A NAST CARTOON OF DICKENS AND FECHTER
He spoke with intense enthusiasm of Frédérick Lemaître, much as I have heard Mr. Dickens do. “The second-class actors were always arguing with him (only second-class people argue) and saying, ‘Why do you wish me to stand here, Frédérick?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he would say, ‘only do it.’”
Mr. Appleton was deeply interested in the fact that Shakespeare proved himself such a believer in ghosts, as “Hamlet” shows, and would like to push the subject farther, Mr. Fechter evidently finding much to say on this topic also. Mr. Longfellow was interested to ask about the Dumas, père et fils. Mr. Fechter has known them well and has many queer stories to tell of their relation to each other. Le fils calls mon père, “my youngest child born many years ago,” and the father usually introduces the son as M. Dumas, mon père. The motto on Fechter’s note paper is very curious and a type of the man—“Faiblesse vaut vice.” Mr. Longfellow spoke again of Mr. Dickens’s restlessness, of his terrible sadness. “Yes, yes,” said Fechter, “all his fame goes for nothing.” ...
Jamie is so weak that he went to sleep almost as soon as they were gone. God knows what it all means; I do not.
It is odd that Fechter’s eyes should be brown after all. They look so light in the play. He is a round little man, naturally friendly, spontaneous. We do not know what his life has been, and we will not ask; that does not rest with us; but he is a very fine artist. His imitation of Mr. Dickens, as he sat on the lawn watching him at work, or as he joined him coming from his desk at lunchtime with tears on his cheek and a smile on his mouth, was very close to the life and delightful.
Mr. Longfellow did not talk much, not as much as the last time he was here, but he was lovely and kind.[29] He brought a coin of the French Republic which had been touched by French wit, Liberté x (point), Egalité x (point), Fraternité x (point). And more to the same effect, without altering the coin.
Appleton has just bought a new Troyon, which he says he shall lend me for a week.
At the end of the following August there is a record of a talk with Fechter on the boat from Boston to Nahant, where he and the Fieldses dined with Longfellow. Dickens had died in the June just past, and Fechter had much to say of him and his family life. “Day by day,” wrote Mrs. Fields, “I am grateful to think of him at rest.” The little party at Nahant is described.