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diff --git a/old/13517.txt b/old/13517.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..310328e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13517.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2531 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of In Bohemia with Du Maurier, by Felix Moscheles + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: In Bohemia with Du Maurier + The First Of A Series Of Reminiscences + +Author: Felix Moscheles + +Release Date: September 24, 2004 [EBook #13517] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, William Flis, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER + +_THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF REMINISCENCES_ + +BY + +FELIX MOSCHELES + +WITH 63 ORIGINAL DRAWINGS + +BY + +G. DU MAURIER + +_ILLUSTRATING THE ARTIST'S LIFE IN THE FIFTIES_ + +LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN + + * * * * * + + + + +The few introductory words to this volume were written, and the last +proofs posted, shortly before the fatal news overtook me in lovely +Venice. My world, resplendent with sunshine, was suddenly lost in +darkness. The most lovable of men, whose presence alone sufficed to +make life worth living to all those near and dear to him, was gone +from amongst us. His hand was no longer to hold those pens--the +finely-pointed one that drew, the freely-flowing one that wrote. His +well-earned rest was not to be enjoyed on earth. + +Now that all is changed, the joyous note of these pages jars upon me. +How differently would I attune the story of our student days, were I +to write it to-day in loving memory of my friend! + +But as it stands, so it must go forth. The book, cordially endorsed +by him, is printed and all but issued; he would not let me recall +it, I know. He himself, in his kindly, simple way, had enjoyed my +resuscitation of our early recollections, and had here and there lent +a helpful hand even to the correcting of the proofs. + +To write of him and of his qualities of heart and mind as I would +now venture to record them, I must wait till the heavier clouds have +cleared away and left the picture, I would draw once more to stand out +brightly in the background of Time. + +FELIX MOSCHELES. + +October, 1896. + + * * * * * + + + + +IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER + + + + +PREFACE. + + +"You'll see that I've used up all your Mesmerism and a trifle more in +my new book," said du Maurier to me, some time before he published his +"Trilby"; and that remark started us talking of the good old times in +Antwerp, and overhauling the numerous drawings and sketches in which +he so vividly depicted the incidents of our Bohemian days. It seemed +to me that some of those drawings should be published, if only to +show how my now so popular friend commenced his artistic career. In +order that they should not go forth without explanation, I wrote the +following pages. + +The Bohemia I have sought to coerce into book shape, is not the wild +country, peopled by the delightfully unconventional savages, so often +described, but a little cultivated corner of the land, as I found it +in Antwerp, a mere background to the incidents I had to relate. Such +as it is, it may perhaps serve here and there to point to the original +soil from which were eventually to spring some of the figures so +familiar to us to-day. + +To me it was a source of enjoyment to evoke these memories, and if +I publish them, it is because I strongly feel that pleasures shared +are pleasures doubled. Sociably inclined as I always was, I am truly +glad to have the opportunity of giving a hearty welcome to those +who may care to join my friend and myself in our ramblings and our +"tumblings." + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +PART I. 17 + +PART II. 69 + + * * * * * + + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + "FOR EVER AND A DAY" _Frontispiece_ + + THE ATELIER GLEYRE 18 + + MY BLOUSE 20 + (_From an oil-sketch by Matthew Maris._) + + PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN MALINES 27 + + FROM DU MAURIER'S PAINTING 30 + + MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ETE DU BEAU SEXE 32 + + SI NOUS AVIONS ETE BEAUX 32 + + MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ETE ARTISTES #33 + + SI NOUS AVIONS ETE CHEVAUX 33 + + F. S'IL ETAIT CHEVAL 33 + + SI NOUS AVIONS ETE MILITAIRES 34 + + "CE SACRE VESICATOIRE" 35 + + ISABEL DU MAURIER 35 + + MOSCHELES, OR MEPHISTOPHELES?--WHICH 40 + + "INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE" 42 + + DU MAURIER IMPROVISING 43 + + HOW RAG TRIES TO DESILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND BOBTAIL TRIES + TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG 44 + + THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE HAT 46 + + "BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR TOBACCONISTE" 49 + + "SALUT A LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE" 50 + + A MESMERIC SEANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR 57 + + THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY 60 + + FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY 64 + + "RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY 65 + + RAG 72 + + BOBTAIL 72 + + "WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE? HANG MYSELF, I + WONDER." 76 + + COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS 80 + + CLARA MOSCHELES 83 + + "HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRAeULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG UND IHREN + BRUDER." 87 + + CHER LIX 88 + + "AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY ----" 89 + + DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN 90 + + "CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES + JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI" 91 + + DOUBLE-BEDDED ROOM IN BRUSSELS 93 + + THE HEIGHT OF ENJOYMENT 95 + + YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE PERFORMANCE OF YE + PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE 97 + + AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR 99 + + "I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU DID THAT + POOR OLD SPANIARD'S" 100 + + MR KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS THE PROFESSOR + THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU' BLACKGUARD" 101 + + MEETING IN DUeSSELDORF 103 + + SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN 106 + + PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA 115 + + "ON THEIR HONEYMOON" 116 + + _Also Illustration on pages_ 37, 88, 98, 102, 108, 109, 110, 112, + 114, 119, 123, 135, 144, 145. + + * * * * * + + + + +I. + +"TUMBLINGS" + +_WITH DU MAURIER AND FRIENDS._ + + +"I well remember" my first meeting with du Maurier in the class-rooms +of the famous Antwerp Academy. + +I was painting and blagueing, as one paints and blagues in the storm +and stress period of one's artistic development. + +It had been my good fortune to commence my studies in Paris; it was +there, in the atelier Gleyre, I had cultivated, I think I may say, +very successfully, the essentially French art of chaffing, known by +the name of "La blague parisienne," and I now was able to give my +less lively Flemish friends and fellow-students the full benefit of my +experience. Many pleasant recollections bound me to Paris; so, when +I heard one day that a "Nouveau" had arrived, straight from my old +atelier Gleyre, I was not a little impatient to make his acquaintance. + +[Illustration: THE ATELIER GLEYRE.] + +The new-comer was du Maurier. I sought him out, and, taking it for +granted that he was a Frenchman, I addressed him in French; we were +soon engaged in lively conversation, asking and answering questions +about the comrades in Paris, and sorting the threads that associated +us both with the same place. "Did you know 'un nomme Pointer'?" he +asked, exquisitely Frenchy-fying the name for my benefit. I mentally +translated this into equally exquisite English, my version naturally +being: "A man called Poynter." + +Later on an American came up, with whom I exchanged a few words in +his and my native tongue. "What the D. are you--English?" broke in du +Maurier. "And what the D. are you?" I rejoined. I forget whether D. +stood for Dickens or for the other one; probably it was the latter. At +any rate, whether more or less emphatic in our utterances, we then and +there made friends on a sound international basis. + +It seemed to me that at this our first meeting du Maurier took me in +at a glance--the eager, hungry glance of the caricaturist. He seemed +struck with my appearance, as well he might be. I wore a workman's +blouse that had gradually taken its colour from its surroundings. To +protect myself from the indiscretions of my comrades I had painted +various warnings on my back, as, for instance, "Bill stickers beware," +"It is forbidden to shoot rubbish here," and the like. My very black +hair, ever inclined to run riot, was encircled by a craftily conceived +band of crochet-work, such as only a fond mother's hand could devise, +and I was doubtless colouring some meerschaum of eccentric design. +My fellow-student, the now famous Matthew Maris, immortalised that +blouse and that piece of crochet-work in the admirable oil-sketch here +reproduced. + +[Illustration: MY BLOUSE. + +(_From an oil-sketch by Matthew Maris._)] + +It has always been a source of legitimate pride to me to think that +I should have been the tool selected by Providence to sharpen du +Maurier's pencil; there must have been something in my "Verfluchte +Physiognomie," as a very handsome young German, whom I used to chaff +unmercifully, called it, to reveal to du Maurier hidden possibilities +and to awaken in him those dormant capacities which had betrayed +themselves in the eager glance above named. + +This was, I believe, in 1857; not feeling over sure as regards that +date, I refer to a bundle of du Maurier's letters before me, but they +offer me no assistance; there is but one dated, and that one merely +headed: "Dusseldorf, 19th Cent." Well, in 1857, then, let us take it, +the Antwerp Academy was under the direction of De Keyser, that most +urbane of men and painters. Van Lerius, well known to many American +and English lovers of art, her Majesty included, was professor of the +Painting Class, and amongst the students there were many who rapidly +made themselves a name, as Tadema, M. Maris, Neuhuys, Heyermans, and +the armless artist, whose foot-painted copies after the Masters at +the Antwerp Gallery are well known to every tourist. The teaching was +of a sound, practical nature, strongly imbued with the tendencies of +the colourist school. Antwerp ever sought to uphold the traditions +of a great Past; in the atelier Gleyre you might have studied form +and learnt to fill it with colour, but here you would be taught +to manipulate colour, and to limit it by form. A peculiar kind of +artistic kicks and cuffs were administered to the student by Van +Lerius as he went his rounds. "That is a charming bit of colour you +have painted in that forehead," he said to me on one occasion--"so +delicate and refined. Do it again," he added, as he took up my palette +knife and scraped off the "delicate bit." "Ah, you see, _savez vous_, +you can't do it again; you got it by fluke, some stray tints off your +palette, _savez vous_," and, taking the biggest brush I had, he swept +over that palette and produced enough of the desired tints to have +covered a dozen foreheads. + +The comrade without arms was a most assiduous worker; it was amusing +to watch his mittened feet step out of their shoes and at the shortest +notice proceed to do duty as hands; his nimble toes would screw and +unscrew the tops of the colour tubes or handle the brush as steadily +as the best and deftest of fingers could have done. Very much unlike +any of us, he was most punctilious in the care he bestowed on his +paint box, as also on his personal appearance. Maris, Neuhuys, +Heyermans, and one or two others equally gifted, but whose thread of +life was soon to be cut short, were painting splendid studies, some +of which I was fortunate enough to rescue from destruction and have +happily preserved. + +Quite worthy to be placed next to these are Van-der-something's +studies. That (or something like that) was the name of a wiry, active +little man who in those days painted in a garret; there everything +was disarranged chaotically, mostly on the floor, for there was no +furniture that I can recollect beyond a stool, an easel, and a fine +old looking-glass. He had a house, though, and a wife, in marked +contrast with his appearance and the garret. The house was not badly +appointed, and she was lavishly endowed with an exuberance of charms +and graces characteristic of a Rubens model. + +A fellow-student of mine was their lodger, a handsome young German, +brimful of talent, but sadly deficient in health. He had always held +most rigid principles on questions of morality, but unfortunately +they failed one day in their application, owing to the less settled +views entertained by Madame Van-der-something on such subjects. She +certainly gave him much affection on the one hand, but on the other +she so audaciously appropriated those of his goods and chattels that +could be turned into money, that the police had to intervene, and she +eventually found herself before a judge and jury. There, however, she +managed so well to cast all responsibility on her husband, who, to +this day, I believe was quite innocent, that--"cherchez la femme"--she +got off, and he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment. + +Now if Van Ostade or Teniers had risen to prosecute him for forging +their signatures, and he had been found guilty and condemned to severe +punishment, it would have served him right. He was a perfect gem of +a forger. He picked up a stock of those dirty old pictures painted on +worm-eaten panels that used to abound in the sale-rooms of Antwerp. +On these he would paint what might be called replicas with variations, +cribbing left and right from old mildewed prints that were scattered +all about the floor. He would scrape and scumble, brighten and deaden +with oils and varnishes; he would dodge and manipulate till his +picture, after a given time spent in a damp cellar, would emerge as a +genuine old master. I once asked a dealer whom I knew to be a regular +customer of his, at what price he sold one of those productions. "I +really can't say," he answered; "I only do wholesale business. I buy +for exportation to England and America." If any of my friends here +or over there possess some work of Van-der-something's, I sincerely +congratulate them, for the little man was a genius in his way. + +Of my friend the German I have only to say that, poor fellow, he spent +but a short life of pleasure and of pain. What became of his Circe +I never sought to know. It was a clear case of "Ne cherchez pas la +femme!" + +The first friend I made on my arrival in Antwerp was Jean Heyermans +(detto il Pegghi), and a very useful one he proved himself, for he at +once took me in hand, helped me to find home and hearth, and generally +gave me the correct tip, so valuable to the stranger. He lost no time +in teaching me some of those full-flavoured Flemish idioms which from +the first enabled me to emphasise my meaning when I wished to express +it in unmistakable language. + +He himself was a remarkable linguist, speaking English, French, and +German fluently, in addition to his native language, Dutch; so he soon +chummed with du Maurier and me in several languages, and became one of +our set. He was always ready to follow us in our digressions from the +conventional course, and we felt that many of our best international +jokes would have been lost had it not been for his comprehension and +appreciation. His father, too, was a kind friend to us, inviting us to +his house to hear Music and talk Art, to ply knives and forks, and to +empty glasses of various dimensions. That gentleman's corpulence had +reached a degree which clearly showed that he must have "lost sight +of his knees" some years back, but he was none the less strong and +active. There were two daughters, one pathetically blind, the other +sympathetically musical. + +How our friend came by the name of Peggy none of us know, but he +figures as such in many of du Maurier's drawings. + +"If Peggy," he says, in a letter from Malines, "doesn't come on +Sunday, may the vengeance of the gods overtake him! Tell him so. I'll +meet him at the train." And then he sketches the meeting and greeting +of the two, and the railway guard starting his train with the +old-fashioned horn-signal on the G.E.C. then in use. + +My friend Jean soon started on his career as a regular exhibitor in +Belgium and Holland, besides which he developed a remarkable taste and +talent for teaching. + +[Illustration: PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN +MALINES.] + +"What would you advise about Pen's studies?" said Robert Browning +one afternoon as we sat in my little studio, talking about his son's +talents and prospects. (This was a few years after my final return to +England.) "Send him to Antwerp," I said, "to Heyermans; he is the best +man I know of to start him." + +Pen went, and soon made surprising progress, painting a picture +after little more than a twelve-month that at once found an eager +purchaser. The poet took great pride in his son's success, and lost no +opportunity of speaking in the most grateful and appreciative terms +of the teacher. Millais and Tadema endorsed his praise, and Heyermans' +reputation was established. A few years ago he migrated to London, +where he continues his work, pluckily upholding the traditions of the +Past, whilst readily encouraging the wholesome aspirations of a rising +generation. + +Another man destined to find a permanent home in England was Alma +Tadema. He was not much in the Painting Class in my time, but had +previously been hard at work there. I mostly saw him in the room +adjoining it, and he always seemed to me exclusively interested in the +study of costume and history. The incident that led to his leaving +the academy rather abruptly is characteristic. An uncle of his having +given him a commission for a picture, Tadema applied to de Keyser for +authorisation to make the necessary break in his studies. The Director +accorded him three weeks, but, as Tadema put it when lately recalling +the circumstance, "I couldn't paint a picture in three weeks then, and +I cannot now." + +I little thought that from his studies of costume and history, the +comrade of my Antwerp days would evolve a long and uninterrupted +series of masterpieces, resuscitating the Past and presenting it with +the erudition of the Student and the genius of the Artist. Nor did +anything foreshadow that my genial Dutch friend, to whom the English +language was a dead letter, was destined in a not too distant Future +to become a shining light of England's Royal Academy. + +Du Maurier was soon installed in the Painting Class, and made a +vigorous start. Of the things he painted, I particularly recollect +a life-size, three-quarter group of an old woman and a boy--a +pen-and-ink drawing of which is in my father's album--that showed +talent enough and to spare, but his artistic aspirations were soon to +meet with a serious check. His eyesight suddenly gave him trouble, and +before long put a stop to his studies at atelier or academy. He was +not to become a painter, as he had fondly hoped, but as we now know, +he was to work out his destiny in another direction. With the simplest +of means he was to delineate character, and everyday drops of ink, +when filtered through his pen, were to emerge in quaint or graceful +shapes, wit, satire, and sentiment taking their turns to prompt and +guide that pen. + +[Illustration: _From du Maurier's painting._] + + +In those days we called all that caricaturing, and caricature he +certainly did; mainly me and himself. From the first he imagined he +saw a marked contrast between us. His nose was supposed to be turned +up, and mine down, whereas really neither his nor mine much deviated +from the ordinary run of noses; my lower lip certainly does project, +but his does not particularly recede, and so on. But the imaginary +contrast inspired him in the earliest days of our acquaintance, +and started him on the warpath of pen-and-inking. He drew us in all +conceivable and in some inconceivable situations. "Moscheles and +I," he says on one page, "had we not been artists, or had we been +artistically beautiful; then again, if we were of the fair sex, +or soldiers, or, by way of showing our versatility, if we were +horses." In that page he seems to have focussed the essence of our +characteristics, whilst appearing only to delineate our human and +equine possibilities. Poor F., one of our German friends, fares badly, +a donkey's head portraying him "s'il etait cheval." + +[Illustration: MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ETE DU BEAU SEXE.] + +[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ETE BEAUX.] + +In consequence of the growing trouble with his eyes, du Maurier left +Antwerp for Malines, to place himself under the care of an eminent +oculist who resided within easy reach of that city. That blessed +blister--"ce sacre vesicatoire," as he calls it, is one of the +doctor's remedies. + +[Illustration: MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ETE ARTISTES.] + +[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ETE CHEVAUX.] + +[Illustration: F. S'IL ETAIT CHEVAL.] + +The sketch shows how it is being applied by a devoted Sister of Mercy. + +[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ETE MILITAIRES.] + +In those days railway travelling was not as rapid as it is now, but +one could get from Antwerp to Malines in about an hour, a circumstance +which I frequently turned to account. Du Maurier's mother had come to +live with him, his sister joining them for a short time, and the home +in quiet old Malines soon became a sort of haven of rest. I spent many +a happy day and night there, on which occasions I am bound to say that +the piano, requisitioned by me for some special purposes of musical +caricature, detracted somewhat from the restfulness of the haven. +However that may have been, such intrusion was never resented; my +Swedish prima donna, or my qualifications as a basso profondo, or a +brass-bandsman, were always treated with the greatest indulgence by +the ladies, and my high soprano flourished and positively reached +unknown altitudes under the beneficent sunshine of their applause. +(For all that I never attempted Chopin's "Impromptu.") + +[Illustration: "CE SACRE VESICATOIRE."] + +[Illustration: ISABEL DU MAURIER.] + +Then du Maurier would sing the French "romance" or the English song, +or he would "dire la chansonnette," and what with his sympathetic +tenor and his intuitive knowledge of music, he seemed to be able +to express more than many who had had the advantage of a musical +training. A few old letters of his remind me that we were audacious +enough to write verses and music, he doing the former, I the latter. + +"Here's something I particularly want you to do," he writes. "Take +strong coffee, inspire yourself, think of your 'Ideal,' and compose +some very pretty music to the enclosed words, with which Rag's ideal +flame has inspired Rag--_surtout_, let it be as good as possible, with +accompaniment _a l'avenant_. An alteration in the music of each stanza +would render the gradation of energy expressed in the words, 'Je +compte sur toi.'" (How du Maurier came by the name of "Rag" I must +tell later on.) Then follow the words:-- + +CHANSON. + +_D'apres un barde Britannique_.[1] + + Les sources vont a la riviere + Et la riviere a l'ocean; + Les monts embrassent la lumiere, + Le vent du ciel se mele au vent; + Contre le flot, le flot se presse; + Rien ne vit seul--tout semble, ici, + Se fondre en la commune ivresse.... + Et pourquoi pas nous deux aussi? + Vois le soleil etreint la terre, + Qui rougit d'aise a son coucher-- + La lune etreint les flots, qu'eclaire + Son rayon doux comme un baiser; + Les moindres fleurs ont des tendresses + Pour leurs pareilles d'ici-bas + Que valent toutes ces caresses + Si tu ne me caresses pas?[2] + +[Footnote 1: See Shelley's "Love's Philosophy."] + +[Footnote 2: Pour bien apprecier la valeur artistique de cette +romance, il faut l'entendre chanter par Rag en tenant les yeux fixes +sur le profit de Bobtail.] + +Two slight sketches of "L'auteur de profil" and "Le compositeur de +face" head the page. + +[Illustration] + +Soon afterwards he sends me another poetical effusion and writes: + +"DEAR BOBTAIL,--I send you the Serenade composed 'tant bien que mal' +last night, not 'entre la poire et le fromage,' but between the tea +and the pears. I am afraid you will not find it as dramatic as you +wished; but I don't feel it otherwise, and as Mahomet can't write +words to the mountain's music, the mountain must try and adapt its +music to the verses of Mahomet. + +SERENADE APRES LA SIESTE. + + "Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, ouvre done ta paupiere, + Chasse les reves d'or de ton leger sommeil-- + Ils sont la, nos amis; cede a notre priere + Le trone prepare n'attend que ton reveil; + Le soleil a cesse de regner sur la terre, + Viens regner sur la fete et sois notre soleil. + Reponds a nos accords par tes accents plus doux + Au jardin des amours, viens o viens avec nous. + + Au jardin des amours ta place est reservee, + Parmi des feux de joie et des lilas en fleurs. + Viens reveiller en nous de nouvelles ardeurs-- + Descends avec la nuit, ainsi que la rosee-- + Tant que l'astre d'argent sourit a la vallee, + Toi, bel astre d'amour, viens sourire a nos coeurs! + Reponds a nos accords par tes accents plus doux, + Au jardin des amours, Berthe, viens avec nous. + + Viens avec ta couronne, et viens avec ta lyre, + Tes chants pour nos amis, tes doux regards pour moi! + Deja j'entends les jeux de la foule en emoi + Sur des gazons fleuris ... oh le joyeux delire! + Si tu ne descends pas, helas! on pourra dire: + 'Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, on a chante sans toi!' + Reponds a nos accords par tes accents plus doux, + Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, viens o viens avec nous! + +"You see I have indulged in poetic license; for instance, the first +tenor says he hears the folks doing the light fantastic toe. One might +suppose they danced in sabots--mere poetic license, and besides, a +first tenor ought to have very good ears.... So now, my lad, inspire +yourself." + +What the result of his appeal to my inspiration may have been, I do +not remember, but I find this is what he writes on the subject-- + +"CARISSIMO,--In vain have I taxed Rag's inventive powers to alter the +last stanza; we must e'en stick to 'Ce baiser-la.' The lines I have +underlined mean that I don't quite approve the part of the music +that comes just there, as in the musical phrase you have set to it I +fancy there is a want of tenderness. All the rest is stunning; the +more I hums it the more I likes it, but I can't exactly come your +accompaniment." + +[Illustration: Moscheles, or Mephistopheles? which] + +No wonder, for my accompaniments were usually rather indefinite +quantities, subject to the mood of the moment. "Moscheles or +Mephistopheles, which?" he asks, as he depicts me at the piano, +perhaps evolving some such accompaniment from the depths of "untrained +inner consciousness." "Eureka" he might have put under that other +sketch, where his own hands have at last found some long-sought +harmony or chord on the piano. Another drawing there is of a somewhat +later period which he calls "Inspiration papillotique." Again I am at +the piano, my eyes raised to the "She" in papillottes, who floats as a +vision in the clouds, issuing from my ever-puffing cigar, whilst at my +feet is stretched the meditative form of my friend, and under them is +crushed some work of our immortal colleague Beethoven. + +[Illustration: "INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE."] + +[Illustration: DU MAURIER IMPROVISING.] + +And who was "She" thus to inspire us? On the supposition that most +people are, like myself, interested in the "Shes" that can inspire, +I may permit myself to say something about the attractive young lady +who was able to lead us by easy stages from the vague "inspiration +papillotique" to an admiration which might be said to culminate in +flirtation. I don't remember either of us ever trying to cut the other +out, as the accompanying sketch seems to imply, where "Rag and Bobtail +fight a duel for Carry, using their noses as double-barrelled pistols. +Shows the way in which Rag tries to _desillusioner_ Carry on Bobtail, +and in which Bobtail tries to ditto ditto on Rag Carry being on this +side of the rivals is not represented." + +[Illustration: HOW RAG TRIES TO DESILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND +BOBTAIL TRIES TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG.] + +The truth of the matter is that we shared fraternally in the enjoyment +of her good graces, he having the pull of me the greater part of +the week, and only suspending operations in my favour when I came to +Malines on a Saturday to Monday visit. These occasions were productive +of a great number of drawings and sketches, illustrating our little +adventures, and all plainly showing that the incidents recorded +occurred to us at that pleasant time of life, when bright illusions +and buoyant spirits lead the way, and when sorrow itself has more of +the rose colour than many a rose of a later day. + +Malines was, and perhaps is still, a dull, deserted city, at best up +to the date of last century, beating the record for dry-as-dustiness +and growing dear little blades of grass between its cobble stones. It +boasts of a great many churches and of a very great many more priests. +(_Vide_: The ingenious use which Rag makes of Bobtail's pliable hat.) +In addition to these attractions, there was, however, a factor of +paramount interest to us. Then and there, just as now and elsewhere, +there were pretty girls about, and I need not say that, as both of +us were studying art and devoting our best energies to the cult of +the beautiful, we considered it our duty to take special notice of +these pretty girls wherever we came across them. It is probably the +conscientious performance of his duty in that direction which enabled +du Maurier to evolve those ever-attractive and sympathetic types of +female beauty we are all so familiar with. Nor would it have been +becoming in me, who had everything to learn, to lag behind, or to show +less ardour in the pursuit of my studies. + +[Illustration: THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE +HAT.] + +Thus, whilst du Maurier's facile pen was throwing off black and white +sketches of Miss Carry, it was reserved for me to paint her portrait +in oils. Her real name was Octavie, not Carry; that appellation we had +most unceremoniously and unpoetically derived from "Cigar." All else +about her we invested, if not with ceremony with a full amount of +poetry. And certainly there was a subtle quality in Carry, well worthy +of appreciation, a faculty of charming and being charmed, of giving +and taking, of free and easiness, coupled with ladylike reserve. She +seemed to be born with the intuitive knowledge that there was only one +life worth living, that of the Bohemian, and to be at the same time +well protected by a pretty reluctance to admit as much. In fact, to +give a correct idea of her I need but say her soul was steeped in the +very essence of Trilbyism. Having got to Carry's soul, it may not be +inappropriate to say something also about her looks; but to describe +good looks is, as we all know, deliberately to court failure; far +better request every man to conjure up his own type of beauty and he +will be sure to be interested in the picture he evolves. That man will +be nearest the truth whose young lady has a rich crop of brown curly +hair, very blue inquisitive eyes, and a figure of peculiar elasticity. + +Octavie L., dite Carry, was the daughter of an organist who had held +a good position at one of the principal churches of Malines. When he +died he left but a small inheritance to his widow; with what she could +realise, she purchased the goodwill of a small tobacconist's store +and set up in business. Neither the mother nor the daughter had much +previous knowledge of the concern they had started, and they were +consequently not very discriminating in the selection of their brands; +but what was lacking in connoisseurship was fully made up for by +Mrs. L.'s obliging manners and by Octavie's blue eyes. These had +been steadily gaining in expression since she first opened them +about seventeen years back. Customers soon came in, and for a time +the little business was as flourishing as anything could well be in +Malines. The average citizen of so ecclesiastically conservative, and +hereditarily stationary a city could hardly be expected to encourage +a new venture of the kind. Still even there there were some young men +about town, a sort of "jeunesse dore", not of 18-carat gold perhaps, +but a "jeunesse" quite equal to the pleasant task of buzzing around +the fair tobacconist. Mrs. L. did her share of chaperoning; du Maurier +and I supplied the rest, and watched over her with chivalrous, if not +quite disinterested devotion. We differed in every respect from the +type of the young man of the period above mentioned; so naturally we +were bright stars in Carry's firmament; she looked upon us as superior +beings, and, granting her points of comparison, not without cause; +du Maurier could draw and I could paint; he could sing and I could +mesmerise, and couldn't we just both talk beautifully! We neither of +us encourage hero-worship now, but then we were "bons princes," and +graciously accepted Carry's homage as due to our superior merits. + +[Illustration: "BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR +TOBACCONISTE!"] + +There are two drawings illustrative of that chivalrous devotion of +ours. We are galloping along on our noble steeds, richly attired, as +true knights and good should be when they go to pay homage to beauty. + +"Beshrew thee, noble Sir Ragge! let us to the fair tobacconiste!" + +[Illustration: "SALUT A LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE!"] + +"Aye! Gentle Sir Bobtaile! By my halidome, she's passing fair." + +The second drawing shows our "Salut a la Gente et accorte pucelle!" +and the winning smile with which Carry would receive us. + +Mesmerism, or, as the fashion of to-day calls it, Hypnotism, formed +so frequent a topic of conversation and speculation between du Maurier +and myself, that it takes a very prominent place in my recollections. + +In Paris I had had opportunities of attending some most interesting +seances, in consequence of which I soon proceeded to investigate the +mesmeric phenomena on my own account. Now I have not touched the fluid +for some thirty years; I swore off because it was taking too much +out of me; but I look back with pleasure on my earlier experiments, +successes I may say, for I was fortunate enough to come across several +exceptional subjects. Du Maurier was particularly interested in one of +these, Virginie Marsaudon, and had a way of putting puzzling questions +concerning her faculties and my mesmeric influence. Virginie was +a "femme de menage" of the true Parisian type, a devoted elderly +creature, a sort of cross between a charwoman and a housekeeper. I was +not yet eighteen when I first went to Paris, to study under my cousin, +the eminent painter, Henri Lehmann. At his studio I found Virginie +installed as the presiding genius of the establishment, using in +turn broom or tub, needle, grill or frying-pan as the occasion might +require; the wide range of her powers I further extended by making a +truly remarkable mesmeric subject of her. My debut in Paris was that +of the somewhat bewildered foreigner, speaking but very indifferent +French, and she had from the first done what she could to make me feel +at home in the strange city, treating me with truly motherly care +and devotion. How completely she took possession of me, is shown by a +passage in a letter she wrote when I was ill in Leipsic, where I had +gone on a visit to my parents. After expressing her anxiety and her +regret at not being there to nurse me, she emphatically says:--"Je +rends Madame, votre mere, responsable de votre sante" (I make Madame, +your mother, responsible for your health). It needed but little to +lead her on from a state of docile and genial dependence to one of +unconscious mesmeric subjection, and so, a few passes shaping her +course, I willed her across the boundary line that separates us from +the unknown, a line which, thanks to science, is daily being extended. +Madame veuve Marsaudon was herself an incorrigible disbeliever in the +phenomena of mesmerism, but as a subject her faculties were such as to +surprise and convert many a scoffer. + +At the seances, to which I invited my friends and a few scientific +outsiders, I always courted the fullest investigation, taking it as +the first duty of the mesmerist to show cause why he should not be +put down as a charlatan. So we had tests and counter-tests, evidence +and counter-evidence; there were doctors to feel the pulse and to +scrutinise the rigidity of the muscles, experts to propound scientific +ifs and buts, and wiseacres generally to put spokes in the wheel of +progress, as is their playful way, wherever they find that wheel +in motion. It was doubly satisfactory, then, that the good faith of +subject and mesmerist could be conclusively proved. + +One of these seances led to a rather amusing incident. One night I +was awakened from first slumbers by a sharp ring at my bell, and when, +after some parleying, I opened the door, I found myself confronted +by two individuals. One I recognised as an "inquirer" who had been +brought to my rooms some time previously; the other was a lad I +had not seen before. The inquirer, I ascertained, having carefully +watched my _modus operandi_ on the occasion of his visit, had next +tried experiments of his own. In this instance he had succeeded in +mesmerising a lad, but had found it impossible to recall him to his +normal condition. So, securing him by a leather strap fastened round +his waist, he led him through the streets of Paris to my rooms. +There we both tried our powers upon him, the result being very +unsatisfactory. The youth, feeling himself freed from one operator and +not subjected by the other, refused allegiance to either, and, being +of a pugnacious temperament, he squared up and commenced striking +out at both of us. It was not without considerable difficulty that I +re-mesmerised him completely, and then, having previously prepared his +mind to account naturally for his presence in my rooms, I succeeded in +awakening him, and all ended happily. The inquirer was duly grateful, +the youth went home strapless and none the worse for the adventure, +and I proceeded to do some very sound sleeping on my own account. + +I would say more of my seances and all the recollections they evoke, +were I not impatient to get back to du Maurier and to Malines. Once on +the experiences of those days, I have much to relate--pros and cons, +if you please, for that subtle magnetic fluid, which, without physical +contact, one human being can transmit to another, is a ticklish one +to handle. I cannot pack my pen, though, and take train of thought to +the Belgian city without mentioning my friend Allonge, the well-known +French artist, then a fellow-student of mine at the Ecole des Beaux +Arts. A chance contact of our knees as we sat closely packed with some +sixty other students put me on the track of a new subject, perhaps the +most interesting one it was ever my good fortune to come across. But +of him another time. + +Using the privilege of a mesmerist, I elect to will the reader--that +is, if natural slumber has not ere this put him beyond my +control--across the frontier, into the back parlour of Mrs. L.'s +tobacco store. There I am operating on a boy--such a stupid little +Flemish boy that no amount of fluid could ever make him clever. How I +came to treat him to passes I don't remember; probably I used him as +an object-lesson to amuse Carry. All I recollect is that I gave him +a key to hold, and made him believe that it was red-hot and burnt +his fingers, or that it was a piece of pudding to be eaten presently, +thereby making him howl and grin alternately. + +In the middle of our seance Carry is called away by a customer, one +of the swells of Malines much addicted to a poetical expression of his +admiration for the fair sex in general and for Carry in particular. +Greatly to our edification, she was pleased to improve the occasion by +leading him on, within our hearing, to make what is commonly called a +fool of himself. The pleasant incident is recorded in the accompanying +sketch. + +But mesmerism meant more than incidental amusement or even scientific +experiment to us in those Antwerp and Malines days. When one stands +on the threshold of a world of mysteries one cannot but long to bridge +over the chasm that separates one from the gods, the fairies, or +the fiends. To be sure, we should have been glad if we could have +got "light, more light" thrown on our steps, but, failing that, we +tried to find our way as best we could in the mist. We loved that +never-attainable Will-o'-the-Wisp, "Truth," for its own dear Bohemian +sake; so, guided by Fancy and Fantasy, we made frequent inroads into +the boundless land where unknown forces pick up our poor dear little +conception of the Impossible, and use it as the starting-point of +never-to-be-exhausted possibilities. + +[Illustration: A MESMERIC SEANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR.] + +Such a land was particularly well suited to the state of our +outward-bound minds and our excelsior appetites. It was on one or +the other of these excursions, I feel confident, that du Maurier +was inoculated with the germs that were eventually to develop into +Trilbyism and Svengalism. No wonder, then, if in more than one of +his letters and sketches the future delineator of those characters +embodies bold dreams and fancies, or if on one occasion he depicts +himself, with fixed gaze and hair erect, sitting bolt upright on my +hospitable sofa, thrilled and overawed by the midnight presence of the +uncanny, which I had evoked for his benefit. + +"Yes, governor, it's all very well to ask a nervous fellow to Antwerp +and amuse him and make him ever so jolly and comfortable--But why, +when the bleak November wind sobs against the lattice and disturbs the +dead ashes in the grate, when everything is damned queer and dark, +and that sort of thing, you know--why should you make nervous fellows' +flesh creep by talk about mesmerism, and dead fellows coming to see +live fellows before dying, and the Lord knows what else? Why, Gad! +it's horrid!" + +[Illustration: THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY.] + +My rooms in Antwerp were the scene of many a festive gathering. We +always spoke of them in the plural; it sounded better, but in reality +there was only one room with two small alcoves. Studies and sketches +covered the walls or littered the floor, and the genial figure of a +skeleton, in very perfect condition, stood in the corner by the piano. +At first it came with a view to instructing me in the Science of +Anatomy, but soon, putting aside any didactic pretensions, my bony +professor became quite a companion and friend; it was thus natural +that on those occasions when guests had been convened to my rooms, +he would take a leading part, generally appearing gracefully draped +and appropriately illuminated, and thus forming a fitting background +to the gay proceedings of the evening. We had music, recitation, +and acting, mostly of an improvised, homemade character. The sounds +thereof were not confined, however, to the narrow limits of home, but +spread far beyond it, a fact which the neighbours, I am sure, would +have been at any time ready most emphatically to attest. + +In justice to myself I may say that I was primarily answerable for the +magnitude of the sound waves, but I am bound to add that my example +was followed and even improved upon by the more lung-gifted of +my companions. Amongst the milder forms of entertainment was my +impersonation of Rachel. That grand actress I had often seen in Paris, +and had, more than once, shivered in my shoes as she annihilated the +Tyrant, pouring forth the vials of her wrath and indignation in the +classical language of Racine and Corneille. With those accents still +ringing in my ears I came to Antwerp, and there, when surrounded by +sympathetic friends, the spirit would sometimes move me, and I would +feel--excuse the conceit of youth--as if I too could have been a +great female Tragedian, had Fate not otherwise disposed of me. In +such moments I would seize the blade of the paper-knife, and use the +blood of the beet-root, drape myself in the classical folds of the +bed-sheet, and go for the Tyrant, hissing fearful hexameters of scorn +and vituperation into his ears, and usually winding up with a pose so +magnificently triumphant that it would bring down any house which was +not of the most solid construction. + +Another time the cushion yonder would be my child--the orthodox +long-lost one--"It is!--It is not!--It is!--Let me clasp it to my +other cushion!" "Toi mon fils cheri. Ange de mon enfer, douleur de mes +loisirs!" + +[Illustration: FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY.] + +The celebration of one of my birthdays was an event rescued from +oblivion by du Maurier's pencil. He illustrates our lively doings +on that day and my appearance the next morning. "Felix's mamma," he +says, "had worked a very pretty cap for Felix, and Felix had it on the +morning after his birthday, and Felix found that though the cap was +very pretty, it made him look very seedy." + +[Illustration: "RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY.] + +In the other drawing he gives striking likenesses of the friends +assembled to celebrate the festive occasion. They had come together +in the evening, much in the same spirit that had led them under my +windows in the morning, with a brass band and an enormous bouquet of +cabbages, carrots, and cauliflowers. There, on the left, is Van Lerius +with his hands in his pockets, next to him du Maurier; then Heyermans, +Bource, and all the other chums, and, though last not least, the proud +bearer of the steaming punch-bowl. What a set of jolly good fellows! +It is quite a pleasure to pore over the sketch and contemplate du +Maurier's phiz, expressing his unbounded capacity of enjoyment. I can +see him taking points that fell flat with the other fellows. Quite +a pleasure, too, to think of Huysmans' big nose and Van Lerius' bald +head, of the tall and the short, of spindle shanks and chubby face. + +Where are they all now? Some thirty-five years have elapsed, and +the whirligig of time has been revolving with unfailing regularity, +dropping us here and there, as caprice dictated, some to stand, some +to fall. What has become of the threads of friendship, picked up at +the studio or the cafe, perhaps whilst puzzling over the chess-board, +or when harmonising in four-part song? Golden threads; some destined +to be spun out and to become solidly intertwined; others to be +hopelessly entangled or cruelly snapped asunder by the inexorable +Fates. Where shall I find them now, those friends and boon companions +of my Bohemian days? Here, there, and everywhere--perhaps nowhere! +Some I see trotting briskly along the high-road of life, others +dragging wearily through its tangled bypaths. Yet again others resting +under a big, cold stone that bears an inscription and a couple of +dates, fixed just above their heads. + + + + +II. + + +I well remember a certain "barriere" that protected the level crossing +just outside the Malines Station. It was but an ordinary piece of +hinged timber, but we, that is, du Maurier and I, can never forget it; +for, as we stood by its side we vowed that come what might, we would +never travel along that line and past the old gate without recalling +that summer evening and re-thinking the thoughts of our early days. + +It was also there, one evening, that we adopted our +never-to-be-forgotten aliases--Rag and Bobtail. We had chanced upon a +chum of ours named Sprenk lounging across that old barriere, and some +fortuitous circumstance having revealed the fact that his initials +were T.A.G., we forthwith dubbed him Tag. Out of that very naturally +grew the further development: Rag, Tag, and Bobtail. + +T.A.G. was an Englishman, strong and hearty and considerably taller +than either of us. That alone would have sufficed to secure him +the friendship of du Maurier, who ever worshipped at the shrine +of physical greatness. He loved to look up to the man of +six-foot-something, or to sit in the shadow of the woman of commanding +presence, his appreciation of size culminating in the love of "Chang," +that dog of dogs, whom we have all learnt to admire, as we followed +his career through the volumes of the immortal Weekly, presided over +by Toby and his master. + +I somehow associate Tag with whisky and water; not that he took it +much or often, but he gave one the impression that whatever others +might do when amongst the benighted foreigner, he, for one, would not +let a good old English custom drop into disuse. Looking at Tag one +intuitively felt that his father before him had taken his moderate +glass of W. and W., and that, if he married and had sons, they would +do likewise. I do not think that he was particularly fond of art +or artists, unless inasmuch as they were brother Bohemians. He was +engaged, or, at least, he was generally just about to be engaged, in +some business, and whilst waiting for the opportune moment to commence +operations, he would settle down to an expectant present. The golden +opportunity he was looking for was plainly visible on his horizon, but +it had a way of remaining stationary, and as it was contrary to Tag's +nature to move unless under great pressure, the two never met. + +In the meanwhile Tag was one of our trio of chums; he was a good deal +with us when we were out and about, bent on storming the world, or +climbing Parnassus; we did the climbing, he the looking on, the parts +thus being distributed to our mutual satisfaction. He was always +pleasantly acquiescent, and had the rare gift of making himself +useless agreeably; a common bond of interest we had in the Colorado +claro and oscuro, whether the fair or dark, applied to the friendly +weed or the still more friendly fair sex. + +He describes himself pretty correctly in a letter he wrote to us from +Paris, when he says:-- + + "Since my arrival here my notes of what I have to do represent + what I have not done, and if it be true that the infernal + regions are paved with good intentions, I shall be received + on my arrival by a deputation of souls to thank me for my + contribution to the pavement." + +[Illustration: RAG.] + +[Illustration: BOBTAIL.] + +There are sketches in which Tag's eloquence is confined to one +exclamation, "Matilda!" But whether that name was coupled with present +felicity or future hopes I do not recollect. But du Maurier's lines +describe him and our chumship much better than any words of mine could +do. He says:-- + +"To BOBTAIL. + + Oh, fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint + All lazy beggars like me--" + + "In the sunshine of April, the April of life, + You and I and our Tag make three; + And few will deny that for such close chums + A queer set of fellows are we. + + For I walk slowly, and you walk fast, + And Tag lies down (not to fall); + _You_ think of the Present, _I_ think of the Past, + And Tag thinks of nothing at all. + + Yet who shall be lucky, and who shall be rich? + Whether both, neither, one, or all three; + Is a mystery which, Dame Fortune, the witch, + Tells neither Tag, Bobtail, or me! + +(RAG)." + +The portraits of Rag and Bobtail head the page. A space was left for +Tag's, but never filled. + +_Apropos_ of plans and prospects on Tag's distant horizon, I find a +passage in one of his letters, dated November, 1857, which is well +worth recording. I quote it to give myself and my fellow Europeans an +opportunity of rejoicing that Tag's scheme belonged to those that were +not to be realised. It runs thus:-- + + "As du Maurier's eye, though better, will, most probably, + not allow him to resume his profession as a painter, we have + determined to try our fortune together in Australia, and + mean to start from here early in February. He hopes to obtain + employment by drawing sketches, caricatures, &c., for the + Melbourne _Punch_, and other illustrated papers. You know how + eminently suited he is for that kind of work, and we hear that + an artist of talent of that description is much wanted out + there, and would be sure to do exceedingly well. I, of course, + do not intend to start in that line, but hope to be able to + support myself for the first few years, after which I shall + establish myself in business on my own account, and I trust, + with luck, I may return home in the course of from ten to + fifteen years, if not with immense riches, at all events with + enough to enable me to pass the remainder of my 'old age' in + peace and comfort." + +[Illustration: "WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE? +HANG MYSELF, I WONDER."] + +Did Tag ever go, I wonder? Did he come back, and has he perhaps +been enjoying his "old age" somewhere over here for the last thirty +years?--I wish you would say what _has_ become of you, my dear Tag. +I'm sure we should be chums again, if you're anything like the dear +old stick-in-the-mud of former days! Don't you recollect that sketch +of Rag's? I had nearly forgotten to mention it, the one with the three +ropes of life. I am climbing ahead with fiendish energy. Rag follows, +steadily ascending, weighted as he is with a treasure, a box marked +"Mrs. Rag, with care," and your noble form is squatting on the floor, +a glass of the best blend at your feet, and a cigar you are enjoying +from which rises the legend that makes you say, "What the deuce am I +to do with this confounded rope? Hang myself, I wonder?" Nonsense, to +be sure; but do come and tell me what you _have_ done with the rope, +or say where I can find you still squatting. + +That music of a certain spontaneous kind, the music within us which we +were ever longing to bring to the surface, was a bond of union between +du Maurier and myself, I have already mentioned; but that bond was to +be greatly strengthened by the music that great musicians on more than +one occasion lavished on us. First came Louis Brassin, the pianist. He +had studied under Moscheles at the Conservatorio of Leipsic, the city +of Bach and Mendelssohn fame; and there, from the days of his boyhood, +he had belonged to the little circle of intimates who frequently +gathered around the master at his house. + +When, a few years later, he came to Belgium on a concert tour, he and +I found no difficulty in taking up the old friendship contracted in my +father's house, just where we had left it. The boy had become the man, +the student had developed into the artist and thorough musician. He +was the boonest of boon companions, and his jokes were so broad that +they often reminded one, in their crudeness and their rudeness, of +certain passages in Mozart's early letters. To say that he spoke +French with a German accent a la Svengali would be putting it very +mildly; Teutonic gutturals would most unceremoniously invade the +sister language; d's and t's, b's and p's would ever change places, as +they are made to do in some parts of the Fatherland. With all that, +he rejoiced in a delightful fluency of speech, conveying quaint and +original thought. There was something decidedly interesting about +Brassin's looks, but his figure gave one the impression of having been +very carelessly put together; when he walked his head went back on his +shoulders, and his hat went back on his head; his long arms dangled, +pendulum-like, by his sides, while his lanky legs, dragging along +anyhow, were ever lagging behind one another. But when he opened the +piano and put hands and feet to keys and pedal, he was not the same +individual. He would turn on nerve and muscle-power, and would hurl +avalanches of music and torrents of notes at his audience till he, in +his turn, was overwhelmed with thunders of applause. And those were +the days, we must remember, when but few men could play at a greater +rate than twenty to twenty-five miles an hour; when grand pianos were +not yet ironclad and armour-plated, or had learnt proudly to display +the maker's name on their broadside when they went forth to do battle +on the concert field. + +[Illustration: COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS.] + +Brassin used to draw inane caricatures of himself, which he would +present to us with a triumphant laugh of immoderate calibre. I have +preserved some of these, but decidedly prefer du Maurier's rendering +of our common friend. In the accompanying drawing he shows him at the +piano, entertaining us on "A rainy day." + +"Ah! Felix, amico mio," he says, "may thy room be always as jolly, +thy coffee be ever so sweet, as on that happy morning! May Brassin's +fingers be ever as brilliant and inspired! May Tag be ever as lazy, +and with equal satisfaction to himself, and may I never be blinder! +Amen." + +That sketch admirably pourtrays the lankiness and flabbiness of +Brassin's figure, contrasting as it did with the strength of the wrist +and the grip of the fingers. He was certainly a fine subject for du +Maurier, whom I always looked upon as a sort of vivisector of music +and musicians, of their methods and their moods. A brilliant career +awaited Louis Brassin, but it was to be suddenly and unexpectedly cut +off. He died some ten years ago at the age of forty-four. + +In 1858 my father came on a visit to Antwerp with my mother and my +youngest sister, Clara. Wherever my father took up his abode, even +temporarily, a grand piano would in the natural course of events +gravitate towards him, and a select circle of art lovers would soon be +grouped around it. Amongst the friends in the Antwerp circle were--Van +Lerius, Tadema, Baron Leys, Heyermans, and Bource. My sister at that +time was a bright and happy creature, not long out of her teens, +full of hopes--alas! never to be realised, and of talents never to be +matured. The large dark eyes--they seemed the gift of her godmother, +the famous Malibran--reflected the artist's soul, and a grand soprano +voice spoke its powerful language. Du Maurier and she were soon on a +brother and sisterly footing, and they ever remained so. + +[Illustration: CLARA MOSCHELES.] + +Of the pleasant evenings we of the circle spent together I recall one +in particular. My sister had been singing one song after another; +my father was engaged in an animated conversation with Stefani, +the pianist, on the relative merits of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Du +Maurier and I had been sitting at the farther end of the room, talking +of his eyes. At that time one doctor held out hopes; another, a great +authority, had considered it his painful duty not to conceal the +truth from his patient, and had, with much unction and the necessary +complement of professional phraseology, prepared him for the worst. +The sight of one eye had gone, that of the other would follow. Those +were anxious days, both for him and for his friends; but, whatever +he felt, he could talk about his trouble with perfect equanimity, +and I often wondered how quietly he took it, and how cheerfully he +would tell me that he was "fearfully depressed." That evening I had +been putting the chances of a speedy recovery before him, and making +predictions based, I am bound to admit, on nothing more substantial +than my ardent hopes. But du Maurier was too much of a philosopher to +be satisfied with such encouragement as I could give, and said: "No, I +had better face the enemy and be prepared for the worst. If it comes, +you see, my dear fellow, there is Nature's law of compensation, and +I firmly believe that one cannot lose one faculty without being +compensated by some great gain elsewhere. I suppose one gets to see +more inside as things grow darker outside. If one can't paint, one +must do something else--write perhaps; that is, as long as one can, +and then, if the steam accumulates, and one wants a safety valve to +let it off, dictate." Happily, to this day he writes, and need not +have recourse to dictation. + +When we joined our friends we found Van Lerius and Heyermans had been +pressed into the service, and were making sketches for my sister's +album. Du Maurier took up a pencil, and, with a few characteristic +touches, drew that sister's eyes. "Quand je les vois," he wrote +underneath, "j'oublie les miens. (Reflexion d'un futur aveugle.) When +I see them I forget my own. (Reflections of a man going blind.)" + +Soon the main business of the evening was resumed. Was it Beethoven's +sonata for piano and violin, or a mighty improvisation on classical +themes that came first? I do not recollect; but I remember that du +Maurier's rendering of Balfe's "When other lips and other hearts," +with my scratch accompaniment, was warmly greeted by all lips and +hearts present. + +When these pleasant evenings had come to an end, the friendly +intercourse was not allowed to drop, and so a number of sketches by +her new friends found their way into Miss Clara's album. + +In the following winter, when I left on a short visit to Leipsic, he +sent her a few lines through me. I quote from his letter because +the wording is peculiar, and illustrates his capacity for expressing +himself in a language that he had to evolve from his inner +consciousness:-- + +"Herr Rag schickt zu Fraeulein Moscheles _sein_ empfehlung und _ihren_ +bruder; es wird hoeflicht gebeten das sie wird die sach reciprokiren, +und in fuenftzen daegen _ihr_ empfehlung und _seinen_ freund zuruck +schicken." + +For the benefit of those whose inner consciousness is not in touch +with the above, I give the English version:-- + +"Mr. Rag sends _his_ greeting and _her_ brother to Miss Moscheles, and +kindly requests her to reciprocate the proceeding in a fortnight by +returning _her_ greeting and _his_ friend." + +[Illustration: "HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRAeULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG +UND IHREN BRUDER."] + +[Illustration: LIX.] + +When I think how easily and spontaneously such sketches dropped from +his pen, I am reminded of a passage in one of Mendelssohn's letters to +my mother; he sends her the _Mailied_ and says: "This morning a song +came to me. I really must write it down for you." So, too, from the +first the pen-and-ink compositions came to du Maurier. His talent +manifested itself not only in a desire to illustrate this or that +incident or adventure, but also in his inexhaustible capacity for +making something out of nothing, and as the nothing was never lacking, +he might well say: "Dear Bobtail, I will never write without sending +my compliments to thine album." His rendering of "Cher Lix," for +instance, takes the shape of a graceful monogram, or diplogram, or +whatever I ought to call a combination of our two profiles and my +name. + +[Illustration] + +He starts a short missive with a sketch of himself seated in his +trunk, pipe in mouth, and says: "Dear Bobtail, I write to you out of +sheer idleness, so as to have an excuse not to pack up for the next +half-hour." Or he draws himself looking over my shoulder whilst I am +writing to my sister and puts the supposed context of my letter:-- + +[Illustration: AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY ----] + +"Bobtail writes (in German of course): + +"I won't write any more, for there's an indiscreet fellow looking over +my ----" + +"_Rag_. It's not true, I swear. (For Miss Clara.)" + +[Illustration: DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN.] + +Another time he wants me to send him some brushes and various other +painting materials he enumerates: "Oh, and a little thing like this +for oil to do the thing cheesy." He depicts himself quite elated; his +eyes seemed so much better that he had once more resumed work in the +studio of his friend Goyers. "Gruss from maternal and self," he ends; +"ganz hertzlich; come soon, or write soon, or do something soon, hang +it.--Thy RAG, jusqu' a la mort." + +[Illustration: "CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE +GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI."] + +Monsieur Staps, Sous-Chef of the "Guides," the best military band in +Brussels, was a friend of ours. He had invited us to one of the famous +Concerts du Conservatoire, a treat in anticipation of which du Maurier +at once takes to the pen, and shows us in classical garments and +dignified attitudes listening to the "young men of the Conservatorio." +"Sketch represents," he says "Claudius Felix et Publius Busso, cum +centurione Guidorum, audientes juvenes Conservatorioni, A.D. CCLVIII." +The "Busso" derived from his full name--George Louis Palmella Busson +du Maurier. + +In striking contrast with the last drawing is the next. Here we are +decidedly anything but conventional in our attire, as he depicts us +in "Double-bedded room, Brussels. Time 11 a.m. (train starts 11.20). +Bobtail's face being rather smutty, he washes it, and Rag's boots +being rather tight, he puts them on at leisure, during which process +he has time to smoke three pipes. _Bobtail_. Bub-bub-bub-bub ... whew +... pouf!... _Rag_. How many?" + +[Illustration] + +A favourite theme of his was his supposed inability to shine on +occasions when I had introduced him to friends of mine, and was +particularly anxious to show him off to advantage, and then, again, +the unrelenting fate that would swiftly overtake him if he ventured +to put himself forward. I need not say that the inability and the +discomfiture existed only in his imagination, for in all circles he +was ever appreciated and admired. But he would have it otherwise, and +pourtrays us side by side with the legend-- + +[Illustration: "The height of enjoyment. Rag thinking of his eyes, in +a pair of tight boots, with Bobtail whispering: 'Say something clever, +you stupid muff!'"] + +Another drawing shows what happened when for once in a way he presumed +to accept the homages of the fair. + +"One fine morninge, earlie, at ye Cafe de la Plage, Blankenberghe, ye +celebrated Rag, deeming himself alone, treateth himself to a private +performance of ye Padre furioso e figlia infelice, in imitatione of +his illustrious friende, Felix Bobtailo. Presentlie a voice exclaimeth +behind him, 'Monsieur, permettez moi de vous feliciter,' and a ladie +politelie maketh him complimente on his talente. Rag replieth that +she must not be surprised thereat, as hys life has been spent among +ye great musicians, and that therefore he can scarcelie helpe being a +consummate musician himselfe. Shortly after as he lighteth hys cigarre +at ye barre, he enquireth bumptiously, 'Who might that good ladie be?' +'She is the prima-donna of the Munich Opera, Monsieur.' Whereupon ye +soul of ye humiliated Rag sinketh into hys bootes, and he retireth for +ever under a perpetual extinguisher. + +"Ye hero of ye above unfortunate adventure presenteth hys compliments +to Miss Clara Moscheles, and beggeth she will deigne to accepte +ye sketche in acknowledgment of ye last box of 'acidulated +lemon-flavoured droppes' entrusted to her brother's care (need he +remark that they have not yet reached their destination). + +"Miss Clara is invited to observe how cunninglie ye profile of Rag is +made to imitate that of her talented brother." + +[Illustration: YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE +PERFORMANCE OF YE PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE.] + +Du Maurier's stay in Blankenberghe was but short. He soon went to +Duesseldorf to put himself under the treatment of a famous oculist, +Hofrath de Leeuwe, who resided not far from there at Graefrath. He +wrote, in high spirits: "Spent yesterday in Graefrath; jolly place, +lots of beauties, plenty of singing and sketching and that sort of +thing, you know. Long walks in beautiful valleys, most delightful. The +fact is, I'm so beastly merry since I've been here that I don't think +I'm quite sane, and altogether only want your periodical visits and +permission to have my fling on Saturday nights to be in heaven. Doctor +says he'll do me good; have to go to Graefrath once a week. Ca me bote +joliment. Good-bye, my old. Thine ever + +[Illustration] + +He had met some old acquaintances and fraternised with some English +and American artists, had got into the swim of Graefrath society, such +as it was, and was soon placed on a pedestal, whilst sundry beauties +sat at his feet and, to the best of my belief, sighed. "They all want +me to make etchings of the little can-cans and lick-spittlings going +on here. Splendid study; shall think about it. Carry novel, of course, +adjourned _sine die_; haven't got time just now--you know what a +fellow I am. Just got her letter; very naive and amusing--but don't +tell her so, or else she will pose for that and spoil it. Here is a +little drawing for you. Do all honour to it, since it has met with a +little ovation here." + +[Illustration: AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR. + +"SHE. REALLY I DON'T SEE THE SLIGHTEST MOTE IN YOUR EYES." + +"HE. NO, BUT I CAN SEE THE BEAMS IN YOURS."] + +He calls it "a new adaptation from the New Testament." He and a +charming "she" sit waiting their turn at the Hofrath's door. _He_ +is looking into her eyes and _she_ into his. "Really I don't see the +slightest mote in your eyes," says she. "No, but I can see the beams +in yours," he replies. + +[Illustration: "I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU +DID THAT POOR OLD SPANIARD'S!"] + +Did du Maurier ever attempt to shave anybody, I wonder? According +to one of the sketches he sent me from Duesseldorf he did, and was so +engaged on a blind man Kennedy, when a Captain Marius comes on the +scene and says, in discreet whisper and with much concern, "I say, +governor, mind you don't gash his throat as you did that poor old +Spaniard's! (_Out loud_) How d'ye do, Kennedy?" + +The same Mr. Kennedy figures once more, when, unaware of the presence +of the captain, he discreetly informs the professor that Captain +Marius Blueblast "is na' but a sinfu' blackguard." + +[Illustration: MR. KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS +THE PROFESSOR THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU' +BLACKGUARD."] + +[Illustration] + +A portrait he drew of the doctor was a great success. "I have done the +old cock's portrait stunningly," he says; "nine crosses of the Legion +of Honour, &c. Not a sou into my pocket; all for poor-box. Fancy a +fellow like me making presents to the poor-box (_vide_ sketch)! But as +the portrait will be very much spilt about (_repandu_), I may fish a +stray order or two. I have followed your advice for a whole week and +done a magnificent Framboisy. Shall not attempt to go on until you +are here to give me another stirring-up. Am going to Antwerp next week +(always am). Shall you be moving too? Journey together--great fun. +Take care of my purse and passport, and see my trunks are locked." + +[Illustration: MEETING IN DUeSSELDORF. WE SAT INTO THE SMALL HOURS OF +THE MORNING, TALKING OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.] + +[Illustration: SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN:-- + + "Dark was the sun! Heavy the clouds on the cliffs of Oithona--when + the fair-headed son of the Maurialva crossed his claymore with + the stern dark-browed Bobthailva and swore friendship on the names + of Carry and Damask."] + +I was moving, and as du Maurier kept on being about to go to Antwerp, +I went to pay him a flying visit at Duesseldorf on my way to Paris. We +sat into the small hours of the morning (as he depicts us), talking +of the past, present, and future, a long-necked Rhine-wine bottle and +two green glasses beside us, our hopes and aspirations rising with +the cloud that curled from my ever-glowing cigar. We talked till +his fertile imagination took us across the sea, and "Ragmar of the +Maurialva and Bobthailva, the son of Moscheles, swore eternal amity on +their native heath." + +Damask was another beauty whom we appreciated, perhaps all the more +because we knew she was dying of consumption. + + * * * * * + +In Paris I was probably absorbed in some work I had in hand and must +have neglected du Maurier, for he writes urging me to answer by return +of post and give an account of myself. He had been visited, he says, +by an alarming nightmare, which he forthwith sketches for my benefit. +Carry, the Circe, had captured the lion. The noble beast--that was +me--had succumbed to the wiles of the enchantress, and submitted +tamely to being combed and brushed and to having his claws clipped +by her hand. Like birds of a feather, so do lions of a name, +flock together. And so another noble beast--that was he--is seen +approaching, presumably to claim his share of the combing and clipping +and of whatever other favours may be forthcoming. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +Another time when, I suppose, I was again letting him wait for an +answer, he writes from Duesseldorf: "DEAR BOBTAIL,--Est-ce que tu +te donnes le genre de m'oublier par hazard? I have been expecting a +letter from you every day, running thus: 'DEAR RAG,--Come to Paris +_immediately_, to illustrate thirty-six periodical papers which I have +got for you. In haste, Bobtail.' My old pal, Tom Armstrong, is here, +working hard; eyes the same as ever. Write soon and tell all about +that portrait. Duesseldorf rencontre was jolly." The letter is headed +by a drawing representing me soaring heavenwards, whilst he, chained +to the spot, is philosophically consulting the cards on his prospects +of release. + +[Illustration] Then comes a postscript: "Going in for this sort of +thing." + +[Illustration] + +"Will you come old fellow and be + +[Illustration] + +I suppose I answered saying that I only put off writing till I had +mustered the full complement of periodicals. If I was in a prophetic +mood I may have added that it was all right, and that very shortly +thirty-six editors would be clamouring for his work, and perhaps +thirty-six States hallooing for him to come over _immediately_. Hoping +to be punch'd at an early date, I probably remained his, &c., &c. + +The early date came, for, before his final return to England, we met +once more in Antwerp and Malines. And that takes me back to Carry. +She was changed to her advantage, so, at least, the world of Malines +thought. We were not quite so sure that the change would prove +altogether to her advantage. She had been quite pretty enough before, +and we thought she could well have done without developing further +physical attractions. She had always known how to use her eyes, not +unfrequently shedding their beneficent light on two persons at the +same time, and we considered that that number should not be exceeded. +But now their activity seemed daily increasing, and it was not without +concern that we noticed in her a certain restlessness and a growing +tendency to discuss with the serpent questions relating to the +acquisition of prohibited apples. After a while, and perhaps in +consequence of the good advice we gave her, she sobered down and +surprised us by her docility; but at best her moods were uncertain and +she puzzled us much. + +[Illustration] + +"Now, Bobtail," said Rag, as we walked along the sober old streets +of Malines, discussing the state of Carry's mind and heart. (He has +omitted the streets, but has put us into our very best mediaeval suit.) +"Now, Bobtail, what do you think? Is she in love? And if so, with +whom?" + +"She may be, or she may be not," said Bobtail, with oracular +discretion; "but, if she is, it can only be with one of us. She would +not waste her sentiment on a native whilst we were within reach." + +"But which of us is it?" asked Rag, somewhat alarmed. + +"I know not; but I hope neither," answered the oracle thus appealed +to; "but the state of her mind, I believe, is this: If she were to +marry you, she would fall in love with me; and if she were to marry +me, she would fall in love with you." + +This dictum must have impressed du Maurier, for it started him on +a series of drawings, with accompanying text in illustration of it. +There were to be two volumes. The first, in which I figure as the +husband, was rapidly produced; the second, in which he was to be the +husband, never saw the light of day. It was shelved _sine die_, a +proceeding I always thought particularly unfair, as he never gave _me_ +a chance of being loved. I am compensated, however, by the possession +of the first volume of the "Noces de Picciola," or "Cari-catures," as +they are called. On the title-page Bobtail is made to say:-- + +[Illustration] + + "If Carry were to marry one of us, + I'd give thee any odds she would be safe, + O Rag, to love the other--" + + (_Shakespere_. "_Two Swells of Antwerp_.") + +"Varium et mutabile semper femina," he adds, and his story illustrates +the truth of the poet's words. His points will be so much better +understood later on, when some of the problems connected with our +matrimonial laws have been solved, that it would be a pity to publish +them prematurely. Suffice it to show how Felix and Georges produced +the portrait of Picciola. "Felix put all his talent and Georges all +his good will into it, for, once completed, Picciola was to select +a husband from the two suitors. After much cogitation she decides +for Felix, whilst offering her friendship to Georges, who seems but +moderately satisfied with this arrangement; and then, when husband and +wife leave for distant countries, Georges, who cannot bear the thought +of being parted from his dear Picciola, enters the service of the +young couple and accompanies them on their honeymoon." This mythical +journey gives the author opportunities for the subtle psychological +analysis of a young lady's heart, strongly inclined to revolt against +some of the conventions laid down by Society for its regulation. + +[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA.] + +We had fondly hoped we might escort and protect her on the thorny +path of life, as pertinently shown in the drawing,[3] where we are +all three going along, our arms and hands fraternally intertwined and +linked together in perfect symmetry, as if therewith to tie the knot +of friendship and make it fast for ever and a day. + +[Footnote 3: See Frontispiece.] + +[Illustration: "ON THEIR HONEYMOON."] + +But it was not to be. A big wave intervened to separate us, and swept +away all traces of the road before us. Poor Carry! Yes, she had a +story. Sad. Bright. Then sad again. First she gave to Amor what was +Amor's, and then to Hymen what was Hymen's. She tasted of the apple +her friend the serpent had told her so much about. Then--"la femme +a une chute est rare comme le Niagara"--and there are more apples +than one in the Garden of Eden--she tried another; such a bad one +unfortunately. It was a wonder it didn't poison her, body and soul, +but it didn't. There was a moment when the Angel with the flaming +sword threatened to cast her adrift, and it would have fared badly +with her had not a helping hand come to save her. But sound as she +was at the core, and true, she rallied and rose again to new life and +unhoped-for happiness. It was a young doctor who came to the rescue; +a mere boy he seemed to look at; but a man he was in deed and word. He +worked hard and walked fast; he defied convention and challenged fate. +With a stout heart he laboured to raise Carry to the level of his +affections, and with a strong hand he tightened his hold upon her. He +loved her passionately, devotedly, and she, clinging to him as to the +instrument of her salvation, gradually regained her better self, and, +slowly but surely, learnt to find in her own heart the greatest of +treasures that woman can bestow upon man. But he was a Southerner of +the French meridional type, excitable and impulsive, and, so, alas! +he was jealous of Carry's northern friends and snapped the thread +asunder that bound her to them. We only knew, and that we learnt in +a roundabout way, that she was the happiest little wife in Paris. +Once, and only once, she wrote to us, to tell us how complete was +her happiness. A crowning glory had come; a little glory to nurse +and fondle, to cry over--tears of joy; to smile to--the prettiest, +foolishest of mother's smiles; to pray for and to worship from the +bottom of her little blossoming soul. It was not till three years +later that I was in Paris and succeeded in picking up the thread of +Carry's story. Hale and hearty, overflowing with health and happiness, +the young doctor had gone to his work at the hospital. He came +home blood-poisoned, to die in his wife's arms. It was a case of +self-sacrifice in the cause of science, of heroic devotion to a +fellow-creature. And the young widow was left alone again, with none +to weep over (tears of anguish this time) but the little glory, who, +poor thing, could only wonder, but not soothe. What can have become +of Carry once more cast adrift in Paris to fight the battle of life in +this hard ever love-making world? + +We never knew. + +Back to England. The time had come when-- + + "Who was to be lucky and who to be rich, + Who'd get to the top of the tree; + Was a mystery which + Dame Fortune, the witch, + _Was_ to tell du Maurier and me." + +[Illustration] + +What with the boxing-gloves and one thing and another, he had been +"getting English again by degrees." In a drawing he shows us how he +is going through the process arm-in-arm with his old friend, Tom +Armstrong, now the Art-Director of that very English institution, the +South Kensington Museum. Armstrong and T.R. Lamont, the man who to +this day bears such a striking resemblance to our friend the Laird, +had presented du Maurier with a complete edition of Edgar Allan Poe's +works. His appreciation of that author is expressed in a letter which +he addressed to Armstrong, and it needs not much reading between the +lines to gather what was the literary diet best suited to his taste. +It is amusing, too, to notice the little shadows cast here and there +by coming events. + +(Billy Barlow was, I really don't know why, for the time being, +synonymous with George du Maurier.) + + "Gulielmus Barlow, Thomasino Armstrong, + Whom we hope is 'gaillardement' getting along + And salubrious, ave! + + You'll wonder, I ween, + At Barlow's turning topsy-tur--poet I mean. + I take odds you'll exclaim, 'twixt a grunt and a stare, + 'Gottferdummi' the beggar's gone mad, I declare, + And his wits must have followed his 'peeper'--not so; + He will give you the wherefore, will William Barlow-- + Viz: he's so seedy and blue, he's so deucedly triste, + He's so d----d out of sorts, he's so d----d out of tune, + That for mere consolation he cannot resist + The temptation of holding with Tommy commune. + Then that _he_ should be bothered alone, isn't fair, + So he'll just bother _you_ a bit, pour se distraire, + This will partly account for the milk--then the fact is + That some heavy swell says that it's deuced good practice, + And then it's a natural consequence, too, + Of the classical culture he's just been put through. + I'll explain: T'other day the maternal did say, + 'You are sadly deficient in reading, Bill; nay + Do not wrinkle your forehead and turn up your nose + (That elegant feature of William Barlow's!) + You've read Thackeray, Dickens, I know; but it's fit + You should study the _classical_ authors a bit. + Heaven knows when your sight will be valid again, + You may throw down the pencil and take up the pen, + And you cannot have too many strings to your bow.' + --'A-a-amen!' says young William to Mrs. Barlow. + + So we're treated (our feelings we needn't define) + To a beastly slow book called the 'Fall and Decline' + By a fellow called Gibbon, be d----d to him; then + Comes the 'Esprit des lois et des moeurs,' from the pen + Of a chap hight _Voltaire_--un pedant--qui je crois + Ne se fichait pas mal et des moeurs et des lois. + After which just to vary the pleasures, _Rousseau_ + By Emile--no: Emile by _Rousseau_? Gad! I know + That which ever it be it's infernally slow, + And I'm glad Billy's neither Emile nor Rousseau-- + Such my fate is to listen to, longing to slope-- + Then come horrid long epics of Dryden and Pope, + Which I mentally swear a big oath I'll confine + To the tombs of the Capulets, every line-- + Not but what the old beggars may do in their way, + Gad! Uncommonly fine soporifics are they; + But they seem after Tennyson, Shelley, and Poe + Just a trifle _too_ Rosy for Billy Barlow-- + Oh, dear Raggedy, oh! + Ulalume and AEnone for William Barlow. + + Erst, they're short. Then they breathe in their mystical tone + An essence, a spirit, a draught which alone + Can content Billy's lust, for the weird and unknown + (Billy's out of his depth) they've an undefined sense + Of the infinite 'mersed in their sorrow intense + (Billy's sinking! A rope! Some one quick! Damn it! hence + That mystical feeling so sweetly profound + Which weaves round the senses a spell (Billy's drowned) + (Here run for the drags of the Royal Humane!) + A mystical feeling, half rapture, half pain, + Such as moves in sweet melodies, such as entrances + In Chopin's 'Etudes,' and in Schubert's 'Romances.' + + Ah! Chopin's 'Impromptu'! Schubert's 'Serenade'! + Have you ever heard these pretty decently played? + If you haven't, old fellow, I'll merely observe + That a treat most delicious you have in reserve. + Lord! How Billy's soul grazes in diggins of clover, + While Stefani rapidly fingers them over, + Feelingly, fervidly fingers them over. + Illusion that enervates! Feverish dream + Of excitement magnetic, inspired, supreme, + Or despairing dejection, alternate, extreme! + Gad! These opium-benumbing performances seem, + In their sad wild unresting irregular flow + Just expressly concocted for William Barlow. + Oh! dear Raggedy, oh! + Why, they ravish the heart, sir, of Billy Barlow." + +Du Maurier's stay on the Continent had come to a close some time +before mine, and to that circumstance I owe several letters in which +he speaks of his first experiences in London. He revelled in the +metamorphosis he was going through, and illustrated the past and the +present for my better comprehension. There on one side of the Channel +he shows the dejected old lion of Malines gnawing his tobaccoless clay +pipe, and then on the other the noble beast stalking along jauntily +with tail erect and havannah alight. He wrote in high spirits:-- + +[Illustration] + + "DEAR BOBTAIL,--I need not tell you how very jolly it was to + get your letter and to hear good news of you. My reason for + not writing was that I intended to make my position before + giving of my news to anybody. I was just funky and blue about + it at first, but fortunately I was twigged almost immediately, + and, barring my blessed idleness, am getting on splendaciously + just now. Lots of my things have been out. I'm going in for + becoming a swell. + + "How strange to think of such a change. I'm leading the + merriest of lives, and only hope it will last. Living with + Henley, No. 85, Newman Street; very jolly and comfortable. + Chumming with all the old Paris fellows again, all of them + going ahead. There's Whistler is already one of the great + celebrities here--Poynter getting on. This is a very jolly + little village, and I wish you were over here. They do make + such a fuss with an agreeable fellow like you or me, for + instance. But I suppose Paris is just as jolly in its way. + My ideas of Paris are all Boheme, quartier latin, &c., et si + c'etait a recommencer, ma foi je crois que je dirais 'zut.' + This is a hurried and absurd letter to write to an old pal + like you, but I hardly ever have time for a line--out late + every night and make use of what little daylight there is in + Newman Street to draw. 'S'il faisait au moins clair de Lune + pendant le jour dans ce sacre pays.' I daresay I shall treat + myself to a trip over to Paris as soon as the weather is + jollier. I intend to go abroad this summer to do some etchings + 'qui seront aux pommes.' Is there any chance whatever of your + coming over here before? You mustn't form your opinion of my + performances by what you may happen to see, as half of what I + do is spoiled by bad engraving (that's why I intend to etch), + and what I have done, bar one or two things, are merely little + chic sketches for money. I have many plans; among others I + intend to bring out a series in _Punch_, with which I shall + take peculiar care--something quite original. I think you + would precious soon get more portraits than you could paint + here, but if you are getting on so well in Paris, of course it + would be madness to leave. But I do not like the idea of your + not being one of us--such a band of brothers full of jolly + faults that dovetail beautifully. It was quite a freak of mine + coming over here; I did it against everybody's advice--came + over with a ten-pound note and made the rest. 'Your friend + Bobtail seems to be the only man who had no doubt of your + talent,' writes my mother. 'Enfin c'est prouve que je suis au + moins bon a quelque chose.' Do you go much into the world? + I go knocking about as happily as possible, singing and + smoking cigars everywhere. Jimmy Whistler and I go 'tumbling' + together, as Thackeray says. Would you were here to tumble + with us! Enfin, mon bon, ecris moi vite." + +When at last I too returned to London I was privileged to take my +humble share in the "tumbling," as also in the steady process that was +gradually to wean us from Bohemia. We tumbled pretty regularly into +the Pamphilon, a restaurant within a stone's throw of Oxford Circus, +of the familiar type that exhibits outside its door a bill of fare +with prices appended, to be studied by those who count their shillings +and pence as we did. We had got beyond the days when no wines are sour +and when tough meat passes muster, if there is only plenty of it; we +wanted a sound dinner, and we got it at the Pamphilon; to wind up we +adjourned to the coffee-room and talked and read and smoked. + +Stacey Marks, Poynter, Jimmy Whistler, and Charles Keene were among +the crew, and others not so well known to fame. Pleasant hours those +and gemuethliche, as the Germans say; how different the after-dinner +clay pipe or cheap weed of those times to the post-prandial havannah +we now complacently whiff at our friend's Maecenas' hospitable table! +Yes, things have changed, my dear Rag, since the day we were paying +our bill, and you addressed the waiter with superb affability: "Here, +Charles, is a penny for you. I know it isn't much, but I can't afford +more." + +It is hard to fancy anything less like Bohemia than Regent Street, +but a little incident that occurred as I walked down that busy +thoroughfare one afternoon recalls the best traditions of the land in +which practical jokes abound. I was going along without any definite +aim, killing time and gathering wool, flaneing, in fact; perhaps there +was a touch of the foreigner about me, for I had only lately returned +from abroad; anyway I suddenly found myself singled out as a fit +subject to be victimised. I felt a hand stealthily sliding into my +pocket; on the spur of the moment I grasped that hand in as much of an +iron grip as I could muster. Then--I hardly know why--I waited quite +a number of seconds before I turned round. When I did, it was du +Maurier's face that I beheld, blanched with terror. Those seconds +had been ages to him. Good heavens! had he made a mistake? Was it not +Bobtail's but another man's hand that was clutching his wrist? Thank +Heaven, it was Bobtail's! + +There never was an occasion, before or after, I feel absolutely sure, +when du Maurier was more truly glad to see me. His colour rapidly +returned, and he swore that of all the bonnes blagues this was the +best; but for all that, one thing is certain--he has never since +attempted to pick pockets in Regent Street. + +A delightful compromise between Bohemia and the land where +well-regulated Society rules supreme, was the ground on which stood +Moray Lodge, the residence of Arthur Lewis, the head of the well-known +firm of Lewis and Allenby. + +We have read of him before:-- + + "Sir Lewis Cornelys, as everybody knows, lives in a palace on + Campden Hill, a house of many windows, and, whichever window + he looks out of, he sees his own garden and very little else. + There was no pleasanter or more festive house than his in + London, winter or summer." + +I quote this, as probably it may not be known to everybody that Sir +Lewis was knighted on the memorable occasion of Trilby's birthday, +when she was presented at the drawing--and every other--room. With +much kindly fore-thought his friend and biographer allows him to be +eighty years old in the early sixties, thereby enabling him to have +attained to-day the ripe old age of one hundred and fourteen. + +Well, he was one of du Maurier's earliest friends, and when Taffy +the Laird, and Little Billie, "a-smokin' their pipes and cigyars," +told the cabby to drive to Mechelen Lodge, I found my way to what I +called Moray Lodge, and met them there. And there too, to be sure, +was Glorioli, "the tall, good-looking swarthy foreigner from whose +scarcely parted, moist, thick, bearded lips issued the most ravishing +sounds that had ever been heard from throat of man or woman or boy." + +As we now empty one or the other of the million bottles that are +about, marked "De Soria, Bordeaux," we often think with gratitude of +the great wine-grower and still greater singer, so correctly described +as "singing best for love or glory in the studios of his friends." + +To return to Arthur Lewis:-- + +He occupied an exceptional position, inasmuch as he had made his house +a centre towards which intellectual London gravitated. When he had +done this, that, and the other to make his bachelor days memorable to +a host of friends, he wound up by marrying one of England's fairest +women, our great actress, Kate Terry. It was in those early days that +Ellen, the debutante, was introduced to the dramatic world as "Kate +Terry's sister." Since then Kate, having elected to rest on her +laurels, is proud to be referred to by the younger generation as +"Ellen Terry's sister." + +In early life Lewis had various roads open to him. Born, as he was, +with the capacity of a man of business, the means and opportunities of +a man of leisure, and the talents of an artist, he managed to follow +the three roads at the same time, and they all led to well-deserved +success. He was to be found at his desk in Regent Street, at his easel +in the studio, or on the threshold of that big billiard and reception +room which he had built to entertain his friends. Himself an artist, +and for many years a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, he was on +terms of close friendship with the men who had made their mark in the +art-world, and with many who were destined to become famous. He was +a Maecenas of the right sort, knowing a good thing when he came across +it, and frequently acquiring it before the sleepy world awoke to its +merits. + +I well recollect the enthusiasm with which he welcomed the first +pictures Joseph Israels exhibited in England in 1862. Neither in +the English nor in the Dutch department of the Exhibition could he +ascertain whether these two pictures, "The Drowned Fisherman" and +"Washing the Cradle," were for sale. But luck would have it that he +was introduced to Israels at the Academy _soiree_, and the artist, +assuring him that the pictures were "certainly for sale," Lewis +secured the coveted works, and was thus the first to establish +Israels' fame in England. + +The gatherings in Moray Lodge were unique in their way. It was +characteristic of the master and the house that they made everybody +feel at home, from the titled aristocrat in the dress-suit to the +free-and-easy brother-brush or pen, and the sometimes out-at-elbow +friend Bohemian. + +There was the Duke of Sutherland, the Marquis of Lorne, Lord Dufferin, +Mr. Frederic Leighton, Associate of the Royal Academy, Fred Walker, +who sang tenor in the choir, of which more presently, and who on +several occasions designed the cards of invitation for Lewis. +There was Lord Houghton, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Rossetti, +Landseer, Daubigny, Gustave Dore, Arthur Sullivan, Leech, Keene, +Tenniel, &c., &c. It is as hard to pass those names over without +comment as it must have been to run the gauntlet of Scylla and +Charybdis, for every one of them brings back some recollection, and +calls upon the pen to start a paragraph with an "I well remember." + +But that would lead me away from Moray Lodge and the famous Saturday +evenings, and I never was, and am not now, in a hurry to get away from +that hospitable mansion. + +The billiard-table was boxed over on the gala nights and transformed +into a buffet. It was covered with bottles and glasses, pipes and +cigars, and towards the close of the evening with mountains of +oysters. The amount we consumed on one occasion was 278 dozen, as I +happen to know. But the great attraction at these gatherings was the +part-singing of the twenty-five "Moray Minstrels." John Foster was the +conductor, and led them to such perfection that the severest critic of +the day, dear old crabbed Henry F. Chorley, proclaimed them the best +representatives of the English school of glee-singing. + +Another no less interesting feature was the performance of small +theatrical pieces. Du Maurier and Harold Power had given us charming +musical duologues, like "Les Deux Aveugles," by Offenbach, and "Les +Deux Gilles," with great success, and that led to further developments +and far-reaching consequences. A small party of friends were dining +with Lewis. "What shall we get up next?" was the question raised. +"Something new and original," suggested the host. "Now, Sullivan, you +should write us something." "All right," said Sullivan, "but how about +the words? Where's the libretto?" "Oh, I'll write that," said Burnand. +And thus those two were started. "Cox and Box," a travesty of "Box +and Cox," was read and rehearsed a fortnight afterwards at Burnand's +house, and the following Saturday it was performed at Moray Lodge. +Du Maurier was "Box," Harold Power "Cox," and John Foster "Sergeant +Bouncer." Du Maurier's rendering of "Hush-a-by, Bacon," was so +sympathetic and tender that one's heart went out to the contents of +the frying-pan, wishing them pleasant dreams. + +Then there was his famous duet with "Box," reciting their marriage to +one and the same lady, and the long recitative in which the printer +describes his elaborate preparations for suicide. + +How he solemnly walked to the cliff and heard the seagulls' mournful +cry--and looked all around--there was nobody nigh. Then (disposing his +bundle on the brink)--"Away to the opposite side I walked." ("Away" +on the high A, that Sullivan put in on purpose for du Maurier, who +possessed that chest-note in great fulness.) + +I must skip a few years and speak of a drawing that appeared in +_Punch_ in 1875,[4] and which has a special interest for me; it brings +back to my mind a happy thought of du Maurier's, which is closely +connected with a particularly happy thought of my own, that took root +then and has flourished ever since. + +[Footnote 4: Published by kind permission of the proprietors of +_Punch_.] + +I must explain that there was a time when I had to console myself +with the reflection that the course of true love never runs smooth. A +lady whom in my mind I had selected as a mother-in-law, by no means +reciprocated my feelings of respect and goodwill. But the young lady, +her daughter, fortunately sided with me, and had, in fact, given her +very willing consent to the change in her mother's position which I +had suggested. I was naturally anxious to assure that young lady as +frequently and as emphatically as possible how much I appreciated +her assistance, and how determined I was never to have any other +mother-in-law but the one of my choice; nor could there be anything +obscure in such a declaration, as of three sisters in the family that +particular one was the only unmarried one. But neither in obscure nor +in explicit language was I allowed to approach her; a blockade was +declared and rigorously enforced, and we were soon separated by a +distance of some few hundred miles. + +[Illustration] + +I can look back complacently on the troubles of those days now that +twenty years have elapsed since I emerged victorious from the contest; +but then the future looked blank and bleak, and I felt nonplussed and +down-hearted. Knowing, however, what a faint heart is said never to +win, I was anxious to keep mine up to the mark, and with a view to +stimulating its buoyancy I went to make a friendly call on du Maurier. +He would, I felt sure, be sympathetic, and, whatever else might be +wanting in that troublesome eye of his, there would be a certain +vivifying twinkle in it that could always set me up. + +It was as I expected, and I had the full benefit of the eye, and of an +ear, too, that he lent willingly as I told him how matters stood. + +"Well," he said, "if you can't smuggle in a letter, let's smuggle in +your portrait. It will be rather a joke if she comes across you in +_Punch_. I've just got a subject in which I can use you." + +To be sure, I jumped at the idea, only beseeching him to make me +as handsome as he possibly could, without losing sight of the main +object, viz., that the young lady should be able to recognise me. Her +mother too, I felt sure, would not fail to be duly impressed, for to +figure in _Punch_ would raise me in her estimation as a person of no +small importance. + +The drawing was made and published, and the scheme worked well; +coupled, perhaps, with a few millions of other influences, and with +the assistance of the Fates, it achieved the desired result, and +before a year had elapsed the original drawing could be presented +by du Maurier to the young lady, now become a bride, as a memento of +bygone troubles. + +One more digression suggested by the name of Arthur Sullivan; it +shall be the last. I am not going back to the time when we were boys +together in Leipsic, but will only mention him in connection with +Carry; this time Carry in another form. + +[Illustration] + + +Shortly after that big wave intervened that separated her from us a +happy chance put me in possession of a dog, the most affectionate and +lovable of Skye terriers. + +I named him Carry. + +That dog, his qualities and virtues, and especially his musical gifts, +deserve more than a passing mention; but, trusting that he, like every +dog, will have his day, I will here only transcribe a letter of his +that he wrote with the assistance of his friend, Arthur Sullivan, who, +attracted perhaps by the gifts above named, had kindly taken charge of +him during my temporary absence on the Continent. Poor dog! He is dead +now; so that there can be no indiscretion in publishing his bark and +its translation. The former is best given in its original setting. +The latter, purporting to be a "Translation of the foregoing by A.S.," +runs as follows:-- + + "MY DEAR AND ESTEEMED MASTER,--My kind friend, Mr. Sullivan, + who pretends to be as fond of me as you are, has taken me away + from the enjoyment of a delicious mutton bone, in order to + answer your letter; and as I cannot find a pen to suit me + well, he is writing whilst I dictate. I was very low-spirited + the other day after leaving you, and appeared to feel the + parting very much, but it soon wore off under the influence + of biscuit, bones, and kindness; indeed, I must do Sully and + his family the justice to say that they try to do the utmost + to make me happy and comfortable, although they don't always + succeed, for sometimes I appear dissatisfied (hoping, + _entre-nous_, by that means to get more out of them). + + "I have several idiosyncrasies and failings, of which my + master (_pro tem._) is trying to correct me, but finds it + rather hard work, for I am not so easily brought out of them. + I have a will of my own, but Sully says: 'Train up a dog in + the way it should go, and he will not depart, &c., &c.'--and + Sully is right. + + "Don't you think it is a bad plan to wash me with soap? I + think it deters me from licking my skin, and consequently + from having those ideas of cleanliness engendered within me + which are so necessary to every well-bred dog moving in good + society! + + "I want to get back to my bone, but Sully says I must first + deliver a message from him. You are to give his love to your + dear parents (in which I heartily join), and tell them how + grieved he was that he did not see them to wish them 'God + speed' before they left England, and how it hurt him to think + that a long, long time would perhaps elapse before he should + see them again. + + "And now, my dear master, I must say 'Good-bye.' Much love in + few words, in which Sully joins me. + + "Believe me, ever your + + "Attached and faithful dog, + + [Illustration: Carry + + X + + his mark] + + "F. MOSCHELES, Esq." + + * * * * * + +And now I come to du Maurier's last letter--the best, as I am sure +every right-minded person will admit. I have kept it "pour la bonne +bouche" (excuse my quoting French. "Will me not of it," as our +neighbours say; there are unassailable precedents for such quoting, +you know--or ought to know). The letter in question speaks of an event +so momentous, that of all events it is the one most worthy to "be +marked with a white, white stone"; and marked it was, if not with a +stone, with satins and laces and a veil and white orange blossoms. + +"Come and be introduced to the future Mrs. Kicky," it said. "She +intends to celebrate her 21st birthday by a small dance. There will +be friends and pretty girls, 'en veux tu, en viola.' So rek-lect, +olf'lah, Tuesday, at half-past seven." + +[Illustration] + +The drawing shows how I was introduced, and how graciously I was +received. + +The letter needs a word of explanation, as it speaks of the "future +Mrs. 'Kicky,'" and I have not yet mentioned that Kicky was but another +name for du Maurier. He got it at an early period of his life. Just +as any other baby less favoured by "Dame Fortune the witch" would have +done, he gave himself his nickname. He picked it up in Brussels when +he was two years old, and under the care of Flemish servants. They +called him "Mannekin" (little man), and that he converted into +"Kicky." I append one of the numerous varieties of his signature. + +[Illustration: Kick] + + * * * * * + +The Rag, Tag, and Bobtail had its day, and was shelved soon after +we bid adieu to Bohemia; but the Kicky survived and flourished, and +to-day not only his old chums, but those nearest and dearest to him, +feel that they could not do without that particular appellation, +associated as it is with a thousand and one happy memories. + +And having arrived at that busiest of stations, the Matrimonial +Junction, where the converted bachelor alights and changes for Better +or for Worse, this chapter fitly comes to a close, meant as it was +only to sketch some of the pleasant recollections that I, in common +with so many of his friends, have of du Maurier's bachelor days. + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In Bohemia with Du Maurier, by Felix Moscheles + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER *** + +***** This file should be named 13517.txt or 13517.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/5/1/13517/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, William Flis, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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