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Cover of Dicks Standard Play, No. 319
1845
Wood-engraving
illustration, 10.3 x 10.3 cm
Title-page vignette, above the "Dramatis Personae" in Mark Lemon and Gilbert Abbot à Beckett's dramatic adaptation of Dickens's 1844 novella.
First Performed at the Adelpi Theatre, on Tuesday, December 19th, 1844. [Philip Bolton in Dickens Dramatized gives "Wednesday, December 18th, 1844."]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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SCENE IV. — Toby's lodgings, over a stable. Door on flat, practicable and fire. Ditto at side, L. MEG discovered at work. She pauses. Cupboard, L., door, R.
Meg. Richard is hasty — very hasty; though I can scarcely blame him; for it was cruel, very cruel, to speak to us so hardly! Poor dear father! I think I could not marry even Richard to part from you. What a host of kind words and kinder deeds crowd upon me now — words and deeds that have taken the sting from poverty! (Weeps. The door opens, R.) Oh!
Enter TOBY, WILL, and CHILD, R.
Toby. (Placing the child, C.) Here we are! Pauses Her we are indeed, my precious Meg, surprising you!
Meg. A surprise indeed! Well! (Kneels and holds out her hands to Lilian.) Well!
The child runs to Meg, L.
Toby. Here we are, and here we go! (Running round the room and choking audibly. Here, Uncle Will! Here's a fire, you know! Why don't you come to the fire? Oh, here we are, and here we go! Meg, my precious darling, where's the kettle? Here it is, and here it goes — and I'll bile it in no time.
He puts it on the fire, while Meg, seating the child in a warm corner, kneels down on the ground before her, pulls off her shoes, and dries her wet feet on a cloth.)
Meg. Why, father, you're crazy to-night, I think. I don't know what the bells would say to that. Poor little feet! How cold they are!
Lil. Oh, they're warmer now. They're quite warm now!
Meg. No, no, no! We haven't rubbed 'em half enough, we're so busy, so busy! And when they're done, we'll brush out the damp hair; and when that's done, we'll bring some colour to the poor pale face with fresh water; and when that's done we'll be so gay, and brisk, and happy.
Lil. Oh, Meg! — oh, dear Meg!
(Toby regards both with deep feeling.).
Meg. Why, father!
Toby. Here I am, and here I go, my dear!
Meg. Good gracious me! He's crazy! He's put the dear child's bonnet on the kettle, and hung the lid behind the door!
Toby. I didn't go to do it, my love! (Hastily repairing his mistake.) Meg, my dear!
Will Fern sits mournfully regarding Lilian, L.)
Toby. I see, my dear, as I was coming in, half an ounce of tea, lying somewhere on the stairs.
(Produces a small packet of tea, and then a slice of bacon in a paper, which he re-pockets.)
And I'm pretty sure there was a bit of bacon, too. As I don't remember where it was, exactly, I'll go myself and try to find 'em.
[Exit, R.
Will. I thank you, miss — thank you, a hundred times! Poor child, she has had none but these rough hands to tend her, for many a year.
Meg. She is a good child, I am sure, and loves you dearly — do you not? (Kisses her.)
Enter Toby, R.
Toby. I have had a job to find them, the stairs are so dark. But here they are, at last — all correct! I was pretty sure it was tea, and a rasher — so it is! Meg, my pet, if you'll just make the tea, while your unworthy father toasts the bacon, we shall be ready immediately.
Meg. That I will, father!
(Sets out tea things from cupboard. Toby toasts the bacon.)
Toby. It's a curious circumstance — curious, but well known to my friends, that I never care, myself, for rashers, nor for tea. I like to see other people enjoy 'em — (speaking loud to impress the fact upon his guest) but to me, as food, they're disagreeable. There, Uncle Will. Now, Lilly, fall to, whilst it's hot. (Sniffs.) — The Chimes, p. 10.
Scenery by T. Pitt and Johnstone ("From the Original Sketches of Daniel Maclise, R. A./ Clarkson Stanfield, R. A./ John Leech/ and Richard Doyle." Music by J. H. Tully.
(Opening Wed) 18, 19 Dec 1844, (Mon) 6-11, 13, 20, 27 Jan, 3 Feb 1845 at Adelphi, London. — Bolton, p. 269.
In the 1844 novella upon which the burletta by Mark Lemon is based, the kindly London ticket-porter, Trotty Veck, befriends two strangers from the country, Will Fern and his niece, Lilian, offering to make them a modest dinner and give them shelter for the night. The burly countryman (left) is distinguished by his embroidered linen smock-frock, the little ticket-porter (right) by his apron. Among the cast of characters is a figure not originally in Dickens's book, The Spirit of the Chimes, who speaks a "prologue" which replaces a number of pages of introductory text in the novella. However, as effective as the sentimental melodrama may have been on stage, as Bolton notes, dramatisations of the second Christmas Book did not prove as popular as the numerous adaptations of the first, A Christmas Carol.
the story never achieved any wide or deep theatrical popularity: only a small number of playhouses dramatized the story at any one time; never were the sequences of performances impressively long. The decline in the popularity of Dickens dramatized continued, after having been interrupted by the fairly widespread staging of "A Christmas Carol" during the previous year. In fact, after announcing "The Chimes" for Christmas 1844, the Strand instead chose to re-produce "The Carol." [Edward] Stirling's "Chimes" at the Lyceum ran about thirty-three performances, whereas his "Carol" at the Adelphi in early 1844 had run more than forty, and his "Martin Chuzzlewit" at the Lyceum itself had run over 100. — Bolton, p. 268.
Bolton, Philip. "The Chimes." Dickens Dramatized. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987. Pp. 268-272.
Lemon, Mark, and Gilbert Abbot à Beckett. The Chimes, or Some Bells that Rang and Old Year out and a New Year in. A Goblin Drama in Four Quarters. Dicks Standard Plays, No. 319. London: John Dicks, n. d. [1845].
Last modified 24 July 2017