Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1903-01-23
WHAT KILLED DICKENS.
John Hollingshead, in the Londc

John Hollingshead, III the LONDON
Pail Mall Gazette says
The attempt to diagnose the causes OF
Charles Dickens's comparatively early
death at the age of ffty-eight, mostly
made by friends and intimates, has led
to little more than one opinion-Oyer-
work, Oyerwork and always overwork,
mental and physical. No Que who
looks at the vast gallery of living por-
traits which he has given to the world
can require to be told that these pic
lures were created by long, intense and
corroding labor-labor that never
ceased, night or day, labor that con-
cealed muck of its effort, and showed
the least in the mere surface process Of
transmission to paper. Many of these
creations were worse than Nightmares,
as all strong characters in fiction must
necessarily be. They we're daymares.
They were with him in his long, and
what seemed to me to be dull, mechani-
cal walks, governed by milestones and
timed by stop-watch. He was glad Of
a congenial companion to exercise these
spirits. They came back to him in the
evening, and in the dead of night they
often moved him to rise and walk
that long tramp's tramp of twenty
seven miles from Tayistock Square
to Gadshil, through the mists of
early morning. Those who can
see no "wear and tear" in all this
must be singularly ignorant Of nervous
organizations such as Dickens possessed,
and which probably killed Shakespeare
at lifty-two, setting aside the legend of
the carouse under the mulberry tree with
Ben JOnson.
In writing his strongest characters
Charles Dickens always acted them.
He could hardly do otherwise with his
dramatic temperament and the dramatic
have never been manufactured out OF
these works is found in the fact that they
contained too much dramatic and "ob-
iectiye" material than too little. From
this creation of dramatic fiction the step
to dramatic recitation was easy and SIM
pie. 1t was always mistake to call
these efforts "readings." They were
the most dramatic of recitations-"stage
PLAYS" within the minutest technical
meaning OF the act. The christmas
Carol" was mere diversion-pleasant,
genial and not too taxing, like the book
itself-a poem in prose. If he could only
have stopped at that; but he hankered
after the intense and melodramatic.
Against the advice of a small body OF
friends he selected the episode of Bill
Sykes, from "0liver Twist" This (ac-
cording to my opinion, and | was pres
ent at the private performance was his
death warrant. ] was probably one OF
the few persons present who knew this
drama on the stage, and this exacting
character. / saw it repeatedly at the
Victoria Theatre before it was repressed
bv the Lord Chamberlain's department.
The "murder of Nancy" with
powerful actor like L. f. Sayille, as
Bill Sykes, provoked the gallery and
upper parts Of the house every night to
such an extent that the two thousand
rabid and ragged playgoers rose as one
man and nearly destroyed the theatre
with tornado of blasphemy.
l have strong and perhaps peculiar
opinions about Bill Sykes in this con-
nection. may possibly be wrong; but
| regard Bill Sykes as Dickens's Frank
enstein "monster. l could say much
more, but it is not for an old disciple to
say too much about his acknowledged
|