already been parodied in book-form, produced as a melodrama, read aloud
in drawing-rooms, with music, and put on the platform in "scenes and
songs," so that nothing was left to do with it but to make an "operatic
burlesque" of it; and this was duly accomplished by Messrs. Joseph W.
Herbert and Charles Puerner, the latter being responsible for the music
and the former for the words. The piece is called "Thrilby." As in the
serious play founded upon the novel, the villain (rechristened
"Spaghetti") is the principal figure; and mesmerism is carried to a
ridiculous excess, even inanimate objects succumbing to its influence.
There is a farce within this farce; for "Mme. Sans-Gene" is parodied in
a sub-play introduced under the name of "Mme. Sans Ra-Gene." The
burlesque is by no means free from horse-play, but it unquestionably
accomplishes its purpose, which is merely to amuse.
At the Casino, as well as at the Garrick, "Trilby" and "Mme. Sans Gene"
have both been travestied.
* * * * *
(_Harper's Weekly_)
"THE _Weekly_ has received a copy of the programme of a novel and
decidedly interesting literary and musical entertainment that was given
on Oct. 17, at Omaha. It was called 'An Evening with Trilby.' The
participants were all gentlemen. The subjects of the papers read were
'The Story of Trilby,' 'Du Maurier, his Life and Work,' 'The French of
Trilby,' 'The Identity of the Artists in Trilby,' 'Trilby's Voice and
Method,' 'Trilby as a Hypnotic Subject,' 'Could Trilby be Successfully
Dramatized?' After each paper there was Trilby music, which included
'Ben Bolt,' 'Au Clair de la Lune,' 'Malbrouck s'en va-t-en Guerre' and
other songs and instrumental pieces. At the end of the programme comes
the inquiry, What shall we 'ave the pleasure of drinkin' after that
werry nice 'armony?' and then the page turns over to the farewell
couplet:--
'A little warmth, a little light
Of love's bestowing--and so, good-night.'
"It is a pretty far cry from Paris to Omaha, but Trilby's voice seems to
have carried that distance without the least trouble. It is worth
remarking that these Omaha gentlemen made seven 'papers' about her
without finding it necessary to discuss her morals."
* * * * *
OF THE MANY "Trilby" entertainments in New York one of the most
successful was given in May, at the house of Postmaster Dayton, for the
benefit of St. Luke's Home for Indigent Christian Females. A literary
criticism of the book was read, and one of the chapters of the story;
and the songs that are oftenest alluded to were sung. The affair was
given under the auspices of the Daughters of the Revolution.
* * * * *
"TRILBY'S" WIDE POPULARITY--in the sense that many people who are not,
ordinarily, novel-readers take a lively interest in it--is evidenced by
many indications, not the least significant being the concerts made up
from the music mentioned in the novel. One such was given in San
Francisco last December, under the management of the ladies of the
Mercantile Library Auxiliary and for the benefit of the Library's
unfortunately slender exchequer. According to _The Argonaut_, a very
interesting program was presented, including Schubert's "Rosamonde,"
Adam's "Cantique de Noel," Chopin's Impromptu in A flat, "Bonjour
Suzon," "Le Capitaine Roquefinette" and the much-discussed "Ben Bolt."
* * * * *
"TRILBY" REPRESENTATIONS have broken out in all sorts of strange places.
At the Eden Musee, New York, Miss Ganthony has been restrained from
impersonating du Maurier's heroine; and at "The Greatest Show on Earth,"
Miss Marie Meers, who has not been restrained, appears nightly in Trilby
costume, riding bareback (not barefoot) around the tan-bark to the
snapping of ringmaster Svengali's whip.
Miscellanea
MR. DU MAURIER and Mr. James took a walk together, one day, and the
artist unfolded to the novelist the plot of "Trilby," suggesting that he
should use it in a novel. Mr. James persuaded him to write the story
himself. He did so; and what has been the result? Think of the time and
skill, the money and material that have been employed in putting the
thing in type, preparing its illustrations, printing it as a serial and
reprinting it in book-form; in dramatizing it, burlesquing it in books
and on the stage, in adapting its songs and illustrations for
reproduction on lecture-platforms and in drawing-rooms, and in
translating and publishing Nodier's tale, from which the author took his
title! Its presentation has given employment, onerous or enjoyable,
honorary or remunerative, to thousands; hundreds of thousands have read
it, and hundreds of thousands seen it on the stage; and its leading
characters--Trilby, Svengali and "the three musketeers of the
brush"--have become household names and personalities. It has enriched
its author, added to the wealth of its publishers, put money in the
purses of playwright and manager and replenished the treasuries of more
than one excellent charity. Directly or indirectly, no doubt, it has
caused much more than a million dollars to change hands within the past
eighteen months. And last but not least, it is responsible for this
pamphlet, in which is chronicled the story of its rise and progress.
* * * * *
AT THE Mercantile Library, New York, it was found necessary, at the time
when "Trilby" was in greatest demand, to circulate a hundred copies of
the book; at the beginning of June the number in circulation was
seventy. Mr. Wingate wrote to _The Critic_ from Boston, in June, that
there were six copies of the book in the main building of the Public
Library, and one in each of its branches, but that this supply was
inadequate, 72 demands for the book having come from the branch
libraries in a single day. And Mr. Hild writes to us from Chicago that
the Public Library of that city has 26 copies, but that they do not
begin to supply the demand. "I believe we could use 260 and never find a
copy on the shelves. Every one of our 54,000 card-holders seems
determined to read the book."
ON THE POINT of the morality or immorality of the book, _The
Independent_ says:--
"Mr. du Maurier, apparently in deference to the current craze for
heroines that have been seduced, or are just going to be, bedaubs the
first fifty pages of his otherwise clean story with telling how his pure
heroine, Trilby, a _blanchisseuse de fin_, had been led astray, and so
forth. That is to say, he unnecessarily goes behind the true door of his
story to wash some dirty linen, and then he sets forth."
On this point the San Francisco _Argonaut_ does not agree with its New
York contemporary:--
"With those who think these passages immoral, we cannot agree. Mr. du
Maurier has treated with candor some facts belonging to the realm of
things which are usually understood instead of being talked about; but
he has done this with singular manliness and delicacy, and with entire
absence of mawkish or other improper sentiment. The impression of
Trilby's character left upon the reader is entirely that of a noble,
generous woman, whose life is not a sin, but a tragedy."
The same paper reproduces "a letter Mr. du Maurier wrote to a Paterson,
N. J., man who contended that the relations of Trilby with her
hypnotizer were chaste, so far as her consciousness of them went, and
decided to find out if he were right by writing to the novelist":--
"NEW GROVE HOUSE, HAMPSTEAD HEATH,
"October 31, 1894.
"DEAR SIR: In answer to your letter of September 24th, I beg to say that
you are right about Trilby. When free from mesmeric influence, she lived
with him as his daughter, and was quite innocent of any other relation.
In haste, yours very truly,
"G. DU MAURIER."
* * * * *
EARLY IN March, 1895, one of the Boston clergymen advertised Robert
Grant's "Art of Living," as our Boston correspondent reported at the
time, and on Sunday, March 17, another prominent minister took up
"Trilby." So it is evident that, even if Boston authorship is on the
decline, as so many New Yorkers enviously declare, the Boston clergy are
going to keep alive the interest in literary matters by emphatic words
to their congregations. "Have you read 'Trilby'?" was the theme of the
Rev. George W. Bicknell's sermon, and the topic crowded the church. The
Reverend Doctor declared that he had spent five hours reading the book,
and had decided that it was a story of magnificent possibilities, but
that its morality was "as one viewed it." He considered the tale
far-fetched and over-drawn and lacking in healthful flavor, and placed
it in the same class of art with the nude paintings at the World's
Fair--a position to which, we presume, the author would not object. Then
he launched out into an emphatic declaration that it was time for the
pulpit to speak out against art of this kind.
* * * * *
DU MAURIER'S heroine has been heard of over in Brooklyn. A married
woman, aged twenty-nine, got into a dispute with her husband, recently,
as to the morals of the young model, and proved her point by "smashing
him over the head with an earthenware jar." In the newspaper in which we
read of this intemperate act, the husband's age is not given, nor the
side he took in the argument, before he was shown to be wrong. The fact
that he got his head broken proves little--except the folly of arguing
with a woman; nor the additional fact that he refused to appear against
his wife in court. But the case is one in which a good deal might be
said on both sides--if earthenware jars were not introduced too early in
the discussion.
* * * * *
MR. DU MAURIER has worse offenses to atone for than the breaking of the
Brooklyn man's silly head. But for his entertaining book we should have
been spared the unreadable prose of "Biltry: a Parody on 'Trilby'" and
the unspeakable verse of "Drilby Re-versed," the former by Mary Kyle
Dallas, the latter by Leopold Jordan. In vulgarity and banality, these
two precious productions run each other a close race. Of the two we
think "Drilby" a trifle the less objectionable, merely because the
proportion of text to white paper is somewhat smaller. Both are poorly
illustrated, and printed on much better paper than they deserve.
* * * * *
E. C. OF NEW ALBANY, IND., thinks that "Trilby's" possibilities as a
vehicle of evil to the much-considered American "young person" are
emphasized by a conversation recently overheard by her between two
feminine "young persons" in Indiana. "What is this 'Trilby' everybody is
talking about?" asked one of these. "Oh," replied the other, "it's a
book--a novel." "They say it is awfully bad," said the first young
person. "Yes, I've heard so; but it isn't so at all. I read it clear
through, and there wasn't anything bad in it. I didn't like it either;
there is too much French in it." "French?" commented the first young
woman; "well that's it, then--all the bad part is in French." "I hadn't
thought of that," mused the other one; "I suppose that's just the way of
it. Anyway, it isn't nearly as good as 'Dally.'"
[Illustration: PLATT. THE NEW SVENGALI.
THE HYPNOTIZING OF MORTON.
Have you read "Trilby?" Svengali was a bad, wicked man, who used to
hypnotize poor, sweet little Trilby and make her sing and act as he
pleased--With apologies to Du Maurier.]
"Trilby" has even got into American politics. This shows better than
anything else how wide an audience the story most have reached. How many
allusions to a book of the current year would be comprehensible to the
average reader of a New York daily paper? We reproduce the accompanying
cartoon from the _World_ of Dec. 9 as a curiosity of literature and an
interesting contribution to "Trilbyana." It is adapted from Mr. du
Maurier's drawing entitled "Et Maintenant Dors, ma Mignonne!"
* * * * *
A Broadway caterer now "molds his ice-cream in the shape of a model of
Trilby's ever-famous foot." Mr. du Maurier can want no greater evidence
of the popularity of his story in America. That there is not a "Trilby"
shoe on the market reflects little credit upon the enterprise of our
bootmakers. It is an opportunity that no soap-maker would neglect if it
came his way. Possibly the fact that Trilby's foot was large (as well as
shapely) has something to do with the shoemakers' backwardness. Hers
were not Cinderella slippers. ("The Lounger," 30 March, 1895.)
Mr. C. W. Coleman, Librarian of William and Mary College, writes from
Williamsburg, Va., to say that I am in error in supposing that the
bootmakers of this wide-wake country have not yet seized the name of du
Maurier's heroine for advertising purposes. In his note of correction he
encloses a clipping from the catalogue of a Chicago house, containing a
picture of a high-heeled ladies' shoe, flanked by an advertisement of
"'The Trilby,' price $3, postage 15 cts.--'an ornament to any foot,'"
etc. And I hear that the shop-windows of Norfolk, Va., fairly bristle
with shoes of this brand. Moreover, a bootmaker's advertisement in the
Pittsburg _Post_ shows (as a punning Pennsylvania correspondent writes
to me) that "Trilby has obtained a foothold even in the Iron City."
According to the advertisement, "this enterprising firm offer to the
lady sending in the most accurate dimensions according to the diagram
above, together with a drawn outline of the nude foot on paper, a
handsome pair of the highest grade 'Trilby' shoe, which they will have
made up especially for the winner. This stylish foot adornment for
Pittsburgh's model feet will be satin or silk lined throughout, of the
finest quality kid and best workmanship. Bear in mind, ladies, it need
not be the smallest feet that win, but the most perfect form of a foot
from a standpoint of proportionate measurements." ("The Lounger," 13
April, 1895.)
* * * * *
G. A. D. writes from Philadelphia to deplore the Quaker City's
vulgarization of the name and fame of Trilby; and in justification of
his plaint encloses a Chestnut Street dealer's advertisement of the
"Trilby Sausage"! This, it is claimed, "is something new, and fills a
long-felt want"; "they melt in your mouth." They don't melt in G. A.
D.'s mouth, but they rankle in his aesthetic soul. "What next?" he
exclaims; "an Ophelia tooth-wash, a Duchess of Towers garbage-pail!" Our
correspondent has not yet heard of the "Trilby Ham." This, if anything,
is worse than the Sausage. It has been heard of in this city; whether or
no it originated here, I do not care to inquire. But in an Eighth Avenue
dime-museum, there are "Twenty Trilbys," and visitors vote for the
handsomest! Moreover, we have now the "Trilby Hearth-brush"; and huge
posters on the East Side announce a picnic of the "Trilby Coterie and
Chowder Club."
* * * * *
_The Evening Post_ reprints from James Braid's "Observations of Trance"
(1850, page 43) the following paragraph, which is of singular interest
in connection with the novel which has made such an extraordinary
sensation in this country during the past year, and has become as great
a success on the stage as in book-form. Svengali's transformation
of a girl with no ear for music into a singer of marvellous powers seems
to have been almost paralleled in real life, half a century ago:--
[Illustration: DU MAURIER'S HOUSE.
HAMPSTEAD HEATH.]
"Many patients will thus repeat accurately what is spoken in _any_
language; and they may be also able to sing correctly and simultaneously
both words and music of songs in any language which they have never
heard before--_i. e._, they catch the words as well as music so
instantaneously as to accompany the other singer as if both had been
previously equally familiar with both words and music. In this manner a
patient of mine, who, when awake, knew not the grammar of even her own
language, and who had very little knowledge of music, was enabled to
follow Mlle. Jenny Lind correctly in songs in different languages,
giving both words and music _so correctly and so simultaneously with
Jenny Lind_, that two parties in the room could not for some time
imagine that there were two voices, so perfectly did they accord, both
in musical tone and vocal pronunciation of Swiss, German and Italian
songs. She was equally successful in accompanying Mlle. Lind in one of
her extemporaneous effusions, which was a long and extremely difficult
elaborate chromatic exercise, which the celebrated cantatrice tried by
way of taxing the powers of the somnambulist to the utmost. When awake
the girl durst not even _attempt_ to do anything of the sort; and, after
all, wonderful as it was, it was _only phonic imitation_, for she did
not understand the meaning of a single word of the foreign language
which she had uttered so correctly."
* * * * *
(_Miss Frances Albert Doughty, in The Critic, 15 June, 1895._)
"The strength of 'Trilby' as a novel lies in the exquisitely dear
realization of the good in the girl's nature, which the fine art of the
author has been able to give to the reader. The divine in the Laird, in
Taffy and in Little Billee responded to the divine in that undeveloped
girl, and to them the angel in her was the real Trilby in spite of all
her past experience. But idealism and realism in this charming story are
not quite happily balanced: the reader receives a blow on the spiritual
side of his being from the manifestation of an agency in the universe
that is endowed with an all-conquering malevolence, something extraneous
from the individual and yet able to arrest in her the growth of the
budding germ of holiness and moral beauty, a power triumphant even at
the moment when her spirit was about to return to the God who gave it.
Without Svengali there would be no novel of Trilby; nevertheless, he is
the sole blot upon it."
* * * * *
(_San Francisco Argonaut_)
"Perhaps the most surprising circumstance connected with 'Trilby' in the
eyes of American readers is the way the book has been received in
England. At best it has been accorded lukewarm praise, and the tone of
its reviews has run the gamut down to downright slating. Some have been
spiteful enough to be exceptionally entertaining. Of these, that of _The
Pall Mall Gazette_ is the most striking, the reviewer of that journal
showing himself to be (as an exchange puts it) a master of vituperative
diction. To this reviewer, 'Trilby's' three Englishmen are 'British
prigs cut in pasteboard,' and their biographer is denied even the poor
ability to express himself in grammatical English."
* * * * *
TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRITIC:--
If there yet remains a word to be said in criticism of this book, it
may, perhaps, be in regard to the musical part of it. Whether
intentionally or not, du Maurier has certainly added an instance, which
tends to prove the theory true, that music in itself is neither
elevating nor refining. Svengali is drawn with inimitable skill, and
with so much realism that the reader feels that he must have been known
and hated by du Maurier in all his repulsiveness. And yet this loathsome
creature has the power of so seizing and expressing the noblest works of
the great masters of harmony as to move his hearers to tears, to sway
them at his will by the tenderness and feeling he puts into the notes.
It is a hard thing for a music-lover to comprehend, that a man of low
and vicious life, and utterly without aspirations, can so express the
penetrating beauty that lies in music more than in any other art. It
shows, too, that music gives us only what it finds in us, and proves the
folly of "program music," or music with a translation.
AUBURN, N. Y.
S. M. COX.
(_Mrs. Emma Carleton, in the Louisville Courier-Journal._)
"A great deal has been said and written about 'Ben Bolt,'" said a woman
who doesn't pretend to be musical, "and the other songs of the Trilby
repertoire; but I have not yet seen or heard any comment on Trilby's
'great and final performance'--the vocalization of Chopin's Impromptu, A
flat. Du Maurier devotes two entire pages to most wonderful description
of this wonderful musical achievement; two exquisite pages of music
painted in words, in most masterly and matchless fashion. Who can forget
the depiction of La Svengali's voice, 'as a light nymph catching the
whirl of a double-skipping rope as she warbles that long, smooth,
lilting, dancing laugh, that wondrous song without words.' This
impromptu should be rechristened the 'Trilby Impromptu,' and musicians
everywhere should now--while the Trilby wave is riding high--be charming
their audiences by playing it."
* * * * *
The Oliver Ditson Co. has published a pamphlet of "Trilby" songs, etc.,
containing the words and music of "Ben Bolt," "Malbrouck," "Bonjour,
Suzon," "Der Nussbaum" ("The Nut-tree") "Cantique de Noel" and "Au Clair
de la Lune," and the music of Chopin's "Impromptu."
* * * * *
On March 1, 1895, a postcard was sent from the office of _Life_, calling
the attention of "exchange editors" throughout the country to "A
'Trilby' Examination." We reprint the card in full:--
"_Life's Monthly Calendar_ offers a series of cash prizes for the best
sets of replies to the following questions on 'Trilby':
1. What does the author claim as the king of all instruments? Who does
he claim was the greatest violinist of his time? What does he call the
most bourgeois piece of music he knows?
2. What was Svengali's real name?
3. Where does the author state that he is a social lion? Where does he
deny that he is a snob?
4. Where does he bring Little Billee in contact with Punch?
5. What did the Laird call M. le general Comte de la Tour-aux-Loups?
6. In what places does the author compare Gecko to a dog?
7. How old was Trilby when she died?
8. What was Little Billee's physical explanation of his inability to
love?
9. What verbal description of one of the heroes contradicts almost every
one of the author's drawings of him?
10. What incident of the story is inconsistent with the author's own
argument in behalf of the nude in art?
"Dear Sir: The above questions are covered by our copyright, but in view
of the popular interest in 'Trilby,' you may wish to reproduce them. We
should be more than pleased to have you do so, if you will give us
credit.
Yours very truly,
JAMES S. METCALFE,
Editor and Manager _Life's Monthly Calendar_."
The Songs in "Trilby"
Dr. Thomas Dunn English wrote the words of "Ben Bolt" in New York, in
1842, when he was a young man of three-and-twenty. Mr. N. P. Willis had
asked him to write a sea-song for _The New Mirror_, and so he wound up
the last stanza with an allusion to "the salt-sea gale!" As a sea-song,
"Ben Bolt" is not a success; but it has been sung on every sea and in
every land where the English tongue is spoken. At Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, in 1848, an English journalist named Hunt quoted the words
(from a defective memory) to Nelson Kneass, who was attached to the
local theatre; and, adapted by Kneass to a German melody, the song, in a
somewhat garbled version, was introduced in a play called "The Battle of
Buena Vista." In Helen Kendrick Johnson's "Our Familiar Songs, and Those
Who Made Them" (Henry Holt & Co., 1881), the story of its vogue in
England as well as in America is told effectively. Not only were ships
and steam-boats named in its honor, but a play was built upon its
suggestions, and as recently as in 1877 an English novelist made the
memories evoked by the singing of the song a factor in the development
of his catastrophe. Its revival at the hand of Mr. du Maurier is the
latest and perhaps the most striking tribute to its hold upon the
popular heart. To the author himself--in his ripe old age a member of
the LIIId Congress--its fame is seemingly a bore, for he is quoted as
saying:--"I am feeling very well and enjoying life as well as an old man
can, but this eternal 'Ben Bolt' business makes me so infernally weary
at times that existence becomes a burden. The other night, at a meeting
of a medical association at my home in Newark, some one proposed that
all hands join in singing 'Ben Bolt,' whereupon I made a rush for the
door, and came very near forgetting the proprieties by straightway
leaving home. However, I recovered my equilibrium and rejoined my
friends. I don't think that General Sherman ever grew half so tired of
'Marching Through Georgia' as I have of that creation of mine, and it
will be a blessed relief to me when the public shall conclude to let it
rest."
Apropos of the use made of the song in "Trilby," _Harper's Bazar_
published the words and music; whereupon the author sent this letter to
the editor:--