Christmas Carol 01 recto

1

STAVE I.

Old Marley’s Ghost.

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever, about
that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the
undertaker, and [???] mourners the [chief] chief mourner. Scrooge signed it; and
Scrooge’s name was good upon ’change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.
Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

[?????] Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, myself, of my own knowledge, what there is
particularly dead about a door-nail. I [should] might have been inclined, myself,
to consider regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of Ironmongery in the trade.
But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed
hands shall not disturb it, or the country’s done for. You will
therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Scrooge knew he was dead. [Why] oOf course he did. How could
it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many
years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole
assign, and his sole only residuary residuary legatee: his sole friend and sole mourner if you come to that. And even Scrooge
was not so very [much] dreadfully cut up when Marley died by Marley's death by the sad event, but that he was an ex-
cellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. [??????????]

The mention of Marley’s Funeral brings me back to the point
I started from with. There is [???] no [kind of] doubt question that Marley was dead. This
must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come
of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced
that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be
nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an Easterly
wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged
gentleman rashly turning out after dark, in a breezy spot—say
Saint Paul’s churchyard for instance—literally to astonish
his son’s weak mind.

Scrooge never painted out [???] old Marley’s name. There it

1

STAVE I.

Old Marley’s Ghost.

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever, about
that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the
undertaker, and [???] mourners the [chief] chief mourner. Scrooge signed it; and
Scrooge’s name was good upon ’change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.
Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

[?????] Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, myself, of my own knowledge, what there is
particularly dead about a door-nail. I [should] might have been inclined, myself,
to consider regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of Ironmongery in the trade.
But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed
hands shall not disturb it, or the country’s done for. You will
therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Scrooge knew he was dead. [Why] oOf course he did. How could
it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many
years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole
assign, and his sole only residuary residuary legatee: his sole friend and sole mourner if you come to that. And even Scrooge
was not so very [much] dreadfully cut up when Marley died by Marley's death by the sad event, but that he was an ex-
cellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.

The mention of Marley’s Funeral brings me back to the point
I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This
must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come
of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced
that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be
nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an Easterly
wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged
gentleman rashly turning out after dark, in a breezy spot—say
Saint Paul’s churchyard for instance—literally to astonish
his son’s weak mind.

Scrooge never painted out [???] old Marley’s name. There it