And again to the same friend:—“At Aberdeen we were crammed to the street twice every day. . . And at the end of Dombey yesterday afternoon at Perth, in the cold light of day, they all got up . . . and thundered and waved their hats with that astonishing heartiness and fondness for me . . . that they took me completely off my legs.”
Elsewhere he speaks of being overwhelmed with proposals to read in America, and adds, “Will never go, unless a small fortune be first paid down in money on this side of the Atlantic.”
In the autumn he writes to Regnier, enclosing proofs of A Tale of Two Cities: “I want you to read it for two reasons. Firstly, because I hope it is the best story I have written. Secondly, because it treats of a very remarkable time in France; and I should very much like to know what you think of its being dramatised for a French theatre. . . . The story is an extraordinary success here” (15th Oct. 1859).
He felt strongly about public executions. Forster describes how Dickens saw the hanging of the Mannings, and says that “with the letter which Dickens wrote next day to the Times descriptive of what we had witnessed on that memorable morning, there began an active agitation against public executions,” which was finally successful. But in 1860 the evil still existed; he wrote, 4th September 1860, to W. H. Wills: “Coming here from the station this morning, I met, coming from the
execution of the Wentworth murderer, such a tide of ruffians as never could have flowed from any point but the gallows. Without any figure of speech it turned one white and sick to behold them” (4th Sept. 1860).
In December he wrote:—“Pray read Great Expectations. I think it is very droll. It is a very great success, and seems universally liked—I suppose because it opens funnily, and with an interest too.”
In July 1861 he writes to Forster, telling him that he has altered the end of Great Expectations. This was done at the suggestion of Bulwer Lytton, who objected to Pip being left “a solitary man.” The curious may read the original ending in Forster’s Life, vol. iv., p. 336.
We meet many instances of Dickens’ sensitiveness to the character of his audience. Thus he writes:—“I could have done perfectly if the audience had been bright, but they were an intent and staring audience.”
“An excellent house to-night, and an audience positively perfect . . . an intelligent and delightful response in them, like the touch of a beautiful instrument.”
He showed presence of mind, too, on an occasion. “The gas batten came down and it looked as if the room were falling. A lady in front row of stalls screamed and ran out wildly. He addressed her laughing, and saying ‘no danger,’ and she sat down to a thunder of applause.”