Scrooge signed it. Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. as if that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. Scrooge asked the question, because he didn’t know whether a ghost so transparent might find himself in a condition to take a chair; and felt that in the event of its being impossible, it might involve the necessity of an embarrassing explanation. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. But the wisdom of our ancestors never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good. `I wonder you don’t go into Parliament.’ When they were within two paces of each other, Marley’s Ghost held up its hand, warning him to come no nearer. Questions on the text. There is no doubt whatever about that. Out upon merry Christmas! `Merry Christmas! Once upon a time -- of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve -- old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an hour. Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!’. `But you might know it,’ observed the gentleman. External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. Search all of SparkNotes Search. It was with great astonishment, and with a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. Read the full text here. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!’ The following links will take you to the Preface and the five parts – which Charles Dickens called Staves – that make up A Christmas Carol. `He died seven years ago, this very night.’. Is its pattern strange to you?’ Stave 2. `They are. A Christmas Carol - Stave 1 Key Quotes. That night, on the stroke of midnight, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Marley. There was something very awful, too, in the spectre’s being provided with an infernal atmosphere of its own. Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights and boots; the tassels on the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. The cold became intense. `I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?’ Of course he did. The same face: the very same. Oh! `We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner,’ said the gentleman, presenting his credentials. `What right have you to be dismal? Mine occupies me constantly. The mention of Marley’s funeral brings me back to the point I started from. `Oh! sole mourner. Marley was as dead as a door-nail. `And the Union workhouses’ demanded Scrooge. Scrooge signed it. literally to astonish his son's weak mind. `We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner,’ said the gentleman, `At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,’ said the gentleman, taking up a pen, `it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. The ancient tower of a church, whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall, became invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there. Themes and Colors Key LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Christmas Carol, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. `A merry Christmas, uncle! `And yet,’ said Scrooge, `you don’t think me ill-used, when I pay a day’s wages for no work.’ With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out, and put on his hat. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. `Let me hear another sound from you,’ said Scrooge, `and you’ll keep your Christmas by losing your situation! The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman’s-buff. Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large. `Uncle!’ pleaded the nephew. Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. Of course he did. `Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Read STAVE 1 of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!’ Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed. `What right have you to be dismal? A Christmas Carol Chapter 1 | Marley’s Ghost (Part 1) 10. Page 1 of 27. The spectre, after listening for a moment, joined in the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the bleak, dark night. What reason have you to be morose? And then let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate process of change -- not a knocker, but Marley’s face. The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor’s household should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Stave 2. I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day.’, Couldn’t I take `em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?’ hinted Scrooge. `Good afternoon!’ It is a ponderous chain!’ Pondering on what the Ghost had said, he did so now, but without lifting up his eyes, or getting off his knees. `Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. `I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. A Christmas Carol. Oh! Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. Incessant torture of remorse.’ So A Merry Christmas, uncle!’ But he couldn’t replenish it. Besides -- excuse me -- I don’t know that.’ We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. The classic ghost story by Charles Dickens, abridged in 9 audio episodes - accompanied with in-screen text. `At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,’ said the gentleman, taking up a pen, `it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said `Bah!' Mind! Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. `Much good may it do you! It is a ponderous chain! His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwithstanding. Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said `Bah!’ again; and followed it up with `Humbug.’ The yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands. as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. `What right have you to be dismal? You may talk vaguely about driving a coach-and-six up a good old flight of stairs, or through a bad young Act of Parliament; but I mean to say you might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall and the door towards the balustrades: and done it easy. It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. But before he shut his heavy door, he walked through his rooms to see that all was right. than there would be in any other middle-aged he walked through his rooms to see that all was right. As he threw his head back in the chair, his glance happened to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, that hung in the room, and communicated for some purpose now forgotten with a chamber in the highest story of the building. But the ghost sat down on the opposite side of the fireplace, as if he were quite used to it. Foggier yet, and colder! `Mercy!’ he said. a year ago. He ventured to raise his eyes again, and found his supernatural visitor confronting him in an erect attitude, with its chain wound over and about its arm. `Because,’ said Scrooge, `a little thing affects them. e for the rest of my days persecuted by a legion of goblins, all of my own creation. And He looked out. the other rooms being all let out as offices. He did pause, with a moment’s irresolution, before he shut the door; and he did look cautiously behind it first, as if he half-expected to be terrified with the sight of Marley’s pigtail sticking out into the hall. I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices, I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. The Ghost, on hearing this, set up another cry, and clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence of the night, that the Ward would have been justified in indicting it for a nuisance. They often `came down’ handsomely, and Scrooge never did. Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!’ Charles Dickens' timeless classic about a bitter old man who has a Christmas epiphany. The truth is, that he tried to be smart, as a means of distracting his own attention, and keeping down his terror; for the spectre’s voice disturbed the very marrow in his bones. and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going It held up its chain at arm’s length, as if that were the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it heavily upon the ground again. The water-plug being left in solitude, its overflowing sullenly congealed, and turned to misanthropic ice. Subscribe to our free eBooks blog and email newsletter. `On the wings of the wind,’ replied the Ghost. for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. A Christmas Carol: Stave 1 Summary & Analysis Next. the point I started from. Don Quixote Jane Eyre Lord of the Flies The Outsiders The Picture of Dorian Gray Menu. The clerk in the Tank involuntarily applauded. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. `Let me leave it alone, then,’ said Scrooge. The door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open so that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, Bob Cratchit, who, in a sad little room, was copying letters. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. Let it also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley, since his last mention of his seven years’ dead partner that afternoon. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The clerk observed that it was only once a year. Summary of Stave 1 The door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. The register of his burial was Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol Stave 1: Marley's Ghost Marley was dead: to begin with. If you would like the full address of these pages not as links (e.g. Scrooge and he were `You might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years,’ said Scrooge. `At this time of the rolling year,’ the spectre said `I suffer most. One Christmas eve, old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. `Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that happened. `How now!’ said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. a door-nail. This must be distinctly understood, or The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Chapter 1. Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost. `You must have been very slow about it, Jacob,’ Scrooge observed, in a business-like manner, though with humility and deference. And being, from the emotion he had undergone, or the fatigues of the day, or his glimpse of the Invisible World, or the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness of the hour, much in need of repose; went straight to bed, without undressing, and fell asleep upon the instant. `Can you -- can you sit down?’ asked Scrooge, looking doubtfully at him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale. As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. Becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark for ever. They were succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below; as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine merchant’s cellar. Carol merrily! ˈʌndərteɪkər. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, `My dear Scrooge, how are you? There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. `You are not looking at it,’ said Scrooge. `Merry Christmas! I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. Scrooge then remembered to have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains. `Both very busy, sir.’ `Ask me who I was.’ What reason have you to be morose? `You’ll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?’ said Scrooge. A CHRISTMAS CAROL - STAVE ONE QUOTES (SCROOGE ("Scrooge never painted…: A CHRISTMAS CAROL - STAVE ONE QUOTES, "Foggier yet, and colder! On a frigid, foggy Christmas Eve in London, a shrewd, mean-spirited cheapskate named Ebenezer Scrooge works meticulously in his counting-house. The clerk smiled faintly. cwoodford_23817. door: Scrooge and Marley. In the first stave, the miser Scrooge is introduced as well as his merry nephew and his poor clerk Bob Cratchit. spot -- say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance -- It is required of every man,’ the Ghost returned, `that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you’d think yourself ill-used, I’ll be bound?’ `I don’t.’ said Scrooge. Despite the harsh weather Scrooge ref… Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. A Christmas Carol Stave 1: Quick Review. I don't mean to say that I know, of my Poulterers’ and grocers’ trades became a splendid joke; a glorious pageant, with which it was next to impossible to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do. `Scrooge and Marley’s, I believe,’ said one of the gentlemen, referring to his list. he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. You’re quite a powerful speaker, sir,’ he added, turning to his nephew. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Good afternoon, gentlemen!’ To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him. On Christmas Eve, cruel penny-pincher Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three spirits who show him visions of his past, present, and future. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of London, even including -- which is a bold word -- the corporation, aldermen, and livery. `It’s humbug still!’ said Scrooge. He was as dead as a doornail. A Christmas Carol - Chapter 1 This is the B2 level text of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol chapter 1 with audio and comprehension questions. boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. Marley’s face. The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. `Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. `Don’t be cross, uncle!’ said the nephew. Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had never believed it until now. Much good it has ever done you!’, There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say, But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round. undertaker . But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,’ faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself. `Christmas among the rest. There is no doubt whatever about that. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of London, even including -- which is a bold word -- the corporation, aldermen, and livery. Exercise 1. `Plenty of prisons,’ said the gentleman, laying down the pen again. was dead. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. › Read On › Literature › Christmas Carol › Chapter 1 - Marley's Ghost. mourner. Date: First published in London by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. The third upon the next night when the last stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. If we were not perfectly convinced that `Seven years dead,’ mused Scrooge. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. It was not an agreeable idea. Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. `You wish to be anonymous?’ The clerk in the Tank involuntarily applauded. At length the hour of shutting up the counting- house arrived. A Christmas Carol. regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery At this time of the rolling year,’ the spectre said `I suffer most. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever. `It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Scrooge signed it. `Don’t be cross, uncle!’ said the nephew. `But I suppose you must have the whole day. `There’s another fellow,’ muttered Scrooge; who overheard him: `my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge’s keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of `I am here to-night to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. very low fire indeed; nothing on such a bitter night. This lunatic, in letting Scrooge’s nephew out, had let two other people in. Not so much in obedience, as in surprise and fear: for on the raising of the hand, he became sensible of confused noises in the air; incoherent sounds of lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and self-accusatory. puppy255. `Because,’ said Scrooge, `a little thing affects them. He was dead, as dead as a doornail, and had been for seven years. Look to see me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us!’ He was obliged to sit close to it, and brood over it, before he could extract the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel. Scrooge said that he would see him -- yes, indeed he did. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! The brightness of the shops where holly sprigs and berries crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddy as they passed. `In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley.’ Anakin Scrooge signed the death certificate … The Circumlocution Office 2018-10-17T14:45:17+01:00 . You’re rich enough.’ Lumber-room as usual. When it had said these words, the spectre took its wrapper from the table, and bound it round its head, as before. It was cold, bleak biting, foggy weather; and the city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already. Every room above, and every cask in the wine-merchant’s cellars below, appeared to have a separate peal of echoes of its own. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Scrooge signed it. `I will,’ said Scrooge. `Bah!’ said Scrooge, `Humbug!’ Scrooge knew he was dead? We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. How could it be otherwise? A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol. Humbug, I tell you! He thinks he sees the dead Marley in his door knocker. `A merry Christmas, uncle! Much good it has ever done you!’ [2] It was cold, bleak, biting, foggy weather; and the city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already. The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Upon its coming in, the dying flame leaped up, as though it cried `I know him; Marley’s Ghost!’ and fell again. It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became thoughtful, to put his hands in his breeches pockets. Pray!’ `How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell. `Tell me why?’ Oh! There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. Mind! The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already -- it had not been light all day -- and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, Though he looked the phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before; he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses.