THE FITZ-BOODLE PAPERS TALES BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY WITH THE AUTHOR'S ILLUSTRATIONS Kensington NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1904 CATHERINE was written in 1839, in Great Coram Street, and published in the same year and the beginning of the next in Fraser's Magazine, over the signature of "Ikey Solomons, jun." It did not appear in book form until the collected edition of 1869. Its motive, as a satire on the favourite highwaymanliterature of the time, clearly seems from contemporary comment not to have been accepted as Thackeray had hoped and intended; and in spite of individual appreciation of its strength, on the whole it cannot be said to have helped the growing interest in his work. His heroine had been suggested to him by the career of a historic murderess of a century before, Catherine Hayes; and one rather timeworn incident in the history of the story is the anger called down upon Thackeray, some years after its publication, when a misunderstood allusion to this fact caused the absurd idea to become prevalent that Thackeray had cast some slur upon Catherine Hayes, a very popular Irish singer of his own day. Mrs. Ritchie, Mr. Crowe (in his "Haunts and Homes"), Trollope (in his Life), and Sir Leslie Stephen (in the National Biography) have all told the story of the little tempest that this caused, and of the Irish gentleman who hired rooms opposite Thackeray's house with the intention of avenging the lady, but was happily dissuaded. A letter written by Thackeray to the Morning Chronicle, under the title "Capers and Anchovies," referred to the incident. 66 THE FITZ-BOODLE PAPERS were published in Fraser's Magazine in 1842, but did not make their appearance in book form until the issue of Bradbury and Evans's series of Miscellanies, in which they were published as one of the later volumes in 1857. Of the little tales here included, 'Miss Löwe" appeared with "The Fitz-Boodle Confessions in 1842; and "Bluebeard's Ghost" also in Fraser the next year. "The Professor was first published in Bentley's Miscellany, and afterward included in the two volumes of "Comic Tales and Sketches" already referred to in these notes as published in 1841. The frontispiece of this volume is from a pencil drawing of Thackeray speaking at dinner, by C. Martin. It is a recent addition to the British Museum's collection, and is believed not to have been before reproduced. The original bears the note in the artist's hand: "Thackeray at Frank Bell's," and the date "July, 1853." |