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CHAPTER XVIII.

HOUSEHOLD WORDS."-THE GUILD OF

LITERATURE.

OTWITHSTANDING past experiences in connection with the Daily News, Mr. Dickens was still desirous of some periodical in which he could hold frequent and regular intercourse with his readers. Early in 1850, our indefatigable author projected the Household Words, a name which was more or less familiar to the public through a line in Shakspeare's Henry V.— "Familiar in their mouths as Household Words." It is just worth while in passing to say that this motto was a favourite with Mr. Dickens. He often used it in conversation, long before a periodical of the kind was dreamt of. As far back as his first visit to America, when he was addressing the young men of Boston, and Washington Irving, Holmes, and other celebrities were present, he said "You have in America great writers — great writers-who will live in all time, and are as familiar to our lips as household words.” * * Feb. 1, 1842.

And afterwards, in his speeches, the motto was

not uncommon.

On Saturday, March 30th, 1850, was issued the first number of "Household Words, price 2d., conducted by Charles Dickens."

No article had the name of its author appended, and when the "Conductor" proposed to Jerrold that he should contribute to its pages, but added that his name could not appear, as the journal was anonymous, the wit replied, "Ay, I see it is, for there's the name of Charles Dickens on every page."

Amongst the original contributors to Household Words may be mentioned John Forster, W. H. Wills, George Augustus Sala, Moy Thomas, John Hollingshead, Miss Martineau, Professor Morley, Edmund Yates, Dr. Charles Mackay, Andrew Halliday, Edmund Ollier, and many other talented writers. It was the great delight of the "Conductor" to draw around him the rising talent-the new men who gave evidence of literary ability; and many a mark have they made in the pages of Household Words!

Connected with Household Words, at the end of each month, appeared the Household Narrative, containing a history of the preceding month. It began in April of this year, and involved Mr. Dickens in a dispute with the Stamp Office. An information was laid against the Narrative, it being contended that, under the Stamp Duty Act, it was a newspaper;

but, on appeal to the Court of Exchequer, the Barons decided in Mr. Dickens's favour, and thus the first step to the repeal of the newspaper stamp was given. The publication was not a success, people preferring to pay for amusement and information combined, rather than for the latter in a purely statistical form. It stopped at about the 70th number, and sets are

now rare.

But to return to Household Words. A friend who knew Dickens writes:-"His editorship of this periodical was no nominal post. Papers sent in for approval invariably went through a preliminary 'testing' by the acting editor (Mr. W. H. Wills); but all those which survived this ordeal were conscientiously read and judged by Mr. Dickens, who again read all the accepted contributions in proof, and made numerous and valuable alterations in them." Besides the ordinary tales and articles upon popular topics, there appeared in Household Words, in good time for the festive season, and during the first year, a collection of stories, connected entirely with Christmas,—viz. “A Christmas Tree," and "A Christmas Pudding," "Christmas in the Navy, in Lodgings, in India, in the Frozen Regions, in the Bush, and among the Sick and Poor of London," and "Household Christmas Carols."

In the ensuing January, Dickens commenced therein his "Child's History of England," which in the following year was reprinted in a separate form by Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, and inscribed :

actor, whether he be Benedick or Hamlet, or the Ghost, or the Bandit, or the court-physician, or, in the one person, the whole King's army. He may do the "light business," or the "heavy," or the comic, or the eccentric. He may be the captain who courts the young lady, whose uncle still unaccountably persists in dressing himself in a costume one hundred years older than his time. Or he may be the young lady's brother in the white gloves and inexpressibles, whose duty in the family appears to be to listen to the female members of it whenever they sing, and to shake hands with everybody between all the verses. Or he may be the baron who gives the fête, and who sits uneasily on the sofa under a canopy with the baroness while the fête is going on. Or he may be the peasant at the fête who comes on the stage to swell the drinking chorus, and who, it may be observed, always turns his glass upside down before he begins to drink out of it. Or he may be the clown who takes away the doorstep of the house where the evening party is going on. Or he may be the gentleman who issues out of the house on the false alarm, and is precipitated into the area. Or, to come to the actresses, she may be the fairy who resides for ever in a revolving star, with an occasional visit to a bower or a palace. Or the actor may be the armed head of the witch's cauldron; or even that extraordinary witch, concerning whom I have observed, in country places, that he is much less like the notion formed from the description of Hopkins than the Malcolm or

Donalbain of the previous scenes. This society, in short, says, "Be you what you may, be you actor or actress, be your path in your profession never so high, or never so low, never so haughty, or never so humble, we offer you the means of doing good to yourselves, and of doing good to your brethren."

In June, 1851,, a project-which, it is said, Mr. Dickens had long had in contemplation-was brought forward by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, namely, the founding of a Guild of Literature and Art; in reality, a provident fund and benefit society for unfortunate literary men and artists. From it the proper persons would receive continual or occasional relief, as the case might be; but the leading feature was the "Provident Fund," to be composed of monies deposited by the authors themselves, when they were in a position to be able to lay by something. Dickens and Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton (since a peer) were the most active promoters. The precise plan of the "Guild" was discussed at Lord Lytton's seat, at Knebworth, the November previously. There had been three amateur performances, by Dickens and others, of "Every Man in his Humour," for the gratification of his lordship and his neighbouring friends, when it was arranged that his lordship should write a comedy, and Dickens and Mark Lemon a farce. The comedy was entitled "Not so Bad as we Seem," and the farce bore the name of “Mrs.