Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1851-07-23
THE AUTHOR OF PEsDEnkIs.

/ tits reported that Mr.. Thackeray design
to visit the United States next fall with tn
intention, among other purposes, to repeat
course of lectures which he. is now deliver
ing in London on the English humorists o
the last century. As this gentleman hal
acquired high reputation, and very desef
vedly so, among the writer's of fiction of tht
present day the following sketch of him ant
of one of his lecturers may not be uninter
esting to our readers. 1t is from the Lon
don correspondence ofthe Wash. Republic
The author of Pendennis is, just now, the
most popular man in London; mean the
one whose society is most courted by tht
higher classes, and whose writings are mos
read by the intelligent of all classes; ant
this has Just been remarkably verified by
the crowds of distinguished people of botf
sexes who have attended his frSt two lee.
lures on the English Humorists of the eigh.
teenth century. 1t is remarkable fact,
that while the Great Exhibition has so abb
sorbed public attention in London that all
places of amusements, opera houses, thea
tres, concerts, picture galleries and Pano-
ramas have been neglected. Mr.. Thacke-
rays lectures on pure literary subjects have
attracted crowded audiences. The lectures
are delivered weekly in Willis's Rooms,
King street, in the afternoon, and the price
of admission Is seven shillings and sixpence
sterling-nearly two dollars-for a single
ticket. At the first lecture, on the Life and
Writings of Dean Swift, the room was
crowded, and among the audience were
Macaulay, Carlyle, and the leading literary
men of Great Britain, besides some of the
most distinguished ladies Of the court and
aristocracy. / was not aware, at the time,
in what distinguished company / was sit
ting, nor did I care much, for all my
thoughts were absorbed by the lecturer
himself whom l had not before seen.
was glad to encounter him for the first time
where could observe him closely without
seeming to be guilty of impertinently gazing
at him. Standing in the little crimson ros-
trum where he read his essay, he certainly
appeared to better advantage than any lion
l had before seen; and he more nearly real
lied the ideal of himself which his writings
and carieatures had created in my mind
than any other author had ever done. He
looks about forty, has large fat face, a
clear boyish complexion, curly gray hair, an
indiferently shaped nose, but mouth
which indicates the jolliest and gentlest of
natures. He is said to be the pleasantest
of table companions, as should suppose
was the fact, from his published dinner
speeches. His voice is extremely sweet
and flexible, and he adapts its modulations
with equal effect to his pathetic and humor-
Gus passages, and his lecture on Dean Swift
abounded in both.
1t has always seemed to me that there
is no man, of whom we know any thing who
has been so misunderstood and maligned by
the opinion of the world, as the author of
"a Tale of Tub" Even Mr. Thacksray,
who made a more mastery analysis of
his character than any of the satirist's critics
have done, did not satisfy me in his expo
sition Of the Deans personal qualities
The man who could so faseinate two such
women as Stella and Vanessa, could not
be the cruel, coarse, unsympathetic nature
which the world has thought him. The lee
turer SAID, "who would wish to have been
the companion of Swift ?" But it appears
that these two gentle creatures were so en-
tirely willing to be his companions that, for
his sake, they were willing to sacrifice all
other companionship. Scott, IN his life OF
Swift, in alluding to the inscription, 'only
woman's hair" found among the Deans
papers, regarded it as an evidence Of the
unfeeling coarseness of his nature but
Thackeray viewed it in a very different
light, and drew so touching, so delicate, and
so pathetic picture of the Deans nature,
and of the condition he must have been in
when he wrote the words, that he fairly
melted the hearts of his audience, and the
ladies, who have the privilege of wiping their
eyes in public, used their pocket handker-
chiefs in that way, observed in very
feeling manner. Humor and pathos are SC
closely allied that, doubt the propriety OF
calling writer humorist who is never
pathetic. I do not remember single pa
| thetic passage in Swift's writings, except.
ing in his private letters, where the pathos
is not intended and therefore should moi
class him, among the humorists, as Mr.
Thackeray has done. But, if he is not q
humorist, he is the first of English wits
and, as a satirist, he stands in lonely emf.
nence among his tribe. If mems suferings
entitle them to our compassion, surely Swift
should be regarded with no other sentiment
for among all the men who have conferred
benefits upon the world, mo one ever extract
ed less delight from it than he.
have been betrayed into longer digres
sion than intended, in noticing the lecture
of Mr.. Thackeray; but, as he intends to Wis
it the United States in the fall, to repea
there the lectures he has just commenced
and as his works are very popular there
perhaps the public will not be averse t.
know something more of him than can b.
collected from his Pendennis, or the Snol
paper, in Punch. He is gentleman fth
r most amiable character, delightful com
panion,a great favorite in the highest circle
here. good scholar, an artist with his pen
Gil rs we'll as his pen. He possesses tht
talents and genius Of Fielding and Hogartt
adapted to the more refined and christine
ed days in which he lives: and, | think, WI
write such book about us as both Europ
( and ourselves stand in need of. | hope n
s will not be induced, by invitations fror
e provincial towns here, to abandon his III
: tention of crossing the Atlantic.
$ NEWSPAPERS IN vIRcINIA.-lt was NJ
n until 1880, that this State tolerated tt
e press. By ancient records we find tn
Try.II. ..~4od a r,roqc in that vpa