Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/100

 Thackeray and Homes, p. 9), and afterwards copied pictures industriously at the Louvre (see Hayward's article in Edinburgh Review, January 1848). He never acquired any great technical skill as a draughtsman, but he always delighted in the art. The effort of preparing his drawings for engraving wearied him, and partly accounts for the inferiority of his illustrations to the original sketches (Orphan of Pimlico, pref.) As it is, they have the rare interest of being interpretations by an author of his own conceptions, though interpretations in an imperfectly known language.

It is probable that Thackeray was at the same time making some literary experiments. In January 1835 he appears as one of the 'Fraserians' in the picture by Maclise issued with the 'Fraser' of that month. The only article before that time which has been conjecturally assigned to him is the story of 'Elizabeth Brownrigge,' a burlesque of Bulwer's 'Eugene Aram,' in the numbers for August and September 1832. If really by him, as is most probable, it shows that his skill in the art of burlesquing was as yet very imperfectly developed. He was for some years desirous of an artistic career, and in 1836 he applied to Dickens (speech at the Academy dinner of 1858) to be employed in illustrating the 'Pickwick Papers,' as successor to Robert Seymour [q. v.], who died 20 April 1836. Henry Reeve speaks of him in January 1836 as editing an English paper at Paris in opposition to 'Galignani's Messenger,' but of this nothing more is known. In the same year came out his first publication, 'Flore et Zéphyr,' a collection of eight satirical drawings, published at London and Paris. In 1836 a company was formed, of which Major Smyth was chairman, in order to start an ultra-liberal newspaper. The price of the stamp upon newspapers was lowered in the session of 1836, and the change was supposed to give a chance for the enterprise. All the radicals Grote, Molesworth, Buller, and their friends promised support. The old 'Public Ledger' was bought, and, with the new title, 'The Constitutional,' prefixed, began to appear on 15 Sept. (the day on which the duty was lowered). Samuel Laman Blanchard [q. v.] was editor, and Thackeray the Paris correspondent. He writes that his stepfather had behaved 'nobly,' and refused to take any remuneration as 'director,' desiring only this appointment for the stepson. Thackeray acted in that capacity for some time, and wrote letters strongly attacking Louis-Philippe as the representative of retrograde tendencies. The 'Constitutional,' however, failed, and after 1 July 1837 the name disappeared and the 'Public Ledger' revived in its place. The company had raised over 40,000l., and the loss is stated at 6,000l. or 7,000l. probably a low estimate (, English Newspapers, ii. 96-100;, British Journalism, p. 237).

Meanwhile Thackeray had taken advantage of his temporary position. He married, as he told his friend Synge, 'with 400l.' (the exact sum seems to have been eight guineas a week), 'paid by a newspaper which failed six months afterwards,' referring presumably to his salary from the 'Constitutional.' He was engaged early in the year to Isabella Gethin Creagh Shawe of Doneraile, co. Cork. She was daughter of Colonel Shawe, who had been military secretary, it is said, to the Marquis of Wellesley in India. The marriage took place at the British embassy at Paris on 20 Aug. 1836 (see and, p. 107, for the official entry, first made known by Mr. Marzials in the Athenæum).

The marriage was so timed that Thackeray could take up his duties as soon as the 'Constitutional' started. The failure of the paper left him to find support by his pen. He speaks in a later letter (Brookfield Correspondence, p. 36) of writing for 'Galignani' at ten francs a day, apparently at this time. He returned, however, to England in 1837. The Smyths had left Larkbeare some time before, and were now living at 18 Albion Street, where Thackeray joined them, and where his first daughter was born. Major Smyth resembled Colonel Newcome in other qualities, and also in a weakness for absurd speculations. He wasted money in various directions, and the liabilities incurred by the 'Constitutional' were for a long time a source of anxiety. The Smyths now went to live at Paris, while Thackeray took a house at 13 Great Coram Street, and laboured energetically at a variety of hackwork. He reviewed Carlyle's 'French Revolution' in the 'Times' (3 Aug. 1837). The author, as Carlyle reports, 'is one Thackeray, a half-monstrous Cornish giant, kind of painter, Cambridge man, and Paris newspaper correspondent, who is now writing for his life in London. I have seen him at the Bullers' and at Sterling's' (Life in London, i. 113).

In 1838, and apparently for some time later, he worked for the 'Times.' He mentions an article upon Fielding in 1840 (Brookfield Correspondence, p. 125). He occasionally visited Paris upon journalistic business. He had some connection with the 'Morning Chronicle.' He contributed stories to the 'New Monthly' and to some of George Cruikshank's publications. He also 