The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To MORITZ NABICH,1 9 JANUARY 1860

Text from facsimile in Osenat online catalogue, Apr 2021.

TAVISTOCK HOUSE,

TAVISTOCK SQUARE, LONDON. W.C.

Monday Ninth January 1860.

Sir

Incessant occupation, and the hopeless impossibility of keeping pace with the vast number of correspondents who every day address me, have rendered it quite out of my power to return an earlier reply to your letter.

Even now, I can only beg you not to suppose me insensible of your anxieties or your confidence, when I reply to it that I must excuse myself from acceding to your request.2 I am not a professional judge of Music or Musicians –- I could be of no service to you –- and I have as many demands on my time and attention as I can in any reason satisfy.

Therefore, I have not broken the seals of your packet. As it is of an inconvenient size to return by post I have left it at the office of All the Year Round (as a more convenient place to send to than this) where it is addressed in your name.

I am Sir

Your faithful Servant

CHARLES DICKENS 

Moritz Nabüt Esqre.3

• 1. Moritz Nabich (1815-93), trombonist. A member of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar’s band; first appeared in London as a virtuoso soloist, 20 Jan 53, playing a “grand concerto”. The Times (21 Jan) felt that, though of “unquestionable talent”, “much more was expected of him than he achieved”. He continued to appear in London as an occasional soloist in the 1850s and joined the Crystal Palace band; moved to Paris in 1861, then to Leipzig in 1864.
• 2. Nabich had presumably asked CD for a testimonial.
• 3. Thus in MS: CD's mis-spelling of Nabich. The recipient’s name is at the bottom of p. 1.