Snarleyyow

Snarleyyow, by Captain Frederick
Marryat

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Title: Snarleyyow
Author: Captain Frederick Marryat
Release Date: June 8, 2004 [eBook #12558]
Language: English
Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
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SNARLEYYOW
Or, The Dog Fiend
by
CAPTAIN MARRYAT
MDCCCXCV

Contents
CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XVI.

CHAPTER XVII.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHAPTER XIX.

CHAPTER XX.

CHAPTER XXI.

CHAPTER XXII.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CHAPTER XXV.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CHAPTER XXVII.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CHAPTER XXIX.

CHAPTER XXX.

CHAPTER XXXI.

CHAPTER XXXII.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

CHAPTER XXXV.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

CHAPTER XL.

CHAPTER XLI.

CHAPTER XLII.

CHAPTER XLIII.

CHAPTER XLIV.

CHAPTER XLV.

CHAPTER XLVI.

CHAPTER XLVII.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

CHAPTER XLIX.

CHAPTER L.

CHAPTER LI.

CHAPTER LII.

CHAPTER LIII.

CHAPTER LIV.

CHAPTER LV.

Prefatory Note
The dog fiend, or Snarleyyow is the earliest of the three novels, The Phantom Ship and
The Privateersman being the other two, in which Marryat made use of historical events
and attempted to project his characters into the past. The research involved is not
profound, but the machinations of Jacobite conspirators provide appropriate material for
the construction of an adventure plot and for the exhibition of a singularly despicable
villain. Mr Vanslyperken and his acquaintances, male and female, at home and abroad,
are all--except perhaps his witch-like mother--thoroughly life-like and convincing: their
conduct is sufficiently probable to retain the reader's attention for a rapid and exciting
narrative.
The numerous escapes of the vile cur, after whom the novel is christened, and of his

natural enemy Peter Smallbones are not all equally well contrived, and they become a
little wearisome by repetition; but a general atmosphere of diablerie is very effectively
produced by their means. Some such element of unreality is absolutely demanded to
relieve the sordid and brutal details by which the main plot is worked out; and it must be
admitted that in certain passages--the death-struggle between Smallbones and the
lieutenant's mother, the discovery of the woman's body, and the descriptions of kisses
between Corporal Van Spitter and the Frau Vandersloosh--Marryat's habitual literalness
becomes unpleasantly coarse. The offensive touches, however, are incidental, and the
execution of the two villains, Vanslyperken and Snarleyyow, with its dash of genuine
pathos, is dramatic and impressive:--"They were damnable in their lives, and in their
deaths they were not divided."
As usual the interest of the novel depends almost entirely upon men, but on the character
of Mrs Corbett, née Nancy Dawson, Marryat has expended considerable care with
satisfactory results. Barring the indecorous habit of regretting her past in public, which is
not perhaps untrue to nature, she is made attractive by her wit and sincere repentance,
without becoming unnaturally refined. The song in her honour referred to on p. 107 is not
suitable for reproduction in this place. She was an historic character in the reign of
William III., but must not be confounded with her more celebrated namesake (1730-1767)
of Sadler's Wells, Covent Garden, and Drury Lane, who danced a horn-pipe in The
Beggar's Opera to the air of "Nancy Dawson," which is mentioned in the epilogue of She
Stoops to Conquer, and survives in our nurseries as "Here we go round the Mulberry
Bush."
The greater part of Snarleyyow was first printed in The Metropolitan Magazine, 1836 and
1837; but on reaching Chapter xl., just as the novel had appeared in book form, the
editor--not then Marryat himself--told his readers that it was not his intention to give an
extended review of this work, as they had already "ample means of forming their own
opinion of its varied merits:"--"We shall therefore content ourselves with a few remarks,
in announcing its publication and giving a brief outline of the termination of the story
from our last number." At the close of the said extracts he writes:--
"And so ends Snarleyyow, with as much quaintness, spirit, and character as it
commenced."
The book was evidently written in haste, and few of the minor characters