The Portland daily press., 1868-03-31
Dickens i'm Portland.

Dickens in Portland.
No doubt there were hundreds at City Hall
last night that will hereafter consider the ad-
vent of Dickens great era in their lives by
which the time of subsequent and previous
events will be fixed. They will say that such
a thing happened "about the time Dickens
was here" or just before or "iust after Dick
ems was here" as our merchants may perhaps
remember events by their relation in point of
time to the great fire. We are not of those
who account mild lunacy on the subject of
Dickens as discreditable. IT "Will Shaks-
peare" had come into town Saturday night on
the Boston train, and taken rooms at the Pre-
BILE House, and afterwards read "Hamlet" at
City Hall, admitting the public at two dollars
a head, no one would think the worse of en-
thusasts who went half wild about it. We
cannot see the great master of the drama, but
we can see and have seen man who occupies
the same relative rank in the coordinate
sphere of fiction, thank Heaven! We sympa-
thize with the young ladies who sauntered by
the Preble House, yesterday, with ludicrous-
ly unsuccessful affectation of passing in a cas-
ual way, as if they were going elsewhere.
lHCy iOpCu W CilCH tLipSo VI W ~. ANU
those young men, too,-what did they mean
by constantly running down well-dressed
strangers on the street, glancing nervously
and hurriedly back as they passed? If the
truth were known they had heard of Dickens
devotion to "constitutonals" and had an in
sane idea that he might have mind to enjoy
the scenery from the Western Promenade.
The audience last night was just large
enough to enable all to be comfortably seated,
and we doubt if Mr.. Dickens has had more
sympathetic or appreciatiye auditors during
his peregrinations through the Atlantic States.
The applause was frequent and hearty,-the
more frequent and the more hearty, We have
no doubt, from the fact that an expression of
approval was instantly reflected in Mr. Dick
ens.face as in mirror. No description we
have ever seen does justice to the bonhonanie
and thorough geniality of his face in recogni-
ton of the audience, or in the expression of
the kindly emotions. Neither do the "quirks
of blazoning pens" that have been hard at
work in the effort ever since he landed, ap
proximate to description of the mobility of
his features, by availing him of which he is
enabled to express the most delicate shades of
emotion. 10.
In the christmas Carol" there is genuine
pathos and great tenderness with leaven
enough of humor to tighten up the face of the
reader with the beautiful smile which to the
audience is like the sunshine of an April day.
For Mr. Dickens face, like the faces of all great
men, in repose is very sad-never cold nor
harsh, nor unsympathetic-but sorrowful al
most, as with the woes of the whole world.
And this smile at once reveals the man
the poet and yet the man of the world
"the fellow of infinite jest" Certainly. there
cannot be better reading than that which clos
es the Christmas Garcia reading which must
thrill all hearts high and low with love and
charity. Scrooge's address to the boy whom he
sends for the turkey, and his eulogium upon
the boy when he was gone, are delicious.
What delightful boy!" "What converse
a-tional boy" The infection upon these words
and the expression of the readers face cannot
be forgotten. sr aa-
After the "Christmas Carol" came that
leading case" that great precedent" for ci-
tation in breach of promise trials, Bardell
vs. Pickwick. In this reading the individual
ty of every one of the characters was so dis
tice Stareleigh Mr. Wrinkle, Sam and Tony
Weller, Mrs. Cluppins and Mrs. Saunders had
appeared on the stage as living beings their
presence could hardly have been more fully
realized. The magic of the great master made
the illusion perfect. Mr.. Pickwick did not
make his appearance formally, but his indig
nant presence was indirectly suggested, and
served to heighten the general effect. But
Justice Stareleigh! stupid, sleepy, Justice
Stareleigh, stepped to the eyebrows in techni-
calities, but with rudimentary brains, was
present in the foreground. He is, if we may
say SO, the trump card of this reading. He
convulses the audience with laughter every
time he opens his lips Sam Weller has not
quite the devil-may-cnre iai-t's~t y -Y-sisiP"'-
cd, but the merry twinkle of his eye, as he
bows his Acknowledgements for the little JUS
tees amiable intentions toward his respected
parent, and as he sagaciously endeavors to dis
cover that portly individual in the lantern up
in the roof makes ample amends for all his
shortcomings. And when the elder Weller
makes an photographed suggestion and gives
a luminous legal opinion at the very close, the
audience, to whom the jovial coachman is an
old and highly esteemed acquaintance, is again
at the very height of enjoyment. And poor
trembling, distracted Mr.. Wrinkle, let him not
be forgotten. Most of us have seen him cross
question to madness in an American court
All the fault that can possibly be found with
this reading is that there is not enough of it.
Some of the most exquisitely humorous pas
sages are remorselessly omitted in Mr. Dick
ems abridgment. -
Spite OF all his popularity, perhaps no for
eign author of mark has excited a stronger I'M
dercurrent of ill-will in this country than Mr.
Dickens, and that these readings have in con-
siderable degree quieted this feeling is another
proof of their merit. This ill-will of course
seizes upon any available theme of cayil, and
hence the talk which has been made about the
paraphernalia which Mr.. Dickens carries with
him, the gas-burners, table, screen etc, and the
critics do not hesitate to ANNA Divert upon his
diamonds, the parting of his hair on the back
of his head, his little breast knot of rare flow
ers, and the general nicely of his appearance.
AS for the first the gas-lights and other ac-
cessories are really essential to the enioy-
ment of the listener, and for the last they no
more detraet from Mr.. Dickens merit as a
man or as a reader than General Grants cigar
binders him from being good soldier In
deed, though he may have an original love of
dress, which is rather more feminine than
criminal, it would be charitable and not un-
reasonable to suppose that Mr. Dickens scru-
pulous care in this matter is q part of the
whole design, intended to please his audience,
and if this handbook makeup is little un-
pleasant at first to our democratic simplicity.
as far as we are able to judge it, finally amuses
and pleases. Though a minor consideration.
it is, like everything else in these readings,
carefully attended to. This is little matter.
but the same care and determined efforts to do
his best marks the essential part of the per-
formance, as well as the minor details.
There are, however, certain real drawbacks
to the full enjoyment of the readings which we
Americans cannot get over. The upward in
Election of the voice which he constantly uses
in the most positive and obtrusive manner. il
at first decidedly disagreeable, and interferes
very much with every ones enjoyment of the
reading, and it is not until fully interested in
the theme, that the listener can quite forget
this persistent information.
The most durable impression left by these
readings is that of their thoroughness. We feel |
that nothing has been neglected that would |
aid in making them complete Each word is |
clearly enunciated, and each infection careful |