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 THE EARLY WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 THACKERAY
 
 / 
 
 . '■%<>•-!& 
 
 Kif^a-t^f/T^y/t^-/^,^^,^n'j/»^j9Tf Bfi:^/f9ji^i^.
 
 The Early Writings 
 
 OF 
 
 William Makepeace Thackeray 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES PLUMPTRE JOHNSON 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AFTER W. M. THACKERAY, 
 CHINNERY, F. WALKER AND R. DOYLE 
 
 LONDON 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 
 
 1888
 
 Of this Book the following copies have been printed for sale 
 
 1. On large paper ... ... 50 
 
 2. On hand-made paper ... ... 50 
 
 3. On antique paper ... ... 450 
 
 550
 
 
 TO 
 
 MRS. RICHMOND RITCHIE 
 
 IS 
 
 THIS ATTEMPT TO RECORD SOME OK 
 
 THE UNKNOWN EARLY WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 HER GREAT FATHER 
 
 i.e7C458
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction - - - - - - -xi 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Irish Melody— 'The Snob' — 'The Gownsman ' — ' The 
 CHiMiERA' — Essay on Shelley — At Weimar — Goethe 
 — Schiller ..-..-- i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 * The National Omnibus ' — ' The National Standard ' — 
 Paris Correspondence — Verses and Sketches — 'A 
 Tale op Wonder' - - - • - - 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ' The Constitutional ' — Expected Cost and Profits — 
 Paris Correspondence — Struggles — Collapse — 'The 
 Literary Gazette ' - - - - - - 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 •Eraser's Magazine' — Thackeray's Early Acquaintance 
 with it — His Portrait among 'The Fraserians' — 
 'The King of Brentford' — Probable early Contri- 
 butions — 'A Word on the Annuals' — 'Our Batch of 
 Novels for Christmas, 1837 ' — ' Half-a-Crown's worth 
 OF Cheap Knowledge' — 'Dolly Duster' - - 37
 
 viii Table of Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 *The Times' — Reviews of Carlyle's 'French Revolu- 
 tion ' — ' Duchess of Marlborough's Private Corre- 
 spondence' — 'Eros and Anteros, or "Lovk"' — 'A 
 Diary relative to George IV. and Queen Caroline' 
 — ' Memoirs of Holt, the Irish Rebel ' — ' The Poetical 
 Works of Dr. Southey ' — Article on Fielding - 48 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 American Editions — • Yellowplush Papers ' — ' Fitz-Boodle 
 Papers' — 'Major Gahagan' — 'Men's Wives' — 'Barry 
 Lyndon' — 'A Shabby Genteel Story' — 'Book of 
 Snobs ' — ' Jeames's Diary ' ; ' A Legend of the Rhine ' ; 
 ' Rebecca and Rowena ' — ' Prize Novelists ' ; ' The Fat 
 Contributor'; 'Travels in London' — 'Mr. Brown's 
 Letters ' ; ' The Proser, and Other Tales ' — ' Charity 
 and Humour' - - - - - - 61
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 - Chinnery ■ 
 
 SUBJECT. ARTIST. 
 
 Thackeray at the Age of) 
 
 Three, with his Mother f 
 
 _ [From a Photograph by 
 
 Thackeray - - -• 
 
 Sketch for ' Rebecca 
 Rowena' 
 
 Thackeray 
 
 \ Dr. Julius Pollock 
 
 AND"! ^ , 
 
 \K. Doyle - 
 
 (From a Bust done while 
 ■j at Charterhouse, with 
 
 PAGE 
 
 frontispiece. 
 
 to face xi 
 - xiv 
 
 \ 
 
 , signature 
 
 - 
 
 ■ 
 
 to face 
 
 I 
 
 Tailpiece to 'Timbuctoo' 
 
 IV. M. Thackeray (?) 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 Thackeray 
 
 P. Doyle • 
 
 - 
 
 • 
 
 - 
 
 i6 
 
 Thackeray 
 
 F. Walker 
 
 - 
 
 • 
 
 to face 
 
 19 
 
 Thackeray 
 
 R. Doyle - 
 
 - 
 
 • 
 
 - 
 
 27 
 
 Thackeray's Father 
 
 Chinnery 
 
 - 
 
 • 
 
 to face 
 
 28 
 
 Thackeray 
 
 P. Doyle - 
 
 • 
 
 m 
 
 - 
 
 34 
 
 Sketch for 'Mrs. Perkins's 
 Ball . - , - 
 
 {■Thackeray 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 to face 
 
 37 
 
 Thackeray 
 
 P. Doyle - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 47 
 
 Drawing and Note 
 
 Thackeray 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 to face 
 
 48 
 
 Thackeray 
 
 P. Doyle - 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 •• « 
 
 58 
 
 Thackeray 
 
 P. Doyle - 
 
 - 
 
 • 
 
 to face 
 
 61 
 
 Sketch for ' Rebecca and 
 Rowena ' . - - 
 
 \p. Doyle - 
 
 ' 
 
 • 
 
 - 
 
 64
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The more ardent admirers of Thackeray and of 
 his works are, for the most part, so far as re- 
 gards the repubhcation of his early and Httle- 
 known writings, members of one or the other of 
 two strongly opposed parties. The adherents of 
 the one party stoutly assert that writings which 
 the author did not himself collect and republish 
 should be allowed to remain in the oblivion to 
 which he, as they argue, deliberately consigned 
 them, and from which it is, they say, inconsistent 
 with a due regard to his wishes to rescue them. 
 The members of the other party, with equal con- 
 viction, argue that every word which so great a 
 writer ever gave to the world should be carefull}^ 
 searched for, and, when found, republished and care- 
 fully preserved for posterity. 
 
 The true and just course appears, as is usually 
 the case, to be somewhere between those advocated 
 by the extreme partisans on either side. Whatever 
 interested persons may think proper to do for their 
 own profit, it surely cannot be right that every un- 
 considered immature trifle from the pen of a great 
 writer should be indiscriminately brought to light 
 and issued broadcast to the general body of readers,
 
 xii Introdtiction. 
 
 many of whom are sure to be ignorant of his greater 
 writings, are too Hkely to judge of his ability 
 from the first specimens of his work which they 
 meet, and may thus be led to do injustice to his 
 worth, and to lose the benefit they might otherwise 
 derive from studying his greater works. On the 
 other hand, it is not becoming for anybody to say 
 that the student, bibhographer and collector should 
 be debarred from reading, recording and possessing 
 even the most juvenile and trivial productions of a 
 great author. It is contended, then, that the proper 
 course is for those who find a pleasure in seeking 
 for and unearthing the early writings of great writers, 
 on the one hand, not selfishly to keep the results 
 of their labours to themselves, and, on the other, not 
 to publish them in a form likely to reach, or appeal 
 to, the general public, but to do what in them lies 
 to make their treasures known to others of similar 
 tastes, who may be expected to appreciate them. 
 
 This plan has been adopted as far as possible in 
 the case of these essays, which originally appeared 
 in Tht AthencBum, and are now collected and repub- 
 lished, with considerable alterations and additions. 
 The number of copies printed has been limited, and 
 the mode of publication has been chosen with the 
 express object of confining the circulation of these 
 notes to genuine and enthusiastic lovers and students 
 of Thackeray's works, who may be glad of any addi- 
 tion to their knowledge of his earlier writings, and 
 may be safely trusted not to misjudge his genius on 
 account of his * small potatoes,' as he called his lesser 
 writings in conversation with Mr. James T. Fields 
 on the subject of similar republications. One other 
 explanation is needed. To the enthusiastic collector 
 nothing is more trying than to be told of writings
 
 IntrodzLction. xiii 
 
 which are unquestionably dcsidc/ata, only to find 
 that they are also to be classed among introuvablcs. 
 To avoid, as far as possible, producing this result, 
 the unquestionable contributions by Thackeray to 
 the now practically unobtainable little periodicals, 
 The Snob and The Gownsman, have been here re- 
 printed in the order in which they originally ap- 
 peared. Of these writings the only one which is 
 included in the standard editions of Thackeray's 
 works is * Timbuctoo,' far the best of them all, 
 which is here reprinted, so that the collection may 
 be as far as possible complete. It is hoped that the 
 possession of these reprinted papers may in some 
 degree tend to console those who are unable to find 
 the periodicals in which they originally appeared. 
 
 The fact that a mere collection of titles, dates 
 and references proves to all but the earnest biblio- 
 grapher but dull reading, explains the occasional in- 
 troduction among the notes of extracts from letters 
 and from the more interesting of the writings which 
 are here ascribed to Thackeray. Some readers, too, 
 may not care to wade through the pages of old 
 magazines and newspapers in search of all the articles 
 mentioned, and may be glad to have these extracts 
 as specimens of these early works. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to state that these notes 
 have no claim to be considered complete, even as 
 regards the subjects of which they specially treat. 
 They are put forward merely as Essays in Biblio- 
 graphy, or, as they were originally called, ' Notes 
 and Queries for a Bibliography of the Writings of 
 W. M. Thackeray." They may, or may not lead to 
 identification of further writings, but all that is 
 claimed for them is that they identify beyond ques- 
 tion many hitherto unrecognised writings of one of
 
 XIV 
 
 hitroduction. 
 
 the greatest of English authors, and that in every 
 case the authority which is rehed upon for such 
 identification is duly quoted. 
 
 The illustrations can hardly fail to be of interest. 
 Particulars of them are given in the * List of Illus- 
 trations,' and need not be repeated here, but I have 
 to express my thanks to Mrs. Richmond Ritchie for 
 the very interesting portraits of her Father and of 
 his Father and Mother; also to Dr. Julius Pollock, 
 Mr. J. H. Round, and Mr. Frederick Chapman for 
 the portraits and other illustrations, which I am 
 enabled to give owing to their kindness. 
 
 C. P. J. 
 
 May 2yJ, I
 
 '^'^'-^^^p^^A.ft£/ta^-^^J^t/rt.a/^ t^^^i6*ei^i^ 
 
 ^ S ^^--2,
 
 THE EARLY WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 WM. MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Irish Melody — 77^1? Sttob — The Gownsman— The Chimczra — Essay on 
 Shelley — At Weimar — Goethe — Schiller. 
 
 In Thackeray the Humourist and the Man of Letters, 
 which was published in 1864 by the late Mr. John 
 Camden Hotten, and was in all probability written 
 by him, though the title-page gives the author's 
 name as ' Theodore Taylor, Esq.,' it is recorded 
 (pp. 188-190) on the authority of Dr. Cornish, then 
 vicar of Ottery St. Mary, near Exeter, that when 
 Thackeray was staying there as a boy, he wrote and 
 brought to Dr. Cornish some verses, which duly 
 appeared in ' an Exeter paper.' Unfortunately no 
 more information was given, and a diligent search 
 among the files of the Exeter papers of the period 
 has failed to bring the verses to light. They arc, 
 however, quoted in Mr. Hotten's book, and as 
 they were in all probability the first writings of 
 Thackeray to be published, they are worth repeating 
 here : 
 
 I
 
 Thackeray. 
 
 ' Irish Melody. 
 
 'Air.— "The Minstrel Boy." 
 
 ' Mister Sheil into Kent has gone, 
 
 On Penenden Heath you'll find him ; 
 Nor think you that he came alone, 
 
 Here's Doctor Doyle behind him. 
 " Men of Kent," said this little man, 
 
 " If you hate Emancipation, 
 You're a set of fools ;" he then began 
 
 A *' cut and dry " oration. 
 
 ' He strove to speak, but the men of Kent 
 
 Began a grievous shouting, 
 "When out of his waggon the little man went 
 
 And put a stop to his spouting. 
 " What though those heretics heard me not," 
 
 Quoth he to his friend Canonical, 
 ** My speech is safe in the Times, I wot, 
 
 And eke in the Morning Chronicled ' 
 
 The first real attempt at literature on the part 
 of the future author of Vanity Fair and Esmond 
 was during his residence at Cambridge, in 1829, 
 when he appeared as one of the principal contri- 
 butors to, and practically joint-editor of The Snob, a 
 little weekly periodical, eleven numbers of which 
 were published at Cambridge in 1829. He was pro- 
 bably not at first one of the most extensive writers 
 in The Snob, but the letters here quoted show that 
 the greater part of the worl^ soon fell upon him. In a 
 letter dated the 17th May, 1829, Thackeray writes : 
 * A poem of mine hath appeared in a weekly perio- 
 dical here published, and called The Snob. I will
 
 The Snob. 3 
 
 bring it home with me.' And on a later day, but in 
 the same letter, he writes : ' " Timbuctoo " received 
 much laud. The men knew not the author, but 
 praised the poem.' This reference is, of course, to 
 Thackeray's burlesque lines on the subject given for 
 the prize poem, the prize being won by the present 
 Poet Laureate. The burlesque appeared in No. 4, 
 which was published on the 30th April, 1827. It 
 was reprinted, first in Hotten's book before referred 
 to, and again in the twenty-fifth volume of the 
 ' Standard Edition ' of Thackeray's works, published 
 by Messrs. Smith and Elder in 1885. It is here 
 reprinted for the reasons given in the Introduction. 
 
 Criticism is beyond the scope of this volume, but 
 an expression of admiration of these verses may 
 perhaps be excused. They certainly indicate more 
 clearly than any other of Thackeray's juvenile efforts 
 the powers of humour then latent in their boyish 
 writer. The notes are by no means the least funny 
 part of the effusion. 
 
 ' Timbuctoo. 
 
 * To the Editor of " The SnobJ" 
 
 ' Sir, — Though your name be " Snob," I trust you 
 will not refuse this tiny " Poem of a Gownsman," 
 which was unluckily not finished on the day ap- 
 pointed for delivery of the several copies of verses 
 on Timbuctoo. I thought, sir, it would be a pity 
 that such a poem should be lost to the world ; and 
 conceiving " The Snob " to be the most widely circu- 
 lated periodical in Europe, I have taken the liberty 
 of submitting it for insertion or approbation. 
 
 ' I am, sir, yours, etc., etc., etc., 
 
 *T.' 
 1—2
 
 4 Thackeray 
 
 'TiMBUCTOo. — Part I. 
 
 The situation. — In Africa (a quarter of the world) 
 Men's skins are black, their hair is crisp and curl'd ; 
 And somewhere there, unknown to public view, 
 A mighty city lies, called Timbuctoo. 
 
 The 7iatnral history. — There stalks the tiger, — there 
 the lion roars, 5 
 
 Who sometimes eats the luckless blackamoors ; 
 All that he leaves of them the monster throws 
 To jackals, vultures, dogs, cats, kites, and crows ; 
 His hunger thus the forest monarch gluts, 
 And then lies down 'neath trees called cocoa nuts. lo 
 
 The lion hunt. — Quick issue out, with musket, torch 
 and brand, 
 The sturdy blackamoors, a dusky band ! 
 
 Lines l and 2. — See Guthrie's Geography : — 
 
 The site of Timbuctoo is doubtful ; the Author has neatly expressed 
 this in the poem, at the same time giving us some slight hints relative to 
 its situation. 
 
 Line 5. — So Horace— ' /t-^;;?//// arida nutrix,' 
 
 Line 8. — Thus Apollo : 
 
 iXiopia rei'x^ Kvvefffftv 
 Oiuvoiai TE TTclci 
 
 Lines 5-10. — How skilfully introduced are the animal and vegetable 
 productions of Africa ! It is worthy to remark the various garments 
 in which the Poet hath clothed the Lion. He is called, ist, the 
 Lion ; 2nd, the Monster, (for he is very large) ; and 3rd, the Forest 
 Monarch, which undoubtedly he is. 
 
 Lines 11-14. — The author confesses himself under peculiar obliga- 
 tions to Denham's and Clapperton's Travels, as they suggested to him 
 the spirited description contained in these lines.
 
 The Snob. 
 
 The beast is found — pop goes the musketoons — 
 The lion falls, covered with horrid wounds. 
 
 Their lives at home. — At home their lives in pleasure 
 always flow, 15 
 
 But many have a different lot to know ! 
 
 A broad. — They're often caught, and sold as slaves, 
 alas ! 
 
 Reflections on the foregoing. — Thus men from highest 
 joys to sorrow pass. 
 Yet though thy monarchs and thy nobles boil 
 Rack and molasses in Jamaica's isle ? 20 
 
 Desolate Afric ! thou art lovely yet ! ! 
 One heart yet beats which ne'er shall thee forget. 
 What though thy maidens are a blackish brown, 
 Does virtue dwell in whiter breasts alone ? 
 Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no ! 25 
 
 It shall not, must not, cannot, e'er be so. 
 
 Line 13. — "Pop goes the musketoons." A learned friend suggested 
 " Bang" as a stronger expression, but as African gunpowder is noto- 
 riously bad, the Author thought " Pop " the better word. 
 
 Lines 15-18. — A concise but affecting description is here given of the 
 domestic habits of the people, — the infamous manner in which they are 
 eatrapped and sold as slaves is described, — and the whole ends with an 
 appropriate moral sentiment. The Poem might here finish, but the 
 spirit of the bard penetrates the veil of futurity, and from it cuts off a 
 bright piece for the hitherto unfortunate Africans, as the following 
 beautiful lines amply exemplify. 
 
 It may perhaps be remarked that the Author has here "changed his 
 hand ;" he answers that it was his intention to do so. Before, it was 
 liis endeavour to be elegant and concise ; it is now his wish to be enthu- 
 siastic and magnificent. He trusts the Reader will perceive the aptness 
 with which he hath changed his style ; when he narrated facts he was 
 calm, when he enters on prophecy he is fervid. 
 
 The enthusiasm which he feels is beautifully expressed in lines 25- 
 26. He tliinks he has very successfully imitated in the last six lines the 
 best manner of Mr. Pope; and in lines 12-26, the pathetic elegance of 
 the Author of ' Australasia and Athens.'
 
 Thackeray 
 
 The day shall come when Albion's self shall feel 
 Stern Afric's wrath, and writhe 'neath Afric's steel. 
 I see her tribes the hill of glory mount, 
 And sell their sugars on their own account ; 30 
 
 While round her throne the prostrate nations come, 
 Sue for her rice, and barter for her rum ! 32 
 
 In a letter written during May, 1829, Thackeray 
 says : * I think after the vacation we shall set up 
 a respectable periodical here. I shall have four 
 months to write for it !' This reference was to The 
 Gownsman, the successor of The Snob ; but his other 
 contributions to The Snob have still to be dealt with. 
 
 An undated letter says : ' I have put " Genevieve " 
 into it, The Snob, with a little alteration.' This 
 enables us to identify the following verses, which 
 appeared in No. 6, published on the 14th May, 1829. 
 
 ' The Author cannot conchule without declaring that his aim in writing 
 this Poem will be fully accomplished, if he can infuse into the breasts 
 of Englishmen a sense of the danger in which they lie. Yes — Africa ! 
 If he can awaken one particle of sympathy for thy sorrows, of love for 
 thy land, of admiration for thy virtue, he shall sink into the grave with 
 the proud consciousness that he has raised esteem, where before there 
 was contempt, and has kindled the flame of hope on the mouldering 
 ashes of Despair !'
 
 The Snob. 
 
 ' To Genevieve, 
 'a disinterested epistle. 
 
 * Say do I seek, my Genevieve ! 
 Thy charms alone to win ? 
 Oh, no ! for thou art fifty-five, 
 And ugHer than sin ! 
 
 ' Or do I love the flowing verse 
 Upon thy syren tongue ? 
 Oh, no ! those strains of thine are worse 
 Than ever screech-owl sung. 
 
 ' Since then I thus refuse my love 
 For songs or charms to give, 
 What could my tardy passion move ? 
 Thy money, Genevieve ! 
 
 'A Literary Snob.' 
 
 On the 23rd May, 1829, he wrote: 'On Monday 
 night myself and the editor of The Snob sat down to 
 write The Snob for next Thursday. We began at 
 nine and finished at two ; but I was so afflicted with 
 laughter during our attempts that I came away quite 
 ill.' From this it would appear that Thackeray had 
 a large part in producing No. 8, for the 30th May, 
 1829. 
 
 Under date May 29 we read : ' The Snob goeth on 
 and prospereth. Here is a specimen of my wit, in 
 the shape of an advertisement therein inserted : 
 ** Sidney Sussex College. — Wanted, a few freshmen. 
 Apply at the Butteries, where the smallest contribu- 
 tions will be thankfully received." ' 
 
 It has generally been considered, owing to the
 
 8 TJiackeray. 
 
 peculiar orthography adopted in them, that the 
 * Ramsbottom Papers ' were from Thackeray's pen. 
 This is more than probable, but as there is no actual 
 proof, they are not here reprinted. 
 
 One more suggestion and we have done with The 
 Snoh. In the interesting letter printed in the 
 Aihcnaum of the 7th August, 1886, with reference to 
 Thackeray's ' Paris Sketch-Book,' it is recorded that 
 the letters written from Paris to the Corsair in 1839 
 were all signed * T. T.' Now, Thackeray had a 
 curious liking for returning to the use of a former 
 7toin dc giicrre, and this lends force to the suggestion 
 that he may have been responsible for a rhyming 
 letter published in the third number of The Snob 
 above the signature * T. T.' This signature was 
 adopted by Thackeray in his Paris correspondence 
 for the ill-fated Constitutional, and though actual 
 proof of his authorship is lacking, the evidence seems 
 strong enough to justify the verses being printed 
 here to enable each to judge for himself on the 
 subject : 
 
 * Extract from a Letter, from one in Cam- 
 bridge, TO ONE IN Town. 
 
 ' Of the Musical Clubs I shall say but a word, 
 Since to none but the Members they pleasure 
 
 afford. 
 
 The still play as they usually did, 
 
 While the good-natured visitors praise what 
 
 they're bid. 
 This law 'mid these sons of Apollo will tell : 
 " To play very loud, is to play very well ;" — 
 A concert "piano" they deem quite absurd, — 
 In music like that ev'ry blunder is heard ;
 
 The Gownsman. 
 
 The best singer that Cambridge e'er saw, they 
 
 agree, 
 Was a friend of my own that could reach 
 
 double B ; 
 In fine, I imagine, they think it a crime 
 To spare any sound, or to lose any time. 
 So the laurels of course are by him always won. 
 Who makes the most noise, and who soonest cries 
 
 " Done!" 
 
 Well enough of the ; The comes next, 
 
 " Vox et prceterca nil " is it's text ; 
 
 For though on it's list it stiU must be confest. 
 
 That of all Cambridge singers it numbers the 
 
 best; 
 Yet while, thro' good-nature, it falsely permits, 
 While the rest sing "piano,'" one screaming in fits. 
 It cannot expect unconditional praise. 
 Or more than politeness [one] to amateurs pays. 
 
 A word of the , and I've done — 
 
 They have but one fault, and a laughable one. 
 
 When seated at supper, they seem to forget 
 
 The purpose for which they pretend to have 
 
 met ; 
 I was taken there once, and I found that good 
 
 eating 
 Was the greatest if not the sole cause of their 
 
 meeting. 
 
 T. T.' 
 
 In November, 1830, an effort was made to carry 
 out Thackeray's proposal in the letter before printed, 
 to * set up a respectable periodical here.' In due 
 course The Gownsman made its appearance. It is 
 very difficult to estimate the nature and extent of 
 Thackeray's connection with this little paper. It
 
 lo Thackeray. 
 
 seems more than probable that he was actually 
 editor, and had a large part in writing it. Until 
 quite lately, however, no contribution of his was 
 distinctly recognised. The scarceness of the paper 
 may, to some extent, have accounted for this. There 
 is no copy in the British Museum, and a copy of the 
 title-page is accordingly given here. Such copies as 
 come into the market from time to time usually lack 
 the first number, from which we may perhaps con- 
 clude that the little periodical was, for a time, more 
 successful than had been expected, and that a larger 
 edition of the later numbers was issued. The full 
 title of The Gownsman is as follows : 
 
 * The Gownsman, | (formerly called) " The 
 Snob," | A Literary and Scientific Journal, | now | 
 conducted by Members of the University.' | Sir, — 
 Here is newly come to Court, Laertes ; believe 
 me an absolute | gentleman, full of most excellent 
 differences. | Hamlet, I ' Vol. 2. i Cambridge : | 
 Published by W. H. Smith, Rose Crescent | And 
 sold by Simpkin and Marshall, London, | and may 
 be had of all booksellers. | 1830.' 
 
 It is stated on the authority of Mr. Edward Fitz- 
 gerald, who was a great friend of Thackeray's, that 
 his contributions to The Gownsman were signed ' ©,' 
 a signature which he afterwards used for his famous 
 article on his friend George Cruikshank, which ap- 
 peared in the Westmvister Reviciv in 1840. This, if 
 conceded, at once identifies Thackeray's writings for 
 The Gownsma7i. The principal contribution so signed 
 is a parody of * I'd be a Butterfly,' and, curiously 
 enough, shortly after the ascription to Thackeray of 
 the * © ' articles had been made in the Athenccum, a 
 version of this parody, varying but slightly from the
 
 '.^^-/^j^^a^fuAia' ^^i^^n>na^^S%./ed^&/r!_y
 
 The Gownsman. 1 1 
 
 published verses, and in his own handwriting, was 
 brought to hght, having been found in an album 
 of autographs. The proof seems conclusive, and 
 another poem signed ' ' is accordingly reprinted 
 here. The printed version of ' I'd be a Tadpole ' 
 appeared in No. 2 of The Gownsman as follows : 
 
 ' Modern Songs. — No. 5. 
 
 ' Air.—" I'd be a Biiiterfy. " 
 
 * I'd be a tadpole, born in a puddle, 
 
 Where dead cats, and drains, and water rats 
 meet ; 
 There under a stone I so snugly would cuddle. 
 With some other tad which was pretty and 
 sweet. 
 I'd never seek my poor brains for to muddle 
 
 With thinking why I had no toes to my feet ; 
 But under a stone I so snugly would cuddle 
 With some other tad as was pretty and sweet. 
 
 * If I could borrow the wand of a fairy, 
 
 I'd be a fish and have beautiful fins — 
 But yet in this puddle I'm cleanly and air}-, 
 
 I'm washed by the waters and cool'd by the 
 winds ! 
 Fish in a pond must be watchful and wary, 
 
 Or boys will catch them with worms and hooked 
 pins. 
 I'll be a tadpole, cleanly and airy, 
 
 Washed by the waters and wiped by the winds. 
 
 ' What though you tell me each black little rover 
 Dies in the sun when the puddle is dry, — 
 Do you not think that when it's all over 
 With my best friends I'll be happy to die ?
 
 12 1 hackeray. 
 
 Some may turn toads with great speckled bellies, 
 Swim in the gutter, or spit on the road ; 
 
 I'll stay a tadpole, and not like them fellers 
 Be one day a tad and the other a toad ! 
 
 G.' 
 
 The lilS. version is as follows : 
 
 ' I'd be a Tadpole. 
 
 ' I'd be a Tadpole, born in a puddle, 
 
 "Where drowned dogs and kittens and water-rats 
 meet; 
 And under a stone I so snugly would cuddle, 
 
 With some other tad that was pretty and 
 sweet. 
 I'd never seek my poor brains for to muddle 
 
 With thinking why I had no toes to my feet ; 
 But under a stone I so snugly would cuddle 
 With some other tad as was pretty and sweet. 
 
 ' Oh, could I borrow the wand of a fairy, 
 I'd be a fish and have beautiful fins ! 
 Yet in my puddle I'm cleanly and airy, 
 
 I'm washed by the waters and dried by the 
 winds. 
 Fish in a pond must be watchful and wary, 
 Or boys will catch them with worms and hooked 
 
 pins ! 
 So I'll be a tadpole, cleanly and airy, 
 
 Washed b}^ the waters and wiped by the winds. 
 
 ' Sad tho' the fate of each black little rover 
 
 When summer comes, and the puddle gets dry — 
 Why, my good friends, when our fun is all over, 
 Is it not better for tadpoles to die ?
 
 The Gownsman. 13 
 
 Some may turn toads, and with great speckled 
 bellies, 
 
 Swim in the gutter, or crawl in the road ; 
 ril die a tadpole ! and not like them fellies 
 
 Be one day a tad and the other a toad ! 
 
 The following lines appeared in No. 5 : 
 ' From Anacreon. 
 
 ' Prepare thy silver, god of fire. 
 And light thy forges up ; 
 No soldier I to ask of thee 
 Bright arms and glittering panoply ; 
 To these let warrior chiefs aspire — 
 I ask a mighty cup ! 
 
 * A mighty cup ! but draw not on it 
 Orion grim with clubs advancing, 
 
 Or heavenly wains, or rampant bears ; 
 
 What cares Anacreon for the stars ? 
 
 Draw Love and my Bathyllus on it, 
 
 Mid clustering vines with Bacchus dancing. 
 
 e: 
 
 These are the only papers which can with cer- 
 tainty be attributed to Thackeray, though the 
 ' Ramsbottom Papers,' continued from The Snob, 
 and many other writings, were probably by him, and 
 Anthony Trollope suggested that the dedication ' To 
 all Proctors,' etc., was probably written by Thackeray. 
 
 In the latter part of the year 1829 Thackeray was 
 in Paris, and was there engaged in writing *An 
 Essay on Shelley ' for the Chimccra, a magazine 
 published, or intended to be published, at Cam- 
 bridge. The magazine cannot be found in the 
 British Museum, but, if anybody has access to a
 
 1 4 Thackeray. 
 
 copy, he should search through the numbers for the 
 latter part of 1829 and the beginning of 1830 for any 
 essay on the subject. Thackeray proposed to use 
 as a motto for his article a quotation from Lord 
 Lytton's novel ' Dcvereux,' which may serve to iden- 
 tify his work if it was published in the Chimccra or 
 elsewhere. The interest of such an essay from 
 Thackeray's pen would be great. 
 
 Though somewhat beyond the plan and intention 
 of these notes, a few passages from some of Thack- 
 eray's letters written at Weimar in 1830, bearing upon 
 his literary pursuits, ideas, and occupations, are here 
 quoted. It will be remembered that at this time he 
 was a Cambridge undergraduate, aged nineteen : 
 
 'Wednesday, October zo, 1830. 
 
 * I saw for the first time old Goethe to-day ; he 
 was very kind, and received me in rather a more 
 distingue manner than he has used the other English- 
 men here ; the old man gives occasionally a tea-party, 
 to which the English and some special favourites in 
 the town are invited ; he sent me a summons this 
 morning to come to him at twelve. I sat with him 
 for half an hour, and took my leave on the arrival 
 of .' 
 
 Again : 
 
 * Madame de Goethe was "very kind." . . . When 
 I went to call on her, I found her with three Byrons, 
 a Moore, and a Shelley on her table.' 
 
 As vv^e read, we wonder whether the shrewd old 
 German, then approaching the end of his life, and 
 having done his v/ork, saw anything specially re- 
 markable about the big English boy who, with so 
 many others, went to worship at his shrine.
 
 Schiller. 1 5 
 
 On the 17th November, 1830, Thackeray writes, 
 still from Weimar : 
 
 ' I have read " Faust," with which, of course, I 
 am delighted, but not to that degree I expected.' 
 
 He suggests, in a letter of the 4th December, 1830, 
 the idea of obtaining an attacheship and settling 
 down at Weimar. The world may indeed be con- 
 gratulated that this suggestion was not carried out. 
 
 The most interesting of these letters from Weimar 
 runs as follows : 
 
 "■ February 25, 1831. 
 
 * Talking of Schiller, I am in possession of his 
 handwriting and of his veritable court sword, and I 
 do believe him to be, after Shakespeare, "the Poet." 
 ... I have been reading Shakespeare in German. 
 If I could ever do the same for Schiller in English, I 
 should be proud of having conferred a benefit on my 
 country!' 
 
 It is said that during his stay at Weimar, where 
 he made many friends, Thackeray contributed both 
 with pencil and pen to the albums of several of the 
 young ladies there. We may hope that some of these 
 young ladies are still living, though no longer young, 
 and that they have preserved their albums to hand 
 down to their children's children. 
 
 During the year 183 1 Thackeray appears to have 
 seriously studied for the bar, as letters of this period 
 show ; for instance : 
 
 ' In Mr. Taprell's Chambers, Hare Court, Temple, 
 ^December i6, 1831. 
 
 * I have just finished a long-winded declaration 
 about a mortgage.'
 
 1 6 Thackeray 
 
 Solicitors who sent papers to Mr. Taprell about 
 this time might, as a matter of curiosity, institute a 
 search for the * long-winded declaration ' in question, 
 or other similar documents, in the beautifully neat 
 writing of the pupil, and, in all probability, ruthlessl}' 
 cut about and * settled ' by his master. 
 
 In January, 1833, a letter is written from * 5, Essex 
 Court,' Temple, where Thackeray appears to have 
 been then living. We may suppose that it was 
 during this period of his life that he acquired that 
 knowledge of the habits of dwellers in chambers in 
 the Temple which he turned to such good account 
 in Pendcnnis and other of his writings.
 
 T 
 
 9 '^
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The National Omnibus — The National Standard — Paris Correspondence 
 — Verses and Sketches — ' A Tale of Wonder.' 
 
 As is well known, Thackeray's residence at Cam- 
 bridge did not last long, and after his subsequent 
 stay in Germany he went to Paris and studied art 
 more or less assiduously. He appears, however, to 
 have had an irresistible yearning for writing and for 
 journalism, which was destined first to bring him 
 loss and trouble, then gain and fame. 
 
 In the years 1831 and 1832 Mr. F. W. N. Bayley, a 
 prolific contributor to the serial pubhcations of the 
 day, was engaged in editing and writing for The 
 National Omnibus. Thackeray was unquestionably 
 acquainted with Bayley, but whether he contributed 
 anything to The National Omnibus is uncertain, though 
 some sketches of literary men of the day which ap- 
 peared there might well have come from his pencil, 
 and some of the verses are not at all unlike his early 
 work. The National Omnibus was at first issued 
 * gratis '; this not proving profitable, its price was 
 put at ' one penny.' It not unnaturally failed, and 
 from its ashes rose The National Standard a7id Journal 
 of Literature, Science, Music, Theatricals, and the Fine 
 Arts, the first number of which appeared on the 5th 
 January, 1833. It was a weekly journal, * edited by 
 
 2—3
 
 20 Thackeray. 
 
 F. W. N. Bayley, Esq.,' and sold for twopence. 
 Very early in its career Thackeray became a con- 
 tributor. He certainly was the author of the verses 
 on Louis Philippe which appeared with a sketch 
 in the eighteenth number. With the nineteenth 
 number Thackeray seems to have assumed the 
 editorship, and the address at the beginning of that 
 number was no doubt written by him. 
 
 Dr. John Brown, in the North British Review for 
 July, 1864, expressed his opinion that Thackeray 
 with this number became editor ; and it will be seen 
 from the letters quoted below that he also became 
 the owner of the paper, and that the articles written 
 by him must have been far more numerous than has 
 hitherto been supposed. 
 
 The first letter we have to quote is as follows : 
 
 ' Meurice's, Rue 'R.iwoW, July 6, 1833. 
 
 * About all I have seen I refer you to The National 
 Standard, to which I have written a great letter this 
 morning.' 
 
 This is the only letter we can quote which refers to 
 the Paris correspondence, but these contributions 
 are easily recognisable as Thackeray's work. In the 
 
 * Bibliography ' appended to Mr. Shepherd's edition 
 of * Sultan Stork ' (where some of these Paris letters 
 and some verses from the same pen are reprinted) it 
 is stated that with the number for the 24th August, 
 1833 (in which 'The Devil's Wager' appeared), 
 
 * Thackeray's contributions appear to have ceased '; 
 but this was not the case, as is shown by the follow- 
 ing letters referring to later work for The National 
 Standard :
 
 The National Standard. 21 
 
 ' Garrick Club, September 6, 1833. 
 
 * I must Stay for some time longer, being occupied 
 in writing, puffing, and other delightful occupations 
 for the A''. Standard. . . . The National Standard is, 
 I am glad to say, growing into repute, though I 
 know it is poor stuff.' 
 
 Whatever the author may have thought, he would 
 probably find few people to agree with him in his 
 criticism. Surely it was no small thing at the age of 
 twenty-two, probably with but little help from others, 
 to have conducted and kept alive for more than a 
 year a journal treating of such varied subjects as did 
 The National Standard, and treating of them in a 
 manner by no means to be despised. The volumes 
 themselves are very difficult to get, but an inspection 
 of them will well repay a visit to the British Museum, 
 not only for the letterpress, but also for the quaint 
 woodcuts, some of which show the touch of the true 
 humourist as strongly as do the best of Thackeray's 
 later efforts in the art of illustration. 
 
 On the 7th September, 1833, under the heading of 
 ' Foreign Literature,' appeared a short note, signed 
 * W.,' to which were appended first some verses in 
 patois, then a translation. There can be little doubt 
 as to the authorship of the verses, which are an early 
 example of the fondness that Thackeray showed 
 sometimes in after-life for introducing a touch of 
 burlesque in a seemingly incongruous manner. 
 
 On the 23rd October, 1833, Thackeray was in Paris 
 again, and wrote as follows : 
 
 * I admire your indignation about the old woman 
 and the sack of beans. It is translated from a very 
 clever French story, which is written in a sort of 
 patois. I suppose I have not imitated it well, for I
 
 oo 
 
 Thackeray 
 
 sent away the performance the day it was written, 
 and one does not know good from bad then. I have 
 sent nothing else, except a cheque, but the paper is 
 very rapidly improving, and will form, I have no 
 doubt, a property, in which case it would be pleasant 
 as an occupation and an income.' 
 
 This letter refers to an article which appeared in 
 the number for the i2th October, 1833, under the 
 title of ' Original Papers : A Tale of Wonder,' and is 
 worthy of preservation as a good specimen of Thack- 
 eray's early prose style. We therefore give it here : 
 
 * Original Papers. 
 
 'a tale of wonder. 
 
 ' Once upon a time there was an old woman who 
 lived in a village not far off, and who went to market 
 to buy a sack of beans. Now she had to walk back 
 ten miles over a dreary common ; a long step at 
 most times, but a terrible pull when one has a sack 
 of beans on one's back. It was night before she got 
 half way, and the moon was hid, and the snow was 
 falling, and the old woman was ready to drop ; she 
 was tired and hungry ; so she was right glad when 
 she came to a house, which, though an ugly-looking 
 place at the best, she thought quite good enough for 
 her to rest in. 
 
 ' She took out a penny, and asked for a bed, and 
 the woman of the house let her go into a loft, where 
 she slept on her sack of beans. 
 
 ' Now the house belonged to thieves ; and this 
 was one of their wives who let in the woman with 
 her sack. 
 
 ' But, though the old woman was so tired, she 
 could not sleep, but lay tossing about on her straw
 
 The National Sta7idard. 2X 
 
 o 
 
 quite uneasy : presently she saw a light in the room 
 below, and two men, each with a knife and a lantern, 
 
 ' And she felt desperately frightened, as you may 
 fancy, for she thought they might want to murder 
 her, and then eat her, which was often done in those 
 days, when there were a great many ogres and giants. 
 
 ' Well, the two men with the knives went on till 
 they came to a bed where a gentleman was sleeping, 
 who had been overtaken like the old woman, and 
 who had got with him a large portmanteau ; there 
 he lay as sound as possible, snoring away in a 
 manner quite pleasant to hear. As soon as the two 
 rogues saw how fast asleep he was, the biggest took 
 hold of his legs, and the little one took out his knife 
 and cut the gentleman's throat, shck 1 at one slash. 
 
 ' As soon as they had stuck him they left him 
 there all bloody, took the portmanteau and went 
 away again downstairs : the old woman with the 
 sack became mighty uneasy, thinking that it was to 
 be her turn next, and that it was all over with her 
 for certain ; whereas Heaven had sent her there on 
 purpose to detect and punish these wicked men. 
 As soon as they got downstairs, the woman must 
 have told them of the poor old creature in the loft, 
 for presently up they came again, knives and lanterns 
 and all. 
 
 'The poor old body was terribly frightened, as you 
 may think, especially when the big man took hold 
 of her legs (as he had done below stairs), and the 
 little one came up to her head, with his lantern and 
 his long knife. 
 
 ' However, she did not move a muscle, only she 
 snored to make believe she was asleep. 
 
 * " Let's leave her," says the big man ; " she's 
 asleep and can tell no tales."
 
 24 Thackeray. 
 
 * " Let's hill her;' says the little one ; " she'll do to 
 feed the pij:^s !" 
 
 'All this while the old woman lay as still as a 
 stone ; and, at last, as they did not suspect that she 
 was awake, they let her off, and went downstairs. 
 So she escaped like a brave old woman as she was ! 
 She saw them wrap up the dead man below in his sheet 
 and carry him to the courtyard ; presently they called 
 the pigs, and up they came, grunting and snuffling 
 round the trough, which was the coffin that these 
 wicked monsters gave the poor murdered gentleman. 
 
 * You may suppose that she did not sleep much 
 that night, but the next morning, as soon as it was 
 light, she thanked the woman of the house, took up 
 her sack, and set off home as though nothing had 
 happened ; trudging over the common as fast as her 
 poor legs would carry her, though that was not very 
 fast, she trembled so. Now the little man (he that 
 had stuck the gentleman) suspected that all was not 
 right, and he followed her, and came up with her 
 before she had got a mile on the road. As soon as 
 she saw him coming, the bold old lady puts down 
 her sack, and sits waiting for him on a stone. 
 
 * " What's the matter, missus ?" says he. 
 
 * " Why, my sack is heavy, and my old legs is 
 rather weak ; I wish some honest man would give 
 me an arm, and help me on my road a bit." 
 
 * So the little fellow gave her his arm ; and there 
 they went across the common, talking about beans, 
 and the weather, and what not, as if they had been 
 two angels. He saw her almost home ; and you may 
 be sure that when she got there she fell down on her 
 knees and said her prayers ; as well she might, after 
 getting off so well. 
 
 ' While she was in the middle of her prayers, in
 
 The National Sta7idard. 25 
 
 comes her husband ; and as soon as she'd done, he 
 asked for a bit of bacon and some of the beans ; so 
 she cut a large piece, and plenty of beans. While it 
 was boiling she told her husband of all she had seen 
 the night before. 
 
 ' " I must go to the Justice," says she, *' and tell 
 him the whole story." 
 
 * " Go to the Justice, go the devil," says he; " as for 
 the gentleman, it is all over with him now, and some 
 of these rogues' comrades will kill us if we peach." 
 
 * With that, he stuck his fork into the saucepan to 
 catch hold of a bit of the bacon. Well, as sure as I'm 
 sitting here, instead of pulhng out a bit of pork, what 
 does he find at the end of his fork but a man's head ! 
 
 ' " It's the gentleman's head," said the wife. 
 
 * " But what can we do ?" says her husband, who 
 was rather flustered. 
 
 '"You can revenge me!" says the head. " Last 
 night I was wickedly murdered, and eaten by pigs, 
 as your wife can swear to. I shall have no rest until 
 I see those robbers at the gallows ; and what's more, 
 I'll never leave you till then !" 
 
 * So the farmer told the Justice, and the thieves 
 were hanged, and all the pigs drowned who had 
 eaten the gentleman's body. 
 
 '"And the head?" 
 
 * Why, it was buried in the field where the farmer 
 sowed the beans, and there was never such crops 
 known as came from that field. 
 
 * " And the brave old woman ?" 
 
 * Why, though she was seventy years old, she had 
 a son, and lived happy ever after.' 
 
 The identification of this paper leads us to suppose 
 that several of the ' Original Papers,' published about
 
 26 Thackeray. 
 
 this time in The. National Standard, may have been 
 written by Thackeray ; but I hesitate to attribute 
 them to him without some unquestionable evidence. 
 The curious in such matters may, however, be recom- 
 mended to read 'The History of Crakatuk,' which 
 will be found in the numbers for the 30th November 
 and the 7th December, 1833. The story is a transla- 
 tion from the German and shows unmistakable signs 
 of skill. 
 
 The following letter is interesting as showing at 
 once the progress the paper made, and its owner's 
 trials and anxiety : 
 
 'Garrick Club, Tuesday, November 12, 1833. 
 
 * My National Standard as usual ! It has increased 
 in sale about twenty in the last month. At this rate 
 I shall be ruined before it succeeds.' 
 
 The varied nature and the extent of the unfortu- 
 nate editor's labours are clearly set out here : 
 
 ^ December 2^, 1833. 
 
 ' The only fault I find with The National Standard 
 is that at the end of the day I am but ill-disposed, 
 after writing and reading so much, to read another 
 syllable or write another line. ... I am anxious the 
 first number for the new year should be a particu- 
 larly good one, as I am going to change the name 
 to The Literary Standard, and increase the price to 
 threepence, with which alterations I hope to do 
 better.' 
 
 In due course, at the beginning of the year. The 
 National Standard appeared with an altered title, 
 though not that proposed in the last letter. The 
 new name was The National Standard and Literary
 
 The National Standard. 
 
 27 
 
 Representative. Its price was threepence ; and a 
 most confident address in the last number for 1833 
 heralded its future doings and expected success. 
 Among the contents were to be (doubtless from the 
 editor's pen) translations from the German and other 
 foreign languages. Two such translations appeared, 
 ' King Odo's Wedding,' and * The Minstrel's Curse,* 
 when a sudden collapse came, and, without any 
 notice to its readers, the publication of The National 
 Standard ended abruptly with the number for the 
 1st February, 1834. 
 
 I must not conclude these references to The 
 National Standard without mentioning the following 
 points. In the number for the i8th January, 1834, 
 appeared a piece of Irish fun, called ' Father Gaha- 
 gan's Exhortation.' Here we have Thackeray's first 
 use of the name ' Gahagan,' which afterwards became 
 Well known to his readers. Again, the signature & 
 crops up in the last numbers. First we find it under 
 a short paragraph in the last number but one ; and 
 a long article, entitled * Etude sur Mirabeau, par 
 Victor Hugo,' in the last number, is also signed O.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Ihi ConstUulional — Expected Cost and Profits — Paris Correspondence 
 — Struggles — Collapse — llie Literary Gazette. 
 
 The actual facts as to Thackeray's connection with 
 The Constitutional are almost, if not quite, unknown, 
 and are, at all events, unrecorded. His associations 
 with The National Standard and The Co7istittttio7ial 
 have often been confused the one with the other, 
 and it has been supposed that his financial ruin was 
 caused by the former, whereas it is clear enough that 
 it was the attempt to rival the old-established daily 
 papers with The Constitutional that impoverished the 
 youthful Thackeray, and consequently enriched our 
 literature with some of its brightest ornaments. The 
 heavy expenditure involved in the production of a 
 journal such as The Constitutional may be gathered 
 from the following contemporary estimate of the 
 profits expected from its publication : 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 State of Receipts and Disbursements with i,ooo addi : 
 
 Dr. Cr. 
 Weekly expenses = i8o - ^^9,360 Profit on 1,550 - -^^4,024 16 o 
 Stamps on adv""'* in- Profits on ad'"^^ in- 
 creased 1/3 - - - . 1,800 creased 1/3 - - 9,000 O O 
 
 Profit on Ship^ 
 
 ^11,160 Gazette- • - - 450 o o 
 
 13,474 16 o 
 11,160 o o 
 
 ;^2,3i4 16 o 
 
 Estimated position of the paper on the expected increase : 
 2^^2,314 i6s. ^52-=/44 weekly profit.
 
 .<■ 
 
 ^^'' 
 
 ^ 
 
 . ^JOiif^/f^^/^^uA^e/'^S^ li^^tm^jnf A ■^y^ao'iy.
 
 The Constitutional. 29 
 
 The only copy of The Constitutional to which I 
 have had access is that in the newspaper-room at 
 the British Museum. I have, however, carefully 
 studied its pages, and here record the result of my 
 investigations, prefacing my remarks with the state- 
 ment that the facts as to the institution and pro- 
 gress of the journal are taken from its own adver- 
 tisement columns, and may be relied upon as 
 correct. 
 
 In the year 1836 Thackeray's stepfather, Major 
 Carmichael Smyth, became chairman of a company 
 called ' The Metropolitan Newspaper Company.' 
 The capital of this company was £60,000, in six 
 thousand shares of ;^io each. The first meeting was 
 held on the ist August, 1836, when Major Car- 
 michael Smyth presided, and at this and subsequent 
 meetings it was resolved to acquire an existing 
 journal, The Public Ledger, and, taking advantage 
 of the lowering of the newspaper stamp duty, to 
 endeavour to transform it into a political newspaper 
 of the first rank. Accordingly, on Thursday, the 
 15th September, 1836, appeared No. i of The Con- 
 stitutional [and Public Ledger] , which by its failure 
 was destined to convert Thackeray from a man of 
 fortune and dilettante writer for newspapers and 
 miagazines into an actual professional man of letters, 
 and thus into one of the greatest writers of this 
 century. 
 
 The price of this journal was /[^d. Thackeray 
 w^as, from the first, its Paris correspondent. Those 
 were stirring times in France. Thackeray seems 
 to have thrown much energy into his work, and 
 the importance of his letters, and of the posi- 
 tion and type allotted to them, increased as time 
 went on.
 
 30 
 
 Thackeray. 
 
 Considerable pains have been taken to make 
 a complete list of Thackeray's contributions to 
 The Constitutional so far as they can be identified. 
 There is no difficulty in identifying^ his letters from 
 Paris, as it is well known that Thackeray was the 
 Paris correspondent of the journal, and that he 
 signed his letters * T. T.,' a signature used also by 
 him at other times and in other papers. It is not, 
 however, in itself a pleasant task to look through 
 number after number of an unwieldy daily journal 
 in search of these letters, which appeared at irregular 
 intervals, and it may be that the following list is not 
 absolutely complete. The dates are given in tabular 
 form for convenience of reference : 
 
 1. September 27th, 1836. 
 
 2. September 2gth 
 
 3. October 5th 
 
 4. October 8th 
 
 5. October nth 
 
 6. October 13th 
 
 7. October 14th 
 
 8. October iSth 
 
 9. October 21st 
 
 10. October 22nd 
 
 11. October 2gth 
 
 12. October 31st 
 
 13. November 5th 
 
 14. November gth 
 
 15. November 14th 
 
 16. November i6th 
 
 17. November i8th
 
 The Constitutional. 
 
 i8. 
 
 November 22nd, 1836. 
 
 19. 
 
 November 26th ,, 
 
 20. 
 
 December ist ,, 
 
 21. 
 
 December 8th ,, 
 
 22. 
 
 December 14th ,, 
 
 23- 
 
 December 19th „ 
 
 24. 
 
 December 20th ,, 
 
 25- 
 
 December 22nd ,, 
 
 26. 
 
 December 23rd ,, 
 
 27. 
 
 December 26th ,, 
 
 28. 
 
 December 31st ,, 
 
 29. 
 
 ^anuary 2nd, 1837. 
 
 30. 
 
 ^ anuary 4th ,, 
 
 31- 
 
 January 5th „ 
 
 32. 
 
 January 7th ,, 
 
 33- 
 
 January loth „ 
 
 34- 
 
 _ anuary 13th ,, 
 
 35- 
 
 January 14th „ 
 
 36. 
 
 January i8th ,, 
 
 ?>7- 
 
 January 19th ,, 
 
 38. 
 
 January 21st ,, 
 
 39- 
 
 ^ anuary 24th ,, 
 
 40. 
 
 January 28th ,, 
 
 41. 
 
 ■ anuary 31st ,, 
 
 42. 
 
 February 3rd ,, 
 
 43- 
 
 February 8th ,, 
 
 44. 
 
 February 18th „ 
 
 Here the Paris correspondence from * T. T.' 
 comes to an end, and there seems to be Httlc room 
 for doubt that Thackeray, as one of the principal
 
 32 Thackeray. 
 
 supporters of the paper, both with money and 
 brains, had been summoned to London to consider 
 how long the owners should continue to issue the 
 journal, and also some contemplated changes in its 
 form. 
 
 In February, 1837, editorial announcements were 
 made that The. Constitutional would be enlarged on 
 the ist of March to a size ' exceeding that of any 
 other daily journal.' And on March ist it duly 
 appeared with an additional column, making seven 
 columns in all, on each of its four pages. 
 
 From this time one observes, on glancing through 
 the paper, a great increase in the number of the 
 reviews and literary and art notes, and it seems pro- 
 bable that Thackeray was then working regularly 
 for the paper, and making use of the experience 
 gained by him in the conduct of The National 
 Standard. These are, however, mere speculations, 
 and it only remains to tell in a few words the 
 . story of the remaining days of the ill-fated Consti- 
 tutional. 
 
 In March, 1837, ominous announcements were 
 made to the shareholders of a further call of £1 
 per share, making a total of £y per share paid up. 
 On the loth May, 1837, notice was given of an 
 adjourned meeting of the shareholders of the Metro- 
 politan Newspaper Company to be held on the 
 13th May. The result of this meeting may be 
 seen in the reduction of the size of each page of 
 the paper to the original six columns, which took 
 place on the 5th June, the price remaining five- 
 pence. 
 
 On the 22nd June The. Constitutional appeared in 
 mourning for the death of the King, and in antici-
 
 The Constitittional. 33 
 
 pation, perhaps, of its own impending dissolution. 
 Indeed, on the ist July it appeared for the last time 
 with a farewell address, which, it has been sug- 
 gested, may have been written by Thackeray himself, 
 the last words of which it is interesting, especially 
 at this period of the Queen's reign, to note, were : 
 ' Our best [? last] wishes may be comprised in two 
 cordial ones : To the young Queen, a long reign 
 and a merry one ; to the people, the Franchise, 
 with Lord Durham for a minister.' 
 
 Thus ended The Constitutional, which is entitled 
 to be gratefully remembered as having probably 
 been the immediate means of transforming William 
 Makepeace Thackeray from an amateur in literary 
 and artistic work into an earnest professional 
 author, whose works rank, and will continue to 
 rank, as second to none of the great literary pro- 
 ducts of the reign which was then just beginning, 
 and has now completed its fiftieth year. 
 
 That The Constitutional was by no means a con- 
 temptible, though an unsuccessful journal, and that 
 Thackeray had no reason to be ashamed of his 
 connection with it, may be gathered from the fact 
 that its supporters included such men as George 
 Evans, William Ewart, George Grote, Joseph 
 Hume, William Molesworth, John Arthur Roebuck, 
 Edmond Beales, and many other noted Liberals 
 and Reformers. Its raison d'etre may be said to 
 have been advocacy of the ballot. 
 
 It is worthy of notice that even this second 
 journalistic disaster did not cure Thackeray of his 
 wish to invest money in periodicals, as will be seen 
 from the following letter, which he subsequently 
 wrote to William Jordan :
 
 34 
 
 Thackeray. 
 
 ' 13, Great Coram Street, Drunswick Square 
 
 * My dear Jerdan, 
 
 * Is it fair to ask whether the Literary Gazette 
 is for sale ? I should like to treat ; and thought 
 it best to apply to the fountain-head, 
 ' Of whom I am always, 
 
 * The obligated 
 
 ' W. M. Thackeray.' 
 
 It may be assumed that this negotiation led to no 
 result.
 
 
 SKETCH FOR ' MRS. PERKINS's KALL.'
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Frase7-''s Magazine — Thackeray's Early Acquaintance with it — His 
 Portrait among ' The Fraserians ' — ' The King of Brentford ' — 
 Probable early Contributions — ' A Word on the Annuals ' — ' Our 
 Batch of Novels for Christmas, 1S37 ' — ' Ilalf-a-Crown's worth of 
 Cheap Knowledge' — ' Dolly Duster.' 
 
 No task is more difficult for the Thackeray bibho- 
 grapher than that of identifying his author's early 
 contributions to Fraser's Magazine. That this state- 
 ment is not made lightly, or without good reason, will 
 appear from a consideration of the following facts. 
 
 Thackeray was acquainted with Fraser's Magazine 
 from the beginning. This is shown by his reference 
 to it in the extract here given from a letter which 
 he wrote to Mr. G. H. Lewes on the 28th April, 
 1855, with regard to Goethe : ' Any of us who had 
 books or magazines from England sent them to 
 him, and he examined them eagerly. Frasers 
 Magazine had lately come out, and I remember he 
 was interested in those admirable outline portraits 
 which appeared for a while in its pages.' Again, 
 Thackeray's portrait appears, in a conspicuous 
 position, in Maclise's group of the contributors to 
 Fraser's Magazine, which was issued with the num- 
 ber for January, 1835, so that it must be assumed 
 that he was then at least an occasional contributor 
 to its pages ; yet there has been no completely 
 satisfactory evidence as to Thackeray's authorship
 
 38 Thackeray. 
 
 of any paper appearing in Fraser's Magazine before 
 November, 1837, when the first instalment of ' The 
 Yellowplush Correspondence ' was pubHshed. In 
 writing thus the strong support given by such men 
 as Dr. John Brown and Mr. A. C. Swinburne to the 
 theory that Thackeray was the author of ' Ehzabeth 
 Brownrigge,' which was pubHshed in August and 
 September, 1832, is not forgotten ; but after most 
 careful consideration of all they have written on 
 the subject, and of the story itself, it seems to be 
 impossible to concede to * Elizabeth Brownrigge ' 
 the honour of counting Thackeray as its author. 
 
 It was at first hoped that the books relating to 
 the early days of Fraser's Magazine might be avail- 
 able as evidence on this interesting subject, but 
 Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co. write that * the 
 books referring to Fraser's Magazine so far back as 
 1834 3-nd thereabouts are no longer in existence.' 
 There are, it is believed, no surviving contemporary 
 relations of Thackeray who could be applied to for 
 information, and as we are considering writings of 
 a period more than fifty years ago, we cannot expect 
 to find many people of any kind now alive who were 
 then old enough to be concerned in literary matters. 
 Unfortunately the surviving contemporary relations 
 of Mr. James Eraser, with every inclination to 
 assist in my researches, have been unable to help, 
 as they were too young at the period in question to 
 have known anything of the working of the magazine. 
 Thus it will be seen that all certain means of know- 
 ledge have failed, and we are consequently thrown 
 back upon deduction and conjecture with reference 
 to Thackeray's early anonymous contributions to 
 Fraser's Magazine. With the object of identifying 
 some of these early writings, I have laboriously read
 
 Frasers Magazine. 39 
 
 through the early volumes of the magazine, extract- 
 ing all papers which, from their subject or style, 
 suggested any probability of their having been 
 written by Thackeray. The pieces so selected have 
 been carefully read through again and again, seeking 
 for any expression or reference which might serve 
 to strengthen or weaken their claims, and in this 
 task of selection I have had the assistance of others 
 well qualified and entitled to express an opinion on 
 the subject ; yet after all I have only been able con- 
 clusively to identify one solitary ballad, though 
 there are many pieces both in prose and verse that 
 may have been, and probably were written by 
 Thackeray. 
 
 The ballad referred to appeared among the Frascr 
 Papers for Ma}', 1834, 3-^^ as it was considerably 
 altered before its reappearance, and has the interest 
 of being Thackeray's earliest recognised contribu- 
 tion to the magazine, it is here reprinted with the 
 Editor's remarks : 
 
 ' And yet we need not quit French song-writing, 
 for here's an imitation of Beranger's first song, the 
 ' Roi d'Yvetot,' a glorious chant it is, and, we pre- 
 sume, utterly untranslatable ; but * The King of 
 Brentford ' is by no means to be despised.' 
 
 ' // ctait un Roi d'Yvetot.' — Beranger. 
 
 ' There was a King in Brentford, 
 
 Of whom no legends tell. 
 But who without his glory 
 
 Could sleep and eat right well. 
 His Polly's cotton night-cap, 
 
 It was his crown of state ; 
 He loved to sleep full early, 
 
 And rise again full late.
 
 40 Thackeray. 
 
 ' All in a fine straw Castle 
 
 He eat his four good meals, 
 And for a guard of honour 
 
 A dog ran at his heels ; 
 Sometimes to view his kingdoms 
 
 Rode forth this monarch good, 
 And then a prancing Jackass 
 
 He royally bestrode. 
 
 * There were no evil habits 
 
 With which this king was curst, 
 Except (and where's the harm on't ?) 
 
 A somewhat lively thirst. 
 And subjects must have taxes. 
 
 And monarchs must have sport ; 
 So out of every hogshead 
 
 His grace he kept a quart. 
 
 * He pleased the fine Court ladies 
 
 With manners soft and bland ; 
 They named him, with good reason, 
 
 The Father of the Land. 
 Four times a year his armies. 
 
 To battle forth did go ; 
 But their enemies were targets. 
 
 Their bullets they were tow. 
 
 * He vexed no quiet neighbour, 
 
 No bootless conquest made, 
 But by the laws of pleasure 
 
 His peaceful realm he swayed ; 
 And in the years he reigned 
 
 Through all his kingdom wide, 
 There was no cause for weeping, 
 
 Save when the good man died.
 
 Erasers Magazine. 41 
 
 ' Long time the Brentford nation 
 
 Their monarch did deplore — 
 His portrait yet is swinging 
 
 Beside an alehouse door ; 
 And topers tender-hearted, 
 
 Regard that honest phiz, 
 And envy times departed 
 
 That knew no reign like his.' 
 
 There are other ballads in the magazine about this 
 time that may have come from the same source, and 
 other imitations of Beranger were promised, but 
 certainty as to their authorship cannot be arrived at. 
 My remarks here, then, must take the form of queries 
 rather than of notes. 
 
 Passing by such seductive, but impossible, items 
 as ' Scenes in the Law Courts,' published in October, 
 1831, and actually signed * 0,' and ' Elizabeth Brown- 
 rigge,' of which enough has recently been written, 
 nothing with special claims to notice is found before 
 March, 1834, when there is a review called ' Hints 
 for a History of Highwaymen.' Again, in April, 
 1834, there is a long review of ' A Dozen of Novels,' 
 and in June, 1834, "^ review of ' Rookwood,' called 
 ' High-ways and Low-ways ; or, Ainsworth's Dic- 
 tionary, with Notes by Turpin.' All or any of these 
 may have been by Thackeray. After them there is 
 nothing calling for mention before the article on 
 
 * Paris and the Parisians, in 1835,' which was printed 
 in the number for February, 1836. The title of 
 
 * The Jew of York ' (September, 1836) suggests the 
 author of ' Rebecca and Rowena ' ; and it seems not 
 improbable that he who reviewed Grant's ' Paris and 
 its People ' in December, 1843, may have previously 
 reviewed the same author's ' Great Metropolis ' in
 
 42 Thackeray 
 
 December, 1836. There is much in the style as well 
 as in the title and subject of * Another Caw from the 
 Rookwood : Turpin Out Again ' (April, 1836), to 
 suggest that Thackeray was the writer ; while it is 
 the subject and a reference to Lord Tennyson's 
 * Timbuctoo,' rather than any internal evidence, that 
 suggest that Thackeray may possibly have had a 
 hand in the ' Letters from Cambridge to Oliver 
 Yorke, about the Art of Plucking,' etc., which made 
 their appearance in June, July, and August, 1837. 
 The review which appeared in April, 1837, ' One or 
 Two Words on One or Two Books,' also, might well 
 have owned Thackeray as its author. 
 
 Other papers of this period may suggest themselves 
 to this or that taste as having been written by our 
 author (the list given of possible contributions makes 
 no pretension to completeness), but it must be re- 
 membered that in the years 1836 and 1837 he was, 
 as has been shown in the last chapter, occupied in 
 work for The Constitutional, and he may consequently 
 not have written much for Fraser^s Magazine. 
 
 These are, however, at best but speculations, and 
 are put forward merely as suggestions or queries 
 which may, though I fear they will not, lead to 
 something more decided. The well-known ' Yellow- 
 plush Correspondence ' having once begun, we find 
 ourselves on firmer ground. It is not proposed to 
 refer to these or other well-known writings of Thack- 
 era}', but to mention several papers not hitherto 
 identified which were unquestionably his work. 
 
 Before leaving ' Yellowplush ' it should be men- 
 tioned that in the ' Preface to our Second Decade,' 
 in the number for January, 1840, appear on p. 21 
 these words : ' Yellowplush, with pen and pencil, 
 contributed to " the harmless mirth of nations " : '
 
 Eraser s Magazine. 43 
 
 while on the following page, in a description of the 
 plate of the Fraserians, we read : ' Those who appear 
 only in this group are . . . Thackeray, William M. 
 In all probability comparatively few people at this 
 time knew who ' Thackeray, William M.' was, or 
 identified him with any of his anonymous and pseu- 
 donymous writings in Fraser's Magazine. By means 
 of our friend Yellowplush we are able to ascribe to 
 Thackeray, with what amounts to absolute certainty, 
 some papers not hitherto recognised as his work. 
 
 The first of these is ' A Word on the Annuals,' 
 published in December, 1837, during which month, 
 it will be observed, there is a hiatus in ' The Yellow- 
 plush Correspondence.' On p. 760 we find this 
 note, which shows clearly who wrote the article : 
 
 * Our friend Mr. Yellowplush has made inquiries 
 as to the authorship of this tale, and his report is 
 that it is universally ascribed in the higher circles to 
 Miss Howell-and-James.' 
 
 In a note-book of Thackeray is this entry, dated 
 January, 1838 : ' Twenty-four pages in Fraser, Yellow- 
 plush, Trollope, Bulwer, Landon, and a design.' In 
 Januar}^, 1838, an instalment of ' The Yellowplush 
 Correspondence ' appeared, as did also a long article 
 on ' Our Batch of Novels for Christmas, 1837.' This 
 article alone fills about twenty-four pages, so that it 
 seemed at first that the entry was inaccurate. But 
 on investigation it will be found that there were nearly 
 twelve pages of * The Yellowplush Correspondence,' 
 and that the reviews of Mrs. Trollope's The Vicar 
 of Wrexhill, of Bulwer's Ernest Maltravers, and of 
 Miss Landon's Ethel Churchill, fill a little over 
 twelve pages more, making together the twenty-four
 
 44 Thackeray. 
 
 pages mentioned in the diary. It is clear, then, that 
 these three reviews were written by Thackeray, the 
 remaining notices being probably supplied by another 
 writer. 
 
 An entry under January 4, 1838, ' Wrote a little 
 Etiquette and read Life of George IV.,' I have not 
 succeeded in unravelling, but another hint is given 
 twice, first as, 'January 31. Wrote on Penny News- 
 papers for Frascr,' and again as, * Wrote for Fraser 
 on the Penny Press and Yellowplush, No. IV. — 7 
 Feby.' These notes clearly identify an article in the 
 number for February, 1838, called ' Half a Crown's 
 Worth of Cheap Knowledge,' as Thackeray's. It 
 deals with fifteen of the penny and twopenny perio- 
 dicals of the day, among others with ' Oliver Twiss. 
 By Bos. id. E. Lloyd, Bloomsbury.' All Thack- 
 eray's generous references to his great contemporary 
 are interesting, and the following passage is quoted 
 as evidence of the genuineness of his admiration of 
 Dickens's writings, shown in an anonymous and un- 
 acknowledged review : 
 
 ' We come next to Oliver Twiss, by Bos ; a kind of 
 silly copy of Boz's admirable tale. We have not, we 
 confess, been able to read through Oliver Twiss. The 
 only amusing point of it is an advertisement by the 
 publisher, calling upon the public to buy " Lloyd's 
 Edition of Oliver Twiss, by Bos," it being the only 
 genuine one. By which we learn, that there are 
 thieves, and other thieves who steal from the first 
 thieves ; even as it is said, about that exiguous beast 
 the flea there be other fleas, which annoy the original 
 animal.' 
 
 The next entry in the note-book as to Fraser's
 
 Eraser s Magazine. 45 
 
 Magazine is : ' Yellowplush in April. Letter from 
 Paris.' This is puzzling. Yellowplush is in the 
 April number, but the only thing at all answering the 
 description of ' Letter from Paris ' is the first of 
 a series of three long papers called ' Our Club at 
 Paris,' the second and third papers appearing in 
 the numbers for May and June, 1838, and it is 
 not probable that these were written by Thack- 
 eray. 
 
 The diary gives no more information as to contri- 
 butions to Fraser's Magazine, but it appears from 
 it that early in 1838 Thackeray was writing for 
 Galignani, and to a considerable extent for The 
 Times. These Times articles are dealt with in the 
 next chapter. 
 
 In Fraser's Magazine for October and November, 
 1838, is a humorous, quizzing review of what the 
 writer calls ' Lady Carry-the-Candle's Diary,' under 
 the guise of ' Passages from the Diary of the late 
 Dolly Duster, with Elucidations, Notes, etc., by 
 various Eds.' One of the editors signs himself 
 ' Knarf,' which, it will be seen, introduces us to 
 another of Thackeray's numerous noms de guerre. 
 
 The second part of the paper begins with the 
 following ' Note by Ed. No. 3 ' : 
 
 ' October 25, 183S. 
 
 * With some surprise and much apprehension, I 
 have just read the following letter (written on the 
 back of a "weekly despatch " to Lord Yellowbelly). 
 I at once lay it before the reader, merely noticing 
 that, as its date implies, it was begun on the 5th, 
 and appears to have cost the author twenty days' 
 work to finish. Its " cacographical " purity, how- 
 ever, accounts for this labour.
 
 46 Thackeray. 
 
 ' " To the Editor of Fraser's Magazine. 
 
 ' " Reform Club, Odolier 5. 
 
 ' " Sir,— 
 
 ' " A lady by the name of Duster has, I per- 
 ceive, commenced the publication of her Memoirs 
 in your Magazine. I very seldom read that mis- 
 cellany, much more write in it ; and must confess 
 an extreme disgust at a report which has gone 
 abroad that I myself am connected in any way 
 with the memoirs in question. 
 
 ' " May I request, sir, that you will contradict this 
 rumour, which is likely seriously to injure me in the 
 Society in which I have at present the honour to 
 move. A member of the Club from which I address 
 you this note, a partisan (as far as my efforts go) 
 of ministers, a friend of the most celebrated literary 
 men in England, it would ill become me to contri- 
 bute to a miscellany like yours, or to attempt by a 
 stupid series of cacographical errors to awaken the 
 laughter of the public. A gentleman, sir, should 
 never be a buffoon ; it is a poor wit which is obliged 
 to adopt such vulgar means for obtaining applause. 
 In case you refuse the insertion of this letter, I need 
 not say that I shall expect a very different species of 
 satisfaction. 
 
 * " I have the honour to remain, Sir, 
 * *' Your obedient servant, 
 
 t it PIT2R0Y YeLLOWPLUSH. 
 
 * " P.S. (Private.) Haven't I got on in spelling ? 
 Come and dine here some day : we let people in 
 while the Irish members are out of town. I have 
 got a novel in the style of a certain friend of mine, 
 for which I want to make arrangements with you : 
 it's got poetry, classix, metafizzix, and is crammed 
 chock full of bits of Greek play. Do you twig ?'"
 
 Frasc7's JMagazine. 47 
 
 It is certain that no writer among Frase/^s staff 
 other than the author of ' The Yellowplush Corre- 
 spondence ' would have referred in such terms to 
 ' cacographical errors,' and it will hardly be doubted 
 that ' Dolly Duster ' is to be added to our list of 
 Thackeray's contributions to Fraser's Magazine. It 
 is unquestionable that there must be many other 
 unrecognised papers by Thackeray in the magazine, 
 such as ' Paris Pastimes for the Month of May ' 
 (June, 1839), 'The Paris Rebels of the Twelfth of 
 May' (August, 1839), ^i^d 'The Fetes of July' 
 (September, 1839) > ^^t it is difficult to positively 
 identify any others about this date as his work. 
 
 I think, however, that I may claim that, apart 
 from suggestions or queries, the labours of the future 
 bibliographer have been lightened by showing be- 
 3-ond dispute that several of the unclaimed contri- 
 butions to Fraser's Magazine owed their existence to 
 Thackeray. 

 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Times — Reviews of Carlyle's Trench Revolution'— 'Duchess of 
 Marlborough's Private Correspondence' — 'Eros and Anteros, or 
 Love ' — ' A Diary relative to George IV. and Queen Caroline ' — 
 'Memoirs of Holt, the Irish Rebel'— 'The Toetical Works of Dr. 
 Southey ' — Article on Fielding. 
 
 The nature and extent of Thackeray's early writings 
 for Th& Times have always puzzled those who have 
 written on the subject. 
 
 Anthony Trollope, in his monograph on Thackeray 
 in the English Men of Letters series, wrote, p. 14 : 
 ' For a while he was connected with Tlie Times 
 newspaper, though his work there did not, I think, 
 amount to much.' 
 
 Mr. James Hannay, in his Memoir, p. 14, says : 
 * He certainly contributed something to The Times 
 during Barnes' editorship, an article on Fielding 
 amongst them ; though not, we should think, leading 
 articles — a kind of work for which he had no 
 relish, and for which he believed himself to have no 
 turn.' 
 
 A gentleman whose knowledge should be second 
 to none on the subject writes : * Thackeray's con- 
 nection with The Times was before my time and 
 before Delane's time, if it ever existed. I have 
 heard a rumour to that effect and that is all.' 
 
 It will be seen from these quotations that not 
 much is actually known on the subject. Some
 
 UH/uU 'liiJt V*! ^ ■ I Ujs\ru \aM) SaJi ci, iauddut hcct.
 
 The Times. 51 
 
 light has, however, lately come from the publication 
 of letters and otherwise. It was from a letter of 
 Carlyle that Thackeray was identified as the author 
 of the review of Carlyle's French Revolution, which 
 appeared in The Times on Thursday, August 3, 
 1837, P- 6» col^- 4"6* T^® article on Fielding 
 mentioned by Mr. Hannay was referred to in one 
 of Thackeray's own letters to Mrs. Brookfield, which 
 appeared in Scn6??cr's Magazine for July, 1887; and 
 Mr. Blanchard Jerrold, in his Life of George Cruik- 
 shank, has named Thackeray as the writer of the 
 notice of Cruikshank's Gallery printed in The Times 
 on Friday, May 15, 1863. 
 
 I beheve, however, that these articles have been 
 looked upon as probably comprising most, if not all, 
 of Thackeray's writings for our leading journal ; but 
 this is, as will be seen, by no means the case. It 
 will be remembered that Mr. James T. Fields, in 
 his Yesterdays with Authors, p. 27, has quoted the 
 following saying of Thackeray, as to the date of which 
 we are only told that it was some time after the 
 publication of Vanity Fair : 
 
 ' " I turned off far better things then than I do now," 
 said he, " and I wanted money sadly . . . but how 
 little I got for my work ! It makes me laugh," he 
 continued, " at what The Times pays me now, when 
 I think of the old days, and how much better I wrote 
 for them then, and got a shilling where I now get 
 ten.' 
 
 It is doubtful, however, whether, with the excep- 
 tion of the isolated article on Cruikshank's pictures 
 above referred to, Thackeray wrote much for The 
 Times after the Review of ' The Kickleburys on the 
 Rhine,' and his reply to that Review, though it is 
 
 4—2
 
 5 2 Thackeray. 
 
 quite certain that in his early days he did write 
 regularly for the paper; as Mr. Hannay says, not 
 leading articles, but reviews of books, and in all pro- 
 bability also notices of pictures and perhaps of plays. 
 In Thackeray's note-book, referred to before, occur 
 many entries, at the end of 1837 ^-"^^ the beginning 
 of 1838, of receipts from The Times; and I have suc- 
 ceeded, with much search, in identifying without 
 doubt several articles, briefly referred to in this note- 
 book, of which it is proposed to give some account. 
 Closely following, ' Sent to The Times my ace' for 
 lOg- cols.,' comes, ' Wrote Marlborough — 2.' A dili- 
 gent search in the files of the journal has resulted, 
 with the help of this hint, in discovering in The Times 
 for Saturday, January 6, 1838, p. 6, cols. 4-6, a re- 
 view on the * Duchess of Marlborough's Private Cor- 
 respondence.' This article begins with the following 
 characteristic passage : 
 
 ' The dignity of history sadly diminishes as we 
 grow better acquainted with the materials which 
 compose it. In our orthodox history-books the 
 characters move on as in a gaudy play-house pro- 
 cession, a glittering pageant of kings, and warriors, 
 and stately ladies, majestically appearing and passing 
 away. Only he who sits very near the stage can dis- 
 cover of what stuff the spectacle is made. The kings 
 are poor creatures, taken from the dregs of the com- 
 pany ; the noble knights are dirty dwarfs in tinfoil ; 
 the fair ladies are painted hags with cracked feathers 
 and soiled trains. One wonders how gas and dis- 
 tance could ever have rendered them so bewitching. 
 The perusal of letters like these produces a very 
 similar disenchantment, and the great historical 
 figures dwindle down into the common proportions
 
 The Times. 5 3 
 
 as we come to view them so closely. Kings, ministers 
 and generals form the principal dramatis personce ; 
 and if we may pursue the stage parallel a little 
 further, eye never lighted upon a troop more con- 
 temptible. Mighty political changes had been worked 
 in the country, others threatened it equally great. 
 Great questions were agitated — whether the Pro- 
 testant religion should be the dominant creed of the 
 State, and the Elector of Hanover a King, or whether 
 Papac}^ should be restored, and James III. placed on 
 the throne — whether the continental despotism aimed 
 at by Louis should be established, or the war con- 
 tinued to maintain the balance of power in Europe, 
 or at least to assure the ascendancy of England — on 
 these points our letter-writers hardly deign to say a 
 word. The political question seems only to be used 
 as an engine for the abuse of the opposite party. 
 The main point is whether Harley shall be in or 
 Godolphin, how Mrs. Masham, the chambermaid, 
 can be checked or won over, how the Duchess of 
 Marlborough can regain her lost influence over the 
 Queen, or whether the Duke is strong enough to do 
 without it, can force his Captain-Generalcy for life, 
 and compel the Queen to ensure to his daughters the 
 pension and places of their mother.' 
 
 The whole article, which fills upwards of two 
 columns, is of interest as giving Thackeray's early 
 views of people and things in a time upon which he 
 wrote much in later years, and will repay the student 
 who takes the trouble to look it up and read it. A 
 further entry in the book reads as follows : ' Wrote 
 Love on Wednesday night.' These few words 
 enabled me to fix upon two articles as having been 
 written by Thackeray, but identification is further
 
 54 TJiackcray. 
 
 helped by another note: 'Jan. ii, 2 cols. \ Lady C. 
 Bury.' In The Times for Thursday, January 11, 1838, 
 p. 3, cols. 1-3, will be found an article, or rather two 
 articles, headed ' Eros and Anteros, or *' Love," by 
 Lady Charlotte Bury,' and * A Diary relative to 
 George IV. and Queen Caroline.' The first begins 
 in a style which would rather surprise the readers of 
 a review in The Times of to-day, as follows : 
 
 ' Cupid ought to have reviewed the first of these 
 works — Love; but his Lordship was engaged with 
 some of his other foreign affairs, and therefore it has 
 been done by divers hands. We purpose merely to 
 describe it. The plot of her ladyship's novel, or 
 rather the text on which she writes her sermon on 
 love, runs thus.' 
 
 A sarcastic sketch of the plot and the absurdities and 
 improprieties with which the story teems is then 
 given, and the review closes in these terms : 
 
 ' Ladies may be neglected in genteel society, but 
 they are not often thrashed. Husbands may be un- 
 faithful, but they do not introduce mistresses to their 
 wives and daughters. ... It is against this par- 
 ticular doctrine of Lady Charlotte Bury's that we cry 
 out. We are not anxious to show that the details of 
 her ladyship's novels are dull, and the morals faulty; 
 the reader can draw his own conclusion for himself 
 We only beg humbly to offer the opinion that a lady, 
 when she is kicked by her husband, is not in duty 
 bound to live with him ; and that when she is be- 
 trayed and insulted by him she is worse than a fool 
 to respect or to love him. In fact, the passion in 
 such a case is not love, but a base, degrading, pru- 
 rient imbecility. It is impossible, however, to say
 
 The Times. 5 5 
 
 how all this may be in exclusive society, but we may 
 whisper that any member of such society who betrays 
 its mode of life (if such be its mode of hfe) is a very 
 silly and ridiculous person.' 
 
 The next article is a review of ' A Diary of the 
 Times of George IV.,' which is, I venture to think, 
 a model of outspoken, unsparing, slashing condem- 
 nation : 
 
 ' We never met with a book more pernicious or 
 more mean. It possesses that interest which the 
 scandalous chronicles of Brantome, and Rabutin, 
 and the ingenious Mrs. Harriette Wilson have excited 
 before, and is exactly of the same class. It does 
 worse than chronicle the small beer of a Court — the 
 materials of this book are infinitely more base ; the 
 foul tittle-tattle of the sweepings of the Princess of 
 Wales's bedchamber or dressing-room, her table or 
 ante-room, the reminiscences of industrious eaves- 
 dropping, the careful records of her unguarded 
 moments, and the publication of her confidential 
 correspondence, are the chief foundations for this 
 choice work.* 
 
 The writer then protests against such a book having 
 been written by a woman, * a woman, too, who has 
 eaten at her table,' etc., gives reasons for ascribing 
 the authorship to Lady Charlotte Bury, and finishes 
 with : 
 
 ' There is no need now to be loyal to your Prince, 
 or tender of his memory. Take his bounty while 
 living, share his purse and his table, gain his con- 
 fidence, learn his secrets, flatter him, cringe to him, 
 vow to him an unbounded fidelity, and when he is 
 dead, wriic a diary and betray him P
 
 56 Thackeray. 
 
 I had an easy task with the next entry, which is 
 '31 January. Holt in The Times,'' and had no diffi- 
 culty in finding in the paper for January 31, 1838, 
 p. 2, cols. 4-5, a review on the ' Memoirs of Holt, the 
 Irish Rebel.' This review is mainly occupied with 
 extracts from the book, and presents no special points 
 of interest. Indeed, nothing but the extract above 
 quoted would have led me to attribute it to Thackeray, 
 and any interest it may possess it must owe simply 
 to its authorship. As an instance of the care be- 
 stowed by Thackeray upon his work, an earlier note 
 is quoted : ' Jan. 11, re-wrote Holt.' The last entry 
 to help in our quest is * Southey, Times, 16 April ' ; 
 and on turning to the journal for April 17, 1838, p. 6, 
 cols. 4-5, the article is question is found, ' The 
 Poetical Works of Dr. Southey, collected by Himself,' 
 from which I quote the following passage, which 
 not only shows considerable critical acumen, but 
 possesses a special interest as having been written 
 by so introspective a man as Thackeray : 
 
 * Were we disposed to examine or account for Mr. 
 Southey's peculiarities as a poet, we could find no 
 better means of explaining them than are here given 
 by himself. A small and amiable coterie of partial 
 friends, continued solitude, a long habit of self-con- 
 templation, are what Mr. Southey calls the greatest 
 of all advantages, and what another perhaps would 
 declare to be amongst his greatest drawbacks. A 
 timid man of business cannot be other than a vain 
 one, and the continued study of the ego, thus en- 
 couraged by temperament, situation, and unceasing 
 praise of friends, cannot surely induce to the healthy 
 development of the poetical character. Such a man 
 may examine himself a vast deal too much ; in the
 
 The Times. 57 
 
 pursuit of this study (and a very fascinating study it 
 is) he forsakes others fully as noble, and quite as 
 requisite to complete his education as a poet. Surely 
 the period of solitude and contemplation should not 
 commence too early, for repose, which is so whole- 
 some after action, is only enervating without it, and 
 a strong genius, like a powerful body shut out from 
 the world and the fresh air, grows indolent and flaccid 
 v/ithout exercise, or, what is worse, morbid. Some 
 particular quality of the mind or body (especially 
 where there is an original tendency to disease) 
 becomes unduly developed and inflamed. In a poet 
 v/e may venture to say that the disease (fatally 
 aggravated by seclusion) is self-approbation. It is a 
 vital part of his mental constitution, but it requires 
 careful exercise, diet, medicine, else it inflames to 
 such an extent as to choke up all the other functions, 
 and colours everything with its own sickly hue. A 
 poet in such a condition becomes like a bilious 
 millionnaire from India — his wealth and all the world 
 are nothing to him — he can only muse and moan 
 over his unhappy liver. We do not mean to hint 
 that Mr. Southey is in any such condition . . . but 
 we would only say that he retired too early from the 
 world, where he might have found a healthier and 
 even higher school of poetry than in his quiet study 
 by his lonely Cumberland lake. A man may be an 
 exquisite painter, like Gerard Dow, for instance, and 
 give us a complete and delightful picture — of an 
 interior, let us suppose, with a single figure studying 
 — it was Dow's general subject ; but a great artist has 
 the world for his subject, and makes it his task to 
 portray it.' t 
 
 Unfortunately the notes help in the work of identi- 
 fication no more; but it will be seen that at this date
 
 58 Thackeray. 
 
 — 1837-38 — Thackeray was doing regular work for The 
 Times, and it cannot be doubted that in time other 
 articles will be identified as his. There are several 
 of those I came across in my search which I am 
 practically certain were written by him ; but, adhering 
 to the rule which has throughout governed these 
 notes, I have resisted the temptation of ascribing 
 anything to our author on mere assumption, con- 
 fining my remarks to such writings as I can prove 
 must have come from his pen.
 
 ^#^-- 
 
 >„
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 American Editions — Yellowplush Papers — Fitz-Boodle Papers — Major 
 Gahagan — Mcn^s Wives — Barry Lyndon — A Shabby Gettteel Story — 
 Book of Snob s—yeavies' s Diary ; A Legend of the Rhine ; Rebecca 
 and Rowena — Prize Novelists ; The Pat Contributor ; Travels in 
 London — Mr. Prolongs Letters ; The Proser, and Other Tales — 
 ' Charity and Humour.' 
 
 It has frequently happened that British authors 
 have been indebted to American readers for encour- 
 agement by recognition of their earHer works, while 
 as yet unnoticed among their own countrymen. Even 
 when this encouragement takes the form of simply 
 reprinting and annexing their works, and brings 
 them no pecuniary profit, it is encouragement for 
 all that. As has been shown, Thackeray was actually 
 employed to write for an American journal, and it is 
 certain that the American reading public have from 
 the first shown a keen appreciation of Thackeray's 
 ability. This is shown by the numbers of collected 
 editions of his Miscellanies which appeared in 
 America before anybody had thought them worthy 
 of reproduction here. 
 
 It is proposed to give short particulars of such 
 writings of Thackeray as appeared in book form in 
 America before they were so published here, and 
 to note the variations between the contents of the 
 several volumes as first published in the two countries. 
 
 In 1852 Messrs. D. Appleton and Co., of New
 
 62 Thackeray. 
 
 York, published in ' Appleton's Popular Library' a 
 great many of Thackeray's Miscellanies, of which 
 the following volumes are in my collection. 
 
 1. The, Ycllowplush Papers, 1852. This volume has 
 in itself no special interest, as it was taken from the 
 Comic Tales and Sketches of 1841. The announce- 
 ment of the volume, however, mentions, after a 
 reference to the London edition of 1841, that 'an 
 imperfect collection, long since out of print, had 
 previously been published in Philadelphia.' It would 
 be very interesting to have particulars of this Phila- 
 delphia edition, as it was probably the first volume 
 of Thackeray's writings published in America. 
 
 2. TheConfessiojisofFitz-Boodle; and Some Passages 
 in the Life of Major Gahagan, 1852. This is remark- 
 able as containing the third of Fitz-Boodle's ' Con- 
 fessions ' (which has never been reprinted in England 
 since its first appearance in Fraser's Magazine), as 
 well as the stories of ' Dorothea,' ' Ottilia,' and ' Miss 
 Lowe,' none of which were included in the English 
 edition of 1857, the last-mentioned having been re- 
 printed here for the first time in the volumes of Miscel- 
 laneous Essays, Sketches, and Reviews, published in 1885. 
 
 3. Meal's Wives, 1852. This is not only the first 
 collected edition of these papers, which originally 
 appeared in Eraser's Magazine, but the volume con- 
 tains the article, 'The 's Wife,' which has never 
 
 been reprinted in England. 
 
 4. The Luck of Barry Lyndon, 2 vols., 1852. This 
 is the first separate edition, the first English edition 
 being that of 1856. 
 
 5. A Shabby Genteel Story, 1852. The first separate 
 edition, though it does not contain the touching note 
 written for the first English edition of 1857. The 
 other three stories in the volume, 'The Professor,'
 
 American Editions. 63 
 
 o 
 
 ' The Bedford Row Conspiracy,' and ' A Little 
 Dinner at Timmins's,' had appeared here in 1841 
 in the Comic Tales and Sketches. 
 
 6. The Book of Snobs, 1852. This was not the first 
 edition, one having been published here in 1848, but 
 it included the seven suppressed articles, which were 
 not reprinted in England until the volume of Contri- 
 butions to ' Punch ' appeared in 1886. 
 
 7. Jeames's Diary; A Legend of the Rhine; and 
 Rebecca and Rowena, 1853. The first two stories 
 were collected in this volume for the first time, but 
 Rebecca and Rowena appeared separately here in 
 1850. 
 
 8. Punch's Prize Novelists; The Fat Contributor ; 
 and Travels in London, 1853. This volume contains 
 the first collection of all these papers. Some of them 
 were not reprinted here until the volume of Contribu- 
 tions to ' Punch ' appeared, and some do not appear 
 even in that collection. 
 
 9. Mr. Brown's Letters to a Young Man about Town ; 
 with the Proser, and other Tales. This volume has 
 a special value, inasmuch as it not only is the first 
 collection of the papers which appear in it, but con- 
 tains an 'Author's Preface,' expressly written by 
 Thackeray for the series, and also some papers which 
 have not been reprinted here. 
 
 There may be more volumes in this series which 
 deserve notice ; but the Americans, though willing 
 enough to buy Thackeray's books from us, are not 
 to be induced to part with their own first editions. 
 
 An American edition of great interest is that ot 
 The English Humourists, which was published by 
 Messrs. Harper and Brothers in New York in 1853, 
 the year of its publication here, and contained 
 Thackeray's extra lecture on * Charity and Humour,'
 
 64 
 
 Thackeray. 
 
 which was not included in the Enghsh edition, and 
 was not printed in this country until it found a place 
 among the Miscellaneous Essays in 1885. 
 
 Since Thackeray's death many volumes of his col- 
 lected papers have appeared in America, the most 
 noteworthy being, perhaps, that published by Messrs. 
 Ticknor and Fields in 1867, under the title of Early 
 and Late Papers, which shows how carefully Thack- 
 eray's early writings had been collected and stored 
 up. It contains, among early papers, ' Memorials 
 of Gormandizing,' ' Men and Coats,' ' Bluebeard's 
 Ghost,' ' Dickens in France,' and others which have 
 only lately been unearthed and reprinted in this 
 country. Other volumes were promised by Mr. 
 Fields, who himself edited this, but whether they 
 appeared or not, I cannot say. 
 
 It will be seen, however, from the above notes, 
 incomplete as they doubtless are, that many of 
 Thackeray's writings can only be had in their first 
 collected form by means of these American editions, 
 while some have not even yet been reissued here, 
 though they were known to Thackeray's Trans- 
 atlantic admirers many years ago. 
 
 Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row, London.
 
 ^ 
 
 
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