The Complete Works (Volume 13); Illustrated Henry Esmond English Humorists Four Georges Charity and Humor

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1904. Excerpt: ... INTRODUCTION xv success of the venture. Mrs. Kemble's friendly, funny story is well known, of the lecturer's nervousness and of her trying to encourage him, and in her confusion and sympathy letting his manuscript fall from the desk; and there is that saying of my father's which she records-- that she had just given him occupation and distraction in sorting the manuscript, during the ten minutes he had still to wait. I was scarcely in my teens at the time, and it is so long ago, that the facts are somewhat confused, so that I have no details to add, except that we all drove home together, and I do remember his comfortable look of relief as we settled down in the family brougham and started away from Willis's Rooms to homelike Young Street. Very soon the lectures ceased to alarm; they became an integral part of his daily life, lie used to make a little joke of his own reading, and describe Mr. Thackeray as having recited with unusual pathos the poem of 'How doth the little busy bee' to a large and enthusiastic audience. We give a page from the Orphan of Pimlico, which is too much to the point to be overlooked. Tho original drawing belongs to Mr. Leslie Stephen. Requisitions and invitations came from every part of the country, written in neat copperplate handwriting, from various young men's associations and literary clubs. As time went on, there arose a great deal of discussion over the lecturing. Friends remonstrated; some said it was not proper work for him (our old friend Sir Edward Hamley was among these); others applauded; others asked him to give private readings at their own houses-- not for payment, but for their pleasure. It was certainly not for my father's pleasure. Before long he began to get dreadfully tired of the business, as he used to call it. But he was glad...