LITERARY, MUSICAL, & DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1275, 20 April 1878, Page 3

LITERARY, MUSICAL, & DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

[from the weekly press.] Wonders will never cease. Old Mr Plaiiche, ■who still keeps his post at the I Herald’s College, has been to Rome to help the commission iu investing the new King of Italy with the Garter. Considering Mr Planchd’s advanced age, it speaks volumes for his vitality. It would appear that the practice of the histrionic profession is conducive to longevity, many of the most distinguished members of it still in harness being sexagenarians, Mr Thomas Stuart, ono of the most distinguished members of the splendid company of artists engaged to support Mr Maeready at the Haymarket Theatre, London, during his farewell performances in 1861, is recently deceased at the ripe age of seventy six. On the occasion of the comedy of “ Our Boys” being performed at the Vaudeville Theatre for the IOUOth time, the profits of the night, amounting to £BOO, were given by the lessees, Messrs. James and Thorne, for equal divi sious amongst the following institutions : The Royal General Theatrical Fund, the Metropolitan Free Hospital, the Charingcross Hospital, and the Great Northern Hospital. The generous munificence of the gi‘t requires no comment. The performance was under the patronage of the Lord and Lady Mayoress, the Sheriffs, and other civic dignitaries. It concluded with a sparkling scene ‘‘de circonstance” iu the form of a dramatic epilogue appropriate to the occasion, spoken by Messrs. James, Thorne, and the author of “ Our Boys,” Mr H. J. Byron. Theatrical business in America can scarcely be in the stagnant state that has of late been reported, considering that Mr Sothern is said to have netted six thousand dollars during the mouth of January. Mr Sothern’s impersonation of Fitzaltamont in “ The Crushed Tragedian” is said to bo of a most striking and artistic character, and ranks with such performances as Jefferson’s “Rip Van Winkle,” Charles Kean’s “Louis XL,” and Miss Charlotte Cushman’s “MegMeriiies.” Higher praise can scarcely be bestowed The modern Hogarth, George Crtiiekshank, who died recently at the ripe age of eighty-five years, was an art exhibitor at seven years of age, some of his juvenile efforts bearing the date of 1799, having been hung in Exeter Hall at an exhibition held that year. De was buried iu Keusal Green Cemetery, near the grave, of the distinguished author, Mr W, M. Thackeray, to whom the deceased artist had been warmly attached. Among the mourners on the occasion were Lord Houghton, D.C.L., W- B- Frith, R.A., Charles Landseer, R.A., Ccorge Augustus Sala, S. C. Hall, and Dr. B. Ward Kichardson.

A short man, says “The World,” with stopping shoulders and tiny bands and feet, with bright, pleasant face, looking out of a forest of light gray (almost white) hair, greets ns as we enter the big double drawingroom in Gloucester place. This apartment is admirably adapted to the peripatetic style of composition now in increasing vogue, aud to authors who can only think on their feet would be invaluable. Mr Wilkie Collins is not of this class, and when at -work sits at a massive writing-table furnished with a small desk of the same design as that used by Charles Dickens. On the left is a japanned tinned box containing what Mr Collins calls his stock-iu trade —plots and schemes for stories and dramas. For a plot he is never at a loss, his great difficulty being in working it out to his satisfaction, and in imparting the necessary literary finish to bis composition. Hence, he is a rapid inventor and a alow producer, constantly revising his work until be has reached something a -preaching his ideal of a simple natural style. A little to the left of the writing-desks hangs a picture by Mr Collins’ father, the Royal Academician. Born iu the purple atmosphere of art, the future novelist yet served a rough apprenticeship to story-telliug. At the school at Highbury, where he was placed after a residence of three years on the Continent, he was unpopular by reason of his superior knowledge of the French and Italian languages. No part of Mr Wilkie Collins’ career is fuller of interest than that of his intimate associations with the late Mr Dickens. Over the great majority of the contributors to “Household Words” and “ All the Year Round” the inventor of the modern art of picturesque description exercised an extraordinary influence. Albeit ho never hinted that be wished his assistants to copy his method, the mantle of Dickens descended upon them after a fashion, not always in the peculiar folds which clothed the genius of the master, hut often sadly awry, and in a manner demanding laborious management at his hands. The effect of this mania for imitating the chief was to infect the magazine with an air of sameness. it was against this sameness of style that Mr Wilkie Collins’ work wag a perpetual and complete protest ; and it is a proof of the extreme kindness of Dickens’ literary insight that he received Mr Collins with open arms. Up to that period his success in literature had been only moderate. His first work had met with the meed of success awarded to filial biographies; and “Antonina” was ushered into the world with a considerable blare of trumpets. The late Mr Bentley received the young novelist in the genial fashion variously interpreted by successful' and unsuccessful authors ; he paid him handsomely for his work, aud produced “Antonina,” bound iu virgin white and gold. But the public looked on “Antonina” with unfavourable eyes. Time and place were remote, and they would have none of it. His next work was “Basil,” in which are visible traces of that weird imagination which afterwards became one of his most marked characteristics. But people would no more read “Basil” than they would “ Antonina.” Then came “Hide and Seek,” a fair success with the.million, and of vast importance to the author, as introducing him to the notice of Macaulay and Dickens. Macaulay wrote him a letter filled with warm and lavish praise. Dickens, with unsparing expressions of delight and enthusiasm, asked him to write for ‘ ‘ Household Words.” When Dickens believed in a man and trusted him, he believed aud trusted thoroughly; and on Mr Collins asking him whether he had not better get his story half or oue-tbird done before commencing publication, he was met with generous assurance of confidence, qnd with considerable misgiving began to write “The Dead Secret” from hand to mouth. This effort justified all the prognostications of Dickens by its brilliant success ; and, together with the admirable short stories afterwards published in a collected form as “ Aftpr Dark,” established the author as a favourite with the English public. Mr Collins’ next work was that which ia known to the entire world through the medium of translation into every civilised language—the “ Woman in White,” a book that at once placed the author in the front rank of European novelists.