[Charles Dickens.] Typed Notes for ‘Dickens Fellowship Speech’ by W. Macqueen-Pope, championing Dickens as ‘the great man of the Middle Classes’, and suggesting a cabinet of his characters, with him as Prime Minister. With second copy.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Three items: a page with a quotation from Dickens, and list of characters in MP’s autograph; and two copies of the speech. Text entirely legible throughout, but on worn and creased paper MP is not named as the author, but the item is undoubtedly his work: one of the two copies has autograph emendations in pencil. ONE: Typed Notes for ‘Dickens Fellowship Speech’. 2pp, 4to. Begins: ‘Comment on previous speaker’s points. / Dickens the great Englishman - more than that the great man of the Middle Classes. He championed the Poor but he believed in his own class. All his real people are not of the Aristocracy but of the Middle Classes. That is why we want him today. He would have championed us, and we need a champion.’ Later: ‘If he were here today - what a Prime Minister he would make. And one could get a Cabine[t] from amongst his characters. Let us try to make one. With the Master himself as Prime Minister who follows?’ He gives a list of characters, their cabinet posts and reasons for appointment, beginning with Micawber as Chancellor, and ending with ‘Health. Dr Parker Peps. [added in autograph: ‘NEVER HEARD OF A PATIENT GETTING WELL’] / Labour. One of the Cheeryble Brothers - or Joe the Blacksmith.’ Ends: ‘It is the privilege of thye Dickens Fellowship to pay homage to his name but he would make the whole country one great English Fellowship if he could come amongst us again.’ TWO: Second copy of One, without any autograph annotations. THREE: Leaf (1p, 4to), with three typed lines at head giving Micawber’s celebrated ‘happiness’ and ‘misery’ speech. Beneath this, in pencil autograph, a list of twelve cabinet posts and names of characters to fill them, pretty much repeating the suggestions in the speech.From the Macqueen-Pope papers. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Three items: a page with a quotation from Dickens, and list of characters in MP’s autograph; and two copies of the speech. Text entirely legible throughout, but on worn and creased paper MP is not named as the author, but the item is undoubtedly his work: one of the two copies has autograph emendations in pencil. ONE: Typed Notes for ‘Dickens Fellowship Speech’. 2pp, 4to. Begins: ‘Comment on previous speaker’s points. / Dickens the great Englishman - more than that the great man of the Middle Classes. He championed the Poor but he believed in his own class. All his real people are not of the Aristocracy but of the Middle Classes. That is why we want him today. He would have championed us, and we need a champion.’ Later: ‘If he were here today - what a Prime Minister he would make. And one could get a Cabine[t] from amongst his characters. Let us try to make one. With the Master himself as Prime Minister who follows?’ He gives a list of characters, their cabinet posts and reasons for appointment, beginning with Micawber as Chancellor, and ending with ‘Health. Dr Parker Peps. [added in autograph: ‘NEVER HEARD OF A PATIENT GETTING WELL’] / Labour. One of the Cheeryble Brothers - or Joe the Blacksmith.’ Ends: ‘It is the privilege of thye Dickens Fellowship to pay homage to his name but he would make the whole country one great English Fellowship if he could come amongst us again.’ TWO: Second copy of One, without any autograph annotations. THREE: Leaf (1p, 4to), with three typed lines at head giving Micawber’s celebrated ‘happiness’ and ‘misery’ speech. Beneath this, in pencil autograph, a list of twelve cabinet posts and names of characters to fill them, pretty much repeating the suggestions in the speech.