_He_, Dickens, was to have
the command of the story, and the artist was to illustrate _him_. How
far these altered relations would have worked quite smoothly if
Seymour had lived, and if Dickens' story had not so soon assumed the
proportions of a colossal success, it is idle to speculate. Seymour
died by his own hand before the second number was published, and so
ceased to be in a position to assert himself. It was, however, in
deference to the peculiar bent of his art that Mr. Winkle, with his
disastrous sporting proclivities, made part of the first conception of
the book; and it is also very significant of the book's origin, that
the design on the green wrapper in which the monthly parts made their
appearance, should have had a purely sporting character, and exhibited
Mr. Pickwick sleepily fishing in a punt, and Mr. Winkle shooting at
what looks like a cock-sparrow, the whole surrounded by a chaste
arabesque of guns, rods, and landing-nets. To Seymour, too, we owe the
portrait of Mr. Pickwick, which has impressed that excellent old
gentleman's face and figure upon all our memories. But to return to
Dickens' interview with Mr. Hall. They seem to have parted in mutual
satisfaction. At least it is certain Dickens was satisfied, for in a
letter written, apparently on the same day, to "my dearest Kate," he
thus sums up the proposals of the publishers: "They have made me an
offer of fourteen pounds a month to write and edit a new publication
they contemplate, entirely by myself, to be published monthly, and
each number to contain four wood-cuts.... The work will be no joke,
but the emolument is too tempting to resist."[10]

So, little thinking how soon he would begin to regard the "emolument"
as ludicrously inadequate, he set to work on "Pickwick." The first
part was published on the 31st of March or 1st of April, 1836.

That part seems scarcely to have created any sensation. Mr James
Grant, the novelist, says indeed, that the first five parts were "a
dead failure," and that the publishers were even debating whether the
enterprise had not better be abandoned altogether, when suddenly Sam
Weller appeared upon the scene, and turned their gloom into laughter.
Be that as it may, certain it is that before many months had passed,
Messrs. Chapman and Hall must have been thoroughly confirmed in a
policy of perseverance. "The first order for Part I.," that is, the
first order for binding, "was," says the bookbinder who executed th