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October 30, 1852.] THE LEADE R. 104&
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TII.H DRAMATIST'S FIRST NIGHT..Ik any in...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Bib?Ffl£Bk6 99 A W£^&Bbm&. ¦" X. January...
We approached the table . I found a medley of tea , coffee , two or three nes some Moldavian beef , and a dish of pickled ortolans . Markham did ot sit , but drank his coffee standing , then a glass or two of winej ocasionally dangling an ortolan into his upraised mouth . He ate , as he talked , with an air of mockery ; as if he were not in earnest in anything that he did , but knew something better worth while to do if he cared to take the trouble . All I said he received frankly , like an old friend ; he entered into each object with a powerful and cultivated intellect ; but smiled at mV most earnest remarks with a manner , at once of doubt , and of amusement at any sign of belief or earnestness . " What a strange set I found you amongst ! " he cried , suddenly , turning from the gaieties of Florence : " How the devil did you come there ?"
I told him freely ; and , m response to his own manner , I challenged him to use his evident influence in favour of Johnson . it y are not a commercial man ? " he asked . " You know I am not ; but I am a man , and so are you . " " No , I did not know . But what makes you take a brief from Johnson ? Are you going to marry his daughter ?" "No ; why do you ask ? I plead because he suffers . " " It is a waste of time , my dear fellow . He has met his fate , and he deserves it . He is a rascal ; and , what is worse , he is a fool ; and we are exterminating the fools as fast as we can ; though it is up-hill work . That girl was his daughter , was she not ?" " Which ?"
" The tall dark young girl . But I remember , she called him her father . Though that proves little ; and , as the mother shows no signs of being the substantive originator of that lovely devil , I should rather suspect that the registrar has been cheated . Well , Johnson would only deserve that as well as the rest . " " I think I can vouch— " but I stopped short , a sudden doubt coming over me , that Markham ' s theory was probable , and that the perusal of Mason on Self Knowledge looked as much like the pride of penitence as anything else . It was difficult to imagine that poor Mrs . Johnson had ever been capable of any collateral sally ; and yet where could Margaret have obtained that countenance ?
Markham laughed out loud at my abrupt silence ; and continued— " It is useless , my dear fellow ; it is not worth the trouble to set Johnson on his legs . He has shown that he cannot stand , and he is as great a rascal as any of us . Do you know what he really has done amongst his countrymen ?" I looked the request to be enlightened on that point . " Well , then , he has done his best to ruin everybody all round , and the stone has only fallen on his own head . I do not speak for Rogers —I might be prejudiced for kirn but I speak of everybody . No , I must except his landlord . Why , sir , the fellow was trying to draw away custom from his schoolfellow , Fillmore , round the corner ; he was doing his best
to out-do aud backbite every man of his own trade within cart-range . But that is not all : no . sooner was a new shop set up in the neighbourhood , with goods at " only" so much , than he sent his miserable women—by heaven , I beg that Olympian girl ' s pardon !—to deal with the interloper , meaning to bring down all pr ices where he was a purchaser . He tried to beat down his rent ; he did beat down his wages . You know that one of his daughters lately—had an accident : well , he frightened the father that is to be—a softhearted young fellow , without brains enough , I should have thought , to convince any one , even a girl , onlv their own frailty does it ,
poor devils !—Johnson frightened that father of his own grandchild into taking less wages , by threatening " a disclosure ; " which Johnson himself 'headed more than any man , lest it should " hurt him in business . " And he did that , knowing that the poor wretch had a wife of his own , living away from him because he was too poor to keep her ! Yes , he kept about his house the seducer of his child , because the rascal was made cheaper by '' in damaged character ; and he was an accomplice with the fellow in "branding the wife . Is that a man worth saving V I had no answer that needed to be pressed at the moment .
No , sir ; Johnson has the intellect of a nincompoop , and the heart of 11 — tradesman . 1 ' or we are all alike in that—even Mark Markham is so - But in Lancashire we are depraved to the very core ; . We must go throug h with ii ; . However , that- is not all . How did Johnson treat those whom be loved best in the world—his customers ? You have seen the por'nit . of . Lucre / , ia Borgia : Johnson is not quite so lovely ; but lie is not less J'J'uninal . He poisons those ho loves . Well , it is poisoning—literally . he Lancet is quite right . We do sell poison . Johnson may have had ¦
° i > ie fumbling- kind of salvo iu his own mind , based on " necessity , " on it ; universal practice , or his own ignorance ; . The fellow doesn ' t know ! is ° n from food . I really believe he would eat his own anchovies ! You need ( look at ( , lu > trav—you will never see Johnsonian anchovies at my table . " " J * ut you say that all do it : then why blame him ?" " Yes , we all do it . Look here . " lie took a green clear bottle that I 111 ( 1 not noticed on a shelf of hia library . " Read that . "
" liest girkiiiB— ( ienuine . " It looks ' genuine , ' does il ; not , ; green as the cucumber in its native ' ' lt !» its youth first courts the sun' { You admire that greenness—it '"ikes yoU vvi « l » to buy . It is tho smile of the syren ; it is poi « ou—copper . '"ould supply you with thorn ; ' best' at a very low figure , at id yet they 'etch the best price over the counter . But they deserve it , sir ; the "Ntoinera are as bad us the tradesman . Otter them the ' genuine article '
and they do not value it . Real girkin verdure is never so brilliant as that . Ask them the true price of the real article and they will go to the next shop , where a fellow is underselling you with a vile fabrication . Look here "—he showed a bottle— " this is chocolate , such as I would give you . We sell of it—pshaw , I forget the figure . No matter , it is not worth remembering . This again "—holding up another bottle— " is ' genuine ' chocolate , which you might have at as many pence a pound as the other costs shillings , and we ask only one shilling and threepence . ' Your customer will always prefer to store up in his inmost pocket the raw materials of his coffin . He tries to cheat the dealer , and the dealer cheats him . " " But if you all do so , I say , why press so hard on Johnson ?" "He failed . " There was no answer to that , so I tried to learn more . " But you , " I said , " are not under the dominion of these base influences . For all you have said , surely you are no grocer ?" " More so than any man you ever saw—the grocerest of human beings . Let us take a survey . " He unrolled vipon the table a map of London , and looked at it for a moment in silence . " You know , I suppose , how the brewers manage to possess their business-domain ? Each great Lord of the Vat supplies a number of vassals , the publicans , with tlie means or opportunity of opening a house ; and really the independent-looking palaces of gin and beer are but fiefs held under the great Lords . This is bringing capital and the wholesale principle to bear upon retail trade . The millers do the same for the baking trade . A Scotch genius has done the same for the linendrapers and haberdashers—all now driven out of the field by the great capitals . Many a man who used to be an independent shopkeeper , is glad to be servant to a great linendraper . But one of these great men will supply a whole district—more than one district I suspecthaving houses under separate names , but really connected , in various quarters . At all events that is what a Lancashire genius , " he said , with a smile that gave a particular application—¦ " " contemplates doing for the grocery business . I am not a grocer , to ordinary eyes : there is all my stock , " pointing to a part of his bookcase , containing , I imagine , samples , and to a few account and cheque books ; " and here , " laying his finger again on the map , " is my shop . You know Rogers , the rival whom Johnson vainly tried to drive out of the field : well , that Rogers is only my man . I have another place here , " pointing to the map again , " and here , and here , and here ; and I am planning to extend in this direction , and in this . Yes , " he continued , looking contemplatively on the field , "it is a great scheme : I have only begun , as yet ; but everything falls before my advance . This you see , " he continued , rolling up the map with a jerk , and turning from the table , — '' this is the course before us all—this the choice of fate , to be a Johnson , or a—a Markham , if you like , or a Markham ' s man . To be destroyed , or to destroy ; to be the ruins of the past , or the foundation of the future . " " Markham , " I cried , " you astonish me , who almost lived down , or travelled down astonishment . If you were really a grocer , or nothing but a grocer , I could understand . But you cannot pretend any such debasement . You are a gentleman , a scholar , a traveller ; a man , with a knowledge of the world , of man ' s life , of the universe in which he is a wanderer , and you cannot be the criminal , the dull instrument of a stupid mechanical tyranny that you pretend to be . " " Shall I retort the charge of dulness and folly V he answered . " My dear fellow , we must take the world as we find it . This is the commercial age ; capital is the power of the day ; intellect itself must be content to be no more than the handmaid of money . We must pass through that stage , and not be diverted in our course by that silly , antiquated mistake , philanthropy . What does not pay , cannot , and ought not to exist . Johnson does not pay , and he must be expunged . I have marched him down . It is idle to kick against fate , it only hurts our corns . " lie walked up and down the room in silence . I broke iu upon him , however , with arguments to show that he ought to temper this supreme destroying power with a clemency befitting its absolute character . Although an utilitarian and a predestinarian , he was not closed against appeals to his nobler qualities aud more refined attainments ; and he softened as I warmed in my accusations of his not being equal to himself . Suddenly he stopped in his strides along the book-walled room , and cried , " I tell you what I will consent to : 1 will make Johnson one of my men ; and , by Jove , 1 will marry his daughter !" I laughed to myself at hearing him thus dispose of Margaret ; but having brought him to the mood I wished , while I had no authority either to promise or decline his matrimonial munificences , I hastily took leave . 41 Hut , by Jove , we must see more of each other , " he said , as he shook hands— " I like you . "
October 30, 1852.] The Leade R. 104&
October 30 , 1852 . ] THE LEADE R . 104 &
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Tii.H Dramatist's First Night..Ik Any In...
TII . H DRAMATIST'S FIRST NIGHT . . Ik any in ^ oniouH man would write a " Physiology of tho British Drama , " he would have at leant fifty pages lo give to tho ' Find . Night , considered under its various aspects , an regards tho public , tho actors , tho manager , and the pout himself . Let uh for a moment consider only the poet ( and hero 1 uho the term in its widest acceptation—that of tho maker of a now drama ) , as the imago intrudes upon us , apropos of Weatlund Moth ton , who thin night
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 30, 1852, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30101852/page/21/
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