The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-18 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

DAVID COPPERFIELD.

Charles Dickens.

No. XII. By

Having somewhat recovered from the shock of
Aunt Betsey's misfortune, Trot communes with that
must estimable and delightful of women, not only
upon her altered circumstances, but upon his own love
passages with Derr. During the first night after the
discovery of the domestic calamity the occupants of
the upper rooms in Mrs. Crupp's establishment are
kept awake in a state of restlessness, David by a
heavy sense of his vicissitudes and Aunt Betsey by a
conviction from a certain light in the sky that West-
minster Abbey is in flames, and that if the wind
changes Buckingham-street may be involved in the
conflagration. The apparition of this same excellent
relative in a certain flannel wrapper, in which she
looks seven feet high, coupled with the grotesque
dreams of poor Trot when he has at length fallen
asleep from exhaustion, tend yet further to illustrate
a night all circumstances have conspired to render
memorable. *Next morning Daisy ineffectually at-
tempts to get his articles cancelled, but is repelled in
the endeavour by the inexorable Jorkins, or rather, as
the reader suspects, by the yet more inexorable
Spenlow. Dear Agnes, who has arrived in town
with her father and Uriah Heep, encounters our dis-
consolate hero as he is returning from Doctors' Com-
mons, and, on returning together, it is discovered that
Mrs. Crupp and Aunt Betsey have had a very serious
altercation—Aunt Betsey informing Mrs. Crupp that
she " would trouble her to walk out" as " she smelt
of my brandy," and Mrs. Crupp (rendered incoherent
by indignation, if not by the brandy bottle) acquaint-
ing Aunt Betsey that her expressions were actionable,
and that she would assuredly bring them under the
consideration of a " British Judy." Having wel-
comed Agnes, Aunt Betsey recounts to her the his-
tory of her misfortunes in a manner as beautiful as
it is characteristic. Shortly afterwards Mr. Wick-
field and his "red fox" of a partner drop in; where-
upon Uriah Heep becomes so decidedly "galvanic"
in his mode of wriggling about, that Aunt Betsey can
restrain herself no longer. " ' Deuce take the man I'
said my aunt, sternly, what's he about ? Don't be
galvanic, sir !" I ask your pardon, Miss Trot-
wood,' said Uriah, aware you're nervous.'
Go along with you, sir!' said my aunt, anything
but appeased. 'Don't presume to say so !I am no-
thing of the sort. If you're an eel, sir, conduct
yourself like one. If you're a man, control your
limbs, sir ! Good God I' said my aunt with great
indignation, ' I am not going to be serpentined and
corkscrewed out of my senses !'" Somewhat subdued
by this rebuff, Uriah goes away soon afterwards
"kissing his great hand, and leering at us like a
mask." The little incident of the blind beggar at
the close of the chapter is beautifully told. Shortly
after, we are informed how David is engaged as the
amanuensis to his old schoolmaster, Doctor Strong,
now resident at Higbgate, thereby obtaining an increase
of income by 701. per annum. Mr. Jack Malden and
Annie are again introduced to our notice, and we
have a momentary peep over the garden wall at Rosa
Dartle. Mr. Dick obtains also a trifling occupation
as a law copyist, having previously expressed anxiety
to work by exclaiming wistfully—'" You see, if I
could exert myself, Mr. Traddles—if I could beat a
drum—or blow anything !" Once more we carouse
with the Micawbers prior to their journeying down
to Canterbury, where Mr. Micawber is engaged to
act as private secretary to " his friend Heep.' The
following mention of Master Micawber's restlessness
of limb, is one of those rich pieces of " fictitious
reality," in penning which" Boz is always surpass-
ingly humorous :
'• These observations, and indeed the greater part of
the observations made that evening, were interrupted by
Mrs. Micawber's discovering that Master Micawber was
sitting on his boots, or holding his head on with both
arms as if he felt it loose, or accidentally kicking Trad
dies under the table, or shuffling his feet over one
another, or producing them at distances from himself
apparently outrageous to nature, or lying sideways with
his hair among the wine-glasses, or developing his rest-
lessness of limb in some other form incompatible with
the genet al interests of society; and by Master Micaw-
ber's receiving those discoveries in a resentful spirit."
Mrs. Micawber's anxiety to learn the facts relative
to Mr. Micawber's eligibility as a judge or chancellor,
is deliciously absurd. The love scene in the next
chapter, where David tells Dora of his altered for •
tunes, and where Dora exclaims, " Oh dear ! oh
dear ! And oh, she was so frightened ! And where
was Julia Mills ? And ob, take her to Julia Mills,
and go away, please !" is enlivened by the vagaries
of Master Jip, now " barking injuriously" from the
balcony " at an immense butcher's dog in the street,
who could have taken him like a pill," and now
" scrambling out, tumlling over his own growls, under
the impression that David is a Bandit." The number
terminates with Dora singing to her " glorified
guitar" one of those " dear old French songs about
the impossibility of ever, on any account, leaving off
dancing, La ra le, La ra la!" Up to to the close of
this instalment David Copperfield promises to be
Dickens's masterpiece.

OLIVER TWIST. Cheap Edition. By Charles
Dickens.

In its cheaper, and, consequently, more popular
form, " Oliver Twist" is embellished, not only with
a new etching by the inimitable pruikshank, but by
a new preface, also, by the inimitable " Buz." Yrom
this "Preface" we must transcribe one piregraph,
too rich in sarcastic humour to be over-
looked. It has reference to a most ludi-
crous blunder on the part of Alderman Sir Peter
Laurie who, at a certain vestry meeting, deduced
from the circumstance of Jacob's Island having been
mentioned in " Oliver Twist," as a fact, that "it
only existed in a work of fiction." Whereupon, says
our witty novelist :
" hen Icame to read this, I was so much struck by the
honesty, by the truth, and by the wisdom of this logic,
as well as by the fact of the sagacious vestry, including
members of Parliament, magistrates, officers, chemists,
and I know not who else, listening to it meekly (as be-
came them), that I resolved to record the fact here, as
a certain means of making it known to, and causing it to
be reverencd by, many thousands of people. Reflecting
upon this logic, and its universal application; remem-
bering that when Fielding described Newgate, the pri-
son immediately ceased to exist; that when Smollett took
Roderick Random to Bath, that city instantly sank into
the earth; that when Scott exercised his genius
on Whitefriars, it incontinently glided into the
Thames ; that an ancient place called Windsor
was entirely destroyed in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth by two merry wives of that town, acting un-
der the direction of a person by the Lame of Shak-
spore; and that Mr. Pope, atter having at a great
expense completed his grotto at Twikenham, incau-
tiously reducel it to ashes by writing a poem upon it—
I say, when I came to consider these things, I was in-
clined to make this preface the vehicle of my humble
tribute of admiration to Sir Peter Laurie. But lam
restrained by a very painful consideration—by no less a
consideration than the impossibility cf his existence.
For Sir Peter Laurie having been himself described in
a book (as I understand he was, one Christmas time, for
his conduct on the seat of justice), it is but too clear that
there can be no such man."

Not one of the lovers of genius who have been
precluded from the purchase of the more costly
edition of " Oliver Twist" by its price, will fail to
exult in its re-appearance in the present cheap and
portable form of publication.