| 138 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
In continuing to furnish details from Mr. Ward’s own pen of the passage through the press of his last and most remarkable work, “De Clifford,” I shall need no apology with those readers who appreciate, or desire to appreciate, the literary and intellectual character of its writer. And it is to such readers only that these Memorials are addressed.
It will be clear from several passages in some of the following, as well as
the preceding letters, that their writer felt for a time infinitely more anxiety and
uncertainty about the fate of this latest of his literary offspring—this beloved child of
his old age—than he had done in regard to any of its predecessors, and that a previous
success, as signal and uniform as it was unexpected, had anything but increased his
confidence in his own powers. This unaffected diffidence, coupled with the uncon-
| R. PLUMER WARD. | 139 |
The passage I have retained in the first of the following letters tempts me
to remark, that if there is one test of what is called “genius” more sure than
another, it is the occasional production of effects of which the producer is at first
unconscious. The productions of the greatest genius that ever lived are one great series of
these effects; and in his case the unconsciousness seems to have existed not merely
“at first,” but at last, and to the end; for none can believe (at least, from
what we at present know of him) that Shakspeare felt
and recognised his vast powers or their results; and as certain is it that none of his
friends, rich as some of them were in similar gifts, seem to have ever told him of them, at
least, to anything like the extent to which we of the present age insist on. The whole of
Mr. Ward’s works
| 140 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
“My discovery,” as he phrases it, of this “double constancy” was of course nothing more than some passing expression of my admiration for the feature in question, as finely enhancing the noble unity of design displayed in this story—taking it for granted that he so intended it.
“Dear Patmore,— * * * I am particularly
delighted with the discovery you
| R. PLUMER WARD. | 141 |
“You please me much by what you say of the quarrel with Albany. I myself felt very heroic in writing it. * * *
“P.S.—What is the ‘Betrothed,’ advertised by
Bentley? Was not that the title
of the novel you praised so much, and which I have been looking for ever
since? But that was
| 142 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
“Dear Patmore,—I do not
think you have a right to tantalize me by saying you have a ‘bright
thought,’ which is evidently to do you good, and then stop
without telling it. You must feel that such a thought, leading to such
consequences, must be most interesting to me, and I shall really be most
anxious to be told it, when properly concocted. At any rate, I am glad you are
going to do something with those ‘Tales of the Olden Time.’ I liked
them so well, as indeed everything I have seen of yours (particularly your
play), that I am
absolutely astonished at your consuming your own bright fires in clearing
others of smoke and dirt. What is to hinder you, with far less waste of time
(and far pleasanter employment too), from reaping as much of the harvest of
letters as those rapid and suc-
| R. PLUMER WARD. | 143 |
“By the way, I have just finished the last work of the last-mentioned, and was more, far more interested by it than by any of his other works. I could not quit it, notwithstanding it was, as usual, filled with improbabilities. But Robert Beaufort, Lord Lilburn, Mr. Beaufort, the Mortons, Madame Mirevale, and some others, make up for wants in the still more principal (or intended principal) characters, the hero, Philip, and the strange and overpowering anomaly, Gawtry. They are admirably touched, the interest never ceases from beginning to end, and prevents you from stopping to mark faults. No mean service. What do you say to it? * *
“The plot thickens, and we may soon be out.*
“Notwithstanding the stones I have thrown at the Sourkrouts and Paragraphs, who will no doubt pelt me in return, my
* Alluding to “De Clifford.” |
| 144 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
“Adieu. Always much yours,
The “bright thought” referred to in the following and
preceding letters was shortly afterwards put into words, in the form of a request that
Mr. Ward would give the sanction of his name, as
editor, to those “Tales of the Olden
Time,” of which he had expressed so favourable an opinion in former
letters, and had repeatedly urged me to publish; the favour being, of course, sought
conditionally on his approval of every part of the work when completed for publication; and
only under the belief that nothing short of such sanction would attract attention to a
series of Tales, the scenes of which are for the most part laid in ante-historical times.
In making this request to Mr. Ward, it is due to myself to say, that
it never for an instant occurred to
| R. PLUMER WARD. | 145 |
“Dear Patmore,—You
tantalize worse than ever, and make me quite angry by the disappointing
structure of your sentence, informing me that you had overcome your scruple
about communicating your ‘bright thought,’ which you would
unfold—in a day or two. ‘O, most lame, and
impotent conclusion!’ And all the worse for my knowing what with
| 146 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
“Well! you make up for it (if anything can) by the very pretty things you say of my dear heroines, and the encouragement this gives me as to their final success. Nor can anything be more delicate than the manner in which you convey a good opinion which, I need not tell you, is the most valuable I could have. So I gird myself for the battle, and care nothing for the Sourkrouts.
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