The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens
()
About this ebook
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English writer and social critic. Regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era, Dickens had a prolific collection of works including fifteen novels, five novellas, and hundreds of short stories and articles. The term “cliffhanger endings” was created because of his practice of ending his serial short stories with drama and suspense. Dickens’ political and social beliefs heavily shaped his literary work. He argued against capitalist beliefs, and advocated for children’s rights, education, and other social reforms. Dickens advocacy for such causes is apparent in his empathetic portrayal of lower classes in his famous works, such as The Christmas Carol and Hard Times.
Read more from Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens: The Complete Novels (Quattro Classics) (The Greatest Writers of All Time) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghostly Tales: Spine-Chilling Stories of the Victorian Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Vintage Christmas: A Collection of Classic Stories and Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegal Loopholes: Credit Repair Tactics Exposed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Classic Children's Stories (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Classic Christmas: A Collection of Timeless Stories and Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHard Times Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gothic Novel Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Charles Dickens Collection Volume One: Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and Bleak House Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDavid Copperfield (Centaur Classics) [The 100 greatest novels of all time - #64] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Notes: For General Circulation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Christmas Stories of All Time: Timeless Classics That Celebrate the Season Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 1 (30 short stories) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Big Book of Christmas Tales: 250+ Short Stories, Fairytales and Holiday Myths & Legends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings50 Beautiful Christmas Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Christmas Carol: Level 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Short Ghost Stories Of Charles Dickens Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Charles Dickens: Four Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Charles Dickens Collection Volume Two: Martin Chuzzlewit, Nicholas Nickleby, and Our Mutual Friend Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOliver Twist: Level 4 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens
Related ebooks
The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poems and Verses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Volume 07: Songs of Many Seasons Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ambitious Step-Mother Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Critic in Pall Mall: Being Extracts from Reviews and Miscellanies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ulster's Other Poetry: Verses and Songs of the Province Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Village Coquettes: “There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Collected Poetry of Charles Dickens by Charles Dickens (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSappho and Phaeon: 'The bliss supreme that kindles fancy's fire'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wild Gallant: "He who would search for pearls must dive below." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGeorgian Poetry 1920-22 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrederick Chopin, as a Man and Musician — Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Master of Ballantrae Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dance and Skylark Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Assignation: “It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmall Talk at Wreyland - Third Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poems of Henry Timrod Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson - Volume III: "Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSongs of Three Counties and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSongs of the Fields: "I with desire am growing old, And full of winter pain" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs You Like It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marriage A La Mode: “Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare. ” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry of Thomas Love Peacock: “But still my fancy wanders free, through that which might have been.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry Of Robert Bridges - Volume 2: New Poems, Later Poems & Poems in Classical Prosody Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnder Far Horizons - Selected Poetry of Willa Cather Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBallads in Blue China Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Volume 01: Earlier Poems (1830-1836) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poems of Rupert Brooke Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoets of Fleet Street Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Women (Seasons Edition -- Winter) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jungle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quiet American Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens - Charles Dickens
The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens
CHARLES DICKENS
SONGS, CHORUSES,
AND CONCERTED PIECES FROM
‘THE VILLAGE COQUETTES’
A COMIC OPERA
1836
[Pg 2]
[Pg 3]
THE VILLAGE COQUETTES
About the year 1834, when the earliest of the Sketches by Boz were appearing in print, a young composer named John Hullah set to music a portion of an opera called The Gondolier, which he thought might prove successful on the stage. Twelve months later Hullah became acquainted with Charles Dickens, whose name was then unknown to those outside his own immediate circle, and it occurred to him that he and ‘Boz’ might combine their forces by converting The Gondolier into a popular play. Dickens, who always entertained a passion for the theatre, entered into the project at once, and informed Hullah that he had a little unpublished story by him which he thought would dramatise well—even better than The Gondolier notion; confessing that he would rather deal with familiar English scenes than with the unfamiliar Venetian environment of the play favoured by Hullah. The title of The Gondolier was consequently abandoned, and a novel subject found and put forward as The Village Coquettes, a comic opera[Pg 4] of which songs, duets, and concerted pieces were to form constituent parts. Dickens, of course, became responsible for the libretto and Hullah for the music; and when completed the little play was offered to, and accepted by, Braham, the lessee of the St. James’s Theatre, who expressed an earnest desire to be the first to introduce ‘Boz’ to the public as a dramatic writer. A favourite comedian of that day, John Pritt Harley, after reading the words of the opera prior to its representation, declared it was ‘a sure card,’ and felt so confident of its success that he offered to wager ten pounds that it would run fifty nights!—an assurance which at once decided Braham to produce it.
The Village Coquettes, described on the title-page of the printed copies as ‘A Comic Opera, in Two Acts,’ was played for the first time on December 6, 1836, with Braham and Harley in the cast. In his preface to the play (published contemporaneously by Richard Bentley, and dedicated to Harley) Dickens explained that ‘the libretto of an opera must be, to a certain extent, a mere vehicle for the music,’ and that ‘it is scarcely fair or reasonable to judge it by those strict rules of criticism which would be justly applicable to a five-act tragedy or a finished comedy.’ There is no doubt that the merits of the play were based upon the songs set to Hullah’s music rather than upon the play itself,[Pg 5] and it is said that Harley’s reputation as a vocalist was established by his able rendering of them.
The Village Coquettes enjoyed a run of nineteen nights in London during the season, and was then transferred to Edinburgh, where it was performed under the management of Mr. Ramsay, a friend of Sir Walter Scott. Sala, as a boy of ten, witnessed its first representation in London, and ever retained a vivid impression of the event; while especial interest appertains to the fact that a copy of the play became the means of first bringing Dickens into personal communication with John Forster, his life-long friend and biographer. It is more than probable that ‘Boz’ felt