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It was in this manner that my eldest daughter was hemmed in, and thumped about, all blowzed, in spirits, and bawling for fair play, fair play, with a voice that might deafen a ballad singer, when confusion on confusion, who should enter the room but our two great acquaintances from town, Lady Blarney and Miss Carolina Wilelmina Amelia Skeggs! Description would but beggar, therefore it is unnecessary to describe this new mortification. Death! To be seen by ladies of such high breeding in such vulgar attitudes! Nothing better could ensue from such a vulgar play of Mr. Flamborough's proposing. We seemed stuck to the ground for some time, as if actually petrified with amazement.

The two ladies had been at our house to see us, and finding us from home, came after us hither, as they were uneasy to know what accident could have kept us from church the day before. Olivia undertook to be our prolocutor, and delivered the whole in a summary way, only saying, 'We were thrown from our horses.' At which account the ladies were greatly concerned; but being told the family received no hurt, they were extremely glad: but being informed that we were almost killed by the fright, they were vastly sorry; but hearing that we had a very good night, they were extremely glad again. Nothing could exceed their complaisance to my daughters; their professions the last evening were warm, but now they were ardent. They protested a desire of having a more lasting acquaintance. Lady Blarney was particularly attached to Olivia; Miss Carolina Wilelmina Amelia Skeggs (I love to give the whole name) took a greater fancy to her sister. They supported the conversation between themselves, while my daughters sate silent, admiring their exalted breeding. But as every reader, however beggarly himself, is fond of high-lived dialogues, with anecdotes of Lords, Ladies, and Knights of the Garter, I must beg leave to give him the concluding part of the present conversation.

'All that I know of the matter,' cried Miss Skeggs, 'is this, that it may be true, or it may not be true: but this I can assure your Ladyship, that the whole rout was in amaze; his Lordship turned all manner of colours, my Lady fell into a sound; but Sir Tomkyn, drawing his sword, swore he was her's to the last drop of his blood.'

'Well,' replied our Peeress, 'this I can say, that the Dutchess never told me a syllable of the matter, and I believe her Grace would keep nothing a secret from me. This you may depend upon as fact, that the next morning my Lord Duke cried out three times to his valet-de-chambre, Jernigan, Jernigan, Jernigan, bring me my garters.' [Chapter XI, "The family still resolve to hold up their heads," pp. 42-43]

Commentary

Cruikshank's contemporaries, particularly Charles Dickens (1812-70), had been introduced to Goldsmith's clerical novella in late childhood. Coming from a large Regency family young Charles must have responded warmly to the first-person narrative of the genial clergyman, his social-climbing wife, and their six children. The name of the second son, Moses, became the basis for Dickens's nom-de-plume, Boz, which in fact had been the family's nickname for Charles's younger brother. One wonders how much of Goldsmith's facetiousness and character comedy was lost on early nineteenth-century pre-pubescent readers such as young Charles, although they must certainly appreciated Dr. Primrose's good-natured observations on family life and society in the mid-eighteenth century.

The style of the illustration is reminiscent of Cruikshank's early work for Bentley's Miscellany, particularly his illustrations for the figure of Ned Twigger in the first set of Dickens's Mudfog Papers. The visiting ladies, with the high-sounding names of Lady Blarney and Miss Carolina Wilelmina Amelia Skeggs, in London finery (with artificial beauty marks and high coiffures) stand at the door of the rambling farmhouse of the Primroses' neighbours, the Flamboroughs, as the company celebrate Michaelmas-eve with a variety of games. Seated in a circle on the parlour floor, the family and guests are concluding the entertainment with the game of hunt the slipper. Dr. Primrose is immediately recognizable by his clerical coat (centre, foreground), his back towards the viewer. The poor gentleman with no time for self-absorbed aristocrats, Mr. Burchell, is to the left, critically studying the overdressed visitors. Dr. Primrose's handsome daughter, Olivia, the butt of the game, turns away in dismay to be found engaged in so unsophisticated a pastime. Cruikshank captures the girl's salient quality: "Olivia was often affected, from too great a desire to please" (Chapter II). Although she serves as "prolocutor," Olivia is seated rather than standing in the text, so that her posture, expression, and position in the illustration are entirely Cruikshank's invention.

Miss Carolina Wilelmina Amelia Skeggs is one of the fashionable ladies whom Squire Thornhill, the Primroses' landlord, brings to the neighbourhood from London to impress the family. Later, it turns out that Mr. Burchel (the alias for the benevolent Sir William Thornhill) is quite correct when he announces that everything they say is "Fudge" since they are his nephew's impostors, "fine ladies" who are in fact disreputable and abandoned prostitutes from Drury Lane. The Squire achieves his objective, eloping with the beautiful Olivia and then abandoning her in London. Chapter 17, when the family learns that Olivia has run off, is the turning point of the novel. From there onwards, the story shifts from being a humorous account of eighteenth-century country life to pathetic and somewhat moralistic domestic melodrama with the traditional ending of a stage comedy: multiple marriages.

Illustrated editions, 1812-1929

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Vicar of Wakefield. Illustrated, with a frontispiece, engraved title page and five plates. London: Albion Press, J. and J. Cundee, 1812.

Goldsmith, Oliver, and Tobias Smollett. The Vicar of Wakefield, The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, Peregrine Pickle. London: James Cochrane, 1831.

Goldsmith, Oliver​. ​ The Vicar of Wakefield. A Tale. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: John Cochrane & Co., 1832.

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Vicar of Wakefield. With thirty-two illustrations, by William Mulready, R.A. London: John Van Voorst, 1843.

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Vicar of Wakefield. Illustrated by Harry George Webb. London: Caradoc Press, Bedford Park (Chiswick), 1903.

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Vicar of Wakefield. London: Constable & Company, 1914.

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Vicar of Wakefield. With twelve colour plates by Arthur Rackham. London: George G. Harrap, 1929.

Bibliography

Burton, Anthony. "Cruikshank as an Illustrator of Fiction." George Cruikshank: A Revaluation. Ed. Robert L. Patten. Princeton: Princeton U. P., 1974, rev., 1992. Pp. 92-128.

Cohen, Jane Rabb. Part One, "Dickens and His Early Illustrators: 1. George Cruikshank. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio University Press, 1980. Pp. 15-38.

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Vicar of Wakefield: A Tale, Supposed to be written by Himself (1766). Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: James Cochrane, 1832.

Kitton, Frederic G. "George Cruikshank." Dickens and His Illustrators. London: Chapman & Hall, 1899. Pp. 1-28.

McLean, Ruari. George Cruikshank: His Life and Work as a Book Illustrator. English Masters of Black-and-White. London: Art and Technics, 1948.

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