The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-04


''The Patrician's Daughter" was produced at the
Drury Lane Theater, under Macready's manage |
ment in 1872, its author being then only twenty
three years of age. 1t was dazzling success, |
result to which the performance of the princi- |
pal parts by such actors as Macready Phelps, |
Helen Faucit and Mrs. Warner doubtless con-
tributed
Philip Bourke Marston, the subject of this BIZ
ography. was born in London, in 1850 He was |
beautiful child and it was to him, in his fasci-
mating babyhood. that his grandmother, Miss
MULCH (now Mrs. Craik) addressed her we'll
known lyric, commencing
Look at me with thy large brown eyes,
Philip, my king.
Alas for the large brown eyes The first mis-
fortune, of the many which have pursued our
poet overlook him when he was only three years
of age. Playing with some other children, he got
blow in one of his eyes. which were at the time
weakened by the use of belladonna, administered
as a safeguard against prevalent scarlet fever
The injured eye became infamed; the infamma-
ton was communicated to the other eye, and he
lost the sight of both, though at first not totally
Until he was twenty-one or twenty-five years
old, Mr.. Marston has told me- he could see the
colors of sunset clouds, the waving of trees In
the wind, the outlines of certain objects. Even
this slight power of vision is gone now, and he
sits utterly in the dark.
His childhood was naturally singular one.
He could not play with other boys, and he
listened to wonderful conversations of grown
men and women instead. DR.. Marstons house
was in those days center of literary hospitality,
and the dreamy boy heard all sorts OF discus
sions. He began to compose almost before he
had left off pinafores, and at an incredibly early
age dictated three volume novel, which his
mother wrote out. and kept for long time as
literary curiosity. He has now in his possession
several manuscript books of verses written before
he was fourteen, some of them by no means des-
titute of merit.
think he was fourteen when he first met
Swinburne At this time he knew the whole
D. Dn11n - vph ENu
Swnburne was at that time the bright particu-
lar star of his idolatry / have heard him tell
how his heart beat, and his breath seemed al
most to choke him. when he was taken into the
presence of this idol of his boyish worship.
After that he saw very much of Swinburne at
his fathers house, at that time much frequented
by the literary and artistic society of London.
Browning visitor there and Dickens, and
''Festus" Bailey, who was young Marstons god
father and Mrs. Lynn Sinton, and Miss Mulocn.
and Mr.. and Mrs. Everybody else worth know
ing. At quite an early age young Marston be-
came intimate with Dante Gabriel Rossettl, of
whom he always speaks as the one man he has
known for whom it was possible to feel devo-
ton romantic and as worshipful as man
feels for an adored woman Rossettl was one OF
the most ardent appreciators and encouragers OF
the young poets genius.
Mr.. Marstons first book appeared in 1871,
when he was twenty-one years OF age but be-
fore that time he had experienced the second
great afiiction of his life When he was scarcely
twenty his mother died. To him this was such
loss as even son who cares for himself can
scarcely estimate. This mother to this son had
been not only mother; she had been his COM
panion and his eyes l have seen the many
books in which she wrote out his early compost
tons in her graceful, beautiful hand and she
not alone scribe, but also critic. and she was
most accomplished woman. Her taking Off
was irreparable misfortune to this poet
whose life has been so welded to sorrow that he
writes of it in one of his strongest sonnets:
My Lady Sorrow has no word to say,
Seems half content for well she knows her thrall
Shall not escape from her-that should God call,
She would arise with Him at the judgment day.
"Song Tider-that first book. which, as have
said, was published when he was only twenty
one-was dedicated to the memory of this be-
loved mother.
After her DEATH with the early susceptibility
of poet young Marston had fallen in love- and
this early attachment meant more to him, and
was more lasting in it's effects than most twenty
yaars'-old loves because his life necessarily
so concentrated and so subjective. His engage
ment seemed to be his consolation for the loss
of his mother He gave his first book-in which,
in full tide of song, he had sung her praises-to
his sweetheart, as one might offer gem or
flower. The book was success Before Its
publication Marston had been welcome con-
tributor to the Cornhill. Macmillan's Magazine,
and Good Words and had already won an audi
ence. The critics praised Song Tide the ppb-
| lie liked it, and it speedily reached a second
to its author, however, as the unstinted appreci
| alton of Rossetti and of Swinburne l have be-
| fore me letter to him from Rossetti, in which
| this passage occurs:
Only yesterday evening was reading your Garden
Secrets to VIM. Bell Scott who fully agreed with
that it was not too much say of them that they
worthy of Shakespeare in his subtlest lyrical moods
| Now. indeed, was the flood tide of Marston's
| life. At twenty-one, author successful that
| the masters thus praised him, and reckoned him
4 k1~I - L.. 4.
| full of present triumph and future hope surely,
| at last sorrow had forsaken him! Nay, she had
| only withdrawn iMto the shadow, and waited near
| at hand Soon after his engagement his be-
trothed was seized with quick consumption, and
| died in the November of 1871, when the poet had
| just entered his twenty year. This loss
| was not alone the loss of love-it was the wreck
| of hope and plans for a shared life, household
| which should be his own. The blow almost over
| threw him for the time. And the last, Pickering
| light went out from his darkened eyes. Perhaps
| his tears had quenched its latest ray His sister,
Cicely was the consofng angel of these dark days.
| From hencefort the brother and sister were in
| separable She took up the duties their mother
had laid down. She wrote for him, read to
| him, lived in and for him. She had decided
literary gifts of her own; but she gave herself
| wholly to her brother that she sought no thea
ter for their display, and only published two
4 stories
I It was in 1874 that Mr.. Marston published his
| second book, 'All-in-All," a volume of poems de-
voted almost wholly to his grief for his dead
love; and characterized, in consequence, by a
certain monotony which made it less acceptable
to the public than Song Tide" had been. Crit
| les and poets praised it, however; and there
were poems in it so stately in their despair, so
passionate in their Sadness so fraught with pc
etic charm that they cannot be overlooked or
forgotten.
Soon after this second book was published,
Mr.. Marston contributed to Scribner's the first
of the many prose articles which he has pub
lished in America-an account of the brief,
friend Brown. He was also at that time writ
ing more or less for the English magazines; not
frequently, however, for his tyrant, sorrow, too
often laid her spell upon him, and held him
dumb
found him, in 1876. just beginning to go into
society again, everywhere accompanied by his
faithful sister. He had by nature quick wit,