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THE BLUEBEARD BAROMETER: CHARLES DICKENS AND CAPTAIN MURDERER

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2004

Shuli Barzilai
Shuli Barzilai
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Extract

“You mustn't marry more than one person at a time, may you, Peggotty?”“Certainly not,” says Peggotty, with the promptest decision.“But if you marry a person, and the person dies, why then you may marry another person, mayn't you, Peggotty?”“You MAY,” says Peggotty, “if you choose, my dear. That's a matter of opinion.”—David Copperfield (1849–50)

THE FIRST TIME I HEARD OF CAPTAIN MURDERER was in the Jerusalem Theater many years ago when the Welsh actor Emlyn Williams (1905–87) gave a reading of scenes from the works of Charles Dickens. Williams's performance was a recreation of the initiative of Dickens himself who, in the late 1850s, took on yet another activity and persona, that of the itinerant player, and began a series of public tours in which he read from his own works. Of all the pieces Williams performed on that occasion, the story of “a certain Captain Murderer” remains most vividly present to memory not only for its eerie atmosphere and plot but especially for its effect on the audience. I can still recall the collective gasp of horror, as well as the outbursts of laughter, that the story's denouement elicited from a captivated company of listeners.

Type
EDITORS' TOPIC: VICTORIAN BOUNDARIES
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , September 2004 , pp. 505 - 524
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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