Peter Simple and The Three Cutters, Vol. 1

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Peter Simple and The Three Cutters, Vol. 1?by Captain Frederick Marryat

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Title: Peter Simple and The Three Cutters, Vol. 1
Author: Captain Frederick Marryat
Release Date: August 9, 2004 [EBook #13148]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original have been retained in this etext. In some cases, they have been denoted by [sic].]
PETER SIMPLE
AND
THE THREE CUTTERS
BY CAPTAIN MARRYAT
VOL I
LONDON
J.M. DENT AND CO BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN AND CO. MDCCCXCV

Contents
VOLUME I
LIST OF MARRYAT'S WORKS, ETC ix BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION xi PREFATORY NOTE TO PETER SIMPLE AND THE THREE CUTTERS xxxiv
PETER SIMPLE
CHAPTER I
1
CHAPTER II
7
CHAPTER III
12
CHAPTER IV
18
CHAPTER V
24
CHAPTER VI
30
CHAPTER VII
37
CHAPTER VIII
43
CHAPTER IX
52
CHAPTER X
60
CHAPTER XI
67
CHAPTER XII
74
CHAPTER XIII
87
CHAPTER XIV
98
CHAPTER XV
111
CHAPTER XVI
124
CHAPTER XVII
139
CHAPTER XVIII
148
CHAPTER XIX
157
CHAPTER XX
164
CHAPTER XXI
172
CHAPTER XXII
181
CHAPTER XXIII
191
CHAPTER XXIV
197
CHAPTER XXV
203
CHAPTER XXVI
212
CHAPTER XXVII
219
CHAPTER XXVIII
228
CHAPTER XXIX
239
CHAPTER XXX
247

LIST OF MARRYAT'S WORKS.
IN THE ORDER OF PUBLICATION.
By FREDERICK MARRYAT. Born, July 1792. Died, Aug. 1848.
*SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF IMPRESSMENT IN THE NAVAL SERVICE 1822
ADVENTURES OF A NAVAL OFFICER, OR FRANK MILDMAY 1829
THE KING'S OWN 1830
NEWTON FORSTER 1832
PETER SIMPLE 1834
JACOB FAITHFUL 1834
PACHA OF MANY TALES 1835
MR MIDSHIPMAN EASY 1836
JAPHET IN SEARCH OF A FATHER 1836
THE PIRATE AND THE THREE CUTTERS 1836
*A CODE OF SIGNALS FOR THE USE OF VESSELS EMPLOYED IN THE MERCHANT SERVICE 1837
SNARLEY-YOW, OR THE DOG FIEND 1837
THE PHANTOM SHIP 1839
*DIARY IN AMERICA 1839
OLLA PODRIDA 1840
POOR JACK 1840
MASTERMAN READY 1841
JOSEPH RUSHBROOK, OR THE POACHER 1841
PERCIVAL KEENE 1842
NARRATIVE OF THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF MONSIEUR VIOLET 1843
SETTLERS IN CANADA 1844
THE MISSION, OR SCENES IN AFRICA 1845
THE PRIVATEER'S MAN 1846
THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW FOREST 1847
THE LITTLE SAVAGE 1848-49
VALERIE 1849

This edition will include all the novels and tales, only omitting the three items marked in the above list with an asterisk. The text will be, for the most part, that of the first editions, except for the correction of a few obvious errors and some modernisation of spelling. Rattlin the Reefer, so frequently attributed to Marryat, will not be reprinted here. It was written by Edward Howard, subeditor, under Marryat, of the The Metropolitan Magazine, and author of Outward Bound, etc. On the title-page it is described simply as edited by Marryat and, according to his daughter, the Captain did no more than stand literary sponsor to the production. In 1850, Saunders and Otley published:--The Floral Telegraph, or, Affections Signals by the late Captain Marryat, R.N., but Mrs Lean knows nothing of the book, and it is probably not Marryat's work.
The Life and Letters of Captain Marryat: by Florence Marryat (Mrs Lean), in 2 vols.: Richard Bentley 1872, are the only biographical record of the novelist extant. In some matters they are very detailed and personal, in others reticent. The story has been spiritedly retold, with reflections and criticisms, by Mr David Hannay in the "Great Writers" Series, 1889.
The frontispiece is from a print, published by Henry Colburn in 1836, after the portrait by Simpson, the favourite pupil of Sir Thomas Lawrence, which was "considered more like him than any other." Count D'Orsay took a portrait of Marryat, in coloured crayons, about 1840, but it was not a success. A portrait, in water colours, by Behnes, was engraved as a frontispiece to The Pirate and The Three Cutters. His bust was taken by Carew.
R.B.J.

Frederick Marryat
Without yielding implicit credence to the handsome pedigree of the Marryats supplied by Mrs Lean, the novelist's daughter, we may give a glance in passing to the first-fruits of this family tree. They-- naturally--came over with the Conqueror, and emerged from obscurity under Stephen as the proud "possessors of much lands at the village of Meryat, Ashton Meryat, and elsewhere in Somersetshire ... One Nicotas de Maryet is deputed to collect the ransom of Richard Coeur de Leon through the county of Somerset ... In the reign of Edward I., Sir John de Maryet is called to attend the Great Parliament; in that of Edward II., his son is excommunicated for embowelling his deceased wife; 'a fancy,' says the county historian, 'peculiar to the knightly family of Meryat.'" Mrs Lean quotes records of other Meryat "hearts" to which an honourable burial has been accorded. The house of Meryat finally lost its property on the fall of Lady Jane Grey, to whom it had descended through the female line.
Captain Marryat belonged to the Suffolk branch of the family, of whom "one John de Maryat had the honour of dancing in a masque before the Virgin Queen at