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diff --git a/32887-8.txt b/32887-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f19e8e --- /dev/null +++ b/32887-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2419 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Trilbyana, by +Joseph Benson Gilder & Jeannette Leonard Gilder + +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: Trilbyana + The Rise and Progress of a Popular Novel + +Author: Joseph Benson Gilder & Jeannette Leonard Gilder + +Editor: Joseph Benson Gilder + Jeannette Leonard Gilder + +Release Date: June 19, 2010 [EBook #32887] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRILBYANA *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material at +the Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + +TRILBYANA + +[Illustration: MR. DU MAURIER'S FIRST DRAWING IN "PUNCH" + +_Showing himself (smooth face) and Mr. Whistler (with eyeglass)._ (_See +page 14._) + +PHOTOGRAPHER.--"_No smoking here, Sir!_" + +DICK TINTO.--"_Oh! A thousand pardons! I was not aware that---- _" + +PHOTOGRAPHER [interrupting with dignity]."--_Please to remember, +Gentlemen, that this is not a Common Hartist's studio!_" [N. B.--Dick +and his friends, who _are_ Common Artists, feel shut up by this little +aristocratic distinction, which had not occurred to them.]] + + + + +TRILBYANA + +The Rise and Progress of a +Popular Novel + +NEW YORK +THE CRITIC CO. + +MDCCCXCV + +COPYRIGHT 1895 +BY +THE CRITIC CO. + +_This edition is limited to +250 copies, of which this +is No._ 194. + +_It is many a year since a book has attained the popularity of Mr. du +Maurier's second novel, "Trilby" (printed as a serial in Harper's +Monthly, from January to August, inclusive, and then issued in +book-form, on Saturday, 8 September, 1894). Several others have sold as +well--some even better; but neither "Looking Backward" nor "Ben Hur" (to +name but these two) has captivated the public in the same manner or in +the same degree as this romance, this fairy-tale of the three British +artists, the blanchisseuse who posed for "the altogether," the Parisian +masters of painting, and the trans-Rhenish masters of music, in the +Latin Quarter of the early fifties. It is a story written out of the +author's very heart, and it finds its way straight to the hearts of his +readers. This is the secret of its unique success. Its charm is +emotional rather than intellectual. With all its art, it impresses one +as essentially ingenuous. It is a book to be loved, not merely to be +liked or admired._ + +_On 16 June, 1894, The Critic printed, with comment, a letter in which +Mr. Whistler protested to the editor of an English newspaper against the +libellous likeness of himself to be found in the character of Joe +Sibley, one of the minor personages in the story of "Trilby." In the +fall there were so many sporadic calls for this number of the paper as +soon to exhaust the supply carried over from the summer. There seemed to +be a general desire on the part of our readers to bind up the Whistler +letters, etc., with the text and pictures of "Trilby" as printed in +Harper's Monthly, the American artist's protest having led to a slight +revision of the story before its appearance in book-form. The hint was +acted upon; and two pages of "Trilbyana" were printed in The Critic of +Nov. 17._ + +_Though an extra edition was struck off, the call for this number has at +last exhausted the supply; and the present pamphlet, containing among +its many items of interest a majority of those that have found a place +in the columns of The Critic, may fairly claim to be issued in response +to a popular call._ + +_J.B. & J.L. GILDER._ + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +"Trilby: a Novel" 1 + +Mr. du Maurier as a Draughtsman 4 + +"Trilby" on the Stage 8 + +Personalia 11 + +Mr. du Maurier and Mr. Whistler 15 + +"Trilby" Entertainments 19 + +Miscellanea 22 + +Songs 30 + +A Search for Sources 35 + +Nodier's "Trilby," le Lutin d'Argail 37 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Mr. du Maurier's Monogram Title-page + +Mr. du Maurier's First Drawing for _Punch_ Frontispiece + +Portrait of Mr. du Maurier from a Photograph Face 16 + +Portrait of Mr. du Maurier by Himself 11 + +Portrait of Mr. Whistler 15 + +"Platt, the New Svengali" 25 + +Mr. du Maurier's House on Hampton Heath Face 27 + + + + +"Trilby: a Novel" + +_By George du Maurier. With Illustrations by the Author. Harper & +Brothers._ + + +When "TRILBY" began to appear as a serial in _Harper's Monthly_, January +1894, Mr. Henry James prophesied that it would prove to be a +glorification of "the long leg and the twentieth year." The prophecy was +soon verified. At the outset, indeed, it seemed as if the glorification +were to be, not so much of the long leg, as of the large and shapely +foot. The whole story rested for a while on one of Trilby's feet. We say +one, for it was only one of them--the left one--that Little Billee +immortalized by drawing on the wall of the studio in the Place St. +Anatole des Arts; but they were equally perfect. As the young woman who +had the happiness of standing on this foot proclaims, kicking off one of +the big slippers in which she is introduced to us, "It's the handsomest +foot in all Paris: there's only one in all Paris to match it, and here +it is"--and off goes the other slipper. The sketch of it that proves +Little Billee already a master of his art is not shown till near the end +of the book; and neither this nor Mr. du Maurier's own portrait of the +_pieds nus_ on page 21 fully realizes one's notion of the thing's +unapproached perfection. + +As we have said, the whole story rests for a while on one of these +handsome feet; but the novelist manages at last to free his neck from +the thraldom of the "slim, straight, rosy heel, clean-cut and smooth as +the back of a razor," and proceeds to gratify our curiosity to know +something about the strange being who poked about the studios in the +Quartier Latin in the early fifties, bare-headed, and wearing a big, +military coat with epaulets, which she could throw off when she posed +for the _ensemble_ as easily as she could kick off the loose slippers +when only her foot was desired as a model. It will be seen that Trilby +was not a woman of any social standing. Her father was an educated +Irishman, her mother (his wife) a pretty barmaid. They both were dead, +and she herself was a professional model. + +Two things about her were equally marvellous: one was her foot, the +other her voice--an organ of surprising power, range and sweetness. No +less extraordinary, perhaps, was the trick that nature had played upon +her, by coupling so glorious a voice with an ear that could not +distinguish one note from another--could scarcely tell a bass from a +treble, and permitted her to sing so badly that her hearers either +stopped their ears, laughed in her face, or bolted from the room. The +American song "Ben Bolt" was the one she liked the best to sing, and +sang the worst. There was something else about her, almost as strange as +her beautiful feet, her magnificent voice and her defective (or +altogether lacking) ear for music; and that was the purity of her +character. She had had affairs with half a dozen men in the studios, +without really knowing that it wasn't the right thing to do. But her +heart remained spotless (so Mr. du Maurier assures us); and it is a most +unfortunate thing that Little Billee's mother comes tearing over to +Paris, leaving the peaceful dales and dairies of Devonshire behind her, +in her mad haste to break the engagement which Trilby has at last made +with the young English painter, after having repeatedly refused to do +so, notwithstanding her great love for him. Mrs. Bagot has no difficulty +in convincing her that she is no worthy mate for Little Billee; and she +accordingly runs away from Paris, heart-broken, and becomes a +_blanchisseuse de fin_. Little Billee's heart is broken, too; or if not +broken, benumbed; and henceforth, though he becomes a most successful +artist, and the pet of all London, he takes his pleasures and successes +sadly and listlessly, caring nothing for the wealth and fame that come +to him. + +In the meantime a great _prima-donna_ appears upon the European stage, +and all the world bows down before her. Happening to be in Paris, Little +Billee is persuaded by his old chums, Taffy the Yorkshireman ex-soldier, +and the "Laird of Cockpen"--painters both,--to go and hear the prodigy. +Fancy their stupefaction at recognizing in the glorious singer the +tuneless Trilby of five years gone! No longer Trilby O'Ferrall, but La +Svengali, wife of their old acquaintance Svengali the Jew, who had +recognized the possibilities of her voice when he first heard it in +their Paris studio, and had afterwards captured her and cultivated it +and by his mesmeric arts trained her as a singer and even made her love +him as a dog loves his master. A day or two later, meeting him at a +hotel, Svengali spits in Little Billee's face, and gets his nose pulled +for his pains by Taffy. And then the great _prima-donna_ and her master +go to London; and Trilby breaks down in trying to sing "Ben Bolt," and +is hooted off the stage--Svengali's sudden death in a stage-box (unknown +to anyone in the house) having broken the mesmeric influence that has +made her a singer. She pines away, surrounded by her old friends the +Englishmen, and an object of solicitude to all Christendom; and after +her death Little Billee pines away, too, and no one is left but the big +ex-officer Taffy--with the exception of Trilby, the most attractive +character in the book. For Little Billee (whose sister he marries, after +the death of Trilby, whom he, too, loved) is, truth to tell, somewhat of +a prig, even after the sight of Trilby at the concert in Paris has +roused him from the unemotional state to which her flight consigned him, +years before; and Svengali is a beast, and Gecko is insignificant. + +The text of the book is the counterpart of its illustrations, for Mr. du +Maurier writes as he draws--with infinite precision and detail. Nothing +is omitted that could possibly heighten an effect. Instead of flashing a +scene or a sensation upon you, he describes it and redescribes it, +heaping up the adjectives in masses. His art is a different art from +Kipling's, for instance, which never wastes a syllable. But the point to +be decided is not one of methods but of results; and as a whole "Trilby" +is delightful. It is a slow and laborious process by which the author +creates an impression and surrounds his characters with the atmosphere +he wishes us to see them in; but he does finally create the impression +and the atmosphere, and in so doing justifies his means. He has steeped +his mind in Thackeray, and so has had a noble master. Like "Peter +Ibbetson," his new story is unique. It is a book that could have been +written only by an artist--and illustrated only by the author; it is a +book, moreover, in which the man and the style are one. + +In its present form the story contains certain passages not printed in +the magazine--notably, a brief disquisition on sitting for the nude. On +the other hand, certain passages have been altered in deference to the +wishes of Mr. Whistler, who saw in Joe Sibley, as described and pictured +by Mr. du Maurier, an unpleasant resemblance to himself. Not only has +the text been altered, but our friend Sibley is now called Antony, and +his hitherto unbearded face is adorned with a non-Whistlerian beard. +(See "Trilby," opposite page 132.) One picture has been omitted +altogether. It needed not the accidental advertising of Mr. Whistler's +threatened libel suit to draw attention to the book. It is its own best +advertisement, and has fairly earned the success implied in advance +orders so numerous as to cause the postponement until to-day (8 Sept. +1894) of the original date of publication. + + + + +Mr. du Maurier as a Draughtsman + + +It is hardly necessary to say that Mr. du Maurier's work as a novelist +is in no way matched by his work as a draughtsman, as exemplified, for +instance, in the 120 drawings for "Trilby," exhibited in December, 1894, +at the Avery gallery. Until he began to write he was known merely as the +author of innumerable caricatures, which had a certain vogue because +they were at the same time pictures of fashionable society; but even of +these the legend was often the best part. He had mastered many types, +but they were nothing more than that; and one had seen his millionaires +and swells and singing people and artists until one had grown rather +tired of them. Then, suddenly, it was found, with the first chapters of +his first novel, that in writing he could give to all these well-known +figures individuality, could make flesh and blood of them. The drawings +themselves, at least those done as illustrations for his two romances, +seem to have gained by that discovery. These do not appear to be the +same French blouses and English guardsmen. Something has got into them, +a touch of life, which they did not have before. Yet no one will say +that the Little Billee of the drawings now exhibited at Avery's gallery +is even a shadow of the Little Billee of the text. Of Trilby there is +not so much as the famous foot. Any schoolboy, almost, might have made +as clever a travesty of the Venus de Milo. The best presentment of the +gigantic Taffy is that in which he poses as the Ilyssus. The Laird o' +Cockpen is much better, being frequently very like Mr. George W. Cable, +particularly where he listens to Trilby's confession--an accidental +likeness, no doubt, but one that increases our respect for the Laird. +The intentional likeness of Frederick Walker, who is said to be the real +original of Little Billee, is vastly superior to the ideal one; and the +many unnamed figures in the more crowded compositions that appear to +have been sketched from the life or from a particularly vivid memory are +among the most amusing and enjoyable things in the drawings. + +But it must not be denied that there is here and there a bit of _chic_ +that approaches the ideal--something not easily to be discovered in the +artist's former work. Svengali is throughout a creation of this sort. He +is as grotesquely romantic, as Mephistophelian a figure in the +illustration as in the printed page. The only failure is the head (on +page 59 of the book) which is in more senses than one "as bad as they +make them." He is excellent where he laughs over the two Englishmen +cleaning themselves; he is delightful where he examines the roof of +Trilby's mouth, "like the dome of the Panthéon," "room in it for 'toutes +les gloires de la France.'" Where he stands in the midst of the crowded +studio, "All as it Used to Be," he looks every inch the artist, more so +than the "idle apprentice," lounging against the door-jamb. If there +were such a man, one who had sunk his whole soul in his art, he might +look like this, or like the same figure in the hussar uniform, a Semitic +conqueror "out of the mysterious East." There is a touch of the spirit +of the illustrators of the romantic period in the pictures of the +Christmas festivities, especially in the two that illustrate the +peculiar interchange of rôles between Little Billee and the festive +Ribot, and in the sketch of Zouzou as the "Ducal French Fighting-Cock." +The scenes of common life, too, are admirable, the free-and-easy, the +"Happy Dinner," the bargaining of the Laird with Mme. Vinard--"Je +prong!"--and the scene at the rehearsal where "The First Violin Loses +his Temper." The art of the drawings is all in expression and action, +and Du Maurier, in spite of all that is French in him, is thoroughly +British in this, and a descendant in the right line of Hogarth, +Cruikshank and Leech. + +The "Trilby" drawings were bought _en bloc_ by some one in England. They +had been sent here to be engraved for _Harper's Monthly_ and the book; +the sale occurred before they were placed on exhibition in New York. A +representative of _The Critic_ asked Mr. Avery, who said that a number +of people had expressed a desire to buy some of them, what he thought +they would have brought, if sold over here. He replied that he could not +tell with any degree of accuracy, but he thought they would have +averaged at least $50 apiece. As there are 120 drawings, this would have +meant $6,000 more for Mr. du Maurier. _En bloc_, no doubt, they brought +a smaller sum. + +A painting of "Trilby," by Mr. Constant Mayer, was shown at Knoedler's +gallery, in December, along with half a dozen other and more +satisfactory paintings by the same artist. The hypnotic condition of the +subject was declared by Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton to be admirably +suggested in this fancy portrait. + + * * * * * + +TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRITIC:-- + +Those who express surprise at the sudden literary development of du +Maurier's genius do not apparently recognize the fact that the whole +series of his drawings has included the literary element. His thoughts +as expressed in art have always shown a close and philosophical +observation of life, an understanding of the actions and motives of men. +Every one of his illustrations tells not only an individual story, but a +story of surroundings and times, of tendencies, fads and foibles. And +the text is always as important as the picture; sometimes it is far more +so. Who can have forgotten the history and culmination of the "old +china" craze given by du Maurier in a four-inch-square illustration of +the young husband and wife examining an old teapot, with the exquisite +text, "Oh, Algernon, do you think we can ever live up to it?" Certainly +the man who could invent the application of that phrase must have stores +of wit and sense equal to the writing of many "Peter Ibbetsons" and +"Trilbys." And those stores were bound to find their larger expression +in literature. + +NEW YORK, 22 NOV., 1894. + +CANDACE WHEELER. + + * * * * * + +The New York _Tribune_ has printed the following protest against the +insinuation that the author of the book was not its illustrator also:-- + +"It ought not to be necessary for any formal contradiction to be made of +that absurd rumor which has just been set adrift concerning the +illustrations to 'Trilby.' On the face of it, it is impossible for +either Mrs. du Maurier or her daughter to have given the pictures the +character they possess. They have du Maurier's style, du Maurier's +technique, du Maurier's peculiar little touches of humor, not merely in +the broad idea but in that minute turn of the pen which makes all the +difference in the world between an empty profile and a funny one. It is +true that there is a dissimilarity between Trilby in one illustration +and Trilby in another, but it should be remembered that du Maurier's +eyesight has been failing him, that he has been compelled to be prolific +at a time when he has most needed to lie fallow as an artist; and, in +brief, the shortcomings of the 'Trilby' designs, if serious shortcomings +they have, are to be explained on the most natural and logical of +grounds. The intrinsic character of the drawings proclaims their +authorship. Only George du Maurier could have done them, and not any of +the trifling assistance which he may have received from his family in +matters of posing, costume, etc., could deprive him of his +responsibility or his honor. The recent tendency to criticise these +designs with some severity will soon be counteracted. As a matter of +fact, they present some of the cleverest work du Maurier has ever done." + + * * * * * + +The New York _Sun_ printed a letter, not long ago, in which the drawings +were declared to be anachronistic. "Why," it was asked, "should Mr. du +Maurier deny to his characters the crinolines, waterfalls, surtouts, +cravats, chignons, peg-top trousers and hoop-skirts of the early +sixties, and make them, despite Taffy's whiskers, of the _monde_ of +to-day? Is it that his artistic instincts have reverted to that fine +school of old masters who delighted to portray, saving Taffy's grace, +Hector fighting in the armor of the Black Prince, or turned out Madonnas +by the score in Margaret of Anjou skirts?" + + * * * * * + +In "Trilby" every stroke of pen or pencil seems to be significant. Is +there special meaning in the fact that, in the dainty tail-piece, one +glass in the spectacles appears to be heavily shaded, while the other is +clear? Is Mr. du Maurier, like so many literary people, afflicted with +partial loss of sight or other visual difficulty? + +AMHERST COLLEGE LIBRARY. + +W. I. FLETCHER. + +[Unhappily he is, and has been for many years. It is only with the +greatest difficulty that he is able to work with either pen or pencil.] + +[Illustration: From "Trilby." Copyright, 1894, by Harper & Brothers.] + + + + +"Trilby" on the Stage + + +Mr. Paul M. Potter's dramatization of "Trilby" was produced by Mr. A. M. +Palmer's company at the Boston Museum on Monday, 4 March, 1895, and +achieved so great a success that several companies were immediately put +upon the road to play it throughout the country. Its first production in +New York, with the original cast, occurred at the Garden Theatre, on +April 15. Hundreds of people were turned away from the door for want of +room to accommodate them; and an offer was received from Mr. Beerbohm +Tree, the eminent English actor, for the privilege of producing the play +in England, where he himself wished to impersonate Svengali. It would be +a pity if the Lyceum company did not secure the English rights; for Mr. +Irving would make an inimitable Svengali, and Ellen Terry would be +Trilby without trying. + +As nobody has ever succeeded, or is likely to succeed, in really +dramatizing a novel, it is not surprising that the stage version of +"Trilby" should prove in some respects unsatisfactory. It might be +thought that the book would lend itself readily to dramatic treatment; +but a little consideration will show that it offers peculiar +difficulties to the playwright, inasmuch as its chief charm is one of +manner, which cannot be transferred to the stage, while its story, +although it contains some striking situations, such as Trilby's collapse +upon the death of Svengali, consists chiefly of a series of episodes, +largely independent of each other and strung together very loosely. All +things considered, Mr. Potter ought not, perhaps, to be held to too +strict an account for the liberties he has taken with the text and some +of the personages, but he has certainly lowered the tone of the work, +and been guilty of various crudities of construction. There is some +excuse for his employment of Svengali as the evil influence which wrecks +the happiness of Little Billee and Trilby, but he leaves nothing of the +author's original intention, and infinitely belittles the character of +the girl, when he attributes her flight from her lover to mesmeric +suggestion, instead of her own noble and unselfish devotion. In many +other similar ways the spiritual side of the book suffers at his hands. +His persistent references to Trilby's posing for the figure, his +selection of that particular incident for her first introduction, and +the joking references to it which he puts into the mouths of other +personages, are in bad taste, while his travesty of the character of +Dr. Bagot is entirely without justification. Mrs. Bagot he treats with +more consideration, but he reduces her to the level of the dullest stage +conventionality. Trilby herself preserves a good many of her +characteristics, but is degraded even more than in the book by her +subserviency to Svengali. + +The play is in four acts, and the whole story up to the flight of Trilby +is compressed into the first two. This feat is accomplished with no +small ingenuity, but at great cost of probability. In this brief space +Trilby is wooed and won, Svengali asserts his mesmeric power, the +marriage of Little Billee is arranged and interrupted by the arrival of +his mother, and an elopement is planned and frustrated. In the third act +Trilby is to sing in the Cirque des Bashibazouck, and all the characters +reassemble as if by magic in the foyer of that temple of art, which is +abandoned of all other persons for their sole benefit. The proceedings +which are supposed to occur in this retired spot are intrinsically +absurd, but they are effective enough from a scenic and theatrical point +of view, and were accepted by the audience, on the first night, as +eminently natural and satisfactory. They culminate in the ghastly death +of Svengali and the restoration of Trilby in a dazed and exhausted +condition to the three faithful friends. In the fourth act there is +another reunion of characters, and Trilby, who has agreed once more to +marry Little Billee, and is supposed to be on the road to recovery, dies +suddenly, upon the unexpected apparition of Svengali's photograph. + +As it stands, the play is not much superior, if at all, to ordinary +melodrama, being almost wholly void of the literary, humorous and +personal charm of the book, but it is very well played, has a number of +effective scenes, and is unquestionably popular. Miss Harned's Trilby, +though rather a faint reflection of the original, has the merit of being +attractive and womanly, as well as free and frank, and exhibits true +pathos in the mesmeric scenes. On the whole, it is a very creditable +impersonation. Mr. Lackaye's Svengali is overwrought but indisputably +strong; and Burr McIntosh, John Glendenning and Alfred Hickman represent +the three friends cleverly, and furnish excellent living pictures of du +Maurier's sketches. Mr. Dietrichstein makes an admirable Zouzou, and all +the minor parts are performed competently. A feature of the +representation which is received with special favor is the Christmas +merrymaking in the Latin Quarter, which is as vivacious and realistic as +could be wished. + +A matter of considerable interest to authors and publishers, for the +copyright question involved, occurred in connection with the Boston +performances. Elmer Chickering, the well-known photographer of Boston, +took some pictures of Mr. A. M. Palmer's company, which naturally came +into demand at once. But rushing over the wires came a message from +Harper & Bros., saying that, as the characters were made up after du +Maurier's drawings, they should regard the sale of any such pictures as +an infringement of their copyright. To this, Mr. Chickering disagreed, +on the ground that the photographs were not copies of any drawings, but +of actual scenes on the stage, which any man might sketch. Telegrams +flew back and forth, for the Messrs. Harper would not yield. Meanwhile, +the papers sought for the photographs, and Mr. Palmer was apparently +willing to receive the advertisement their publication would ensure; but +the publishers still held off. At last Mr. Chickering decided to fight +it out on his own line, for two of the New York papers printed some of +the 160 "Trilby" pictures taken by him; and--as indicating an amicable +adjustment of the dispute--a number of them appeared in _Harper's +Weekly_. + +The morning papers of April 30 contained this despatch:--"DENVER, COL., +April 29. Did du Maurier write 'Trilby'? This novel question was +propounded to-day in the United States Court in good faith, when the +suit of Harper & Bros. and A. M. Palmer for an injunction against the +Lyceum Stock Company to restrain them from producing 'Trilby' at their +theatre was called. The defendants allege that the book entitled +'Trilby' was not originated, invented or written by du Maurier. They +assert that the original title and book of 'Trilby' were first published +in France in 1820, and afterwards translated and published in English in +1847, and that the title and book have been common property for +seventy-five years. The attorneys for the plaintiffs asked for time to +communicate with their clients in New York as to the course they should +pursue, and the Court postponed the hearing until Wednesday morning. +Should the allegations of the Lyceum Company be true, a sensation will +be caused all over the two continents. This is the first public +intimation of an attack on the authenticity of the work, and if it is +successful every company in the world will have as much right to play +'Trilby' as the Boston Organization." + +The Lounger reprinted the telegram with this comment:--"Charles Nodier's +'Trilby, le Lutin d'Argail,' was published in Paris in 1822. It has just +one thing in common with du Maurier's book--the first word in its +title." The Sunday papers of May 12 printed this paragraph:--"DENVER, +May 11. Judge Hallet, in the United States District Court to-day, +granted an injunction restraining the Lyceum Theatre from producing +'Trilby' hereafter, deciding that it infringed on the rights of Harper & +Bros., and others. To-day's performance was stopped." + +[Illustration: GEORGE DU MAURIER] + + + + +Personalia + + +A London correspondent of the Philadelphia _Press_ furnishes some +interesting notes of a talk with Mr. du Maurier. Concerning literary +practice, the artist-novelist said that "Peter Ibbetson" was absolutely +the first story he ever wrote. "And yet," he added, "I have in one sense +been writing stories all my life. Every one of my pictures, for example, +has had under it a story condensed to the smallest possible space. The +necessity of condensing my description and dialogue has been of great +benefit to me in writing my two novels." As for "Trilby," Mr. du Maurier +said that his earliest conception of the story was quite different from +the one he finally worked out. "I had first thought of Trilby as a girl +of very low birth--a servant, or something like that. Then it occurred +to me that it would be much better to make her interesting--to create a +person who would be liked by readers. As a good many people seem to be +fond of 'Trilby' now, I am very glad, indeed, that I made the change." +And he declared further that the character of Trilby was not a study +from life, but wholly imaginary. It was Henry James who suggested to the +artist that he should write novels. + +[Illustration: _BY HIMSELF_ + +FROM HARRY FURNISS'S "LIKA-JOKO"] + +"It was one day while we were walking together on Hampstead Heath. We +were talking about storywriting, and I said to him:--'If I were a +writer, it seems to me that I should have no difficulty about plots. I +have in my head now plots for fifty stories. I'm always working them out +for my own amusement.' 'Well,' he said, 'it seems to me that you are a +very fortunate person; I wish you'd tell me one of those plots.' Then I +told him the story of 'Trilby.'" "Yes, he praised it very generously. +'Well,' I said, 'you may have the idea and work it out to your own +satisfaction.' But he refused to accept it. 'You must write it +yourself,' he said: 'I'm sure you can do it, if you'll only try.' But I +insisted that I couldn't, and so we left the matter. But that night +after going home it occurred to me that it would be worth while trying +to write, after all. So on the impulse I sat down and began to work. It +was not on 'Trilby,' however, but on 'Peter Ibbetson.' I kept at it for +a time, but after doing several chapters I became utterly discouraged, +and said to myself one evening:--'Oh, I can't do anything with this. +It's a mad story. It's utter rubbish.' Then I took up the sheets and was +just about to throw them into the fire when I thought I'd keep them for +another day and think the thing over. That night in bed, while I was +worrying about the impossibility of going on with the tale, the solution +of my difficulty suddenly occurred to me. 'I'll make the hero mad,' I +cried to myself, 'that will put everything right.' So the next day I +wrote the introduction, explaining Peter's madness, and after that I +went on with the work to the end without any more trouble." + +"Trilby's" American publishers have sent out the following note:--"A +letter from Mr. du Maurier to the late James R. Osgood is given +herewith. Possibly the hint it contains as to the secret of an exquisite +literary style will interest the greater number of readers; or perhaps +his saying (in 1890) that he has 'several good ideas,' which would seem +to be an answer to those who have maintained that 'Trilby' was written +many years ago. * * * + +'MY DEAR OSGOOD:--Of course I remembered my promise, and as soon as my +book--"Peter Ibbetson"--was finished and typewritten, I wrote to +you--last week, as it happens--at 50 Fleet Street, but behold! you were +in America; so I sent them the copy, and I believe it starts by to-day's +mail for Harper in New York. I don't know how it got into the papers +that I was coming out in this new line, but I have already offers to +come to an arrangement. I have no notion whether it is suited to a +periodical or not--you will see; probably _not_,--but if it is I want to +be well paid for it; first [illegible], as far as my _first_ book is +concerned, whatever its merits; secondly, because the only people to +whom I have told the story (H. James, Canon Ainger, poor Allingham and a +few others) thought so well of it--or said so--as an _idea_; and I have +taken great pains in the carrying out thereof. If Harper's doesn't see +its way to it, I shall offer it elsewhere; and after that, I shall put +it in the hands of an agent. And if I don't get what I think I ought to, +I shall keep it and write another, as I have several good ideas, and +writing this has taught me a lot. All of which sounds very cheeky and +grand; but I am in no hurry to come before the public as a novelist +before I'm ripe, and to ripen myself duly I am actually rewriting it in +French, and you've no idea what a lesson _that_ is! * * * + +'Yours ever, G. DU MAURIER. + +'15 BAYSWATER TERRACE, LONDON, April 18, 1890.'" + +It is said that when the Messrs. Harper were negotiating with Mr. du +Maurier for "Trilby," he declined their offer of a royalty on the sales +of the book and decided in favor of a "lump sum." We do not know how +large this sum was, but we are pretty sure that it was not so much as he +would have made by the royalty plan. That would have earned at least +$30,000 for him on a sale of about 100,000 copies to 31 Dec., 1894. The +Messrs. Harper have, however, done a more than generous thing by him: +they have informed him that they will pay him a royalty, and a good big +one, too, on all sales after 1 Jan., 1895, on both "Trilby" and "Peter +Ibbetson." The 600 copies of the _édition de luxe_ of "Trilby," at $10 a +copy, were sold outright to the Syndicate Trading Co. + +Our London correspondent, Mr. Arthur Waugh, wrote to us on 16 April, +1895:--"The English reading public is to have its illustrated 'Trilby' +in one volume in June. Hitherto the three-volume edition has alone been +in circulation, and that without the illustrations. There are to be no +sketches in all, and arrangements are also in progress for a large-paper +edition of 250 copies, with six facsimile reproductions of original +drawings, unbound." Advance orders were received for 15,000 copies of +the six-shilling edition. + +In an interview reported in the _Tribune_ of June 14, Mr. J. Henry +Harper was quoted as saying, apropos of a cablegram to the effect that +the writing of "The Martians" was completed:-- + +"He assures me that his new story will not be ready for the publishers +until December, 1896. I cannot tell you much about the book itself yet, +but it will not be in any sense a sequel to 'Trilby' except so far as it +will succeed that book. The new story will deal in its opening chapters +with French school life, and then with English life, both fashionable +and rowdy; then the artistic world of Antwerp and Dusseldorf is +exploited, while the closing stages occur in England. There will be love +in the tale, of course, and du Maurier also brings in the supernatural +again. There will be plenty of liveliness and some tragedy. The book, I +am given to understand, will be capable of illustration; but I am sorry +to say there is some doubt as to whether du Maurier himself will +illustrate it. It will depend entirely upon the state of his health, +which of late has not been of the best. The length of the story will be +greater than 'Trilby' and will run through about twelve numbers of +_Harper's Magazine_, in which it will first be published in serial +form." + +As a matter of course, Mr. du Maurier has had no end of invitations to +read and lecture in this country, but to all these invitations he has +turned a deaf ear. In a recent letter to _The Critic's_ Lounger, he +expressed himself as flattered by these overtures, but added that his +health would not permit of his accepting any of the tempting +propositions. He might be more in the way of temptation, if it were not +for the play of "Trilby." This brings him in almost as much money as +readings would. We are told that he is in receipt of several hundred +dollars a week from this source--not ten hundred, but very near it. +This, surely, is a much easier way of earning money than travelling from +one end of a big country to the other, for it costs him no greater +exertion than the signing of his name to a check. + +No one who loves "Trilby" should fail to read the "autobiographic +interview" with du Maurier which Mr. Robert H. Sherard contributed, with +illustrations, to _McClure's Magazine_ for April, 1895. From this +singularly intimate and interesting article, one learns that the +author's first picture in _Punch_ represented himself and his chum +Whistler[A]; also, that the studio in the Latin Quarter where Trilby +visited the three English artists was drawn from that of his master, +Gleyre. + +Mr. du Maurier's monogram, which appears on the title-page of this +pamphlet, is reproduced from a carving on the table at which the staff +contributors to _Punch_ dine once a week, and on which many of them have +made similar inscriptions. We are indebted for it to _McClure's +Magazine_. + + + + +Mr. du Maurier and Mr. Whistler + + +The first two or three of the following paragraphs appeared on the +Lounger's page in _The Critic_ of 16 June, 1894, and were reprinted, +with most of the Whistler-du Maurier items that succeed them, in the +issue of Nov. 17. + +[Illustration: (From _The Westminster Budget_) + +MR. WHISTLER] + +Mr. Whistler has mastered two arts besides painting and sketching. One +he has immortalized in that unique brochure, "The Gentle Art of Making +Enemies"; the other is the Gentle Art of Advertising Oneself. These two +generalities are not always to be distinguished from each other. It is +quite possible to make an enemy in advertising oneself; and nothing is +easier than to draw general attention to oneself, by the same act that +incurs the enmity of individual--especially if the individual be +eminent. At the present moment M. du Maurier happens to be one of the +most conspicuous figures in the field jointly occupied by Art and +Letters. In choosing him as an object of clamorous attack, Mr. Whistler +has shown himself a past-master of the art of advertising oneself. By +identifying himself with one of the characters in a story that everyone +is reading, he brings himself more conspicuously before the public than +by painting a new picture. Moreover, in sending to an English newspaper +a letter in which he vituperates his quondam friend and fellow-artist, +he interrupts himself for but a moment in the pursuit of his legitimate +calling as a painter. + +In America, at least, few readers of "Trilby" would have known that, in +Joe Sibley, Mr. du Maurier had hit off some of the most salient +"peculiarities" of the immensely talented etcher, who, when he takes the +newspapers into his confidence, dips his pen in the corrosive acid with +which he bites his plates. Joe Sibley is not an engaging character; he +is a Bohemian of the Bohemians, clever, witty, penniless and presuming. +In taking his sibilant surname as a pseudonym for Whistler, we have the +endorsement of the artist himself, though he does not expressly declare +himself to be the archetype of this particular character. Sibley is the +only man in the book who _could_ have been drawn from Whistler--the +Whistler of a generation ago; and no one but Sibley could have written +the following letter, in which the creator of the character is so +wittily vilified:-- + +"TO THE EDITOR--SIR: It would seem, notwithstanding; my boastful +declaration, that, after all, I had not, before leaving England, +completely rid myself of the abomination--the 'friend '! One solitary, +unheeded one--Mr. George du Maurier--still remained, hidden in +Hampstead. On that healthy heath he has been harboring, for nearly half +a life, every villainy of good fellowship that could be perfected by the +careless frequentation of our early intimacy and my unsuspecting +_camaraderie_. Of this pent-up envy, malice and furtive intent he never +at any moment during all that time allowed me, while affectionately +grasping his honest Anglo-French fist, to detect the faintest +indication. Now that my back is turned, the old _marmite_ of our +_pot-au-feu_ he fills with the picric acid of 30 years' spite, and, in +an American magazine, fires off his bomb of mendacious recollection and +poisoned rancour. The lie with which it is loaded _à mon intention_ he +proposes for my possible 'future biographer'--but I fancy it explodes, +as is usual, in his own waistcoat, and he furnishes, in his present +unseemly state, an excellent example of all those others who, like +himself, have thought a foul friend a finer fellow than an open enemy. + +"PARIS. + +J. M'NEILL WHISTLER. + +"Reflection: The _compagnon_ of the _pétard_ we guillotine. Guineas are +given to the popular companion who prepares his infernal machine for the +distinguished associates in whose friendship he has successfully +speculated." + + * * * * * + +The following card appeared in _Harper's_ for October:-- + +"Pursuant to an arrangement made with Mr. J. McNeill Whistler by our +London agents, Messrs. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., the publishers of the +English edition of _Harper's Magazine_, the following letter is +published:-- + +August 31, 1894. + +"'DEAR SIR--Our attention has been called to the attack made upon you by +Mr. du Maurier in the novel "Trilby," which appeared in our magazine. If +we had had any knowledge of personal reference to yourself being +intended, we should not have permitted the publication of such passages +as could be offensive to you. As it is, we have freely made such +reparation as is in our power. We have agreed to stop future sales of +the March number of _Harper's Magazine_,[B] and we undertake that, when +the story appears in the form of a book, the March number shall be so +rewritten as to omit every mention of the offensive character, and that +the illustration which represents the Idle Apprentice shall be excised, +and that the portraits of Joe Sibley in the general scene shall be +altered so as to give no clue to your identity. Moreover, we engage to +print and insert in our magazine for the month of October this letter of +apology addressed to you. Assuring you again of our sincere regret that +you should have sustained the least annoyance in any publication of +ours, we are, + +"'Yours respectfully, + +HARPER & BROTHERS. + +"'J. MCNEILL WHISTLER, ESQ.'" + + * * * * * + +One of the humors of the controversy was a letter that appeared in the +first number of Harry Furniss's _Lika-Joko_. It was supposed to have +been written by Whistler to express his indignation at having been cut +out of the book. The English as well as the American papers fell into +the trap, and discussed the letter as a genuine expression of Mr. +Whistler's outraged feelings. It was only a joke, however--and is said +to have been the only joke in Mr. Furniss's comic paper. To an +interviewer for _The Westminster Budget_, Mr. Whistler expressed his +surprise that anyone should have been taken in by the parody. "There was +no harm in the appearance of the article," he said, "but what caused my +merriment, though not surprise, is that anyone would have thought for a +moment that I had written it. But then, it was in England, and in +England anything is possible!" That the parody was a clever one will be +seen from the following extract:-- + +"In the fascinating numbers of 'Trilby,' as they appeared in _Harper's +Magazine_, I read with delight of one Joe Sibley, idle apprentice, king +of Bohemia, _roi des truands_, always in debt, vain, witty, exquisite +and original in art, eccentric in dress, genial, caressing, scrupulously +clean, sympathetic, charming; an irresistible but unreliable friend, a +jester of infinite humor, a man now perched upon a pinnacle of fame (and +notoriety), a worshipper of himself; a white-haired, tall, slim, +graceful person with pretty manners and an unimpeachable moral tone. My +only regret was that too little was said about so charming a creation. I +looked to see more of him in the published three volumes. But no! I +found the addition of some thoughtful excursuses by Mr. du Maurier upon +nudity, agnosticism, and other more hazardous subjects, which had, +presumably, been judged too strong for the ice-watered, ice-creamed +constitution of the American Philistine; but I looked in vain for the +delightful Joseph Sibley. In his place I find a yellow-haired Switzer, +one Antony, son of a respectable burgher of Lausanne, who is now tall, +stout, strikingly handsome and rather bald, but who in his youth had all +the characteristics of the lost Joseph Sibley--his idleness, his debts, +his humor, his art, his eccentricity, his charm. I rubbed my eye-glass. +_Je me suis demandé pourquoi._" + +Displeased with _The Speaker's_ comments on his connection with +"Trilby," Mr. Whistler compelled that paper to print a letter from his +solicitors, from which it appears that the revised MS. of the novel was +sent to him to be passed. And apropos of this, he remarks in a letter to +the editor:--"I question if it be not without precedent that a writer +ever before so abjectly regorged his spleen as to submit his Bowdlerized +work to his victim for his approval." + +In the Chicago _Tribune_ of Sunday, 2 Dec., 1894, were reprinted from +_Harper's_ the pictures of, and passages about, Joe Sibley which +provoked Mr. Whistler's threatened libel-suit. The revised passages, as +they appear in the book, were also given. + + + + +"Trilby" Entertainments + + +OF ENTERTAINMENTS founded upon Mr. du Maurier's book, the name is +legion. The most pretentious, and at the same time the most successful, +was the series of "Scenes and Songs from 'Trilby,'" given at Sherry's in +the afternoon and again in the evening of Saturday, February 9, for the +benefit of that admirable institution, the New York Kindergarten +Association. The affair, which had the advantage of distinguished +patronage, was given under the special management of Mrs. Charles H. +Ditson; Mr. E. Hamilton Bell arranged the details of scenery and +costume; and among those who personated the various characters were +several well-known artists. + +The audience was a large one, which was excellent for the little ones +who were to be benefited; and it was enthusiastic, which was only a just +and fit tribute to managers, performers and singers. Every detail of the +tableaux had been thought out with infinite care, and posing, grouping +and make-up were as near perfection as du Maurier himself could have +wished. The program included the singing of "Ben Bolt," "Bonjour, +Suzon," "Au Clair de la Lune" and several other songs, and the following +tableaux:--"The Three Musketeers of the Brush"; "Wistful and Sweet"; +"Svengali"; "I will Not!"; "All As it Used to Be"; "Answer Me, Trilby!"; +"The Soft Eyes"; "The Sweet Melodic Phrase"; "Dors, Ma Mignonne"; "The +Nightingale's First Song"; "Malbrouck" and "It was Trilby." The +entertainment opened most effectively with a quartet by Messrs. Devoll, +Moore, Bracewell and Devoll. The first tableau, "Three Musketeers of the +Brush," received the admiration it deserved, as did, also, the singing +of Miss Akers and Mr. Mackenzie Gordon interspersed with the different +tableaux. The first appearance of Trilby was awaited with impatient +expectancy, and when she came, she proved to be "wistful and sweet," +indeed, in the person of Mrs. Eric Pape, the wife of the well-known +young artist. The last tableau of the second part, "It was Trilby," was +most effectively arranged by Mr. Pape. The full cast of characters was +as follows:--Trilby, Mrs. Eric Pape; Taffy, W. Harris Roome; The Laird, +Evert Jansen Wendell; Little Billee, J. Gerald Benkard; Svengali, Robert +Reid; Gecko, Eric Pape; Dodor, William Abbott; Zouzou, Franklin C. +Butler; Mrs. Bagot, Mrs. J. Wells Champney; Miss Bagot, Miss Lilian +Wing; Mme. Malbrouck, Mme. Bettini; Durien, Leslie G. Cauldwell; +Blanchisseuse, Miss Lou-lou Noel; Fencer, Lieut. Gianni Bettini. + +During the intermission between the first and second parts of the +program, Mrs. Kate Douglas Wiggin sold a copy of "Trilby" presented by +the Messrs. Harper. To this Mr. du Maurier and Mr. Henry James (who +persuaded the author to write the book) had contributed their +autographs, and Dr. English a manuscript copy of his song "Ben Bolt." +The volume fetched $100, making the net addition to the Kindergarten +Association's treasury about $2500. + + * * * * * + +AT MR. MANSFIELD'S Garrick Theatre, "Trilby" has been burlesqued. It had +already been parodied in book-form, produced as a melodrama, read aloud +in drawing-rooms, with music, and put on the platform in "scenes and +songs," so that nothing was left to do with it but to make an "operatic +burlesque" of it; and this was duly accomplished by Messrs. Joseph W. +Herbert and Charles Puerner, the latter being responsible for the music +and the former for the words. The piece is called "Thrilby." As in the +serious play founded upon the novel, the villain (rechristened +"Spaghetti") is the principal figure; and mesmerism is carried to a +ridiculous excess, even inanimate objects succumbing to its influence. +There is a farce within this farce; for "Mme. Sans-Gêne" is parodied in +a sub-play introduced under the name of "Mme. Sans Ra-Gêne." The +burlesque is by no means free from horse-play, but it unquestionably +accomplishes its purpose, which is merely to amuse. + +At the Casino, as well as at the Garrick, "Trilby" and "Mme. Sans Gêne" +have both been travestied. + + * * * * * + +(_Harper's Weekly_) + +"THE _Weekly_ has received a copy of the programme of a novel and +decidedly interesting literary and musical entertainment that was given +on Oct. 17, at Omaha. It was called 'An Evening with Trilby.' The +participants were all gentlemen. The subjects of the papers read were +'The Story of Trilby,' 'Du Maurier, his Life and Work,' 'The French of +Trilby,' 'The Identity of the Artists in Trilby,' 'Trilby's Voice and +Method,' 'Trilby as a Hypnotic Subject,' 'Could Trilby be Successfully +Dramatized?' After each paper there was Trilby music, which included +'Ben Bolt,' 'Au Clair de la Lune,' 'Malbrouck s'en va-t-en Guerre' and +other songs and instrumental pieces. At the end of the programme comes +the inquiry, What shall we 'ave the pleasure of drinkin' after that +werry nice 'armony?' and then the page turns over to the farewell +couplet:-- + + 'A little warmth, a little light + Of love's bestowing--and so, good-night.' + +"It is a pretty far cry from Paris to Omaha, but Trilby's voice seems to +have carried that distance without the least trouble. It is worth +remarking that these Omaha gentlemen made seven 'papers' about her +without finding it necessary to discuss her morals." + + * * * * * + +OF THE MANY "Trilby" entertainments in New York one of the most +successful was given in May, at the house of Postmaster Dayton, for the +benefit of St. Luke's Home for Indigent Christian Females. A literary +criticism of the book was read, and one of the chapters of the story; +and the songs that are oftenest alluded to were sung. The affair was +given under the auspices of the Daughters of the Revolution. + + * * * * * + +"TRILBY'S" WIDE POPULARITY--in the sense that many people who are not, +ordinarily, novel-readers take a lively interest in it--is evidenced by +many indications, not the least significant being the concerts made up +from the music mentioned in the novel. One such was given in San +Francisco last December, under the management of the ladies of the +Mercantile Library Auxiliary and for the benefit of the Library's +unfortunately slender exchequer. According to _The Argonaut_, a very +interesting program was presented, including Schubert's "Rosamonde," +Adam's "Cantique de Noël," Chopin's Impromptu in A flat, "Bonjour +Suzon," "Le Capitaine Roquefinette" and the much-discussed "Ben Bolt." + + * * * * * + +"TRILBY" REPRESENTATIONS have broken out in all sorts of strange places. +At the Eden Musée, New York, Miss Ganthony has been restrained from +impersonating du Maurier's heroine; and at "The Greatest Show on Earth," +Miss Marie Meers, who has not been restrained, appears nightly in Trilby +costume, riding bareback (not barefoot) around the tan-bark to the +snapping of ringmaster Svengali's whip. + + + + +Miscellanea + + +MR. DU MAURIER and Mr. James took a walk together, one day, and the +artist unfolded to the novelist the plot of "Trilby," suggesting that he +should use it in a novel. Mr. James persuaded him to write the story +himself. He did so; and what has been the result? Think of the time and +skill, the money and material that have been employed in putting the +thing in type, preparing its illustrations, printing it as a serial and +reprinting it in book-form; in dramatizing it, burlesquing it in books +and on the stage, in adapting its songs and illustrations for +reproduction on lecture-platforms and in drawing-rooms, and in +translating and publishing Nodier's tale, from which the author took his +title! Its presentation has given employment, onerous or enjoyable, +honorary or remunerative, to thousands; hundreds of thousands have read +it, and hundreds of thousands seen it on the stage; and its leading +characters--Trilby, Svengali and "the three musketeers of the +brush"--have become household names and personalities. It has enriched +its author, added to the wealth of its publishers, put money in the +purses of playwright and manager and replenished the treasuries of more +than one excellent charity. Directly or indirectly, no doubt, it has +caused much more than a million dollars to change hands within the past +eighteen months. And last but not least, it is responsible for this +pamphlet, in which is chronicled the story of its rise and progress. + + * * * * * + +AT THE Mercantile Library, New York, it was found necessary, at the time +when "Trilby" was in greatest demand, to circulate a hundred copies of +the book; at the beginning of June the number in circulation was +seventy. Mr. Wingate wrote to _The Critic_ from Boston, in June, that +there were six copies of the book in the main building of the Public +Library, and one in each of its branches, but that this supply was +inadequate, 72 demands for the book having come from the branch +libraries in a single day. And Mr. Hild writes to us from Chicago that +the Public Library of that city has 26 copies, but that they do not +begin to supply the demand. "I believe we could use 260 and never find a +copy on the shelves. Every one of our 54,000 card-holders seems +determined to read the book." + +ON THE POINT of the morality or immorality of the book, _The +Independent_ says:-- + +"Mr. du Maurier, apparently in deference to the current craze for +heroines that have been seduced, or are just going to be, bedaubs the +first fifty pages of his otherwise clean story with telling how his pure +heroine, Trilby, a _blanchisseuse de fin_, had been led astray, and so +forth. That is to say, he unnecessarily goes behind the true door of his +story to wash some dirty linen, and then he sets forth." + +On this point the San Francisco _Argonaut_ does not agree with its New +York contemporary:-- + +"With those who think these passages immoral, we cannot agree. Mr. du +Maurier has treated with candor some facts belonging to the realm of +things which are usually understood instead of being talked about; but +he has done this with singular manliness and delicacy, and with entire +absence of mawkish or other improper sentiment. The impression of +Trilby's character left upon the reader is entirely that of a noble, +generous woman, whose life is not a sin, but a tragedy." + +The same paper reproduces "a letter Mr. du Maurier wrote to a Paterson, +N. J., man who contended that the relations of Trilby with her +hypnotizer were chaste, so far as her consciousness of them went, and +decided to find out if he were right by writing to the novelist":-- + +"NEW GROVE HOUSE, HAMPSTEAD HEATH, + +"October 31, 1894. + +"DEAR SIR: In answer to your letter of September 24th, I beg to say that +you are right about Trilby. When free from mesmeric influence, she lived +with him as his daughter, and was quite innocent of any other relation. +In haste, yours very truly, + +"G. DU MAURIER." + + * * * * * + +EARLY IN March, 1895, one of the Boston clergymen advertised Robert +Grant's "Art of Living," as our Boston correspondent reported at the +time, and on Sunday, March 17, another prominent minister took up +"Trilby." So it is evident that, even if Boston authorship is on the +decline, as so many New Yorkers enviously declare, the Boston clergy are +going to keep alive the interest in literary matters by emphatic words +to their congregations. "Have you read 'Trilby'?" was the theme of the +Rev. George W. Bicknell's sermon, and the topic crowded the church. The +Reverend Doctor declared that he had spent five hours reading the book, +and had decided that it was a story of magnificent possibilities, but +that its morality was "as one viewed it." He considered the tale +far-fetched and over-drawn and lacking in healthful flavor, and placed +it in the same class of art with the nude paintings at the World's +Fair--a position to which, we presume, the author would not object. Then +he launched out into an emphatic declaration that it was time for the +pulpit to speak out against art of this kind. + + * * * * * + +DU MAURIER'S heroine has been heard of over in Brooklyn. A married +woman, aged twenty-nine, got into a dispute with her husband, recently, +as to the morals of the young model, and proved her point by "smashing +him over the head with an earthenware jar." In the newspaper in which we +read of this intemperate act, the husband's age is not given, nor the +side he took in the argument, before he was shown to be wrong. The fact +that he got his head broken proves little--except the folly of arguing +with a woman; nor the additional fact that he refused to appear against +his wife in court. But the case is one in which a good deal might be +said on both sides--if earthenware jars were not introduced too early in +the discussion. + + * * * * * + +MR. DU MAURIER has worse offenses to atone for than the breaking of the +Brooklyn man's silly head. But for his entertaining book we should have +been spared the unreadable prose of "Biltry: a Parody on 'Trilby'" and +the unspeakable verse of "Drilby Re-versed," the former by Mary Kyle +Dallas, the latter by Leopold Jordan. In vulgarity and banality, these +two precious productions run each other a close race. Of the two we +think "Drilby" a trifle the less objectionable, merely because the +proportion of text to white paper is somewhat smaller. Both are poorly +illustrated, and printed on much better paper than they deserve. + + * * * * * + +E. C. OF NEW ALBANY, IND., thinks that "Trilby's" possibilities as a +vehicle of evil to the much-considered American "young person" are +emphasized by a conversation recently overheard by her between two +feminine "young persons" in Indiana. "What is this 'Trilby' everybody is +talking about?" asked one of these. "Oh," replied the other, "it's a +book--a novel." "They say it is awfully bad," said the first young +person. "Yes, I've heard so; but it isn't so at all. I read it clear +through, and there wasn't anything bad in it. I didn't like it either; +there is too much French in it." "French?" commented the first young +woman; "well that's it, then--all the bad part is in French." "I hadn't +thought of that," mused the other one; "I suppose that's just the way of +it. Anyway, it isn't nearly as good as 'Dally.'" + +[Illustration: PLATT. THE NEW SVENGALI. + +THE HYPNOTIZING OF MORTON. + +Have you read "Trilby?" Svengali was a bad, wicked man, who used to +hypnotize poor, sweet little Trilby and make her sing and act as he +pleased--With apologies to Du Maurier.] + +"Trilby" has even got into American politics. This shows better than +anything else how wide an audience the story most have reached. How many +allusions to a book of the current year would be comprehensible to the +average reader of a New York daily paper? We reproduce the accompanying +cartoon from the _World_ of Dec. 9 as a curiosity of literature and an +interesting contribution to "Trilbyana." It is adapted from Mr. du +Maurier's drawing entitled "Et Maintenant Dors, ma Mignonne!" + + * * * * * + +A Broadway caterer now "molds his ice-cream in the shape of a model of +Trilby's ever-famous foot." Mr. du Maurier can want no greater evidence +of the popularity of his story in America. That there is not a "Trilby" +shoe on the market reflects little credit upon the enterprise of our +bootmakers. It is an opportunity that no soap-maker would neglect if it +came his way. Possibly the fact that Trilby's foot was large (as well as +shapely) has something to do with the shoemakers' backwardness. Hers +were not Cinderella slippers. ("The Lounger," 30 March, 1895.) + +Mr. C. W. Coleman, Librarian of William and Mary College, writes from +Williamsburg, Va., to say that I am in error in supposing that the +bootmakers of this wide-wake country have not yet seized the name of du +Maurier's heroine for advertising purposes. In his note of correction he +encloses a clipping from the catalogue of a Chicago house, containing a +picture of a high-heeled ladies' shoe, flanked by an advertisement of +"'The Trilby,' price $3, postage 15 cts.--'an ornament to any foot,'" +etc. And I hear that the shop-windows of Norfolk, Va., fairly bristle +with shoes of this brand. Moreover, a bootmaker's advertisement in the +Pittsburg _Post_ shows (as a punning Pennsylvania correspondent writes +to me) that "Trilby has obtained a foothold even in the Iron City." +According to the advertisement, "this enterprising firm offer to the +lady sending in the most accurate dimensions according to the diagram +above, together with a drawn outline of the nude foot on paper, a +handsome pair of the highest grade 'Trilby' shoe, which they will have +made up especially for the winner. This stylish foot adornment for +Pittsburgh's model feet will be satin or silk lined throughout, of the +finest quality kid and best workmanship. Bear in mind, ladies, it need +not be the smallest feet that win, but the most perfect form of a foot +from a standpoint of proportionate measurements." ("The Lounger," 13 +April, 1895.) + + * * * * * + +G. A. D. writes from Philadelphia to deplore the Quaker City's +vulgarization of the name and fame of Trilby; and in justification of +his plaint encloses a Chestnut Street dealer's advertisement of the +"Trilby Sausage"! This, it is claimed, "is something new, and fills a +long-felt want"; "they melt in your mouth." They don't melt in G. A. +D.'s mouth, but they rankle in his æsthetic soul. "What next?" he +exclaims; "an Ophelia tooth-wash, a Duchess of Towers garbage-pail!" Our +correspondent has not yet heard of the "Trilby Ham." This, if anything, +is worse than the Sausage. It has been heard of in this city; whether or +no it originated here, I do not care to inquire. But in an Eighth Avenue +dime-museum, there are "Twenty Trilbys," and visitors vote for the +handsomest! Moreover, we have now the "Trilby Hearth-brush"; and huge +posters on the East Side announce a picnic of the "Trilby Coterie and +Chowder Club." + + * * * * * + +_The Evening Post_ reprints from James Braid's "Observations of Trance" +(1850, page 43) the following paragraph, which is of singular interest +in connection with the novel which has made such an extraordinary +sensation in this country during the past year, and has become as great +a success on the stage as in book-form. Svengali's transformation +of a girl with no ear for music into a singer of marvellous powers seems +to have been almost paralleled in real life, half a century ago:-- + +[Illustration: DU MAURIER'S HOUSE. + +HAMPSTEAD HEATH.] + +"Many patients will thus repeat accurately what is spoken in _any_ +language; and they may be also able to sing correctly and simultaneously +both words and music of songs in any language which they have never +heard before--_i. e._, they catch the words as well as music so +instantaneously as to accompany the other singer as if both had been +previously equally familiar with both words and music. In this manner a +patient of mine, who, when awake, knew not the grammar of even her own +language, and who had very little knowledge of music, was enabled to +follow Mlle. Jenny Lind correctly in songs in different languages, +giving both words and music _so correctly and so simultaneously with +Jenny Lind_, that two parties in the room could not for some time +imagine that there were two voices, so perfectly did they accord, both +in musical tone and vocal pronunciation of Swiss, German and Italian +songs. She was equally successful in accompanying Mlle. Lind in one of +her extemporaneous effusions, which was a long and extremely difficult +elaborate chromatic exercise, which the celebrated cantatrice tried by +way of taxing the powers of the somnambulist to the utmost. When awake +the girl durst not even _attempt_ to do anything of the sort; and, after +all, wonderful as it was, it was _only phonic imitation_, for she did +not understand the meaning of a single word of the foreign language +which she had uttered so correctly." + + * * * * * + +(_Miss Frances Albert Doughty, in The Critic, 15 June, 1895._) + +"The strength of 'Trilby' as a novel lies in the exquisitely dear +realization of the good in the girl's nature, which the fine art of the +author has been able to give to the reader. The divine in the Laird, in +Taffy and in Little Billee responded to the divine in that undeveloped +girl, and to them the angel in her was the real Trilby in spite of all +her past experience. But idealism and realism in this charming story are +not quite happily balanced: the reader receives a blow on the spiritual +side of his being from the manifestation of an agency in the universe +that is endowed with an all-conquering malevolence, something extraneous +from the individual and yet able to arrest in her the growth of the +budding germ of holiness and moral beauty, a power triumphant even at +the moment when her spirit was about to return to the God who gave it. +Without Svengali there would be no novel of Trilby; nevertheless, he is +the sole blot upon it." + + * * * * * + +(_San Francisco Argonaut_) + +"Perhaps the most surprising circumstance connected with 'Trilby' in the +eyes of American readers is the way the book has been received in +England. At best it has been accorded lukewarm praise, and the tone of +its reviews has run the gamut down to downright slating. Some have been +spiteful enough to be exceptionally entertaining. Of these, that of _The +Pall Mall Gazette_ is the most striking, the reviewer of that journal +showing himself to be (as an exchange puts it) a master of vituperative +diction. To this reviewer, 'Trilby's' three Englishmen are 'British +prigs cut in pasteboard,' and their biographer is denied even the poor +ability to express himself in grammatical English." + + * * * * * + +TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRITIC:-- + +If there yet remains a word to be said in criticism of this book, it +may, perhaps, be in regard to the musical part of it. Whether +intentionally or not, du Maurier has certainly added an instance, which +tends to prove the theory true, that music in itself is neither +elevating nor refining. Svengali is drawn with inimitable skill, and +with so much realism that the reader feels that he must have been known +and hated by du Maurier in all his repulsiveness. And yet this loathsome +creature has the power of so seizing and expressing the noblest works of +the great masters of harmony as to move his hearers to tears, to sway +them at his will by the tenderness and feeling he puts into the notes. +It is a hard thing for a music-lover to comprehend, that a man of low +and vicious life, and utterly without aspirations, can so express the +penetrating beauty that lies in music more than in any other art. It +shows, too, that music gives us only what it finds in us, and proves the +folly of "program music," or music with a translation. + +AUBURN, N. Y. + +S. M. COX. + +(_Mrs. Emma Carleton, in the Louisville Courier-Journal._) + +"A great deal has been said and written about 'Ben Bolt,'" said a woman +who doesn't pretend to be musical, "and the other songs of the Trilby +repertoire; but I have not yet seen or heard any comment on Trilby's +'great and final performance'--the vocalization of Chopin's Impromptu, A +flat. Du Maurier devotes two entire pages to most wonderful description +of this wonderful musical achievement; two exquisite pages of music +painted in words, in most masterly and matchless fashion. Who can forget +the depiction of La Svengali's voice, 'as a light nymph catching the +whirl of a double-skipping rope as she warbles that long, smooth, +lilting, dancing laugh, that wondrous song without words.' This +impromptu should be rechristened the 'Trilby Impromptu,' and musicians +everywhere should now--while the Trilby wave is riding high--be charming +their audiences by playing it." + + * * * * * + +The Oliver Ditson Co. has published a pamphlet of "Trilby" songs, etc., +containing the words and music of "Ben Bolt," "Malbrouck," "Bonjour, +Suzon," "Der Nussbaum" ("The Nut-tree") "Cantique de Noël" and "Au Clair +de la Lune," and the music of Chopin's "Impromptu." + + * * * * * + +On March 1, 1895, a postcard was sent from the office of _Life_, calling +the attention of "exchange editors" throughout the country to "A +'Trilby' Examination." We reprint the card in full:-- + +"_Life's Monthly Calendar_ offers a series of cash prizes for the best +sets of replies to the following questions on 'Trilby': + +1. What does the author claim as the king of all instruments? Who does +he claim was the greatest violinist of his time? What does he call the +most bourgeois piece of music he knows? + +2. What was Svengali's real name? + +3. Where does the author state that he is a social lion? Where does he +deny that he is a snob? + +4. Where does he bring Little Billee in contact with Punch? + +5. What did the Laird call M. le général Comte de la Tour-aux-Loups? + +6. In what places does the author compare Gecko to a dog? + +7. How old was Trilby when she died? + +8. What was Little Billee's physical explanation of his inability to +love? + +9. What verbal description of one of the heroes contradicts almost every +one of the author's drawings of him? + +10. What incident of the story is inconsistent with the author's own +argument in behalf of the nude in art? + + +"Dear Sir: The above questions are covered by our copyright, but in view +of the popular interest in 'Trilby,' you may wish to reproduce them. We +should be more than pleased to have you do so, if you will give us +credit. + +Yours very truly, + +JAMES S. METCALFE, + +Editor and Manager _Life's Monthly Calendar_." + + + + +The Songs in "Trilby" + + +Dr. Thomas Dunn English wrote the words of "Ben Bolt" in New York, in +1842, when he was a young man of three-and-twenty. Mr. N. P. Willis had +asked him to write a sea-song for _The New Mirror_, and so he wound up +the last stanza with an allusion to "the salt-sea gale!" As a sea-song, +"Ben Bolt" is not a success; but it has been sung on every sea and in +every land where the English tongue is spoken. At Pittsburgh, +Pennsylvania, in 1848, an English journalist named Hunt quoted the words +(from a defective memory) to Nelson Kneass, who was attached to the +local theatre; and, adapted by Kneass to a German melody, the song, in a +somewhat garbled version, was introduced in a play called "The Battle of +Buena Vista." In Helen Kendrick Johnson's "Our Familiar Songs, and Those +Who Made Them" (Henry Holt & Co., 1881), the story of its vogue in +England as well as in America is told effectively. Not only were ships +and steam-boats named in its honor, but a play was built upon its +suggestions, and as recently as in 1877 an English novelist made the +memories evoked by the singing of the song a factor in the development +of his catastrophe. Its revival at the hand of Mr. du Maurier is the +latest and perhaps the most striking tribute to its hold upon the +popular heart. To the author himself--in his ripe old age a member of +the LIIId Congress--its fame is seemingly a bore, for he is quoted as +saying:--"I am feeling very well and enjoying life as well as an old man +can, but this eternal 'Ben Bolt' business makes me so infernally weary +at times that existence becomes a burden. The other night, at a meeting +of a medical association at my home in Newark, some one proposed that +all hands join in singing 'Ben Bolt,' whereupon I made a rush for the +door, and came very near forgetting the proprieties by straightway +leaving home. However, I recovered my equilibrium and rejoined my +friends. I don't think that General Sherman ever grew half so tired of +'Marching Through Georgia' as I have of that creation of mine, and it +will be a blessed relief to me when the public shall conclude to let it +rest." + +Apropos of the use made of the song in "Trilby," _Harper's Bazar_ +published the words and music; whereupon the author sent this letter to +the editor:-- + +"It is very pleasing to an old man like myself to have the literary work +of a half-century since dragged to light and commended, as has been the +case with 'Ben Bolt' of late. I was flattered by seeing my likeness--or, +rather, the likeness of a younger man than myself--in your pages; but I +must protest against some errors which, in spite of careful editing, +enter into your transcription of the song. The words of the original +were:-- + + 'Don't you remember the school, Ben Bolt, + With the master so cruel and grim, + And the shaded nook in the running brook, + Where the children went to swim?' + +"This has been changed in the song, as usually sung, to read:-- + + 'With the master so kind and so true. + And the little nook by the clear-running brook, + Where we gathered the flowers as they grew?' + +"You have copied this, but in a better shape, with the exception of +changing the rhythm. I must protest against this change, because the +school-masters of between sixty and seventy years since were, to my +memory, 'cruel and grim'; they were neither kind nor true. They seemed +to think the only way to get learning into a boy's head was by the use +of the rod. There may have been exceptions, but I never met them. At all +events, 'what I have written I have written.'" + +BEN BOLT + + I + + Oh, don't you remember, Sweet Alice, Ben Bolt? + Sweet Alice, whose hair was so brown, + Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile, + And trembled with fear at your frown! + In the old churchyard, in the valley, Ben Bolt, + In a corner obscure and alone, + They have fitted a slab of the granite so gray. + And Alice lies under the stone! + + II + + Under the hickory tree, Ben Bolt, + Which stood at the foot of the hill, + Together we've lain in the noon-day shade, + And listened to Appleton's mill. + The mill-wheel has fallen to pieces, Ben Bolt, + The rafters have tumbled in, + And a quiet that crawls round the walls as you gaze, + Has followed the olden din. + + III + + Do you mind the cabin of logs, Ben Bolt, + At the edge of the pathless wood, + And the button-ball tree with its motley limbs, + Which nigh by the door-step stood? + The cabin to ruin has gone, Ben Bolt, + The tree you would seek in vain; + And where once the lords of the forest waved, + Grows grass and the golden grain. + + IV + + And don't you remember the school, Ben Bolt, + With the master so cruel and grim, + And the shaded nook in the running brook, + Where the children went to swim? + Grass grows on the master's grave, Ben Bolt, + The spring of the brook is dry, + And of all the boys who were schoolmates then, + There are only you and I. + + V + + There is change in the things I loved, Ben Bolt, + They have changed from the old to the new; + But I feel in the depths of my spirit the truth, + There never was change in you. + Twelve-months twenty have past, Ben Bolt, + Since first we were friends--yet I hail + Thy presence a blessing, thy friendship a truth, + Ben Bolt, of the salt-sea gale! + + * * * * * + +TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRITIC:-- + +In your columns of "Trilbyana" I have seen no mention of the fact that +George W. Cable, in his "Dr. Sevier"--a thousand times better novel and +better work, in every way, than "Trilby,"--has introduced the old song +"Ben Bolt" with wonderful effect. It is strange that the old melody +should have appealed to the two men, so widely apart, and it is but fair +that the American's first, and most skilful, use of it should have due +recognition. + +PHILADELPHIA. + +JOHN PATTERSON. + + * * * * * + +TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRITIC:-- + +Du Maurier says that there is but one verse of the little French song, +which Trilby sings with so much effect--"Au clair de la lune." He +mistakes; there is another, running thus:-- + + "Je n'ouvrirai pas la porte, J'ouvre bien la porte, + À un vieux savetier, À un pâtissier, + * * * * * Qui m'apporte des brioches + * * * * Dans un tablier." + +The two missing lines have escaped the memory of the writer. + +AUBURN, N. Y. + +S. M. COX. + + * * * * * + +Your correspondent, S. M. Cox, offers some more verses of "Mon Ami +Pierrot." They do not quite agree with those taught me, shortly after +the Revolution of 1848, by an old French gentleman. You will notice that +the French of the last verse is quite "eighteenth-century" in style and +diction. + + II III + + Je n'ouvre pas ma porte Mais j'ouvre bien ma porte + À des savetiers, À des officiers, + Ils ont des alènes, Ils ont des pistoles, + C'est pour me piquer. C'est pour me les baîller. + + PARIS, 1 Jan., 1895. B. F. + + * * * * * + +Mr. du Maurier was correct in saying that there is only one verse of "Au +Clair de la Lune"; yet there are possibly, and probably, a thousand made +in imitation of it, which go to the same air. We quote from the San +Francisco _Argonaut_:-- + +"It is to be observed that these _amateurs de Trilby_ do not go the +length of singing 'Au Clair de la Lune,' even repeating the first stanza +twice, as Trilby did. But perhaps they are as ignorant concerning the +song as is Mr. du Maurier, who declares there is but one verse. There +are four. The first is given in 'Trilby' thus:-- + + 'Au clair de la lune, Ma chandelle est morte.... + Mon ami Pierrot! Je n'ai plus de feu! + Prête-moi ta plume Ouvre-moi ta porte + Pour écrire un mot. Pour l'amour de Dieu!' + +The second runs:-- + + 'Au clair de la lune Va chez la voisine-- + Pierrot répondit: Je crois qu'elle y est, + Je n'ai pas de plume, Car, dans sa cuisine, + Je suis dans mon lit. On bat le briquet.' + +The third stanza contains the point of the song:-- + + 'Au clair de la lune Qui frappe de la sorte? + S'en va Arléquin Il dit à son tour: + Frapper chez la brune Ouvre-moi ta porte + Qui répond soudain: Pour le dieu d'amour.' + +The fourth stanza continues in the same strain, and it goes farther." + + * * * * * + + "MALBROUCK S'EN VA'T EN GUERRE" + + Malbrouck s'en va-t'en guerre-- + _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ + Malbrouck s'en va-t'en guerre.... + Ne sais quand reviendra! + Ne sais quand reviendra! + Ne sais quand reviendra! + + Il reviendra-z-à Pâques-- + _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ + Il reviendra-z-à Pâques.... + Ou ... à la Trinit! + + La Trinité se passe-- + _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ + La Trinité se passe.... + Malbrouck ne revient pas! + + Madame à sa tour monte-- + _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ + Madame à sa tour monte, + Si haut qu'elle peut monter! + + Elle voit de loin son page-- + _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ + Elle voit de loin son page, + Tout de noire habillé! + + "Mon page--mon beau page!-- + _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ + Mon page--mon beau page! + Quelles nouvelles apportez?" + + "Aux nouvelles que j'apporte-- + _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ + Aux nouvelles que j'apporte, + Vos beaux yeux vont pleurer!" + + "Quittez vos habits roses-- + _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ + Quittez vos habits roses, + Et vos satins brochés!" + + "Le Sieur Malbrouck est mort-- + _Mironton, mironton, mirontaine!_ + Le Sieur--Malbrouck--est--mort! + Est mort--et enterré!" + + * * * * * + +There is no more eloquent description of the effect of music on an +impressionable nature than du Maurier gives of the impression made upon +Little Billee by the singing of Adam's "Cantique de Noël" at the +Madeleine on Christmas Eve. + + CANTIQUE DE NOËL + + Minuit, Chrétiens, c'est l'heure solennelle, + Où l'homme Dieu descendit jusqu'à nous, + Pour effacer la tache originelle + Et de son Père arrêter le courroux. + Le monde entier tressaille d'espérance + A cette nuit qui lui donne un sauveur. + Peuple à genoux! attends la délivrance! + Noël, Noël, voici le Rédempteur! + + + + +A Search for Sources + + +TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRITIC:-- + +The liquid name, "Trilby," of du Maurier's heroine having been duly run +down to its source, will a slight excursus be amiss as to the origin of +the affectionate title applied by the novelist on his charming little +hero--"Little Billee"? Evidently the name, together with certain +descriptive touches, has been taken from Thackeray's ballad, "Little +Billee." This racy skit, as many doubtless know, is in the best vein of +the great humorist's inimitable burlesque. It narrates the tragic cruise +of + + "Three sailors of Bristol city + Who took a boat and went to sea," + +the second stanza running thus:-- + + "There was gorging Jack, and guzzling Jimmy + _And the youngest, he was Little Billee_. + Now when they got as far as the Equator + They'd nothing left, but one split pea." + +And the unpleasant ultimatum being arrived at, that "We've nothing left, +us must eat we," the poem continues:-- + + "Says gorging Jack to guzzling Jimmy, + With one another we shouldn't agree, + There's little Bill, _he's young and tender_, + We're old and tough, so let's eat he." + +Here, I say, we have the origin of the novelist's "Little Billee," +while, in the italicized phrases, we have also du Maurier's, "the third, +he was little Billee" (page 6), and "he was young and tender, was little +Billee." + +It would be sheer nonsense, of course, to urge against the famous +novelist any charge of unacknowledged borrowing in matters so entirely +trivial. The point is merely a curious one of origins; a little +siccatine botanizing, so to speak, on the _folia disjecta_ that have +been wonderfully spun by du Maurier's genius into a fabric of grace and +beauty so rare as is this "Trilby." Nor, indeed, should the further fact +be a detraction from the gifted author of "Trilby," that his +indebtedness to Thackeray is obviously greater than in the minutiæ under +consideration--that, in fact, he has caught from the great immortal the +note of much that is best in his book. In his limpid, graceful +simplicity of words, and their easy, natural flow--in his delicate, +playful humor, and tender but not overwrought pathos, we discover a +careful study of found only a few general remarks about fairies, their +habits and habitations, nothing in the least resembling the story of +Jeannie's lover. Perhaps Nodier was mistaken about his source. As he +travelled in the Highlands, he may possibly have "collected" the tale at +first hand, and, there being no folk-lore societies in those early days +of romanticism, he was not aware of the honor that thus accrued to him. +It cannot have evolved itself from a mere hint. We appeal to Mr. Lang to +take up and follow the chase farther. He might be worse occupied than in +tracing out the original John Trilby MacFarlane, and whence he got his +English-sounding name, his fairy powers and his connection with Saint +Columba--the last probably from Nodier himself, who may have been +reading Montalembert's "Monks of the West" before setting out upon his +pilgrimage. Mr. Dole, by the way, irreverently converts the Dove of the +Churches into a "Saint Columbine," unknown to any respectable +hagiographer. Think, Mr. Lang, what a delightful coil this romancing +Frenchman, let loose among your Hielan' men, fairies, monks and Scotch +novels, has made for you to straighten out, and how many strange +discoveries may be made while you are about the job! + +Miss Smith (2) has prepared another translation of Nodier's story, and, +though there is little choice between her version and Mr. Dole's, we +prefer it. It seems a trifle less exact, but it is more idiomatic; and, +if anything, she perhaps intensifies the local color a little, which +does not do the tale any harm. Her book is got up in tartan cover; Mr. +Dole's has a design adapted from Paul Konewka. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Richard Mansfield has secured from Estes & Lauriat the right to +dramatize and produce Mr. Dole's translation of Nodier's "Trilby, le +Lutin d'Argail." + + + + +Nodier's "Trilby, le Lutin d'Argail" + + +It was not long after the appearance of "Trilby" that our readers +detected the French origin of the name of Mr. du Maurier's heroine. The +story of the unearthing of this delightful French fairy-tale may be +followed in this series of communications to _The Critic_: + +On looking over Roche's "Prosateurs Français," I find that one of the +"plus jolis" contes of Charles Nodier (1788-1844) is entitled "Trilby"; +therefore the title of du Maurier's much-bought novel is not original +with him. I should be pleased if any reader of _The Critic_ would inform +me as to the plot of Nodier's story. + +ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI RECTORY, + +WM. J. MCCLURE, + +MT. KISCO, N. Y., 29th Oct., 1894. + + * * * * * + +The following lines occur in the "Réponse à M. Charles Nodier" of Alfred +de Musset:-- + + "Non pas cette belle insomnie + Du génie + Où Trilby vient, prêt à chanter, + T'écouter." + +This would seem to offer some clue to the origin of the name chosen by +Mr. du Maurier for his heroine. Can you enlighten me as to the identity +of the "Trilby" referred to by Musset? + +RIDGEFIELD, CONN., 19 Nov., 1894. + +ROSWELL BACON. + + * * * * * + +In answer to the request of your correspondent in _The Critic_ of Nov. +17, I find the tale of "Trilby" in my copy of the "Contes de Charles +Nodier, illustrés par Tony Johannot." "Trilby" is the story of a +household fairy of Scotland (a "Lutin familier de la Chaumière"). It is +fantastic and touching, but it has nothing in common with du Maurier's +"Trilby." + +LEESBURGH, VIRGINIA, 20 Nov., 1894. + +I. L. P. + + * * * * * + +From the recent contributions to "Trilbyana" in your columns, it would +appear as if the name of Trilby (originally Scotch or Irish?) were not +uncommon in the writings of French authors. Charles Nodier, in his +_conte_, says that M. de Latouche--a contemporary--wrote on the same +subject, "où cette charmante tradition était racontée en vers +enchanteurs"--which gives one to suppose that "Trilby" was the name of +his enchantress; though, perhaps, he refers to the old story of "Le +Diable Amoureux." I find, moreover, that Balzac takes the name for a +type in his "Histoire des Treize: Ferragus: Vol. I. Scènes de la Vie +Parisienne" (page 48 of edition of 1843):--"Pour développer cette +histoire dans toute la vérité de ses détails, pour en suivre le cours +dans toutes ses sinuosités, il faut ici divulguer quelques secrets de +l'amour, se glisser sous les lambris d'une chambre à coucher, non pas +effrontément, mais à la manière de Trilby [the opposite to du Maurier's +Trilby], n'effaroucher ni Dougal, ni Jeannie, n'effaroucher personne," +etc. + +TUXEDO PARK, 26 Nov., 1894. + +E. L. B. + + * * * * * + +(_Boston Evening Transcript, 1 Dec. 1894._) + +"The Listener was asked the other day where du Maurier got the name of +Trilby--a sweet and pleasant word, neither English nor French, which +seemed to suit so perfectly the adorable young person of his creation. +He was able to answer, more by accident certainly than as the result of +erudition, that the name was not invented by du Maurier but belongs to +the French classics--possibly to Scottish folk-lore. In the year 1822 +there was first published in Paris a _nouvelle_, by Charles Nodier, +afterward a member of the French Academy, entitled, "Trilby, or the Fay +of Argyle"; it was a sort of fairy-story, in which a fay is in love with +a mortal woman, and the woman is very far from being indifferent to his +sentiment. This 'Trilby' attained a considerable degree of popularity; +it became, indeed, a French classic; Sainte-Beuve has particularly +praised the charm of its style. * * * In his preface to the story, +Nodier says: 'The subject of this story is derived from a preface or a +note to one of the romances of Sir Walter Scott, I do not know which +one.' This is a very indefinite acknowledgment While Nodier may have got +his subject from Scott, the Listener doubts if he got the name 'Trilby' +from him. It is just the sort of name that a French writer would give to +a Scotch fay. Nevertheless, Trilby may be a real Scotch elfin. The +Listener would hardly claim personal acquaintance with them all. + +"Du Maurier's 'Trilby' is curiously prefigured, in part at least, in +Nodier's; and yet there is not the smallest thing that the most jealous +critic could call a plagiarism; it is a legitimate parentage. As you go +on with Nodier's story, you love his Trilby more and more, as you do du +Maurier's, until you think that there was never so bewitching a fairy; +and your love for Trilby is interwoven with your love for Jeannie, his +mortal sweetheart, just as your love for du Manner's Trilby is forever +mixed up with your tender sentiment for Little Billee. You feel a sort +of enchantment over you like the hypnotism that you are under in du +Maurier's strange book. And both stories, while abounding in wit and +pretty things, are deeply tragical. It has been said of Nodier's +'Trilby' that it belongs to the realm of the _supra-sensible_, and so, +in large measure, certainly does du Maurier's. Du Maurier has confessed +his obligation flatly in giving his story the very name that Nodier's +bore. It is conceivable that the image of the Frenchman's haunting fairy +dwelt with him until he resolved to reincarnate the adorable elf in the +body of a girl as adorable. He gave his Trilby a Scotch ancestry to +connect her the more naturally with the _lutin d'Argail_; and her fairy +ancestry will easily account not only for her early prankishness, but +for her later unreality. But it is a prefiguring merely, and not a +direct suggestion. Whatever du Maurier's 'Trilby' lacks, it isn't +originality!" + + * * * * * + +(_From Mr. C. E. L. Wingate's Boston Letter in The Critic of 20 April, +1893._) + +It appears that the first mention of the French book appeared in _The +Critic_, last November. It was in the same month that Mr. Bradford +Torrey * * * happened to find a copy of Nodier's "Trilby" in the Boston +Athenæum. He took the book to his friend, Mr. J. E. Chamberlin of _The +Youth's Companion_, who began its translation at once. A few days later +appeared a note in _The Critic_ from a correspondent in Virginia. +Thinking that secrecy was no longer worth while, Mr. Chamberlin wrote +his paragraphs for the _Transcript_ "Listener" column, incorporating a +bit of translation. This was printed on Dec. 1. Miss Minna C. Smith went +to Roberts Bros. at once, to ask them if they would consider the +publication of a translation of the romance by her _Transcript_ +confrère, and Mr. F. Alcott Pratt replied that they would like very much +to see that gentleman's work. Circumstances made Mr. Chamberlin decide +not to finish the translation, and he gave Miss Smith his idea and a few +pages of the manuscript for a Christmas present. During several weeks +following she was engaged upon her careful translation. The Scotch words +and names of localities in her manuscript were corrected by Mr. J. +Murray Kay of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., an accomplished Scot, who walked +through Argyle with his daughters last summer. On March 19, an article +on Charles Nodier's story, foreshadowing Miss Smith's translation, +appeared in the _Transcript_. On the morning of March 20, Mr. Dana Estes +sent for Mr. Nathan Haskell Dole and asked him to make a translation, +which was done with remarkable rapidity, and put out on March 29. +Learning of this, Lamson, Wolffe & Co. hurried on Miss Smith's book, +which had been in the hands of their printer at the Collins press for +days, advertised it on Thursday and brought it out on Saturday, in +Scotch plaid covers. + +This firm of Lamson, Wolffe & Co., by the way, has just been dissolved +for a novel reason. Mr. Wolffe is a member of the class of '95 at +Harvard. The publication of "Trilby, the Fairy of Argyle" called the +attention of the faculty to his publishing business, and he was asked to +give it up, or else forfeit his degree. He chose the former alternative, +and although the firm name will remain Lamson, Wolffe & Co., a new and, +for the present, silent member of the firm has added capital and +scholarship to the house. + + * * * * * + +"Trilby, the Fairy of Argyle" + +_By Charles Noder. 1. Translated from the French, with introduction, by +Nathan Haskell Dole. Estes & Lauriat. 2. From the French by Minna +Caroline Smith. Boston: Lamson, Wolffe & Co._ + +Nodier's "Trilby," who now revisits the book-stores owing to Mr. du +Maurier's having taken his name for his heroine's, is one of the few +latter-day fairies that have fairy blood (or ichor) in their veins. He +belongs on the same shelf with Fouqué's "Undine," but, though he was +only joking when he personated a father who "had not seen him since the +days of King Fergus," he is certainly of the breed of Una and Maer, +Caoilte and Mananan. That he made a sensation on his first appearance in +the world of letters is shown by Victor Hugo's ode, warning the Fairy of +Argyle to beware of ink-slinging penny-a-liners:-- + + "Car on en veut aux Trilbys + * * * * * * * * + Ils souilleraient d'encre noire, + Hélas! ton manteau de moire, + Ton aigrette de rubis"-- + +advice which might be repeated apropos of Mr. du Maurier's creation. + +Mr. Dole, who has made a translation (1) of Nodier's "Trilby," has +looked through all of Scott's novels, he says, to discover, if possible, +the "preface or note" from which the French author claimed to have drawn +his story, and has the deft art of "Pendennis" and "The Newcomes." And +the "Cave of Harmony," with its songs and its bumpers and long whiffs, +the gay nights and rollicking days of F. B. and Clive and Pendennis--the +glamor of all which has enticed full many a youngster towards the easy +descent, or the shining slopes (as the case may be) of art and +letters--all these scenes have doubtless served as the studies of the +pictures, almost as delightful and masterly as their prototypes, that du +Maurier gives us of the joyous Bohemian life of the three jolly +Musketeers of the Brush in the Quartier Latin in "Trilby." + +AUBURN, ALA., 26 Dec., 1894. + +CHARLES C. THACH. + + * * * * * + +As a small contribution to "Trilbyana," I would call attention to the +fact, unnoted so far, that Trilby was the name of Eugénie de Guérin's +pet dog, mentioned several times in the journal she kept for her brother +Maurice. Was the dog, perhaps, named for the fairy? + +LOUISVILLE, KY. + +A. C. B. + + * * * * * + +As there seems to be a mania for hunting up the sources of the +inspiration of certain authors, I will engage in the game also. In +Saintine's "Picciola," Book I., Chap XII., after the first paragraph, +you will find the germ of "Peter Ibbetson." + +GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. + +C. C. + + * * * * * + + +THE CRITIC + +A Weekly Review of Literature and the Arts + +Edited (since 1881) by J. B. & J. L. GILDER + +"The only paper to which we can look for a week-by-week record of +American literature."--_Sir Walter Besant_. + +"_The Critic_ long since took rank as the foremost literary paper in +America."--_The New York Times_. + +"The only purely literary weekly in America."--_The Athenæum_. + +_A few occasional contributors during the past fifteen years_:-- + + JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL + JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER + AUSTIN DOBSON + THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH + WALT WHITMAN + MRS. BURTON HARRISON + RICHARD HENRY STODDARD + OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES + FRANCIS PARKMAN + EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN + ANDREW LANG + FREDERICK LOCKER + I. ZANGWILL + FRANK R. STOCKTON + +10 cts. a copy. $3 a year. (Foreign postage, $1.) + + * * * * * + +"TRILBYANA: The Rise and Progress of a Popular Novel." A 56-page +illustrated pamphlet, untrimmed, rubricated cover. 250 signed copies on +hand-made paper. $1, net. Regular edition, 25 cts. + + * * * * * + +"ESSAYS FROM THE CRITIC." A reprint of some of the most striking +contributions to the earlier numbers. 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