When Dickens turned eighteen, he applied for and received a reading ticket for the reading room of the British Museum. Michael Slater writes that it was here that Dickens “embarked on a course of miscellaneous literary and historical reading,” which included the works of Shakespeare (32). It is easy to see that Dickens was a Shakespeare superfan: he named his house in Rochester Gad’s Hill after the place where Flastaff commits the robbery which begins Henry IV, Part I. He utilized “Familiar in his mouth as household words,” also from Henry V, as the subscript for his periodical Household Words. His second periodical All the Year Round is taken from a line of Othello, which he slightly altered, and in his early twenties, Dickens also wrote his own version of the play as a burlesque opera which he titled O’Thello.[1] Knowing this, it will not be surprising that Dickens, an aspiring actor himself, would befriend in the 1830s the actress Priscilla Horton (1818-1895). Born in Birmingham, Horton became famous for her role as Ariel from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which William Charles Macready (a close friend of Dickens) produced in 1838, most likely in Covent Garden, London. Ariel is an elemental spirit being whom Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, rescues (and then enslaves) upon his arrival on a deserted island. Ariel is referred to in the play as a mostly gender-neutral character (the pronoun “he” is used only a handful of times), and up until the twentieth century, Ariel was typically played by female actresses. Perhaps this gender relationship can be best understood with the comparison to J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Although Peter is born a human boy, he does posses fairy-like qualities including his ability to be non-gender specific. Thus, Peter has always been played onstage and in film by females, most famously by Mary Martin. As we see, gender constraints do not apply to those in the fairy world, like Peter and Ariel, who are free to change gender forms, or even be gender neutral.

The height of Horton’s career occurred in 1830s fairy burlesques, the modern-day equivalent of which would be musical theatre parody and pantomimes. Shakespeare’s plays were an exceedingly popular subject for burlesques in the nineteenth century, and Horton excelled in her roles in these types of parodies. However, she was also lauded in dramatic roles such as Desdemona in Othello and Ophelia in Hamlet. Horton continued acting after her marriage to Thomas German Reed in 1844, but the apex of her career was achieved in these comedy fairy burlesques. On 26 October 1838, Dickens penned a poem “To Ariel” in honour of Horton’s depiction of Ariel. One can conjecture that Dickens must have been very taken with Horton’s performance to have penned such an impromptu poem for her. This work appears in Horton’s autograph book, now part of the Rare Books Collection at the Philadelphia Free Library. Other poems and autographs can be found in this book, but Dickens’s is of interest, firstly because he penned this “fan” poem at such an early stage in his career (he was in the midst of writing Oliver Twist), but also because he included a small illustration at the bottom of the page, presumably of himself, hastening to Ariel’s summons. One would read from his poem that he was indeed infatuated with Horton’s performance:

Some saints there are who roar and cry,

And rave and scream and bawl,

To force some spirit throned on high

To bless them with a call;

But thought they sue on bended knee

That spirit’s deaf and dumb.¾

Oh Spirit if you called on me

How very soon I’d come!

The picture at the bottom of the poem is of a man with a rather shocked expression, his hair billowing up behind him and his hands outstretched. He looks as if he may be staggering backwards at the sight of something truly extraordinary: Priscilla Horton’s Ariel?

I was lucky enough to be able to view the original manuscript of this poem while researching at the Philadelphia Free Library in February of 2017, and I noticed that in the little man’s hands, there appears to be a mark that runs lengthwise, beginning at the figure’s hands and extending down to his thigh. To the naked eye, it looks as if an object once may have been “held” by the figure: a flower perhaps, or a lady’s hairpin? Might something have been affixed to the page? We may never know, but it does bring more meaning to the picture itself to realise that the figure could have been holding an actual souvenir (a token of Ariel’s) instead of merely falling backwards in awe. It certainly is a fascinating piece of work, as it demonstrates Dickens’s ability to create an impromptu cartoon sketch (even if the poem were pre-drafted, the figure most certainly was not), his appreciation for the theatre and his love of Shakespeare. While Priscilla Horton may not be remembered by the average modern theatregoer, she was certainly appreciated by those of her time who attended her performances, including Dickens and his circle of friends. Dickens was the “inimitable Boz,” and as is the case with unparalleled people, he would have only upheld the most extraordinary as part of his circle of artists. Priscilla Horton made that cut.

Further Reading:

Autograph album of Priscilla Horton. Manuscripts. Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphia, PA. https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/31683. (accessed Feb 23, 2017)

Slater, Michael. Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing. Yale University Press, 2011.

Smith, Harry Bache. A Sentimental Library: Comprising Books Formerly Owned by Famous Writers, Presentation Copies, Manuscripts, and Drawings. Harvard College Library: Cambridge, MA. Private Printing, 1914, p. 78.

[1] Slater, Michael. Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing. Yale University Press, 2011, p 39.