THE  "KEY'11  VARIETY  157

but  to  some  of  the  most  enthusiastic  admirers  of  some
of  its  greatest  practitioners  a  very  doubtful  one — the
"  key  "  appeal,  as  it  has  been  called,  that  is  to  say,  the
introduction,  under  less  or  more  transparent  disguises,
of  real  persons,  scenes,  and  incidents  of  the  novelists'
own  time.  That  this  practice  sometimes  gives  addi-
tional life  and  force  to  the  book  need  not  be  denied  ;
but  there  is  a  criterion  which  at  once  admits  this,  and
confers  immunity  from  what  may  be  called  the  ethical-
aesthetic  1  objection.  If  the  book  retains  its  full  story-
interest  when  the  reader  is  ignorant  or  careless  of  the
origin  of  the  characters,  the  artist  has  earned  his
exemption,  and  if  not,  not.  It  can  matter  to  no
judicious  admirer  of  the  Marquis  of  Steyne  that  there
was  a  certain  Lord  Hertford  who  had  some  of  the
characteristics  of  that  formidable  nobleman  ;  nor,
though  the  mere  facts  are  a  little  more  interesting,  does
it  add  to  the  actual  attraction  of  Becky  or  of  Blanche,
that  eyes  which  fortunately  still  behold  the  light  once
also  beheld  a  possible  original  of  "  Lady  "  Crawley,
and  that  an  admitted  model  for  the  creator  of  Mes
Larmes  once  travelled  with  Thackeray  himself  on
the  South  Western  Railway  from  Southampton  to
Waterloo.  But  as  for  the  mere  key-novel,  if  you  do
not  know  that  there  is  a  lock  it  is  generally  very  dull,
and  if  you  have  not  got  the  key  it  is  irritating  as  well.
