Thackeray's last visit to the Charterhouse -- College days --
Pendennis at Cambridge -- Sketches of University worthies --
Sporting subjects -- Etchings at Cambridge -- Pencillings in old
authors -- Pictorial Puns -- 'The Snob,' a Literary and
Scientific Journal -- 'Timbuctoo,' a prize poem.
In Thackeray's schooldays the Charterhouse enjoyed considerable
reputation under the head-mastership of Dr. Russell, whose death
happened in the same year as that of his illustrious pupil. No one who
has read Thackeray's novels can fail to know the kind of life he led
here. He has continually described his experiences at this celebrated
school--with the venerable archway into Charterhouse Square, which
still preserves an interesting token of the old monkish character of
the neighbourhood. Only a fortnight before his death he was there
again, as was his custom, on the anniversary of the death of Thomas
Sutton, the munificent founder of the school. 'He was there,' says one
who has described the scene, 'in his usual back seat in the quaint old
chapel. He went thence to the oration in the Governor's room; and as
he walked up to the orator with his contribution, was received with
such hearty applause as only Carthusians can give to one who has
immortalised their school. At the banquet afterwards he sat at the
side of his old friend and artist-associate in "Punch," John Leech;
and in a humorous speech proposed, as a toast, the noble foundation
which he had adorned by his literary fame, and made popular in his
works.' 'Divine service,' says another describer of this scene, for
ever memorable as the last appearance of Thackeray in public life,
'took place at four o'clock, in the quaint old chapel; and the
appearance of the brethren in their black gowns, of the old stained
glass and carving in the chapel, of the tomb of Sutton, could hardly
fail to give a peculiar and interesting character to the service.
Prayers were said by the Rev. J. J. Halcombe, the reader of the
house. There was only the usual parochial chanting of the _Nunc
Dimittis_; the familiar Commemoration-day psalms, cxxii. and c., were
sung after the third collect and before the sermon; and before the
general thanksgiving the old prayer was offered up expressive of
thankfulness to God for the bounty of Thomas Sutton, and of hope that
all who enjoy it might make a right use of it. The sermon was preached
by the Rev. Henry Earle Tweed, late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford,
who prefaced it with the "Bidding Prayer," in which he desired the
congregation to pray generally for all public schools and colleges,
and particularly for the welfare of the house "founded by Thomas
Sutton for the support of age and the education of youth."'
[Illustration: First Term]
[Illustration: Second Term]
[Illustration: 'O crikey, father, there's a jolly great
what's-a-name!']
From Charterhouse School Thackeray went to Trinity College, Cambridge,
about 1828, the year of his leaving the Charterhouse, and among his
fellow-students there had Mr. John Mitchell Kemble, the great
Anglo-Saxon scholar, and Mr. Tennyson. With the latter--then unknown
as a poet--he formed an acquaintance which he maintained to the last,
and no reader of the Poet Laureate had a more earnest admiration for
his productions than his old Cambridge associate, Thackeray. At
college, Thackeray kept seven or eight terms, but took no degree;
though he was studious, and his love of classical literature is
apparent in most of his writings, either in his occasional apt two
words from Horace, or in the quaint and humorous adoption of Latin
idioms in which, in his sportive moods, he sometimes indulged. A
recent writer tells us that his knowledge of the classics--of Horace
at least--was amply sufficient to procure him an honourable place in
the 'previous examination.'
[Illustration: A University Tradesman]
To the reader who would gain an insight into Thackeray's doings at
Cambridge, we say, 'Glance through the veracious pages in which he
records the University career of Mr. Arthur Pendennis; you will there
at least seize the spirit of his own college days, if perchance you do
not find the facts of the author's own residence circumstantially
stated. Take his studies, for example.'
Pen's circumstances, tastes, and disposition generally, presuming the
resemblance to be merely accidental, present a tolerably faithful
reflection of those of his biographer at this period.
[Illustration: UNIVERSITY CHARACTERS
A Mathematical Lecturer
A Classman
A Grinder
A Plodder
Horsemanship]
The entire narrative occupies but scant space; and the chronicler
premises that he shall not describe his hero's academical career very
minutely. He is reticent, for he candidly declares that this portion
of a man's life does not bear telling without certain reservations.
[Illustration: Vingt-et-un]
Riding, tandem-driving, and four-in-hands enjoyed in those days the
patronage more largely transferred by the present generation to
boating, cricket, billiards, &c. It was probably at the University
that Thackeray began to take an interest in equestrianism: he made
numberless pictures of horses; indeed, he never hesitated to draw them
in every attitude. There is a certain rude fitness and grotesque
vigour about the animals which he sketched at the period of life we
are describing; but his skill in this respect certainly advanced with
practice, and the horses he had occasion to introduce into his cuts
when his fun was at its height--such, for example, as the burlesque
illustrations which we find scattered about the inimitable pages of
Mr. Punch--were really very original and spirited; although perhaps
they are barely the steeds which would be selected by timid riders,
but are rather the tremendous creatures which occur to the
imagination.
[Illustration: 'Well on']
[Illustration: 'Ill off']
It is possible that Thackeray's bill to his livery stable keeper kept
pace with his other expenses; but his experience in this respect was
not fruitless. When he had occasion to mix with the world, and
especially while studying society abroad, it embittered his judgment
against the University to realise how little return, beyond that
indefinite and somewhat bumptious quality known as 'tone,' he had
really obtained in return for the expenses of a college career. The
youth of the Continent, with whom he had the fortune to associate for
some time, made him conscious, by their own accomplishments, of those
parts of a gentleman's education which are ignored at our
Universities, and which form, it must be confessed, the standard by
which men are chiefly measured beyond the college walls. His early
papers in 'Fraser,' and especially those supposed to be contributed by
the respectable Fitz-Boodle, drawing upon the experiences he had
gained while sojourning amidst the society of the minor German
principalities, speak the truth on these short-comings in a manner
both forcible and unflinching.
[Illustration: A few University Favourites]
[Illustration: 'Just a little playful']
Besides his fancy for etching plates of horses and men of ultra and
parodied fashion, for designing plates of the modern rake's progress
at the Universities, and punning cuts, we may assume that Thackeray
shared with his ideal Pendennis most of those tastes indulged by lucky
youths when life is opening, and reflection does not trouble them.
Like his hero, he enjoyed a fine amateur perception for rare editions,
and had a fancy for the glories of costly bindings: we are told that
the tall copies, the gilding, marbling, and blind-tooling put on his
book-shelves were marvellous to behold. The same just appreciation of
true art which, later on, directed Thackeray's criticisms of the
picture galleries, taught Pen to despise the tawdry and meretricious
pictures of horses and opera dancers which often captivate the
judgment of fledglings, and gifted him with a love for fine prints,
for Rembrandt etchings, line-engravings after Strange, and Wilkie's
before the letter; with which he hung his rooms, to the admiration of
those who were capable of understanding his good taste. His mind did
not despise the allurements of dress; and Pen was elaborately attired.
It was a repeated axiom of Thackeray's, that it was good for a youth
at one period to indulge in this vanity of fine apparel as a
preliminary stage to more developed ambitions of standing well with
the world.
[Illustration: 'Sport in earnest']
It will be recollected that eventually Pendennis was plucked; and a
feeling, in some degree morose, and unequivocally indignant, seems to
have taken possession of Thackeray's mind whenever he dwells on the
college careers of the creations of his fancy. In the 'Shabby Genteel
Story,' which he first gave to the world in the columns of 'Fraser'
(1840), he lashes the system for the defects of the individuals who
may have been perverted by its more injurious influences; nor does he
credit the Universities with conferring any solid advantages. He
enquires, somewhat vengefully, the amount of ruin that has been
inflicted by the temptations to which youths are exposed in such a
course of training as is understood in England by 'the education of a
gentleman.' The 'learning to fight for oneself,' he argues, implants
an early habit of selfishness. With 'a pretty knack of Latin
hexameters, and a decent smattering of Greek plays,' the neophyte
has learned, from his forced attendance at chapel, 'to consider the
religious service performed there as the vainest parade in the world.'
He has learned to forget the gentle affections of home, and, under
certain conditions, to despise his belongings. If naturally endowed
with an open hand, he has learned to compete with associates
infinitely wealthier than himself, to despise money on its own merits
perhaps, but to respect it as a means to the questionable advantage of
gaining admission to the company of those whose social positions may
chance to be a source of envy to weaker minds. In return for the two
thousand pounds or so which had been spent in acquiring 'the tone,' he
brings George Brandon--who is certainly as black a sheep as any
University can produce--abruptly away from his college, ruined in
heart and principle; boasting a small quantity of classics and
mathematics; with an utter contempt for his inferiors, an enmity
against his equals; a fulsome desire to be reckoned one of those above
him, and to copy the extravagances incident to high position; an easy,
confident address; sybarite habits, utter heartlessness, and tastes
which must be gratified without scruple as to the means: 'pretty
compensation,' writes the author, 'for all he had lost in gaining
them.'
[Illustration: Occasional Canters from 'Childe Harold's (first and
last) Pilgrimage']
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Taking in toe]
His pencil would seem to have been a recreation of Thackeray's
college days as well as of his later career. His first efforts in
etching on copper were probably produced about the period of which we
treat; the subjects of nearly all of these plates--none of which, we
believe, were ever published--were evidently suggested by incidents in
the career of an undergraduate.
The margins and fly-leaves of a copy of Ovid's 'Opera omnia,' one of
Black's editions of the Classics (1825), offer various whimsical
illustrations of certain portions of the poems; we incline to the
impression, however, that although some of these parodies may be
referred to Thackeray's college days, to others must be assigned a
considerably later date.
[Illustration: P. OVIDII NASONIS OPERA OMNIA.
P. OVIDII NASONIS]
'Remediorum Amoris,' 'Medicaminum Faciei,' et 'Halieutici Fragmenta.'
[Illustration: EPIGRAMMA NASONIS IN AMORES SUOS.]
Qui modo Nasonis fueramus quinque libelli,
Tres sumus: hoc illi prætulit auctor opus,
Ut iam nulla tibi nos sit legisse voluptas:
At levior demtis pœna duobus erit.
[Illustration: ARTIS AMATORIÆ. (Lib. II.)]
Ecce! rogant teneræ, sibidem præcepta, puellæ.
Vos eritis chartæ proxima cura meæ.
[Illustration: REMEDIA AMORIS.]
Hoc opus exegi: fessæ date serta carinæ
Contigimus portum, quo mihi cursus erat.
Postmodo reddetis sacro pia vota poëtæ,
Carmine sanati femina virque meo.
[Illustration: Death mowing down the Loves]
Another amusement at this period was the designing of pictorial puns,
after the manner introduced by Cruikshank, which was so successfully
practised by Alken, Seymour, and Tom Hood.
[Illustration: Indian Ink]
[Illustration: Chalk]
[Illustration: A full length]
Among the sketches by the hand of the novelist, which we attribute to
these earlier days, are a number of humorous designs, many of them
equal to the most grotesque efforts of the well-known artists we have
mentioned.
LEGAL DEFINITIONS.
BY A GENTLEMAN WHO MAY BE CALLED TO THE BAR.
[Illustration: Fee Simple]
[Illustration: On freeholds--A general clause]
[Illustration: A declaration]
[Illustration: A rejoinder]
[Illustration: Possession.--With remarks on assault and battery]
[Illustration: An ejectment]
[Illustration: Fives]
[Illustration: Beauty is but skin deep]
The earliest of Thackeray's literary efforts are associated with
Cambridge. It was in the year 1829 that he commenced, in conjunction
with a friend and fellow-student, to edit a series of humorous papers,
published in that city, which bore the title of 'The Snob: a Literary
and Scientific Journal.' The first number appeared on April 9 in that
year, and the publication was continued weekly. Though affecting to be
a periodical, it was not originally intended to publish more than one
number; but the project was carried on for eleven weeks, in which
period Mr. Lettsom had resigned the entire management to his friend.
The contents of each number--which consisted only of four pages--were
scanty and slight, and were made up of squibs and humorous sketches in
verse and prose, many of which, however, show some germs of that
spirit of wild fun which afterwards distinguished the 'Yellowplush
Papers' in 'Fraser.' A specimen of the contents of this curious
publication cannot but be interesting to the reader. The parody we
have selected, a clever skit upon the 'Cambridge Prize Poem,' appeared
as follows:--
[Illustration: Prisoners' base]
TIMBUCTOO.
_To the Editor of 'The Snob.'_
Sir,--Though your name be 'Snob,' I trust you will not
refuse this tiny 'Poem of a Gownsman,' which was unluckily
not finished on the day appointed for delivery of the
several copies of verses on Timbuctoo. I thought, Sir, it
would be a pity that such a poem should be lost to the
world; and conceiving 'The Snob' to be the most
widely-circulated periodical in Europe, I have taken the
liberty of submitting it for insertion or approbation.
I am, Sir, yours, &c. &c. &c.
TIMBUCTOO.--PART I.
_The situation._
In Africa (a quarter of the world)
Men's skins are black, their hair is crisp and curl'd,
And somewhere there, unknown to public view,
A mighty city lies, called Timbuctoo.
[Illustration: Bambooz-ling]
_The natural history._
There stalks the tiger,--there the lion roars, 5
Who sometimes eats the luckless blackamoors;
All that he leaves of them the monster throws
To jackals, vultures, dogs, cats, kites, and crows;
His hunger thus the forest monarch gluts,
And then lies down 'neath trees called cocoa nuts 10
_The lion hunt._
Quick issue out, with musket, torch, and brand,
The sturdy blackamoors, a dusky band!
The beast is found--pop goes the musketoons--
The lion falls covered with horrid wounds.
_Their lives at home._
At home their lives in pleasure always flow, 15
But many have a different lot to know!
_Abroad._
They're often caught, and sold as slaves, alas!
_Reflections on the foregoing._
Thus men from highest joys to sorrow pass.
Yet though thy monarchs and thy nobles boil
Rack and molasses in Jamaica's isle; 20
Desolate Afric! thou art lovely yet!!
One heart yet beats which ne'er thee shall forget.
What though thy maidens are a blackish brown,
Does virtue dwell in whiter breasts alone?
Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no! 25
It shall not, must not, cannot e'er be so.
The day shall come when Albion's self shall feel
Stern Afric's wrath, and writhe 'neath Afric's steel.
I see her tribes the hill of glory mount,
And sell their sugars on their own account; 30
While round her throne the prostrate nations come,
Sue for her rice, and barter for her rum! 32
The burlesque prize poem concludes with a little vignette in the
'Titmarsh' manner, representing an Indian smoking a pipe, of the type
once commonly seen in the shape of a small carved image at the doors
of tobacconists' shops.
* * * * *
Lines 1 and 2.--See 'Guthrie's Geography.'
The site of Timbuctoo is doubtful; the Author has neatly expressed
this in the poem, at the same time giving us some slight hints
relative to its situation.
Line 5.--So Horace: '_leonum arida nutrix._'
Line 8.--Thus Apollo:
ἑλωρία τεῦχε κύνεσσιν
Οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι.
Lines 5-10.--How skilfully introduced are the animal and vegetable
productions of Africa! It is worthy to remark the various garments in
which the Poet hath clothed the lion. He is called, 1st, the 'Lion;'
2nd, the 'Monster' (for he is very large); and 3rd, the 'Forest
Monarch,' which undoubtedly he is.
Lines 11-14.--The author confesses himself under peculiar obligations
to Denham's and Clapperton's Travels, as they suggested to him the
spirited description contained in these lines.
Line 13.--'Pop goes the musketoons.' A learned friend suggested 'Bang'
as a stronger expression, but as African gunpowder is notoriously bad,
the author thought 'Pop' the better word.
Lines 15-18.--A concise but affecting description is here given of the
domestic habits of the people. The infamous manner in which they are
entrapped and sold as slaves is described, and the whole ends with an
appropriate moral sentiment. The Poem might here finish, but the
spirit of the bard penetrates the veil of futurity, and from it cuts
off a bright piece for the hitherto unfortunate Africans, as the
following beautiful lines amply exemplify.
It may perhaps be remarked that the Author has here 'changed his
hand.' He answers that it was his intention to do so. Before, it was
his endeavour to be elegant and concise, it is now his wish to be
enthusiastic and magnificent. He trusts the Reader will perceive the
aptness with which he has changed his style; when he narrated facts he
was calm, when he enters on prophecy he is fervid.
The enthusiasm which he feels is beautifully expressed in lines 25 and
26. He thinks he has very successfully imitated in the last six lines
the best manner of Mr. Pope; and in lines 12-26, the pathetic elegance
of the author of 'Australasia and Athens.'
The Author cannot conclude without declaring that his aim in writing
this Poem will be fully accomplished if he can infuse into the breasts
of Englishmen a sense of the danger in which they lie. Yes--Africa! If
he can awaken one particle of sympathy for thy sorrows, of love for
thy land, of admiration for thy virtue, he shall sink into the grave
with the proud consciousness that he has raised esteem, where before
there was contempt, and has kindled the flame of hope on the
mouldering ashes of despair!