"Chirp the First" from Dickens's "The Cricket on the Hearth" (1845)

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Chirp the First

Richard Doyle; engraver G. Dalziel

1845

Wood engraving

11.6 cm high x 6.9 cm wide (4 ½ by 2 ⅝ inches), framed

Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Cricket on the Hearth, "Chirp the First," page 1.

The full-page illustration is actually two pictures joined by the figure of the carrier: above, he is by implication driving the cart, at work, outdoors, on the highroad; but he exists only as the man of the house, the father and husband, relaxing after his labour in the main and lower register. Doyle keeps the worker and provider in the background. Ironically, then, Doyle repeats only one figure: the carrier's faithful companion at work and at home, the dog, Boxer.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. ]

Passage Enclosed in the Plate

The KETTLE began it! Don't tell me what Mrs. Peerybingle said. I know better. ["Chirp the First," 1]

Passage Anticipated: John finally gets his pipe and hearthside ease: John and Dot

And as he soberly and thoughtfully puffed at his old pipe, and as the Dutch clock ticked, and as the red fire gleamed, and as the Cricket chirped; that Genius of his Hearth and Home (for such the Cricket was) came out, in fairy shape, into the room, and summoned many forms of Home about him. Dots of all ages, and all sizes, filled the chamber. Dots who were merry children, running on before him gathering flowers, in the fields; coy Dots, half shrinking from, half yielding to, the pleading of his own rough image; newly-married Dots, alighting at the door, and taking wondering possession of the household keys; motherly little Dots, attended by fictitious Slowboys, bearing babies to be christened; matronly Dots, still young and blooming, watching Dots of daughters, as they danced at rustic balls; fat Dots, encircled and beset by troops of rosy grandchildren; withered Dots, who leaned on sticks, and tottered as they crept along. Old Carriers too, appeared, with blind old Boxers lying at their feet; and newer carts with younger drivers ('Peerybingle Brothers' on the tilt); and sick old Carriers, tended by the gentlest hands; and graves of dead and gone old Carriers, green in the churchyard. ["Chirp the First," pp. 51-52]

Commentary: Introducing John Perrybingle, Carrier, at Work and at Home

Doyle's carrier and his wife in front of their hearth seem to have blended domesticity (the clock, sleeping dog, and infant, and John smoking a long-stemmed pipe while relaxing in his easy-chair) with his delivery business, with a pair of packages under the table bearing Dickens's initials. In the upper register is the carrier's van dog, making their way home past the marker (right). And, as Robert L. Patten remarks, the plot will involve not only this happily married young wife and middle-aged husband (a January-May union), but at least one other "couple": "And if one couple, why not two? Not only John Peerybingle married to a very young and inexperienced wife, but also a neighbor of different temperament and prospects" (170). The upper register emphasizes John Peerybingle's business as epitomised by his covered van:

For this third book the protagonist's getting around is his business: he is a carrier equipped with a cart and horse, an early Victorian parcel service, often the only kind of mail delivery available in rural areas. [171]

The protagonist is therefore not of the superior commercial class to which Scrooge belongs, but an independent businessman above the working class status of Trotty Veck. As Patten renarks, in this illustration "steam kettle and Cricket, industry and domesticity, making harmonious music celebrating conjugal bliss, a baby with baby-minder" (171) are all suggested here. But to these Dickens and his illustrators will add other "couples": Caleb and Bertha, the toymakers; Tackleton, their curmudgeonly employer, interested in marrying a younger woman, too: May Fielding; and an old stranger who turns out to be May Fielding's long-lost sailor fiancé — whom the jealous Peerbingle mistakes for a romantic complication to his happy domesticity.

Related Materials and Details

The Christmas Books of Charles Dickens
Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s single illustration for The Cricket on the Hearth (1867)
A. E. Abbey's Household Edition illustrations for The Christmas Books (1876)
Fred Barnard's Household Edition illustrations for The Christmas Books (1878)
Harry Furniss's illustrations for Dickens's The Cricket on the Hearth (1910)
The Song of the Kettle (L. Rossi, 1912)
Mr. Peerybingle's Welcome Home (L. Rossi, 1912)

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Cricket on the Hearth. A Fairy Tale of Home. Illustrated by John Leech, Daniel Maclise, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield, and Edward Landseer. Engraved by George Dalziel, Edward Dalziel, T. Williams, Thompson, Graves, and Swain. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1846 [December 1845].

Patten, Robert L. Chapter 8, "Chirping." Dickens, Death, and Christmas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. 169-199. [Review]

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Created 20 February 2001

Last updated 28 May 2024