long ago, and no doubt had talked over at Nice at the beginning of the year. By October the drafts of Beau Austin and Admiral Guinea1 were completed and set up in type; and in the following spring, at the suggestion of Mr. Beerbohm Tree, the two collaborators again set to work and produced their English version of Macaire. These were to have been but the beginning of their labours, but more necessary work intervened, and the plays were never resumed.2 It may be convenient here to round off the history of Stevenson's dramatic writings: early in 1887 he helped his wife with a play, The Hanging Judge, which was not completed at the time and has never yet been printed. Except for an unfinished fragment, intended for home representation at Vailima, he never again turned his hand to any work for the stage. Beau Austin was produced at the Haymarket Theatre in 1890, Admiral Guinea and Macaire have since been performed, and all the plays written in partnership with Mr. Henley have thus been seen upon the stage, though 1 Letters, ii. 362. 2 A list in Stevenson's writing shows some of their projects at the time, though it is certain that these had not been worked out, and we may doubt whether they would ever have been seriously considered. 'Farmer George" was to have covered the whole reign of George the Third, ending with a scene in which the mad king recovered for a while his reason: Deacon Brodie: Drama in Four Acts and Ten Tableaux. Beau Austin: Play in Four Acts. Admiral Guinea: Melodrama in Four Acts. Honour and Arms: Drama in Three Acts and Five Tableaux. none of them have kept it. The want of practical stage-craft may partly be to blame, and it must be remembered that Stevenson, at any rate, had not been inside a theatre since his return from America; but their chief interest lies in their literary quality, and it is to be feared that Mr. Archer was premature in his declaration that the production of Beau Austin showed triumphantly that "the aroma of literature can be brought over the footlights with stimulating and exhilarating effect." 1 As soon as the two finished plays were laid aside, husband and wife began to put together the second series of New Arabian Nights from the stories which Mrs. Stevenson had made up to while away the hours of illness at Hyères. Stevenson wrote the passages relating to Prince Florizel and collaborated in the remainder; but the only complete story of his invention in the book was "The Explosive Bomb": by which he designed "to make dynamite ridiculous, if he could not make it horrible." Meanwhile, on receiving an application from the pro Pepys' Diary: Comedy. The Admirable Crichton : Romantic Comedy in Five Acts. Ajax Drama in Four Acts. The Passing of Vanderdecken : (Legend!) in Four Acts. Farmer George: Historical Play in Five Acts. The Gunpowder Plot: Historical Play in Marcus Aurelius: Historical Play The Atheists: Comedy. The Mother-in-Law: Drama. Madam Fate: Drama in a Prologue and Four Acts. Madam Destiny: 1 The World, 12th November, 1890. prietor of the Pall Mall Gazette for a Christmas story, he attempted to produce a new tale for the occasion. It proved, however, what, in the slang of the studio, he called a "machine," and "Markheim," which was now ready, being too short, as a last resource he bethought himself of "The Body Snatcher," one of the "tales of horror" written at Pitlochry in 1881, and then "laid aside in a justifiable disgust." It was not one of his greater achievements, and would probably have excited little comment, had it not been for the gruesome and unauthorized methods of advertisement. Soon afterwards he successfully concluded negotiations for a Life of the Duke of Wellington, which he was commissioned to write for the series of "English Worthies," edited by Mr. Andrew Lang. The military genius of the strategist had long dazzled Stevenson, who had also been deeply fascinated by the study of his character. I will not say that to him the man who wrote the Letters to Miss J. was as remarkable as the victor of Waterloo, but it is certain that the great soldier became twice as interesting on account of that marvellous correspondence. According to Mr. Gosse, special emphasis was to be given to the humour of Wellington, and certainly the biography was by no means to be restricted to his military career. Three years before, Stevenson had written to his father about a book on George the Fourth, perhaps the Greville Memoirs: "What a picture of Hell! Yet the punishment of the end seemed more, if possible, than he had deserved. Iron-handed Wellington crushing him in his fingers; contempt, insult, disease, terror-what a haunted, despicable scene!" The book, however, although it was in Stevenson's mind for several years and was advertised as "in preparation," was never written, or, so far as I know, even begun. Not the least interesting part of the whole story is the picture of Stevenson sitting down to address a letter of inquiries to Mr. Gladstone, for whose political career he had always the most complete aversion, and finding himself, somewhat to his dismay, overcome with an involuntary reverence for the statesman who embodied so much of England's past. Casting about for a new story, he turned in February to the highroad, that to him and to his father before him had for long been one of the richest fields of romance. When, to his delight, he had first found his powers of narrative in Treasure Island, and discovered what possibilities lay before him of writing for boys the kind of stories he liked himself, he announced with glee to Mr. Henley that his next book was to be "Jerry Abershaw: A Tale of Putney Heath." He was also to write "The Squaw Men: or, The Wild West," and of this one chapter was actually drafted. The new venture was, however, called "The Great North Road," but, like St. Ives in later days, it rapidly increased in proportions and in difficulty of management. So at the end of the eighth chapter it was relinquished for Kidnapped and apparently dropped out of sight. Already in its beginnings it showed an increase of skill in dealing with Nance Holdaway, who foreshadowed other heroines yet to come. By the end of January so successful had the winter 1 Letters, i. 223. Cf. "A Gossip on Romance." been that Thomas Stevenson bought a house at Bournemouth as a present for his daughter-in-law. Its name was forthwith changed to Skerryvore, in commemoration of the most difficult and beautiful of all the lighthouses erected by the family. It was no great distance from where they were already living: a modern brick house, closely covered with ivy; and from the top windows it was possible to catch a glimpse of the sea. There was half an acre of ground, very charmingly arranged, running down from the lawn at the back, past a bank of heather, into a chine or small ravine full of rhododendrons, and at the bottom a tiny stream. Mrs. Stevenson at once started off for Hyères, whence she returned with their books and other belongings. The new house, however, was not ready for their occupation until the end of April, and when the move was made, to no one did it bring greater satisfaction than to Stevenson. Wanderer as he was, and still gave the impression of being, he entered into his new property with a keenness of delight that must have amused those of his friends who remembered his former disparagement of all household possessions.2 "Our drawing-room is now a place so beautiful that it's like eating to sit in it. No other room is so lovely in the world; there I sit like an old Irish beggarman's cast-off bauchle in a palace throne-room. Incongruity never went so far; I blush for the figure I cut in such a bower." The large dovecot is commemorated in Underwoods; the garden was an endless pleasure to Mrs. Stevenson, 1 See vol. i. p. 11. 2 Vol. i. p. 176. |