Chapter Dermody to Dickens of D by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Dermody to Dickens

Dermody, Thomas (1775-1802).—Poet, born at Ennis, showed great capacity for learning, but fell into idle and dissipated habits, and threw away his opportunities. He published two books of poems, which after his death were collected as The Harp of Erin.

De Vere, Aubrey Thomas (1814-1902).—Poet, son of Sir Aubrey de Vere, himself a poet, was born in Co. Limerick, and educated at Trinity Coll., Dublin. In early life he became acquainted with Wordsworth, by whom he was greatly influenced. On the religious and ecclesiastical side he passed under the influence of Newman and Manning, and in 1851 was received into the Church of Rome. He was the author of many vols. of poetry, including The Waldenses (1842), The Search for Proserpine (1843), etc. In 1861 he began a series of poems on Irish subjects, Inisfail, The Infant Bridal, Irish Odes, etc. His interest in Ireland and its people led him to write prose works, including English Misrule and Irish Misdeeds (1848); and to criticism he contributed Essays chiefly on Poetry (1887). His last work was his Recollections (1897). His poetry is characterised by lofty ethical tone, imaginative power, and grave stateliness of expression.

Dibdin, Charles (1745-1814).—Dramatist and song writer, born at Southampton, began his literary career at 16 with a drama, The Shepherd’s Artifice. His fame, however, rests on his sea songs, which are unrivalled, and include Tom Bowling, Poor Jack, and Blow High Blow Low. He is said to have written over 1200 of these, besides many dramatic pieces and two novels, Hannah Hewitt (1792), and The Younger Brother (1793), and a History of the Stage (1795).

Dickens, Charles (1812-1870).—Novelist, born at Landport, near Portsmouth, where his father was a clerk in the Navy Pay-Office. The hardships and mortifications of his early life, his want of regular schooling, and his miserable time in the blacking factory, which form the basis of the early chapters of David Copperfield, are largely accounted for by the fact that his father was to a considerable extent the prototype of the immortal Mr. Micawber; but partly by his being a delicate and sensitive child, unusually susceptible to suffering both in body and mind. He had, however, much time for reading, and had access to the older novelists, Fielding, Smollett, and others. A kindly relation also took him frequently to the theatre, where he acquired his life-long interest in, and love of, the stage. After a few years’ residence in Chatham, the family removed to London, and soon thereafter his father became an inmate of the Marshalsea, in which by-and-by the whole family joined him, a passage in his life which furnishes the material for parts of Little Dorrit. This period of family obscuration happily lasted but a short time: the elder Dickens managed to satisfy his creditors, and soon after retired from his official duties on a pension. About the same time Dickens had two years of continuous schooling, and shortly afterwards he entered a law office. His leisure he devoted to reading and learning shorthand, in which he became very expert. He then acted as parliamentary reporter, first for The True Sun, and from 1835 for the Morning Chronicle. Meanwhile he had been contributing to the Monthly Magazine and the Evening Chronicle the papers which, in 1836, appeared in a collected form as Sketches by Boz; and he had also produced one or two comic burlettas. In the same year he married Catherine Hogarth; and in the following year occurred the opportunity of his life. He was asked by Chapman and Hall to write the letterpress for a series of sporting plates to be done by Robert Seymour who, however, died shortly after, and was succeeded by Hablot Browne (Phiz), who became the illustrator of most of Dickens’s novels. In the hands of Dickens the original plan was entirely altered, and became the Pickwick Papers which, appearing in monthly parts during 1837-39, took the country by storm. Simultaneously Oliver Twist was coming out in Bentley’s Miscellany. Thenceforward Dickens’s literary career was a continued success, and the almost yearly publication of his works constituted the main events of his life. Nicholas Nickleby appeared in serial form 1838-39. Next year he projected Master Humphrey’s Clock, intended to be a series of miscellaneous stories and sketches. It was, however, soon abandoned, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge taking its place. The latter, dealing with the Gordon Riots, is, with the partial exception of the Tale of Two Cities, the author’s only excursion into the historical novel. In 1841 Dickens went to America, and was received with great enthusiasm, which, however, the publication of American Notes considerably damped, and the appearance of Martin Chuzzlewit in 1843, with its caustic criticisms of certain features of American life, converted into extreme, though temporary, unpopularity. The first of the Christmas books—the Christmas Carol—appeared in 1843, and in the following year Dickens went to Italy, where at Genoa