CHARLES DICKENS' FIRST LOVE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13892, 28 October 1908, Page 10

CHARLES DICKENS' FIRST LOVE.

.—.*— ——— The most recent issue of the Bibliophile Society is a volume entitled " Charles Dickens and Maria Beadnell: Private Correspondence." It consists of letters written by Dickens to his first love, Maria Beadnell, said to be the original of Dora of " David Copperfield" and Flora of "Little Dorrit." The original letters belong to Mr. Bixby, of St. Louis. Maria Beadnell was the daughter of John Beadnell, manager for a firm of bankers, Smith, Payne, and Smith. Dickens was introduced to the family by his friend Henry Kolle, who married Anne Beadnell in May, 3833, shortly after the first five of. the letters here printed were written. These five letters (says '' Claudius Clear," in the British. Weekly) are apparently the ending of a happy intercourse of some months.

In the first of them, dated only "March 18," Dickens declares that their recent meetings have been" little more than so many displays of heartless indifference" on her part, and he returns to her some present which he says, "I have always prized, as* I still do, far beyond anything I ever possessed." The original of this letter was returned to Dickens, and it is printed from a copy retained by Miss Beadnell. Of the other letters of this first series, one is undated, the others -are dated simply "Thursday," "Friday," and "Sunday," but all were written within a few days. There was apparently never any engagement, but that Dickens was on famdiar terms with the Beadnell family for three years or more is shown by a poem, "The Bill of Fare," written : n the autumn of 1831. The manuscript of this, preserved by Miss Beadnell, is also printed in the volume. In it Dickens characterises his friends, including the Beadnells, and of himself says:—

And Charles Dickens, who in our Feast plays a part. :•.••' Is a young Summer Cabbage, without any heart: Not that he's heartless, but because, as folks say, ."'.•',■•'■■, He lost his, twelve months ago from last ■.. May.

But on April 2, 1836, Dickens married Catherine Hogarth, and Miss Beadnell (perhaps earlier) married Henry Winter. | More than 20 years later a new corres-I pondence was, taken up, and 12 letters written' to Mrs. Winter in 1855, 1857, 1858, and 1862, are included in the volume. The first of these letters are full of thoughts of the past. In one, dated February 22, 1855, he says:— . "A few days ago (just before Copperfield) I began 'to write my life, intending the manuscript to be found among my papers, when its subject should be concluded. But as I began to approach within eight of that part of it (referring to his early love), I lost courage, and burned the rest." % But after he had seen Mrs. Winter, Dickens seemed to feel that the youthful romance was gone, and a different tone pervades the later letters. He gave her i a copy of " David ; Copperfield" inscribed ! " Charles Dickens to Maria Winter. In ' remembrance of old times." It is pos- ! sible, perhaps probable, that Dickens prej served Miss Beadnell's letters until that J September day in 386 C, of which he i wrote: —

"Yesterday I burnt in the field at Gad's Hill the accumulated letters and papers of 20 years. They sent up a smoke like the genie when he got out of the casket on the seashore, and as it was an exquisite day when I began, and rained very heavily when I finished, I suspect- my correspondence of having overcast the face of the heavens.',* Professor Baker rays in a footnote:— It is reported that some 10 years ago a series of leters from Dickens to the friend of his youth, Henry Kolle, changed hands in Birmingham, England. The present editor hopes that the publication of the letters in this book may bring this get to light, for they should supplement and explain the letters here given." The letters to Kolle were acquired-by the late Augnstin Daly, and at the dispersal of his collection after his death they passed into the library of a private collector, but it is not likely that the present owner will consent to their being printed.