About the year 1834, when the earliest of the _Sketches by Boz_ were appearing in print, a young composer named John Hullah set to music a portion of an opera called _The Gondolier_, which he thought might prove successful on the stage. Twelve months later Hullah became acquainted with Charles Dickens, whose name was then unknown to those outside his own immediate circle, and it occurred to him that he and 'Boz' might combine their forces by converting _The Gondolier_ into a popular play. Dickens, who always entertained a passion for the theatre, entered into the project at once, and informed Hullah that he had a little unpublished story by him which he thought would dramatise well--even better than _The Gondolier_ notion; confessing that he would rather deal with familiar English scenes than with the unfamiliar Venetian environment of the play favoured by Hullah. The title of _The Gondolier_ was consequently abandoned, and a novel subject found and put forward as _The Village Coquettes_, a comic opera of which songs, duets, and concerted pieces were to form constituent parts. Dickens, of course, became responsible for the _libretto_ and Hullah for the music; and when completed the little play was offered to, and accepted by, Braham, the lessee of the St. James's Theatre, who expressed an earnest desire to be the first to introduce 'Boz' to the public as a dramatic writer. A favourite comedian of that day, John Pritt Harley, after reading the words of the opera prior to its representation, declared it was 'a sure card,' and felt so confident of its success that he offered to wager ten pounds that it would run fifty nights!--an assurance which at once decided Braham to produce it. _The Village Coquettes_, described on the title-page of the printed copies as 'A Comic Opera, in Two Acts,' was played for the first time on December 6, 1836, with Braham and Harley in the cast. In his preface to the play (published contemporaneously by Richard Bentley, and dedicated to Harley) Dickens explained that 'the _libretto_ of an opera must be, to a certain extent, a mere vehicle for the music,' and that 'it is scarcely fair or reasonable to judge it by those strict rules of criticism which would be justly applicable to a five-act tragedy or a finished comedy.' There is no doubt that the merits of the play were based upon the songs set to Hullah's music rather than upon the play itself, and it is said that Harley's reputation as a vocalist was established by his able rendering of them.