Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters Volume I Part 10

"I have had some very ludicrous mention made to me by a doctor of a certain new publication called 'Harry Lorreker,' of which I was, of course, profoundly ignorant, and even in one case borrowed the book. As all the criticisms were not _couleur de rose_, the fun was the greater, as no one saw my blushes, or at least suspected them.

"Once more let me have an early letter. You spoke of going somewhere for health. A few weeks up the Rhine would do you infinite service. Come over to me and I'll patch you up and give you a route--perhaps go along with you."

_To Mr James M'Glashan_.

"Brussels, _July_ 1839.

"I now send you the review of Marryat. Let me see a proof if possible.

I have done my best to let the Yankees down easy, but I fear it is too bitter. If there be anything amusing for review send it to me,--anything to abuse, anything to tear. I have no temper or spirit just now for encomiums.

"Write to me a long letter, and if there be anything encouraging in the notices, tell me. You know the story of the handsome Frenchwoman to whom Chateaubriand complained that, though ever so clever, flattery of her was too difficult; to which she replied, 'N'importe: louez-moi toujours.' So I, without any of the same reason for the practice, would beg of you: Give me sugar-plums, if there be any, for I never felt more in want of a little 'b.u.t.tering-up,' as Mr Daly would call it. Of course, I should recommend both as regards you and myself if the thing was done well--'Let not the badness of the cheese obliterate the remembrance of the soup and fish.' So say I. If the public laugh at first, let us not send them home disposed to cry."

_To Mr James M'Glashan._

"_Aug_. 2, 1839.

"Acting on the opinion contained in your first letter that the matter then published would make eight numbers, I promised four additional ones. Since then I have written one and a half of the new monthly numbers, and find that the whole only makes eight in all, which is a terrible overthrow of all my plans regarding it. The material I have still by me will not by any arrangement extend to more than two numbers.

I fear to prolong it beyond that would greatly injure the book as a whole and weaken any interest it may have excited, by what would be called a falling-off. I cannot say how much this has vexed and annoyed me. But I am disposed to doing the best under the circ.u.mstances. First, I shall conclude the affair in ten numbers, making you any compensation for the omitted two you think fair, either in money or in any future dealing; secondly, I will write the two additional numbers as well as I can, which will, however, involve a change of plot, &c., &c, that I cannot but deprecate as regards the fortune of the book as a whole."

_To Mr James M'Glashan_.

"_Aug_. 6,1839.

"The more I think of it, the more I feel persuaded that we had better close ['Lorrequer'] with ten numbers. The plot will be original, the effect not weakened, the volume sufficiently large, and the public less disposed to grumble, which, for all our sakes, is something. I have had so much worry here with sick brats and patients of all kinds, that I am fairly knocked up. Besides that, there is not an old fool sent by that arch-charlatan Grenville to drink Spa waters in Germany, who does not expect me to have an a.n.a.lysis of every dirty spring or fetid puddle from Pyrmont to the Pyrenees; and my whole mornings are pa.s.sed discussing chalybeates and sulphurets with all the scarlet and pimpled faces that Harrogate and Buxton have turned off incurable. There is only one comfort in all this. However imaginary the ills they suffer on leaving England, by the time they reach Brussels on their way back, few of them boast const.i.tutions strong enough not to be suffering from the fat, grease, filth, and acidity of German cookery, and they all, more or less, are in need of me before they get their pa.s.sports from Antwerp.

The English who travel--G.o.d bless them!--are an amiable cla.s.s, and they seldom fail to bring along with them for the journey some family ailment which French wines and high living combine to make troublesome. A constant influx of these pleasant people keeps me here, but if I can manage it I mean to bolt soon. Every _table d'hote_ in this city swarms with the most unlicked cubs of our country, speaking neither German nor French--a few English. They disgust me for the false impression they convey to foreigners of what English gentlemen really are. What they come for, and where they go, I cannot say. It is impossible that they can be escaping for debt, for no one could possibly trust them; and they cannot be swindlers, for swindlers are men of captivating address and prepossessing manners. I rejoice to think that they are poisoned by the living, sent wrong in diligences, cheated by the money-changers, and bullied by the police."

_To Mr James M'Glashan._

"Brussels, _Aug_. 90,1839.

"Your letter of the 24th has arrived, together with the packet containing the review of Marryat, dated 8th ult., since which date it has been following his Excellency the Amba.s.sador through the Highlands, and enjoying the sports of the season at the Duke of Athol's.

"I have just arranged about the portrait.* You shall have the sketch next week, and had better get it engraved. He will be much more Harry Lorrequer than Charles Lever. However, that will be all the better.

* This was not the portrait prefixed to 'Jack Hinton,' but a vignette finally condemned.--E. D.

"I have not the most remote idea of the conclusion, and have lately been adding more to my family than to 'Harry,'--a little annual in the shape of a daughter being presented to me yesterday. Would you kindly put the announcement for me in the Irish papers?--'Born on the 28th of the month, at Brussels,' &c. Of my new and most original work, more hereafter. Meanwhile, see if b.u.t.t does not owe something for my contributions to Mag., and if so, send it, and anything for my late MSS., to Spencer, who asks for money in lieu of sending it,--a species of transfusion of my pecuniary blood which my const.i.tution cannot bear. I have just been walked into here by a swindler to the amount of 145--money borrowed on security. This is a confoundedly heavy loss, and has ruffled my temper, and possibly affected my naturally legible handwriting.

"I have some very brilliant ideas of my new book, which you shall soon hear of.

"Send me something light to review."

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

"Brussels, _Sept_. 13,1839.

"Since my return I have been working very hard--not medically, for town is empty, but scribbling....

"I am in great hopes to have something like a half medical tome on the stocks for spring. I was talking about it to Bradie and Chambers in London, and they strongly advised it--for money's sake less than the popularity such things secure."

_To Mr James M'Glashan_.

"_Sept_. 20,1839.

"I sent you a week since two chaps.--xliii. and xliv.--of 'Harry Lorrequer.' G.o.d grant they have reached you, for I never can rewrite, and if lost, they break the chains, if there be any, in the narrative.

I am told of a handsome notice of 'Harry' in the 'Naval and Military Gazette.' Look at it. How goes on the sale of No. 7? Tell me, and let me have a proof of No. 9 soon, and as much of No. 10 as you can get together. I see my way thus much more clearly. I wish you would suggest scenes to Browne; his choice latterly is not over happy. But above all, my wife and daughters are still poorly, and I am so unhinged and upset by these causes and not being well myself, that I am below the mark as regards writing. I trust, however, that this is not to continue, and look forward to being once more _en route_."

_To Mr James M'Glashan_.

"_Oct. 7_ [?1839].

"Your letter came to hand exactly as I had despatched my own lament for the lost 'Lorrequer,' and had actually set about writing another conclusion for No. 9, which I have since, of course, burnt,--not but I have some misgivings that it was the best of the two. We must soon pull up, and marry our man. I'll do for you a review of the son's 'Life of Grattan,' but it must be a profound secret. I think Lorrequer's portrait, if done at all, had better be appended as a vignette to the book,--mounted on the cob, as I mentioned. How to manage it is, however, difficult. A German translation of 'Harry' is announced in the Leipzig catalogue. It must have been _rayther_ th.o.r.n.y work for the translator.

Meanwhile--proof! proof! and a long letter, I beseech of you. I am idle, and likely to be so, if not stimulated by hearing from you. It is only the occasional prod of the spur that even makes me move."

_To Mr James M'Glashan_.

"_Oct_. 18, 1839.

"In the hope of forcing you to reply, I have been pouring in a shower of small shot these last three or four days, and I now send another missile in the shape of a new chapter of 'Harry.' For Heaven's sake write to me, and let me see the proof of No 10, for in about ten days my season commences here, and then blue pills and rhubarb will eject all that appertains to our friend Hal."

_To Mr James M'Glashan._

"_Oct_. 22, 1889.

"Herewith goes a slating of 'Physic and Physicians' for our December number, of which let me have a proof--that is, if ever you intend writing to me again.

"Write soon--write soon.

"What would you think of a book called 'The Irish, by Themselves'?

Something like 'Les Francais'--to be done by several hands,--Otway, Carleton, &c.? Of all countries it presents most facility for this kind of thing, and might 'take' prodigiously."