a few days after this conversation with mr. buckthorne, he called upon me, and took me with him to a regular literary dinner. it was given by a great bookseller, or rather a company of booksellers, whose firm surpassed in length even that of shadrach, meschach, and abednego.
i was surprised to find between twenty and thirty guests assembled, most of whom i had never seen before. buckthorne explained this to me by informing me that this was a “business dinner,” or kind of field day, which the house gave about twice a year to its authors. it is true, they did occasionally give snug dinners to three or four literary men at a time, but then these were generally select authors; favorites of the public; such as had arrived at their sixth and seventh editions. “there are,” said he, “certain geographical boundaries in the land of literature, and you may judge tolerably well of an author’s popularity, by the wine his bookseller gives him. an author crosses the port line about the third edition and gets into claret, but when he has reached the sixth and seventh, he may revel in champagne and burgundy.”
“and pray,” said i, “how far may these gentlemen have reached that i see around me; are any of these claret drinkers?”
“not exactly, not exactly. you find at these great dinners the common steady run of authors, one, two, edition men—or if any others are invited they are aware that it is a kind of republican meeting—you understand me—a meeting of the republic of letters, and that they must expect nothing but plain substantial fare.”
these hints enabled me to comprehend more fully the arrangement of the table. the two ends were occupied by two partners of the house. and the host seemed to have adopted addison’s ideas as to the literary precedence of his guests. a popular poet had the post of honor, opposite to whom was a hot-pressed traveller in quarto, with plates. a grave-looking antiquarian, who had produced several solid works, which were much quoted and little read, was treated with great respect, and seated next to a neat, dressy gentleman in black, who had written a thin, genteel, hot-pressed octavo on political economy that was getting into fashion. several three-volume duodecimo men of fair currency were placed about the centre of the table; while the lower end was taken up with small poets, translators, and authors, who had not as yet risen into much notice.
the conversation during dinner was by fits and starts; breaking out here and there in various parts of the table in small flashes, and ending in smoke. the poet, who had the confidence of a man on good terms with the world and independent of his bookseller, was very gay and brilliant, and said many clever things, which set the partner next him, in a roar, and delighted all the company. the other partner, however, maintained his sedateness, and kept carving on, with the air of a thorough man of business, intent upon the occupation of the moment. his gravity was explained to me by my friend buckthorne. he informed me that the concerns of the house were admirably distributed among the partners. “thus, for instance,” said he, “the grave gentleman is the carving partner who attends to the joints, and the other is the laughing partner who attends to the jokes.”
the general conversation was chiefly carried on at the upper end of the table; as the authors there seemed to possess the greatest courage of the tongue. as to the crew at the lower end, if they did not make much figure in talking, they did in eating. never was there a more determined, inveterate, thoroughly-sustained attack on the trencher, than by this phalanx of masticators. when the cloth was removed, and the wine began to circulate, they grew very merry and jocose among themselves. their jokes, however, if by chance any of them reached the upper end of the table, seldom produced much effect. even the laughing partner did not seem to think it necessary to honor them with a smile; which my neighbour buckthorne accounted for, by informing me that there was a certain degree of popularity to be obtained, before a bookseller could afford to laugh at an author’s jokes.
among this crew of questionable gentlemen thus seated below the salt, my eye singled out one in particular. he was rather shabbily dressed; though he had evidently made the most of a rusty black coat, and wore his shirt-frill plaited and puffed out voluminously at the bosom. his face was dusky, but florid—perhaps a little too florid, particularly about the nose, though the rosy hue gave the greater lustre to a twinkling black eye. he had a little the look of a boon companion, with that dash of the poor devil in it which gives an inexpressibly mellow tone to a man’s humor. i had seldom seen a face of richer promise; but never was promise so ill kept. he said nothing; ate and drank with the keen appetite of a gazetteer, and scarcely stopped to laugh even at the good jokes from the upper end of the table. i inquired who he was. buckthorne looked at him attentively. “gad,” said he, “i have seen that face before, but where i cannot recollect. he cannot be an author of any note. i suppose some writer of sermons or grinder of foreign travels.”
after dinner we retired to another room to take tea and coffee, where we were re-enforced by a cloud of inferior guests. authors of small volumes in boards, and pamphlets stitched in blue paper. these had not as yet arrived to the importance of a dinner invitation, but were invited occasionally to pass the evening “in a friendly way.” they were very respectful to the partners, and indeed seemed to stand a little in awe of them; but they paid very devoted court to the lady of the house, and were extravagantly fond of the children. i looked round for the poor devil author in the rusty black coat and magnificent frill, but he had disappeared immediately after leaving the table; having a dread, no doubt, of the glaring light of a drawing-room. finding nothing farther to interest my attention, i took my departure as soon as coffee had been served, leaving the port and the thin, genteel, hot-pressed, octavo gentlemen, masters of the field.
