Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/251

 ii s.v. MAR. 16, i9i2.i NOTES AND QUERIES.

203

" Quando le pietre nuotano nel mare, o figlio mio gioioso, dimmi, dimini, quando le pietre nuotano nel mare ? E ben so che non ho altri che te." " Quando le piume sienvi come piombo, o cara madre."

" Quando le piume sonvi come piombo, o figlio mio gioioso, dimmi, dimmi, quando le piume sonvi come piombo ? E ben so che non ho altri che te." " Quando giudichi Iddio tra i vivi e i morti, o cara madre."

Nos. IT. and IV. were first pointed out in La Critica, 20 January, 1910; No. V. by the present writer in the same number of the same review ; No. VII. in the same review, 20 November, 1911. Nos. I., III., and VI., as far as I know, have never been pointed out before. PAUL L. FALZON.

Malta.

CHARLES DICKENS.

FEBRUARY ITS, 1812 JUKE 9ra, 1870.

(See ante, pp. 81, 101, 121, 141, 161, 182.)

THE summer of 1857 opened sadly for Dickens. a,s on the 8th of June his dear friend Douglas Jerrold died suddenly. He desired to be remembered by his many friends, and passed away with the words on his lips " At peace with all the world."

In this year ' Little Dorrit ' appeared, While writing it Dickens was frequently seized by a fear that he might have a break- down ; all his old restlessness returned. " As to repose for some men, there is no such thing in life." Then came the reve- lation of domestic unhappiness :

" Poor Catherine and I are not made for each other, and there is no help for it. It is not only that she makes me unhappy, but that I make her so too and much more so."

On the 29th of April, 1858, took place the first public reading for his own benefit ; " and before the next month was over, this launch into a new life had been followed by a change in his old home. Thenceforward he and his wife lived apart. The oldest son went with his mother, Dickens at once giving effect to her express wish in this respect ; and the other children remained with himself, their intercourse with Mrs. Dickens being left entirely to them- selves.''

Of all this entirely private matter the publ r c should have had no cognizance ; but Dickens, over-sensitive as to his own reputation, especially now that he had entered upon a series of public readings, called attention to it by means of a printed statement in Household Words. Looking at the evidence, I am not at all T inclined

to agree with Mr. Chesterton that, being: " suddenly thrown into the society of a whole family of girls," " he fell in love' with all of them," and " that by a kind of accident he got hold of the wrong sister." Forster shows us husband and wife on terms of great affection. Dickens rarely went away from home without his w*ife being: with him, and if away from her and his 1 family when Cliristmas approached, he- would always rush off to be with them at the old English festival. Mrs. Dickens' and her sister Georgina, who after his; return from America in 1842 became part of the household, lived amicably together. One proof of this is that we have their portraits in pencil, together with Dickens, drawn by Maclise in the same year. Dickens regarded Georgina as the good, faithful maiden aunt ; and Forster found in his notebook a character - sketch of which, if the whole was not suggested by his sister-in-law, the most part was applicable to her :

" She sacrificed to children, and was suffi-- ciently rewarded, and so it comes to pass she never married ; she is always devoted to the children (of somebody else) ; and they lovo her ; and she has always youth dependent upon her till death and dies quite happily."

Owing to differences between Dickens and Messrs. Bradbury & Evans, Household Words appeared for the last time on the 28th of May, 1859, the first number of All the Year Round having been issued on the 30th of April. The old title was retained by placing under the new one " with which is incorporated Household Words." Dickens and WiJls were the sole proprietors, Dickens holding three-quarters and Wills the other quarter. Although he had made so bad an editor of a daily paper, not being able to bear the constant strain which that work involved, Dickens proved a good editor of his own weekly publication, espe- cially with a man like Wills by his side, who could save him from those " thorns in the cushion " which so troubled poor Thackeray while editor of The Cornhill. Dickens was wont to go into every detail of each number before its publication ; proofs would be sent to him even when away for a holiday, if he was within reach, and sometimes we find him rejoicing over the contents, while at others he complains of their dullness. One of his letters to Wills on this subject is in a very angry tone :

" The number is so badly printed, and so villain- ously read, that I have been obliged to query here and there ; the sense being somewhere else."