Part 4 (2/2)

In the original announcement of ”The Pickwick Papers” we read: ”Seymour has devoted himself, heart and graver, to the task of ill.u.s.trating the beauties of 'Pickwick.' It was reserved to Gibbon to paint, in colours that will never fade, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--to Hume to chronicle the strife and turmoil of the two proud Houses that divided England against herself--to Napier to pen, in burning words, the History of the War in the Peninsula;--the deeds and actions of the gifted Pickwick yet remain for 'Boz' and Seymour to hand down to posterity.”

This projected collaboration, alas! was speedily frustrated by the unexpected tragedy, for Seymour had produced but seven plates when he terminated his life, the following being the subjects of his designs in the order of their publication:

_First Number._

”MR. PICKWICK ADDRESSES THE CLUB.”

”THE PUGNACIOUS CABMAN.”

”THE SAGACIOUS DOG.”

”DR. SLAMMER'S DEFIANCE OF JINGLE.”

_Second Number._

”THE DYING CLOWN.”

”MR. PICKWICK IN CHASE OF HIS HAT.”

”MR. WINKLE SOOTHES THE REFRACTORY STEED.”

The Address issued with the Second Part contains an apology for the appearance therein of only three plates instead of four, as promised.

”When we state,” says the author, ”that they comprise Mr. Seymour's last efforts, and that on one of them, in particular, (the embellishment to the Stroller's Tale,) he was engaged up to a late hour of the night preceding his death, we feel confident that the excuse will be deemed a sufficient one.” d.i.c.kens had seen the unhappy man only once, forty-eight hours before his death, on the occasion of his visit to Furnival's Inn with the etching just referred to, which, altered at d.i.c.kens's suggestion, he brought away again for the few further touches that occupied him to a late hour of the night before he destroyed himself.[8]

In an unpublished letter (dated April 3, 1866) addressed by the novelist to a correspondent who required certain particulars respecting ”Pickwick,” he thus referred to the artist: ”Mr. Seymour shot himself before the second number of 'The Pickwick Papers' ... was published.

While he lay dead, it was necessary that search should be made in his working room for the plates to the second number, the day for the publication of which was then drawing on. The plates were found unfinished, with their faces turned to the wall. It was Mr. Chapman who found them and brought them away.”

Footnote 8: The artist's son a.s.serts that the last plate Seymour etched for ”Pickwick” (viz., ”The Dying Clown”) was submitted to d.i.c.kens a fortnight (not forty-eight hours, as recorded by Forster) before his death. It seems that Seymour's final drawing was for a woodcut, executed for John Jackson, the engraver, to whom the artist delivered it on the evening of the fatal day, April 20, 1836.

PLATE XVIII

”DR. SLAMMER'S DEFIANCE OF JINGLE”

_Facsimile_ of the Original Drawing for ”The Pickwick Papers” by

R. SEYMOUR

_Lent by Mr. Augustin Daly._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

In 1887 Messrs. Chapman & Hall appropriately celebrated the Jubilee of ”The Pickwick Papers” by publis.h.i.+ng an _Edition de luxe_, with _facsimiles_ of the original drawings made for the work, or, rather, of as many of these as were then available. In the editor's preface it is stated that four out of the seven drawings etched by Seymour for ”Pickwick” had disappeared, but it afterwards transpired that two of the missing designs remained in the possession of the artist's family, until they were sold to a private purchaser, who, in 1889, disposed of them by auction. Of these drawings, therefore, only one, viz., ”The Sagacious Dog,” is undiscoverable. The alb.u.m in which the missing designs were found also contained other original drawings for ”Pickwick,” as well as the d.i.c.kens letter to Seymour and an excellent portrait of the artist; this important collection included the three published designs (viz., ”Mr. Pickwick Addresses the Club,” ”The Pugnacious Cabman,” and ”Dr.

Slammer's Defiance of Jingle,”--the latter differing slightly from the etching), together with the first sketch for ”The Dying Clown,” and two unpublished drawings (evidently alternative subjects, ill.u.s.trating incidents in the fifth chapter), respectively representing ”The Runaway Chaise” and ”The Pickwickians in Mr. Wardle's Kitchen.” All these drawings, except that of ”The Dying Clown,” are outlined with pen-and-ink, and the effects washed in with a brownish tint. Perhaps the most astonis.h.i.+ng circ.u.mstance in connection with this collection is the extravagant sum it realised in the auction-room, for, as might be antic.i.p.ated, many were anxious to secure so valuable a memento. The bidding was brisk until 200 was reached, when compet.i.tion was confined to the representative of Mr. Augustin Daly (of New York) and another whose name is unrecorded, the result being that the prize fell to Mr.

Daly for 500--probably a record figure for such an item. No one experienced greater surprise at this enormous price than the purchaser himself, who a.s.sures me that, although he imposed no limit, it was never his intention to offer so fabulous an amount; indeed, the sum he had in his mind was not so much as a quarter of that at which this attractive alb.u.m eventually fell to the hammer. Owing to the generosity of Mr.

Daly, I am enabled to reproduce in _facsimile_ the whole of these extremely interesting designs, which he brought to England expressly for this purpose.

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