Part 11 (1/2)

”In extreme excitement C. D.

”My hand fails me.

”P.S.--PAUSE PUT IT OFF ”P.P.S.--EMIGRATE ”P.P.P.S.--AND LEAVE ME THE BUSINESS-- I MEAN THE STRAND ONE.”

On the conclusion of the second volume of ”Master Humphrey's Clock,” a dinner was given by d.i.c.kens to celebrate the event. Serjeant Talfourd presided, and the guests included those engaged in the production of the work. ”Phiz,” in accepting the invitation to be present, wrote as follows:--

33 HOWLAND STREET [1841].

”MY DEAR d.i.c.kENS,--I shall be most happy to remember not to forget the 10th April, and let me express a _dis_interested wish that, having completed and established one 'Shop' in an 'extensive line of business,' you will go on increasing and multiplying suchlike establishments in number and prosperity till you become a d.i.c.k Whittington of a merchant, with pockets distended to most Brobdignag dimensions.--Believe me, yours very truly,

”HABLoT K. BROWNE..”

PLATE x.x.xIV

”MR. PEGGOTTY'S DREAM COMES TRUE”

_Facsimile_ of the Original Drawing for ”David Copperfield” by

H. K. BROWNE (”PHIZ”)

In the published version the figure of Rosa Dartle (on the left) is omitted, and David's hat is placed upon the table.

_Lent by Her Grace the d.u.c.h.ess of St. Albans._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Through the courtesy of Mr. J. F. Dexter, I am enabled to reproduce in _facsimile_ one of the original designs for ”Master Humphrey's Clock,”

depicting Master Humphrey and the Deaf Gentleman. This drawing, executed in pencil, differs slightly from the engraving; underneath it d.i.c.kens has written, ”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.”

To the first cheap edition of ”Barnaby Rudge,” 1849, ”Phiz” contributed the frontispiece,--a drawing on wood (engraved by W. T. Green) representing Dolly Varden, with Hugh hiding in the bushes. In the Library Edition (1858-59) the stories were published independently, each in two volumes, with pretty vignettes on the t.i.tle-pages, specially designed by the same artist and engraved on steel. The original drawings were delicately tinted in water-colours, the subjects being Little Nell and her Grandfather, d.i.c.k Swiveller and the Marchioness, Dolly Varden and Joe Willet, Barnaby and Hugh. In these engravings the female characters are much more charmingly conceived than are those in the woodcuts.

In 1848, when the first cheap edition of the story appeared, Hablot Browne made four new designs as ”Extra Ill.u.s.trations” for ”The Old Curiosity Shop,” viz., Little Nell and her Grandfather, the Marchioness, Barbara, and the Death of Little Nell. They were beautifully engraved in stipple, and issued as an independent publication by the artist and his coadjutor, Robert Young, whose joint venture it was. In the following year they produced a similar set of four plates ill.u.s.trating ”Barnaby Rudge,” viz., Emma Haredale, Dolly Varden, Mrs. Varden and Miggs, and Hugh and Barnaby. The portraits of the various characters were engraved by Edwards and Knight, under the superintendence of Browne and Young.

The original drawing of Dolly Varden, one of ”Phiz's” happiest conceptions, is in the possession of Her Grace the d.u.c.h.ess of St.

Albans, together with an unengraved study for Emma Haredale. There are extant, in Mr. J. F. Dexter's collection, two other studies for the Dolly Varden plate, neither of which has been reproduced; the same gentleman also owns the drawings of Nell and Barbara, the latter being slightly different from, and superior to, the engraving.

A complete series of original water-colour drawings by ”Phiz” for ”The Old Curiosity Shop” and ”Barnaby Rudge,” including an unused design for a tailpiece, were sold at Sotheby's in 1897, and realised 610. These drawings were executed as a commission for Mr. F. W. Cosens.

[Sidenote: =Martin Chuzzlewit, 1843-44.=]

Browne's versatile pencil was again actively employed in embellis.h.i.+ng the story begun by d.i.c.kens soon after his return from America in 1842, and to this he contributed forty etchings. Here the figures are drawn on a larger scale than usual, thus affording more scope for the delineation of character.

The frontispiece is a most elaborate design, representing the princ.i.p.al characters and incidents in the story, with Tom Pinch at the organ as a central idea. In the ill.u.s.tration where Mark Tapley is seen starting from his native village for London, ”Phiz” exhibits his sense of the picturesque in the old gables and dormers of the ancient tenements in the background, while that depicting ”Mr. Pecksniff on his Mission” is an excellent verisimilitude of such a locality as Kingsgate Street of fifty years since. But the etching in ”Chuzzlewit” which may be described as the artist's happiest effort as a comic creation is that where Mrs. Gamp ”propoges” a toast. Here he has admirably ill.u.s.trated the text,--the two midwives in friendly chat, surrounded by bandboxes and other accessories, while behind are seen the immortal Sarah's rusty gowns, which, depending from the bedposts, ”had so adapted themselves by long usage to her figure, that more than one impatient husband, coming in precipitately at about the time of twilight, had been for an instant stricken dumb by the supposed discovery that Mrs. Gamp had hanged herself.”

All the designs for ”Martin Chuzzlewit” were etched on quarto plates, two on each plate. Five of these plates were etched three times, these including, besides the frontispiece and vignette t.i.tle, the first six ill.u.s.trations in the book, and two which appeared in the fourteenth number, viz., ”Mr. Pinch Departs to Seek his Fortune,” and ”Mr. Nadgett Breathes, as Usual, an Atmosphere of Mystery.” A careful examination of different copies of the first edition will disclose minute variations in these particular ill.u.s.trations, worthy of special mention being the vignette t.i.tle, where, in the earliest impressions, the mark is incorrectly placed after the figures in the amount of reward on the bill.

In the majority of the ”Chuzzlewit” etchings there is a vigour and precision of touch indicating the artist's riper experience. It must, however, be admitted that a few of the plates are so feeble in execution in comparison with the rest as to suggest that ”Phiz's” drawings were copied on the plate by a less expert etcher. An instance of this poverty of execution will be found in the first design, depicting ”The Meekness of Mr. Pecksniff and his Charming Daughters,” and the fact that this plate is unsigned seems significant; in reply to my enquiry respecting it, Mr. Robert Young a.s.sured me that ”no one ever copied or etched plates for Browne; he traced the subject on the steel himself, and etched every line before it was bitten in. I know no reason for the omission of his signature to any of his plates.”