Dickens, Dick and Dido: Oliver Twist and the Opera at Home

In Oliver Twist stone is invariably associated with the cold and unfeeling Poor Law and with imprisonment, so it is perhaps unsurprising if Dickens thought of bacon as a contrast, especially since Christ doubts anyone humane would offer stone to the hungry (Matthew 7:7-9).5 A further musical referen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Dickens quarterly 2016-09, Vol.33 (3), p.173-200
Main Author:	RICHARDSON, RUTH
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	1600-1699 1800-1899 1812-1870 Absurdism Authors Baroque era Biographies British & Irish literature British music Chapbooks Characters Children Cruikshank, George (1792-1878) Dickens, Charles Dickens, Charles (1812-1870) Dido and Aeneas Editors English Literature Fate Heroism & heroes Keyboards Literary devices Little Dick (character) Music Music in literature Musical-Literary Allusions Musicians & conductors Narrative techniques Nineteenth Century novel Oliver Twist Oliver Twist (1837-1839) opera Plot (Narrative) Publishing Publishing industry Purcell, Henry Purcell, Henry, 1658 or 9-1695 Readers revival Schlicke, Paul Voice professionals Writing
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Summary:	In Oliver Twist stone is invariably associated with the cold and unfeeling Poor Law and with imprisonment, so it is perhaps unsurprising if Dickens thought of bacon as a contrast, especially since Christ doubts anyone humane would offer stone to the hungry (Matthew 7:7-9).5 A further musical reference may have been to Jane Bacon, a well-known mezzo-soprano, daughter of Richard Mackenzie Bacon (founding editor of the Quarterly Musical Magazine), who had performed with Braham (lead singer of The Village Coquettes) and whose voice - reputedly of great range - had been likened to the legendary Italian diva, Angelica Catalani (Langley 157). [...]of a persistent enquiry about the fate of another child, this girl's body was later officially located and exhumed, hence the gravedigger's tools in the image. There are also reports of the launch of the naval warship HMS Dido, and its voyage to Africa, of an exhibition of tapestries from the palace of Louis XIV featuring Dido and Aeneas alongside Saint Cecilia, and of the recent discovery and excavation of classical columns, carvings, coins and other antiquities at the site of the real Queen Dido's ancient seat of power, Carthage (e. g. Literary Gazette, 1 Mar. 1837, 212; Spectator, 11 Feb. 1837: 137; Harmonicon, passim). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks are due to Staff at the Rare Books and Music Room at the British Library, especially Steve Cork, and staff in Manuscripts and Maps at the British Library, St. Paneras; Louisa Price at the Dickens House Museum Archive; staff at the Forster Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, staff at the Royal Academy of Music, Peter Horton at the Royal College of Music, Rebecca Jackson at Staffordshire Records Office, to Benjamin Knysak and Richard Kitson of the Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Mitsuharu Matsuoka of Nagoya University, Japan, Stefan Dickers at the Bishopsgate Institute, for allowing the reproduction of the inquest image, and to the following individuals:
ISSN:	0742-5473 2169-5377 2169-5377