The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-12-29
shirley Brooke.


We have received from Messrs. Holt &
Co. a book entitled Shirley Brooks of Punch.
His Life. Letters and Diaries. by GEORGE
SOMEs LAYARD. Ii may seem at the first
glance unreasonable to devote a volume
OF nearly 900 pages to a man who made
no permanent mark on English ltera-
ture. although in his time he did sound
and attractive work AZ novelist. verse
writer. playwright. journalist. and as editor
Of Punch. Nevertheless, the personality
of Shirley Brooks was so engaging and the
bi~Ographer's task has been so well per-
formed that few. II any. that take up the
book are likely to lay il Town until they
have read the last page. The truth IL
that the work In not narrowly biographical
but presents a comprehensive picture of
England's literary and artistic society in
the III Victorian epoch. We come fro
quently. for instance. on the names OF
~Thackeray. Dickens, Trollope and Charles
Reade. OF Millais. Tenniel and John Leech.
An atmosphere OF geniaIity ~pervades the
volume; there is not a dull page in il. All
we purpose to do here is TO give an outline
OF Brooks's life. leaving the reader to seek
for himself the pleasing details in the work
itself.
Charles William. better known as Shirley,
Brooks was bOrn in 1918 at So Doughty
street, London. a street of some literary
associations, for here Sydney Smith. Dick
ems and Edmund Yates had temporarily
lived. He was the oldest son Of William
Brooks, an architect Of some note in his
day, and a descendant of a Nottingham
shire family whose pedigree could be
traced back TO Richard III. and included
that Laurence Shirley. Earl of Ferrers. who.
convicted OF killing his steward. gayly
drove to his place OF execution behind
six cream colored ponies. That Shirley
Brooks put faith in this tradition seems
likely from his adoption in later years Of the
'front.'" for it cannot be called a Christian
name. by which he is known. OF Shirley
BrOoks's childhood and early youth there is
little to record. OF the influences by which
the boy was surrounded at home we gather
something. His father was a man Of strong
religious and anti-CathOlic convictions.
This and the fact that his mother was a
member of an old N~OnconHormist family
suggest the sort Of moral environment in
which his early years were passed. or his
appearance in childhood we find one who
then knew him saying in later days that
he was the most beautiful boy she ever
saw, but that IL the kind OF thing people
do say when a man has assumed a some
what conspicuous position in the world.
With regard to his education we have the
indefinite information that he was edu-
Gated at "a public school in the city"
That is all that can be said about him
until In 1882. when he was In his seventeenth
year, we find him serving his articles TO his
uncle, Charles Sabine, a solicitor of Os-
westry. then a solf-depsIdsnt community.
but o within London's sphere OF in
fiuence, as indeed most OF England is.
Charles Sabine was a serious minded man.
and il was doubtless his influence. en-
phasizing tina OF the lads parents. which
was accountable for the unsupported un-
dercurrent Of Puritanism in Shirley Brooks.
In 1888 the subject Of this biography
left Oswestry for the Office Of a London
cousin. also a solicitor. where he worked
TO such purpose that in 1888 he was placed
among the first four In the earliest batch OF
candidates TO be examined at the Hall OF
the Incorporated Law Society. There is
no record, however. OF his ever having been
actually admitted a. a solicitor. Jus
how he managed to emancipate. himself
from a profession for which he had no love
is not known. The only certain thing 10
that it was not long before he tried the
experiment Of living by his pen. Edmund
Yates, who knew him as a young man. says
that -as soon az he could swim without the
oorks OF law he let them f1oet away and
managed 70 keep his head up. not. how
ever. without more struggle than would
be pleasant TO or even good for everybody,
but the world comes to every one who will
wait-and work.. and IL came to him." The
one thing that mad him most sure OF uli-
mate success was the busine conscience
which he brought to his. newspaper or
literary tasks. He always said he was a
workman, and. al a workman. bound TO
be p~unctual With his copy. There was no
prating about inspiration. n no waiting
for il. II the Muse was lazy. the jade nus
be whipped into activity. and whipped she
accordingly was. Blanchard JerrOld. who
was convcrsant with his early struggles.
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