was fond of disguising their sense to the
eye, though not to the ear. Thus Lady Snuphanuph, looks a grotesque, but
somewhat plausible name--snuff-enough--a further indication of the
manners and customs. So with Lord Mutanhed, _i.e._ "Muttonhead."
Mallard, Serjeant Snubbin's Clerk, I have suspected, may have been some
Mr. Duck--whom "Boz" had known--in that line.

"A MONUMENTAL PICKWICK."

The fruitfulness of Pickwick, and amazing prolificness, that is one of
its marvels. It is regularly "worked on," like Dante or Shakespeare. The
Pickwickian Library is really a wonder. It is intelligible how a work
like Boswell's "Johnson," full of allusions and names of persons who have
lived, spoken, and written, should give rise to explanation and
commentaries; but a work of mere imagination, it would be thought, could
not furnish such openings. As we have just seen, Pickwick and the other
characters are so real, so artfully blended with existing usages,
manners, and localities, as to become actual living things.

Mere panegyric of one's favourite is idle. So I lately took a really
effective way of _proving_ the surprising fertility of the work and of
its power of engendering speculation and illustration. I set about
collecting all that has been done, written, and drawn on the subject
during these sixty years past, together with all those lighter
manifestations of popularity which surely indicate "the form and
pressure" of its influence. The result is now before me, and all but
fills a small room. When set in proper order and bound, it will fill
over thirty great quartos--"huge armfuls" as Elia has it. In short, it
is a "Monumental Pickwick."

The basis of _The Text_ is of course, the original edition of 1836. There
are specimens of the titles and a few pages of every known edition; the
first cheap or popular one; the "Library" edition; the "Charles Dickens"
ditto; the _Edition de Luxe_; the "Victoria": "Jubilee," edited by C.
Dickens the younger; editions at a shilling and at sixpence; the edition
sold for one penny; the new "Gadshill," edited by Andrew Lang; with the
"Roxburghe," edited by F. Kitton, presently to be published. The
_Foreign Editions in English_; four American editions, two of
Philadelphia, and two of New York; the Tauchnitz (German) and Baudry
(French); the curious Calcutta edition; with one of the most interesting
editions, viz., the one published at Launceston in Van Diemen's Land in
the y