The Invention of Murder (70 page)

91
and embraces her:
Charles Dickens to Mark Lemon,
Letters,
7 January 1856, vol. 8, pp.11–12.
rest of the play:
Richard Altick, ‘Dion Boucicault Stages
Mary Barton, Nineteenth-Century Fiction,
14, 1959, p.130.

92
found with the torso: The account of the murder, trial and execution of James Greenacre is compiled from the Old Bailey trial transcript, ref. t18370403–917; and from: Morning Chronicle, 28, 29 March, 6 April 1837; The Times, 30 December 1836, 9 January, 4, 6 February, 8, 28, 31 March, 4, 5, 17, 19, 24, 26 April 1837; and C.J. Williams, Greenacre, or The Edgeware-Road [sic] Murder. Presenting an Authentic and Circumstantial Account of this Most Sanguinary Outrage of the Laws of Humanity … (Derby, Thomas Richardson, [1837]); and Anon., The Paddington Tragedy. A Circumstantial Narrative of the Lives and Trial of James Greenacre, and the Woman Gale, for the Murder of Mrs. Hannah Brown, his intended wife, which was brought to light by the discovery of her Mutilated Remains… (London, Orlando Hodgson, [1837]).

93
cutting off Mrs Brown’s head:
‘The Edgware-road Tragedy. Life, Trial, and Execution of James Greenacre’ (London, Catnach, [1837]), Bodleian Library, John Johnson Collection, Broadsides, Murder and Execution 6 (8).

94
taken a hackney cab:
‘Particulars of the Confession and Execution of James Greenacre, Who was Executed this Morning … for the Wilful Murder of Mrs. Hannah Brown’ (London, Birt, [1837]), Bodleian Library, Harding, B9/3.150.

95
at least threepence: Champion and Weekly Herald,
16 April 1837;
Figaro in London,
‘The Press and its Supporters’, 9 June 1838;
The Age,
14 October 1838.
no good to nobody: Cited in Hindley, The Catnach Press, pp.280–81.
immense number of persons: Champion and Weekly Herald, ‘Examination of Greenacre’,
9 April 1837.

96
scream right well:
Grant,
Penny Theatres,
p.24; Paul Sheridan,
Penny Theatres of Victorian London
(London, Dennis Dobson, 1981), pp.56–7.
inflame the passions: Theatrical Observer,
‘Suppression of the Penny Theatres’, December 1844.

97
Greenacre-Carlyle: John Bull,
30 April 1838;
Bell’s Life,
‘To Correspondents’, 16, 23 April, 7 May 1837; Jane and Thomas Carlyle,
Letters,
18–19 January 1843, vol. 16, p.23.
served Mrs. Brown:
Revd Richard H. Barham,
The Ingoldsby Legends
([1837–40], London, Richard Edward King, [1893]), pp.65ff.

102
front of the local population: The most comprehensive eighteenth-century account of Aram’s crime and trial is found in [Anon.], The Genuine Account of the Trial of Eugene Aram, for the Murder of Daniel Clark … &c. (‘Printed by A. Ward, for C. Etherington, Bookseller in Coney-Street’, 1759). Anon., The Original and the Only Authentic Account of the Trial of Eugene Aram, (Late a Schoolmaster at Knaresbrough [sic],) for the Murder of Daniel Clark; With his Autobiography, and a particular account of his Studies; and literary attainments; also, several of his Letters, &c. to which is added, ‘The Dream of Eugene Aram, A Poem, by Thomas Hood, Esquire (Knaresbrough [sic], W. Langdale, [c.1832]) is generally considered the most reliable of the later reports. Excellent modern accounts from which
I have drawn include Eric R. Watson,
Eugene Aram: His Life and Trial
(Glasgow, William Hodge, [1913]), and Nancy Jane Tyson,
Eugene Aram: Literary History and Typology of the Scholar-Criminal
(Hamden, CT, Archon, 1983).
thief and murderer:
Andrew Kippis,
Biographia Britannica
(London, C. Bathurst, 1778), vol. 1, pp.230–35. The links between Aram and
Caleb Williams
are explored in Nancy Tyson’s
Eugene Aram,
pp.37–44.

103
of the English language: William Godwin, The Adventures of Caleb Williams, or Things as They are ([1794], New York, Rinehart & Co., 1960), p.341.

104
gyves upon his wrist:
Thomas Hood, ‘The Dream of Eugene Aram’,
Gem,
613, October 1828, p.662.
as a biographical fact: Manchester Times,
‘The Dream of Eugene Aram’, 21 November 1828;
Examiner,
25 December 1831, p.820.

105
then commits suicide:
Edward Bulwer-Lytton,
Eugene Aram: A Tale
([1832], London, George Routledge & Sons, [n.d.]). This is the post-1840 edition, with the later revisions.
a murder specialist:
Victor Lytton,
The Life of Edward Bulwer, First Lord Lytton
(London, Macmillan, 1913), vol. 1, p.389.
entirely innocent: Leeds Mercury, review of Trial and Life of Eugene Aram, 1 September 1832, p.7; Gentleman’s Magazine, review of Trial and Life of Eugene Aram, November 1832, p.448. of consummate ability: Cited in W.T. Moncrieff, Eugene Aram, or, Saint Robert’s Cave (London, Samuel French, n.d.), p.7.
hanged by his own cleverness:
The modern scholar is Nancy Tyson,
Eugene Aram,
p.27; Paley quoted in George Wilson Meadley,
Memoirs of William Paley, DD
(Edinburgh, Archibald Constable, 1810), pp.8–9.

106
the defence to Johnson:
‘Eugene Aram: Mr Bulwer’s New Novel’, in
Tatler,
4, 1832; reprinted in Lawrence Huston Houtchens and Carolyn Washburn Houtchens, eds.,
Leigh Hunt’s Literary Criticism
(New York, Columbia University Press, 1956), p.397.
from Burney’s notes: The biographer is T.H. Escott, cited in Watson, Eugene Aram, p.32. 30,000 copies in the USA: Morning Chronicle, 9 May 1832, p.4.
should be received by all: Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle, 25 June 1832, p.4, advertisement.

107
unassuming deportment: Norrisson Scatcherd, Memoirs of the Celebrated Eugene Aram … with some account of his family and other particulars (London, Simpkin & Marshall, 1832), pp.3–6, 9–11.
and Eugene Aram: Leeds Mercury,
2 June 1832, p.4; Ibid., ‘A Stranger in Yorkshire’, 4 August 1870;
Daily News,
‘New Names for London Streets’, 15 December 1856.
Wakefield and Sheffield:
The London productions are compiled from advertisements in
The Times,
passim, 1832. The provincial productions are listed in H. Philip Bolton,
Dickens Dramatized
(London, Mansell, 1987), p.26.

108
pardon – pity – all:
Moncrieff,
Eugene Aram,
preface: ‘Remarks’, p.5; pp.12, 64, 66, 68.
author of
Eugene Aram:
New Monthly Magazine,
‘The Drama’, 135, March 1832, p.108.
attorney his certificate:
Harrison Ainsworth,
Rookwood
(London, Richard Bentley, 1834), pp.221–3.

109
done the trick: Examiner,
9 November 1823, p.732.

110
until page 2,207: Michael Anglo, Penny Dreadfuls and Other Victorian Horrors (London, Jupiter, 1977), p.32.
publications of that kind:
Cited in Philip Collins,
Dickens and Crime
(London, Macmillan, 1962), a report to a House of Lords committee, undated, p.258.

111
palls, fake away:
Horace Bleackley and S.M. Ellis,
Jack Sheppard
(Edinburgh, William Hodge, 1933), p.99.

112
poke at Bulwer
The
Edinburgh Review
citation and its interpretation are both found in Keith Hollingsworth,
The Newgate Novel, 1830–1847: Bulwer, Ainsworth, Dickens, and Thackeray
(Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1963), pp.126–7.

113
cuts a throat:
‘The Literary Gentleman’,
Punch,
1842, p.68.
Sir E.L.B.L.BB.LL.BBB.LLL.: Punch, 3, 10 and 17 April, 1847, pp.136–7. rest for itself Leeds Mercury, 18 September 1841, p.6. very deficient: Bulwer, Eugene Aram, p.13.

114
in its first year:
Playbills of performances at the Surrey Theatre, London, 1810–58, British Library, shelfmark Playbills 311–13.
Brookwood, in Surrey: Bleackley, Ellis, Jack Sheppard, p.125.
without a licence: Leeds Mercury,
‘The Illegitimate Drama at Great Horton’, 14 April 1857.

115
filled the theatre:
John Hollingshead,
My Lifetime
(London, Sampson Low, 1895), vol. 1, pp.189–90.
packets of poison: Punch,
‘Parties for the Gallows’, 5 April 1845, p.147;
Derby Mercury,
leader, 24 April 1850;
Leeds Mercury,
‘Mysterious Poisoning of a Man and His Wife, at Leeds’, 8 August 1846; Greenwood,
The Wilds of London,
p.158.

116
somewhere in between: Patrick Brantlinger, The Reading Lesson: The Threat of Mass Literacy in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1998), pp.77ff.
across the force: Cobb, The First Detectives, p.47; Smith, Policing Victorian London, p.39.

117
excessively interesting:
Charles Dickens,
Oliver Twist, or, The Parish Boy’s Progress,
ed. Philip Horne ([1837–8], Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2002), introduction, p.xiii.
of bad character:
Pollock’s Toy Theatre and Redington’s Toy Theatre produced sheets with identical characters, although Redington’s has an extra four backdrops; examples of both are in the Bodleian Library, John Johnson Collection, Miniature Theatres 3.5–26 and 4.22–46.

118
adaptations appeared: Leeds Mercury,
16 August 1851, p.1;
Penny Magazine,
‘The Dropping-Well at Knaresborough’, 6, September 1837, p.348. Racehorse:
Derby Mercury,
26 September 1832, p.4, and
Racing Calendar,
October 1833, p.24; greyhounds:
Preston Guardian,
‘Ridgway Coursing Club’, 8 November 1856;
Newcastle Courant,
‘Yorkshire Coursing Club, Fairfield Stakes’, 2 February 1877.
not very interesting
[Anon.],
Amy Paul. A Tale
(London, Colburn & Co., 1852);
John Bull
review reprinted in an advertisement in
The Times,
27 July 1852, p.10. Oscar Wilde,
The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
([1895], London, Samuel French, 1856), p.35.
no matter what I was:
Caroline Clive,
Paul Ferroll
([1855], Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997), p.73.
its Aram-like murderer:
See, for example,
Athenaeum,
18 August 1855, 1451, pp.947–8; also
New Quarterly Review,
16, October 1855, pp.420–22 and ‘The Author of Paul Ferroll’,
National Review,
24, April 1861, pp.489–99.

119
his own ambitions: Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, pp.685, 729, 692–5.

120
image by Thackeray:
Rankley:
Athenaeum,
‘Royal Academy’, July 1852, p.728; Noble:
Daily News,
‘British Art Contributions’, 13 April 1855, Glasgow
Herald,
14 January 1889, advertisement, p.12; Rossiter:
Athenaeum,
‘Pictures at the French Gallery’, 21 August 1858, p.240; Elmore:
Manchester Times,
‘Notes of the Day’, 27 April 1872,
Leeds Mercury,
‘The International Exhibition’, 29 April 1872; Dixon:
Liverpool Mercury,
‘Corporation Exhibition, Art Gallery. No. II’, 9 September 1878; Pettie:
Birmingham Daily Post,
‘Exhibition of the Royal Academy. First Notice’, 29 April 1882,
Era,
‘Tragedy at the Royal Academy’, 6 May 1882; Thackeray:
Pall Mall Gazette,
‘Art Notes’, 13 July 1892.

121
included the poem:
Beardsley: Tyson,
Eugene Aram,
p.58; Wilde, Alfred Douglas,
Oscar Wilde: A Summing-up
(London, Duckworth, 1940), p.132. Sunderland vicar:
Hull Packet,
2 November 1860, p.6; Social Reform Society,
Glasgow Herald,
20 November 1861; the Revd J.C.M. Bellew:
Birmingham Post,
15 October 1862, p.2; penny readings:
Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle,
27 February 1864,
Birmingham Daily Post,
3 November 1864; the sale of the Revd F.W. Joy’s collection:
Leeds Mercury,
‘A Remarkable Sale of Autographs’, 30 May 1887.
incidents of Eugene Aram: Birmingham Daily Post,
3 March 1848, advertisement, p.3;
Era,
‘The London Music Halls. London Pavilion’, 28 July 1878;
Era,
‘Gallery of Illustrations. – (Last Night.)’, 25 May 1873.

122
damp churchyard: Saturday Review, 26 April 1873.
by letter: James F. Stottlar, ‘A Victorian Stage Adapter at Work: W.G. Wills “Rehabilitates” the Classics’,
Victorian Studies,
16, 4, 1973, pp.401–32.
opera based on Bulwer’s novel:
Playbill, 18 April 1873, in the Victoria and Albert Theatre Collection;
The Times,
2 July 1881, p.6; reviewed in
The Times,
14 May 1894, p.14, and in the
Era,
22 September 1900, p.17;
Glasgow Herald,
‘The Music of 1896’, 31 December 1896.
and jerking music:
James Glover,
Jimmy Glover, His Book
(London, Methuen, 1911), pp.240–41; David Mayer, ‘The Music of Melodrama’, David Bradby, Louis James and Bernard Sharratt,
Performance and Politics in Popular Drama: Aspects of Popular Entertainment in Theatre, Film and Television, 1800–1976
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1980), p.63n; Percy Fitzgerald,
The World Behind the Scenes
(London, Chatto & Windus, 1881), pp.312–13. I am grateful to Michael McCaffery for the information on
Ruddigore.