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TERAUCHI Takashi (Mr.)： An independent scholar or a 'plain Michael Faraday' in Japan, and the president of Ouzansha Publishing.
Homepage 1: https://tera-u-chi.sakura.ne.jp/
Homepage 2: https://tera-u-chi.sakura.ne.jp/index.htm
Address: 5-28-12, Nomura, Kusatsu City, Shiga, JAPAN.
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Uploaded ２ July 2020
Submitted to the online forum Victoria on 4 July 2020.
* * * * * * * *
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is Finished, not “Unfinished”
Takashi TERAUCHI
Introduction
Charles Dickens was a writer with the moral vision of a Christian preacher, but he left the Christian pathway in 1858 when he made Ellen Ternan his secret mistress, lying about the affair to the general public, and almost forcing Catherine to separate from him despite her efforts to stop his affair for the protection of his honour.1
Naturally Dickens was heavily criticized by people, and facing a barrage of blame, he must have recognized his sins as “adultery” and “false witness”, and it seems likely that he recognized that he had trodden into the realm of the kind of hypocrites, or “humbugs” he had often criticized in his works since Sketches by Boz.
The criticism against him had softened at least superficially by 1859; in March of that year an unexpected proposal for a tale came to him for the princely sum of ￡1000 from Robbert Bonner, proprietor of the New York Ledger.2 Although Dickens had just begun to work on A Tale of Two Cities, Bonner’s proposal was too handsome to refuse (Letters 9: 43-4). He hurriedly had to think of a subject for the sudden proposal, and what he instinctively came up with was a humbug by the name of Thomas Griffiths Wainwright, whom he saw in Newgate in June 1837,3 and a humbug by the name of Rigaud modelled after him whom he had created in Little Dorrit (1855-57).
Dickens created a new humbug named Julius Slinkton in Hunted Down,4 one who, though behaving very kindly to his niece like a clergyman, ends up poisoning her for the insurance, and is still consigning two more people to the same fate, when he finally commits suicide as a result of his fraud being discovered.
In 1860 Dickens experienced a private religious conversion, though not in such a public way as Arthur Donithorne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. So it seems safe to assume that Dickens was living with a sense of guilt or at least, a “thorn of anxiety” within him.
Intrinsically secrecy cannot be maintained indefinitely; with the passage of time Ternan’s presence would have become known among a certain number of people, by whom he would be regarded as “a humbug”. He wrote in a letter in February 1870 to G. H. Lewes, “This is merely to express my hope that Mrs. Lewes and you will not consider me a humbug just yet.” (Letters 12: 482) Dickens was a naturally proud man, so he couldn’t possibly have endured such an evaluation.
About one year before the letter to Mr. Lewes, in May 1869, Dickens went with members of the police to the Ratcliffe Highway where he met a woman who later was to be the model for Princess Puffer, and he wrote to John Forster on 6th August that he had “a very curious and new idea for my new story of the murder of a nephew by his uncle” (Letters 12: 389).5
On 1st February 1870, when he was considerably weakened both physically and mentally, he signed a contract with Chapman and Hall to publish The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Letters 12: 720), inserting in the agreement a clause stating what should happen “if the said Charles Dickens shall die during the composition of the said work” (Letters 12: 721).6 The serialization began on 1st April.
John Jasper, the hero of the novel, is a kind of Jekyll and Hyde--a humbug who is the respected choirmaster in Cloisterham Cathedral and the affectionate guardian of his nephew Edwin Drood, but who murders Drood secretly as a result of his passionate attraction to Drood’s fiancee, Bud.
The novel was scheduled to “be completed in twelve monthly parts” (Letters 12: 720), but it was closed with the sixth part (published in September 1870) following Dickens’s death. But although Forster described this novel as “unfinished” in The Life of Charles Dickens (Forster 365), the evidence suggests that it is, in reality, “finished”. To indicate this is one of the aims of the present paper. It also seeks to explore the relationship between Dickens’s personal life and the novel.
1 The Mystery of Edwin Drood is finished, not “unfinished”
1. Jasper as a humbug
Jasper is the guardian of Edwin Drood, on whom he dotes. He is also a choirmaster who is “so much respected” among people of Cloisterham (a model of Chatham) (Ch. II), but he has such a dark inner side as if “troubled with some stray sort of ambition, aspiration, restlessness, dissatisfaction” (Ch. II); the largest part of the darkness consists in his passionate love for Drood’s fiancee, Bud, which occupies most of his “agony”. He also suffers “a pain” caused by “Rheumatism”.
Jasper goes to an opium den in the East End of London to escape from the sufferings caused both by his “pain” and “agony”.
At midnight one day in December he appears there; and after smoking some opium, he wakes up from the sleep or stupor it brings. In the den there are two other customers who are snarling, gasping, or protesting under the influence of opium. Jasper puts his ear closer to them, but they are “unintelligible”.
The hostess of the den who assists the customers with opium-smoking, is also grumbling and muttering in her sleep. He listens to her, but she too is “unintelligible”. Even so, the hostess does notice his actions.
Jasper leaves the den early in the morning to return back to Cloisterham, arriving in time for the Cathedral's evening service.
2. Drood and Bud? --“always quarreling”
In the Gatehouse of Cloisterham there are three rooms: one is for dining, another is Jasper’s room, and the third is his nephew, Drood’s.
Drood, a Londoner, travels to Cloisterham to go on a date with Bud. But no matter how often they meet, they are not like an engaged couple: they are “always quarrelling” (Ch. VII).
3. Grewgious finds “the thorn of anxiety“ in Drood
On the day Drood has returned to London, Hiram Grewgious, a solicitor from London and the guardian of Rosa Bud, goes to Cloisterham to meet her, confirming that her intention to marry remains the same.
A few days later, Grewgious, who receives a visit from Drood, is very confused about his attitude because his intention to get married is so weak despite the wedding being due to take place six months later (Ch. XI).
Besides, his ambivalence about the marriage is again evident in the fact that he can say carelessly that Miss Helena Landless, who has just entered Miss Twinkleton’s seminary Nuns’ House, is “a strikingly handsome girl,sir (Ch. XI).
After this, Grewgious has dinner with Drood, during which his clerk, Bazzard, observes Drood’s attitude carefully. Grewgious suddenly says, “I drink to you, Bazzard; Mr. Edwin, success to Mr. Bazzard!” “Success to Mr.Bazzard!” echoes Drood, wondering “what in”. Grewgious continues:
“And May! I am not at liberty to be definite--May!--my conversational powers are so very limited
that I know I shall not come well out of this--May!--it ought to be put imaginatively, but I have
no imagination--May!--the thorn of anxiety is as nearly the mark as I am likely to get
--May it come ut at last!” (Ch. XI; underline added)
Grewgious evidently detects “the thorn of anxiety” in Drood. If it should “come out”, then no anxiety would exist and Drood could marry Bud.
4. Grewgious and Bazzard!--a master-follower relationship
What should be noted in the scene described above is that Grewgious and Bazzard are in a master-follower relationship.
“I follow you, sir, and I thank you.” / “I follow you, sir,” said Bazzard, “and I pledge you!” / “Let us follow you, sir,” said Bazzard . . .
Because of this relationship, Grewgious later sends Bazzard to Cloisterham to uncover the identity of Jasper.
5. Jasper's malicious scenario
At midnight on 18th December, Jasper explores Cloisteram Cathedral crypt with the mason Stony Durdles (Ch. XII). The aim of Jasper is to take Drood out at midnight on 24th December, make him sleep by plying him with drink presumably containing opium in a wicker-cased bottle, and strangle him with “a great black scarf” (Ch. XIV), 7 put the body in a stone coffin which won’t be noticed by Durdles, and add quick-lime which will “eat” his “bones” (Ch. XII). Jasper is assembling a complete crime scenario.
On 23rd December, Drood visits Bud, and they talk about their marriage; in consequence they agree to cancel their engagement and kiss at the parting. Jasper sees the scene from the shade, wrongly assuming that they have in fact taken a step closer to marriage (Ch. XIII).
On the 24th, Drood, after stopping by a jeweller’s, happens to meet the hostess of the opium den near the Cathedral’s gatehouse. She has tracked Jasper down to Cloisterham because he divulged something threatening in his opium-induced stupor, but she has lost sight of him. She says she will tell him something if she gets three-and-sixpence for opium-smoking. After getting the money, she reveals that she knows his name is “Edwin” and his nickname is “Eddy”, and says, “You be thankful that your name ain’t Ned”, adding that it is “a threatened name. A dangerous name.” (Ch. XXIII) "Ned" is the name that only Jasper uses (Ch. XIV).
That night, Drood and Landless meet at Jasper's house to reconcile their quarrel, dining with Jasper (Ch. VIII). After settling the fight, Drood and Landless go out to the river to see the storm; from this point on news of Drood’s whereabouts disappears.
In the early morning of 25th December, Landless takes a fortnight’s walking expedition with a heavy walking-stick to conquer himself (Ch. XIV).
However Landless is arrested on suspicion of having been involved in the Drood’s disappearance.
Rev. Crisparkle, a “good man” (Ch. II), is convinced of the innocence of Landless, who is both his ward and his inmate with whom he reads.
On 26th and 27th December, a massive search for Drood has not produced any clues.
On the night of 27th, Jasper, exhausted by the search activity, drops into his easy-chair, and finds Grewgious standing in front of him. In a conversation with Grewgious, Jasper calls Neville Landless's sister Helena “[t]he suspected young man’s” sister, and says “Poor thing!” for her placing “unbounded faith in her brother” (Ch. XV). Jasper has already worked out a criminal scenario which places the blame squarely upon Neville.
6. Grewgious’s strong suspicion of Jasper
Grewgious tells Jasper about the ending of Drood and Bud’s engagement; then Jasper falls down with a horrific cry; Grewgious, who knows of Bud’s strong refusal of Jasper, calmly overlooks the figure (Ch. X).
Jasper recovers from the swoon with the care of Mr. and Mrs. Tope, and voraciously eats the meal prepared by Mrs. Tope (Ch. XVI). Grewgious, who stares at him with a firm sense of protest, has a strong suspicion about Jasper (Ch. XVI).
Then Rev. Crisparkle appears and explains that the fight between Landless and Drood touched on above was triggered by the rude manner in which Drood treated Bud “with conceit or indifference” or “like a doll” (Ch. X); Landless had “admire[d]” and even “love[d]” Bud (Ch. X). Such a story by Crisparkle unsettles Jasper. Even so he does not become ostensibly upset. However, adoring Bud as fervently as he does, he never forgives Neville in his heart.
On the 28th, Crisparkle detects Drood’s “watch and chain” and “shirt-pin” in the water of Cloisterham Weir (Ch. XIV).
Landless is released due to the testimony of the jeweller who set the time of the watch before the incident, and to the fact that Drood’s further search brings no disadvantages to Landless.
Landless takes himself, with the help of Crisparkle and Grewgious, to the attic rooms of the Staple Inn where Grewgious has some chambers for his residence and office (Ch. XVII).
7. Strangers--in London and Cloisterham
Half a year after the incident, Chrisparkle visits Landless in one of the attic rooms of the Staple Inn, where Landless is studying the “profession of the law” during the daytime (Ch. XVII), and where Crisparkle is thinking of having his sister Helena live with him.
Afterwards Crisparkle makes a brief call on Grewgious. According to Grewgious, Landless is being watched by Jasper, so he wants to have him under his eye at night (Ch. XVII).
When Landless comes home after a walk with Crisparkle, “a stranger” sits on the window-sill. He is Tartar from next door, formerly “First Lieutenant” of the Royal Navy, now a correspondent (Ch. XVII), and coincidentally, Crisparkle’s junior at university (Ch. XXI). Tartar is helpful as a guard for Landless, who is being watched not only by Jasper, but also by a spy hired by Jasper. He will also be able to keep an eye on Bud, who is coming to London to escape Jasper’s relentless advances.
On the other hand, there appears also in Cloisterham “a stranger” named Datchery (Ch. XVIII), who has “unusually large” and “white head”, and “unusually thick and ample” shock of white hair. He is thinking of taking lodgings for a month or two, and decides to rent the two chambers of Tope’s official dwelling which communicate by an upper stair with Jasper’s.
Jasper, who has agreed to “speak for” Mrs. Tope, testifies to Datchery that the Tope family are quite respectable (Ch. XVIII). Jasper’s friend, Mayor Sapsea, also gives Datchery the same testimony as Jasper, and he asks Datchery with something of a military air whether he has belonged to the Army or Navy. “No” is Datchery’s reply. Hence, it may be safely assumed that his identity is not the same Tartar, who is an ex-serviceman.
Datchery, after Jasper left, asks Sapsea if he is the person who is “afflicted by the loss of a nephew, and concentrating his life on avenging the loss”. He receives the answer: “That is the gentleman. John Jasper, sir” (Ch. XVIII). It can be assumed that Datchery has already obtained information on Jasper, and he shows great interest in him. This fact suggests that his true identity is Bazzard, who has been “misplaced” to Cloisterham by Grewgious.8
Helena Landless, Rosa Bud’s close friend, leaves the Nuns’ House in Cloisterham to live with her brother Neville (Ch. XIX).
Bud, a boarding student at the Nuns’ House, is violently approached by Jasper, and escapes from him, asking her guardian Grewgious for protection. Grewgious, who has an “implacable dislike of Jasper” (Ch. XXIII), agrees, saying, “Damn him!” (Ch. XX)
8. The identity of Datchery is Bazzard
Grewgjous rushes to the hotel in Furnival’s Inn to reserve Bud’s accommodation and order a meal. In response to Bud’s inquisitiveness he tells her that his clerk Bazzard is “off duty here, altogether, just at present”, and he is“misplaced”, but the “misplacedness” is so great that Grewgious feels “constantly apologetic towards him”. Such being the case, Bazzard feels that Grewgious has “reason to be” (Ch. XX).
Grewgious goes on to say that Bazzard, with literary “genius”, has written “a tragedy” titled “The Thorn of Anxiety”. Both Grewgious and Bazzard hope that “it will come out at last” (Ch. XX). Grewgious, who has a strong suspicion about Jasper, has dispatched Bazzard to Cloisterham in order to discover Jasper’s identity.
9. Jasper makes the statement, “A relative died.”
Jasper dressed in mourning clothes again appears at the opium den. The conversation between him and the hostess is as follows: “Who died?” “A relative.” “Died of what?” “Probably, Death.” (Ch. XXIII) Jasper soon falls into an opium stupor, and though believing that the mumblings and mutterings of someone under the influence are “unintelligible”, has in fact divulged his secret, replying to her question as follows,
“Should you do it in your fancy, when you were lying here doing this?”
She nods her head. “Over and over again.”
“Just like me! I did it over and over again. I have done it hundreds of thousands of times in this room. . . .
It was a journey, a difficult and dangerous journey.” (Ch. XXIII)
To her address of “There was a fellow-traveller, deary,” he cries:
“To think,” he cries, “how often fellow-traveller, and yet not know it! To think how many times he
went the journey, and never saw the road!” . . . . When it comes to be real at last, it is so short that it
seems unreal for the first time. Hark!” . . . . “Hush! The journey’s made. It’s over.” (Ch. XXIII)
She asks, “So soon?” He replies:
“So soon. . . . It has been too short and easy. I must have a better vision than this; this is the poorest of all. No struggle, no consciousness of peril, no entreaty--and yet I never saw that before . . . Look at it! Look what a poor, mean, miserable thing it is! That must be real. It’s over.” (Ch. XXIII)
It seems clear that Jasper strangled Drood’s neck with “a great black scarf”.
10. Datchery grasps Jasper’s identity
Jasper leaves the den early in the morning. The hostess chases him and loses sight of him near the gatehouse.
There she encounters a gray-haired gentleman, Datchery, from whom she gets the information on Jasper's residence, job, and so on.9
Then they take a walk in the Precincts of the Cathedral. She reveals that she had once missed Jasper here, and at that time happened to meet a young man, receiving “three-and-sixpence” from him as payment for her “medicine”. “What’s the medicine?” asks Datchery. “It’s opium.” Datchery gives her a sudden look, turning pale. She continues, “It was last Christmas Eve, just arter dark”. The young man named himself “Edwin”. Datchery, being much too surprised, has counted wrong and dropped some money, when counting out “three-and-sixpence”which she wanted for her “medicine”. After giving her the money, he leaves.
Here again Datchery can safely be assumed to be Bazzard, who is hunting down Jasper following Grewgious’s plan.
At half-past ten Datchery walks out into the Precincts again, and sees Deputy, the Imp of Travellers’ Lodging House, as expected. Datchery is informed by him that the woman is called “Hopeum Puffer” or “’Er Royal Highness the Princess Puffer”, who lives among “Jacks and Chayner men” in London, and who is going to the Cathedral tomorrow morning.
Returning to his lodging, Datchery throws open “the door of a corner cupboard, and refers to a few uncouth chalked strokes on its inner side”.
The next morning Jasper leads the procession of the congregation for the service; Datchery comes into a stall; the Princess Puffer is behind a pillar.
The service progresses; Jasper chants and sings. Now the Princess Puffer grins “when he is most musically fervid”, and “Mr. Datchery sees her do it!--shakes her fist” at the Choir-master. Instantly “her fist” is substituted by “both fists”. She perfectly identifies her customer as Jasper, who murdered Drood. The service ends. Datchery accosts her,
“Well, mistress. Good morning. You have seen him?”
“I’ve seen him, deary; I’ve seen him!”
“And you know him?”
“Know him! Better far than all the Reverend Parsons put together know him.” (Ch. XXIII)
Datchery comes back to his lodging, and “opens his corner-cupboard door; takes his bit of chalk from its shelf, and adds one thick line to the score, extending from the top of the cupboard door to the bottom”. The “thick line” itself means that “the Thorn of Anxiety” has come out at last, the very thorn about which Grewgious once said to Bud, “Mr. Bazzard hopes--and I hope--that it will come out at last.” (XX) The hope expressed in the toast once made by Grewgious,--I drink to you, Bazzard; Mr. Edwin, success to Mr. Bazzard!”--has been realized. Datchery begins to eat breakfast “with an appetite”. The novel is wholly finished, as “he [i.e., Dickens] said he must finish his number” to Georgina on the morning of 8th June 1870 (see below).
2 Charles Dickens’s relation with the novel
1. Dickens’s “thorn” --when it comes out at last
Dickens, in making Ternan his secret mistress, committed the sins of “adultery” and “false witness”. An earnest Christian, he would surely have recognized that he was a sinner or a humbug. Indeed, the Reverend Crisparkle specifically refers relevant Tenth Commandment, “you shall bear no false witness” (Ch. XVII). Dickens was living with the thorn of anxiety within him.
Catherine, who could not help leaving Tavistock House, departed in May 1858. Dickens, finding it a reality, grew agitated “like a madman” (Storey 94; Terauchi 10); this suggests that he had been downplaying things.
Dickens moved to Gad’s Hill in June 1860, putting Tavistock House up for sale; Kate escaped from his “unhappy house” through her marriage in July 1860 (Storey 105; Terauchi 12).
As soon as Kate departed on her honeymoon, Dickens went through a spiritual conversion (Terauchi 11-3, 58-60, 84, 145-49), and he continued to improve Gad’s Hill Place from then on until the time of his death (M. Dickens, CD 140-41), as if he identified it with himself. So every time he improved it, he would show it to Kate, saying, “Now, Katie, you behold your parent’s latest and last achievement.” (Terauchi 13-21) The final improvement came on Sunday 5th June 1870 when he had achieved “POSITIVELY the last improvement at Gadshill” by having the vinery in the conservatory partitioned “during his absence” at around the beginning of June,10 and he “summoned” Kate “to inspect” the “improvements” (M. Dickens My Father ... 136; Forster 213; Terauchi 20-1, 116).11 Thus the improvements, it seems, were one of the ways he had taken to soften his pain of the thorn in his heart. But still the thorn remained. It was on Wednesday 8th June when the thorn finally came out at last as will be seen below.
Dickens had come to be seriously conscious of his impending death; if we specify a period, it would be 18th November 1867 when he announced “a farewell readings in town and country and then No More” to “the Chappells” from Halifax, Nova Scotia.12 Indeed his “expenses” were “so enormous” (Letters 11: 366);13 if he did not earn a large income with readings, he could no longer maintain his life. It might be considered that he saw himself stepping ever closer to death.
On 30th March 1869 he organized a “great burning of papers” and destroyed “everything not wanted” (Letters 12: 321; Terauchi 106).
On 12th May 1869 he drew up his “last Will and Testament”; and he would have shown to Ellen Ternan the clause concerning her in the Will: “I give the sum of ￡1000 free of legacy duty to Miss Ellen Lawless Ternan, late of Houghton Place, Ampthill Square, in the county of Middlesex” (Letters 12: 730). Still only 30 years old, Ellen was familiar with his physical decline, and needed to be reassured.
It was on 1st February 1870 when he signed a contract with Chapman and Hall relating to The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Letters 12: 720). In the agreement he inserted the clause “if the said Charles Dickens shall die during the composition of the said work” (Letters 12: 721). Dickens was considering his impending death as a matter of fact. In this frame of mind, he gave the 12 farewell readings from 11th January to 15th March at St. James’s Hall, London; there he read “Sikes and Nancy”, which exhausted him, four times (Andrews 289-90). As to the readings, Mr. Beard, Dickens’s “lifelong friend and medical attendant” (CD, Jr. 137), who was constantly in attendance, said to Dickens’s eldest son Charley, “You must be there every night, and if you see your father falter in the least, you must run up and catch him and bring him off with me, or, by Heaven, he’ll die before them all.” (CD, Jr. 137). In fact Dickens was so fatigued and weak that he pronounced “Pickwick” as “Pickswick, and Picnic, and Peckwicks” (CD, Jr. 137). He closed the farewell readings on 15th March 1870 with the following valedictory comments:
“Ladies and gentlemen, in but two short weeks from this time I hope that you may enter, in your own homes, on a new series of readings, at which my assistance will be indispensable; but from these garish lights I vanish now for evermore, with a heartfelt, grateful, respectful, and affectionate farewell.” (Fielding 413)
On 26th May 1870 the pain in his foot, which had begun in 1865, was getting worse, and so he had remained “dead-lame” for three weeks (Letters 12:534), 14 for which he had to take more laudanum to fall asleep (Tomalin The Invisible … 387, 390).
George Dolby, Dickens’s reading manager, made one of his weekly visits to All the Year Round office on Thursday 2nd June 1870. There he found Dickens “suffering greatly both in mind and body” (Dolby 464). There were even tears in his eyes (Ackroyd 1134). Dolby, when leaving the office, noticed not just “the difficulty of his walk” from the table to the door, but also “the pained looks on his face” (Dolby 465). That night Fitzgerald, too, noticed “a well-worn, all but haggard face” (Fitzgerald 82). Dickens replied the same night in response to his son-in-law Charles Collins’s enquiry, “I am tired. I want rest--rest.” (Ackroyd 1134)
On Sunday 5th June Dickens had a long talk with Kate in the conservatory from around 11 p.m. until early the next morning (Perugini 652; Ackroyd 1136). After dissuading her from becoming a professional actress, he talked about “‘Edwin Drood’, and how he hoped that it might prove a success--‘if, please God, I live to finish it. I say if, because you know, my dear child, I have not been strong lately’”, 15 and also talked of “many things that he had scarcely ever mentioned” to her before including Ellen Ternan, “as though his life were over and there was nothing left” (Perugini 652) .16
Kate, on the morning of Monday 6th June, made a moving farewell to her father in the Chalet: he pushed “his chair from the writing-table, opened his arms, and took me [i.e., her] into them”, unlike the “ordinary occasions he would just have raised his cheek for my [i.e., her] kiss, saying a few words”.17
“On the morning of Wednesday, the eighth”, Dickens talked to Georgina that he “must finish his number” today (Hogarth Letters 748), and then, after breakfast, went over to the Chalet to work on it.18 At noon he came over for lunch, and smoked a cigar in the conservatory, and then returned unusually for him to the Chalet (Forster 414-15; M. Dickens My Father … 140; Ackroyd 1137); it was “in the afternoon” that he finished writing “[t]he last page of Edwin Drood” (Forster 367). Probably the first paragraph of “the last page” would be the one beginning with the sentence of “A brilliant morning shines on the old city”; in the very paragraph he, who had been conscious of death, included the phrase “the Resurrection and the Life”.19 And the novel ends as follows:
Before sitting down to it, he opens his corner-cupboard door; takes his bit of chalk from its shelf;
adds one thick line to the score, extending from the top of the cupboard door to the bottom; and then
falls to with an appetite. (Ch. XXIII; underline added)
The underlined sentence means that “the thorn of anxiety” has come out at last. The novel is certainly finished.
Dickens came back to the house from the Chalet an hour before dinner, and, while waiting for his meal, went into the library to write letters; one to Charles Kent, in which he wrote, “I hope I may be ready for you at 3 o’clock. If I can’t be--why, then I shan’t be.” The other to a clergyman, in which he wrote, “I have always striven in my writings to express veneration for the life and lessons of Our Saviour” (Ackroyd 1138; Letters 12: 547-48).
He joined Georgina at around six p.m.; Georgina was surprised to find his face changed markedly in both color and expression with his eyes “full of tears” (Adrian 136). She asked him if he felt ill; he answered, “Yes, very ill for the last hour.” (Adrian 136; Storey 135-36) His reply to her question of if she should call the doctor was “No” (Adrian 136; Storey 135-36); and then he, complaining of a toothache, required her to have the window shut. In reply to Georgina’s request that he should “Come and lie down”, he said “Yes--on the ground” (Adrian 136; Storey 135; M. Dickens CD 168), and fell heavily, never regaining consciousness (Adrian 136).
This situation enables us to understand that in a very real sense, he chose not life but death. At that moment the thorn came out completely.
If we should venture to suggest a hypothesis about the immediate cause of death, it would be that he may
have overdosed on laudanum, as Captain Hawdon or Nemo did in Bleak House,
“He has died,” says the surgeon, “of an over-dose of opium, there is no doubt. The room is strongly flavoured with it. There is enough here now,” taking an old tea-pot from Mr. Krook, “to kill a dozen people.” (Ch. XXI)
2. Jasper and Dickens
Jasper is a Jekyll and Hyde or a humbug; so is Dickens. Jasper committed the secret murder of Drood for his uncontrollable infatuation and love for Bud; Dickens almost forced Catherine to separate from him as a result of his uncontrollable infatuation and love for Ternan, telling lies to the public: they both had “an agony” as well as “a pain”, so they both regularly used opium to escape from their sufferings; they were both being hunted down for their own sins.
Jasper was alive when the novel was finished. As for Dickens, he collapsed about one hour after finishing the novel.
He appears to have taken on himself the punishment that Jasper should have undergone;20 if we follow through the implications of this, it could be claimed that he died punishing himself.
3. Where did Dickens collapse, Gad’s Hill Place or Windsor Lodge?
Dickens already included a ￡1000 bequest to Ternan in his Will in May 1869; and he made his last visit to her probably between Saturday 28th and Monday 30th May,21 during which he would have handed the housekeeping money of around ￡15 to her (cf. Tomalin The Invisible … 395-96); if not, it would follow that he planned to take it nine days later. But it’s difficult to imagine that he would have been strong enough to do so at that time.
On the other hand, Georgina’s testimony that Dickens refused to call the doctor seems reliable, because the testimony that Dickens chose not life but death is a dishonorable one for Dickens, and Georgina, who is a wholehearted supporter of Dickens, would surely never invent such a disgraceful testimony for him.
Mamie writes, “On the Wednesday morning he was in excellent spirits, talking to ‘Auntie’ about his book (‘Edwin Drood’) [sic] . . . . he would work in the chalet, and take no drive or walk until the evening.” (M. Dickens CD 167-68)
Hence it is more reasonable to assume that Dickens collapsed at Gad’s Hill Place, rather than at Ternan’s house, Windsor Lodge.
Conclusion
Grewgious found “the thorn of anxiety” in Drood, but Drood disappeared. So Grewgious’s clerk Bazzard wrote a tragedy of “The Thorn of Anxiety”. Grewgious speculated that Jasper was involved in Drood’s disappearance. So he sent Bazzard, who had the pseudonym of Datchery in disguise, to Cloisterham to discover Jasper’s identity. But in fact, it was the hostess of the opium den who ascertained that Jasper was Drood’s killer.
Datchery was convinced that what she said to him was true and reliable; it was at the very time that Grewgious and Bazzard’s “Thorn of Anxiety” came out at last. The novel was finished, not “unfinished”.
Jasper was a Jekyll and Hyde or a humbug; so was Dickens. Dickens wrote The Mystery of Edwin Drood, conscious of his own fraud and his own death, and about one hour after completing the novel, he collapsed, refusing to call a doctor. The context invites us to think that he might have taken on the punishment that Jasper should have taken. We might read the shadow of Dickens in Jasper. It appears he died punishing himself. And Georgina’s explanation that he fell over in Gad’s Hill Place leaves no room for doubt.
Acknowledgements
The present paper is written based on a paper read at the general meeting of the Japan Branch of Dickens Fellowship held at Seisen Jogakuin College on 8th June 2019.
The present writer expresses deep gratitude to the Branch for giving a chance to read his paper, and to Professor David W. Rycroft formerly of Konan University for improving the style of this paper.
Notes
1. Regarding “he almost enforced Catherine”, see Bowen 9, 13, 15 and Letters 8: 746.
2. The source of ￡1000 is found in Letters 9: x, 44 and note 1.
3. Dickens visited Newgate Prison to see Wainwright with his friends on 27 June 1837 (Letters 1: 44 note 1, 275, 277 and note 3; Letters 2: 251-52 note 4; Letters 9: 44 note 1).
4. Hunted Down was published in New York Ledger (20th and 27th August and 3rd September 1859), and in All the Year Round (4th and 11th August 1860)(Letters 9: 44 note 1).
5. “What seems certain is that the initial idea for MED was conceived before Nov 1861 and that in 1869-70 Dickens consulted the notebook” (Kaplan Book of Memoranda 97).
6. The same sentence as “if the said Charles Dickens . . .” is found in “Agreement . . . for the Publication of Our Mutual Friend, 21 November 1863” (Letters 10: 478-79).
7. “Luke Fildes’s letter of 27 October 1905 (printed in the Times Literary Supplement, 3 November) reveals that he had questioned Dickens as to the importance of the long scarf, which Jasper wears in Number IV (ch. xiv), as he had previously drawn Jasper wearing a little black tie. After appearing momentarily disconcerted at having revealed too muchat too early a stage, Dickens confided to his illustrator that the scarf was necessary, ‘for Jasper strangles Edwin Drood with it’”. (Cardwell xxviv and 239; Jacobson 131-32)
8. Jasper came to kill Neville Landless around Staple Inn, so Bazzard, who may be seen by Jasper, needs a disguise.
9. Dickens makes two mistakes in Ch. XXIII. One is Datchery’s hair; though it is “white” as in “a white-haired personage” (Ch. XVIII), it is “gray” or “grey” as in “a large-headed, gray-haired gentleman” (see Paroissien 375 note 13). The other is Jasper’s opium habit. Only Drood knows of it, but there is no statement that either Grewgious or Bazzard heard it from him (see Paroissien 375 note 14 and Jacobson 180). We may ascribe the mistakes to Dickens’s fatigue.
10. “during his absence” (Source: Perugini 652).
11. There are two versions about the day when Kate came down on Gad’s Hill Place.
① Saturday 4th June (Page 139; MacKenzie 389; Slater 612).
② Sunday 5th June (Hogarth Letters 748; Adrian 135; Forster 213).
12. See Terauchi pp. 95-117.
13. See Terauchi 91-92.
14. Dickens wrote on 21st February 1865, “I am laid up with a wounded foot, and am not able for a time to see any visitors.” (Letters 11: 19; and see Terauchi 85-6, 89, etc.)
15. Dickens was really “fatigued” on 5th June about which Perugini wrote down: “In the evening we went for a stroll in the garden, but soon returned to the house, as he was fatigued” (Perugini 652).
16. About “including Ellen Ternan”, see Ackroyd 1134, Slater 612, and Tomalin The Invisible …393.
17. Perugini 654; M. Dickens My Father … 137-38; M. Dickens CD 167; Adrian 135.Cardwell says on p. xxviii: “from 30 May onwards Dickens was at Gad’s Hill working on Number VI”, but she is not right, because there is no evidence that Dickens was in Gad’s Hill on 30 May, and that he was surely in the office of AYR on Thursday, 2 June. See below note 21.Cardwell says on p. xxviii: “In the last two or three days of his life he was hard at work on the novel--on 8 June, ‘in excellent spirits about his book’, he told Georgina and Mamie that he must finish Number VI that day,5 the following being the day of his weekly visit to the All the Year Round office.” And she gives to the note “5” “Letters of Charles Dickens, edited by his sister-in-law and his eldest daughter (1909; 1st edn., 1893), p. 748.” But Mamie Dickens was absent there because she had left for London on 6 June (Perugini 654) or on 7 June (Forster 414; MacKenzie 389). The person he spoke to was Georgina.
18. See Paroisssien 376 note 18, M. Dickens My Father … 139-140, Ackroyd 1137, and Slater 612.
19. Dickens, who was conscious of his impending death, would have offered at least two prayers to God immediately before death. One is “I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” (John 11. 25-26), which appears in the opening of “The Burial of the Dead” of The Book of Common Prayer. This prayer was also given by the seamstress and Sydney Carton when they climbed the scaffold (Two Cities, Ch. XV).The other is “when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.” (Ezek. 18.27; the opening of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer of The Book of Common Prayer), which appears in Chapter I of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Dickens wrote “two skeleton journeymen out of the Dance of Death might be grinning in the shadow of their sheltering sentry-boxes, about to slash away at cutting out the gravestones of the next two people destined to die in Cloisterham.” (Ch. XII). The "two people” might implicate Drood and Dickens.
20. The idea that Jasper as Dickens’s alter ego was suggested on the present writer’s homepage on 11th June 2015.
21. According to Tomalin, “His last visit to Nelly at Windsor Lodge, Peckham, was probably made between Tuesday, 31 May, and Thursday, 2 June”. (Tomalin The Invisible … 194). But “Every Thursday” Dickens is recorded as staying at All the Year Round office of Wellington Street in London (Letters 12: 540), so on
“Thursday, 2 June” he was most probably at All the Year Round office. Dolby says that he had luncheon with Dickens on the Thursday of Dolby’s “weekly visits” (Dolby 464). Dickens wrote one letter in Gad’s Hill Place on 27th May. And he wrote two letters with the place of writing unrecorded on 28th May, and two with neither address nor date (supposedly on 29th May), and one with no address on 29th May, one with neither address nor date (?Late May), and again neither on Monday 30th. He wrote two in Gad’s Hill on 31st May. So his last visit to Nelly may have been made between Saturday 28th and Monday 30th May.
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