Volume Ii Part 12 (1/2)

”Why have you not reprinted in a vol. the 'Maxims of Morgan O'Doherty'?

They are unequalled in their way.

”By this you will have received the O'D. on 'Wolff going into Parliament' and a score more _sui generis_.

”I have composed three openings of the new story, and nearly driven my family distracted by my changes of plan; but I am not on the right road yet. However, I hope to be hard at it next week.

”Is the 'P. M. Gazette' to be the organ of the Party or is it a private spec? When I only think of the Tories of my acquaintance it is not any surprise to me that the Party is not a power; though I certainly feel if they were there and not kicked out again it would go far to prove a miracle. Are these your experiences?”

_To Mr John Blackwood_.

”Villa Morelli, _Jan_. 24, 1865.

”You are such a good fellow that you can give even bad news a colour of comfort; but it is bad news, this of 'Tony,' and has caught me like a strong blow between the eyes. Surely in this _gurgite vasto_ of [ ] and sensuality there ought to be some hearing for a man who would give his experiences of life uncharged with exaggerations, or unspiced by capital offences.

”I am sure a notice of 'The Times,' if it could be, would get the book a fair trial, and I neither ask nor have a right to more. Meanwhile I am what Mrs O'Dowd calls 'several degrees below Nero.'

”I began my new story yesterday, but I'll wait till I hear more cheery news before I take to my (ink) bottle again.

”You'll have to look sharp for blunders in the last O'D.

”It almost puts me in spirits to talk of the theatricals. It is my veritable pa.s.sion, and I plume myself upon my actors.h.i.+p. I have had plays in nearly every house I have lived in, in all parts of Europe.

Mary Boyle--that was d.i.c.kens's _prima donna_--was of my training; her infant steps (she was five-and-thirty at the time) were first led by me; and I remember holding a ladder for her while she sang a love-song out of a window, and (trying to study my own part at the same time) I set fire to her petticoats!

”There are short things from the French which would do well if your people had time to translate them. 'Les Inconsolables,' from two really good artists, first-rate. I have a little Italian piece by me would also adapt well, and it is an immense gain to have a piece perfectly new and fresh, and when there can be no odious comparisons with Buckstone or Keely, and the rest of them. In fact, half of our young English amateurs are only bad Robsons and Paul Bedfords. My girls are all good actresses, and we have--or we used to have--short scenes of our devising constantly got up amongst us.

”Remember to send me good news, true or not, or at least any civil 'notice' you may see of 'Tony,' for till I hear again 'the divil a word ever I write.'

”When I read out your letter this morning, my wife said in a whisper, 'Now he'll be off to whist worse than ever!' So it is; I take to the rubber as other men do to a dram.

”Have you sent copies of T. B. to the press folk? I don't know if Savage has to do with 'The Examiner,' but he is an old pal of mine, and would willingly give us a lift.

”I wish I had Bright's speech in time for a quiz this month. It was a rare occasion. A mock cla.s.sic oration, for a tribune of the people, full of gross flattery of the Plebs, would have been good fun; but [? the opportunity] is everything, and the joke that comes late looks, at least, as if it took labour to arrive at.

”Oh dear, but I am down! down! Write to me, I entreat you.

”Give my heartiest good wishes to the Corps Dramatique,--say that I am with them in spirit. 'My heart's in the side scenes, my heart is not here.'”

_To Mr John Blackwood._

”Villa Morelli, _Feb_. 4, 1865.

”I am impatient to show you a brick of the new house: first, because if you don't like it I'll not go on; and secondly, if you should think well of it, your encouragement will be a great strengthener to me, and give me that confidence that none of my own connections ever inspire. My womenkind like Sir F., partly perhaps because I have said something about my 'intentions.' Not that I have any intentions, however, so fixed that the course of the story may not serve to unhinge them. At all events, _you_ are well able to predicate from a molar tooth what sort of a beast it was that owned it, or might own it. Say your say then, and as boldly as our interests require.

”I'd like to write you the best story in my market--that is, if I have a market; but now and then I half feel as if I were only manufacturing out of old wearables, like the devil's dust folk at Manchester.

”I have no heart to talk of 'Tony,' because I think the book is a deal better than what the scoundrels are daily praising, and I know there is better 'talk' in it than the rascals ever did talk or listen to in the dirty daily Covent Garden lines. There's a burst of indignant vanity for you, and I'm 'better for it' already. If 'The Times' had noticed us at once, it would have given the key-note; but _patienzia_, as the Italians say.