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_The Signatures of Charles Dickens (with Portraits)._

FROM 1825 TO 1870.

(Born 7th February, 1812; died 9th June, 1870.)

BY J. HOLT SCHOOLING.


"Everybody knows what Dickens's signature is like"--says the reader who
bases acquaintance with it upon the familiar, gold-impressed facsimile
on the well-known red covers of his works--"a free, dashing signature,
with an extensive and well-graduated flourish underneath." (No. 1.)

Aye! But have you ever seen an original Dickens-letter? Have you ever
handled, not one, but hundreds of his documents--letters, franked
envelopes, cheques signed by Dickens, cheques indorsed by him, legal
agreements bearing his signature, and the original MSS. of his works?
Owing to the kindness of owners and guardians of Dickens-letters, etc. I
have been able to supplement the materials in my own collection by
numerous facsimiles taken direct from a priceless store of Dickens-MSS.
Here are some of the specimens. We will glance over them, and in doing
so will view them, not merely as signatures, but also as
permanently-recorded tracings of Dickens's nerve muscular action--of his
_gesture_. The expressive play of his facial muscles has gone, the