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Martin meets Tigg at the Pawnbroker's.
Harry Furniss
1910
14.5cm by 10cm, vignetted
Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, situated in Chapter 13, "Showing What Became of Martin and His Desperate Resolve, After He Left Mr. Pecksniff's House; What Persons He Encountered; What Anxieties He Suffered; and What News He Heard," facing VII, 225.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"I can lend you three pounds on this, if you like" said the shopman to Martin, confidentially. "It is very old-fashioned. I couldn’t say more."
"And devilish handsome, too," cried Mr Tigg. "Two-twelve-six for the watch, and seven-and-six for personal regard. I am gratified; it may be weakness, but I am. Three pounds will do. We take it. The name of my friend is Smivey: Chicken Smivey, of Holborn, twenty-six-and-a-half B: lodger." Here he winked at Martin again, to apprise him that all the forms and ceremonies prescribed by law were now complied with, and nothing remained but the receipt for the money.
In point of fact, this proved to be the case, for Martin, who had no resource but to take what was offered him, signified his acquiescence by a nod of his head, and presently came out with the cash in his pocket. He was joined in the entry by Mr. Tigg, who warmly congratulated him, as he took his arm and accompanied him into the street, on the successful issue of the negotiation.
"As for my part in the same," said Mr Tigg, "don’t mention it. Don’t compliment me, for I can’t bear it!" [Chapter 13, "Showing What Became of Martin and His Desperate Resolve, After He Left Mr. Pecksniff's House; What Persons He Encountered; What Anxieties He Suffered; and What News He Heard," 232: the picture's original caption has been emphasized]
Even on his way to America, Dickensian coincidence plays a role in Martin's life as he encounters the decommissioned, disgraced officer Montague Tigg with his characteristic swagger and humorous bombast, who will shortly reinvent himself as the successful financier Tigg Montague. The node of all orbits for the indigent and desperate is the sign of the three balls, the pawnbroker's in London, an interior scene realistically described in the June 1843 steel-engraving Martin Meets an Acquaintance at the House of a Mutual Relation (see below: Chapter 13). In the Household Edition, however, Fred Barnard dramatizes the conclusion of the dialogue outside the pawnbroker's shop, after the completion of their respective transactions. The shop itself (especially in Phiz's version) and the manner in which negotiations are conducted in the cubicles recalls the shabby-genteel world of Sketches by Boz, Dickens's breakout work, a collection of essays, observations, and short stories about life in London's lower-middle class neighbourhoods. We have met Tigg before, with his characteristic military swagger, his catch-phrase "upon my soul," and a pleading, persuasive manner anticipating of that of Wilkins Micawber in David Copperfield:
They were both very busy on the afternoon succeeding the family's departure — Martin with the grammar–school, and Tom in balancing certain receipts of rents, and deducting Mr. Pecksniff's commission from the same; in which abstruse employment he was much distracted by a habit his new friend had of whistling aloud while he was drawing — when they were not a little startled by the unexpected obtrusion into that sanctuary of genius, of a human head which, although a shaggy and somewhat alarming head in appearance, smiled affably upon them from the doorway, in a manner that was at once waggish, conciliatory, and expressive of approbation.
"I am not industrious myself, gents both," said the head, "but I know how to appreciate that quality in others. I wish I may turn grey and ugly, if it isn't in my opinion, next to genius, one of the very charmingest qualities of the human mind. Upon my soul, I am grateful to my friend Pecksniff for helping me to the contemplation of such a delicious picture as you present. You remind me of Whittington, afterwards thrice Lord Mayor of London. I give you my unsullied word of honour, that you very strongly remind me of that historical character. You are a pair of Whittingtons, gents, without the cat; which is a most agreeable and blessed exception to me, for I am not attached to the feline species. My name is Tigg; how do you do?" [Chapter 7, "In Which Mr. Chevy Slyme Asserts the Independence of his Spirit, and The Blue Dragon Loses a Limb," 106]
Furniss's version of the slinky vagabond and cadger is decidedly more slender and angular than previous iterations, but here are the same frogged military jacket, Satanic moustache and goatee, eye-glass and top-hat. Martin recoils within his respectable greatcoat about even being seen in a pawnbroker's. Behind the figures is a corpulent, middle-aged woman of masculine visage (Furniss's invention — since she is holding a gigantic hatbox, this might well be our first glimpse of Mrs. Gamp) about to enter one of the cubicles. In fact, he is fortunate in having an expert to guide him through this particular maze of Vanity Fair. Phiz's more dynamic view of the pawnbroker's shows us the business side of the operation as two different shopmen deal with Tigg and Martin simultaneously, whereas Furniss leaves the business end in obscurity and focuses on the two contrasting customers.
Left: Hablot Knight Browne's Martin Meets an Acquaintance at the House of a Mutual Relation (Chapter 13, June 1843). Centre: Felix Octavius Carr Darley's volume one frontispiece showing the initial meeting of two different frauds, Pecksniff and "a perfectly strange gentleman of still stranger appearance," And was straightway led downstairs (1863). Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Montague Tigg and Chevy Slyme (1867). [Click on images to enlarge them.]
Above: Fred Barnard's realisation of the accidental meeting at the pawnbroker's, Stuck his hands in his skirt-pocket and swaggered round the corner (1872). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Above: Fred Barnard's realisation of the Tigg's popping by Pecksniff's office earlier, "You're a pair of Whittingtons, gents, without the cat; . . . . My name is Tigg; how do you do?"(1872). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
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Created 24 January 2016
Last modified 18 January 2020