1903
Charles Reade as I
Knew Him
|
|
John Coleman (died 21 April 1904) was an actor and producer who knew Charles Reade but did not seem directly acquainted with Wilkie Collins. So these few mentions of Wilkie are second-hand from Charles Reade.
BOOK THE THIRD
CHAPTER I
The
termination of Vining's tenure of the Princess's did not deter him from acting
elsewhere, and he played two or three engagements, one with dubious results at
the Holborn in the 'Rag Picker of Paris' (one of Lemaitre's great parts);
another at the Olympic as Count Fosco in Wilkie Collins' prosaic and long-winded
version of his own striking story of 'The Woman in White.'
By-the-by, this work, in the construction of which Collins was assisted by
Regnier, the famous 'coach' of the Français, was the precursor of the numerous
inarticulate plays which terminate upon an empty stage and a mere note of
interrogation.
BOOK THE
THIRD
CHAPTER II
Amongst other features
of his workshop there used to be a couple of volumes full of remarkable letters
from remarkable people.
A note from George H. Lewes states: 'An article by you that wouldn't be worth printing would be a curiosity in its way; it must be so infernally wrong. Are we never to see you on Sunday between five and six? We are always in, and generally get some good talkers to come.'
The other letters I am not at liberty to quote, but the endorsements are so quaint that, by his permission, I made notes of some of them, and quote a few.
One from Wilkie Collins is endorsed: 'An artist of the pen; there are
terribly few amongst us.'
BOOK THE THIRD
CHAPTER II
Of all his contemporaries he yielded the palm to Dickens, and to him alone.
Him he always acknowledged as his master.
Next for variety and scope came Bulwer Lytton.
'For literary
ingenuity in building up a plot and investing it with mystery, give me dear old
Wilkie Collins against the world.'
...
'Payne's stories have beguiled me
of many a weary hour. For accuracy of detail, ingenuity of construction, and
sustained interest, he treads hard upon the heels of Wilkie Collins, while he
has a quaint grace of manner and an occasional epigrammatic sprightliness all
his own.'
BOOK THE FIFTH
CHAPTER II
On Tuesday, 15th April 1884,
all that was mortal of Charles Reade was buried in Willesden Churchyard. The
funeral rites were as unostentatious as his life had been. There were only ten
chief mourners -- kinsmen and old friends -- among whom I was privileged to take
a place. Wilkie Collins was peremptorily ordered by his physician to refrain
from attending; but he wrote a most touching letter, bewailing the loss of a
comrade of forty years' standing.