New-York tribune., 1903-01-22
WHY CHARLES DICKENS DIED.
Incidents of the Wear and Tear OF
Genius.

robr Hollingshead. in The Pail Mall Gazel'e'
The attempt TO diagnose the causes OF Cnarles mares
0ickens's comparatively early death al he ase
.,r fiftv-eight mostly made by frienos anu III
+5,,stt. tas led TO little more than one opinion
.,1-aru-ork overwork and always oVer"oLh'
rental and physical. No one VINO loo. LoUAS h O. bae
ST gallery of living portraits Which ne hds
.-en tr the world require to De loio tnde
Sc pictures were created by long, LlIe IS
! corroding labor-labor that never ceased,
NJ or dav labor that concealed much OF Its
ort and showed the least in the mere surface
,cess of transmission to paper Many OF these
cartons were worse than nightmares, as an
frorg characters in fiction must necessarily De
They were daynares. They were Win nun n III
his long and what seemed TO me 10 De oull' m m
rta1icei walks governed by milestones and
timed bv a stop-watch. He was GLAD OF d com6e
nal cor1panion to exercise these spirits Ihey
came back to him in the evening, ana ia lls
lead of night they often moved him TO rise anu anu
walk that long trafnp's tramp or tWenty-seNeIl
miles from Tavistock Square TO Gaoshih'
tbroueh the r11ists of early morning. Those VINO
an see no wear and tear in all this must pe
singularly ignorant OF nervous 5;c G nrohabIv
killed Shakespeare at ffty-two, setuns aSiue
the legend of the carouse under the 1nuioerIS
tree with Ben Jonson.
Dickens always actei them He could haroIy
do otherwise with his dramatic temperament
and the dramatic nature of his WORKS why
more dramas have never been manufactured
out of these works is found in the fact that they
contained too much dramatic and OBJECTIVE
material than too little. From tins creauon OF
dramatic fiction the step 10 dramatic recitauoh
and simple. II was always d llllsldhe
to call these efforts readings They were the
most dramatic of recitations--stage plays
within the minutest technical meaning OF tne
act The Christmas Carol" was mere al
version-pleasant, genial and not too taxing
like the book itself-a poem in prose III ne
could only have stopped at that: but he hank
cred after the intense and me!odramatlc
AGAINST the advice of a small body of friends
he selected the episode of Bill Skies, from
.-oliver Twist" This according TO my opinion
and I was present at the private performance
was his death warrant l was probably one OF
the few persons present who knew this drama on
the stage and this eXacting character saw IL
repea tedly at the Victoria Theatre before IL was
renressed by the Lord Chamberlain's depart
rnent The Murder Of Nancy. with a power
f,l actor like E F. Saville, brother of Lady
Martin (AIiss f. Faucit) Bill Skies, provoked
the gallery and upper parts of the house every
night TO such an extent that the two thousand
"a hid and ragged playgoers rose as one man
and nearly destroyed the theatre with tornado
~ blasphemy
have strong and perhaps peculiar opinions
aout Bill Skies in this connection L may pos
-fhlv be wrong: but / regard Bill Skies as Dick
onsis Frankenstein monster i could say
rnpch more but il is not for old disciple to
saw too much about his acknowledged master.