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Great exploitations: Dickens plagiarised and popularised

Dickens's phenomenal popularity was extensively exploited by theatrical hack writers. With complete immunity under the law, playwrights such as William Moncrieff and Edward Stirling produced dramatised versions of Dickens's books for the London theatres. These were often staged with clumsy endings even before Dickens had finished writing his novel. Between March and December 1838, for example, five unauthorised adaptations of Oliver Twist appeared in London theatres. Upon seeing one of these, Dickens was so mortified that he lay on the floor of his box until it was over. Although such dramatisations incensed Dickens, they thrilled audiences: Moncrieff's 1837 adaptation The Pickwickians, with star actor W.J. Hammond as Sam Weller, was hugely popular.

In 1838, hopeful of saving his forthcoming Nicholas Nickleby from the hands of the pirates, Dickens attacked them in the press and on handbills. But without the protection of modern copyright law, the unauthorised adaptations continued. While Dickens suffered financially, many people unable to afford or read Dickens's works in the original enjoyed at least some of his genius second-hand through such cheap dramatisations and penny literary plagiarisms.

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Proclamation
Charles Dickens
London: Chapman and Hall, 1838
Courtesy of Prof. Michael Slater

Dickens attacked the piratical dramatists and plagiarists who unabashedly exploited his works in this Proclamation, beginning ‘Whereas we are the only true and lawful “Boz”’, written in early March 1838. It was published both as a handbill and in the periodical press but to no avail: Dickens would suffer such piracies for many years to come.

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
Charles Dickens
London: Chapman and Hall, 1838-1839
[S.L.] I [Dickens – 1838]

Dickens had not even completed Nicholas Nickleby before a dramatised version appeared under the title ‘Nicholas Nickleby and Poor Smike’ written by William Moncrieff, one of the most brazen dramatic plagiarists of the time. An infuriated Dickens lampooned Moncrieff and his kind in a scene written for part XV of Nicholas Nickleby: ‘there was a literary gentleman present who had dramatised in his time two hundred and forty-seven novels as fast as they had come out—some of them faster than they had come out—and who WAS a literary gentleman in consequence.’ The satire made no difference, however, and the plagiarisms continued unabated.

cover illustration to Bardell v. Pickwick

Sam Weller, or, The Pickwickians: a Farcical Comedy, in Three Acts, arranged from Charles Dickens’s Work
W.T. Moncrieff
London: J. Dicks, [18--]
[M.M.C.]

Bardell v. Pickwick, and, the Two Swindlers
London: John Dicks, [18--]
[M.M.C.]

The Bardell trial from The Pickwick Papers was a favourite of both Dickens and his audiences in his repertory of public readings

Jennie Lee in Jo
September 1876
Courtesy of Prof. Michael Slater

This photograph shows the actress Jennie Lee (c.1858-1930) playing Jo, the crossing-sweeper, in the play of that name adapted by J.P. Burnett from Dickens’s Bleak House. Lee first played Jo in 1875, at the age of 17, and met with such success that she continued in the part for over twenty years, playing to admiring audiences in England, America and Australia.

Postcard from the 1905 production of Oliver Twist
London: J. Beagles & Co., 1905
Courtesy of Prof. Michael Slater

Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree playing the part of Fagin in his 1905 stage adaptation of Oliver Twist at His Majesty’s Theatre. Tree also produced stage versions of The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1908) and David Copperfield (1914).

Oliver Twiss
Thomas Peckett Prest
London: E. Lloyd, 1839
Courtesy of Prof. Michael Slater

Prest was a hack writer in Lloyd’s publishing factory. Calling himself ‘Bos’ in obvious imitation of the pen name ‘Boz’, Prest plagiarised Dickens’s work in Oliver Twiss and Nickelas Nickelbery, much to Dickens’s annoyance and financial loss. Issued in 79 parts at a penny each, Oliver Twiss was a great success. Other plagiarisms of Dickens’s novels included Dombey and Daughter and David Copperful.

The Teetotaler: a Weekly Journal
London: G. Henderson, 1840
Burns oversize 3876

Dickens’s Pickwick Papers suffered more plagiarisms than any other book of its time. Mr Pickwick and Sam Weller popped up in surprising places, such as G.W.M. Reynolds’s ‘Noctes Pickwickianae’, a series of articles written for his temperance magazine The Teetotaller. In Reynolds’s story the Wellers and Mr Pickwick are converted to teetotalism, signing their names in the pledge book of the London United Temperance Association.

Verses and Fly Leaves
Charles Stuart Calverley
London: G. Bell, 1885
H 83-2

The extent to which the educated Victorian reader was assumed to be familiar with Mr Pickwick’s adventures is suggested by the last chapter of Verses and Fly Leaves by Charles Stuart Calverley, a contemporary popular writer of witty verse and parodies. Here Calverley sets a mock Cambridge examination paper, dated 1857, testing the student’s knowledge of The Pickwick Papers.

Characters from Charles Dickens: a Game
London: Jaques & Son, ca 1865
Courtesy of Prof. Michael Slater

This card game was devised by Jaques of London to capitalise on Dickens’s popularity. It comprises ‘suits’ of characters from various Dickens novels and stories, the last of which, chronologically, appears to be Doctor Marigold’s Prescriptions, the Christmas story for 1865. Players must assemble a whole suit to win a ‘trick’, with three ‘tricks’ winning the game.

Characters from Dickens
Nottingham: John Player & Sons, 1912
Courtesy of Prof. Michael Slater

Some of the fifty cigarette cards of Dickensian characters issued in 1912 by the tobacco and cigarette manufacturer John Player & Sons.

The Cricket Polka
Louis Jullien
London: Jullien & Co., 1845
Courtesy of Prof. Michael Slater

Dickens’s literary creations were also exploited by composers. The Cricket Polka, based on Dickens’s third Christmas Book, The Cricket on the Hearth, was composed by the flamboyant French conductor Louis Jullien. Many such musical adaptations found their way into concert halls, other examples including the Dolly Varden Galop, based on the character from Barnaby Rudge, and Little Dorrit’s Serenade.

The Sphere: an Illustrated Newspaper for the Home
31 August 1901
PR folio

While the advertisers of Dickens’s day generally made little use of Dickensian characters, Mr Pickwick was the exception. His name and recognisable figure (as illustrated by H.K. Browne for The Pickwick Papers) were used in a variety of contexts. This advertisement from The Sphere uses his name and stout profile to promote the Pickwick, Owl and Waverley pens. Pickwick also lent his name to canes, gaiters and hats.