II.

I do not think (S. 64, N. 11) he[1] came in for any of Mr. Jones’s scourging propensity; in fact, together with myself, he was only a day-pupil, and[2] with these there was a wholesome fear of tales being carried home to the parents. His personal appearance at that time[3] is vividly brought home to me in the portrait of him taken a few years later by Mr. Lawrence. He resided (S. 116, N. 17) with[4] his friends, in a very small house in a street leading out of Seymour Street, north of Mr. Judkin’s chapel.

Depend on it, he was _quite_ a self-made man, and his wonderful knowledge and command (+Beherrschung+, f.) of the English language must[5] have been acquired by long and patient study after leaving his last school.

I have no recollection of the boy you name[6]. Dickens’s chief[7] associates were, I think[8], Tobin, Mr. Thomas, Bray, and myself. The first named[9] was his chief ally, and his acquaintance with him appears to have continued many[10] years _afterwards_. About that time[11] the Penny and Saturday magazines (S. 71, N. 2) were published weekly, and _were_ greedily read by (S. 106, N. 23) us. We kept bees, white mice, and other living things, clandestinely[12], in our desks, and the mechanical arts were a good deal cultivated, in[13] the shape of coach-building, and making pumps and boats, the motive power of which was the white mice.

I think at that time Dickens took to writing[14] small tales, and we had a sort _of_ club for[15] lending and circulating them. Dickens was also very strong[16] in using a sort of lingo, which made us[17] quite unintelligible to bystanders.

[1] = that he had to suffer from the scourging propensity (+Prügelmanie+, f.) of his teacher, for, like myself, etc.

[2] +und diesen gegenüber war stets zu befürchten, daß sie bei den Eltern zu Hause aus der Schule plaudern würden.+

[3] +Sein damaliges Aussehen+; is vividly brought home to me = is again vividly brought (+führen+) before my (S. 43, N. 9, _A_ and _B_) eyes; in — Lawrence (Liter.) = ‘through the some years later by (+von+) Mr. L. painted picture of him’, which place immediately after the copula (+wird+) and the dative of the personal pronoun indicating the possessor.

[4] +bei+; in — Street = in a side-street (comp. n. S. 76, N. 22, _B_ [+n+]), not far from Seymour Street.

[5] must — acquired = he must have acquired. To acquire, +sich erwerben+, insep. comp. str. v. refl.; by, +durch+; ‘long’, here +langjährig+; after — school = after his school-time.

[6] = I cannot remember (+sich einer Sache erinnern+) the boy whose name you mention (+an´führen+).

[7] +hauptsächlich+, adj.

[8] Inverted constr.

[9] +Ersterer+; render ‘chief ally’ by a comp. n., and turn ‘chief’ by +Haupt+.

[10] Insert the adv. +noch+ before ‘many’; to continue, +fort´dauern+.

[11] +Um diese Zeit.+

[12] to keep clandestinely, +versteckt halten+; things = creatures; a — cultivated, +eifrig geübt+.

[13] in — mice = for we made coaches, pumps and boats, which then were set in motion by the white mice.

[14] took to writing = began to write.

[15] for — them, Liter. = among (+unter+) the members of which the same (to agree with ‘tales’) circulated (+zirkulieren+).

[16] = great; in — lingo, +im Gebrauch einer gewissen kauderwälschen Geheimsprache+.

[17] made us = was; to bystanders = to the uninitiated, +den Uneingeweihten+.

_Section 181._

A LETTER FROM DR. HENRY DANSON TO MR. JOHN FORSTER, ON CHARLES DICKENS’S SCHOOL-LIFE.