While writing the “Sketches,” a strong inclination towards the stage induced Mr. Charles Dickens to test his powers as a dramatist, and his first piece, a farce called _The Strange Gentleman_, was produced at the St. James’s Theatre on the opening night of the season, September 29, 1836. The late Mr. Harley was the hero of the farce, which was received with great favour. This was followed by an opera, called _The Village Coquettes_, for which Mr. Hullah composed the music, and which was brought out at the same establishment, on Tuesday, December 6, 1836. The quaint humour, unaffected pathos, and graceful lyrics of this production found prompt recognition, and the piece enjoyed a prosperous run. _The Village Coquettes_ took its title from two village girls, Lucy and Rose, led away by vanity, coquetting with men above them in station, and discarding their humble, though worthy lovers. Before, however, it is too late they see their error, and the piece terminates happily. Miss Rainforth and Miss Julia Smith were the heroines, and Mr. Bennet and Mr. Gardner were their betrothed lovers. Braham was the Lord of the Manor, who would have led astray the fair Lucy. There was a capital scene, where he was detected by Lucy’s father, played by Strickland, urging an elopement. Harley had a trifling part in the piece, rendered highly amusing by his admirable acting. On March 6, 1837, was brought out at the St. James’s Theatre a farce, called _Is She His Wife_; _or_, _Something Singular_, in which Harley played the principal character, Felix Tapkins, a flirting bachelor, and sang a song in the character of Pickwick, “written expressly for him by Boz.” Under the pseudonym of Timothy Sparks Charles Dickens published about this time a wholesome, wise, and cleverly written little pamphlet against Sabbatarianism, in which he cogently and forcibly advocated more liberal views respecting the observance of Sunday than generally obtain in this country. {10} In March, 1836, appeared the first number of “Pickwick,” with illustrations by Seymour. It was continued in monthly shilling numbers until its completion, and this has been Mr. Dickens’s favourite and usual form of publication ever since. The success and popularity of the work—which, in freshness and vigour, he has never surpassed in his later and maturer writings—were unmistakeable. Several playwrights dramatised it, with more or less success; and a swarm of obscure scribblers flooded the town with imitations and sequels, which, like Avanelleda’s second part of “Don Quixote,” came mostly to grief, and were quickly forgotten.