"INGOLDSBY LEGENDS."
In the "Ingoldsby Legends" Leech found a very congenial field for the
exercise of his powers. Though I will not presume to prophesy respecting
literary merit, I venture to think that, during the course of his
practice, Leech's illustrations have occasionally appeared attached to
literature scarcely worthy of them; they will, doubtless, in some cases,
act as the salt, which will preserve for posterity certain books of an
ephemeral character. This remark cannot apply to the "Ingoldsby
Legends," which is a work that "the world will not willingly let die,"
until delightful wit and humour, wedded to no less delightful verse,
cease to charm. The burden of the illustrations of the "Legends" falls
upon the worthy shoulders of John Tenniel, and they show some of the
strongest work of that admirable artist. Leech appears in diminished
force as to numbers, but in the examples I give he leaves nothing to
wish for.
"For, only see there! in the midst of the Square,
Where, perch'd upon poles six feet high in the air,
Sit, chained to the stake, some two, three, or four pair
Of wretches, whose eyes, nose, complexion, and hair
Their Jewish descent but too plainly declare;
Each clothed in a garment more frightful by far, a
Smock-frock sort of gaberdine called a _Samarra_,
With three times the number of devils upon it--
A proportion observed on the sugar-loaf bonnet;
With this further distinction, of mischief a proof,
That every fiend-Jack stands upright on his hoof!
While the picture flames, spread over body and head,
Are three times as crooked, and three times as red!
All, too, pointing upwards, as much as to say,
'Here's the real _bonne-bouche_ of the Auto da Fé!'
"Torquemada, meanwhile, with his cold, cruel smile,
Sits looking on calmly, and watching the pile,
As his hooded 'Familiars' (their names, as some tell, come
From their being so much more 'familiar' than 'welcome')
Have by this begun to be 'poking their fun,'
And their fire-brands, as if they were so many posies
Of lilies and roses, up to the noses
Of Lazarus Levi and Moses Ben Moses,
And similar treatment is forcing out hollow moans
From Aby Ben Lasco and Ikey Ben Solomons,
Whose beards--this a black, that inclining to grizzle--
Are smoking and curling, and all in a frizzle;
The King, at the same time, his Dons and his Visitors,
Sit, sporting smiles, like the Holy Inquisitors!"
"16, Lansdowne Place, Brighton,
"September 3, 1863.
"MY DEAR SIR,
"I have been obliged to make the 'Auto da Fé' this size, as I found
I could not possibly get the subject on to a small block. You will
see, too, that I have altered the appearance of the victims. It
occurred to me that a real human being burning alive was hardly
fun, so I have made them a set of Guy Fawkeses, and added, I hope,
to the humour while getting rid of the horror.
"Believe me, my dear Sir,
"Yours faithfully,
"JOHN LEECH.
"RICHARD BENTLEY, ESQ."
In the second example we have the figure of a maid at a well, which
Leech has given us with the charm that never fails him. Her astonishment
at the head in the bucket might have been indicated more forcibly, but
there, I fancy, the engraver must have been to blame; yet he gives the
head of Gengulphus with such perfection of expression and character as
to make one feel that the original drawing of it could scarcely have
been better.
A LAY OF ST. GENGULPHUS.
"But scarce had she given the windlass a twirl,
'Ere Gengulphus's head, from the well's bottom said,
In mild accents, 'Do help us out, that's a good girl!'
[Illustration]
"Only fancy her dread when she saw a great head
In her bucket--with fright she was ready to drop!
Conceive, if you can, how she roared and she ran,
With the head rolling after her, bawling out 'Stop!'"
As this memoir progresses I propose to submit further illustrations
from some of the many serials, novels, tales, poems, etc., with which
Leech was connected. I also propose, in the course of my narrative, to
quote opinions of Leech's powers from men better qualified to judge of
them, and able to express their opinions in far more felicitous language
than mine. Amongst those Dickens takes a foremost place. I think the
friendship between Leech and Dickens began very early in the life of the
former; the nature of Leech's work, and the modest and gentle character
of the man, were especially attractive to Dickens.
In the amateur company of actors formed by Dickens, Leech was a
conspicuous figure; but his heart was not in the work, though he
entirely sympathized with the object of it, which was of a charitable
nature, resulting in many performances--very successful in a pecuniary
sense--for the benefit of poor and deserving literary men. The company
consisted of Dickens, Mark Lemon, John Forster, G. H. Lewis, Douglas
Jerrold, Leech, Egg, Wilkie Collins, Frank Stone, and others, who
christened themselves "The Guild of Literature and Art." The late Lord
Lytton took great interest in the Guild, for which he wrote a play
called "Not so Bad as We Seem; or, Many Sides to a Character," and to
this he added a gift of land on his estate in Hertfordshire, where some
houses of a superior cottage form were built, in which decayed artists
and authors were to end their days; but these gentlemen declined to
_begin_ any days there under the conditions prescribed; and when the
houses were built, tenants for them could not be found. The Guild,
therefore, was something of a fiasco, with the exception of the relief
it afforded in several instances to worthy objects.
Leech acted in the first play that the amateurs ventured upon, no less
than Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour," in which Dickens played
Bobadil and Leech Master Matthew. This occurred about 1847, I think, and
I was honoured by an invitation to the first or second performance. _Par
parenthèse_, I may add that I had the honour of being asked to join the
company, but feeling that I could not learn a part, or, if I did get
over that difficulty, the footlights would paralyze my memory, and also
having neither face nor figure for the stage, I thought it best to
"stick to my last."
Though Leech had a good part in "Every Man," strange to say, I have no
recollection of his performance; though that of Dickens, Jerrold, Egg,
and others remains vividly in my memory. Dickens gave proofs in
Bobadil, and in many other characters, that he might have been a great
actor. The same, nor anything like it, could not be said with truth of
Leech, if he played his other parts no better than he did that of
Slender in the "Merry Wives of Windsor." It is only in that character
that I can remember him, though I must have seen him in others. The tone
in which he said "Oh, sweet Anne Page!" can I ever forget? There was a
ring of impatience in his performance, a kind of "Oh, I wish this was
all over!" that was plainly perceptible to those who knew him
intimately. Leech's tall figure and handsome face told well upon the
stage, but with those his attractions as an actor ceased. In Lord
Lytton's play Leech had no part, I think, but my old friend Egg played
that of a poor poet, who is discovered in a miserable attic when the
curtain rises, and the poet soliloquizes to the effect that "Years ago,
when under happier circumstances"--something or other. Egg always begun,
"Here's a go, when under," etc. Unlike Leech, Egg was fond of acting,
but, like Leech, he displayed no capacity for the art.