. 193)
Saint Anthony.
(c. A.D. 250-355) the first Christian monk, noted for his successful struggles against the temptations of secular life.

3
(p. 195) spencer. A waist-length jacket.

4
(p. 195)
boxing-gloves.
It appears that the child is wearing mittens.

5
(p. 197)
the church in the Rake's Progress where the hero is being married to the horrible old lady.
Plate 5 of the set of engravings by William Hogarth (1735).

6
(p. 198)
Wren.
Christopher Wren (1632-1723), noted English architect.

First published in
All the Year Round
(26 May 1860). The text here is that of the Charles Dickens Edition of The
Uncommercial Traveller
(1868).

1
(p. 199)
Mr Thomas Sayers ... and
Mr John
Heenan.
The pugilists Sayers (1826-65) and Heenan (1835-73) fought a celebrated match in 1860, which was considered a draw.

2
(p. 200)
in the manner of lzaak Walton.
Like the bucolic descriptions in Walton's
The Compleat Angler
(1653, continued by Charles Cotton in 1676), a discussion of the art of fishing.

3
(p. 202)
Green Yard.
A pound for holding stray animals and lost vehicles.

4
(p. 203)
dogs ... who perform in Punch's shows.
A dog called Toby was a traditional figure in the Punch and Judy puppet show, and, according to the showman interviewed by Mayhew, the use of a live rather than a stuffed dog in the performance became highly popular: a great hit it were - it made a grand alteration in the hexhibition, for now the performance is called Punch and Toby
as well
There is one Punch about the streets at present that tries it on with three dogs, but that ain't much of a go - too much of a good thing I calls it
(London Labour and the London Poor,
vol. III [1861 ; reprinted New York: Dover, 1968], p. 45)·

5
(p. 206)
surplus population. An Essay on the Principle of Population
(1798) by Thomas Malthus, one of the
laissez-faire
political economists Dickens disliked, predicted that population, if unchecked, would inevitably increase more rapidly than the supply of food.

6
(p. 207)
Mrs Southcott.
Joanna Southcott (1750-1814), English religious prophet.

7
(p. 207)
Chinese circle.
According to an unpublished note by the late T. W. Hill, the ‘circle' is apparently a reference to the group to which the fowls belonged. Hill observes that Dickens alludes to several kinds of chickens in this paragraph: Bantam, Dorking, speckled and Cochin-China (information about Hill's comment kindly supplied by Dr Michael Slater, editor of the
Dickensian).

First published in
All the Year Round
(30 June 1860). The text here is that of the Charles Dickens Edition of
The Uncommercial Traveller
(1868).

1
(p. 209)
S.E.R.
South Eastern Railway.

2
(p. 209)
Seringapatam.
The capital of the Indian state of Mysore at the end of the eighteenth century; it was the stronghold of the sultan Tippoo Sahib, killed when the British captured the city in 1799.

3
(p. 212)
model on which the Genie of the Lamp built the palace for Aladdin.
See note I to ‘A Visit to Newgate' (p. 414).

4
(p. 212)
.Richard
the
Third... struggling for life against the virtuous Richmond.
In the last scene of Shakespeare's Richard
III.

5
(p. 213)
witches in Macbeth
...
calling himself something else.
‘Lying Awake' describes an adult recollection of a more sophisticated performance of the same play.

6
(p. 217)
Mr Random.
From
The Adventures of Roderick Random
(1748) by Tobias Smollett.

7
(p. 218) Pickle. From
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
(1751) by Smollett

First published in
All the Year Round
(8 September 1860). The text here is that of the Charles Dickens Edition of
The Uncommercial Traveller
(1868).

1
(p. 219)
belated among wolves, on the borders of France and Spain.
An episode, like. those mentioned in the previous paragraph, from Defoe's
Robinson Crusoe.

2
(p. 220)
the robbers' cave where Gil Blas lived ...
lies
everlastingly
cursing in
bed.
Chapters 4-10 of the first book of
The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane
(1715-35) by Alain René Le Sage.

3
(p. 220)
Don Quixote's study... great draughts of water.
From Part One, Chapters I and 5, of Cervantes's Don
Quixote.

4
(p. 220)
little old woman who... told the merchant Abudah to go in search of the Talisman of Oromartes.
From the first of
The Tales of the Genii
(1764) by James Ridley.

5
(p. 220)
the school where the boy Horatio Nelson got out of bed to steal the pears ... let down out of window with a sheet.
The anecdote appears in the first chapter of
The Life of Nelson
(1813) by Robert Southey.

6
(p. 220)
Brobingnag.
Correctly spelled ‘Brobdingnag' by Jonathan Swift in
Gulliver's Travels
(1726), where, like Lilliput and Laputa, it is one of the countries visited by Gulliven

7
(p. 221)
Blue Beard.
A fairy-tale villain who murders his wives. His last bride opens a forbidden closet, discovers the bodies of her predecessors, and verges on the same fate, but her brothers rescue her and kill her husband.

8
(p. 224) '
The Black Cat' ... sucking the breath of infancy, and... endowed with a special thirst ... for mine.
Strikingly similar to the bloodthirsty young man, hungering for juvenile heart and liver, with which Magwitch threatens Pip in chapter I of
Great Expectations
(originally conceived as a short piece in the vein of these
Uncommercial Traveller
sketches which Dickens was writing in 1860 - see the letter to Forster of September 1860 in
The Letters of Charles Dickens,
ed. Walter Dexter (London-Nonesuch Press, 1938), voL 3, p. 182).

First published in
All the Year Round
(29 September 1860). The text here is that of the Charles Dickens Edition of
The Uncommercial Traveller
(1868).

1
(p. 230)
a Volunteer.
The subsequent details seem drawn from the 11th Middlesex Volunteer Rifle Corps. See Gwen Major ‘Arcadian London',
Dickensian,
voL 45 (1949), p. 209.

2
(p. 233) chasing
the ebbing Neptune
on
the
ribbed
sea-sand.
cf. Prospero's farewell to his magic in Shakespeare's The
Tempest
(V, i, 33-5):

3
(p. 234)
the Every-Day Book.
By William Hone, containing a description of ‘the popular amusements, sports, ceremonies, manners, customs, and events, incident to the three hundred and sixty-five days, in past and present times', first published weekly from January 1825 to December 1826.

4
(p. 234)
Break.
‘A portion of ground broken up for cultivation'
(Oxford English Dictionary).

5
- (p. 235)
taking of Delhi.
Recaptured by the British from Indian mutineers in September 1857. William Oddie, ‘Dickens and the Indian Mutiny‘,
Dickensian,
vol. 68 (1972), pp. 3-15, is a discussion of Dickens's reaction to the insurrection and its reflection in his contributions to
The Perils of Certain English Prisoners,
the extra Christmas number of
Household Words
for 1857.

6
(p. 235)
New Zealander of the grand English History.
An allusion to Macaulay's prophecy that one day' some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St Paul's'. The prediction occurs not in Macaulay's
History of England
but in his essay
‘Von Ranke‘, Edinburgh Review,
October 1840.

7
(p. 235)
to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow.
Shakespeare,
Macbeth,
V, v, 19.

8
(p. 236)
Agapemone.
Greek for ‘abode of love‘, and the name of a religious community established near Bridgwater c. 1846 by Henry James Prince (1811-99).

9
(p. 238) Lord
Shaftesbury.
Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-85), English philanthropist active in organizing so-called ‘ragged schools' for poor children.

First published in
All the Year Round
(2 May 1863). The text here is that of the Charles Dickens Edition of
The Uncommercial Traveller
(1868).

1
(p. 240)
dogs of Dover bark at me in my mis-shapen wrappers, as if I were Richard the Third.
See Richard's description of himself in the opening scene of Shakespeare's
Richard III
(I, i, 20-23):