Ongetwijfeld moet er meer over dit thema bekend zijn. Mocht U er meer vanaf weten dan
hoor ik dat graag.
Guus de Landtsheer
A prominent feature of'Edwin Drood' is the graphic account of opium-dens and their frequenters,
which are still to be found in the East End of London. Dickens's American friend, Mr. J. T. Fields, has
recorded that, during his stay in England in the summer of1869, he accompanied the novelist one
night (under police escort) to some lock-up houses, watch houses, and opium-dens, it being from one
of the lattes that he gathered the incidents which are related in the opening pages. "In a miserable
court", says Mr. Field, "we found the haggard old woman blowing at a kind ofpipe made of an old
penny ink-bottle. (6) The identical words which Dickens puts into the mouth of this wretched creature
in 'Edwin Drood' we heard her croon as we leaned over the tattered bed on which she was lying.
There was something hideous in the way this woman kept repeating 'Ye'llpay up accordingly, deary,
wont ye?' and the Chinamen and Lascars made never-to-be-forgotten pictures in the scene.We also
have Dickens's statement that what he described he saw—exactly as he had described it—down in
Shadwell in the autumn of 1869. "A couple of the Inspectors of lodging-houses knew the woman, and
took me to her as I was making a round with them, to see for myself the working of Lord Shaftesbury's
Bill.Relative to his sketch of opium smoking, Sir John Browning (who has been British Ambassador
to China and Governor of Hong-Kong) pointed out to Dickens what appeared to him an inaccuracy in
his delineation of the scene, and sent him an original Chinese sketch of the form of the pipe and the
manner of its employment. While thanking him for the observation in the neighbourhood of the London
docks. Sir John's comment upon this is as follows: "No doubt the Chinaman whom he (Dickens)
described had accommodated himself to English usage, and that our great faithful dramatist here as
elsewhere most correctly portrayed a piece of actual life.
(6)- Mr. James Piatt, jun., of St. Martin's Lane, who was personally acquainted with the old women and her
surroundings, declares that the pipe was a "scratch" one, made out of an old flageolet and a door-knob, the latter
serving as a bowl, which Mr. Fields mistook for an ink-bottle.
Source internet: http://www.mtroyl.ab.ca/gaslight/kittdrud.htm
