Mr. Nightingale's Diary: A Farce in One Act (hosted by Sam)

[Connie]

I would like to share a few quotes from Simon Callow in our Dramatic Dickens side read, Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World, which tie in with imagining that we are part of the audience in 1851. Dickens, as Gabblewit, disguised himself as multiple characters in the manner of his idol, Charles Mathews, who inspired his acting as a young man. Mathews acted in one-man shows, quickly changing from one character to the next.

The audience recognized the character-types--not the actual characters--from Dickens' novels. Simon Callow writes:

"Dickens seized the opportunity to play each of Gabblewit's assumed characters as one of his own creations: Sam Weller, Mrs Gamp, Jingle, and so on. These sections, obviously written by him, contain some droll Wellerisms, and especially some vintage Gampery. . . By all accounts it was outrageously funny, bliss for his readers in the audience (in other words, the entire audience) to see the characters they knew and loved brought to life by the man himself."

(Sam Weller is the personal servant, or the Boots, of Mr Pickwick in "The Pickwick Papers." Mrs Sairey Gamp is a sloppy, drunk, incompetent nurse in "Martin Chuzzlewit.")

[Peter]

Connie wrote: "I would like to share a few quotes from Simon Callow in our Dramatic Dickens side read, Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World, which tie in with imagining that we are p..."

Connie

Thanks for this. Simon Callow is a great source.

[Sam]

Connie wrote: "I would like to share a few quotes from Simon Callow in our Dramatic Dickens side read, Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World, which tie in with imagining that we are p..."

This is brilliant Connie and not only ties in with my last thoughts I intend to post today but clarifies some conflicts I was having with my understanding of some of the side reading I pursued. I had recognized the Sam Weller connection, but only when pointed out in a text I read where the Mrs' Gamp connection was beyond me, since I have not yet read Martin Chuzzlewit. I will post again soon but encourage those that are interested in the play to attend since I plan to link some thoughts of a Victorian who was much closer to the actual play then we are today where you can see how close your imaginings came to the real thing.

[Sam]

This will be my last day on Mr. Nightingale's Diary. I am leaving you with the latter part of the play undiscussed but am presuming everyone who read had as rough an idea of the plot as I did. For those that may have not followed I am linking a summary from a blog titled, Anecdotes and work in in progress by Bob Denton which should help you if you are still missing something from the plot. There may be some errors but it is adequate for us.

https://bobdenton.com/dickens-drama-m...

But the main gist of this post is to give us something to check our imaginings against to see if they actually capture the the feel of the performance and for that I will introduce a piece from the May 1871 issue of Gentlemen's Magazine. It is an article entitled Bygone Celebrities Part II, Mr. Nightingale's Diary. written by R.H. Horne. This would be Richard Henry Horne, another Victorian of considerable talents, who lived an adventure filled life and has left us multiple works as a legacy. His most known is a nine canto longer poem "Orion." He has a link to Dickens as a sub-editor of Household Words but left England in 1852 after a failing marriage to try his luck in Australia. He returned to London in 1860 to publish several more books. He is the subject of two different biographies from the 1960's and quite interesting in his own right.

Our interest stems from his description in the article "Bygone Celebrities II," of a performance of Mr. Nightingale's Diary. Horne had in the February, 1871 edition of Gentlemen's Magazine written in Bygone Celebrities, a description of The Guild of Literature and Art at Chatsworth performing the Lytton play "Not So Bad as We Seem," the play performed before ours, But part II was devoted entirely to Mr. Nightingale's Diary and I recommend reading the whole of the article. I will leave links below.

In his article Horne gives us a play-by-play of the play as viewed by someone at the actual performance and it is quite a read proving a wonderful comparison to our own imaginings. You will sometimes wonder if we were talking of the same play as his character's names as well as who was playing them differs somewhat from ours at times.

The first link is to the February 1871 article Bygone Celebrities in Gentlemen's Magazine:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...

The second is part II from May 1871 of the same magazine:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...

I will return to add some quotes to this article in a moment.

[Sam]

This first quote from the Horne article gives us a general idea of how it felt to be there at the time.

"Some of the characters in this laughable piece of stage composition had no names given to them, and others had names liable to be changed with every fresh representation; and as for the dialogue, it was never twice alike, the two principals understanding each other well enough to extemporise whenever they had a fancy to do so. For this reason we have truly designated the piece a stage composition. Consequently, the printed copies (whenever a straggler may be discovered) will contain very' little of what was said by these two celebrated humourists and amateurs.

[Sam]

This second quote descibes the swordfight beteen Slap (Lemon) and Boots (Dickens):

The eminent incog. [Lemon as the German student, alias Daddleham] now rushed across to his carpet bag, and from its well-stuffed paunch hurriedly disengaged and extracted two melodramatic weapons, and a sanguinary combat of the unique old school of popular melodrama at once commenced, in process of which every outrageous and ridiculous stage- business of that class was carried to the utmost perfection. First, they prowled round and round each other--now darting in, very nearly, and as suddenly starting back; next, a passing cut is exchanged, then two or three cuts, the swords emitting sparks, and the combatants uttering strange guttural sounds, breathing hard, and showing their teeth at each other like hungry' wolves. At last they close, and strike and parry to a regular measured time, till gradually you find they are beating a sort of time very like the one known as Lodoiska in the Lancer Quadrilles. After this they strike at the calves of each other’s legs by alternate back stroke and parry, and then Sam springs upon Mr. Daddleham’s left hip, and deals a succession of blows downwards at his head, all parried, of course, with ludicrous precision. Finally, the sword of Sam is passed under one of his antagonist’s arms, who thereupon exhibits the agonies of being run through the body, but nevertheless comes again and again to receive the same mortal wound; in fact, he comes, though fainter and fainter each time, till Sam is at length so exhausted with running through such a fat body that he reels backward fainting just as his antagonist falls with a last gasp and a bump upon the stage that convulses the whole audience with laughter.

[Sam]

I am afraid I have tired and hope you have the opportunity to visit these Horne articles yourselves since they definitely broaden our imagining of the play and are quite helpful in understanding Dickens and his contribution to Victorian theater. I am just about out of time. Tomorrow is the last day before a short break and the start of Nicholas Nickleby which I hope you all join if I haven't driven you away yet. This whole exercise has been interesting for me and rather than bored by all our drama reading, I feel I have just begun and am kind of sorry to see it end. I am hoping on tomorrow, the last day, you might share a thought of your own on all our various drama readings. What a varied trip it has been. To be honest, when first hearing we would read Dickens' dramas I was a somewhat unimpressed, feeling at my age, there is not even going to be enough time for the popular works, but as usual Jean proves brilliant and I am surprised at how much fun I had and how much more I learned. My hat tips to Jean for putting this all together and to all the wonderful leaders who made each piece more interesting and finally the contributors which help make this feel communal and shared. If anyone wishes to add anything on our reads, please do so tomorrow and if not, I look forward to seeing you all for Nicholas Nickleby. Thank you so much for your supporting comments.

[Connie]

Those articles in Gentleman's Magazine are quite a find, Sam. Dickens and his friends were not only talented, but they also knew how to laugh and have fun!

[Sara]

Thank you, Sam, for the links to the magazine articles. It is almost a miracle that this has survived to be studied or read by us at all. It must have been wonderful to see these two men playing so many parts, and to such an appreciative audience which included the Queen. It is easy to see how the entire play was largely an inside joke. I know that feeling when you stumble across a reference to a beloved character in someone else's book and feel a kind of kinship with the author that wasn't there before--I suspect that feeling multiplied by 10 was how the audience felt seeing Dickens and Lemon perform.

You have done a marvelous job of bringing the play to life and encouraging us to "see" it as it was performed originally. I am so happy to have been able to participate, even though I contributed nothing to the discourse. I assure you that you have added immense pleasure to this read for me.

[Connie]

Sam, thank you for bringing out the wonderful humor in this play as well as the camaraderie among Dickens and his circle of friends. It's been an enjoyable reading experience.

[Kathleen]

I agree those articles were an amazing find! I wonder what Dickens would think of us all these years later, digging up these references and enjoying the antics of him and his friends?

This has been a marvelous journey through Dickens' dramas, one I'd never have taken without you all. Thank you to Sam for making this one come to life in such a special way, and to Jean for orchestrating all the fun!

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Sam, thank you so much! You have outdone yourself here, and provided a unique experience for us all; asking us to imagine ourselves as part of the audience, as well as providing so much background material!

I think everyone has really enjoyed this conclusion to our read of the plays, burlesques, farces and what-you-will, and we have certainly enjoyed imagining the fun Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and all their friends had on stage. Thank you everyone, for the extras too!

One tiny addition ... I was intrigued to get to the part about begging-letter writers, as friends may remember we had Charles Dickens's The Begging-Letter Writer as one of our side reads to Bleak House. It must be one of the briefest side reads we have ever had 😆

Anyway I was trying to find the discussion in the Bleak House threads, but the search field just doesn't seem to work for subjects now (or not for me anyway 🙄) so I'll have to link to my review LINK HERE, as I do quote a few of them there 😊 They are quite astonishing. Begging letter scams were a real bugbear of Dickens's, and the essay is hilarious. This is Charles Dickens almost apoplectic with indignation! I read it on Gutenberg I think, and it's in Reprinted Pieces.

Once again, thank you Sam! You are a real star, and deserve lots of encores 😁👏💐👏

[Sam]

Sara wrote: " I am so happy to have been able to participate, even though I contributed nothing to the discourse. .."

Sara you always contribute through your comments, and even if you did not host a work this year, I and surely everyone else realizes and appreciates those contributions. But since you brought it up, I am missing seeing you lead a discussion and hope you decide to do one soon.

[Sam]

Bionic Jean wrote: "Sam, thank you so much! You have outdone yourself here, and provided a unique experience for us all; asking us to imagine ourselves as part of the audience, as well as providing so much background ..."

I thank you for the opportunity to contribute and kind words. I do hope you find the time to read the two sections of Bygone Celebrities from The Gentlemen's Magazine since I could not help but think you would love what was written as I read them, especially the first paragraph of the February 1871 piece, an elegy to those passed, which I thought truly heartfelt given both Charles Dickens and Mark Lemon had passed just months before in the late spring of 1870. I had never read Gentlemen's magazine before, and impressed at what an asset it may be. So the thanks is from me to you for helping me to this find.

[Sam]

Peter wrote: "Connie wrote: "I would like to share a few quotes from Simon Callow in our Dramatic Dickens side read, Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World, which tie in with imaginin..."

Peter I also hope you get to read Horne's Bygone Celebrities pieces from Gentlemen's Magazine linked above. I think you would enjoy them.
And I thank you for you encouragement as well. I am not a Victorian scholar as you can obviously see, and I worry every word I write might be a misstep and cause a disagreement with the true Victorian scholars like yourself and others here. It does help not to be judged too harshly and accepted for my attempt to contribute.

[Sam]

Looking back over the works we read and the host's contributions, I can say I gained something from every single one, and look forward to more from Lee, Connie, John, Bridget, Kathleen, and Lori. What a fun summer read. It seems so long ago from the almost Kafkaesque opening of the Strange Gentlemen. And it kind of made me smile thinking in reference to the television adaptation of Dan Simmons' The Terror that Dickens did it first. My actual favorite drama, aside from the one I researched, was No Thoroughfare with its Dickensian opening backstory. With a little updating that could be a hit today. And Lee's dedication and work in bringing that play to life helped me cope with the discouragement I feel when the summer heat affects my comprehension and cuts my reading in half. I have enjoyed it all, and I am all set to tackle Nicholas Nickleby. Lookiing forward to seeing everyone there.

[Lee]

What a lovely credit you have given to all of us for our work this summer, Sam! Thank you so much!

[Peter]

Sam wrote: "Peter wrote: "Connie wrote: "I would like to share a few quotes from Simon Callow in our Dramatic Dickens side read, Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World, which tie in..."

Sam

I thoroughly enjoyed my first excursion with you and all the other contributors to the discussion. I have learned a great deal.

I am simply a Dickens enthusiast. The more I read what I learn most is that there is so much more to explore. For example, your posting of Horne’s Bygone Celebrities has given me many more rabbit holes to explore.

I believe you and I and all the other members of Jean’s wonderful Dickensian group share a common trait: the more we learn the less we know but we are all like Oliver Twist. Please Mr Dickens, give us more.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Indeed 😁