Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

"Sir,' said he, with tears starting to his weatherbeaten face, which, with his trembling lips, was ashy pale, 'will you come over yonder?'

"The old remembrance that had been recalled to me was in his look. I asked him, terror-stricken, leaning on the arm he held out to support me,

"Has a body come ashore?'

"He said, 'Yes.'

"Do I know it?' I asked then.

“He answered nothing.

[ocr errors]

“But he led me to the shore. And on that part of it where she and I had looked for shells, two children,— on that part of it where some lighter fragments of the old boat, blown down last night, had been scattered by the wind; among the ruins of the home he had wronged, I saw him lying with his head upon his arm, as I had often seen him lie at school.”

The whole story of "David Copperfield" deserves perusal before any decision as to its real merits can be rendered; and then one ought to see it dramatized, that the mean, cringing, despicable Uriah Heep, and the self-reliant, decided Betsey Trotwood, the great-hearted Peggotty, the filial Agnes, and the poor Little Em❜ly, might be fully comprehended. Nor should the “lone, lorn creetur," nor the irrepressible Mr. Micawber, ever looking for something to "turn up," be overlooked.

Both novel and drama will make one bless the name of

Charles Dickens, and write his name

"Among the few, the immortal names

That were not born to die."

CHAPTER XI.

RETURNS TO HIS EARLY PRACTICE.

Bleak House. - Death of Poor Jo. - Uncommercial Traveller.

"Ay! idleness! The rich folks never fail
To find some reason why the poor deserve
Their miseries."

SOUTHEY.

"For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord: I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him."- Ps. xii. 5.

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

WO years after "David Copperfield'
found a warm greeting from the public,
Mr. Dickens gave
"Bleak House to the
world; which novel met a cooler recep-

[ocr errors]

tion. In this book, Mr. Dickens seemed

to return to his early practice of writing with some definite purpose; and, "though Skimpole and Boythorn were genial caricatures of the external peculiarities and individual mannerisms of Leigh Hunt and Walter Savage Landor, the purpose of the novel was to satirize. the dilatory procedure of the court of chancery." So says one writer; and another adds, "It was thought by many that this work was of a second grade; that it did

not show so much force of thought, strength of representation, brilliancy of fancy and of style, in short, not so much of any of its author's great qualities, as the previous novels. Yet, if any distinction can be drawn between the two series of works, it is probably only in the quantity of gayety and humor in them. Whatever the power of the serious characters of the later novels, as compared with the earlier, the mirthful element is far less frequent in the later."

C. C. Terry, in "The Christian Leader," thus refers to Mr. Dickens and to "Bleak House."

"The great secret of the success of Dickens was, that all of his characters were human and real. . . ́.

"Dickens was the foe of all shams; but instead of using the keen blade of satire, like his great contemporary, Thackeray, he brought to bear the sunshine of his humor on the wrongs of his times. . . . Shakspeare, in the whole range of his delineation of character, has produced no creation like Little Nell or Paul Dombey; nor has Sir Walter Scott, with the splendor of kings and princes, and the pomp of tournaments, in all the pages of his productions written a scene like the death of Poor Jo, in Bleak House.'

"It's time for me to go to that there berryin'-ground, sir,' he returns, with a wild look.

"Lie down, and tell me. What burying-ground, Jo?'

"Where they laid him as was wery good to me; wery good to me indeed, he was. It's time for me to go down to that there berryin'-ground, sir, and ask to be put along with him.'

"By and by, Jo, by and by.'

"Ah! p'raps they wouldn't do it if I wos to go myself. But will you promise to have me took there, sir, and have me laid along with him?'

[blocks in formation]

“Thankee, sir, thankee, sir! They'll have to get the key of the gate afore they can take me in; for it's allus locked. And there's a step there, as I used for to clean with my broom. It's turned wery dark, sir. Is there any light a-comin'?'

"It is coming fast, Jo.'

"Fast! The cart is shaken all to pieces, and the rugged road is very near its end.'

"Jo, my poor fellow!'

"I hear you, sir, in the dark; but I'm a-gropin', a-gropin' let me catch hold of your hand.'

"Jo, can you say what I say?'

"I'll say any think as you say, sir; for I know it's good.'

"Our Father.'

"Our Father, yes, that's wery good, sir.'

"Which art in heaven.'

"Art in heaven, — is the light a-comin', sir?'

"It is close at hand. Hallowed be thy name."

« AnteriorContinuar »