Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1872-12-21
The Tension in Charles Dickens.
THrnm Tie Specirtor. 1

VTlSet on The -th sIsai tes taIss OF athe 0ust OF
:bi4<eslt, Edse-ss Ats nticn esree,Sty 70 'tbe
vhif cOTd"-'!he lace horse ten>ioa'-ia all
the muscles; al the softer and wagner tissues
/ in the lace and huse were prune1 away, ana
only the keen, strenuous, driving, pu pose
IBrsUing eleut nts ia it lett. The second vol
nrne " NJ oIstsr l,lfe "a harleS Dickens
| bsiI e cut that criticism WIN extraordinary
| force. 1t is like reading the biography OF a
| literary Tacs-horse. The tension and strain 60
| on through the whole ten years, ls42-'52, which
the toOk covers. There is no rest in the mans
| nature, even when he is professedly resting. He
| once proposed to himself 10 write q book like
The Vicar of Wakefield" lie could just
s ss VA ssvs written Play like Hamlet" or
| GoldSmith's ease and leisurely literary air His
| nerves were never relaxed. A great element
| in the force of tis genius, and a very great IN
it, pTincPal limitations, is due TO their constant
strain, which spoils almost all the sentiment,
| makes IL theatrical and always on the stretch,
and not unfrequently lends q forced ring to the
great 81 of ali has faculties, his hRmor. The
| biography Is, of course, amusing reading.
| Whether the moral tension is justified or in
| excess, it is always there, and therefore even
| If We are annoyed and repelled, our attention
! never flags. But Mr.. Forster is not as fas-
| tiCi0us as he might have been in inserting the
| would-be comic letters OF his friend. and per-
haPs on that very account, he gives a picture
| that is the more plete-complete in its un-
conscious as well as in its conscious contribu-
| ton to our knowledge of the great humorist.
| Dickens is always ON the double quick march
| III he hits the exact mark and his humor is at
its best, 1t is still humor marching sharply on to
| the particular emu III view. You can its
steady, swift current, none the less easily for
6e enormous wealth of detail which he snatches
! from all sides wherewith TO enrich it. II he
! fails to hit the mark, and talks excited nom
sense as in the silly letter about his passion for
! the queen in the first volume, and many a little
note IN this, 1t is nevertheless all in the same
VEN, Joeosty stretching eagerly towards a
| given aim, though the aim is falsely taken.
Consider, for instance, this answer to an invita-
| ton to dinner sent by Maclise, Stanfeld and
| Mr.. Forster:
"DRvoNsHIRE LODGE, January Il ,1sH.
"FBLIow CoUETRYMEs!-rhe appeal with
which you have honored me, awakeus within
my breast emotions that are more easily to be
imagined than described. Heaven bless YOU.
shall indeed be proud, my friends, to respond
TO such requisitiOn. L had Withdrawn from
public life-l fondly thought forever-to pass
the evening of my days in hydropathical pur-
suits, and the contemplation of virtue. For
which latter purpose, had bought a looking
glass. But, my friends, private feeling must
man is lost in the invited guest, and / comply.
Nurses, wet and dry; apOthecaries; mothers
in-lak; babies; with all the sweet land chaste)
delights OF private life; these, my cOuntrymen,
are hard to leave. But you have called me
forth, and will come.
yellow countrymen, your friend and faith
ful servant, CHARLES DICKENS"
The idea is forced and the gayety is unn .tu-
raj, but the whole letter is written up to the
idea, and You see the straining whip-cOrd even
in that bit of laborous comedy. The proclama-
ton about the piratical republication OF his
works, put forth on the eve OF the appearance of
"Nickleby." opp. 70, ~, OF this volume,) is
another bit OF iabored pleasantly of the SAM
KIND, violent strainiDg after pseudo-conic
idea. But his true and most marvellous efforts
OF bumOr have all the same swift running cur
rent In them, though of course, when the tide
is triumphant, and sweeps all sort OF rich spoils
upon its surface, there is not the same sense of
efort-by which we usually mean force not
quite adequate to its purpose. The exquisite
illustrations which he gathers from all quarters
of the sick and monthly nurses world to enrich
the technical vocabulary, and fill up to over
flowing the strictly professional mould. of Mrs.
Camps conversation and life, abundant and
amazing in their abundance and in the variety
and subtlety OF their shades as they are, are all
collected to convey the same drift, and all sug-
gest to US a keen eye on the stretch ranging
over its various stores of mouldy association
to pile up monthly -nurseisms of every kind. Mr..
Forster quotes, for instance, in this volume one
OF the very best and also one OF the very first OF
Mrs. Camps speeches:
"'Mrs. Harris | says, at the very last case
as ever L acted in, which it was bat young
person. Mrs. Harris says, leave the bJttle
on the chimney piece, aad don't ask me to take
none, but let me put my lips to 1t when am 40
disposed Mrs Camp she says to me, 'if
ever there was a sober cretur to be got at
eighteenpence day for working people, and
three and-si1 for geHtlefolks'-night-wa watching
said Mrs. Camp, with emphasis, being a extra
charge-'yOu are that invaluable person. Mrs
Harris says to her, don't name the charge
for II could afford to lay all my fellow cretIrs
OUT Tor nothink, would gladly do it, sich is the
Now, any one can see that the wonderful
humor here is mainly due to the delightful in
teDsity and extravaganza with which Dickens
could abandon his Imagination to the train OF
associations proper to q thoroughly selfish and
mouldy person of this class, who takes posi-
tive professional pride in laying out her fellow
creatures. 1t is the singleness of his eager and
strenuous search, as he follows up every cross
thread Of association that his enormous power
OF observation had given him, never deviating
for moment from the two leading ideas-sei-
fsh greediDess with a cant of benev Violence and
professional detail of all kinds-that helps him
| TO pile up the character into so wonderful an
! embodiment and illustration of these two
notions. We are not in the least degree en-
deaVoring to explain away his genius, but only
to show that one feature of 1.-THE constructive
power of his mind-his accurate and OmniyOrous
observing faculty being taken for granted-de-
| pended on the extraordinary tension he could
| put on one or two leading threads of associa-
| tion, by the help of which he drew from his
| resources what they. and they alone, demanded
NO man was ever more able to stretch one or
| two lines of conception so tightly and to ex-
clude so completely all disturbing influences
| from the field of his vision. 1t was the source
OF bis power and the source of the limitations on
Pecksnff Mrs V CAMP M MasS na' s McswS
Toots, and hundred others. 1t produced also
when applied to types of character that would
not pear 80 Keen tension Of one or two strings,
all the failures due to overstraining like Little
Nell, Carker, Mrs. Dombey, DOmbey, and a
hundred others. You see the strain Of the race
With his in wand ne Gia snd IN creations which,
be produced under the sharp tension of the one
or two humorous conceptions devoted to each
| creation, he succeeded triumphantiy; while
| wherever the creation wanted a leisurely re-
Elective, msny.sided mood of mind he failed
| In sentimental passages, the string is almost
always strained until ii cracks. MIR. Forster is
| or course, compelled to admire Little Nell the
| pathetic elements in the Christmas Stories, and
SO on. But these are the repelling things to ali
| true lovers of Dickens, rather than the attrac-
lions. Even in the death OF little Paul Dombev,
| perhaps his closest approach to true pathos
you feel painfully the undue stretch of the sen,
timent, and turn away little sickened. IL il
much worse In the case of most other OF his
/ efforts OF the same kind; and MIR. Forster's
"Life" shows that it must have been so. from
the ostentation of Dickens own feelings in
speaking or these efforts He tells YOU how
| much he weeps over them, how cut ND he is
with MS own pathos, till you are quite sick of
the glace and effort. When he is Speaking of
his really great efforts of humor he is altogether
| natural. Y on have no feeling then that he is
whipping himself up to the point, and proud of
| being able to reach it. "
But it is on the practical side of Dickens life
| mat this nervous tension comes out most curi-
| eusy. What a fume he falls into when the sale
| OF Chuzzlewit does not come up to his expecta
ions, and his publishers hint at putting in force
the clause empowering them to retain ESQ out
OF the Zoo allowed for the expenses of author