Peter Simple ... Illustrated by J. A. Symington, with an introduction by D. Hannay

Introduction

BY DAVID HANNAY ILonUon MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1 895 All rights reserved

INTRODUCTION.

It was not by a mere whim of the general opinion of his time that Captain Marryat was so commonly described as the author of Peter Simple. He was a popular writer when it appeared. The Naval Officer, The King's Own, and Newton Forster had already been published. The first of these three books in order of publication, though the second in order of composition, had achieved immediate popularity. The King's Own and Newton Forster had been well re ceived, but Peter Simple eclipsed all three, and it was not displaced by any of its successors. There is more good fun in Mr. Midshipman Easy, due to the admirable comic situation. The figure of Mesty in this, and individual scenes in other stories, have more melodramatic force than anything in Peter Simple. This is notably the case with the Phantom Ship, which, because of this virtue, has always had a firm and select body of admirers.

But the general estimate which chose Peter Simple among all Marryat's tales as his best was right. All the qualities for which his work is loved are shown in this book, and it is, on the whole, more free from his weaknesses than any other. The conditions in which it was written were in favour of success. His three earlier stories had given him practice. He was stimulated also to exertion by the desire to make money, while he had not yet begun to feel the exhaustion PETER SIMPLE which came of writing from mere necessity. His fund of experience was not used up. Later on he had to draw on other books for matter. In 1835, when he wrote The Pacha of many Tales, he was already beginning to annex and transfer. It was a kind of legitimate literary free-booting, which he did very well. His plagiarisms were always buccaneering beyond the line, and not mere pilfering in the street corner, to apply the distinction drawn by Chamfort between the robbery of ancient, and modern authors.

The Inquisition scenes in the Phantom Ship, which Mr. Louis Stevenson admired, owe some part of their merit to the free use made by Marryat of Dellon's Relation de I Inquisition de Goa. But however fully a writer may be entitled to take his goods where he finds them, there is a difference between drawing on others, and on experience. When Marryat composed Peter Simple in 1834, he had no need to do more than look back on his recollections of service in the Imperieuse and other ships during the great war. It is true that he did probably, or indeed certainly, draw to some slight extent on The Narrative of his brother officer Captain O'Brien for the scenes of the escape from France. In this case, however, what he read was only what he must have heard from messmates who had either themselves broken out of French or Spanish prisons, or knew those who had.

The adventure, if not exactly common, was not altogether rare, and must have formed the staple of many yarns. In short, he wrote Peter Simple because he was full of the subject, while in later times he was compelled to get up the subject because he wanted to write the book. The combination of practice with a still fresh faculty and a not yet exhausted experience is enough to account for the superior quality of Peter Simple. It will never be allowed by sound criticism that his knowledge of the sea-

INTRODUCTION.

life was Marryat's merit, and not merely his, and our, good fortunes. Yet his greatest admirer will hardly claim for him that he belonged to that highest class of novelists who can create characters which live by their mere human truth. By no possible exercise of good-will can we class him with Fielding or Thackeray. He could weave his material into possible personages, but he needed something more to work on than the average of mankind. 'A passion, and four boards,' which are enough for the novelist or dramatist of the first order, were too little for Marryat. His recollec tions supplied him with a great deal more when he wrote Peter Simple. They came spontaneously, and in abundance. It is impossible not to believe that he must have enjoyed the writing of the book almost as much as three generations of men and boys have enjoyed the reading.

Mr. and Mrs. Trotter, Swinburne and Mr. Muddle, Terence O'Brien and Mr. Chucks, Captain To and Captain Kearney, were all old friends. He drew them because he had seen them. We see them because he was a born story-teller. If luck had provided him with a writership in the East India Com pany's service, we would have seen another gallery, perhaps equally true and comic. Fortune took him to the sea, and so we have the figures, which we would be loth indeed to change for any others. This gallery of types and oddities is not only vivid, but it is extraordinarily rich. Gentleman Chucks, who by common consent is Marryat's masterpiece — the one of his characters who is certainly as good as Mr. Micawber, and not much less good than Lieutenant Lismahago — would of himself be enough to place the book high.

That there was an actual Mr. Chucks is comparatively a small matter. Some boatswain in His Majesty's service it seems there actually was ' in the flesh ' whom and whose capabilities X PETER SIMPLE Marryat saw. We could have guessed as much, and can also imagine the mere dummy Chucks would have been in so many hands. In Marryat's he is one of the fellowship of brave, good men with a bee in the bonnet, a relation, humble but undoubted, of Don Quixote, My Uncle Toby Lismahago, and the Baron of Bradwardine. No one of them would have seen anything absurd in Mr. Chucks's aspirations to be a gentleman, or have laughed at his pathetic version of Falconbridge's immortal apology for his mother, though it does smack of the forecastle and the point. It has been said that Cervantes did in reality defeat his own purpose of making the books of chivalry ridiculous, since, if the result of reading them was to fill Don Quixote with so lofty and generous a madness, it is a pity that all youth is not brought up on libros de cabal leria.

Mr. Chucks was aware that many would blame him for it, but he could not help the natural feelings which caused him to make light of the honour of being 'the 'gitimate offspring of a boatswain and his wife,' and his madness too was a motive to manly action. When Peter remarked that it ' was absurd enough in a boatswain ' to aspire to be a gentleman, he was very properly rebuked by O'Brien with the inquiry, ' When did any one of his ship mates ever know Mr. Chucks to do an unhandsome or mean action ? Never. And why ? Because he aspired to be a gentleman, and that feeling kept him above it.' Then comes the great and never sufficiently praised saying, ' Vanity's a confounded donkey, very apt to put his head between his legs, and chuck us over; but pride's a fine horse, who will carry us over the ground, and enable us to distance our fellow-travellers.' It does better still when it leaves us placidly indifferent to the respective positions of ourselves and our fellow-travellers, but even in O'Brien's

INTRODUCTION.

version it is sound. One of the virtues of Mr. Chucks is that he does not change in the least when he becomes Count Shucksen. He is still a boatswain with a clean shirt and the aspiration — not in the least absurd — to be a gentle man when he meets Peter in the Baltic, and when his voice is heard resounding in the vestibule of the hotel, ' Allow me to observe, — in the most delicate manner in the world, just to hint, that you are a d d trencher scraping, napkin -carrying, shilling-seeking, up-and-down stairs son of a ' (see original) — ' and take this for your impudence ! ' As for his eloquence, it is of universal truth. There are few sessions of Parliament in which speeches are not delivered capable of being reduced with a little manage ment to the well-known formulas of Mr. Chucks. Terence O'Brien is less of a figure of fun than Mr. Chucks, but he is not less living.

It is certainly curious that Marryat should have taken, in this case, the surname of an officer of his own time who had actually escaped from a French prison. The too scanty literature of the sea contains the name of another O'Brien who behaved in the famous action with the Spanish Glorioso very much in the manner to be expected of Terence. His story will be found in the Voyages and Cruises of Commodore Walker. Marryat seems to have thought the name very fit for a person of intrepid resourceful character. The narrative of Captain Donat Henchy O'Brien, 'containing an account of his shipwreck, captivity, and escape from France, after undergoing a series of sufferings which lasted for nearly five years,' must have been read by Marryat. There are touches in Captain Donat's character which remind us of his namesake, Sir Terence, — his indomitable pluck, and his very engaging combination of downright common sense with a most Hibernian capacity for blarney.

But it is well PETER SIMPLE not to make too much of the debt owed to the real by the imaginary O'Brien. There were other officers of the time who had had similar experiences. A claim to be the original of Terence O'Brien has been made for Captain George Vernon Jackson, who left, I believe, no narrative of his escape from Bitche, and whose history must be read in the jejune page of O'Byrne. In this, as in most cases, the character of the novel was doubtless founded on hints taken from life, but is not a portrait of any particular original. In any case the Terence O'Brien we know is the Terence of Peter Simple. He is not faultless. He forgives himself and is forgiven by others for his behaviour in the matter of Ella Flanagan a great deal too easily, but there were very odd, and perhaps even rather tell-tale deficiencies in Marryat's estimate of what constitutes tolerable mis behaviour to women, at all times.

Frank Mildmay at one end, and the Privateersman at the other, do things which ought to have been impossible to anybody who shared Mr. Chucks's honourable aspiration to be a gentleman, and the author is manifestly obtuse as to the quality of their acts. Mr. Chucks himself was blameless, for Dona Seraphina was a baggage, and he never exceeded the limits of permissible frailty in the deceits which love inspired. But putting the Ella Flanagan episode aside, Terence O'Brien is a very gallant officer, and the kind of friend a man would wish to meet among the oldsters when beginning life in other places than the midshipman's mess. His action with the three privateers was a gallant piece of work, while the extended study of despatches, naval and military, only increases our estimate of the legitimate ingenuity he dis played in mixing up the failure to take the privateer with the actual capture of the letter of marque. ' I must muddle it all up together,' said Captain Terence, 'so that the

INTRODUCTION.

Admiral must think we intended to cut them both out, and so we did, sure enough, if we had known she had been there.' 'The despatch was admirably written, and the Admiral, in his letter to the Admiralty, commented upon Captain O'Brien's successful and daring attack ; whereas, if the truth had been known, it was Swinburne's advice of pulling up on the weather shore which was the occasion of our capturing the Victorine ; but it is very hard to come at the real truth of these sort of things, as I found out during the time I was in His Majesty's service.' The wit of writing despatches was a favourite subject with Marryat. He came back on it in the Poacher, and it is to be regretted that he wrote no exhaustive essay for the instruction of posterity. The minor characters are not unworthy of these two central figures : Swinburne, the quartermaster, who thought that half and half (viz. of rum and water) was strong enough for anybody, and who laid down the great rule that 'a spy captain will find spy followers,' of the truth whereof many naval officers have had experience; Mr. Muddle, with his philosophy ; Captain Kearney, who remained an honest man in spite of being an incorrigible liar ; Mr. and Mrs. Trotter are good examples of how to use originals, so as to give them a life of their own in romance.

Tradition says that there was an actual Captain Kearney. But that matters not at all. Human nature being what it is, there must have been many Captain Kearneys. Thackeray's Mr. Archer is another, and not a better variation on the theme which Corneille used in the Menteur, after taking it from a Spanish comedy, La Verdad Sospechosa. The imagina tive, but not malignant liar is an old and excellent comic figure, about whom there can be nothing new but the telling. PETER SIMPLE The dramatis personœ being all credible, it follows almost of necessity that Peter Simple gives us a general picture of the old sea life which we feel to be essentially true. The Naval Officer is too much the autobiography of an unpleasant person. In Mr. Midshipman Easy the interest lies in the working out of a comic situation.

But in Peter Simple we have an average good fellow leading a possible life. The intention is manifestly to show the old Navy as it was at the height of its glory. There is no mincing — at least, no more than indispensable decency required — of the truth. Officers who joined Her Majesty's service in the forties saw worse scenes than Marryat de scribes as occurring on the decks of the Diomede when she was about to go to sea. But though, with his hand full of truth, Marryat did not think it necessary to open all his fingers, he is candid enough. The young person who took such a kind interest in Mr. Peter Simple's supply of soap is sufficient. Postdown Fair and the capture of the pressed men are vivid little pictures of real life. When Peter gets to sea there is always above him the same atmosphere of reality.

Much praise has been given, and deservedly, to the famous scene of the club-hauling of the Diomede. Its artistic merit is indeed great, for Marryat has contrived to describe a technical process so as to convey the spirit of it even to those who do not care, as it is not necessary to care, to understand how the thing was done. The daring and skill of Captain Savage, the suspense of the crew, and their admiration of the seaman ship which had saved them, are visible to all who have eyes to see. We feel that a fine feat has been performed, that such as these were the officers and men of the old Navy at their best. But it would swell an introduction to inordinate length to name the different scenes of this book, ranging

INTRODUCTION.

from the dignity ball, to the hurricane, which have the quality of vivacity, and convince us of their truth. The worst of the Navy is there, too, in the person of Captain Hawkins, and not the least life-like parts of Peter Simple are those which describe how that officer ruined the crew of the Rattlesnake. Of those parts of the book which do not deal with the sea it is not necessary to speak. Dick Smith, mate of a transport, recommended that the gun should be got up the hill by putting it in a butt ' well woulded up, and fill it with old junk and rope yarns.' There is a certain amount of old junk and rope yarn in Peter Simple, which answers its purpose, but does not call for particular notice. CONTENTS

Chapter I

she great advantage of being the fool of the family — My destiny is decided, and I am consigned to a stockbroker as part of his Majesty's sea stock — Unfortunately for me Mr. Handycock is a bear, and I get very little dinner . . . Page I

Chapter II

Fitting out on the shortest notice — Fortunately for me, this day Mr. Handycock is a bear, and I fare very well — I set off for Portsmouth — Behind the coach I meet a man before the mast — He is disguised with liquor, but is not the only disguise I fall in with in my journey . . . . . .8

Chapter III

I am made to look very blue at the Blue Posts — Find wild spirits around, and, soon aster, hot spirits within me ; at length my spirits overcome me — Call to pay my respects to the captain, and find that I had had the pleasure of meeting him before — No sooner out of one scrape than into another . 12

Chapter IV

I am taught on a cold morning, before breakfast, how to stand fire, and thus prove my courage — After breakfast I also prove my gallantry — My proof meets reproof — Woman at the bottom of all mischief — By one I lose my liberty, and, by another, my money I PETER SIMPLE

Chapter V

I am introduced to the quarter-deck and first lieutenant, who pronounces me very clever — Trotted below to Mrs. Trotter — Connubial bliss in a cockpit — Mr. Trotter takes me in, as a messmate — Feel very much surprised that so many people know that I am the son of— my father . . . Page 23

Chapter VI

Puzzled with very common words — Mrs. Trotter takes care of my wardrobe — a matrimonial duet, ending con strepito . . 30

Chapter VII

Scandalum magnatum clearly proved — I prove to the captain that I consider him a gentleman, although I had told him the contrary, and I prove to the midshipmen that I am a gentleman myself — They prove their gratitude by practising upon me, because practice makes perfect . . . . 36

Chapter VIII

My messmates show me the folly of running in debt — Duty carried on politely — I become acquainted with some gentlemen of the Home Department — The episode of Sholto M'Foy . . 42

Chapter IX

We post up to Postdown Fair — Consequence of disturbing a lady at supper — Natural affection of the Pelican, proved at my expense — Spontaneous combustion at Ranelagh Gardens — Pastry versus Piety — Many are bid to the feast ; but not the halt, the lame, or the blind . . . . . .50

Chapter X

A pressgang beaten off by one woman — Dangers at Spit-head and Point — A treat for both parties of pulled-chicken, at my expense Also gin for twenty — I am made a prisoner ; escape and rejoin my ship . . . . . . -58 CONTENTS

Chapter XI

O'Brien takes me under his protection — The ship's company are paid, so are the bumboat women, the Jews, and the emancipationist after a fashion — We go to sea — Doctor O'Brien's cure for sea-sickness — One pill of the Doctor's more than a dose Page 65

Chapter XII

New theory of Mr. Muddle remarkable for having no end to it — Novel practice of Mr. Chucks — O'Brien commences his history — There were giants in those days — I bring up the master's night glass 7 1

Chapter XIII

The first lieutenant prescribes for one of his patients, his prescriptions consisting of draughts only — O'Brien finishes the history of his life, in which the proverb of ' the more the merrier ' is sadly disproved — Shipping a new pair of boots causes the unshipping of their owner — Walking home after a ball, O'Brien meets with an accident . . . . . . .83

Chapter XIV

The first lieutenant has more patients — Mr. Chucks the boatswain lets me into the secret of his gentility . . . -93

Chapter XV

I go on service and am made prisoner by an old lady, who, not able to obtain my hand, takes part of my finger as a token — O'Brien rescues me — A lee shore and narrow escape . .105

Chapter XIX

We remove to very unpleasant quarters — Birds of a feather won't always flock together — O'Brien cuts a cutter midshipman, and gets a taste of French steel — Altogether flat work — A walk into the interior . . . . . . .149

Chapter Xxxviii

Captain Horton — Gloomy news from home — Get over head and ears in the water, and find myself afterwards growing one way, and my clothes another — Though neither as rich as a Jew, nor as large as a camel, I pass through my examination, which my brother candidates think passing strange . . Page 303

Chapter XXXIX

Is a chapter of plots — Catholic casuistry in a new cassock — Plotting promotes promotion — A peasant's love, and a peer's peevishness — Prospects of prosperity . . . . .316

Chapter XL

O'Brien and myself take a step each, pari passu — A family reunion, productive of anything but unity — My uncle not always the best friend ....... 322

Chapter XLI

Pompous obsequies — The reading of the will, not exactly after Wilkie — I am left a legacy — What becomes of it — My father very warm, writes a sermon to cool himself — I join O'Brien's brig, and fall in with Swinburne .... 330

Chapter XLII

We sail for the West Indies — A volunteer for the ship refused, and sent on shore again, for reasons which the chapter will satisfactorily explain to the reader .... 339

Chapter XLIII

Description of the coast of Martinique — Popped at for peeping — No heroism in making oneself a target — Board a miniature Noah's ark under Yankee colours — Capture a French slaver — Parrot soup in lieu of mock turtle .... PETER SIMPLE

Chapter XLIV

Money can purchase anything in the new country — American information not always to be depended upon— A night attack ; we are beaten off — It proves a cut-up, instead of a cut-out — Alter all, we save something out of the sire . . . Page 350

Chapter XLV

Some remarkable occurrences take place in the letter of marque — Old friends with improved faces — The captor a captive ; but not carried away, though the captive is, by the ship's boat — The whole chapter a mixture of love, war, and merchandise . 356

Chapter XLVI

O'Brien tells his crew that one Englishman is as good as three Frenchmen on salt water — They prove it — We fall in with an old acquaintance, although she could not be considered as a friend . . . . . . .361

Chapter XLVII

I am sent away aster prizes, and meet with a hurricane — Am driven on shore, with the loss of more than half my men — Where is the Rattlesnake? . . . . . .367

Chapter XLVIII

The devastation of the hurricane — Peter makes friends — At destroying or saving, nothing like British seamen — Peter meets with General O'Brien, much to his satisfaction — Has another meeting still more so — A great deal of pressing of hands, ' and all that,' as Pope says ...... 373

Chapter XLIX

Broken ribs not likely to produce broken hearts — O'Brien makes something very like a declaration of peace — Peter Simple actually makes a declaration of love — Rash proceedings on all sides CONTENTS

Chapter L

Peter Simple first takes a command, then three West Indiamen, and twenty prisoners — One good turn deserves another — The prisoners endeavour to take him, but are themselves taken in Page 384

Chapter LI

Peter turned out of his command by his vessel turning bottom up — A cruise on a main-boom, with sharks en attendant — Self and crew, with several flying-fish, taken on board a negro boat — Peter regenerates by putting on a new outward man . 391

Chapter LII

Good sense in Swinburne — No man a hero to his valet de chambre, or a prophet in his own country — O'Brien takes a step by strategy — O'Brien parts with his friend, and Peter's star is no longer in the ascendant ... . 400 CHAPTER LUI I am pleased with my new captain — Obtain leave to go home — Find my father afflicted with a very strange disease, and prove myself a very good doctor, although the disorder always breaks out in a fresh place ...... 406

Chapter LIV

We receive our sailing orders, and orders of every description — A quarter-deck conversation — Listeners never hear any good of themselves . . . . . .410

Chapter LV

We encounter a Dutch brig of war — Captain Hawkins very contemplative near the capstan — Hard knocks, and no thanks for it — Who's afraid ? — Men will talk — The brig goes about on the wrong tack . . . 4'5 PETER SIMPLE

Chapter LVI

Consequences of the action — A ship without a fighting captain is like a thing without a head — So do the sailors think — A mutiny, and the loss of our famous ship's company . . 1 'age 425

CHAPTER LVI

I News from home not very agreeable, although the reader may laugh — We arrive at Portsmouth, where I fall in with my old acquaintance, Mrs. Trotter — We sail with a convoy for the Baltic . 432

Chapter LVIII

How we passed the Sound, and what passed in the Sound — The captain overhears again a conversation between Swinburne and me . . . . . .438

Chapter LIX

The dead man attends at the auction of his own effects, and bids the sale to stop — One more than was wanted — Peter steps into his own shoes again — Captain Hawkins takes a friendly interest in Peter's papers — Riga balsam sternly refused to be admitted for the relief of the ship's company . . . .445

Chapter LX

An old friend in a new case — Heart of oak in Swedish fir — A man's a man, all the world over, and something more in many parts of it — Peter gets reprimanded for being dilatory, but proves a title to a defence — Allowed ..... 448

Chapter LXI

Bad news from home, and worse on board — Notwithstanding his previous trials, Peter forced to prepare for another — Mrs. Trotter again ; improves as she grows old — Captain Hawkins and his twelve charges . . . . CONTENTS

Chapter LXII

A good defence not always good against a bad accusation — Peter wins the heart of his judges, yet loses his cause, and is dismissed his ship ...... Page 460

Chapter LXIII

Peter looks upon his loss as something gained — Goes on board the Rattlesnake to pack up, and is ordered to pack off — Polite leave-taking between relations — Mrs. Trotter better and better — Goes to London, and afterwards falls into all manner of misfortunes by the hands of robbers, and of his own uncle . . 465

Chapter LXIV

As O'Brien said, it's a long lane that has no turning — I am rescued, and happiness pours in upon me as fast as misery before overwhelmed me ...... 472

Chapter LXV

It never rains but it pours, whether it be good or bad news — I succeed in everything, and to everything, my wife, my title, and estate — and all's well that ends well .... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE ' " Give that man a dozen, sir " ' . . Frontispiece ' " I believe we usually dine at sour " ' . . .6 ' My second whispered that I must not be frightened ' . 19 ' "Now, Trotter, you know that I never touch it " ' . 28 ' " Mr. Simple has come up with an order sor a cocked hat " ' . 40 ' Stirred me up with a long pole ' . . . • S5 ' I snatched out the red-hot poker, and, brandishing it over my head, made for the door' . . . . .64 ' " Are you aware, sir, of my rank and station in society ? " ' . 73 •"Take that now"' . . . . . .88 ' Off Malta we fell in with a xebeque ' . . .100 ' The main rock was within ten yards of her counter ' . 115 ' The daughter then came in without her veil ' . . .123 ' As I retreated, Donna Seraphina came to the window ' .136 'O'Brien, lifting me upon his shoulders, made for the boat' . 142 ' He suddenly made a spring, and rushed on to his adversary ' . 157 ' We crept cautiously up to him ' . . . .170 ' I returned to the window ; Celeste was there ' . . 1 84 ' In dashed after me an enormous wolf . . 195 ' He would often detain me, listening to my adventures ' . 206 ' Captain John To ' . . . . • .208 PETER SIMPLE PAGE c Hailed the deck, and said he believed I was dying ' . . 224 ' " Dis very fine milk.

Very good sor de tomac " ' . . 240 ' " Gentlemen and ladies, wid de permission of our amiable hostess " ' . . . . . . 250 ' The shark was hauled forward ' . . . . 263 ' " I shall at least die in the dress of a gentleman " ' . . 273 ' " And it's no objection I'd have to confess a purty girl like yourself, Mrs. O'Rourke " ' . . . . . 292 ' I swam to his assistance ' . . . . .310 ' " I judged as much from your appearance " ' . . .314 ' " I will have my right " ' . . . ■ 334 'O'Brien covered his face, and bent over the table' . .341 ' Looking earnestly at me, as if she would discover who I was ' . 358 ' I perceived the brig within two miles of the shore ' . 371 ' Crash went the schooner on to the boat ' . . . 390 ' " Sambo, you no hab charity " ' . . . . 396 'The captain hastened to the capstern' . . .419 '"Don't you think I look very old and ugly, Mr. Simple?"' . 436 'Your old friend, Chucks' ..... 450 ' As soon as I was a few yards distant, the men jumped on the carronades and cheered ' . . . . . 468 ' Making one spring down on the stage ' . . . 482 'Allow me to observe — in the most delicate manner in the world' . . . . . . .491