* ‘Tales of the Tyrol’
“I am so near the Swiss frontier—at the Canton of Tessin—that I prefer making my post town there, where all newspapers are admitted freely. Address me, then, Poste Restante, Chiasso, Switzerland.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Villa Lima, Como,Sept. 1, 1847.
“I send you herewith a letter received from Chapman this day. You will see by one expression—the same crucible—that he, too, is [alive] to the possibility of a reprint of my books himself. As to ‘Horace Templeton,’—which is now my only spec,—it is a secret—to be published without my name. I thereby receive a small sum, but I hazard no fame, and would willingly try if, under a new sobriquet, I could lay siege to a new public.
“Have you any reason to believe that £500 to £600 with my claim would be accepted [for the copyrights]? I am more than ever eager to recover them, because, during the reissue, I could lie by and yet have some means of living till better bookselling days. Above all, obtain my MS. from M’Glashan, for independently of his cavalier treatment of me, I have now,viâ‘Horace Templeton,’ a local habitation to accommodate my stray sheep withal. And this ‘Tyrol Tale’ will now do me good service. Send it, therefore, and with it will you send the pages of my story called ‘Carl Stelling, the Painter of Dresden,’ printed in the July number of the D. U. M., 1845? M’Glashan could give the sheet without destroying a number, but if not, buy one and tear it out. This also finds a lodging in the Hôtel Templeton.
“I cannot thank you enough for all your kindness in writing to me—a kindness that does not need the force of contrast (in others’ neglect) to make it dearer. I am a bankrupt in thanks, and have coolly resolved to die in your debt.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Villa Lima, Lago de Como,Sept.20, 1847.
“We could never think of pushing Curry to a bankruptcy. If others take this upon them we must abide by it, but I hope, for the poor man’s sake, it may not be so.... M’Glashan scarcely deserves a paragraph.... O’Sullivan’s letter was in so far only an allusion to the affair at issue—that is, he said, M’G. has, it appears, an MS. of yours in his hands, which he will write to you about by this post or the following. Four months ago he (M’G.) wrote to me asking, in eager terms, to see this MS., and promising a reply upon it without the least delay,—since which he has never once written, not even an acknowledgment of its arrival.
“I would beg of you to keep the MS. by you—that is, if it should not have already been forwarded to [catch] Maxwell in London. As to the printed story,—‘Carl Stelling,’—will you scratch out the title at top, and the words ‘by the editor’ carefully, and cross out the Introduction, letting the tale begin by the words of the narrator—“There are moments in life,” &c.,—and send it to Mr Chapman with a line to say that this printed matter comes in after the MS. pages of chapter xi. of ‘Horace Templeton’? I may here add that the aforesaid H. T. is already—so far at least as eleven chapters go—in the printer’s hands. It is precious bad stuff, and, worse still, very lachrymose and depressing—I mean, so far as such very powerless trash can be—Mais que vovlez-vous?And in the present case I have laid the child at another man’s door, and will never own him—if he doesn’t grow up more thrivingly than I hope for.
“You wouldn’t believe what difficulties the authorities here make about the unhappy document. The Podesta is afraid of it! The Legation trembles at it—the Commessario says it is ‘Peri-colosissimo!’ and how I am to find anemployécourageous enough to look on while I sign it, I cannot tell. I fear that in the end I must go up to Milan, where the functionaries will possibly have more hardihood.
“I am greatly gratified that you have seen John Maxwell—whose visit I look for with much pleasure. We have not met for seventeen years,—up to that we had spent, nearly day-by-day, the previous ten or twelve years always together. It will be curious for each to see time’s changes in the other, and how far the opinions and tastes of the man already steering round Cape Dangerous have diverged from (those of) the boy and the youth. For myself, there are many [? changes] that I can recognise; nor am I blind to the telling of coming years, which show me the diminished sense of enjoyment I possess to heretofore,—how little I value society, how tiresome I find what I hear are very pleasant people, and so on. And without being actually old, I am old enough to think that the world used to be pleasanter long ago, and that friends were more cordial and more frank, and that there was morelaisser-allerin the course of life than in these hardworking, money-seeking, railroading days we’ve got now.
“The most enduring tastes a man can cultivate (avarice apart) are, I believe, the love of scenery and music. There I feel stronger than ever: the former has, perhaps from living a good deal alone, become a passion with me, and I am better pleased to have glens, glaciers, and cataracts than the fascinations of soirees and receptions.
“Keep ‘Horace Templeton’ quiteen cachet, for though I suppose I shall be known easily, I will not confess, but die innocent.
“We have very grave events happening here at Milan, but they are kept quiet by the police, and even in society every one you ask on the subject says—Non e niente: and so they will keep on saying till the streets are barricaded, and the city in open revolt. Between ourselves, the reform party here are great blackguards, and the Pope [? without irreverence] an ass to think that moderate concessions and reasonable privileges will content a mob, who only look for a new constitution as an occasion for general pillage. It’s all very fine for ‘the gentlemen of England, who live at home at ease,’ to say God-speed to the march of Liberal opinions in other lands; but let them remember that our own institutions took centuries to grow and to consolidate, and were often shaken and menaced, and only at length firmly established by the force of public opinion, which finds its exponent in aristocratic institutions,—a hereditary peerage and a popular assembly, nearly four-fifths of which is aristocratic. Try the same systems in other countries, and see what will come of it. Get people to make laws who never met for the voting of a parish cess or a penny poor rate; liberate a press that only asks freedom that it may revel in libel; set up an aristocracy that are uneducated and unreformed as objects of general respect! No, no! If the Pope had contented himself with his first [? effort], and swept the Church and its monastic institutions free from abuses; had he examined into the state of charities and hospitals and schools,—he would have done far more good, though far less obtrusively, than by quarrelling with Austria, and fraternising with Mazzini & Co.
“There are rumours of an outbreak at Bologna; probably, my dear friend, you have already sighed forth a wish that I was in the midst of it rather than [that I should] inflict upon you this tiresome piece of prolixity. But remember what the old woman said to the sentinel, who threatened to put the bayonet into her hinder part—‘Divil thank you—sure it’s yer thrade!’
“Fore God! I think a Bull from the Pope must be easy to obtain in comparison with the formality of this unlucky document. I now enclose iten règle.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Villa Lima, Lago de Como,Oct. 6, 1847.
“You say you are puzzled by what Chapman says as to my being charged with the production (at least one-half cost) of unsold copies. Yet the fact is precisely so. There were of ‘Hinton’ something above 16,000 sold and somewhere like 20,000 printed, and with the interval between the two amounts you will find that I am charged with a moiety of the cost of producing. It was this fact, coupled with the trickery of a depreciatory sale, that made Chapman pronounce the whole [? transaction] a cheat.*
* What Edward Chapman had actually written (some timepreviously) was: “You have been in the hands of thePhilistines. It is these things which bring discredit on ourcraft, and make authors look upon us as a set of ghoulsready to eat them, body and bones—with a tendency to getfat upon their brains. No doubt it was thought that youwould make a nice dishcurried.”—E. D.
“It was Chapman’s accountant who discovered M’Glashan’s status, [which] is indeed the greatest mystery of all. How he could leave the concern so deeply indebted I cannot conceive. Great sacrifices, I am sure, he made to retain the Magazine, but the sum of £3000 must be six times more than would purchase the D. U. M.
“Is it not possible that some day or other that same Magazine may be in the market? If it were mine—solely—I would make £1000 out of it per annum.
“I am sincerely gratified that you have read, and, better still, are pleased with, my Tyrolean story. Had I not too just grounds to fear how the very aspect of my hand-o’-write must weary you, I would have asked you to read the MS. Now that you have done so, I may say that I wrote it in the fulness of my heartfelt admiration for the land and the people,—one in which and with whom I would feel delighted to linger out whatever may remain to me of life.
“As for Como, I own I like it better every day I stay here; but if it be very pleasurable it is costly. Every one here is rich,—millionaire Russians and Lombards, Venetian Eccelenzas, Grandees d’Espagne, &c., are around us on every side; and the whole Lake is a gala of gay gondolas and dressy signoras, which figure not only reflected in the water, but once more and less pleasantly in one’s bank account.
“Maxwell wrote to me from Paris, and I replied to him to Livonia, as he desired; but he had not abandoned all idea of coming here, and was making, as fast as the heavy mail and his bronchitis would permit, for Florence.
“There is nothing really alarming in the state of affairs here. The real fun is the stupid ignorance of the English press, who are hailing the Pope and his reform party as though they were members of the Cobden League.... The Pope is an ardent, simple-minded, well-intentioned man, who sincerely desires amelioration of government, but the real movers are thepèresJesuits, who are trading, like certain speculators on the Bourse, and making false purchases, to intrigue for a fall in the Funds. They are speculating on the reaction thatmustfollow. Austria, who hates and never has tolerated the residence of this party in her states, is terrified—hence the occupation of Ferrara. Meanwhile the English press swallows the bait and cries God speed the movement! Peel at least is aware of the truth,—so much I know from my old friend Sir H. S[eymour].”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Como,Oct. 19, 1847.
“We are againen route—this time with a long road before us—to Florence....
“Chapman informs me that the [Curry] accounts are of such a nature as totally to preclude his being able to form anything like a correct estimate of the value of the property. He adds that there is a ‘juggle somewhere,’ and suggests, with my concurrence, that he sends his own accountant over to Dublin to investigate the concern,—of course the cost of this step to be borne conjointly. I have at once acceded to this request, for even if I did not coincide in the fitness, I yield to the consideration that it engages Chapman in the affair, and thus renders him more likely to become a whole or part proprietor of the books. His becoming a republisher of them is the best—the only—guarantee I can have for his continuing all dealings in the future. An honest man and a prompt paymaster included in a publisher are very rare gifts, and I am greatly indisposed to relinquish them. Besides, he has advanced me some hundreds since I concluded my agreement, and unless I can manage to work it out with him it would be a heavy encumbrance to pay if I had to treat with other parties. This is my whole case; and if it be in some respects a cloudy one, I have yet—thank God!—good health and good courage and good spirits to meet it: and once this affair of the copyrights [is] over, [I] will make a bold effort to go to work once more.
“I have now half written, and part printed, the affair called ‘Horace Templeton,’ for which, being anonymous, I will only receive at first £250—being, I greatly fear, about £240 above its value. But I felt it easy on my conscience, as my name—such as it is—remains safe. There are, I hope, some things in H. T. you will like. You who know me well will see how much of the real man has oozed out, and how impossible it has been to make the confessions of a diary purely fictitious. This—which of course will have no interest for the public—will not be without its interest for you, and I shall be impatient to hear your opinion.”
Towards the end of October Lever, dazzling himself with prospects of splendid economy, set out for Florence.
On this journey he sustained a grievous loss. The Austrian authorities on the frontier seized all his papers, deeming them (Lever suggests) to be “part of a treasonable correspondence—purposely allegorical in form.” Amongst the lost documents were his University degree, his commission in a Derry militia regiment, agreements with publishers, private letters, and a protocol embodying the bargain between the novelist and Commissary-General Mayne, which (for a small consideration) entitled the author of ‘Charles O’Malley’ to introduce Mayne (with all his faults and follies) to the public as “Major Monsoon.”
A search was instituted, after Lever’s death, for the ravished papers, but the Austrian authorities could not, or would not, find them. An official—most likely Major Dwyer—who interested himself in the matter said, “I do not wonder at Lever having been suspected ofanything, travelling, as he did, with piebald ponies, and wife and children with long flowing hair. The police could not make out what he was or might not be; and then he had that peculiar way of treating officials that seems to belong to many Irish persons whom I have known.”
The Levers entrenched themselves in “Casa Standish.” There was a private theatre attached to the palazzo. In common with his contemporary Dickens, Lever had a passion for theatrical entertainments. Mr Pearce paid him a visit in November, and was pressed by his host to prolong the visit for the purpose of playing “Joseph Surface” to Lever’s “Charles Surface.”
The Irish novelist readily adapted himself to life in “the very commercial but very profligate city of Florence” (as Father Prout describes it). He even went so far as to continue some of thoseoutrédisplayings which had given offence to the inhabitants of another grand-duchy: he drove his piebald cattle along the crowded avenue of Le Cascine; and it was stated by unamiable people that he was at first taken to be a circus proprietor.
He was soon well known in fashionable circles. Florentine clubs and palaces extended their hospitality graciously; he waspersona grataat the British Embassy, where his old friend, Sir George Seymour, held sway; he attended receptions at the brilliant court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Lever describes the Grand Duke Leopold as one of the most amiable of men and one of the weakest of sovereigns, able to keep possession of his throne only by avowing his willingness to abandon it.
Florence was the gayest of Italian cities when Lever established himself in the Palazzo Standish. The Cascine had special attractions for him. Florence, he declares, was to the world of Society what the Bourse is to the world of Trade. “Scandal here,” he goes on to say, “holds its festival, and the misdeeds of every capital of Europe are discussed. The higher themes of politics occupy but few; the interests of literature attract still less: it is essentially the world of talk.” And as Lever enjoyed conversation more than any other art or pastime, he revelled in Florentine life.
Notwithstanding the negligent attitude of Florence towards the interests of literature or its professors, many goodly British literary folk were denizens of the beautiful city of “magnificently stern and sombre streets.” Amongst these were Robert Browning and his wife, the vivacious and prying Mrs Trollope, and the once famous scientist, Mrs Somerville.
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Florence,Nov. 24, 1847.
“....Except the most miserable piece of depressing twaddle, yclept ‘Horace Templeton,’ the fruit of gloomy reveries and dreary brain-wanderings, I have nothingsur le tapis, but I’ll try to set to work once that our affair Curry is settled.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Palazzo Standish, Florence,Feb. 4, 1848.
“I have this day received yours of the 25th asking respecting the insertion of ‘Hinton’ in ‘The Dublin University Magazine.’ This was done with my permission though manifestly against my interest, as the sale was thus rendered by so much less than we might reasonably have looked for in the No. form. Of course, however, we cannot now complain that we made a bad bargain; and as for the Currys, they will never allude to a matter whose discussion would tell against themselves. The Magazine history is this: When I was living in Brussels I received a letter from M’Glashan saying that if I liked to come to Ireland to take the editorship of the Magazine (which I had already expressed a strong wish to do), they would guarantee me at least £2000 for the first year, and after such a rate of remuneration as increased sales, &c, might warrant. I came, and then, to my great disappointment, discovered that they included the whole sum I had already contracted to receive for ‘Jack Hinton’ in that same £2000 (viz., £1300), leaving me not £2000 but £700 for the editorship and authorship of the papers I wrote for ‘The Dublin University Magazine.’ It was, however, too late to retract. I had given up my profession, my station as attaché to the Embassy; my friends had ceased to regard me as a doctor, and so I was in for it. If I bore up tolerably well against this piece of trickery, it was really because I had resolved, come what would, not to lose courage,—and so I did continue for the very miserable three years I stayed in Ireland. I tell this now—I believe I never did tell it to you before,—not that it may in any way be of use or influence in the present conjuncture, but simply as a circumstance to show that I have never beenexigeantor exacting in my dealings with other folks. Nor when I had (as I still have) a written pledge in my hands did I think its enforcement a matter of legal redress.
“I hope, ardently, that in the end the books may find themselves in Chapman’s hands; but I feel so assured that Curry is a trickster, and that when his own narrow intelligence fails him he is always ready to avail himself of any counselled iniquity, that I still fear the termination of the affair.
“Do you see anything of M’Glashan, or hear of his doings? You are aware that he never replied to me, and consequently all intercourse has ceased between us. Is he like to weather the storm, or do you think that he is outstaggering under the gale?
“The weather here is and has been delicious. I have never worn an upper coat, and never been one day without several hours on horseback. Such a climate I never believed to exist before.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Bagni di Lucca,Feb. 26, 1848.
“I have just returned from a most interesting but somewhat precarious journey—to carry despatches from our Ambassador here to the general late in command of the Tuscan forces.* It was full of adventure and strange incident, and although the revolutionary [? movement] has been too rapid to make us more successful, the result has shown (which was a great object) the disposition of the government of England towards the fallen Grand Duke.
* General de Langier.
“I had a mountain range—one of the Apennines—to cross, with deep snow and glaciers. Sixteen hours’ work to cross, of which only five could be performed on horseback, the remainder being on foot and by night—a night without a star too. This, with the consciousness that I had on my person a letter to a man for whose head 20,000 dollars were offered, made the attempt, to say the least, highly exciting. Well, here I am again, and, thank God, nothing the worse, save in some fatigue which a day or two will pull up.
“The revolutionary party here have conquered for the present—that is, they have acquired the ascendancy of terror, precisely as the French democrats obtained it by enlisting in their cause all the most infamous and degraded criminals of the State, and this by the pressing threat of a pillage and a sack deterring the quieter population from even a murmur. The Grand Duke has fled to Gaeta, his life being no longer safe at St Stephano; and as General de Langier’s troops have all accepted service under the Provisional Government, all hope of return to his throne is lost, except from foreign intervention.
“On Wednesday night last the peasantry—who are all loyal to the sovereign—attempted a movement in Florence, but the civil guard closed the gates and prevented entrance, and after some hours of drum-beating and alarm-bells, quiet was restored.
“Piedmont would send 12,000 men to restore the Duke (six would do it) if Gioberti were in the ascendant, but the hitch is that the radicals of Genoa are themselves watching the Tuscan revolt as a matter for their own [guidance]; and now we hear that Naples is again in open revolt, showing that the whole outbreak of Rome, Tuscany, and Naples was a preconcerted rising, planned and matured by the Mazzini faction. I began to fear that the case is almost desperate, and that Monarchy, or, what is better, Order and Legality, are doomed for a season at least in this peninsula. Sir George Hamilton’s efforts have been unceasing to avert the dangers, and to his skill and energy are owing even the length of peace we have hitherto enjoyed. If you think that these few remarks are of any interest, would you kindly send this to Sheehan, to whom I am unable at this emergency to write more fully?...
“I am anxiously looking for the reply to your proposition [to Curry]. God grant it may be successful. It would set my mind at rest, for some time at least.
“I am sorely afraid we must flit from this, which, if for no other reasons than the financial ones (and there are a score of others), will be a sad inconvenience to me; but I fancy we are about to have a taste of arepublica rosa, for which I feel anything but inclined to be the witness.
“My wife and the weans are doing admirably. Although the events around us are very alarming, we have lived long enough among the population of this little locality to know and like the people, and, I flatter myself, are well thought of by them. My fear is only for marauders—the usual vagabonds who have deserted and are traversing the country in bands of twenty and thirty. These are really to be dreaded. It would, of course, be impossible to live long in a state of siege without suffering more than any residence would requite. If, therefore, the reign of anarchy here promises a continuance, I shall be off, but in what direction I know not. The Alps are impassable to wheel-carriages, and to horses save those in daily habit of passing, so that Switzerland is cut off; and Lombardy, which is nearest, is not in the condition to make one seek it. France, besides, is on the eve of another commotion.Que faire?Meanwhile we have good courage and light hearts—at least, so far as the danger goes.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Baoni di Lijoca,March20, 1848.
“....I am low in pocket and in hope. Perhaps it were better, as you suggest, to draw near England,—but in reality it is as little my country as America.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Bagni di Lucca,April21, 1848.
“I would suggest some compromise with Curry—[? a bargain] to superintend an edition which would give me a regulated share of profits, and spare me the mortification of being thrown upon the market in a disgraceful and unauthorised fashion.... If Chapman would give £800 I am quite ready to go half. I would go over at once, but really this is a nervous moment to leave a family in Italy. Assassinations and pillage are too rife to make absence easy. Besides, with two monthly Nos. to supply and a very low exchequer, time and cash are grave obstacles.
“Natural smallpox of a most dangerous type is raging around us, and I fear that I must run away to Florence—which, with a big tail of men and maids, is something very formidable. I am the more inclined to yield to my fears and fly, but my poverty should influence me in incurring a considerable risk.
“The insurances are always in my thoughts.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Casa Standish, Florence,May27, 1848.
“As to the under-sale [i.e., selling at reduced prices], so little was I aware of it that when in the January of 1845 Mr Pearce went to London from Templeogue to negotiate the sale of ‘St Patrick’s Eve’ with Chapman & Hall, Mr Chapman’s argument for offering a lower sum than I proposed was that ‘Mr Lever’s works were in some instances advertised at depreciated prices.’ Pearce wrote to me word of this, and, indignant at what I believed to be a falsehood, I hurried in to Dublin and asked M’Glashan how such a story could get abroad? He said he couldn’t conceive how, for he knew there was no truth in it. But his hesitation and confusion were extreme.
“If I could proceed against those parties who alleged having informed me [of the under-sale] I would certainly do so. The whole case is evidently now ‘up.’ I see no prospect of any benefit by further proceedings, and if you are of my opinion that an Equity suit would serve me, I would lie down under the wrong and leave it among the many hard rubs in life I have suffered. If I understand the matter aright, I have no share whatever in the proceedings of any sum to be obtained for the sale of these works or copyrights, and very small prospects of any payment of the debt they owe me. Be it so. Now, one last chance. If these works are to be sold by auction, will their probable price be above the sum Chapman would give? It would be well to communicate with him on this subject....
“As to the rate or grade at which I was to be paid for the over-sale after 11,000 of ‘Hinton,’ M’Glashan wrote to me one letter in which he said: ‘The work will probably reach 20,000, in which case your profits will be doubled.’ This letter, and all my papers and private letters, MSS., &c., have been lost on the way from Como here—or, more probably, destroyed by the police authorities,—so that ill-luck is of late no stranger to me.
“My dear friend, I have written a very disjointed, ill-connected scrawl, but I am a little ‘abroad,’ being in no wise prepared for the tidings that have just reached me. On one point only am I calm and collected,—the heartfelt gratitude I owe you for all you have done for me.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Casa Capposi, Florence,May23, 1848
“If the copyrights were to revert to me, I would at once turn my stepsTowardsEngland,—at least, so far as Switzerland or Belgium,—while in the other alternative I’d make up my mind to remain here, which for moneyed reasons is almost compulsory.
“I have been drawing on my new book, ‘Roland Cashel,’ so far in advance, that I am unable to say how I shall get on as it draws near the end. We are living in quietness here, with war and revolution on every side. A new revolt at Naples has justéclated, in which the troops smashed the mob. Meanwhile, five frigates of the Neapolitans are gone to assist revolt in Venice. The Pope has been discovered playing double, and his great popularity is gone. I fear Lombardy is lost to Austria. Internal dissension at Vienna, revolt in Hungary and Bohemia, and desertion among the troops in Italy, have scarce left a chance of recovering this best and richest province. Florence, too, is ready to intervene, and then comes a grand European war, in which England must choose her side and join. I trust it may not be an alliance with France.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Casa Ximenes, Florence,July18, 1848.
“I would rather relinquish than contest a disputed right. I read ‘opinions,’ therefore, only as so many différent shades of probability which can but little influence the judicial results, and I come ever to the one same humiliating conclusion,—that it is better to treat quasi-amicably with the rogues who have cheated us than to leave the question to other as great rogues for decision.
“I would, therefore, as you suggest, advise with Chapman what steps to take for the repurchase; and without submitting the tangled web of disputed claims to renewed litigation, I would endeavour to [? obtain] a demand for thewholecopyrights (subject, of course, to the diminution my rights would inflict), and if possible purchase them.
“I conclude that the assignees will, from their triumph at the Bankruptcy Court,—and such it is,—make a much higher demand than Curry did formally; but I opine, from what Chapman says of the trade, that few publishers, in London at least, would adventure upon a purchase where an author assumed an ill-defined and illimitable claim.
“The great object would then appear to me: first, to ascertain their expectations amicably, and if not such as I’ve prudently [? acceded] to, to wait for the sales and stand among the bidders like every one else,—of course taking care to make our protest against the right to dispose of all the copyrights. This without any further recourse to law or any single reference to lawyers or solicitors, I would strongly advise.
“My present state is, financially speaking, pretty much that of the present Government—a very lively system of daily disbursements and a very meagre amount of receipts; so that, barely to live, I have eaten up in advance half of ‘Roland Cashel,’ yea, even before he is written! But for this I should have drawn closer to England this summer,—not for any desire, God knows, to settle there, but to be near enough to London to negotiate some literary speculation or other that might clear me out of debt.
“I have not now means for this object, and must remain here,—no penance if I had spirits and cash to make my mind easy.
“I believe you are quite correct in your view about M’Glashan, and the only point of the case that now strikes me as worth anything is how far his liability to the debt might be established.
“I am glad you like ‘Roland,’ which I did myself for half the first No.; but he has slidden out of my favour since that. However, I will in parts please you.
“Up to this moment Florence is the only tranquil spot in Europe. Naples, Rome, Milan, Vienna, Baden, Paris, all convulsed; but here the slightest disturbance is unknown. The truth is, there is a quiet peace-loving population, and a government so mild as to be no government at all.
“I have often been tempted to send over something about the war in Lombardy to the English papers, who have uniformly agreed up to this in disseminating the most gross and absurd falsehoods about it; but I have been deterred by thinking that of those who really might care for the theme of foreign politics, the greater part are bigoted against Austria, and the remainder indifferent to truth.
“The children are doing well, and fast becoming linguists. I wish there were some career I could think of for Charley other than what is called a profession. I have had some idea of the Navy for him, and although a poor thing, yet [some words illegible]. He is very smart, and can learn anything as quickly as any boy I ever met, so that it seems half a pity to cover such gifts with a blue jacket.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Casa Ximenes, Florence,Aug. 12, 1848.
“....Truth is, I am stunned. The pressure that demands [? money] impedes any fresh efforts on my part, and I sit down to work with a depressed and jaded spirit. Nothing less nourishes than the head that is wet with tears. ‘Roland,’ bad as it is, is therefore better than it might be.
“Do you deem all intercourse with M’Glashan inadvisable? It is the only magazine where I should like to contribute, and if I could make any terms for a series of papers I should soon be in a position to clear off some of my debts. I cannot address him myself: if you chanced to meet him you might feel the way.
“The Austrians have reconquered Lombardy and the whole of Italy, and, if the French do not intervene, will soon be at peace.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Casa Ximenes, Florence,Aug. 19, 1848.
“....Although politically all looks more tranquil here, yet for personal reasons I should draw somewhat nearer to England. I am hampered by the difficulty of postal communication, and to go to London even alone and back would cost me above £100. Otherwise I like the place better than any I have ever known,—a climate beyond praise, a beautiful country, excellent society, and perfectly sound liberty which lets you live in the world or out of it exactly as suits your inclination. The heat, to be sure, is great. 132° Fahrenheit yesterday on the terrace, and that at five o’clock in the afternoon!
“I hope you continue to like ‘Roland Cashel.’ Has any one detected Archbishop Whately as my Dean of Drumcondra? The wholedramatis per-sonæare portraits.
“As to Ireland. All foreign sympathy is over, [? owing to] the late cowardice and poltroonery of the patriots.* Even Italians can fight.
* See John Mitchel’s ‘Jail Journal’ for observations on thisobservation.—E. D.
“As to the result of the attempt of Italian unity, however, the movement here is a complete failure. Naples is at feud with Sardinia, Sardinia with Tuscany, Home with all these; and if there be one man in all Italy more hated than Carlo Alberto, it is the Pope. Pius IX. will in all likelihood bechassedthis winter, and we shall have a Tipperary season of assassination—as the natural subsidence of a defeated outbreak—all over Southern Italy.
“We are going in a few days to Lucca and Via-Reggio for the sea-bathing, which, at least for a week or so, is a matter of necessity in this very roasting climate. The children have got the pale faces of the south already, and it is buying theBocca Toscanasomewhat dear to lose their roses at so early an age.
“I am hesitating about the sea for Cha. He is a boy of very remarkable capacity,—can learn anything, and at once,—and I really scruple at the thought of immolating good talent in such a grave as the Navy.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Casa Ximenes, Florence,Sept. 18, 1848.
“I have made a proposal to Chapman, but have not received his reply.
“If I could make any remunerative terms for a monthly series in a magazine, I could easily manage to gather some suitable materials. M’Glashan is, I suppose, a hopeless case. I have not been able to revisit London. I fancy I could easily make out such a class of engagement as would suit me, but the expense of the journey would be very considerable.
“It is very hard, under such circumstances, to write anything imaginative,—the stern cry of reality drowning the small whisperings of fancy.N’importe!I have pluck for almost anything when self-reliance will pull through, and I am resolved, if I can, not to be swamped.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Bagni di Lucca,Nov. 1, 1848.
“Your letter of the 21st has this moment come to hand, and its last paragraph would inevitably decide me upon going at once to England if I had the means; but when I add the mercenary cost to the fatigue, sea-sickness,—for I should go at least to Genoa by steamer,—inconvenience of leaving wife and brats in a distant and not over-quiet land, and, lastly, calculate how little my presence might avail after, I grow faint-hearted at the ‘odds’ against me.
“My resolve is, therefore, to stay here, whither we have come for economy, taking up our abode in a little inn in a sweet pretty country—and, I confess it, with not a privation to make us feel that prudence pays tax.”
[He then suggests the purchase of his books by Chapman,offering Chapman as “a collateral security,” if he embarksin the “spec,” an insurance policy. He does not desire to betied to Chapman, but sees that nothing can be done unless hegets the books unfettered. He says he is in Chapman’s debtin the first place, and secondly, that there is a loss inrepute in changing publishers, “always argued to thedetriment of the author.”]
“Chapman’s apathy is great on all subjects, nor is he likely to be more alert here: first, that he never reaped the large profit from me that he hoped; [secondly,] because I am his debtor—never acouleur de roseportrait of any one....”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Bagni di Lucca,Jan. 20 [?1849].
“I write to announce to you that I have more need than ever of a little good-luck, as I have this morning had a little girl—a very fat frowning little damsel—added to my battalion. My wife—and that is the first consideration in these cases—is doing admirably.... Have you received ‘Con Cregan’? Of course its paternity was plain to you. It is an effort to work out of a bad and profitless year, with what result God knows.
“I hear from London that ‘Roland Cashel’ is regarded as the best thing I have yet done, but also pronounced to be above the level of shilling readers,—a species of flattery intended to convey that I am to take the praisevicethe pence.
“I have written a paper on Italy for the Feb. No. of ‘The University,’ so that you see I am the author of other productions besides babies.
“Chapman has shown such a perfect indifference on the subject of the copyrights, that I have not any hope of his mediation. I now regret that I did not negotiate with Orr, who publishes ‘Con Cregan’ for me.”
During his first year in Florence Lever made the acquaintance of Miss Mary Boyle, a daughter of Admiral Sir Courtenay Boyle. This clever lady had published some verses and tales. She was a friend of Tennyson, of Dickens, of the Brownings,* of G. P. R. James, and of other literary people of note.
* Mrs Browning describes Miss Boyle in one of her letters toMiss Mitford. “A kinder, more cordial little creature, fallof talent and accomplishment, never had the world’s polishupon it. Very amusing, too, she is, and original, and a gooddeal of laughing she and Robert make between them.”—E. D.
In announcing the birth of his youngest daughter to Miss Boyle, Lever styles the baby “another volume added to the domestic history in the duodecimo shape of a daughter.... The necessity of quiet,” he adds, “the pleasing features of this little place, and the utter dulness of Florence, drove us here. What with horses and dogs and newspapers, books to write and a baby to wait for, our winter has gone over most pleasantly. We had no tramontane wind, no tea-parties, no morning concerts.”
In a letter written in 1879, Miss Boyle gives an interesting description of the Irish humourist. She recalls him as “one of the most genial spirits” she had ever met. “His conversation was like summer lightning—brilliant, sparkling, harmless. In his wildest sallies I never heard him give utterance to an unkind thought. He essentially resembled his works, and whichever you preferred, that one was most like Charles Lever. He was the complete type and model of an Irishman—warm-hearted, witty, rollicking, never unrefined, imprudent, often blind to his own interests—adored by his friends, and the playfellow of his children and the gigantic boar-hound he had brought from the Tyrol.”
Miss Boyle relates a characteristic anecdote of her highly-lauded friend. One afternoon at her house, where Lever was introduced to Lord and Lady Spencer, the hostess took up a volume of Bret Harte’s works, and read aloud one of the parodies of popular authors, selecting the skit in which Lorrequer’s early manner is most funnily burlesqued. Lever enjoyed the recitation, laughing heartily as his tormentor proceeded. He was asked if he could name the author whose work was parodied. “Upon my soul!” said he, “I must have written it myself—it’s so like me.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Bagni di Lucca,Feb. 14, 1849.
“Chapman and I, without any formal document, have already come to an understanding respecting the [? copyrights], should we be successful in obtaining the books. There will be many points to arrange finally between us,—some of them nice ones,—inasmuch that of ‘O’Leary’ I possess the sole copyright; but from his previous honourable dealings and his general character for fairness, I anticipate no difficulty whatever in establishing a perfectly just and equitable transaction. For my future advantage I should rather that Chapman had these copyrights in his hands, even though I never were to benefit one shilling by their sale, because it secures to me—what in these eventful and changing times is of paramount importance—a permanent demand for my labour. Hence my anxiety, hence all my eagerness, that he and not another should be the purchaser.
“My wife and baby are doing most favourably. The latter promises to be the prettiest of the lot, and the others are growing up handsome. Julia is very nearly as tall as myself, and a fine and high-spirited happy-minded girl. Charley promises to be very clever, and Pussy—No 3—a most gifted child, requiring all our care to keep her faculties from running wild.
“We are in full revolution here. The Grand Duke has fled. The usual farce of a provisional government elected: forced loans—bankruptcy—brigandage, are all at work, and we look for pillage and the barricades. But somehow, like eels getting used to be skinned, one begins nowadays to get indifferent to carnage and rapine, and to think that grape and canister are among the compliments of the season.
“I send off my bulletin to ‘The Mail’ from time to time, and I wrote a long paper on Italy in the last ‘University Magazine.’
“I am heartily glad you like ‘Roland,’ which I hope is better than its predecessors.
“‘Con Cregan’ is a secret, and I hope will remain so. It is atrociously careless and ill-written, but its success depending on what I know to be its badness, my whole aim has been to write down to my public.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Bagni di Lucca,April17, 1849.
“I confess myself at a dead loss what to counsel. My only opinion (and I have come to it after much thought) is this:—
“In the event of Chapman consenting to advance the sum and not succeeding—or in the case of his unwillingness to make such proposal,—I would at once [? dispose of] the copyrights in the usual formal manner, but would take no steps by newspaper advertisement, inasmuch as this would give the impression of illegality on our part.
“It would be also well to ascertain if we could not restrain any future sale of stock at depreciated prices. If this required a Chancery order, I would be slow to resort to such means for fear of [? legal] expense.
“Chapman, from whom I had a letter two days ago, thinks that it is the stock and not the copyrights that Curry is now negotiating, but he owns himself baffled by the roguery of this conduct.
“Do you think that anything would be obtained by my going over to Ireland?... I am really exhausted in resources, and can add nothing to this.
“I am very uneasy about my insurances: my means of late—although working an opposition coach to myself—are very considerably diminished (political causes having damaged book-writing to a fearful extent), so that I wish to know have you anything of mine to meet the Globe policy, and whether at next period of payment the Guardian will be able to meet its own demand on the accumulated profits?
“I ask this now, but I regret to say that it will puzzle me sorely what to do if I am called upon, but I ought to learn it in time, so as to make what provision I can.
“All post communications with England ceased for eleven days during the Genoa insurrection....
“The mail-boats were twice burned going from this, and I (with my accustomed luck) lost a whole number of ‘Roland Cashel’—twelve days’ work, of which I have, of course, not a note or memorandum. The proof of ‘Con’ is also lost, so that if it appears next month it will be with all the printer’s imperfections as well as my own.
“I have met with the accompanying advertisement [from a tutor]. Could you find out who he is, what he is like, and if he would feel inclined to reside on the Continent?... I am sorely in want of some means of educating the children, who are far more intelligent than instructed.
“The political reaction here is complete: the Grand Duke very soon will be expected back again, and Italy be ‘as you were.’
“I wonder if Mr M’Glashan wrote to me, and that his letter has been lost? I asked for proofs of my two papers on Italy, ‘Italy and the Italian Tourists,’ which I greatly desire to have.”
At the Baths of Lucca, in the summer of 1849, Lever was introduced to the Brownings. Mrs Browning’s first impression of him is confided to Miss Mitford, in a letter dated August 31, 1849:* “A most cordial, vivacious manner, a glowing countenance, with the animal spirits predominant over the intellect, yet the intellect by no means in default; you can’t help being surprised into being pleased with him, whatever your previous inclination may be. Natural, too, and agentlemanpast mistake.