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diff --git a/21815-8.txt b/21815-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ebd21b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/21815-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2380 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Forster, by Percy Hethrington Fitzgerald + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: John Forster + +Author: Percy Hethrington Fitzgerald + +Release Date: June 12, 2007 [EBook #21815] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN FORSTER *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Geetu Melwani, Sankar Viswanathan, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned +images of public domain material from the Google Print +project.) + + + + + + + + + + JOHN + + FORSTER + + + + BY + + ONE OF HIS FRIENDS + + + + + LONDON + + CHAPMAN & HALL LTD. + + 1903 + + * * * * * + + + + +JOHN FORSTER. + +A MAN OF LETTERS OF THE OLD SCHOOL. + + +One of the most robust, striking, and many-sided characters of his +time was John Forster, a rough, uncompromising personage, who, from +small and obscure beginnings, shouldered his way to the front until he +came to be looked on by all as guide, friend and arbiter. From a +struggling newspaperman he emerged into handsome chambers in Lincoln's +Inn Fields, from thence to a snug house in Montague Square, ending in +a handsome stone mansion which he built for himself at Palace Gate, +Kensington, with its beautiful library-room at the back, and every +luxury of "lettered ease." + +If anyone desired to know what Dr. Johnson was like, he could have found +him in Forster. There was the same social intolerance; the same +"dispersion of humbug"; the same loud voice, attuned to a mellifluous +softness on occasion, especially with ladies or persons of rank; the +love of "talk" in which he assumed the lead--and kept it too; and the +contemptuous scorn of what he did not approve. But then all this was +backed by admirable training and full knowledge. He was a deeply read, +cultivated man, a fine critic, and, with all his arrogance, despotism, +and rough "ways," a most interesting, original, delightful person--for +those he liked that is, and whom he had made his own. His very "build" +and appearance was also that of the redoubtable Doctor: so was his loud +and hearty laugh. Woe betide the man on whom he chose to "wipe his +shoes" (Browning's phrase), for he could wipe them with a will. He would +thus roar you down. It was "in_tol_-er-able"--everything was +"_in-tol-erable!_"--it is difficult to describe the fashion in which he +rolled forth the syllables. Other things were "all Stuff!" "Monstrous!" +"Incredible!" "Don't tell me!" Indeed I, with many, could find a +parallel in the great old Doctor for almost everything he said. Even +when there was a smile at his vehemence, he would unconsciously repeat +the Doctor's autocratic methods. + +Forster's life was indeed a striking and encouraging one for those who +believe in the example of "self-made men." His aim was somewhat +different from the worldly types, who set themselves to become +wealthy, or to have lands or mansions. Forster's more moderate +aspiration was to reach to the foremost rank of the literary world: +and he succeeded. He secured for himself an excellent education, never +spared himself for study or work, and never rested till he had built +himself that noble mansion at Kensington, of which I have spoken, +furnished with books, pictures, and rare things. Here he could, +Mæcenas-like, entertain his literary friends of all degrees, with a +vast number of other friends and acquaintances, notable in their walks +of life. It is astonishing what a circle he had gathered round him, +and how intimate he was with all: political men such as Brougham, +Guizot, Gladstone, Forster, Cornwall Lewis (Disraeli he abhorred as +much as his friend of Chelsea did, who once asked me, "What is there +new about _our Jew Premier_?"): Maclise, Landseer, Frith, and +Stanfield, with dozens of other painters: every writer of the day, +almost without exception, late or early. With these, such as Anthony +Trollope, he was on the friendliest terms, though he did not "grapple +them to him with hooks of steel." With the Bar it was the same: he was +intimate with the brilliant and agreeable Cockburn; with Lord +Coleridge (then plain Mr. Coleridge), who found a knife and a fork +laid for him any day that he chose to drop in, which he did pretty +often. The truth was that in any company his marked personality, both +physical and mental; his magisterial face and loud decided voice, and +his reputation of judge and arbiter, at once impressed and commanded +attention. People felt that they ought to know this personage at once. + +It is extraordinary what perseverance and a certain power of will, and +that of not being denied, will do in this way. His broad face and +cheeks and burly person were not made for rebuffs. He seized on +persons he wished to know and made them his own at once. I always +thought it was the most characteristic thing known of him in this +way, his striding past Bunn the manager--then his enemy--in his own +theatre, taking no notice of him and passing to Macready's room, to +confer with him on measures hostile to the said Bunn. As Johnson was +said to toss and gore his company, so Forster trampled on those he +condemned. I remember he had a special dislike to one of Boz's useful +henchmen. An amusing story was told, that after some meeting to +arrange matters with Bradbury and Evans, the printers, Boz, ever +charitable, was glad to report to Forster some hearty praise by this +person, of the ability with which he (Forster) had arranged the +matters, thus amiably wishing to propitiate the autocrat in his +friend's interest. But, said the uncompromising Forster, "I am truly +sorry, my dear Dickens, that I cannot reciprocate your friend's +compliment, for _a d----nder ass I never encountered in the whole +course of my life_!" A comparative that is novel and will be admired. + +Forster had a determined way with him, of forcing an answer that he +wanted; driving you into a corner as it were. A capital illustration +of this power occurred in my case. I had sent to a London "second +hand" bookseller to supply me with a copy of the two quarto volumes of +Garrick's life, "huge armfuls." It was with some surprise that I noted +the late owner's name and book-plate, which was that of "John Forster, +Esq., Lincoln's Inn Fields." At the moment he had given me Garrick's +original MS. correspondence, of which he had a score of volumes, and +was helping me in many other ways. Now it was a curious coincidence +that this one, of all existing copies, should come to me. Next time I +saw him I told him of it. He knitted his brows and grew thoughtful. +"_My_ copy! Ah! I can account for it! It was one of the volumes I lent +to that fellow"--mentioning the name of the "fellow"--"he no doubt +sold it for drink!" "Oh, so _that_ was it," I said rather +incautiously. "But _you_," he said sternly, "tell me what did _you_ +think when you saw my name? Come now! How did it leave my library?" +This was awkward to answer. "I suppose you thought I was in the habit +of selling my books? Surely not?" Now this was what I _had_ thought. +"Come! You must have had some view on the matter. Two huge volumes +like that are not easily stolen." It was with extraordinary difficulty +that I could extricate myself. + +It was something to talk to one who had been intimate with Charles +Lamb, and of whom he once spoke to me, with tears running down his +cheeks, "Ah! poor dear Charles Lamb!" The next day he had summoned his +faithful clerk, instructing him to look out among his papers--such was +his way--for all the Lamb letters, which were then lent to me. And +most interesting they were. In one, Elia calls him "_Fooster_," I +fancy taking off Carlyle's pronunciation. + +As a writer and critic Forster held a high, unquestioned place, his +work being always received with respect as of one of the masters. He +had based his style on the admirable, if somewhat old-fashioned +models, had regularly _learned_ to write, which few do now, by +studying the older writers: Swift, Addison, and, above all, the +classics. + +He was at first glad to do "job work," and was employed by Dr. Lardner +to furnish the "Statesmen of the Commonwealth" to his Encyclopædia. +Lardner received from him a conscientious bit of work, but which was +rather dry reading, something after the pattern of Dr. Lingard, who +was then in fashion. But presently he was writing _con amore_, a book +after his own heart, _The Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith_, in +which there is a light, gay touch, somewhat peculiar at times, but +still very agreeable. It is a charming book, and graced with exquisite +sketches by his friend Maclise and other artists. There was a great +deal of study and "reading" in it, which engendered an angry +controversy with Sir James Prior, a ponderous but pains-taking writer, +who had collected every scrap that was connected with Goldy. Forster, +charged with helping himself to what another had gathered, sternly +replied, as if it could not be disputed, that he had merely gone to +the same common sources as Prior, and had found what he had found! But +this was seasoned with extraordinary abuse of poor Prior, who was held +up as an impostor for being so industrious. Nothing better illustrated +Forster's way: "The fellow was preposterous--intolerable. I had just +as good a right to go to the old magazines as he had." It was, indeed, +a most amusing and characteristic controversy. + +At this time the intimacy between Boz and the young writer--two young +men, for they were only thirty-six--was of the closest. Dickens' +admiration of his friend's book was unbounded. He read it with delight +and expressed his admiration with an affectionate enthusiasm. It was +no wonder that in "gentle Goldsmith's life" thus unfolded, he found a +replica of his own sore struggles. No one knew better the "fiercer +crowded misery in garret toil and London loneliness" than he did. + +TO CHARLES DICKENS. + + Genius and its rewards are briefly told: + A liberal nature and a niggard doom, + A difficult journey to a splendid tomb. + New writ, nor lightly weighed, that story old + In gentle Goldsmith's life I here unfold; + Thro' other than lone wild or desert gloom, + In its mere joy and pain, its blight and bloom, + Adventurous. Come with me and behold, + O friend with heart as gentle for distress, + As resolute with fine wise thoughts to bind + The happiest to the unhappiest of our kind, + That there is fiercer crowded misery + In garret toil and London loneliness + Than in cruel islands mid the far off sea. + +March, 1848. JOHN FORSTER. + +It will be noted what a warmth of affection is shown in these pleasing +lines. Some of the verses linger in his memory: the last three +especially. The allusion to Dickens is as truthful as it is charming. +The "cruel islands mid the far off sea" was often quoted, though +there were sometimes sarcastic appeals to the author to name his +locality. + +This _Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith_ is a truly charming +book: charming in the writing, in its typographic guise, and its forty +graceful illustrations by his friends, Maclise, Leech, Browne, etc. It +appeared in 1848. A pleasing feature of those times was the close +fellowship between the writers and the painters and other artists, as +was shown in the devoted affection of Maclise and others to Dickens. +There is more of class apart nowadays. Artists and writers are not +thus united. The work has gone through many editions; but, after some +years the whim seized him to turn it into an official literary history +of the period, and he issued it as a "Life and Times," with an +abundance of notes and references. All the pleasant air of story +telling, the "Life and Adventures," so suited to poor Goldy's +shiftless career, were abolished. It was a sad mistake, much +deprecated by his friends, notably by Carlyle. But at the period +Forster was in his _Sir Oracle_ vein and inclined to lofty periods. + +"My dear Forster," wrote Boz to him, "I cannot sufficiently say how +proud I am of what you have done, and how sensible I am of being so +tenderly connected with it. I desire no better for my fame, when my +personal dustiness shall be past the contrast of my love of order, +than such a biographer--and such a critic. And again I say most +solemnly that literature in England has never had, and probably never +will have, such a champion as you are in right of this book." "As a +picture of the time I really think it is impossible to give it too +much praise. It seems to me to be the very essence of all about the +time that I have ever seen in biography or fiction, presented in most +wise and humane lights. I have never liked him so well. And as to +Goldsmith himself and _his_ life, and the manful and dignified +assertion of him, without any sobs, whines, or convulsions of any +sort, it is throughout a noble achievement of which, apart from any +private and personal affection for you, I think and really believe I +should feel proud." What a genuine affectionate ring is here! + +Later Forster lost this agreeable touch, and issued a series of +ponderous historical treatises, enlargements of his old "Statesmen." +These were dreary things, pedantic, solemn and heavy; they might have +been by the worthy Rollin himself. Such was the _Life of Sir John +Eliot, the Arrest of the Five Members_, and others. + +No one had been so intimate with Savage Landor as he had, or admired +him more. He had known him for years and was chosen as his literary +executor. With such materials one might have looked for a lively, +vivacious account of this tempestuous personage. But Forster dealt +with him in his magisterial way, and furnished a heavy treatise, on +critical and historical principles. Everything here is treated +according to the strict canons and in judicial fashion. On every poem +there was a long and profound criticism of many pages, which I +believe was one of his own old essays used again, fitted into the +book. The hero is treated as though he were some important historical +personage. Everyone knew Landor's story; his shocking violences and +lack of restraint; his malignity where he disliked. His life was full +of painful episodes, but Forster, like Podsnap, would see none of +these things. He waved them away with his "monstrous!" "intolerable!" +and put them out of existence. + +According to him, not a word of the scandals was true. Landor was a +noble-hearted man; misjudged, and carried away by his feelings. The +pity of it was he could have made of it a most lasting, entertaining +book had he brought to it the pleasantly light touch he was later to +bring to his account of Dickens. But he took it all too solemnly. +Landor's life was full of grotesque scenes, and Forster might have +alleviated the harsh views taken of his friend by dealing with him as +an impetuous, irresponsible being, amusing even in his delinquencies. +Boz gave a far juster view of him in _Boythorn_. In almost the year of +his death Forster began another tremendous work, _The Life of Swift_, +for which he had been preparing and collecting for many years. No one +was so fitted by profound knowledge of the period. He had much +valuable MS. material, but the first volume, all he lived to finish, +was leaden enough. Of course he was writing with disease weighing him +down, with nights that were sleepless and spent in general misery. But +even with all allowance it was a dull and conventional thing. + +It has been often noted how a mere trifle will, in an extraordinary +way, determine or change the whole course of a life. I can illustrate +this by my own case. I was plodding on contentedly at the Bar without +getting "no forrarder," with slender meagre prospects, but with a +hankering after "writing," when I came to read this Life of Goldsmith +that I have just been describing, which filled me with admiration. The +author was at the moment gathering materials for his Life of Swift, +when it occurred to me that I might be useful to him in getting up all +the local Swiftian relics, traditions, etc. I set to work, obtained +them, made the sketches, and sent them to him in a batch. He was +supremely grateful, and never forgot the volunteered trifling service. +To it I owe a host of literary friends and acquaintance with the +"great guns," Dickens, Carlyle, and the rest; and when I ventured to +try my prentice pen, it was Forster who took personal charge of the +venture. It was long remembered at the _Household Words_ office how he +stalked in one morning, stick in hand, and, flinging down the paper, +called out, "Now, mind, no nonsense about it, no humbug, no returning +it with a polite circular, and all that; see that it is read and duly +considered." _That_ was the turning-point. To that blunt declaration I +owe some forty years of enjoyment and employment--for there is no +enjoyment like that of writing--to say nothing of money in abundance. + +He once paid a visit to Dublin, when we had many an agreeable +expedition to Swift's haunts, which, from the incuriousness of the +place at the time, were still existing. We went to Hoey's Court in +"The Liberties," a squalid alley with a few ruined houses, among which +was the one in which Swift was born. Thence to St. Patrick's, to +Marsh's Library, not then rebuilt, where he turned over with infinite +interest Swift's well-noted folios. Then on to Trinity College, where +there was much that was curious; to Swift's Hospital, where, from his +office in the Lunacy Commission, he was quite at home. He at once +characteristically assumed the air of command, introducing himself +with grave dignity to the authorities, by-and-bye pointing out matters +which might be amended, among others the bareness of the walls, which +were without pictures. In the grounds he received all the confidences +of the unhappy patients and their complaints (one young fellow +bitterly appealing to him on the hardship of not being allowed to +smoke, while he had a pipe in his mouth at the time). He would pat +others on the back and encourage them in quite a professional manner. +Of all these Swift localities I had made little vignette drawings in +"wash," which greatly pleased him and were to have been engraved in +the book. They are now duly registered and to be seen in the +collection at South Kensington. Poor dear Forster! How happy he was on +that "shoemaker's holiday" of his, driving on outside cars (with +infinite difficulty holding on), walking the streets, seeing old +friends, and delighted with everything. His old friend and class +fellow, Whiteside, gave him a dinner to which I attended him, where +was the late Dr. Lloyd, the Provost of the College, a learned man, +whose works on "Optics" are well known. It was pleasant to note how +Forster, like his prototype, the redoubtable Doctor, here "talked for +ostentation." "I knew, sir," he might say, "that I was expected to +talk, to talk suitably to my position as a distinguished visitor." And +so he did. It was an excellent lesson in conversation to note how he +took the lead--"laid down the law," while poor Whiteside flourished +away in a torrent of words, and the placid Lloyd more adroitly strove +occasionally to "get in." But Forster held his way with well-rounded +periods, and seemed to enjoy entangling his old friend in the +consequences of some exuberant exaggeration. "My dear Whiteside, how +_can_ you say so? Do you not see that by saying such a thing you give +yourself away?" etc. + +Forster, however, more than redeemed himself when he issued his +well-known _Life of Dickens_, a work that was a perfect delight to the +world and to his friends. For here is the proper lightness of touch. +The complete familiarity with every detail of the course of the man of +whose life his had been a portion, and the quiet air of authority +which he could assume in consequence, gave the work an attraction that +was beyond dispute. There have been, it is said, some fifteen or +sixteen official Lives issued since the writer's death; but all these +are written "from outside" as it were, and it is extraordinary what a +different man each presents. But hardly sufficient credit has been +given to him for the finished style which only a true and well trained +critic could have brought, the easy touch, the appropriate treatment +of trifles, the mere indication as it were, the correct passing by or +sliding over of matters that should not be touched. All this imparted +a dignity of treatment, and though familiar, the whole was gay and +bright. True, occasionally he lapsed into his favourite pompousness +and autocracy, but this made the work more characteristic of the man. +Nothing could have been in better taste than his treatment of certain +passages in the author's life as to which, he showed, the public were +not entitled to demand more than the mere historical mention of the +facts. When he was writing this Life it was amusing to find how +sturdily independent he became. The "Blacking episode" could not have +been acceptable, but Forster was stern and would not bate a line. So, +with much more--he "rubbed it in" without scruple. The true reason, by +the way, of the uproar raised against the writer, was that it was too +much of a close borough, no one but Boz and his Bear leader being +allowed upon the stage. Numbers had their little letters from the +great man with many compliments and favours which would look well in +print. Many, like Wilkie Collins or Edmund Yates, had a whole +collection. I myself had some sixty or seventy. Some of these +personages were highly indignant, for were they not characters in the +drama? When the family came to publish the collection of letters, +Yates, I believe, declined to allow his to be printed; so did Collins, +whose Boz letters were later sold and published in America. + +No doubt the subject inspired. The ever gay and lively Boz, always in +spirits, called up many a happy scene, and gave the pen a certain +airiness and nimbleness. There is little that is official or +magisterial about the volumes. Everything is pleasant and interesting, +put together--though there is a crowd of details--with extraordinary +art and finish. It furnishes a most truthful and accurate picture of +the "inimitable," recognizable in every page. It was only in the third +volume, when scared by the persistent clamours of the disappointed and +the envious, protesting that there was "too much Forster," that it was +virtually a "Life of John Forster, with some recollections of Charles +Dickens," that he became of a sudden, official and allowed others to +come too much on the scene, with much loss of effect. That third +volume, which ought to have been most interesting, is the dull one. We +have Boz described as he would be in an encyclopædia, instead of +through Forster, acting as his interpreter, and much was lost by this +treatment. Considering the homeliness and every-day character of the +incidents, it is astonishing how Forster contrived to dignify them. He +knew from early training what was valuable and significant and what +should be rejected. + +Granting the objections--and faults--of the book, it may be asked, who +else in the 'seventies was, not _so_ fitted, but fitted at all to +produce a Life of Dickens. Every eye looked, every finger pointed to +Forster; worker, patron, and disciple, confidant, adviser, correcter, +admirer, the trained man of letters, and in the school in which Boz +had been trained, who had known every one of that era. No one else +could have been thought of. And as we now read the book, and contrast +it with those ordered or commissioned biographies, so common now, and +perhaps better wrought, we see at once the difference. The success was +extraordinary. Edition after edition was issued, and that so rapidly, +that the author had no opportunity of making the necessary +corrections, or of adding new information. He contented himself with a +leaf or two at the end, in which, in his own imperial style, he simply +took note of the information. I believe his profit was about £10,000. + +A wonderful feature was the extraordinary amount of Dickens' letters +that was worked into it. To save time and trouble, and this I was told +by Mrs. Forster, he would cut out the passages he wanted with a pair +of scissors and paste them on his MS! As the portion written on the +back was thus lost, the rest became valueless. I can fancy the +American collector tearing his hair as he reads of this desecration. +But it was a rash act and a terrible loss of money. Each letter might +have later been worth say from five to ten pounds apiece. + +It would be difficult to give an idea of Forster's overflowing +kindness on the occasion of the coming of friends to town. Perpetual +hospitality was the order of the day, and, like so many older +Londoners, he took special delight in hearing accounts of the strange +out-of-the-way things a visitor will discover, and with which he will +even surprise the resident. He enjoyed what he called "hearing your +adventures." I never met anyone with so boisterous and enjoying a +laugh. Something would tickle him, and, like Johnson in Fleet Street, +he would roar and roar again. Like Diggory, too, at the same story, or +rather _scene_; for, like his friend Boz, it was the _picture_ of some +humorous incident that delighted, and would set him off into +convulsions. One narrative of my own, a description of the recitation +of Poe's _The Bells_ by an actress, in which she simulated the action +of pulling the bell for the Fire, or for a Wedding or Funeral bells, +used to send him into perfect hysterics. And I must say that I, who +have seen and heard all sorts of truly humorous and spuriously +humorous stories in which the world abounds at the present moment, +have never witnessed anything more diverting. The poor lady thought +she was doing the thing realistically, while the audience was +shrieking with enjoyment. I do not know how many times I was invited +to repeat this narrative, a somewhat awkward situation for me, but I +was glad always to do what he wished. I recall Browning coming in, and +I was called on to rehearse this story, Forster rolling on the sofa +in agonies of enjoyment. This will seem trivial and personal, but +really it was characteristic; and pleasant it was to find a man of his +sort so natural and even boyish. + +At the head of his table, with a number of agreeable and clever guests +around him, Forster was at his best. He seemed altogether changed. +Beaming smiles, a gentle, encouraging voice, and a tenderness verging +on gallantry to the ladies, took the place of the old, rough fashions. +He talked ostentatiously, he _led_ the talk, told most _à propos_ +anecdotes of the remarkable men he had met, and was fond of fortifying +his own views by adding: "As Gladstone, or Guizot, or Palmerston said +to me in my room," etc. But you could not but be struck by the +finished shapes in which his sentences ran. There was a weight, a +power of illustration, and a dramatic colouring that could only have +come of long practice. He was gay, sarcastic, humorous, and it was +impossible not to recognise that here was a clever man and a man of +power. + +Forster's ideal of hospitality was not reciprocity, but was bounded by +_his_ entertaining everybody. Not that he did not enjoy a friendly +quiet dinner at your table. Was he on his travels at a strange place? +_You_ must dine with him at his hotel. In town you must dine with him. +He might dine with you. This dining with you must be according to his +programme. When he was in the vein and inclined for a social domestic +night he would let himself out. + +Maclise's happy power of realising character is shown inimitably in +the picture of Forster at the reading of _The Christmas Carol_, seated +forward in his chair, with a solemn air of grave judgment. There is an +air of distrust, or of being on his guard, as who should say, "It is +fine, very fine, but I hold my opinion in suspense till the close. I +am not to be caught as you are, by mere flowers." He was in fact +distinct from the rest, all under the influence of emotion. Harness is +shown weeping, Jerrold softened, etc. These rooms, as is well known, +were Mr. Tulkinghorn's in the novel, and over Forster's head, as he +wrote, was the floridly-painted ceiling, after the fashion of Verrio, +with the Roman pointing. This was effaced many years ago, but I do not +know when. + +By all his friends Forster was thought of as a sort of permanent +bachelor. His configuration and air were entirely suited to life in +chambers: he was thoroughly literary; his friends were literary; there +he gave his dinners; married life with him was inconceivable. He had +lately secured an important official post, that of Secretary to the +Lunacy Commissioners, which he gained owing to his useful services when +editing the _Examiner_. This necessarily led to the Commissionership, +which was worth a good deal more. Nowadays we do not find the editors of +the smaller papers securing such prizes. I remember when he was +encouraging me to "push my way," he illustrated his advice by his own +example: "I never let old Brougham go. I came back again and again +until I wore him out. I forced 'em to give me this." I could quite +imagine it. Forster was a troublesome customer, "a harbitrary cove," and +not to be put off, except for a time. It was an excellent business +appointment, and he was admitted to be an admirable official. + +In one of Dickens' letters, published by his children, there is a +grotesque outburst at some astounding piece of news: an event +impending, which seemed to have taken his breath away. It clearly +refers to his friend's marriage. Boz was so tickled at this wonderful +news that he wrote: "Tell Catherine that I have the most prodigious, +overwhelming, crushing, astounding, blinding, deafening, pulverising, +scarifying, secret of which Forster is the hero, imaginable, by the +whole efforts of the whole British population. It is a thing of the +kind that, after I knew it (from himself) this morning, I lay down +flat as if an engine and tender had fallen upon me." This pleasantly +boisterous humour is in no wise exaggerated. I fancy it affected all +Forster's friends much in the same way, and as an exquisitely funny +and expected thing. How many pictures did Boz see before him--Forster +proposing to the widow in his sweetest accents, his deportment at the +church, &c. There was not much sentiment in the business, though the +bride was a sweet, charming woman, as will be seen, too gentle for +that tempestuous spirit. She was a widow--"Yes, gentlemen, the +plaintiff is a widow," widow of Colburn, the publisher, a quiet little +man, who worshipped her. She was well endowed, inheriting much of his +property, even to his papers, etc. She had also a most comfortable +house in Montague Square, where, as the saying is, Forster had only to +move in and "hang up his hat." + +With all his roughness and bluntness, Forster had a very soft heart, +and was a great appreciator of the sex. He had some little "affairs of +the heart," which, however, led to no result. He was actually engaged +to the interesting L. E. L. (Letitia Landon), whom he had no doubt +pushed well forward in the _Examiner_; for the fair poetess generally +contrived to enlist the affections of her editors, as she did those of +Jerdan, director of the once powerful _Literary Gazette_. We can see +from his Memoirs how attracted he was by her. The engagement was +broken off, it is believed, through the arts of Dr. Maginn, and it is +said that Forster behaved exceedingly well in the transaction. Later +he became attached to another lady, who had several suitors of +distinction, but she was not disposed to entrust herself to him. + +No one so heartily relished his Forster, his ways and oddities, as +Boz; albeit the sage was his faithful friend, counsellor, and ally. He +had an exquisite sense for touches of character, especially for the +little weaknesses so often exhibited by sturdy, boisterous natures. We +again recall that disposition of Johnson, with his "bow to an +Archbishop," listening with entranced attention to a dull story told +by a foreign "diplomatist." "_The ambassador says well_," would the +sage repeat many times, which, as Bozzy tells, became a favourite form +in the _côterie_ for ironical approbation. There was much of this in +our great man, whose voice became of the sweetest and most mellifluous +key, as he bent before the peer. "Lord ----," he would add gently, and +turning to the company, "has been saying, with much force," etc. + +I recall the Guild _fête_ down at Knebworth, where Forster was on a +visit to its noble owner, Lord Lytton, and was deputed to receive and +marshal the guests at the station, an office of dread importance, and +large writ over his rather burly person. His face was momentous as he +patrolled the platform. I remember coming up to him in the crowd, but +he looked over and beyond me, big with unutterable things. Mentioning +this later to Boz, he laughed his cheerful laugh, "Exactly," he cried. +"Why, I assure you, Forster would not see _me_!" He was busy pointing +out the vehicles, the proper persons to sit in them, according to +their dignity. All through that delightful day, as I roamed through +the fine old halls, I would encounter him passing by, still in his +lofty dream, still controlling all, with a weight of delegated +authority on his broad shoulders. Only at the very close did he +vouchsafe a few dignified, encouraging words, and then passed on. He +reminded me much of Elia's description of Bensley's Malvolio. + +There was nothing ill-natured in Boz's relish of these things; he +heartily loved his friend. It was the pure love of fun. Podsnap has +many touches of Forster, but the writer dared not let himself go in +that character as he would have longed to do. When Podsnap is referred +to for his opinion, he delivers it as follows, much flushed and +extremely angry: "Don't ask me. I desire to take no part in the +discussion of these people's affairs. I abhor the subject. It is an +odious subject, an offensive subject _that makes me sick_, and +I"--with his favourite right arm flourish which sweeps away everything +and settles it for ever, etc. These very words must Forster have used. +It may be thought that Boz would not be so daring as to introduce his +friend into his stories, "under his very nose" as it were, submitting +the proofs, etc., with the certainty that the portrait would be +recognised. But this, as we know, is the last thing that could have +occurred, or the last thing that would have occurred to Forster. It +was like enough someone else, but not he. + +"Mr. Podsnap was well to do, and stood very high in Mr. Podsnap's +opinion." "He was quite satisfied. He never could make out why +everybody was not quite satisfied, and he felt conscious that he set a +brilliant social example in being particularly well satisfied with +most things and with himself." "Mr. Podsnap settled that whatever he +put behind him he put out of existence." "I don't want to know about +it. I don't desire to discover it." "He had, however, acquired a +peculiar flourish of his right arm in the clearing the world of its +difficulties." "As so eminently respectable a man, Mr. Podsnap was +sensible of its being required of him to take Providence under his +protection. Consequently he always knew exactly what Providence +intended." + +These touches any friend of Forster's would recognise. He could be +very engaging, and was at his best when enjoying what he called a +shoemaker's holiday--that is, when away from town at some +watering-place, with friends. He was then really delightful, because +happy, having left all his solemnities and ways in London. + +Forster was a man of many gifts, an admirable hard-working official, +thoroughly business-like and industrious. I recall him through all the +stages of his connection with the Lunacy Department, as Secretary and +Commissioner and Retired Commissioner, when he would arrive on +"melting days" as it were. But it was as a cultured critic that he was +unsurpassed. He was ever "correct," and delivered a judgment that +commended itself on the instant; it was given with such weight and +persuasion. This correctness of judgment extended to most things, +politics, character, literature, and was pleasant to listen to. He was +one of the old well-read school, and was never without his edition of +Shakespeare, the Globe one, which he took with him on his journeys. He +had a way of lightly emphasising the beauty of a special passage of +the Bard's. + +Once, travelling round with Boz, on one of his reading tours, we came +to Belfast, where the huge Ulster Hall was filled to the door by +ardent and enthusiastic Northerners. I recall how we walked round the +rather grim town, with its harsh red streets, the honest workers +staring at him hard. We put up at an old-fashioned hotel, the +best--the Royal it was called, where there was much curiosity on the +part of the ladies to get sly peeps at the eminent man. They generally +contrived to be on the stairs when he emerged. Boz always appeared, +even in the streets, somewhat carefully "made up." The velvet collar, +the blue coat, the heavy gold pin, added to the effect. + +It was at this hotel, when the show was over, and our agreeable supper +cleared away, that I saw the pleasant Boz lying on the sofa somewhat +tired by his exertions, not so much on the boards as in that very +room. For he was fond of certain parlour gymnastics, in which he +contended with his aide-de-camp Dolby. Well, as I said, he was on his +sofa somewhat fatigued with his night's work, in a most placid, +enjoying frame of mind, laughing with his twinkling eyes, as he often +did, squeezing and puckering them up when our talk fell on Forster, +whom he was in the vein for enjoying. It had so fallen out that, only +a few weeks before, Trinity College, Dublin, had invited Forster to +receive an honorary degree, a compliment that much gratified him. I +was living there at the time, and he came and stayed with me in the +best of humours, thoroughly enjoying it all. Boz, learning that I had +been with him, insisted on my telling him _everything_, as by instinct +he knew that his friend would have been at his best. The scenes we +passed through together were indeed of the richest comedy. First I see +him in highest spirits trying on a doctor's scarlet robe, to be had on +hire. On this day he did everything in state, in his special "high" +manner. Thus he addressed the tailor in rolling periods: "Sir, the +University has been good enough to confer a degree on me, and I have +come over to receive it. My name is John Forster." (I doubt if his +name had reached the tailor). "Certainly, sir." And my friend was duly +invested with the robe. He walked up and down before a pier glass. +"Hey, what now? Do you know, my dear friend, I really think I must +_buy_ this dress. It would do very well to go to Court in, hey?" He +indulged his fancy. "Why I could wear it on many occasions. A most +effective dress." But it was time now to wait on "the senior Bursar," +or some such functionary. This was one Doctor L----, a rough, even +uncouth, old don, who was for the nonce holding a sort of rude class, +surrounded by a crowd of "undergrads." Never shall I forget that +scene. Forster went forward, with a mixture of gracious dignity and +softness, and was beginning, "Doc-tor L----." Here the turbulent boys +round him interrupted. "Now see here," said the irate Bursar, "it's no +use all of ye's talking together. Sir, I can't attend to you now." +Again Forster began with a gracious bow. "Doctor L----, I have come +over at the invitation of the University, who have been good enough to +offer me an honorary degree, and--" + +"Now see here," said the doctor, "there's no use talking to me now. I +can't attend to ye. All of ye come back here in an hour and take the +oath, all together mind." + +"I merely wished to state, Doctor L----," began the wondering Forster. + +"Sir I tell ye I can't attend to ye now. You must come again," and he +was gone. + +I was at the back of the room, when my friend joined me, very +ruminative and serious. "Very odd, all this," he said, "but I suppose +when we _do_ come back, it will be all right?" + +"Oh yes, he is noted as an odd man," I said. + +"I don't at all understand him, but I suppose it _is_ all right. Well +come along, my dear friend." I then left him for a while. After the +hour's interval I returned. The next thing I saw from the back of the +room was my burly friend in the front row of a number of irreverent +youngsters of juvenile age, some of whom close by me were saying, +"Who's the stout old bloke; what's he doing here?" + +"Now," said the Bursar and senior fellow, "take these Testaments on +your hands, all o' ye." And then I saw my venerable friend, for so he +looked in comparison, with three youths sharing his Testament with +them. But he was serious. For here was a most solemn duty before him. +"Now repeat after me. _Ego_," a shout, "_Joannes, Carolus_," as the +case might be "_juro solemniter_," &c. Forster might have been in +church going through a marriage ceremony, so reverently did he repeat +the _formula_. The lads were making a joke of it. + +Forster, as I said, was indeed a man of the old fashion of gallantry, +making his approaches where he admired _sans cérémonie_, and advancing +boldly to capture the fort. I remember a dinner, with a young lady who +had a lovely voice, and who sang after the dinner to the general +admiration. Forster had never seen her before, but when she was +pressed to sing again and again, and refused positively, I was amazed +to see Forster triumphantly passing through the crowded room, the fair +one on his arm, he patting one of her small hands which he held in his +own! She was flattered immensely and unresisting; the gallant Foster +had carried all before him. This was his way, never would he be second +fiddle anywhere if he could help it. Not a bad principle for any one +if they can only manage it. + +I remember one night, when he was in his gallant mood laying his +commands on a group of ladies, to sing or do something agreeable, he +broke out: "You know I am a despot, and must have my way, I'm such a +harbitrary cove." The dames stared at this speech, and I fancy took it +literally, for they had not heard the story. This I fancy did not +quite please, for he had no notion of its being supposed he considered +himself arbitrary; so he repeated and enforced the words in a loud +stern voice. (Boswellians will recall the scene where Johnson said +"The woman had a bottom of sense." When the ladies began to titter, he +looked round sternly saying "Where's the merriment? I repeat the woman +is fundamentally sensible." As who should say "now laugh if you +dare!") The story referred to was that of the cabman who summoned +Forster for giving him a too strictly measured fare, and when +defeated, said "it warn't the fare, but he was determined to bring him +there for he were such a harbitrary cove." No story about Forster gave +such delight to his friends as this; he himself was half flattered, +half annoyed. + +Forster liked to be with people of high degree--as, perhaps, most of +us do. At one time he was infinitely flattered by the attentions of +Count Dorsay, who, no doubt, considered him a personage. This odd +combination was the cause of great amusement to his friends, who were, +of course, on the look out for droll incidents. There was many a story +in circulation. One was that Forster, expecting a promised visit from +"the Count," received a sudden call from his printers. With all +solemnity he impressed the situation on his man. "Now," he said, "you +will tell the Count that I have only just gone round to call on +Messrs. Spottiswoode, the printers--you will observe, Messrs. +Spot-is-wode," added he, articulating the words in his impressive way. +The next time Forster met the Count, the former gravely began to +explain to him the reason of his absence. "Ah! I know," said the gay +Count, "you had just gone round to _Ze Spotted Dog_--I understand," as +though he could make allowance for the ways of literary men. Once +Forster had the Count to dinner--a great solemnity. When the fish was +"on" the host was troubled to note that the sauce had not yet reached +his guest. In an agitated deep _sotto voce_, he said, "Sauce to the +Count." The "aside" was unheard. He repeated it in louder, but more +agitated tones, "_Sauce_ to the Count." This, too, was unnoticed; +when, louder still, the guests heard, "_Sauce for the Flounders of the +Count_." This gave infinite delight to the friends, and the phrase +became almost a proverb. Forster learning to dance in secret, in +preparation for some festivity, was another enjoyment, and his +appearance on the scene, carefully executing the steps, his hands on +the shoulders of a little girl, caused much hilarity. + +All this is amusing in the same way as it was amusing to Boz, as a +capital illustration of character, genuinely exhibited, and yet it is +with the greatest sympathy and affection I recall these things: but +they were _too_ enjoyable. There is nothing depreciating, no more than +there was in Bozzy's record, who so amiably puts forward the pleasant +weaknesses of his hero. Though twenty years and more have elapsed +since he passed from this London of ours, there is nothing I think of +with more pleasure and affection than those far-off scenes in which he +figured so large and strong, supplying dramatic action, character, +and general enjoyment. The figures of our day seem to me to be small, +thin and cardboard-like in comparison. + +Boz himself is altogether mixed up with Forster's image, and it is +difficult to think of one without recalling the other. In this +connection there comes back on me a pleasant comedy scene, in which +the former figured, and which, even at this long distance of time, +raises a smile. When I had come to town, having taken a house, etc., +with a young and pretty wife, Dickens looked on encouragingly; but at +times shaking his head humorously, as the too sanguine plans were +broached: "Ah, _the little victims play_," he would quote. Early in +the venture he good-naturedly came to dine _en famille_ with his +amiable and interesting sister-in-law. He was in a delightful mood, +and seemed to be applying all the points of his own Dora's attempts at +housekeeping, with a pleasant slyness: the more so as the little lady +of the house was the very _replica_ of that piquant and fascinating +heroine. She was destined, alas! to but a short enjoyment of her +little rule, but she gained all hearts and sympathies by her very +taking ways. Among others the redoubtable John Forster professed to be +completely "captured," and was her most obstreperous slave. He, too, +was to have been of the party, but was prevented by one of his +troublesome chest attacks. Scarcely had Boz entered when he drew out a +letter, I see him now standing at the fire, a twinkle in his brilliant +eyes. "What _is_ coming over Forster," he said, ruminating, "I cannot +make him out. Just as I was leaving the house I received this," and he +read aloud, "I can't join you to-day. But mark you this, sir! no +tampering, no poaching on _my_ grounds; for I won't have it. Recollect +_Codlin's the friend not Short_!" With a wondering look Boz kept +repeating in a low voice: "'Codlin's the friend not Short.' What _can_ +he mean? What do you make of it?" I knew perfectly, as did also the +little lady who stood there smiling and flattered, but it was awkward +to explain. But he played with the thing; and it could only be agreed +that Forster at times was perfectly "amazing," or "a little off his +head." + +And what a dinner it was! What an amusing failure, too, as a first +attempt; suddenly, towards the end of the dinner, a loud, strange +sound was heard, as of falling or rushing waters; it was truly +alarming; I ran out and found a full tide streaming down the stairs. +The cook in her engrossment had forgotten to turn a cock. "Ah, the +little victims play!" and Boz's eyes twinkled. A loud-voiced cuckoo +and quail were sounding their notes, which prompted me to describe a +wonderful clock of the kind I had seen, with two trumpeters who issued +forth at the hour and gave a prolonged flourish before striking, then +retired, their doors closing with a smart clap. This set off Boz in +his most humorous vein. He imagined the door sticking fast, or only +half-opening, the poor trumpeter behind pushing with his shoulder to +get out, then giving a feeble gasping tootle with much "whirring" and +internal agonies; then the rest is silence. + +On another occasion came Forster himself and lady, for a little family +dinner; the same cook insisted on having in her husband, "a dear broth +of a boy," to assist her. Forster arriving before he was expected, he +was ever _more_ than punctual; the tailor rushed up eagerly to admit +him, forgetting, however, to put on his coat! As he threw open the +door he must have been astonished at Forster's greeting "No, no, my +good friend, I altogether decline. I am _not_ your match in age, +weight, or size," a touch of his pleasant humour and good spirits. + +As of course Forster deeply felt the death of his old friend and +comrade, the amiable and constant Dickens, he was the great central +figure in all the dismal ceremonial that followed. He arranged +everything admirably, he was executor with Miss Hogarth, and I could +not but think how exactly he reproduced his great prototype, Johnson, +in a similar situation. Bozzy describes the activity and fuss of the +sage hurrying about with a pen in his hand and dealing with the +effects: "We are not here," he said, "to take account of a number of +vats, &c., but of the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams +of avarice." So was Forster busy, appraising copyrights, and realizing +assets, all which work he performed in a most business-like fashion. +That bequest in the will of the gold watch, to his "trusty friend, +John Forster," I always thought admirably summarized the relations of +the two friends. I myself received under his will one of his ivory +paper-knives, and a paper-weight marked C.D. in golden letters, which +was made for and presented to him at one of the pottery works. + +One of the most delightful little dinners I had was an impromptu one +at Forster's house, the party being himself, myself, and Boz. The +presence of a third, not a stranger yet not an intimate, prompted both +to be more free than had they been _tête-à-tête_. Boz was what might +best be called "gay." His fashion of talk was to present things that +happened in a pleasantly humorous light. On this occasion he told us a +good deal about a strange being, Chauncey Hare Towns-bend, from whom +he may have drawn Twemlow in _Our Mutual Friend_. Every look in that +sketch reminds me of him; he, too, had a shy shrinking manner, a soft +voice, but, in his appearance most of all, was Twemlow; he had a +rather over-done worship of Dickens, wishing "not to intrude," etc.; +he was a delicate, unhealthy looking person, rather carefully made up. +Boz was specially pleasant this day on an odd bequest of his; for poor +Twemlow had died, and he, Boz, was implored to edit his religious +writings: rather a compendium of his religious opinions to be +collected from a mass of papers in a trunk. For which service £1,000 +was bequeathed. Boz was very humorous on his first despair at being +appointed to such an office; then described his hopeless attempts "to +make head or tail" of the papers. "Are they worth anything as +religious views?" I asked. "Nothing whatever, I should say," he said, +with a humorous twinkle in his eye, "I must only piece them together +somehow." And so he did, I forget under what title, I think _Religious +Remains of the late C. H. T._ There was probably some joking on this +description. It is fair to say that Boz had to put up with a vast deal +of this admiring worship, generally from retiring creatures whom his +delicate good-nature would not let him offend. + +Forster's large sincerity was remarkable, as was his generous style, +which often carried him to extraordinary lengths. They were such as +one would only find in books. I remember once coming to London without +giving him due notice, which he always imperatively required to be +done. When I went off to his house at Palace Gate, presenting myself +about five o'clock, he was delighted to see me, as he always was, but +I saw he was very uncomfortable and distressed. "_Why_ didn't you tell +me," he said testily, "a day or two ago would have done. But _now_, my +dear fellow, _the table's full_--it's impossible." "What?" I asked, +yet not without a suspicion of the truth--for I knew him. "Why, I have +a dinner party to-day! De Mussy, the Doctor of the Orleans family, and +some others are coming, and here you arrive at this hour! Just look at +the clock--I tell you it can't be done." In vain I protested; though I +could not say it was "no matter," for it was a serious business. "Come +with me into the dining-room and you'll see for yourself." There we +went round the table, and "_The table's full_," he repeated from +_Macbeth_. There was something truly original in the implied premise +that his friend was _entitled_ of right to have a place at his table, +and that the sole dispensing cause to be allowed was absence of space +or a physical impossibility. It seems to me that this was a very +genuine, if rare, shape of hospitality. + +Of all Forster's friends at this time, of course, after Dickens, and +he had innumerable ones, his fastest seemed Robert Browning. As every +Sunday came round it was a rule that the Poet was to dine with him. +Many were the engagements his host declined on the score of this +standing engagement. "Should be delighted, my dear friend, to go to +you, but it is an immemorial custom that every Sunday Robert Browning +dines with _me_. Nothing interferes with _that._" Often, indeed, +during the week the Poet would drop in for a chat or consultation, +often when I was there. He was a most agreeable person, without any +affectation; while Forster maintained a sort of patriarchal or +paternal manner to him, though there was not much difference in their +ages. Indeed, on this point, Forster well illustrated what has been +often said of Mr. Pickwick and his time, that age has been much "put +back" since that era. Mr. Pickwick, Wardle, Tupman and Co., are all +described as old gentlemen, none of the party being over fifty; but +they had to dress up to the part of old gentlemen, and with the aid of +corpulence, "circular spectacles," &c, conveyed the idea of seventy. +Forster in the same way was then not more than forty-five, but had a +full-blown official look, and with his grave, solemn utterances, you +would have set him down for sixty. Now-a-days men of that age, if in +sound order, feel, behave, and dress as men of forty. Your _real_ old +man does not begin till he is about seventy-five or so. + +Browning having an acquaintance that was both "extensive and +peculiar," could retail much gossip and always brought plenty of news +with him: to hear which Forster did seriously incline. The Poet, too, +had a pleasant flavour of irony or cynicism in his talk, but nothing +ill-natured. What a pleasant Sunday that was when Frederick Chapman, +the publisher, invited me and Forster, and Browning, with one or two +more, whose names I have forgotten, down to Teddington. It was the +close of a sultry summer's day, we had a cool and enjoyable repast, +with many a joke and retailed story. Thus, "I was stopped to-day," +said Browning, "by a strange, dilapidated being. Who do you think it +was? After a moment, it took the shape of old Harrison Ainsworth." "A +strange, dilapidated being," repeated Forster, musingly, "so the man +is alive." Then both fell into reminiscences of grotesque traits, &c. +This affectionate intercourse long continued. But alas! this +_compulsory_ Sunday dining, as the philosopher knows, became at last a +sore strain, and a mistake. It must come to Goldsmith's "travelling +over one's mind," with power to travel no farther. Browning, too, had +been "found out by Society"; was the guest at noble houses, and I +suppose became somewhat lofty in his views. No one could scoff so +loudly and violently as could Forster, at what is called snobbishness, +"toadying the great"; though it was a little weakness of his own, and +is indeed of everybody. However, on some recent visit, I learned to my +astonishment, that a complete breach had taken place between the +attached friends, who were now "at daggers drawn," as it is called. +The story went, as told, I think, by Browning, who would begin: "I +grew tired of Forster's _always wiping his shoes on me_." He was fond +of telling his friend about "dear, sweet, charming Lady ----," &c. +Forster, following the exact precedent of Mrs. Prig in the quarrel +with her friend, would break into a scornful laugh, and, though he did +not say "_drat_ Lady ----," he insisted she was a foolish, +empty-headed creature, and that Browning praised her because she had a +title. This was taken seriously, and the Poet requested that no +disparaging remarks would be made on one of his best friends. "Pooh," +said Forster, contemptuously, "some superannuated creature! I am +astonished at you." How it ended I cannot say, but it ended painfully. + +Some time elapsed and friends to both sides felt that here was a sort +of scandal, and it must be made up. No one was more eager than +Forster. Mutual explanations and apologies were given and all was as +before. The liberal Forster, always eager to find "an excuse for the +glass," announced a grand reconciliation dinner, to which came a +rather notable party, to wit, Thomas Carlyle, Browning and his son, +the Rev. Whitwell Elwin, the editor of Pope, and sometime editor of +the _Quarterly_, the young Robert Lytton, myself, and some others whom +I have forgotten. What an agreeable banquet it was! Elwin was made to +retell, to Forster's convulsive enjoyment, though he had heard it +before, a humorous incident of a madman's driving about in a gig with +a gun and a companion, who up to that moment _thought_ he was sane. +The Sage of Chelsea had his smoke as usual, a special churchwarden and +a more-special "screw" of tobacco having been carefully sent out for +and laid before him. There was something very interesting in this +ceremonial. We juniors at the end of the table, Robert Lytton and +myself, both lit a cigar, which brought forth a characteristic lecture +from Forster; "I never allow smoking in this room, save on this +privileged occasion when my old friend Carlyle honours me. But I do +not extend that to you Robert Lytton, and you (this to me). You have +taken the matter into your own hands, without asking leave or license; +as that is so, and the thing is done, there is no more to be said." +Here of course we understood that he wished to emphasize the +compliment to his friend and make the privilege exclusively his. But +he would have liked to hear, "May we also smoke?" + +Forster's affection for Carlyle and his pride in him was delightful to +see. I think he had more reverence for him than for anybody. He really +looked on him as an inspired Sage, and this notion was encouraged by +the retired fashion in which he of Chelsea lived, showing himself but +rarely. Browning was seated near his host, but I noticed a sort of +affected and strained _empressement_ on both sides. Later I heard a +loud scoffing laugh from Forster, but the other, apparently by a +strong effort, repressed himself and made no reply. Alas! as was to be +expected, the feud broke out again and was never healed. Though +Browning would at times coldly ask me after his old friend. + +There was no better dramatic critic than Forster, for he had learned +his criticism in the school of Macready and the old comedies. He had a +perfect instinct for judging even when not present, and I recollect, +when Salvini was being set up against Irving, his saying +magisterially: "Though I have not seen either Mr. Salvini or Mr. +Irving, I have a perfect conviction that Salvini is an actor and Mr. +Irving is not." He had the finest declamation, was admirable in +emphasis, and in bringing out the meaning of a passage, with +expressive eye and justly-modulated cadences. I never had a greater +treat than on one night, after dining with him, he volunteered to read +aloud to us the Kitely passages from _Every Man in his Humour_, in +which piece at the acted performances he was, I suspect, the noblest +Roman of 'em all. It was a truly fine performance; he brought out the +jealousy in the most powerful and yet delicately suggestive fashion. +Every emotion, particularly the anticipation of such emotions, was +reflected in his mobile features. His voice, deep and sonorous, and at +times almost flutey with softness, was under perfect control; he could +direct it as he willed. The reading must have called up many pleasant +scenes, the excitement, his friends, the artists and writers, who all +had taken part in the "splendid strolling" as he called it, and now +all gone! + +He often, however, mistook inferior birds for swans. He once held out to +us, as a great treat, the reading of an unpublished play of his friend +Lord Lytton, which was called _Walpole_. All the characters spoke and +carried on conversation in hexameters. The effect was ridiculous. A more +tedious thing, with its recondite and archaic allusions to Pulteney and +other Georgian personages, could not be conceived. The ladies in +particular, after a scene or two, soon became weary. He himself lost +faith in the business, and saw that it was flat, so he soon stopped, but +he was mystified at such non-intelligence. There was quite a store of +these posthumous pieces of the late dramatist, some of which I read. But +most were bad and dreary. + +Forster had no doubt some oracular ways, which, like Mr. Peter +Magnus's in _Pickwick_, "amused his friends very much." "Dicky" Doyle +used to tell of a picnic excursion when Forster was expatiating +roundly on the landscape, particularly demanding admiration for +"yonder purple cloud" how dark, how menacing it was. "Why, my dear +Forster," cried Doyle, "it's not a cloud at all, but only a piece of +slated roof!" Forster disdained to notice the correction, but some +minutes later he called to him loudly before the crowd: "See, Doyle! +yonder is _not_ a cloud, but a bit of slated roof: there can be no +doubt of it." In vain Doyle protested, "Why, Forster, I said that to +you!" "My dear Doyle," said Forster, sweetly, "it's no more a cloud +than I am. I repeat you are mistaken, _it's a bit of slated roof_." + +To myself, he was ever kind and good-natured, though I could smile +sometimes at his hearty and well-meant patronage. Patronage! it was +rather wholesale "backing" of his friends. Thus, one morning he +addressed me with momentous solemnity, "My dear fellow, I have been +thinking about you for a long time, and I have come to this +conclusion: you _must write a comedy_. I have settled that you can do +it; you have powers of drawing character and of writing dialogue; so I +have settled, the best thing you can do is to write a comedy." Thus +had he given his permission and orders, and I might fall to work with +his fullest approbation. I have no doubt he told others that he had +directed that the comedy should be written. + +On another day, my dachshund "Toby" was brought to see him. For no one +loved or understood the ways of dogs better. He greatly enjoyed "the +poor fellow's bent legs," rather a novelty then, and at last with a +loud laugh: "He is _Sir_ Toby! no longer Toby. Yes my dear friend he +_must_ be Sir Toby henceforth." He had knighted him on the spot! + +Forster always stands out pre-eminently as "the friend," the general +friend, and it is pleasant to be handed down in such an attitude. We +find him as the common referee, the sure-headed arbiter, +good-naturedly and heartily giving his services to arrange any trouble +or business. How invaluable he was to Dickens is shown in the "Life." +With him friendship was a high and serious duty, more responsible even +than relationship. His warm heart, his time, his exertions, were all +given to his friend. No doubt he had some little pleasure in the +importance of his office, but he was in truth really indulging his +affections, and warm heart. + +Among his own dearest friends was one for whom he seemed to have an +affection and admiration that might be called tender; his respect, +too, for his opinions and attainments were strikingly unusual in one +who thought so much of his own powers of judgment. This was the Rev. +WHITWELL ELWIN, Rector of Booton, Norwich. He seemed to me a man quite +of an unusual type, of much learning and power, and yet of a gentle +modesty that was extraordinary. In some things the present Master of +the Temple, Canon Ainger, very much suggests him. I see Elwin now, a +spare wiry being with glowing pink face and a very white poll. He +seemed a muscular person, yet never was there a more retiring, genial +and delicate-minded soul. His sensitiveness was extraordinary, as was +shown by his relinquishing his monumental edition of Pope's Works, +after it had reached to its eighth volume. The history of this +proceeding has never been clearly explained. No doubt he felt, as he +pursued his labours, that his sense of dislike to Pope and contempt +for his conduct was increasing, that he could not excuse or defend +him. Elwin was in truth the "complement" of Forster's life and +character. It was difficult to understand the one without seeing him +in the company of the other. It was astonishing how softened and +amiable, and even schoolboy-like, the tumultuous John became when he +spoke of or was in company with his old friend; he really delighted in +him. Forster's liking was based on respect for those gifts of culture, +pains-taking and critical instinct, which he knew his friend +possessed, and which I have often heard him praise in the warmest and +sincerest fashion. "In El-win"--he seemed to delight in rolling out +the syllables in this divided tone--"in El-ween you will find style +and finish. If there is anyone who knows the topic it is El-win. He is +your man." + +I was bringing out a _magnum opus_, dedicated to Carlyle, Boswell's +_Life of Johnson_, entailing a vast deal of trouble and research. The +amiable Elwin, whom I consulted, entered into the project with a host +of enthusiasm. He took the trouble of rummaging his note books, and +continued to send me week by week many a useful communication, +clearing up doubtful passages. But what was this to his service when +I was writing a Life of Sterne,[1] and the friendly Forster, +interesting himself in the most good-natured way, determined that it +should succeed, and put me in communication with Elwin. No doubt he +was interested in his _protégé_, and Elwin, always willing to please, +as it were, received his instructions. Presently, to my wonder and +gratification, arrived an extraordinary letter, if one might so call +it, which filled over a dozen closely written pages (for he compressed +a marvellous quantity into a sheet of paper), all literally +overflowing with information. It was an account of recondite and most +unlikely works in which allusions to Sterne and many curious bits of +information were stowed away; chapter and page and edition were given +for every quotation; it must have taken him many hours and much +trouble to write. And what an incident it was, the two well-skilled +and accomplished literary critics exerting themselves, the one to +secure the best aid of his friend, the other eager to assist, because +his friend wished it. + +[Footnote 1: I recall a meeting by special appointment with Elwin, who +came to lunch to debate it. He had already my letter, turned it over +and over again, but without result. The point was what edition should +be used--the first or the last; this latter having, of course, the +advantage of the author's latest revision. On the great question of +"Johnson's stay at Oxford," which has exercised all the scholars, and +is still in a more or less unsatisfactory way, he agreed with me.] + +In the course of these Shandian enquiries, the passage in Thackeray's +lecture occurred to me where he mentions having been shown Eliza's +Diary by a "Gentleman of Bath." I wished to find out who this was, +when my faithful friend wrote to the novelist and sent me his reply, +which began, "My dear Primrose"--his charmingly appropriate nick or +pet name for Elwin, who was the very picture of the amiable vicar. It +resulted in the gentleman allowing _me_ to look at his journal. + +Letter from Elwin on the "unfortunate Dr. Dodd":-- + +Booton Rectory, Norwich, + +Oct. 31st, 1864. + + My dear Mr. ----.--I have been ill for some weeks past, + which has prevented my writing to you. It is of the less + importance that I can add nothing to your ample list of + authorities, except to mention, if you are not already aware + of it, that there is a good deal about Dr. Dodd and his + doings, in "Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea." The + contemporary characters which figure in the work are + described partly by real, and partly by invented + circumstances. But you at least get the view which the + author entertained of the persons he introduces on the + scene. I missed the first part of your Memoir of Dodd, in + the _Dublin Magazine_. The second I saw, and thought it + extremely interesting, and very happily written. I was + surprised at the quantity of information you had got + together. I cannot help you to any detailed account of the + Maccaroni preachers. They are glanced at in the second book + of Cowper's Task. They have existed, and will exist in every + generation, but it is seldom that any record is preserved of + them. They are the butterflies of the hour. There are no + means by which you can keep worthless men from making a + trade of religion, and as long as there are people simple + enough to be dupes, so long there will be impostors. It is + strange to see what transparent acting will impose upon + women. To be popular, to draw large audiences, is the avowed + object of many of these preachers. The late R. Montgomery + once introduced himself to an acquaintance of mine on the + platform at some religious meeting. Montgomery commenced the + conversation by the remark, "You have a chapel in the West + End." "Yes," said my friend. "And I hope to have one soon," + replied M., "for I am satisfied that I have the faculty for + _adapting_ the Gospel to the _West End_." You may tell the + story if you give no names. + + You have anticipated my Sterne anecdotes. I will just + mention one circumstance. In the advertisement to the + edition of Sterne's Works, in 10 vols. (1798), it is stated + (Vol. I, p. iv.) "that the letters numbered 129, 130 and + 131, have not those proofs of authenticity which the others + possess." Now, letter 131 is very important, for it is that + in which Sterne replies to the remonstrances against the + freedoms in Tristram Shandy. It may be satisfactory to you + to know that some years after the edition of Sterne's Works + the letter was published by Richard Warner (apparently from + the original) in the Appendix to his Literary Recollections. + He was not, I suppose, aware that it had been printed + before. Warner was ordained in the North, and his work will + throw some light upon the state of things in those regions + at a period close upon Sterne's time. You will find it worth + while to glance over it. If I can be of any help to you I + shall only be too happy. + +Believe me ever, most sincerely yours, + +W. ELWIN. + +There is something touching in this deep affection, exhibited by so +rough and sturdy a nature and maintained without flagging for so many +years. With him it was "the noble Elwin," "the good Elwin," "as ever, +most delightful," "kinder and more considerate than ever." "Never were +letters so pleasant to me as yours," he wrote in 1865, "and it is sad +to think that from months we are now getting on to years with barely a +single letter." "My dear fellow," he wrote again, "with the ranks so +thinning around us, should we not close up, come nearer to each other? +None are so dear to us at home as Mrs. Elwin and yourself and all of +you." One of the last entries in his diary was, "Precious letter from +dearest Elwin. December 10th, 1875." + +Elwin had, perhaps, a colder temperament, or did not express his +devotion. But his regard would seem to have been as deep-seated; as +indeed was shown in the finely drawn tribute he paid him after his +death, and which is indeed the work of an accomplished writer and +master of expression. "He was two distinct men," wrote Elwin to John +Murray the elder, in 1876, "and the one man quite dissimilar from the +other. To see him in company I should not have recognised him for the +friend with whom I was intimate in private. Then he was quiet, +natural, unpretending, and most agreeable, and in the warmth and +generosity of his friendship he had no superior. Sensitive as he was +in some ways, there was no man to whom it was easier so speak with +perfect frankness. He always bore it with gentle good nature."[2] + +[Footnote 2: To Elwin Forster left £2,000 and his gold watch, no doubt +the one bequeathed by Dickens. Forster appointed him, without +consulting him, one of his executors, but knowing well that he could +rely on his good will, and the legacy no doubt was intended as a +solatium for the labour thus enforced. Lord Lytton and Justice Chitty +were the other executors. As Lord Lytton was in India the whole burden +fell on the other two, and mostly on Elwin. As his son tells, the +literary part of the business was most considerable; there was an +edition of Landor to be "seen through" the press; there was a vast +number of papers and letters to be examined, preserved or destroyed. +"His own inclination and Forster's instructions were in the direction +of destroying all personal letters, however eminent the writer might +be."] + +At another time he wrote with warmth, "Most welcome was your letter +this morning, as your letters always are to me. They come fraught with +some new proof of the true, warm-hearted, generous friend who has made +life worth something more to me than it was a year ago," 1857.[3] + +[Footnote 3: Memoirs by Warwick Elwin.] + +When Forster married, in 1856, he was eager that Elwin should +officiate, and proposed going down to Norfolk. But legal formalities +were in the way, and Elwin came to London instead. "He never," says +Warwick Elwin, "wavered in his attachment to him. Sometimes he would +be momentarily vexed at some fancied neglect, but the instant they met +again it was all forgotten." Elwin was, in fact, subject to moods and +"nerves," and there were times when he shrank sensitively from the +world and its associations--he would answer no letters, particularly +after the period of his many sore trials. The last time I saw him was +at that great _fiasco_, the production of the first Lord Lytton's +posthumous play on the subject of Brutus, produced by Wilson Barrett, +with extraordinary richness and pomp: a failure that led to an +unpleasant dispute between Lytton's son and the lessee. + +When the _Life of Dickens_ appeared, Elwin, as in duty bound, +proceeded to review it in the _Quarterly_. I confess that on reading +over this article there seems to be a curious reserve and rather +measured stint of praise. One would have expected from the generous +Elwin one enthusiastic and sustained burst of praise of his friend's +great work. But it seems as though he felt so trifling a matter was +scarcely worthy of solemn treatment. The paper is only twenty pages +long, and, after a few lines of praise at the beginning and a line or +two at the end, proceeds to give a summary of the facts. The truth was +Elwin was too scrupulously conscientious a critic to stretch a point +in such a matter. I could fancy that for one of his nice feeling it +became an almost disagreeable duty. Were he tempted to expand in +praises, it would be set down to partiality, while he was hardly free +to censure. No wonder he wrote of his performance: "Forster will think +it too lukewarm; others the reverse." As it happened, the amiable +Forster was enchanted. + +"For upwards of three-and-thirty years," says Mr. Elwin in this review +(_Q. R._, vol. 132, p. 125), "Mr. Forster was the incessant companion +and confidential adviser of Dickens; the friend to whom he had +recourse in every difficulty, personal and literary; and before whom +he spread, without reserve, every fold of his mind. _No man's life has +ever been better known to a biographer...._ To us it appears that a +more faithful biography could not be written. Dickens is seen in his +pages precisely as he is showed in his ordinary intercourse." + +Both Elwin and his friend had that inflexibility of principle in +criticism and literary utterance which they adhered to as though it +were a matter of high morals. This feeling contrasts with the easy +adaptability of our day, when the critic so often has to shape his +views according to interested aims. He indeed will hold in his views, +but may not deem it necessary to produce them. I could recall +instances in both men of this sternness of opinion. Forster knew no +compromise in such matters; though I fancy in the case of people of +title, for whom, as already mentioned, he had a weakness, or of pretty +women, he may have occasionally given way. I remember when Elwin was +writing his fine estimate of his deceased friend, Mrs. Forster in deep +distress came to tell me that he insisted on describing her husband as +"the son of a butcher." In vain had she entreated him to leave this +matter aside. Even granting its correctness, what need or compulsion +to mention it? It was infinitely painful to her. But it was not true: +Forster's father was a large "grazier" or dealer in cattle. Elwin, +however, was inflexible: some Newcastle alderman had hunted up entries +in old books, and he thought the evidence convincing. + +Another incident connected with the memory of her much-loved husband, +that gave this amiable woman much poignant distress, was a statement +made by Mr. Furnival, the Shakesperian, that Browning had been +employed by Forster to write the account of Strafford, in the +collection of Lives. He had been told this by Browning himself. +Nevertheless, she set all her friends to work; had papers, letters, +etc., ransacked for evidence, but with poor result. The probability +was that Forster would have disdained such aid; on the other hand, the +Poet had written a tragedy on the subject, and was, therefore, capable +of dealing with it. Letters of vindication were sent to the papers, +but no one was much interested in the point one way or the other; +save, of course, the good Mrs. Forster, to whom it was vital. I am +afraid, however, there was truth in the statement; for it is +completely supported by a stray passage in one of the Poet's letters +to his future wife, recently published. + +Forster, I fancy, must have often looked wistfully back to the old +Lincoln's Inn days, when he sat in his large Tulkinghorn room, with the +Roman's finger pointing down to his head. I often grieve that I did not +see this Roman, as I might have done, before he was erased; for Forster +was living there when I first knew him. On his marriage he moved to that +snug house in Montague Square, where we had often cosy dinners. He was +driven from it, he used to say, by the piano-practising on each side of +him, which became "in-_tol_-erable"; but I fancy the modest house was +scarcely commensurate with his ambitions. It was somewhat old-fashioned +too. And yet in his grand palatial mansion at Kensington I doubt if he +was as jocund or as irrepressible as then. I am certain the burden of an +ambitious life told upon his health and spirits. + +I often turn back to the day when I first called on him, at the now +destroyed offices at Whitehall, when he emerged from an inner room in +a press of business. I see him now, a truly brisk man, full of life +and energy, and using even then his old favourite hospitable formula, +"My dear sir, I am _very_ busy--very busy; I have just escaped from +the commissioners. But you must dine with me to-morrow and we will +talk of these things." Thus he did not ask you, but he "commanded +you," even as a king would. + +One of the most interesting things about Forster was his +"receptivity." Stern and inflexible as he was in the case of old +canons, he was always ready to welcome anything new or striking, +provided it had merit and was not some imposture. I never met a better +appreciator of genuine humour. He had been trained, or had trained +himself; whatever shape it had, only let it have _merit_. He +thoroughly _enjoyed_ a jest, and furnished his own obstreperous laugh +by way of applause. As I have said, there was something truly +_Johnsonian_ about him; everything he said or decided you knew well +was founded on a principle of some kind; he was a solid judicial man, +and even his hearty laugh of enjoyment was always based on a rational +motive. This sort of solid well-trained men are rather scarce +nowadays. + +Forster was also a type of the old Cromwellian or Independant with +reference to religious liberty. He could not endure, therefore, +"Romish tyranny," as he called it, which stifled thought. Many of his +friends were Roman Catholics. There were "touches" in Forster as good +as anything in the old comedies. + +His handsome and spacious library, with its gallery running round, was +well known to all his friends. Richly stored was it with book +treasures, manuscripts, rare first editions, autographs, in short all +those things which may now be seen at South Kensington. He had a store +of other fine things somewhere else, and kept a secretary or +librarian, to whom he issued his instructions. For he himself did not +profess to know the _locale_ of the books and papers, and I have often +heard him in his lofty way direct that instructions should be sent to +Mr. ---- to search out such and such documents. He had grand ideas +about his books, and spared no cost either in his purchases or +bindings. I have seen one of his quarto MS. thus dressed by Rivière in +plain decoration, but which he told me had cost £30. + +Once for some modest private theatricals I had written a couple of +little pieces to be acted by ourselves and our friends. One was called +_Blotting Paper_, the other _The William Simpson_. A gay company was +invited, and I recall how the performers were pleased and encouraged +when the face of the brilliant author of a _Lady of Lyons_ was seen in +the front row. Forster took the whole under his protection, and was +looking forward to attending, but his invariable terrible cough seized +on him. Mrs. Forster was sent with strict instructions to observe and +report everything that did or could occur on this interesting +occasion. I see her soft amiable face smiling encouragement from the +stalls. I rose greatly in my friend's estimation from this attendance +of the author of _Pelham_. "How did you manage it?" "He goes nowhere +or to few places. It was a gr-eat compliment." + +This little performance is associated in a melancholy way with the +closing days of Dickens' career. I was naturally eager to secure his +presence, and went to see him at "his office" to try and persuade him +to attend; he pleaded, however, his overwhelming engagements. I find +in an old diary some notes of our talk. "Theatricals led to Regnier, +whom I think he had been to see in _Les Vieux Garçons_. He said he +found him very old. "Alas! He is _Vieux Garçon_ himself." I think of +our few little dinners in my house; would we had had more! Somehow +since I have been living here the image of him has been more and more +stamped on me; I see and like him more. The poor, toiling, loveable +fellow, to think that all is over with him now!" + +[At the risk of smiles, and perhaps some suspicion of vanity, I go on +to copy what follows.] When I saw Mrs. Forster during those dismal +days, she was good enough to relate to me much about his personal +liking for me. He would tell them how I could do anything if I only +gave myself fair play. He said he was going to write to give me a +sound blowing up. "And yet," he added, "I doubt if he would take it +from anybody else but me. He is a good fellow." [I still doubt whether +I should add what follows, but I am not inclined to sacrifice such a +tribute from such a man; told me, too, only a few days after his +death.] He praised a novel of mine, _No. 75, Brooke St._, and here are +his words: "The last scene and winding up is one of the most powerful +things I have met." + +Forster, devoted to the school of Macready, and all but trained by +that actor, whose bust was placed in his hall, thought but poorly of +the performances of our time. He pooh-poohed them all, including even +the great and more brilliant successes. Once a clever American company +came over, a phenomenal thing at that time, and appeared at the St. +James's Theatre. They played _She Stoops to Conquer_, with two +excellent performers as Old Hardcastle and Marlow; Brough was the +Tony. I induced Forster to come and see them, and we made up a party. +He listened with an amusing air of patronage, which was habitual with +him--meant to encourage--and said often that "it was very good, very +fair indeed." Brough he admitted was perhaps the nearest to the +fitting tone and spirit of the piece. The two American actors, as it +seemed to me, were excellent comedians. + +I once saw him at St. James's Hall, drawn to hear one of his friend's +last readings. I saw his entrance. He came piloted by the faithful +Charles Kent, who led, or rather _cleared_ the way, Forster following +with a smiling modesty, as if he sought to avoid too much notice. His +rotund figure was swathed in a tight fitting paletôt, while a sort of +nautical wrapper was round his throat. He fancied no doubt that many +an eye was following him; that there was many a whisper, "That is the +great John Forster." He passed on solemnly through the hall and out at +the door leading to the artistes' rooms. Alas! no one was thinking of +him; he had been too long absent from the stage. It is indeed +extremely strange, and I often wonder at it, how little mark he made. +The present and coming generations know nothing about him. I may add +here that, at Dickens' _very_ last Reading at this place, I and +Charles Kent were the two--the only two--favoured with a place on the +platform, behind the screens. From that coign, I heard him say his +last farewell words: "Vanish from these garish lights for evermore!" + +One summer Forster and his wife came down to Bangor, I believe from a +genial good-natured wish to be there with his friends--a family who +were often found there. He put up at the "George," then a house of +lofty pretensions, though now it would seem but a modest affair +enough. What a holiday it was! The great John unbent to an +inconceivable degree; he was soft, engaging even, and in a bright and +constant good humour. The family consisted of the mother, two +daughters, and the son, _moi qui vous parle_--all of whom looked to +him with a sort of awe and reverence, which was not unpleasing to him. +The two girls he professed to admire and love; the mother, a woman of +the world, had won him by her speech at his dinner party, during which +a loud crash came from the hall; he said nothing, but she saw the +temper working within, and quoted happily from Pope, + + "And e'en unmoved hears China fall." + +Immensely gratified at the implied compliment for his restraint, his +angry brow was smoothed. To imagine a dame of our time quoting Pope at +a dinner! at most she would have heard of him. + +What walks and expeditions in that delightful Welsh district! and what +unbounded hospitality! He would insist on his favourites coming to +dinner every few days or so. It was impossible to refuse; equally +impossible to make any excuse; he was so overpowering. Everything was +swept away. At the time the dull pastime of acrostic-writing was in +high vogue, and some ladies of the party thought to compliment him by +fashioning one upon his name. He accepted the compliment with much +complacent gratification; and, when the result was read aloud, it was +found that the only epithet that would fit his name, having the +proper number of letters, was "learned." His brow clouded. It was not +what he expected. He was good-humouredly scornful. "Well, I declare, I +did not expect this. I should have thought something like 'gallant,' +or 'pleasant,' or 'agreeable'--but '_learned_!' as though I were some +old pundit. Thank you, ladies." + +No one knew so much as Forster of the literary history of the days +when Dickens first "rose"; and when such men as Lamb, Campbell, +Talfourd, Theodore Hook, Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, and many more of that +school were flourishing. + +I see him now seated in the stern manipulating the ropes of the +rudder, with all the air of perfect knowledge; diverting the boatmen, +putting questions to them, and adroitly turning their answers into +pieces of original information; lecturing on the various objects of +interest we passed; yet all the time interesting, and excellent +company. At times he began to talk of poetry, and would pour forth the +stores of his wonderful memory, reciting passages with excellent +elocution, and delighting his hearers. I recall the fine style in +which he rolled forth "Hohenlinden," and "The Royal George," and the +"Battle of the Baltic." At the close he would sink his voice to a low +muttering, just murmuring impressively, "be-neath the wave!" Then +would pause, and say, as if overcome--"Fine, very, very fine!" These +exercises gave his audience genuine pleasure. On shore, visiting the +various show things, he grew frolicsome, and insisted on the visitors +as "Mr. and Mrs. ----," the names of characters in some novel I had +written. + +It would be an interesting question to consider how far Forster's +influence improved or injured Dickens' work; for he tells us +everything written by the latter was submitted to him, and corrections +and alterations offered. I am inclined to confess that, when in his +official mood, Forster's notions of humour were somewhat forced. It is +thus almost startling to read his extravagant praise of a passage +about Sapsea which the author discarded in _Edwin Drood_. Nothing +better showed Boz's discretion. The well-known passage in _The Old +Curiosity Shop_ about the little marchioness and her make-believe of +orange peel and water, and which Dickens allowed him to mend in his +own way, was certainly altered for the worse. + +I had the sad satisfaction, such as it was, of attending Forster's +funeral, as well as that of his amiable wife. I had a seat in one of +the mourning coaches, with that interesting man, James Anthony Froude. +Not many were bidden to the ceremonial. + +Mrs. Forster's life, like that of her husband, closed in much +suffering. I believe she might have enjoyed a fair amount of health +had she not clung with a sort of devotion, not unconnected with the +memory of her husband, to the house which he had built. Nothing could +induce her to go away. She was, moreover, offered a sum of over +£20,000 for it shortly after his death, but declined; it was later +sold for little over a third of the amount. He had bequeathed all his +treasures to the nation, allowing her the life use, but with much +generosity she at once handed over the books, pictures, prints, +sketches, and other things. She bore her sufferings with wonderful +patience and sweetness, and I remember the clergyman who attended her, +and who was at the grave, being much affected. + +Mrs. Forster was a woman of more sagacity and shrewdness of +observation than she obtained credit for. She had seen and noted many +curious things in her course. Often of a Sunday afternoon, when I used +to pay her a visit, she would open herself very freely, and reveal to +me many curious bits of secret history relating to her husband's +literary friends. She was very amusing on the Sage of Chelsea. I +recollect she treated Mrs. Carlyle's account of her dreary life and +servitude to her great husband as a sort of romance or delusion, +conveying that she was not at all a lady likely to be thus "put upon." +In vulgar phrase, the boot was on the other leg. + + * * * * * + +I have thought it right to offer this small tribute to one who was in +his way an interesting and remarkable man. No place has been found for +him in the series known as English Men of Letters; and yet, as I have +before pointed out, he had a place in literature that somewhat +suggests the position of Dr. Johnson. What Forster said, or what +Forster did, was at one time of importance to the community. This sort +of arbiter is unknown nowadays, and perhaps would not be accepted. He +will, however, ever be associated with Charles Dickens, as his friend, +adviser, admirer, corrector, and biographer. There is a conventional +meaning for the term "men of letters," men, that is, who have written +books; but in the stricter sense it is surely one who is "learned in +letters," as a lawyer is learned in the law. Johnson is much more +thought of in this way than as a writer. Forster had this true +instinct, and it was a curious thing one day to note his delight when +I showed him a recent purchase: a figure of Johnson, _his_ prototype, +wrought in pottery, seated in chair, in an attitude of wisdom, his +arms extended and bent, and evidently expatiating. Looking at it, he +delivered an acute bit of criticism worthy of the Doctor himself. + +"The interest," he said, "of this figure is not in the modelling, +which is good, but because it represents Johnson as he was, in the eye +of the crowd of his day; who looked on him, not as the writer, but as +the grand _argufier_ and layer-down of the law, the 'settler' of any +knotty point whatever; with them the Doctor could decide anything. See +how his arm is half raised, his fingers outspread, as if about to give +his decision. You should show this to Carlyle, who will be delighted +with it." + +He often recurred to this and to the delight the Sage would have had. +I forget whether I followed his advice. On the same occasion he +noticed a figure of Washington. "Ah! there he stands," he said, "with +his favourite air of state and dignity, and sense of what was due to +his position. You will always notice that in the portraits there was a +little assumption of the aristocrat." Forster's criticism was always +of this kind--instructive and acute. + +Forster was the envied possessor of nearly every one of Boz's MSS.--a +treasure at the time not thought very much of, even by Dickens +himself, but since his death become of extraordinary value. I should +say that each was worth some two or three thousand pounds at the +least. How amazing has been this appreciation of what dealers call +"the Dickens stuff" during these years! It is almost incredible. I +mind the day when a Dickens' book, a Dickens' letter, was taken +tranquilly. A relation of my own, an old bachelor, had, as we thought, +an eccentric _penchant_ for early editions of Boz; and once, on the +great man coming to the provincial city where he lived, waited on him +to show him what he called his "Old Gold"; to wit, the earlier +editions of Pickwick and Nickleby. We all smiled, and I remember Boz +speaking to me good-naturedly of this enthusiasm. Not one of the party +then--it was in 1865--dreamed that this old bachelor was far wiser +than his generation. The original Pickwick, that is bound from the +numbers, is indeed a nugget of old gold. I remember once asking Wills, +his sub-editor, could I be allowed to have the original MSS. of some +of Boz's short stories? He said, "To be sure, that nothing was more +easy than to ask him, for the printer sent each back to him after use, +carefully sealed up." What became of all these papers I cannot tell; +but I doubt if anyone was then _very_ eager about them. + +Lately, turning over some old papers, I came upon a large bundle of +proof "slips" of a story I had written for _All the Year Round_. It +was called _Howard's Son_. To my surprise and pleasure I found that +they had passed through Boz's own hands, and had been corrected +throughout in his own careful and elaborate fashion, whole passages +written in, others deleted, the punctuation altered and improved. Here +was a _trouvaille_. These slips, I may add, have extraordinary value, +and in the States would fetch a considerable sum. It was extraordinary +what pains Boz took with the papers of his contributors, and how +diligently and laboriously he improved and polished them. + +Forster's latter days, that is, I suppose, for some seven or eight +years, were an appalling state of martyrdom; no words could paint it. +It was gout in its most terrible form, that is, on the chest. This +malady was due, in the first place, to his early hard life, when rest +and hours of sleep were neglected or set at nought. Too good living +also was accountable. He loved good cheer and had an excellent taste +in wines, fine clarets, etc. Such things were fatal to his complaint. +This gout took the shape of an almost eternal cough, which scarcely +ever left him. It began invariably with the night and kept him awake, +the waters rising on his chest and overpowering him. I have seen him +on the following day, lying spent and exhausted on a sofa and +struggling to get some snatches of sleep, if he could. But as seven +o'clock drew near, a change came. There was a dinner-party; he "pulled +himself together:" began another jovial night and in good spirits. But +he could not resist the tempting wines, etc., and of course had his +usual "bad" night. Once dining with me, he as usual brought his Vichy +bottle with him, and held forth on the necessity of "putting on the +muzzle," restraint, etc. He "lectured" us all in a very suitable way, +and maintained his restraint during dinner. There was a bottle of good +Corton gently warming at the fire, about which he made inquiries, but +which now, alas! need not be opened. When the ladies were gone, he +became very pressing on this topic. "My dear fellow, you must _not_ +let me be a kill-joy, you must really open the bottle for yourself; +why should you deny yourself for me? Nonsense!" It suggested Winkle +going to fight a duel, saying to his friend, "Do _not_ give +information to the police." But I was inhospitably inflexible. These +little touches were Forster all over. One would have given anything to +let him have his two or three glasses, but one had to be cruel to be +kind. Old Sam Johnson was of the same pattern, and could not resist a +dinner-party, even when in serious plight. He certainly precipitated +his death by his greed. + +I well recall the confusion and grief of one morning in July, 1870, +when opening the _Times_ I read in large capitals, DEATH OF CHARLES +DICKENS. It must have brought a shock more or less to every reader. +Nothing was less expected, for we had not at that time the recurring +evening editions, treading on each other's heels, to keep us posted up +every hour in every event of the day. + +I am tempted here to copy from an old diary the impressions of that +painful time. The words were written on the evening of the funeral at +6 p.m.: "Died, dear Charles Dickens. I think at this moment of his +bright genial manner, so cordial and hearty, of the delightful days at +Belfast--on the Reading Tours--The Trains--the Evenings at the +Hotel--his lying on the sofa listening to my stories and laughing in +his joyous way. I think, too, of the last time that I saw him, which +was at his office in Wellington Street, whither I went to ask him to +come to some theatricals that we were getting up. We talked them over, +and then he began to bewail so sadly, the burden of 'going out' to +dinner parties. He said that he would like to come, but that he could +not promise. However, he might come late in the night if he could get +away from other places. I see his figure now before me, standing at +the table, the small delicate-formed shoulders. Then bringing me into +another room to show me one of the gigantic golden yellow _All the +Year Round_ placards, presently to be displayed on every wall and +hoarding of the kingdom. This was the announcement of a new story I +had written for his paper, which he had dubbed 'The Doctor's Mixture,' +but of which, alas! he was destined never to revise the proofs. It +had been just hung up 'to try the effect,' and was fresh from the +printers." + +I look back to another of Forster's visits to Dublin when he came in +quest of materials for his _Life of Swift_. He was in the gayest and +best of his humours, and behaved much as the redoubtable Doctor +Johnson did on his visit to Edinburgh. I see him seated in the library +at Trinity College, making his notes, surrounded by the Dons. Dining +with him at his hotel, for even here he must entertain his host, he +lit his cigar after dinner, when an aged waiter of the old school +interrupted: "Ah, you musn't do that. It's agin the rules and +forbidden." He little knew his Forster; what a storm broke on his +head--"Leave the room, you rascal. How dare you, sir, interfere with +me! Get out, sir," with much more: the scared waiter fled. "One of the +pleasantest episodes in my life," I wrote in a diary, "has just +closed. John Forster come and gone, after his visit here (_i.e._ to +Dublin). Don't know when I liked a man more. He was most genial and +satisfactory to talk with. His amiable and agreeable wife with him. +She told a great deal of Boz and his life at home, giving a delightful +picture of his ordinary day. He would write all the morning till one +o'clock, and no one was allowed to see or interrupt him. Then came +lunch; then a long hearty walk until dinner time. During the evening +he would read in his own room, but the door was kept open so that he +might hear the girls playing--an amiable touch. At Christmas time, +when they would go down on a visit, he would entertain them by reading +aloud his proofs and passages not yet published. She described to us +'Boffin,' out of _Our Mutual Friend_, as admirable. He shows all to +Forster before-hand, and consults him as to plot, characters, etc. He +has a humorous fashion of giving his little boys comic names; later to +appear in his stories. Thus, one known as 'Plorn,' which later +appeared as 'Plornish.' This is a pleasant picture of the great +writer's domestic life, and it gives also a faint 'adumbration' of +what is now forgotten: the intense curiosity and eager anticipation +that was abroad as to what he was doing or preparing. Hints of his +characters got known; their movements and developments were discussed, +and the incidents of his story were like public events. We have +nothing of this nowadays, for no writer or story rouses the same +interest. Forster also told us a good deal about Carlyle, whose +proof-sheets, from the abundant corrections, cost three or four times +what the original 'setting' did." Thus the diary. + +Once, on a Sunday in Dublin, I brought Forster to the cathedral in +Marlborough Street to hear the High Mass, at which Cardinal Cullen +officiated. He sat it out very patiently, and I remember on coming out +drew a deep sigh, or gasp, with the remark, "Well, I suppose it's all +right." + +Forster, whatever might be said of his sire's calling, was at least of +a good old Newcastle border stock of fine "grit" and sturdily +independent. He was proud of his stock, and he has often lamented, +not merely in print, but to myself, how people would confound him with +mere Fosters. "Now we," he would say vehemently, "are Forsters with an +_r_." When he became acquainted with a person nearly connected with +myself, he was immensely pleased to find that she was a Foster; and, +as she was of rank, it was amusing to find him not quite so eager to +repudiate the Foster (without the _r_). "We are all the same, my dear +friend. All Forresters, abbreviated as Forster or Foster, all one; the +same crest." The lady had some fragments of a fine old crimson Derby +service, plates with the Foster escutcheon, and he was immensely +gratified when she presented him with one. + + * * * * * + +FREDERICK LOCKER was certainly one of the most agreeable and most +interesting and most amiable beings that could be imagined. His face +had a sort of Quixote quaintness, so had his talk, while his humour +had a pleasant flavour. He lived at his place in the country, but I +always looked forward--and now look back, alas!--to the many pleasant +talks we would have together, each more than an hour long, on the +occasion of these rare visits. All his stories were delightful, all +his tastes elegant. His knowledge of books was profound and truly +refined. His taste was most fastidious. Towards the close of his +career he prepared a catalogue of his choice library, which showed to +the world at once how elegant was his taste and knowledge. At once it +became _recherché_. A few copies at a guinea were for sale, with a +view to let the public know something of his treasures, but it is now +at a fancy price. Once when I was in a dealer's shop "haggling" over +an "old play," for which I think two guineas was asked, and which +seemed to me a monstrous price, Locker came in quietly, and took the +book up, which was the interlude of _Jacke Drum_. I told him of the +price--"Take it, I advise you, he said, it is very cheap. I assure you +I gave a vast deal more for my copy." I took it, and I believe at this +moment I could get for my copy ten times that sum, in fact, there has +not been a copy in the market. This interesting man was, I fancy, +happy in both his marriages; the first bringing him rank and +connection, the second lands and wealth. I bring him in here because +he associated with Forster in one of his most grotesque moods. To +Forster, however, this agreeable spirit was taboo. He had offended the +great man, and as it had a ludicrous cast, and was, besides, truly +Forsterian, I may here recur to it. Forster, as I have stated, had +been left by Landor, the copyright of his now value unsaleable +writings, and he was more pleased at the intended compliment than +gratified by the legacy itself. My friend Locker, whose _Lyra_ was +well known, had thoughtlessly inserted in a new edition one, or some, +of Landor's short pieces, and went his way. One day Forster discovered +"the outrage," wrote tremendous letters, threatened law, and, I +believe, obtained some satisfaction for the trespasses. But during the +altercation he found that a copy had been presented to the Athenæum +Club library, and it bore the usual inscription and Minerva's head of +the Club. Forster, _sans façon_, put the book in his pocket and took +it away home, confiscated it in fact. There was a great hubbub. The +committee met, determined that their property had been taken away, and +demanded that it should be brought back. Forster flatly refused; +defied the Club to do its worst. Secretary, solicitors, and every +means were used to bring him to reason. It actually ended in his +retaining the book, the Club shrinking from entering into public +contest with so redoubtable an antagonist. + +Forster was sumptuous in his tastes; always liking to have the best. +When he wanted a thing considerations of the expense would not stand +in the way. He was an admirable judge of a picture, and could in a few +well-chosen words point out its merits. When he heard Lord Lytton was +going to India, he gave Millais a commission to paint a portrait of +the new Viceroy. Millais used good humouredly to relate the lofty +condescending style in which it was announced. "It gives me, I assure +you, great pleasure to learn that you are so advancing in your +profession. I think highly of your abilities and _shall be glad to +encourage them_;" or something to that effect. Millais at this time +was at the very top of his profession, as indeed Forster knew well, +but the state and grandeur of the subject, and his position in +expending so large a sum--I suppose a thousand guineas, for it was a +full length--lifted my old friend into one of his dreams. The +portrait was a richly-coloured and effective one, giving the staring +owl-like eyes of the poet-diplomatist. Another of Forster's purchases +was Maclise's huge picture of Caxton showing his first printed book to +the King. + +It was a treat and an education to go round a picture gallery with +him, so excellent and to the point were his criticisms. He seized on +the _essential_ merit of each. I remember going with him to see the +collected works of his old friend Leslie, R.A., when he frankly +confessed his disappointment at the general _thinness_ of the colour +and style, brought out conspicuously when the works were all gathered +together: this was the effect, with a certain _chalkiness_. At the +Dublin Exhibition he was greatly struck by a little cabinet picture by +an Anglo-German artist, one Webb, and was eager to secure it, though +he objected to the price. However, on the morning of his departure the +secretary drove up on an outside car to announce that the artist would +take fifty pounds, which Forster gave. This was "The Chess-players," +which now hangs at South Kensington. + +He had deep feeling and hesitation even as to putting anything into +print without due pause and preparation. Print had not then become +what it is now, with the telephone, type-writing, and other aids, a +mere expression of conversation and of whatever floating ideas are +passing through the mind. Mr. Purcell's wholesale exhibition of +Cardinal Manning's inmost thoughts and feelings would have shocked +him inexpressibly. I was present when a young fellow, to whom he had +given some papers, brought him the proofs in which the whole was +printed off without revision or restraint. He gave him a severe +rebuke. "Sir, you seem to have no idea of the _sacredness_ of the +Press; you _pitch in_ everything, as if into a bucket. Such +carelessness is inexcusable." Among them was a letter from Colburn, +the former husband of his wife. "I am perfectly _astounded_ at you! +Have you not the tact to see that such a thing as that should not +appear?" And he drew his pen indignantly across it. That was a good +lesson for the youth. In such matters, however, he did not spare +friend or stranger. + +It is curious, considering how sturdy a pattern of Englishman was +Forster, that all his oldest friends were Irishmen, such as Maclise, +Emerson Tennant, Whiteside, Macready, Quain, Foley, Mulready, and many +more. For all these he had almost an affection, and he cherished their +old and early intimacy. He liked especially the good-natured impulsive +type of the Goldy pattern; for such he had interest and sympathy. As a +young man, when studying for the Bar, he had been in Chitty's office, +where he had for companions Whiteside and Tennant, afterwards Sir +Emerson. Whiteside became the brilliant parliamentary orator and Chief +Justice; Tennant a baronet and Governor of Ceylon; and Forster himself +the distinguished writer and critic, the friend and biographer of +Dickens. It was a remarkable trio certainly. Chitty, the veteran +conveyancer, his old master, he never forgot, and was always delighted +to have him to dinner, to do him honour in every way. His son, the +judge, was a favourite _protégé_, and became his executor. He had a +warm regard for Sir Richard Quain, who was beside Lord Beaconsfield +_in extremis_, who literally knew everyone that ought to be known, and +who would visit a comparatively humble patient with equal interest. +Quain was thoroughly good-natured, ever friendly and even +affectionate. Forster's belief in him was as that in a fetish. + +The faithful Quain was with his friend to the last moment. Poor +Forster was being gradually overpowered by the rising bronchial +humours with which, as he grew weaker, he could not struggle with or +baffle. It was then that Quain, bending over, procured him a short +reprieve and relief in his agony, putting his fingers down his throat +and clearing away the impeding masses. + +Sir Richard was not only physician-in-ordinary, but the warm and +devoted friend, official consultant, as he was of the whole _coterie_. +For a long course of years he had charge of his friend's health, if +health it could be called where all was disease and misery; and it was +his fate to see him affectionately through the great crisis at the +last. There was a deal of this affection in Quain; he was eminently +good-natured; good true-hearted Quain! Many a poor priest of his +country has been to him, and from them he would never take, though not +of his faith. Quain was indeed the literary man's physician; more so +than Sir Andrew Clarke, who was presumed to hold the post by letters +patent. For Clarke was presumed to know and cure the literary +ailments; but Quain was the genial guide, philosopher and friend, +always one of themselves, and indeed a _litérateur_ himself. Who will +forget his quaint little figure, shrewd face, the native accent, never +lost; and his "Ah me dear fellow, shure what can I do?" His +red-wheeled carriage, generally well horsed, was familiar to us all, +and recognisable. How he maintained this equipage, for we are told +what "makes a mare to go," it was hard to conceive, for the generous +man would positively refuse to take fees from his more intimate +friends, at least of the literary class. With me, a very old friend +and patient, there was a perpetual battle. He set his face against the +two guinea fee, but humorously held out for his strict guinea, and +would not bate the shilling. I have known him when a client presented +two sovereigns empty his pockets of silver and scrupulously return +nineteen shillings. And what an adviser he was! What confidence he +imparted! The moment he bade you sit down and "tell him all about it" +you felt secure. + +It was always delightful to meet him. He had his moments of gloom, +like most of his countrymen, for he never lost his native "hall mark," +and retained to the last that sort of wheedling tone which is common +in the South of Ireland. Yet he had none of that good-natured +insincerity, to which a particular class of Irish are given. He was +thoroughly sincere and genuine, and ready to support his words by +deeds. His humour was racy. As when the Prince of Wales was +sympathising with him on a false report of his death, adding, good +naturedly, "I really was afraid, Dr. Quain, that we had lost you, and +was thinking of sending a wreath." "Well, Sir," said the medico, +"recollect that you are now _committed to the wreath_." I did not +note, however, that when the event at last took place the wreath was +sent. I always fancied that he was a disappointed man, and that he +felt that his high position had not been suitably recognised; or at +least that the recognition had been delayed. The baronetcy came late. +But what he had set his heart upon, and claimed as his due, was the +Presidency of the College of Physicians. This he was always near +attaining, but men like Sir Andrew Clarke were preferred to him. I was +a special friend for many years, and have had many a favoured "lift" +in his carriage when we were going the same way. I was glad to be +allowed to dedicate to him some volumes of personal memoirs. The last +time I met this genial and amiable man was at the table of a +well-known law lord, whom he astonished considerably by addressing me +across the table all through dinner by my christian name. He was at +the time seriously ill, in his last illness in fact, when, as he said, +he had been "tartured to death by their operations." He had good +taste in art, was fond of the French school of engraving, and was the +friend and counsellor of many an artist. He was of the old Dickens +school, of the _coterie_ that included Maclise, Jerrold and the rest. + +Once, when he and his family were staying close to Ipswich, I asked +him to order me a photograph of the Great White Horse Inn, noted as +the scene of Mr. Pickwick's adventure, and to my pleasure and +astonishment found that he had commissioned an artist to prepare a +whole series of large photographs depicting the old inn, both without +and within, and from every point of view. In this handsome way he +would oblige his friends. He was in immense demand as a cheerful diner +out. + +I was amused by a cynical appreciation of a friend and patient of his, +uttered shortly after his death. We had met and were lamenting his +loss. "Nothing, nobody can fill his place," he said.--"It is sad to +lose such a friend."--"Indeed it is," said my companion, "I don't know +what I shall do. No one else ever understood my constitution. I really +don't know whom I am to go to now"--and he went his way in a pettish +mood, as though his physician had rather shabbily deserted him. Alas, +is there not much of this when one of these pleasant "specialists" +departs? + +His faithful devotion to his old friend Forster during that long +illness was unflagging. He could not cure, but he did all that was +possible by his unwearying attention to alleviate. How often have I +found the red chariot waiting at the door, or when I was sitting with +him would the door open and the grave manservant announce "Sir +Rich-hard QUAIN." His talk, gossip, news, was part of the alleviation. + +After all that must have been an almost joyous moment that brought +poor Forster his release from those awful and intolerable days and +nights of agony, borne with a fortitude of which the world had no +conception. Eternal frightful spasms of coughing day and night, +together with other maladies of the most serious kind. And yet, on the +slightest respite, this man of wonderful fortitude would turn gay and +festive, recover his spirits, and look forward to some enjoyment, a +dinner it might be, where he was the old Forster once more, smiling +enticingly on his favourite ladies, and unflinchingly prepared to go +back to the night of horrors that awaited him! + +Mrs. Forster, as her friends knew well, was one of the sweetest women +"under the sun," a sweetness brought out by contrast with the +obstreperous ways of her tempestuous mate. Often when something went +wrong, rather did not go with the almost ideal smoothness at one of +his many banquets (and there never was a more generously hospitable +man), it was piteous to see her trying to smooth away the incident +with the certainty of inflaming the dictator, and turning his wrath +upon herself. + +She knew well that not he, but his malady, was accountable. She +believed from her heart in the duality of Forster. There was a hapless +page boy whose very presence and assumed stupidity used to inflame +his master to perfect Bersaker fits of rage. The scenes were +exquisitely ludicrous, if painful; the contrast between the giant and +the object of his wrath, scared out of his life with terror, was +absolutely diverting. Thus the host would murmur "Biscuits!" which was +not heard or not heeded; then louder and more sharply, "BIScuits!" +then a roar that made all start, "BIScuits!!" Poor Mrs. Forster's +agitation was sad to see, and between her and the butler the luckless +lad was somehow got from the room. This attendant was an admirable +comedy character, and in his way a typical servant, stolid and +reserved. No one could have been so portentously sagacious as _he_ +looked. It was admirable to see his unruffled calm during his master's +outbursts when something had gone wrong during the dinner. No violence +could betray him into anything but the most placid and correct +replies. There was something fine and pathetic in this, for it showed +that he also recognised that it was not his true master that was thus +raging. I recall talking with him shortly after his master's death. +After paying his character a fine tribute he spoke of his illness. +"You see, sir," he said at last, "what was at the bottom of it all was +he 'ad no _staminer, no staminer_--NO STAMINER, sir." And he repeated +the word many times with enjoyment. I have no doubt he picked it up at +Forster's table and it had struck him as a good effective English +word, spelled as he pronounced it. + +Such was John Forster. + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's John Forster, by Percy Hethrington Fitzgerald + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN FORSTER *** + +***** This file should be named 21815-8.txt or 21815-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/8/1/21815/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Geetu Melwani, Sankar Viswanathan, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned +images of public domain material from the Google Print +project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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