"GOOD NIGHT."
Wherever Hook came he was a welcome guest; and his arrival was the signal for hilarity and festivity. The dining-room and the drawing-room were alike his theatres; the former was enlivened by the jest and song, the latter by music and improvisation, of which he was master beyond any man that perhaps England ever beheld. Our untractable language was to him as easy as the fascile Italian, and whether seated at the genial board, with a few choice companions, or at the pianoforte, surrounded by admiring beauty, his performances in this way were the delight and admiration of all who heard them. They were, indeed, very extraordinary. Some of them might have been printed as finished ballads; and others, though not so perfect in parts as metrical compositions, were so studded with bright conceits, and often so touched with exquisite sentiment and pathos, that their effect upon the audience was evinced by shouts of laughter, or starting tears.
We remember one beautiful example of the latter. At a party at Prior's Bank, Fulham, it was morning before the guests departed, yet Hook remained to the last, and a light of other days brightened his features as he again opened the piano and began a recitative. Another extempore song had been begged by a bevy of lovely dames, and Hook hastened to comply with their request—the subject this time being "Good Night." The singer had proceeded through a few verses, and at length uttered a happy thought, which excited a joyous laugh in a fair young boy standing by his side. At this moment one of the servants suddenly opened the drawing-room shutters, and a flood of light fell upon the lad's head. The effect was very touching, but it became a thousand times more so as Hook, availing himself of the incident, placed his hand upon the youth's brow, and in tremulous tones uttered a verse of which only the concluding lines are remembered:—
"For you is the dawn of the morning,
For me is the solemn good night."
He rose from the piano, burst into tears, and left the room. Few of those who were present saw him afterwards.
[INDEX.]
Agnew, Sir Andrew, [400]
Allan, William, clerk in the Treasury Office at Mauritius, [20];
suicide of, [28]
Allendale, Alfred, pseudonym of Hook, [15], [29]
Arcadian, the, started by Hook and Terry, [24];
collapses after the second number, [25];
quoted, [133]
Ass-ass-ination, [135], [578]
Baird, Sir David, Life of, [32]
Banks, Sir Joseph, [16]
Barham, Rev. R. H., his last interview with Hook, [36]
Beckford, William, [386]
Berners-street Hoax, the, [539]
Blinkinsop, Vicesimus, pseudonym of Hook, [23], [209]
Broughton, Lord, see [Hobhouse]
Bubbles of 1825, [194]
Bull, see [John Bull]
Byron, Lord, at Harrow with Theodore Hook, [3], [5];
his attacks on Hook in "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," [6], [10];
his treatment of Leigh Hunt, [280];
supposed conversations of, [285]
Canterbury, Lord, [23]
Clubs, [333], [516]
Coates, Romeo, [541]
"Contingencies," [573]
Creevy, Mr., [170], [183]
Croker, John Wilson, [23]
Curwen, Mr., M.P., [160]
Daly's Practical Jokes, [471]
Dancing, Hook's contempt for, [556]
Daylight Dinners, [515]
Dido, [522]
Dillon, Dr., Chaplain to the Lord Mayor, his ridiculous book, [288], [304]
Dilworth's Instructions, [347]
Dowton the Actor, Hook and, [554]
Entick's Dictionary, [317], [320]
Errors of the Press, [409]
Fanny's Thumb, [519]
Farquhar, Sir R. J. (Governor of Mauritius), [18];
connected by marriage with Hook's family, ib.;
returns to England, [20]
Foote, Samuel, [226]
Fulham, Hook's residence at, [31];
Buried at, [38]
Gaffer Grey, [166]
Gilbert Gurney, [33]
Godwin, William, his Life of Chaucer, [215]
"Good Night," [579]
Goethe, his Preface to Prince Puckler-Muskau's Tour, [355]
Hall, Major-General, appointed Deputy-Governor of Mauritius, [20]
Haydon, R. B., the painter, [249]
Hobhouse, John Cam, [133], [217]
Holcroft, Thomas, imitated, [166]
Holland, Lady, [24]
Hone, William, his Parodies, [190]
Hook, James (father of Theodore Hook), his musical compositions, [4];
weak character of, [6]
—— (Dr. James), Dean of Worcester, [4]
Hook, Theodore, birth and parentage, [3], [4];
sent to Harrow, [5];
death of his mother, [6];
commences writing vaudevilles for the stage, [7];
ridicules the Methodists, [11];
his first appearance as a novelist, [15];
appointed Accountant-General and Treasurer at the Mauritius, [18];
describes his mode of life there in a letter to Mathews, [19];
arrested for irregularities in the Treasury accounts, [21];
sent to England for trial, [21];
visit to Napoleon at St. Helena, [22];
arrives in England, and is liberated, ib.;
establishes himself at Somers Town, ib.;
opens his campaign against Queen Caroline, [23];
starts a small magazine, [24];
establishes the John Bull newspaper, [25];
and publishes a series of brilliant songs and squibs in it, [26];
arrested under an Exchequer writ, [27];
transferred to the Rules of the King's Bench, [28];
publishes the first series of Sayings and Doings, [29];
takes a cottage at Putney, [30];
removes to a fashionable quarter of the West-end, ib.;
finally settles down at Fulham, [31];
various successive works, [32];
undertakes the editorship of the New Monthly Magazine, [33];
errors of his career, [35];
last interview with his friend Ingoldsby, [36];
illness and death, [37];
buried at Fulham, [38]
Hunt, Leigh, on Methodism, [14];
his connexion with Lord Byron, [280]
Hunting the Hare, [147]
Ingoldsby, see [Barham, Rev. R. H.]
Jack Brag, [33]
Jeffrey, Lord, [217], [280]
John Bull newspaper, establishment of, [25];
Hook's connexion with, [26]
Kelly, Michael, his Reminiscences revised by Hook, [30]
Knight, Richard Payne, [220], [258]
Larpent, Mr., [11], [12]
L'Estrange, Father, [378]
"List" Shoes, [567]
Liston, performs in Hook's farces, [8]
Lockhart, John Gibson, on Hook's Tentamen, [23]
Lowth, [182]
Madden, Miss, the mother of Theodore Hook, [4]
Mathews, Charles, performs in Hook's farces, [8]
——, Charles, jun., [9]
Maurice, M. Charles, his Babillard, [8]
Mauritius, Letter from, [555]
Maxwell, [31]
Melodrama, an extempore, [575]
Melville, Lord, trial of, [560]
Michael's Dinner, [138]
Miller, Joe, quoted, [243]
Minus, Mr., the poet, [16], [338]
Moore, Thomas, [16], [67];
quoted, [106];
sketched under the title of Mr. Minus, [338]
Morgan, Lady, [67];
described, [368]
Muggins's (Mrs.) Visit to the Queen, [140]
Naldi, his Fanatico per la Musica, [10]
Napoleon at St. Helena, [22]
Night Air, a Receipt against, [566]
O'Connell, Daniel, described, [377]
Owenson, Miss, see [Morgan, Lady]
Peel, Sir Robert, contemporary with Theodore Hook at Harrow, [5];
his Anecdotes of Theodore Hook, [565]
Pope, Alexander, saying of, [8]
Prince Puckler-Muskau's Tour, [355]
Punning, [316], [320]
Punting, [566]
Putney Bridge, [568]
—— Hook's residence at, [30]
Ramsbottom Papers, [26], [41-130]
Ramsbottom, Mrs., her party, [41];
Her Journal in England and France, [46];
death of her husband, [69];
visits Rome, ib.;
objects to being dramatised, [72];
visits Dieppe, [73];
describes Hastings, [75];
relates some anecdotes of her son-in-law, [78];
on the House of Commons, [79];
on the Canning Administration, [81];
on smoking, [84];
conundrums, [85];
writes from Cheltenham, [87];
from Hastings, [90];
gives her opinion of the relative merits of Margate and Brighton, [96];
contemplates the collection of her Letters into a volume, [102];
writes from Gravesend, [105];
her opinions on Popery, ib.;
at the Royal Academy, [108];
at the Chiswick Fête, [111];
writes from Walmer about the collection of her Letters under the title of The Ramsbottom Papers, [117];
in a "pick of trubbles," [118];
her opinions on public events, [120];
declares herself a convert to "Reform," [123];
on the House of Lords, [128];
a next door neighbour of, [393]
Ray's English Proverbs, [237]
Rogers, Samuel, [75], [78], [178], [389]
Russell, Lord John, [164];
the "widow's mite," [573]
Sheridan, Tom, Adventure of, [499]
Summary Proceedings of Winter, [563]
Sussex, Duke of, [211]
Swift's Directions to Servants, [333]
Tentamen, [23], [207-246]
Terry, Daniel, acts in a farce of Theodore Hook's, [14];
joins Hook in The Arcadian, [24]
Thirty-nine Articles, the, [562]
Twining's Tea, [522]
Vacation Reminiscences, [159]
Venice Preserved, [513]
Ward, Mr., his Allegorical Picture of Waterloo, [249]
Warren's Blacking, [564]
Wine-cellar and the Book-seller, the, [565]
Wood, Matthew, satirised under the name of Whittington, [23], [210];
mentioned sæpius in the Political Songs
Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.