Oldalképek
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

while others had risen by their gravity. Mr. Chambers had declared that Lever's fault was in mistaking farce for wit. From different passages in his letters, it is clear that broad farce, at least in modern theatres, proved distasteful to him. He said that the farce that made his earlier novels so popular was done rather in violence to his own convictions, which felt that he had been destined to tread a higher walk. Their style, as already observed, was adopted mainly in deference to McGlashan's hints. In 1856 his mentor died, and thenceforth came a change. Previous to this event Lever sought to warn him of impending danger. He wished McGlashan were with him, boating, bathing, and basking in the most joyous of the Mediterranean landscapes; to puff his weed over the dark rocks and blue waters would be more repose to a tired head than all the drugs and devices of the doctors. He promised to give him lots of lobsters and Vino D'Asti if he'd come: there was no success in business nor even in life that is not too dearly bought by the exhaustion of overtaxed strength. He owned that he was selfish in this counsel, for he feared he should, if he lived, want his help for many a day to come. No man ever understood him so well: in giving himself, he would also give the author, fair play.

The shrewd publisher and clever editor, wise in his treatment of all things unless himself, disregarded Lever's hint, and sought pleasure in the mode which hastened the death of Burns and darkened the last days of Sheridan. Lever's medical skill has been questioned:

[ocr errors]

in diagnosis at least he showed acumen. Thirteen years before the smash of McGlashan's mind he warned him -but in a pleasant way so as to avoid inflicting a shock-that rest had become a vital necessity to his brain. In 1842 McGlashan went to London, but Lever observed he seemed more intent on work than recreation, and that he needed repose and amusement. This he urged him to take without fatigue-the advice of a man, he added, who had practised both physic and philandering for many years, and with some success in both walks! Subsequently we find rest and recreation again prescribed; but Lever was so much in the habit of seeking McGlashan's counsel that the latter attached little weight to advice coming from him. McGlashan continued to work away, and by every stroke sapped his strength the deeper. To the penalties which Lever saw in store for him he rapidly succumbed. Disease had entered through the subtle valves of the intellect.

In his

* Of McGlashan, Canon Hayman writes:-"I knew him well and esteemed him highly. He was the real editor of the Magazine before and after Lever's time, and as a non-contributing director he discharged editorial duties with more efficiency than if he were a writer. The last letter I had from him was addressed to me at the English lakes, in the autumn of 1854. Ther was a strange tone in it that made me suspect that something was wrong in the cerebellum. He was querulous and desponding. This was just the beginning of his malady, which developed itself rapidly. He thought he was a bankrupt, while in truth his credit was first-class, and his estate paid (I believe) twenty shillings in the £1.

"Ireland owes more to this Scot than is generally believed. Had McGlashan lived, with 'mens sana in corpore sano,' the publishing trade of Dublin would have been better maintained than it has been. He was an excellent judge of what was good in itself and what would not fail to sell."

DEATH OF MCGLASHAN.

219

reply Lever diagnosed further mischief. He sorrowed for the wreck of one of the acutest intellects and warmest hearts he had ever known. To Mr. Wardlaw he wrote, begging to be given in all confidence some exact account of him, which he would take as a great favour and a great consolation. Lever remembered how much he owed to the calmer judgment of McGlashan. The wisdom of his counsel is apparent from many letters still preserved, as well as the tact with which he dissuaded Lever from writing some weak books on which his heart had been set, and guiding his hand to make really good hits.

McGlashan, if now living, would strong appreciation as regards Lever.

express equally "Mac was the

brightest and most pleasant companion I ever knew," writes Charles Grey-" always joyous and good-natured. Many a happy evening we had together at his house. He repeatedly said to me, 'I have had to do with a number of literary men in my time both in Edinburgh and in Ireland, but Charles Lever is the most perfect gentleman in all his dealings I have ever met.'"*

He informed McGlashan in 1855 that the climate in Florence was delicious, but enervating to an extent beyond belief; but if his physical health was impaired his spirits and energy were strong. If he lived till next year, he would be the near neighbour of McGlashan,

* Letter of Charles Grey, Esq. R.H.A., June 27th, 1877. Mr. Grey has rendered very graceful service to polite arts and to Ireland—an onerous labour in which his gifted sons, Alfred and James Grey, have of late years co-operated.

and asked him to look out for something which might serve as a home for his children if he should be carried off. But the death of his old friend and adviser deranged this plan.

The proverb "out of sight out of mind" was completely negatived in the result of Lever's removal to the sunnier clime of Italy. Book after book appeared in which the scenes were laid in Ireland, and whose every page glowed with Celtic fire, while cosmopolitan in their philosophy. In sending his son to be educated in Ireland he further showed fidelity to Fatherland.

But by no means insular was he in the new plans and plots that revolved through his mind. A series of papers, he thought, beginning tolerably far back, called "Historic Tableaux," would take. Charles V. at his abdication-Luther at the Diet of Worms-John Huss in the Cathedral at Constance, &c. 1854) were "Stories of the

Other projects of his (Oct., Ruined Houses of Ireland,"

and in June, 1855, "The Battle Fields of Europe." This month found him covered once more with counterpane and leeches, and "warm-bathed to half his weight, from an attack of gout in the stomach." For several weeks his condition was so tottering that he could not get on horseback. The Magazine required a chapter of the story then in hand, and Lever's incompetency to supply it embittered his suffering and even tormented him in his sleep. Soon after he announces that two insurances of his were coming due, and requesting his publisher to send sixty pounds to meet them; he had

BARON ERLANGER.

221

almost hoped that he was going to cheat the company and give them the slip. But the alarm only proved what Curran would call "a runaway knock," and he was ready for harness once more.

In whist with Baron Erlanger, or in banter with his "bairns," he forgot minor worries. "What I know of Lever," writes the Baron, "all those know who crossed his threshold. He was the kindest of hosts, the most reliable of friends. Many a time have I travelled in midsummer night to his charming little cottage near Florence. On opening the gate we already heard his gay voice, laughing and talking; officially we came to play whist. You know that Lever took no pride in his pen. He loved his literary pursuits, of course, but no panegyric about his last book would have given him as much satisfaction as an acknowledgment of his superiority at whist. He loved the game beyond anything. To us the cards were, I confess, a mere pretext. It was not one of those dire sittings where the cards are dealt gravely and every point scored in mournful silence. A continuous roar of laughter accompanied the game, which often lasted till late into the night. Every mistake gave rise to a new anecdote or some droll remark. Indeed, his wit and humour, his 'esprit,' as the French would call it more appropriately, never lacked for a moment a continuous cross fire of bon mots unprepared and spontaneous. His extraordinary memory always astonished us, and showed itself remarkably in the circumstance that he never repeated himself. A nice supper always

« ElőzőTovább »