IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER
_THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF REMINISCENCES_
BY
FELIX MOSCHELES
WITH 63 ORIGINAL DRAWINGS
BY
G. DU MAURIER
_ILLUSTRATING THE ARTIST'S LIFE IN THE FIFTIES_
LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN
* * * * *
The few introductory words to this volume were written, and the last
proofs posted, shortly before the fatal news overtook me in lovely
Venice. My world, resplendent with sunshine, was suddenly lost in
darkness. The most lovable of men, whose presence alone sufficed to
make life worth living to all those near and dear to him, was gone
from amongst us. His hand was no longer to hold those pens--the
finely-pointed one that drew, the freely-flowing one that wrote. His
well-earned rest was not to be enjoyed on earth.
Now that all is changed, the joyous note of these pages jars upon me.
How differently would I attune the story of our student days, were I
to write it to-day in loving memory of my friend!
But as it stands, so it must go forth. The book, cordially endorsed
by him, is printed and all but issued; he would not let me recall
it, I know. He himself, in his kindly, simple way, had enjoyed my
resuscitation of our early recollections, and had here and there lent
a helpful hand even to the correcting of the proofs.
To write of him and of his qualities of heart and mind as I would
now venture to record them, I must wait till the heavier clouds have
cleared away and left the picture, I would draw once more to stand out
brightly in the background of Time.
FELIX MOSCHELES.
October, 1896.
* * * * *
IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER
PREFACE.
"You'll see that I've used up all your Mesmerism and a trifle more in
my new book," said du Maurier to me, some time before he published his
"Trilby"; and that remark started us talking of the good old times in
Antwerp, and overhauling the numerous drawings and sketches in which
he so vividly depicted the incidents of our Bohemian days. It seemed
to me that some of those drawings should be published, if only to
show how my now so popular friend commenced his artistic career. In
order that they should not go forth without explanation, I wrote the
following pages.
The Bohemia I have sought to coerce into book shape, is not the wild
country, peopled by the delightfully unconventional savages, so often
described, but a little cultivated corner of the land, as I found it
in Antwerp, a mere background to the incidents I had to relate. Such
as it is, it may perhaps serve here and there to point to the original
soil from which were eventually to spring some of the figures so
familiar to us to-day.
To me it was a source of enjoyment to evoke these memories, and if
I publish them, it is because I strongly feel that pleasures shared
are pleasures doubled. Sociably inclined as I always was, I am truly
glad to have the opportunity of giving a hearty welcome to those
who may care to join my friend and myself in our ramblings and our
"tumblings."
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
PART I. 17
PART II. 69
* * * * *
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
"FOR EVER AND A DAY" _Frontispiece_
THE ATELIER GLEYRE 18
MY BLOUSE 20
(_From an oil-sketch by Matthew Maris._)
PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN MALINES 27
FROM DU MAURIER'S PAINTING 30
MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU BEAU SEXE 32
SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ BEAUX 32
MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ ARTISTES #33
SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ CHEVAUX 33
F. S'IL ÉTAIT CHEVAL 33
SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES 34
"CE SACRÉ VÉSICATOIRE" 35
ISABEL DU MAURIER 35
MOSCHELES, OR MEPHISTOPHELES?--WHICH 40
"INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE" 42
DU MAURIER IMPROVISING 43
HOW RAG TRIES TO DÉSILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND BOBTAIL TRIES
TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG 44
THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE HAT 46
"BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR TOBACCONISTE" 49
"SALUT À LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE" 50
A MESMERIC SÉANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR 57
THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY 60
FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY 64
"RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY 65
RAG 72
BOBTAIL 72
"WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE? HANG MYSELF, I
WONDER." 76
COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS 80
CLARA MOSCHELES 83
"HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRÄULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG UND IHREN
BRUDER." 87
CHER LIX 88
"AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY ----" 89
DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN 90
"CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES
JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI" 91
DOUBLE-BEDDED ROOM IN BRUSSELS 93
THE HEIGHT OF ENJOYMENT 95
YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE PERFORMANCE OF YE
PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE 97
AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR 99
"I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU DID THAT
POOR OLD SPANIARD'S" 100
MR KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS THE PROFESSOR
THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU' BLACKGUARD" 101
MEETING IN DÜSSELDORF 103
SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN 106
PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA 115
"ON THEIR HONEYMOON" 116
_Also Illustration on pages_ 37, 88, 98, 102, 108, 109, 110, 112,
114, 119, 123, 135, 144, 145.
* * * * *
I.
"TUMBLINGS"
_WITH DU MAURIER AND FRIENDS._
"I well remember" my first meeting with du Maurier in the class-rooms
of the famous Antwerp Academy.
I was painting and blagueing, as one paints and blagues in the storm
and stress period of one's artistic development.
It had been my good fortune to commence my studies in Paris; it was
there, in the atelier Gleyre, I had cultivated, I think I may say,
very successfully, the essentially French art of chaffing, known by
the name of "La blague parisienne," and I now was able to give my
less lively Flemish friends and fellow-students the full benefit of my
experience. Many pleasant recollections bound me to Paris; so, when
I heard one day that a "Nouveau" had arrived, straight from my old
atelier Gleyre, I was not a little impatient to make his acquaintance.
[Illustration: THE ATELIER GLEYRE.]
The new-comer was du Maurier. I sought him out, and, taking it for
granted that he was a Frenchman, I addressed him in French; we were
soon engaged in lively conversation, asking and answering questions
about the comrades in Paris, and sorting the threads that associated
us both with the same place. "Did you know 'un nommé Pointer'?" he
asked, exquisitely Frenchy-fying the name for my benefit. I mentally
translated this into equally exquisite English, my version naturally
being: "A man called Poynter."
Later on an American came up, with whom I exchanged a few words in
his and my native tongue. "What the D. are you--English?" broke in du
Maurier. "And what the D. are you?" I rejoined. I forget whether D.
stood for Dickens or for the other one; probably it was the latter. At
any rate, whether more or less emphatic in our utterances, we then and
there made friends on a sound international basis.
It seemed to me that at this our first meeting du Maurier took me in
at a glance--the eager, hungry glance of the caricaturist. He seemed
struck with my appearance, as well he might be. I wore a workman's
blouse that had gradually taken its colour from its surroundings. To
protect myself from the indiscretions of my comrades I had painted
various warnings on my back, as, for instance, "Bill stickers beware,"
"It is forbidden to shoot rubbish here," and the like. My very black
hair, ever inclined to run riot, was encircled by a craftily conceived
band of crochet-work, such as only a fond mother's hand could devise,
and I was doubtless colouring some meerschaum of eccentric design.
My fellow-student, the now famous Matthew Maris, immortalised that
blouse and that piece of crochet-work in the admirable oil-sketch here
reproduced.
[Illustration: MY BLOUSE.
(_From an oil-sketch by Matthew Maris._)]
It has always been a source of legitimate pride to me to think that
I should have been the tool selected by Providence to sharpen du
Maurier's pencil; there must have been something in my "Verfluchte
Physiognomie," as a very handsome young German, whom I used to chaff
unmercifully, called it, to reveal to du Maurier hidden possibilities
and to awaken in him those dormant capacities which had betrayed
themselves in the eager glance above named.
This was, I believe, in 1857; not feeling over sure as regards that
date, I refer to a bundle of du Maurier's letters before me, but they
offer me no assistance; there is but one dated, and that one merely
headed: "Dusseldorf, 19th Cent." Well, in 1857, then, let us take it,
the Antwerp Academy was under the direction of De Keyser, that most
urbane of men and painters. Van Lerius, well known to many American
and English lovers of art, her Majesty included, was professor of the
Painting Class, and amongst the students there were many who rapidly
made themselves a name, as Tadema, M. Maris, Neuhuys, Heyermans, and
the armless artist, whose foot-painted copies after the Masters at
the Antwerp Gallery are well known to every tourist. The teaching was
of a sound, practical nature, strongly imbued with the tendencies of
the colourist school. Antwerp ever sought to uphold the traditions
of a great Past; in the atelier Gleyre you might have studied form
and learnt to fill it with colour, but here you would be taught
to manipulate colour, and to limit it by form. A peculiar kind of
artistic kicks and cuffs were administered to the student by Van
Lerius as he went his rounds. "That is a charming bit of colour you
have painted in that forehead," he said to me on one occasion--"so
delicate and refined. Do it again," he added, as he took up my palette
knife and scraped off the "delicate bit." "Ah, you see, _savez vous_,
you can't do it again; you got it by fluke, some stray tints off your
palette, _savez vous_," and, taking the biggest brush I had, he swept
over that palette and produced enough of the desired tints to have
covered a dozen foreheads.
The comrade without arms was a most assiduous worker; it was amusing
to watch his mittened feet step out of their shoes and at the shortest
notice proceed to do duty as hands; his nimble toes would screw and
unscrew the tops of the colour tubes or handle the brush as steadily
as the best and deftest of fingers could have done. Very much unlike
any of us, he was most punctilious in the care he bestowed on his
paint box, as also on his personal appearance. Maris, Neuhuys,
Heyermans, and one or two others equally gifted, but whose thread of
life was soon to be cut short, were painting splendid studies, some
of which I was fortunate enough to rescue from destruction and have
happily preserved.
Quite worthy to be placed next to these are Van-der-something's
studies. That (or something like that) was the name of a wiry, active
little man who in those days painted in a garret; there everything
was disarranged chaotically, mostly on the floor, for there was no
furniture that I can recollect beyond a stool, an easel, and a fine
old looking-glass. He had a house, though, and a wife, in marked
contrast with his appearance and the garret. The house was not badly
appointed, and she was lavishly endowed with an exuberance of charms
and graces characteristic of a Rubens model.
A fellow-student of mine was their lodger, a handsome young German,
brimful of talent, but sadly deficient in health. He had always held
most rigid principles on questions of morality, but unfortunately
they failed one day in their application, owing to the less settled
views entertained by Madame Van-der-something on such subjects. She
certainly gave him much affection on the one hand, but on the other
she so audaciously appropriated those of his goods and chattels that
could be turned into money, that the police had to intervene, and she
eventually found herself before a judge and jury. There, however, she
managed so well to cast all responsibility on her husband, who, to
this day, I believe was quite innocent, that--"cherchez la femme"--she
got off, and he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
Now if Van Ostade or Teniers had risen to prosecute him for forging
their signatures, and he had been found guilty and condemned to severe
punishment, it would have served him right. He was a perfect gem of
a forger. He picked up a stock of those dirty old pictures painted on
worm-eaten panels that used to abound in the sale-rooms of Antwerp.
On these he would paint what might be called replicas with variations,
cribbing left and right from old mildewed prints that were scattered
all about the floor. He would scrape and scumble, brighten and deaden
with oils and varnishes; he would dodge and manipulate till his
picture, after a given time spent in a damp cellar, would emerge as a
genuine old master. I once asked a dealer whom I knew to be a regular
customer of his, at what price he sold one of those productions. "I
really can't say," he answered; "I only do wholesale business. I buy
for exportation to England and America." If any of my friends here
or over there possess some work of Van-der-something's, I sincerely
congratulate them, for the little man was a genius in his way.
Of my friend the German I have only to say that, poor fellow, he spent
but a short life of pleasure and of pain. What became of his Circe
I never sought to know. It was a clear case of "Ne cherchez pas la
femme!"
The first friend I made on my arrival in Antwerp was Jean Heyermans
(detto il Pegghi), and a very useful one he proved himself, for he at
once took me in hand, helped me to find home and hearth, and generally
gave me the correct tip, so valuable to the stranger. He lost no time
in teaching me some of those full-flavoured Flemish idioms which from
the first enabled me to emphasise my meaning when I wished to express
it in unmistakable language.
He himself was a remarkable linguist, speaking English, French, and
German fluently, in addition to his native language, Dutch; so he soon
chummed with du Maurier and me in several languages, and became one of
our set. He was always ready to follow us in our digressions from the
conventional course, and we felt that many of our best international
jokes would have been lost had it not been for his comprehension and
appreciation. His father, too, was a kind friend to us, inviting us to
his house to hear Music and talk Art, to ply knives and forks, and to
empty glasses of various dimensions. That gentleman's corpulence had
reached a degree which clearly showed that he must have "lost sight
of his knees" some years back, but he was none the less strong and
active. There were two daughters, one pathetically blind, the other
sympathetically musical.
How our friend came by the name of Peggy none of us know, but he
figures as such in many of du Maurier's drawings.
"If Peggy," he says, in a letter from Malines, "doesn't come on
Sunday, may the vengeance of the gods overtake him! Tell him so. I'll
meet him at the train." And then he sketches the meeting and greeting
of the two, and the railway guard starting his train with the
old-fashioned horn-signal on the G.E.C. then in use.
My friend Jean soon started on his career as a regular exhibitor in
Belgium and Holland, besides which he developed a remarkable taste and
talent for teaching.
[Illustration: PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN
MALINES.]
"What would you advise about Pen's studies?" said Robert Browning
one afternoon as we sat in my little studio, talking about his son's
talents and prospects. (This was a few years after my final return to
England.) "Send him to Antwerp," I said, "to Heyermans; he is the best
man I know of to start him."
Pen went, and soon made surprising progress, painting a picture
after little more than a twelve-month that at once found an eager
purchaser. The poet took great pride in his son's success, and lost no
opportunity of speaking in the most grateful and appreciative terms
of the teacher. Millais and Tadema endorsed his praise, and Heyermans'
reputation was established. A few years ago he migrated to London,
where he continues his work, pluckily upholding the traditions of the
Past, whilst readily encouraging the wholesome aspirations of a rising
generation.
Another man destined to find a permanent home in England was Alma
Tadema. He was not much in the Painting Class in my time, but had
previously been hard at work there. I mostly saw him in the room
adjoining it, and he always seemed to me exclusively interested in the
study of costume and history. The incident that led to his leaving
the academy rather abruptly is characteristic. An uncle of his having
given him a commission for a picture, Tadema applied to de Keyser for
authorisation to make the necessary break in his studies. The Director
accorded him three weeks, but, as Tadema put it when lately recalling
the circumstance, "I couldn't paint a picture in three weeks then, and
I cannot now."
I little thought that from his studies of costume and history, the
comrade of my Antwerp days would evolve a long and uninterrupted
series of masterpieces, resuscitating the Past and presenting it with
the erudition of the Student and the genius of the Artist. Nor did
anything foreshadow that my genial Dutch friend, to whom the English
language was a dead letter, was destined in a not too distant Future
to become a shining light of England's Royal Academy.
Du Maurier was soon installed in the Painting Class, and made a
vigorous start. Of the things he painted, I particularly recollect
a life-size, three-quarter group of an old woman and a boy--a
pen-and-ink drawing of which is in my father's album--that showed
talent enough and to spare, but his artistic aspirations were soon to
meet with a serious check. His eyesight suddenly gave him trouble, and
before long put a stop to his studies at atelier or academy. He was
not to become a painter, as he had fondly hoped, but as we now know,
he was to work out his destiny in another direction. With the simplest
of means he was to delineate character, and everyday drops of ink,
when filtered through his pen, were to emerge in quaint or graceful
shapes, wit, satire, and sentiment taking their turns to prompt and
guide that pen.
[Illustration: _From du Maurier's painting._]
In those days we called all that caricaturing, and caricature he
certainly did; mainly me and himself. From the first he imagined he
saw a marked contrast between us. His nose was supposed to be turned
up, and mine down, whereas really neither his nor mine much deviated
from the ordinary run of noses; my lower lip certainly does project,
but his does not particularly recede, and so on. But the imaginary
contrast inspired him in the earliest days of our acquaintance,
and started him on the warpath of pen-and-inking. He drew us in all
conceivable and in some inconceivable situations. "Moscheles and
I," he says on one page, "had we not been artists, or had we been
artistically beautiful; then again, if we were of the fair sex,
or soldiers, or, by way of showing our versatility, if we were
horses." In that page he seems to have focussed the essence of our
characteristics, whilst appearing only to delineate our human and
equine possibilities. Poor F., one of our German friends, fares badly,
a donkey's head portraying him "s'il était cheval."
[Illustration: MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU BEAU SEXE.]
[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ BEAUX.]
In consequence of the growing trouble with his eyes, du Maurier left
Antwerp for Malines, to place himself under the care of an eminent
oculist who resided within easy reach of that city. That blessed
blister--"ce sacré vésicatoire," as he calls it, is one of the
doctor's remedies.
[Illustration: MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ ARTISTES.]
[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ CHEVAUX.]
[Illustration: F. S'IL ETAIT CHEVAL.]
The sketch shows how it is being applied by a devoted Sister of Mercy.
[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES.]
In those days railway travelling was not as rapid as it is now, but
one could get from Antwerp to Malines in about an hour, a circumstance
which I frequently turned to account. Du Maurier's mother had come to
live with him, his sister joining them for a short time, and the home
in quiet old Malines soon became a sort of haven of rest. I spent many
a happy day and night there, on which occasions I am bound to say that
the piano, requisitioned by me for some special purposes of musical
caricature, detracted somewhat from the restfulness of the haven.
However that may have been, such intrusion was never resented; my
Swedish prima donna, or my qualifications as a basso profondo, or a
brass-bandsman, were always treated with the greatest indulgence by
the ladies, and my high soprano flourished and positively reached
unknown altitudes under the beneficent sunshine of their applause.
(For all that I never attempted Chopin's "Impromptu.")
[Illustration: "CE SACRÉ VESICATOIRE."]
[Illustration: ISABEL DU MAURIER.]
Then du Maurier would sing the French "romance" or the English song,
or he would "dire la chansonnette," and what with his sympathetic
tenor and his intuitive knowledge of music, he seemed to be able
to express more than many who had had the advantage of a musical
training. A few old letters of his remind me that we were audacious
enough to write verses and music, he doing the former, I the latter.
"Here's something I particularly want you to do," he writes. "Take
strong coffee, inspire yourself, think of your 'Ideal,' and compose
some very pretty music to the enclosed words, with which Rag's ideal
flame has inspired Rag--_surtout_, let it be as good as possible, with
accompaniment _à l'avenant_. An alteration in the music of each stanza
would render the gradation of energy expressed in the words, 'Je
compte sur toi.'" (How du Maurier came by the name of "Rag" I must
tell later on.) Then follow the words:--
CHANSON.
_D'apres un barde Britannique_.[1]
Les sources vont à la rivière
Et la rivière à l'océan;
Les monts embrassent la lumière,
Le vent du ciel se mêle au vent;
Contre le flot, le flot se presse;
Rien ne vit seul--tout semble, ici,
Se fondre en la commune ivresse....
Et pourquoi pas nous deux aussi?
Vois le soleil étreint la terre,
Qui rougit d'aise à son coucher--
La lune étreint les flots, qu'éclaire
Son rayon doux comme un baiser;
Les moindres fleurs ont des tendresses
Pour leurs pareilles d'ici-bas
Que valent toutes ces caresses
Si tu ne me caresses pas?[2]
[Footnote 1: See Shelley's "Love's Philosophy."]
[Footnote 2: Pour bien apprécier la valeur artistique de cette
romance, il faut l'entendre chanter par Rag en tenant les yeux fixes
sur le profit de Bobtail.]
Two slight sketches of "L'auteur de profil" and "Le compositeur de
face" head the page.
[Illustration]
Soon afterwards he sends me another poetical effusion and writes:
"DEAR BOBTAIL,--I send you the Serenade composed 'tant bien que mal'
last night, not 'entre la poire et le fromage,' but between the tea
and the pears. I am afraid you will not find it as dramatic as you
wished; but I don't feel it otherwise, and as Mahomet can't write
words to the mountain's music, the mountain must try and adapt its
music to the verses of Mahomet.
SÉRÉNADE APRÈS LA SIESTE.
"Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, ouvre done ta paupière,
Chasse les rêves d'or de ton léger sommeil--
Ils sont là, nos amis; cêde a notre prière
Le trône préparé n'attend que ton réveil;
Le soleil a cessé de régner sur la terre,
Viens régner sur la fête et sois notre soleil.
Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux
Au jardin des amours, viens ô viens avec nous.
Au jardin des amours ta place est réservée,
Parmi des feux de joie et des lilas en fleurs.
Viens réveiller en nous de nouvelles ardeurs--
Descends avec la nuit, ainsi que la rosée--
Tant que l'astre d'argent sourit à la vallée,
Toi, bel astre d'amour, viens sourire à nos coeurs!
Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux,
Au jardin des amours, Berthe, viens avec nous.
Viens avec ta couronne, et viens avec ta lyre,
Tes chants pour nos amis, tes doux regards pour moi!
Déjà j'entends les jeux de la foule en émoi
Sur des gazons fleuris ... oh le joyeux délire!
Si tu ne descends pas, helas! on pourra dire:
'Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, on a chanté sans toi!'
Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux,
Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, viens ô viens avec nous!
"You see I have indulged in poetic license; for instance, the first
tenor says he hears the folks doing the light fantastic toe. One might
suppose they danced in sabots--mere poetic license, and besides, a
first tenor ought to have very good ears.... So now, my lad, inspire
yourself."
What the result of his appeal to my inspiration may have been, I do
not remember, but I find this is what he writes on the subject--
"CARISSIMO,--In vain have I taxed Rag's inventive powers to alter the
last stanza; we must e'en stick to 'Ce baiser-la.' The lines I have
underlined mean that I don't quite approve the part of the music
that comes just there, as in the musical phrase you have set to it I
fancy there is a want of tenderness. All the rest is stunning; the
more I hums it the more I likes it, but I can't exactly come your
accompaniment."
[Illustration: Moscheles, or Mephistopheles? which]
No wonder, for my accompaniments were usually rather indefinite
quantities, subject to the mood of the moment. "Moscheles or
Mephistopheles, which?" he asks, as he depicts me at the piano,
perhaps evolving some such accompaniment from the depths of "untrained
inner consciousness." "Eureka" he might have put under that other
sketch, where his own hands have at last found some long-sought
harmony or chord on the piano. Another drawing there is of a somewhat
later period which he calls "Inspiration papillotique." Again I am at
the piano, my eyes raised to the "She" in papillottes, who floats as a
vision in the clouds, issuing from my ever-puffing cigar, whilst at my
feet is stretched the meditative form of my friend, and under them is
crushed some work of our immortal colleague Beethoven.
[Illustration: "INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE."]
[Illustration: DU MAURIER IMPROVISING.]
And who was "She" thus to inspire us? On the supposition that most
people are, like myself, interested in the "Shes" that can inspire,
I may permit myself to say something about the attractive young lady
who was able to lead us by easy stages from the vague "inspiration
papillotique" to an admiration which might be said to culminate in
flirtation. I don't remember either of us ever trying to cut the other
out, as the accompanying sketch seems to imply, where "Rag and Bobtail
fight a duel for Carry, using their noses as double-barrelled pistols.
Shows the way in which Rag tries to _désillusioñer_ Carry on Bobtail,
and in which Bobtail tries to ditto ditto on Rag Carry being on this
side of the rivals is not represented."
[Illustration: HOW RAG TRIES TO DÉSILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND
BOBTAIL TRIES TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG.]
The truth of the matter is that we shared fraternally in the enjoyment
of her good graces, he having the pull of me the greater part of
the week, and only suspending operations in my favour when I came to
Malines on a Saturday to Monday visit. These occasions were productive
of a great number of drawings and sketches, illustrating our little
adventures, and all plainly showing that the incidents recorded
occurred to us at that pleasant time of life, when bright illusions
and buoyant spirits lead the way, and when sorrow itself has more of
the rose colour than many a rose of a later day.
Malines was, and perhaps is still, a dull, deserted city, at best up
to the date of last century, beating the record for dry-as-dustiness
and growing dear little blades of grass between its cobble stones. It
boasts of a great many churches and of a very great many more priests.
(_Vide_: The ingenious use which Rag makes of Bobtail's pliable hat.)
In addition to these attractions, there was, however, a factor of
paramount interest to us. Then and there, just as now and elsewhere,
there were pretty girls about, and I need not say that, as both of
us were studying art and devoting our best energies to the cult of
the beautiful, we considered it our duty to take special notice of
these pretty girls wherever we came across them. It is probably the
conscientious performance of his duty in that direction which enabled
du Maurier to evolve those ever-attractive and sympathetic types of
female beauty we are all so familiar with. Nor would it have been
becoming in me, who had everything to learn, to lag behind, or to show
less ardour in the pursuit of my studies.
[Illustration: THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE
HAT.]
Thus, whilst du Maurier's facile pen was throwing off black and white
sketches of Miss Carry, it was reserved for me to paint her portrait
in oils. Her real name was Octavie, not Carry; that appellation we had
most unceremoniously and unpoetically derived from "Cigar." All else
about her we invested, if not with ceremony with a full amount of
poetry. And certainly there was a subtle quality in Carry, well worthy
of appreciation, a faculty of charming and being charmed, of giving
and taking, of free and easiness, coupled with ladylike reserve. She
seemed to be born with the intuitive knowledge that there was only one
life worth living, that of the Bohemian, and to be at the same time
well protected by a pretty reluctance to admit as much. In fact, to
give a correct idea of her I need but say her soul was steeped in the
very essence of Trilbyism. Having got to Carry's soul, it may not be
inappropriate to say something also about her looks; but to describe
good looks is, as we all know, deliberately to court failure; far
better request every man to conjure up his own type of beauty and he
will be sure to be interested in the picture he evolves. That man will
be nearest the truth whose young lady has a rich crop of brown curly
hair, very blue inquisitive eyes, and a figure of peculiar elasticity.
Octavie L., dite Carry, was the daughter of an organist who had held
a good position at one of the principal churches of Malines. When he
died he left but a small inheritance to his widow; with what she could
realise, she purchased the goodwill of a small tobacconist's store
and set up in business. Neither the mother nor the daughter had much
previous knowledge of the concern they had started, and they were
consequently not very discriminating in the selection of their brands;
but what was lacking in connoisseurship was fully made up for by
Mrs. L.'s obliging manners and by Octavie's blue eyes. These had
been steadily gaining in expression since she first opened them
about seventeen years back. Customers soon came in, and for a time
the little business was as flourishing as anything could well be in
Malines. The average citizen of so ecclesiastically conservative, and
hereditarily stationary a city could hardly be expected to encourage
a new venture of the kind. Still even there there were some young men
about town, a sort of "jeunesse doré", not of 18-carat gold perhaps,
but a "jeunesse" quite equal to the pleasant task of buzzing around
the fair tobacconist. Mrs. L. did her share of chaperoning; du Maurier
and I supplied the rest, and watched over her with chivalrous, if not
quite disinterested devotion. We differed in every respect from the
type of the young man of the period above mentioned; so naturally we
were bright stars in Carry's firmament; she looked upon us as superior
beings, and, granting her points of comparison, not without cause;
du Maurier could draw and I could paint; he could sing and I could
mesmerise, and couldn't we just both talk beautifully! We neither of
us encourage hero-worship now, but then we were "bons princes," and
graciously accepted Carry's homage as due to our superior merits.
[Illustration: "BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR
TOBACCONISTE!"]
There are two drawings illustrative of that chivalrous devotion of
ours. We are galloping along on our noble steeds, richly attired, as
true knights and good should be when they go to pay homage to beauty.
"Beshrew thee, noble Sir Ragge! let us to the fair tobacconiste!"
[Illustration: "SALUT À LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE!"]
"Aye! Gentle Sir Bobtaile! By my halidome, she's passing fair."
The second drawing shows our "Salut à la Gente et accorte pucelle!"
and the winning smile with which Carry would receive us.
Mesmerism, or, as the fashion of to-day calls it, Hypnotism, formed
so frequent a topic of conversation and speculation between du Maurier
and myself, that it takes a very prominent place in my recollections.
In Paris I had had opportunities of attending some most interesting
séances, in consequence of which I soon proceeded to investigate the
mesmeric phenomena on my own account. Now I have not touched the fluid
for some thirty years; I swore off because it was taking too much
out of me; but I look back with pleasure on my earlier experiments,
successes I may say, for I was fortunate enough to come across several
exceptional subjects. Du Maurier was particularly interested in one of
these, Virginie Marsaudon, and had a way of putting puzzling questions
concerning her faculties and my mesmeric influence. Virginie was
a "femme de ménage" of the true Parisian type, a devoted elderly
creature, a sort of cross between a charwoman and a housekeeper. I was
not yet eighteen when I first went to Paris, to study under my cousin,
the eminent painter, Henri Lehmann. At his studio I found Virginie
installed as the presiding genius of the establishment, using in
turn broom or tub, needle, grill or frying-pan as the occasion might
require; the wide range of her powers I further extended by making a
truly remarkable mesmeric subject of her. My début in Paris was that
of the somewhat bewildered foreigner, speaking but very indifferent
French, and she had from the first done what she could to make me feel
at home in the strange city, treating me with truly motherly care
and devotion. How completely she took possession of me, is shown by a
passage in a letter she wrote when I was ill in Leipsic, where I had
gone on a visit to my parents. After expressing her anxiety and her
regret at not being there to nurse me, she emphatically says:--"Je
rends Madame, votre mère, responsable de votre santé" (I make Madame,
your mother, responsible for your health). It needed but little to
lead her on from a state of docile and genial dependence to one of
unconscious mesmeric subjection, and so, a few passes shaping her
course, I willed her across the boundary line that separates us from
the unknown, a line which, thanks to science, is daily being extended.
Madame veuve Marsaudon was herself an incorrigible disbeliever in the
phenomena of mesmerism, but as a subject her faculties were such as to
surprise and convert many a scoffer.
At the séances, to which I invited my friends and a few scientific
outsiders, I always courted the fullest investigation, taking it as
the first duty of the mesmerist to show cause why he should not be
put down as a charlatan. So we had tests and counter-tests, evidence
and counter-evidence; there were doctors to feel the pulse and to
scrutinise the rigidity of the muscles, experts to propound scientific
ifs and buts, and wiseacres generally to put spokes in the wheel of
progress, as is their playful way, wherever they find that wheel
in motion. It was doubly satisfactory, then, that the good faith of
subject and mesmerist could be conclusively proved.
One of these séances led to a rather amusing incident. One night I
was awakened from first slumbers by a sharp ring at my bell, and when,
after some parleying, I opened the door, I found myself confronted
by two individuals. One I recognised as an "inquirer" who had been
brought to my rooms some time previously; the other was a lad I
had not seen before. The inquirer, I ascertained, having carefully
watched my _modus operandi_ on the occasion of his visit, had next
tried experiments of his own. In this instance he had succeeded in
mesmerising a lad, but had found it impossible to recall him to his
normal condition. So, securing him by a leather strap fastened round
his waist, he led him through the streets of Paris to my rooms.
There we both tried our powers upon him, the result being very
unsatisfactory. The youth, feeling himself freed from one operator and
not subjected by the other, refused allegiance to either, and, being
of a pugnacious temperament, he squared up and commenced striking
out at both of us. It was not without considerable difficulty that I
re-mesmerised him completely, and then, having previously prepared his
mind to account naturally for his presence in my rooms, I succeeded in
awakening him, and all ended happily. The inquirer was duly grateful,
the youth went home strapless and none the worse for the adventure,
and I proceeded to do some very sound sleeping on my own account.
I would say more of my séances and all the recollections they evoke,
were I not impatient to get back to du Maurier and to Malines. Once on
the experiences of those days, I have much to relate--pros and cons,
if you please, for that subtle magnetic fluid, which, without physical
contact, one human being can transmit to another, is a ticklish one
to handle. I cannot pack my pen, though, and take train of thought to
the Belgian city without mentioning my friend Allongé, the well-known
French artist, then a fellow-student of mine at the Ecole des Beaux
Arts. A chance contact of our knees as we sat closely packed with some
sixty other students put me on the track of a new subject, perhaps the
most interesting one it was ever my good fortune to come across. But
of him another time.
Using the privilege of a mesmerist, I elect to will the reader--that
is, if natural slumber has not ere this put him beyond my
control--across the frontier, into the back parlour of Mrs. L.'s
tobacco store. There I am operating on a boy--such a stupid little
Flemish boy that no amount of fluid could ever make him clever. How I
came to treat him to passes I don't remember; probably I used him as
an object-lesson to amuse Carry. All I recollect is that I gave him
a key to hold, and made him believe that it was red-hot and burnt
his fingers, or that it was a piece of pudding to be eaten presently,
thereby making him howl and grin alternately.
In the middle of our séance Carry is called away by a customer, one
of the swells of Malines much addicted to a poetical expression of his
admiration for the fair sex in general and for Carry in particular.
Greatly to our edification, she was pleased to improve the occasion by
leading him on, within our hearing, to make what is commonly called a
fool of himself. The pleasant incident is recorded in the accompanying
sketch.
But mesmerism meant more than incidental amusement or even scientific
experiment to us in those Antwerp and Malines days. When one stands
on the threshold of a world of mysteries one cannot but long to bridge
over the chasm that separates one from the gods, the fairies, or
the fiends. To be sure, we should have been glad if we could have
got "light, more light" thrown on our steps, but, failing that, we
tried to find our way as best we could in the mist. We loved that
never-attainable Will-o'-the-Wisp, "Truth," for its own dear Bohemian
sake; so, guided by Fancy and Fantasy, we made frequent inroads into
the boundless land where unknown forces pick up our poor dear little
conception of the Impossible, and use it as the starting-point of
never-to-be-exhausted possibilities.
[Illustration: A MESMERIC SÉANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR.]
Such a land was particularly well suited to the state of our
outward-bound minds and our excelsior appetites. It was on one or
the other of these excursions, I feel confident, that du Maurier
was inoculated with the germs that were eventually to develop into
Trilbyism and Svengalism. No wonder, then, if in more than one of
his letters and sketches the future delineator of those characters
embodies bold dreams and fancies, or if on one occasion he depicts
himself, with fixed gaze and hair erect, sitting bolt upright on my
hospitable sofa, thrilled and overawed by the midnight presence of the
uncanny, which I had evoked for his benefit.
"Yes, governor, it's all very well to ask a nervous fellow to Antwerp
and amuse him and make him ever so jolly and comfortable--But why,
when the bleak November wind sobs against the lattice and disturbs the
dead ashes in the grate, when everything is damned queer and dark,
and that sort of thing, you know--why should you make nervous fellows'
flesh creep by talk about mesmerism, and dead fellows coming to see
live fellows before dying, and the Lord knows what else? Why, Gad!
it's horrid!"
[Illustration: THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY.]
My rooms in Antwerp were the scene of many a festive gathering. We
always spoke of them in the plural; it sounded better, but in reality
there was only one room with two small alcoves. Studies and sketches
covered the walls or littered the floor, and the genial figure of a
skeleton, in very perfect condition, stood in the corner by the piano.
At first it came with a view to instructing me in the Science of
Anatomy, but soon, putting aside any didactic pretensions, my bony
professor became quite a companion and friend; it was thus natural
that on those occasions when guests had been convened to my rooms,
he would take a leading part, generally appearing gracefully draped
and appropriately illuminated, and thus forming a fitting background
to the gay proceedings of the evening. We had music, recitation,
and acting, mostly of an improvised, homemade character. The sounds
thereof were not confined, however, to the narrow limits of home, but
spread far beyond it, a fact which the neighbours, I am sure, would
have been at any time ready most emphatically to attest.
In justice to myself I may say that I was primarily answerable for the
magnitude of the sound waves, but I am bound to add that my example
was followed and even improved upon by the more lung-gifted of
my companions. Amongst the milder forms of entertainment was my
impersonation of Rachel. That grand actress I had often seen in Paris,
and had, more than once, shivered in my shoes as she annihilated the
Tyrant, pouring forth the vials of her wrath and indignation in the
classical language of Racine and Corneille. With those accents still
ringing in my ears I came to Antwerp, and there, when surrounded by
sympathetic friends, the spirit would sometimes move me, and I would
feel--excuse the conceit of youth--as if I too could have been a
great female Tragedian, had Fate not otherwise disposed of me. In
such moments I would seize the blade of the paper-knife, and use the
blood of the beet-root, drape myself in the classical folds of the
bed-sheet, and go for the Tyrant, hissing fearful hexameters of scorn
and vituperation into his ears, and usually winding up with a pose so
magnificently triumphant that it would bring down any house which was
not of the most solid construction.
Another time the cushion yonder would be my child--the orthodox
long-lost one--"It is!--It is not!--It is!--Let me clasp it to my
other cushion!" "Toi mon fils chéri. Ange de mon enfer, douleur de mes
loisirs!"
[Illustration: FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY.]
The celebration of one of my birthdays was an event rescued from
oblivion by du Maurier's pencil. He illustrates our lively doings
on that day and my appearance the next morning. "Felix's mamma," he
says, "had worked a very pretty cap for Felix, and Felix had it on the
morning after his birthday, and Felix found that though the cap was
very pretty, it made him look very seedy."
[Illustration: "RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY.]
In the other drawing he gives striking likenesses of the friends
assembled to celebrate the festive occasion. They had come together
in the evening, much in the same spirit that had led them under my
windows in the morning, with a brass band and an enormous bouquet of
cabbages, carrots, and cauliflowers. There, on the left, is Van Lerius
with his hands in his pockets, next to him du Maurier; then Heyermans,
Bource, and all the other chums, and, though last not least, the proud
bearer of the steaming punch-bowl. What a set of jolly good fellows!
It is quite a pleasure to pore over the sketch and contemplate du
Maurier's phiz, expressing his unbounded capacity of enjoyment. I can
see him taking points that fell flat with the other fellows. Quite
a pleasure, too, to think of Huysmans' big nose and Van Lerius' bald
head, of the tall and the short, of spindle shanks and chubby face.
Where are they all now? Some thirty-five years have elapsed, and
the whirligig of time has been revolving with unfailing regularity,
dropping us here and there, as caprice dictated, some to stand, some
to fall. What has become of the threads of friendship, picked up at
the studio or the café, perhaps whilst puzzling over the chess-board,
or when harmonising in four-part song? Golden threads; some destined
to be spun out and to become solidly intertwined; others to be
hopelessly entangled or cruelly snapped asunder by the inexorable
Fates. Where shall I find them now, those friends and boon companions
of my Bohemian days? Here, there, and everywhere--perhaps nowhere!
Some I see trotting briskly along the high-road of life, others
dragging wearily through its tangled bypaths. Yet again others resting
under a big, cold stone that bears an inscription and a couple of
dates, fixed just above their heads.
II.
I well remember a certain "barrière" that protected the level crossing
just outside the Malines Station. It was but an ordinary piece of
hinged timber, but we, that is, du Maurier and I, can never forget it;
for, as we stood by its side we vowed that come what might, we would
never travel along that line and past the old gate without recalling
that summer evening and re-thinking the thoughts of our early days.
It was also there, one evening, that we adopted our
never-to-be-forgotten aliases--Rag and Bobtail. We had chanced upon a
chum of ours named Sprenk lounging across that old barrière, and some
fortuitous circumstance having revealed the fact that his initials
were T.A.G., we forthwith dubbed him Tag. Out of that very naturally
grew the further development: Rag, Tag, and Bobtail.
T.A.G. was an Englishman, strong and hearty and considerably taller
than either of us. That alone would have sufficed to secure him
the friendship of du Maurier, who ever worshipped at the shrine
of physical greatness. He loved to look up to the man of
six-foot-something, or to sit in the shadow of the woman of commanding
presence, his appreciation of size culminating in the love of "Chang,"
that dog of dogs, whom we have all learnt to admire, as we followed
his career through the volumes of the immortal Weekly, presided over
by Toby and his master.
I somehow associate Tag with whisky and water; not that he took it
much or often, but he gave one the impression that whatever others
might do when amongst the benighted foreigner, he, for one, would not
let a good old English custom drop into disuse. Looking at Tag one
intuitively felt that his father before him had taken his moderate
glass of W. and W., and that, if he married and had sons, they would
do likewise. I do not think that he was particularly fond of art
or artists, unless inasmuch as they were brother Bohemians. He was
engaged, or, at least, he was generally just about to be engaged, in
some business, and whilst waiting for the opportune moment to commence
operations, he would settle down to an expectant present. The golden
opportunity he was looking for was plainly visible on his horizon, but
it had a way of remaining stationary, and as it was contrary to Tag's
nature to move unless under great pressure, the two never met.
In the meanwhile Tag was one of our trio of chums; he was a good deal
with us when we were out and about, bent on storming the world, or
climbing Parnassus; we did the climbing, he the looking on, the parts
thus being distributed to our mutual satisfaction. He was always
pleasantly acquiescent, and had the rare gift of making himself
useless agreeably; a common bond of interest we had in the Colorado
claro and oscuro, whether the fair or dark, applied to the friendly
weed or the still more friendly fair sex.
He describes himself pretty correctly in a letter he wrote to us from
Paris, when he says:--