Read Complete Works of Wilkie Collins Online
Authors: Wilkie Collins
It is sad, it is almost humiliating, to be obliged to add, in reference to the early history of Jerrold’s first dramatic triumph, that his share of the gains which “Black-Eyed Susan” poured into the pockets of managers on both sides of the water was just seventy pounds. Mr. Elliston, whose theater the play had raised from a state of something like bankruptcy to a condition of prosperity which, in the Surrey annals, has not since been paralleled, not only abstained from presenting Jerrold with the smallest fragment of anything in the shape of a token of gratitude, but actually had the pitiless insolence to say to him, after “Black-Eyed Susan” had run its three hundred nights, “My dear boy, why don’t you get your friends to present you with a bit of plate?”*
* When this article was first published in
Household Words,
a son of Mr. Elliston wrote to the conductor to protest against the epithets which I had attached to his father’s name. In the present reprint I have removed the epithets; not because I think them undeserved, but because they merely represented my own angry sense of Mr. Elliston’s treatment of Jerrold — a sense which I have no wish needlessly to gratify at the expense of a son’s regard for his father’s memory. But the facts of the case as they were originally related, and as I heard them from Jerrold himself, remain untouched — exactly as my own opinion of Mr. Elliston’s conduct remains to this day unaltered. If the “impartial” reader wishes to have more facts to decide on than those given in the text, he is referred to Raymond’s “Life of Elliston” — in which work he will find the clear profits put into the manager’s pocket by “Black-Eyed Susan,” estimated at one hundred and fifty pounds a week.
The extraordinary success of “Black-Eyed Susan” opened the doors of the great theaters to Jerrold, as a matter of course. He made admirable use of the chances in his favor which he had so well deserved, and for which he had waited so long. At the Adelphi, at Drury Lane, and at the Haymarket, drama after drama flowed in quick succession from his pen. The “Devil’s Ducat,” the “Bride of Ludgate,” the “Rent Day,” “Nell Gwynne,” the “Housekeeper” — this last the best of his plays in point of construction — date, with many other dramatic works, from the period of his life now under review. The one slight check to his career of prosperity occurred in eighteen hundred and thirty-six, when he and his brother-in-law took the Strand Theater, and when Jerrold acted a character in one of his own plays. Neither the theatrical speculation nor the theatrical appearance proved to be successful; and he wisely abandoned, from that time, all professional connection with the stage, except in his old and ever-welcome character of dramatist. In the other branches of his art — to which he devoted himself, at this turning-point of his career, as faithfully as he devoted himself to the theatrical branch — his progress was not less remarkable. As journalist and essayist, he rose steadily toward the distinguished place which was his due among the writers of his time. This middle term of his literary exertions produced, among other noticeable results, the series of social studies called “Men of Character,” originally begun in
Blackwood’s Magazine,
and since republished among his collected works.
He had now advanced, in a social as well as in a literary point of view, beyond that period in the lives of self-made men which may be termed the adventurous period. Whatever difficulties and anxieties henceforth oppressed him were caused by the trials and troubles which more or less beset the exceptional lives of all men of letters. The struggle for a hearing, the fight for a fair field in which to show himself, had now been bravely and creditably accomplished; and all that remains to be related of the life of Douglas Jerrold is best told in the history of his works. Taking his peculiar literary gifts into consideration, the first great opportunity of his life, as a periodical writer, was offered to him, unquestionably, by the starting of
Punch.
The brilliant impromptu faculty which gave him a place apart, as thinker, writer, and talker, among the remarkable men of his time, was exactly the faculty which such a journal as
Punch
was calculated to develop to the utmost. The day on which Jerrold was secured as a contributor would have been a fortunate day for that periodical, if he had written nothing in it but the far-famed “Caudle Lectures,” and the delightful “Story of a Feather.” But the service that he rendered to
Punch
must by no means be associated only with the more elabourate contributions to its pages which are publicly connected with his name. His wit often flashed out at its brightest, his sarcasm often cut with its keenest edge, in those well-timed paragraphs and short articles which hit the passing event of the day, and which, so far as their temporary purpose with the public is concerned, are all-important ingredients in the success of such a periodical as
Punch.
A contributor who can strike out new ideas from the original resources of his own mind is one man, and a contributor who can be depended on for the small workaday emergencies which are felt one week and forgotten the next, is generally another. Jerrold united these two characters in himself; and the value of him to
Punch,
on that account only, can never be too highly estimated. At this period of his life the fertility of his mental resources showed itself most conspicuously. While he was working for
Punch,
he was also editing and largely contributing to
The Illuminated Magazine.
In this publication appeared, among a host of shorter papers, the series called “The Chronicles of Clovernook,” which he himself always considered to be one of his happiest efforts, and which does indeed contain, in detached passages, some of the best things that ever fell from his pen. On the cessation of
The Illuminated Magazine,
he started
The Shilling Magazine,
and contributed to it his well-known novel, “Saint Giles and Saint James.” These accumulated literary occupations and responsibilities would have been enough for most men; but Jerrold’s inexhaustible energy and variety carried him on through more work still. Theatrical audiences now found their old favorite addressing them again, and occupying new ground as a writer of five-act and three-act comedies. “Bubbles of the Day,” “Time Works Wonders,” “The Cat’s-paw,” “Retired from Business,” “Saint Cupid,” were all produced, with other plays, after the period when he became a regular writer in
Punch.
Judged from the literary point of view, these comedies were all original and striking contributions to the library of the stage. From the dramatic point of view, however, it must not be concealed that they were less satisfactory; and that some of them were scarcely so successful with audiences as their author’s earlier and humbler efforts. The one solid critical reason which it is possible to assign for this, implies in itself a compliment which could be paid to no other dramatist of modern times. The perpetual glitter of Jerrold’s wit seems to have blinded him to some of the more sober requirements of the dramatic art. When Charles Kemble said, and said truly, that there was wit enough for three comedies in “Bubbles of the Day,” he implied that this brilliant overflow left little or no room for the indispensable resources of story and situation to display themselves fairly on the stage. The comedies themselves, examined with reference to their success in representation, as well as to their intrinsic merits, help to support this view. “Time Works Wonders” was the most prosperous of all, and it is that comedy precisely which has the most story and the most situation in it. The idea and the management of the charming love-tale out of which the events of this play spring, show what Jerrold might have achieved in the construction of other plots, if his own superabundant wit had not dazzled him and led him astray. As it is, the readers of these comedies, who can appreciate the rich fancy, the delicate subtleties of thought, the masterly terseness of expression, and the exquisite play and sparkle of wit scattered over every page, may rest assured that they rather gain than lose — especially in the present condition of theatrical companies — by not seeing the last dramatic works of Douglas Jerrold represented on the stage.
The next, and, sad to say, the final achievement of his life, connected him most honourably and profitably with the newspaper press. Many readers will remember the starting of
Douglas Jerrold’s Weekly Newspaper
— its great temporary success — and then its sudden decline, through defects in management, to which it is not now necessary to refer at length. The signal ability with which the editorial articles in the paper were written, the remarkable aptitude which they displayed in striking straight at the sympathies of large masses of readers, did not escape the notice of men who were well fitted to judge of the more solid qualifications which go to the production of a popular journalist. In the spring of the year eighteen hundred and fifty-two, the proprietor of
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper
proposed the editorship to Jerrold, on terms of such wise liberality as to insure the ready acceptance of his offer. From the spring of eighteen hundred and fifty-two, to the spring of eighteen hundred and fifty-seven — the last he was ever to see — Jerrold conducted the paper, with such extraordinary success as is rare in the history of journalism. Under his supervision, and with the regular assistance of his pen,
Lloyd’s Newspaper
rose, by thousands and thousands a week, to the great circulation which it now enjoys. Of the many successful labours of Jerrold’s life, none had been so substantially prosperous as the labour that was destined to close it.
His health had shown signs of breaking, and his heart was known to be affected, for some little time before his last brief illness; but the unconquerable energy and spirit of the man upheld him through all bodily trials, until the first day of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven. Even his medical attendant did not abandon all hope when his strength first gave way. But he sank rapidly — so rapidly, that in one short week the struggle was over. On the eighth day of June, surrounded by his family and his friends, preserving all his faculties to the last, passing away calmly, resignedly, affectionately, Douglas Jerrold closed his eyes on the world which it had been the long and noble purpose of his life to inform and to improve.
It is too early yet to attempt any estimate of the place which his writings will ultimately occupy in English literature. So long as honesty, energy, and variety are held to be the prominent qualities which should distinguish a genuine writer, there can be no doubt of the vitality of Douglas Jerrold’s reputation. The one objection urged against the works, which, feeble and ignorant though it was, often went to the heart of the writer, was the objection of bitterness. Calling to mind many of the passages in his books in which this bitterness most sharply appears, and seeing plainly in those passages what the cause was that provoked it, we venture to speak out our own opinion boldly, and to acknowledge at once that we admire this so-called bitterness as one of the great and valuable qualities of Douglas Jerrold’s writings; because we can see for ourselves that it springs from the uncompromising earnestness and honesty of the author. In an age when it is becoming unfashionable to have a positive opinion about anything; when the detestable burlesque element scatters its profanation with impunity on all beautiful and all serious things; when much, far too much, of the current literature of the day vibrates contemptibly between unbelieving banter and unblushing claptrap, that element of bitterness in Jerrold’s writings — which never stands alone in them; which is never disassociated from the kind word that goes before, or the generous thought that comes after — is in our opinion an essentially wholesome element, breathing that admiration of truth, and that hatred of falsehood, which is the chiefest and brightest jewel in the crown of any writer, living or dead.
This same cry of bitterness, which assailed him in his literary character, assailed him in his social character also. Absurd as the bare idea of bitterness must appear in connection with such a nature as his, to those who really knew him, the reason why strangers so often and so ridiculously misunderstood him, is not difficult to discover. That marvelous brightness and quickness of perception which has distinguished him far and wide as the sayer of some of the wittiest, and often some of the wisest things also, in the English language, expressed itself almost with the suddenness of lightning. This absence of all appearance of artifice or preparation, this flash and readiness which made the great charm of his wit, rendered him, at the same time, quite incapable of suppressing a good thing from prudential considerations. It sparkled off his tongue before he was aware of it. It was always a bright surprise to himself; and it never occurred to him that it could be anything but a bright surprise to others. All his so-called bitter things were said with a burst of hearty school-boy laughter, which showed how far he was himself from attaching a serious importance to them. Strangers apparently failed to draw this inference, plain as it was; and often mistook him accordingly. If they had seen him in the society of children; if they had surprised him in the house of any one of his literary brethren who was in difficulty and distress; if they had met him by the bedside of a sick friend, how simply and how irresistibly the gentle, generous, affectionate nature of the man would then have disclosed itself to the most careless chance acquaintance who ever misunderstood him! Very few men have won the loving regard of so many friends so rapidly, and have kept that regard so enduringly to the last day of their lives, as Douglas Jerrold.