Lesbia hath a beaming eye,

beginning

    Lemon is a little hipped.

In a letter to Maclise he says: 

    My foot is in the house,
      My bath is on the sea,
    And before I take a souse,
      Here’s a single note to thee.

These lines are a reminiscence of Byron’s ode to Tom Moore, written from Venice on July 10, 1817: 

    My boat is on the shore,
      And my bark is on the sea,
    But before I go, Tom Moore,
      Here’s a double health to thee!

The words were set to music by Bishop.  This first verse had a special attraction for Dickens, and he gives us two or three variations of it, including a very apt one from Dick Swiveller (see p. 126).

Henry F. Chorley, the musical critic, was an intimate friend of Dickens.  On one occasion he went to hear Chorley lecture on ‘The National Music of the World,’ and subsequently wrote him a very friendly letter criticizing his delivery, but speaking in high terms of the way he treated his subject.

In one of his letters he makes special reference to the singing of the Hutchinson family.[5] Writing to the Countess of Blessington, he says: 

I must have some talk with you about these American singers.  They must never go back to their own country without your having heard them sing Hood’s ’Bridge of Sighs.’

Amongst the distinguished visitors at Gad’s Hill was Joachim, who was always a welcome guest, and of whom Dickens once said ‘he is a noble fellow.’  His daughter writes in reference to this visit: 

I never remember seeing him so wrapt and absorbed as he was then, on hearing him play; and the wonderful simplicity and un-self-consciousness of the genius went straight to my father’s heart, and made a fast bond of sympathy between those two great men.

In Music Drama

Much has been written about Dickens’ undoubted powers as an actor, as well as his ability as a stage manager, and it is well known that it was little more than an accident that kept him from adopting the dramatic profession.  He ever took a keen interest in all that pertained to the stage, and when he was superintending the production of a play he was always particular about the musical arrangements.  There is in existence a play-bill of 1833 showing that he superintended a private performance of Clari.  This was an opera by Bishop, and contains the first appearance of the celebrated ’Home, Sweet Home,’ a melody which, as we have already said, he reproduced on the accordion some years after.  He took the part of Rolano, but had no opportunity of showing off his singing abilities, unless he took a part in the famous glee ‘Sleep, gentle lady,’ which appears in the work as a quartet for alto, two tenors, and bass, though it is now arranged in other forms.

In his dealings with the drama Dickens was frequently his own bandmaster and director of the music.  For instance, in No Thoroughfare we find this direction:  ’Boys enter and sing “God Save the Queen” (or any school devotional hymn).’  At Obenreizer’s entrance a ’mysterious theme is directed to be played,’ that gentleman being ’well informed, clever, and a good musician.’