Part 9 (2/2)
_Facsimile_ of the Original Drawing for ”Master Humphrey's Clock” by
H. K. BROWNE (”PHIZ”)
Beneath the Sketch is written the following, in the autograph of d.i.c.kens:--”Master Humphrey ADMIRABLE. Could his stick (with a crooked top) be near his chair? I mis...o...b.. the deaf gentleman's pipe, and wish he could have a better one.”
_Lent by Mr. J. F. Dexter._
[Ill.u.s.tration]
In 1847 ”Phiz” prepared six new designs for ”The Pickwick Papers,” which were delicately engraved on wood; the series was issued independently, and simultaneously with the first cheap edition of the book. These drawings are undoubtedly superior to the etchings, being the more matured work of the artist. The following were the subjects chosen: ”Mr.
Winkle's First Shot,” ”The Effects of Cold Punch,” ”Mr. Pickwick at Dodson and Fogg's,” ”The Kiss under the Mistletoe,” ”Old Weller at the Temperance Meeting,” ”The Leg of Mutton 'Swarry.'” ”Phiz” also contributed to each of the two volumes of the Library Edition (1858-59)[22] a vignette ill.u.s.tration for the t.i.tle-page, the subjects being Mr. Pickwick and the Wellers, and Sam Weller with the Pretty Housemaid; they were engraved on steel from the original drawings in water-colours. In 1867 the artist was seized with a form of paralysis, the use of the right hand being so greatly impaired that he was unable to make the forefinger and thumb meet; this compelled him to hold the pencil or brush in a clumsy fas.h.i.+on, and to draw with a sort of sweeping movement of the whole arm. It was under such distressing conditions that in 1873-74 he executed a commission to ill.u.s.trate Chapman & Hall's Household Edition of ”The Pickwick Papers.” These fifty-seven designs are necessarily extremely poor in treatment, and painfully indicate the effect of the injury his hand had sustained; indeed, the wonder is that he could draw at all. It must be admitted, however, that much of the feebleness of the woodcuts is due to the engraver, as the original outline sketches (which were transferred to the boxwood blocks and there developed) exhibit in a wonderful degree both freedom and precision of touch. A small collection of these drawings was sold at Sotheby's in December 1887, each drawing realising the average price of seven pounds. Sets of the ”Pickwick” designs in the Household Edition, coloured by F. W. Pailthorpe, have been issued as ”extra” ill.u.s.trations.
Footnote 22: The early volumes in the Library Edition, issued during 1858-59, have only vignettes on the t.i.tle-pages. The later issues of this edition (1862-68) contain several ill.u.s.trations, some of these being reprints of the plates in the first edition, while others were specially designed.
[Sidenote: =The Strange Gentleman, 1837.=]
In 1836, as soon as d.i.c.kens terminated his connection with the Reporters' Gallery in the House of Commons, he was induced to take a considerable interest in the then newly-erected St. James's Theatre, and even essayed to write for his friend J. P. Harley (”as a practical joke,” he afterwards explained) a comic burletta called ”The Strange Gentleman,” which was adapted from ”The Great Winglebury Duel” in ”Sketches by Boz.” The little farce was published by Chapman & Hall during the following year with a frontispiece by ”Phiz,” the subject of the plate being suggested by the concluding scene, where the Strange Gentleman proposes marriage to Julia Dobbs; the two seated figures are vigorously drawn, and on a larger scale than those in the ”Pickwick”
designs. ”The Strange Gentleman” is perhaps the rarest of d.i.c.kens's writings, and the extraordinary sum of 45 was realised at Sotheby's in August 1892 for an exceptionally fine copy. It has since been beautifully reprinted in _facsimile_, with a new frontispiece etched by F. W. Pailthorpe.
[Sidenote: =Sketches of Young Gentlemen, 1838.=]
In the same year Chapman & Hall published a booklet (anonymously written by E. Caswell) ent.i.tled ”Sketches of Young Ladies,” by ”Quiz,” with six etchings by ”Phiz,” the author of which was erroneously believed to be Charles d.i.c.kens, whose literary style it somewhat resembled. The ”Young Ladies” being referred to here in a rather ungallant fas.h.i.+on, d.i.c.kens essayed (as a kind of protest) a similar work, in which he pokes fun at the idiosyncrasies of youths of the sterner s.e.x. Like its predecessor, the ”Sketches of Young Gentlemen” were written anonymously, and similarly contained six etched ill.u.s.trations by ”Phiz.”
[Sidenote: =Sketches of Young Couples, 1840.=]
In 1840 there appeared a third booklet, ent.i.tled ”Sketches of Young Couples;” of this d.i.c.kens was also the unavowed author, while ”Phiz”
contributed the usual six etchings. In the third of these designs (only two of which are signed) we are reminded of his presentment of the Kenwigses in ”Nicholas Nickleby,” the ill.u.s.trations for which story were then occupying the artist's attention. These little productions were issued in green paper covers, decorated with designs by ”Phiz.”
The sets of six original drawings for ”Sketches of Young Ladies” and ”Sketches of Young Gentlemen” realised 40 and 39 respectively at Sotheby's in 1897.
[Sidenote: =Nicholas Nickleby, 1838-39.=]
In the advertis.e.m.e.nt announcing the publication of ”Nicholas Nickleby,”
it was stated that each monthly part would be ”embellished with two ill.u.s.trations by 'Phiz'.” This is not strictly accurate, for to the twenty parts the artist contributed but thirty-nine plates, the full complement, however, being made up with a portrait of the author (as the frontispiece), engraved by Finden from the painting by D. Maclise, A.R.A.
The most interesting of the ”Nickleby” plates are undoubtedly those depicting scenes at Dotheboys Hall, that representing Squeers at the Saracen's Head containing the most familiar presentment of its amiable proprietor. Thus, as he stood mending his pen, the novelist and artist saw the living prototype, and had taken mental notes of the odd figure, who, as will presently be related, was among the several schoolmasters they interviewed.[23]
Footnote 23: Among the few drawings executed by ”Phiz” for _Punch_, there is a representation of an orthodox pettifogging attorney perched upon a stool, whose portrait is that of the very Squeers. It const.i.tutes one of a series of ”_Punch's_ Valentines,” and was published in the second volume, 1842.
It was the novelist's intention to expose in this story the terrible abuses practised in the cheap boarding-schools of Yorks.h.i.+re, and, in order that he might realise their true character, he determined to investigate for himself the real facts as to the condition of those notorious seminaries. Accordingly, at the end of January 1838, he and ”Phiz” started on this memorable journey, in bitterly cold weather, and, visiting several schools in the locality, they came into direct contact with the proprietors. One of these was William Shaw, the identical schoolmaster who, some years previously, had been heavily fined for what was represented at the trial as gross maltreatment of his pupils.
According to the following entry in the novelist's private diary (under date February 2, 1838), there can be no doubt that he had this individual princ.i.p.ally in his mind when delineating the infamous Squeers:--”Mem.--Shaw, the schoolmaster we saw to-day, is the man in whose school several boys went blind some time since from gross neglect.
The case was tried, and the verdict went against him. It must have been between 1823 and 1826. Look this out in the newspapers.” Mr. Lloyd, a well-known Glasgow comedian, who spent twelve months in Shaw's school at Bowes, Yorks.h.i.+re, afterwards testified to the truth of the _outward_ appearance of the man as described by d.i.c.kens and portrayed by the artist in the pages of the novel, ”allowing, of course, for both being greatly exaggerated. A sharp, thin, upright little man, with a slight scale covering the pupil of one of his eyes. Yes, there he stands, with his Wellington boots and short black trousers, not originally cut too short, but from a habit he had of sitting with one knee over the other, and the trousers being tight, they would get 'rucked' half-way up the boots. Then, the clean white vest, swallow-tailed black coat, white necktie, silver-mounted spectacles, close-cut iron-grey hair, high-crowned hat worn slightly at the back of his head--and there you have the man.” It certainly seems remarkable that Mr. Lloyd and others who knew Shaw recollect him as a most worthy and kind-hearted gentleman, but this perhaps is explained by certain facts concerning him and his school that were published in the _Athenaeum_, February 1894, together with a commentary upon a reprint of the trial in which he was the defendant.
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