While writing the “Sketches,” a strong inclination towards the stage induced Mr. Charles Dickens to test his powers as a dramatist, and his first piece, a farce called The Strange Gentleman, was produced at the St. James’s Theatre on the opening night of the season, September 29, 1836. The late Mr. Harley was the hero of the farce, which was received with great favour. This was followed by an opera, called The Village Coquettes, for which Mr. Hullah composed the music, and which was brought out at the same establishment, on Tuesday, December 6, 1836. The quaint humour, unaffected pathos, and graceful lyrics of this production found prompt recognition, and the piece enjoyed a prosperous run. The Village Coquettes took its title from two village girls, Lucy and Rose, led away by vanity, coquetting with men above them in station, and discarding their humble, though worthy lovers. Before, however, it is too late they see their error, and the piece terminates happily. Miss Rainforth and Miss Julia Smith were the heroines, and Mr. Bennet and Mr. Gardner were their betrothed lovers. Braham was the Lord of the Manor, who would have led astray the fair Lucy. There was a capital scene, where he was detected by Lucy’s father, played by Strickland, urging an elopement. Harley had a trifling part in the piece, rendered highly amusing by his admirable acting.
On March 6, 1837, was brought out at the St. James’s Theatre a farce, called Is She His Wife; or, Something Singular, in which Harley played the principal character, Felix Tapkins, a flirting bachelor, and sang a song in the character of Pickwick, “written expressly for him by Boz.”
Under the pseudonym of Timothy Sparks Charles Dickens published about this time a wholesome, wise, and cleverly written little pamphlet against Sabbatarianism, in which he cogently and forcibly advocated more liberal views respecting the observance of Sunday than generally obtain in this country. [10]
In March, 1836, appeared the first number of “Pickwick,” with illustrations by Seymour. It was continued in monthly shilling numbers until its completion, and this has been Mr. Dickens’s favourite and usual form of publication ever since. The success and popularity of the work—which, in freshness and vigour, he has never surpassed in his later and maturer writings—were unmistakeable. Several playwrights dramatised it, with more or less success; and a swarm of obscure scribblers flooded the town with imitations and sequels, which, like Avanelleda’s second part of “Don Quixote,” came mostly to grief, and were quickly forgotten.
Before the work had reached its third number, the talented artist who had undertaken the illustrations, and who has immortalised the features of Mr. Pickwick, was unfortunately removed by death, and Mr. Hablot Browne (the well-known Phiz) was chosen to replace him, and continued to illustrate most of Mr. Dickens’s novels for many years after. During the years 1837–1838, Mr. Dickens carried on the editorship of Bentley’s Miscellany, where his novel of “Oliver Twist” (illustrated by George Cruikshank) first appeared. To this magazine, during the time that he conducted it, he also contributed some humorous papers, entitled “Full Report of the Meetings of the Mudfog Association for the Advancement of Everything.” But, finding his editorial office irksome, he soon abandoned it.
During his engagement with Mr. Bentley, he edited and partly wrote the “Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi,” [11] a book now almost forgotten, though not without passages of pathos and humour. Dickens, in the introductory chapter (dated February, 1838), gives the following account of his share in the work:—
“For about a year before his death, Grimaldi was employed in writing a full account of his life and adventures, and as people who write their own lives often find time to extend them to a most inordinate length, it is no wonder that his account of himself was exceedingly voluminous.
“This manuscript was confided to Mr. Thomas Egerton Wilks, to alter and revise, with a view to its publication. While he was thus engaged, Grimaldi died; and Mr. Wilks having, by the commencement of September (1837), concluded his labours, offered the manuscript to Mr. Bentley, by whom it was shortly afterwards purchased.
“The present editor of these volumes has felt it necessary to say thus much in explanation of their origin. His own share in them is stated in a few words. Being much struck by several incidents in the manuscript—such as the description of Grimaldi’s infancy, the burglary, the brother’s return from sea, and many other passages—and thinking that they might be related in a more attractive manner, he accepted a proposal from the publisher to edit the book, and has edited it to the best of his ability, altering its form throughout, and making such other alterations as he conceived would improve the narration of the facts, without any departure from the facts themselves.”
His next work was “Nicholas Nickleby,” published in monthly numbers. The following passage from the original preface, which is only to be found in the old editions, alludes to the great success that attended this story:—
“It only now remains for the writer of these pages, with that feeling of regret with which we leave almost any pursuit that has for a long time occupied us and engaged our thoughts, and which is naturally augmented in such a case as this, when that pursuit has been surrounded by all that could animate and cheer him on—it only now remains for him, before abandoning his task, to bid his readers farewell.”
This was followed by “Master Humphrey’s Clock,” the publication of which, in weekly numbers, with illustrations by Cattermole and Hablot Browne, was commenced in April, 1840. “Master Humphrey’s Clock” comprised the two novels of “The Old Curiosity Shop” and “Barnaby Rudge,” which are now published in a separate form, stripped of the introductory portion relating to Master Humphrey, and of the intercalary chapters in which Mr. Pickwick and the two Wellers appear again on the scene. It was pleasant to meet once more these familiar humorous creations, and it may be a matter for regret that this portion of the book has been consigned to oblivion. But the author considered that these passages served only to interrupt the continuity of the main story, and they were consequently eliminated.