MSS. of his works?
Owing to the kindness of owners and guardians of Dickens-letters, etc. I
have been able to supplement the materials in my own collection by
numerous facsimiles taken direct from a priceless store of Dickens-MSS.
Here are some of the specimens. We will glance over them, and in doing
so will view them, not merely as signatures, but also as
permanently-recorded tracings of Dickens's nerve muscular action--of his
_gesture_. The expressive play of his facial muscles has gone, the
varying inflections of voice have gone, but we still possess the
self-registered and characteristic tracings of Charles Dickens's
hand-gesture.

[Illustration: NO. 1.--FAMILIAR "BOOK COVER" SIGNATURE.]

[Illustration: NO. 2.--WRITTEN IN 1825.]

In No. 1 we have the signature of Dickens as he wrote it when aged
forty-five to fifty; in No. 2 there is the boy's signature at the age of
thirteen, written to a school-fellow. This youthful signature shows the
existence in embryo form of the "flourish" so commonly associated with
Dickens's signature. It is interesting to note that the receiver of this
early letter has stated that its schoolboy writer had "more than usual
flow of spirits, held his head more erect than lads ordinarily do," and
that "there was a general smartness about him." We shall perhaps see
that the direct emphasis of so many of Charles Dickens's signatures
which is given by his "flourish" may be fitly associated with certain
characteristics of the man himself. We may also note that high spirits
and vigorous nervous energy are productive of redundant nerve-muscular
activity in any direction--hand gesture included.

[Illustration: AGE 18. _From a Miniature by Mrs. Janet Barrow_.]

Let us look at some other early signatures. Hitherto they have been
stowed away in various collections, and they are almost unknown.

[Illustration: NO. 3.--WRITTEN IN 1830.]

The next facsimile, No. 3, is remarkable as being almost the only full
signature out of hundreds I have seen which lacks the flourish; this
specimen is also worth notice, owing to the "droop" of every word below
the horizontal level from which each starts--a little piece of
nerve-muscular evidence of mental or physical depression, which may be
tested by anyone who cares to examine his own handwriting produced under
conditions which diminish bodily vigour or mental _elan_.

[Illustration: NO. 4.--WRITTEN IN 1831.]

The writing of No. 4 is very like that of No.