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THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
DICKENS, Charles. Autograph letter signed ("Charles Dickens") to Dr. John Elliotson (1791-1868), London, Devonshire Terrace, 10 June 1848. 1½ pages, 8vo.
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DICKENS, Charles. Autograph letter signed ("Charles Dickens") to Dr. John Elliotson (1791-1868), London, Devonshire Terrace, 10 June 1848. 1½ pages, 8vo.
"THESE FADINGS AWAY ARE DREADFUL THINGS, AND SO ARE ALL THE PAINS OF PENALTIES OF OUR MORTAL STATE"
DICKENS ON THE DEATH OF ONE OF HIS REAL-LIFE "CHARACTERS": THE "BRAVE COURIER" DESCRIBED IN PICTURES FROM ITALY: "I am deeply sorry to receive the intelligence you sent me of the Brave Courier, who is one of the gentlest and most genial natures in the world. These fadings away are dreadful things, and so are all the pains of penalties of our mortal state. But I am sure if any man had reason to find comfort in them, you had, who can administer so much, and always with such kindness and consideration." The otherwise unnamed courier was a fellow-passenger with Dickens and his family in the carriage that took them from Paris to Italy. Dickens described the effusive reaction that greeted the messenger when the coach stopped at a hotel for the night. Upon the courier's emergence from the coach the landlord of the hotel "can hardly wait for his coming down from the box, but embraces his very legs and boot-heels as he descends. 'My Courier! My brave Courier! My friend! My brother!' The landlady loves him, the femme de chambre blesses him, the garcon worships him. The Courier asks if his letter has been received? It has, it has. Are the rooms prepared? They are, they are. The best rooms for my noble Courier. The rooms of state for my gallant Courier; the whole house is at the service of my best of friends!"
Elliotson was among the best of Dickens's friends. A professor of medicine at the University of London, he was also a devotee of mesmerism and helped interest Dickens in the subject. He authored an 1843 book On Numerous Cases of Surgical Operations Without Pain in the mesmeric State, and edited a journal called The Zooist, which published pieces on mesmerism and phrenology.
"THESE FADINGS AWAY ARE DREADFUL THINGS, AND SO ARE ALL THE PAINS OF PENALTIES OF OUR MORTAL STATE"
DICKENS ON THE DEATH OF ONE OF HIS REAL-LIFE "CHARACTERS": THE "BRAVE COURIER" DESCRIBED IN PICTURES FROM ITALY: "I am deeply sorry to receive the intelligence you sent me of the Brave Courier, who is one of the gentlest and most genial natures in the world. These fadings away are dreadful things, and so are all the pains of penalties of our mortal state. But I am sure if any man had reason to find comfort in them, you had, who can administer so much, and always with such kindness and consideration." The otherwise unnamed courier was a fellow-passenger with Dickens and his family in the carriage that took them from Paris to Italy. Dickens described the effusive reaction that greeted the messenger when the coach stopped at a hotel for the night. Upon the courier's emergence from the coach the landlord of the hotel "can hardly wait for his coming down from the box, but embraces his very legs and boot-heels as he descends. 'My Courier! My brave Courier! My friend! My brother!' The landlady loves him, the femme de chambre blesses him, the garcon worships him. The Courier asks if his letter has been received? It has, it has. Are the rooms prepared? They are, they are. The best rooms for my noble Courier. The rooms of state for my gallant Courier; the whole house is at the service of my best of friends!"
Elliotson was among the best of Dickens's friends. A professor of medicine at the University of London, he was also a devotee of mesmerism and helped interest Dickens in the subject. He authored an 1843 book On Numerous Cases of Surgical Operations Without Pain in the mesmeric State, and edited a journal called The Zooist, which published pieces on mesmerism and phrenology.