"I wish you'd let me bleed you" (Bob Sawyer, medical student, offers his professional services)" for Dickens's "Pickwick Papers" by Thomas Nast (1873)

"I wish you'd let me bleed you" (Bob Sawyer, bibulous medical student, offers his professional services) by Thomas Nast, in Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club, Chapter XXX, p. 178.

Bibliographical Note

Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club, Chapter XXX, "How the Pickwickians made and Cultivated the Acquaintance of a Couple of Nice Young Men Belonging to One of the Liberal Professions; How They Disported Themselves on the Ice; and How Their Visit Came to a Conclusion," page 178. Half-page composite woodblock-engraving, 4 1⁄16 inches high by 5 ¼ inches wide (10.4 cm high by 13.4 cm wide), framed; referencing text on page 178. The descriptive headline, "Mr. Winkle on Skates" (177), is somewhat ironic, since Winkle can barely keep himself upright for even a moment while on the ice, and has already fallen in the picture.

Scanned image, colour correction, sizing, caption, and commentary 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 Illustrated: Winkle's Skating Mishap

With a violent effort, Mr. Weller disengaged himself from the grasp of the agonized Pickwickian, and, in so doing, administered a considerable impetus to the unhappy Mr. Winkle. With an accuracy which no degree of dexterity or practice could have insured, that unfortunate gentleman bore swiftly down into the centre of the reel, at the very moment when Mr. Bob Sawyer was performing a flourish of unparalleled beauty. Mr. Winkle struck wildly against him, and with a loud crash they both fell heavily down. Mr. Pickwick ran to the spot. Bob Sawyer had risen to his feet, but Mr. Winkle was far too wise to do anything of the kind, in skates. He was seated on the ice, making spasmodic efforts to smile; but anguish was depicted on every lineament of his countenance.

"Are you hurt?" inquired Mr. Benjamin Allen, with great anxiety.

"Not much," said Mr. Winkle, rubbing his back very hard.

"I wish you'd let me bleed you," said Mr. Benjamin, with great eagerness.

"No, thank you," replied Mr. Winkle hurriedly. [Chapter XXX, "How the Pickwickians made and cultivated the acquaintance of couple of nice young men belonging to one of the liberal professions; how they disported themselves on the ice; and how their visit came to a conclusion," page 178]

Commentary: On the Ice at Dingley Dell, Manor Farm

By the 1870s, the jovial comfortable world of the Regency was fast fading from the British and American consciousness as modern economics, revolutions in transportation, and the recent conflicts of the Crimean War and the American Civil War crowded out memories of that simpler age. Nast fondly recalls English village life for his contemporary American readers. Although Phiz illustrated the Christmas scenes extensively in the serial, in particular the community skating party, initially American readers saw none of his work because the first American edition (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, and Blanchard, 1836-37; five volumes) appeared without any of the British illustrations. These, including Phiz's celebrated rendering of Pickwick on ice (see immediately below), American readers did not see re-engraved until the second American edition.

In the frontispiece, Thomas Nast has described the joys of winter sports on the frozen pond some distance from the Dingley Dell manor-house. The second Nast illustration on this theme involves a relatively minor skating accident that befalls the ever-inept and thoroughly accident-prone Winkle. As with his other mishaps, this one begins with Winkle's engaging in an activity for which he lacks proper training. Winkle assures their host, Mr. Wardle, that he knows how to skate, but is "rather out of practice" (176). In the foreground of "I wish you'd let me bleed you", Nast has placed the fallen Winkle on skates above cross-hatched ice, perhaps to prepare readers for the next illustration, in which Pickwick dramatically breaks through the frozen surface.

As the medical students, Bob Sawyer and Benjamin Allen, attempt to persuade Winkle to accept standard eighteenth-century medical treatment (blood-letting), Pickwick and the Fat Boy watch from a distance; however, in the British Household Edition Phiz consigns Winkle's fall to the background of the parallel scene. Nast has based his series of three ice scenes on the single example provided by the young Phiz in February 1837 (eleventh) monthly instalment: Mr. Pickwick . . . . went slowly and gravely down the slide, with his feet about a yard and a quarter apart, amidst the gratified shouts of all the spectators (see above). In the Nast sequence initially spectators watch the Pickwickians enjoying themselves before accidents spoil the seasonal jollity — and offer the recently arrived London medical students possible guinea pigs for a medical procedure.

Nast, however, has not merely reiterated Phiz's original ice-sliding illustration. In fact, he has deviated considerably from the February 1837 serial illustration by placing Pickwick (no longer sliding, but chatting with Sam Weller) well into the background and making the trio in the foreground (Winkle, looking up from where he has fallen; medical student Benjamin Sawyer, offering Winkle a hand up; and (presumably) Bob Allen, holding onto his hat) his focus. The leafless oak now frames the three figures in front, and only the Fat Boy (upper right) remains sliding. Whereas what Catherine Golden would term Phiz's pregnant moment is Pickwick's impending accident as he is about to fall through the ice, Nast's is whether Winkle will suffer himself to be bled. Nast hints at the actual outcome of the scene through Pickwick's pointing downward as the leader orders Sam to relieve Winkle of his skates.

The Other Christmas Scenes from Nast's Sequence set at Manor Farm, Dingley Dell

Relevant Illustrations from Phiz's Programme (1874) and Furniss's (1910)

Above: In the 1874 Household Edition of the novel Phiz has modelled his illustration on his own February 1837 engraving: Mr. Pickwick . . . . went slowly and gravely down the slide, with his feet about a yard and a quarter apart, amidst the gratified shouts of all the spectators. Right: Phiz's original interpretation first appeared in monthly part 11: is a realistic study Mr Pickwick Slides.

Above: In the 1910 Charles Dickens Library Edition of the novel Harry Furniss offered an illustration of the moment after Pickwick's sudden fall through the ice, when all that remains of the great man are his hat and gloves: Mr. Pickwick Under the Ice: "A large mass of ice disappeared; the water bubbled up over it; Mr. Pickwick’s hat, gloves, and handkerchief were floating on the surface; and this was all of Mr. Pickwick that anybody could see. — Pickwick, p. 421. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-74

Related Material

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour and Hablot Knight Browne. London: Chapman & Hall, 1836-37.

__________. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Edited by Boz. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, and Blanchard, 1836. 5 vols.

__________. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. The Household Edition. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. New York: Harper and Brothers 1873.

__________. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. The Household Edition. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1874.

__________. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910. Volume 2.

Last modified 15 October 2021