an his literary career at 16 with a drama, _The
Shepherd's Artifice_. His fame, however, rests on his sea songs, which
are unrivalled, and include _Tom Bowling_, _Poor Jack_, and _Blow High
Blow Low_. He is said to have written over 1200 of these, besides many
dramatic pieces and two novels, _Hannah Hewitt_ (1792), and _The Younger
Brother_ (1793), and a _History of the Stage_ (1795).

DICKENS, CHARLES (1812-1870).--Novelist, _b._ at Landport, near
Portsmouth, where his _f._ was a clerk in the Navy Pay-Office. The
hardships and mortifications of his early life, his want of regular
schooling, and his miserable time in the blacking factory, which form the
basis of the early chapters of _David Copperfield_, are largely accounted
for by the fact that his _f._ was to a considerable extent the prototype
of the immortal Mr. Micawber; but partly by his being a delicate and
sensitive child, unusually susceptible to suffering both in body and
mind. He had, however, much time for reading, and had access to the older
novelists, Fielding, Smollett, and others. A kindly relation also took
him frequently to the theatre, where he acquired his life-long interest
in, and love of, the stage. After a few years' residence in Chatham, the
family removed to London, and soon thereafter his _f._ became an inmate
of the Marshalsea, in which by-and-by the whole family joined him, a
passage in his life which furnishes the material for parts of _Little
Dorrit_. This period of family obscuration happily lasted but a short
time: the elder D. managed to satisfy his creditors, and soon after
retired from his official duties on a pension. About the same time D. had
two years of continuous schooling, and shortly afterwards he entered a
law office. His leisure he devoted to reading and learning shorthand, in
which he became very expert. He then acted as parliamentary reporter,
first for _The True Sun_, and from 1835 for the _Morning Chronicle_.
Meanwhile he had been contributing to the _Monthly Magazine_ and the
_Evening Chronicle_ the papers which, in 1836, appeared in a _coll._ form
as _Sketches by Boz_; and he had also produced one or two comic
burlettas. In the same year he _m._ Miss Ann Hogarth; and in the
following year occurred the opportunity of his life. He was asked by
Chapman and Hall to write the letterpress for a series of sporting plates
to be done by Robert Seymour who, however, _d._ shortly after, and was
succeeded by Hablot Browne (Phiz)