"Sam stole a look at the inquirer" — tenth illustration by Phiz for Dickens's "Pickwick Papers" (1874)

Sam stole a look at the inquirer. by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne). Household Edition (1874) of Dickens's Pickwick Papers (See page 62.). Chapter X, "Clearing up all the Doubts (if any existed) of the Disinterestedness of Mr. Jingle's Character." Wood-engraving, 3 ⅞ inches high by 5 ½ inches wide (10 cm high by 14.3 cm wide), framed, half-page, p. 57; referencing text on page 62; descriptive headline: "A Stumbling Block" (p. 57). [Click on the illustration to enlarge it.]

Passage Anticipated: Dickens and Phiz establish Joe as a Continuing Comic Character

He [Jingle] was yet on his way [back] to the White Hart, when two plump gentleman and one thin one entered the yard, and looked round in search of some authorised person of whom they could make a few inquiries. Mr. Samuel Weller happened to be at that moment engaged in burnishing a pair of painted tops, the personal property of a farmer who was refreshing himself with a slight lunch of two or three pounds of cold beef and a pot or two of porter, after the fatigues of the Borough market; and to him the thin gentleman straightway advanced.

"My friend," said the thin gentleman.

"You're one o' the adwice gratis order," thought Sam, "or you wouldn't be so wery fond o' me all at once." But he only said — "Well, Sir."

"My friend," said the thin gentleman, with a conciliatory hem — "have you got many people stopping here now? Pretty busy. Eh?"

Sam stole a look at the inquirer. He was a little high-dried man, with a dark squeezed-up face, and small, restless, black eyes, that kept winking and twinkling on each side of his little inquisitive nose, as if they were playing a perpetual game of peep-bo with that feature. He was dressed all in black, with boots as shiny as his eyes, a low white neckcloth, and a clean shirt with a frill to it. A gold watch-chain, and seals, depended from his fob. He carried his black kid gloves in his hands, and not on them; and as he spoke, thrust his wrists beneath his coat tails, with the air of a man who was in the habit of propounding some regular posers. [Chapter X, "Clearing up all the Doubts (if any existed) of the Disinterestedness of Mr. Jingle's Character," 62]

Commentary

The first appearance of Sam Weller (originally, Part 5: August 1836) coincides in both the 1836 and 1874 illustrations with the first appearance of the law, as epitomised by Wardle's dapper, little solicitor, Mr. Perker. The pursuit of Rachael Wardle and Jingle has led Pickwick (left), Wardle (centre), and Perker (right) to the White Hart Inn in the Borough, where Sam (extreme right) is the "boots," that is, the general factotum and shoe-cleaner. Michael Steig in Dickens and Phiz notes how, even in this early Pickwick plate, Phiz uses iconographic details and juxtaposes characters to comment upon the situation:

Phiz emphasizes this undercutting in a way which suggests an independent use of expressive iconography: he leads our eye from the jaunty cockney, Sam Weller, on the left, through the three gentlemen to the little dog on the right, who is contemplating Pickwick's calves with vicious intent.

The artist's execution is crude, perhaps (and much improved in the 1838 re-etching of this plate), but the dog's presence is important, for it is not mentioned in the text, and although Dickens could have suggested him to Browne it is just as likely that the artist included him as a natural compositional and thematic complement to the independent-minded Sam. Thus, Phiz demonstrates from the outset a capacity for composing illustrations which may be "read" like a Hogarth engraving, significant details and composition combining to elucidate Dickens' text. [26]

The First Appearance of Sam Weller by Phiz. [Click on image to enlarge it.]

In the Household Edition's revision of the illustration, one can barely discern the gallery — so prominent in the original 1836 illustration and strengthened in Phiz's 1838 revision: according to Jane Rabb Cohen, Phiz "made the previously flat spaces in the rear balconies recede naturalistically" (66). Now one sees very little of the of the galleries behind the figures in the 1873 plate, which also completely reverses the order of the figures, possibly because Phiz was correcting for the reverse image of the original engravings: in the 1836 and 1838 versions, Sam is on the left, polishing shoes; Perker, leaning forward, left of centre; a stout Wardle, with cane, centre; and Pickwick, hat off, to the right, contemplating Sam as the dog is contemplating Pickwick's ankle. The 1874 illustration, aside from eliminating the landlady in the gallery and the business of the haystack and the yokels sleeping upon it, is essentially a close-up, so to speak, since it covers only what is in the bottom register of the 1836 and 1838 plates. Although so much of the background has been lost (one barely remarks the three smock-frocked figures to the left), Phiz has brought the principal figures well forward. Aside from the fact that he still has his hat on, Pickwick is in his characteristic pose, with one hand under the tails of his coat and his other hand at his chin, a pose certainly implying that he is already contemplating hiring the ebullient Cockney as his servant. Lean, sharp, nattily dressed, and actively leaning forward to extract information about Jingle's room from Sam, Perker is distinguished by his black business suit and stove-pipe trousers (as opposed to the Regency fashion of Wardle and Pickwick). In all three versions, Phiz regards Mr. Perker as a member of the rising generation, a professional man and urbanite confident in his powers to deal with the situation. Wardle in both studies is an inert pillar of the landed gentry, a class and a generation on their way out, even by 1836 and certainly by 1873. A continuing albeit minor character, Perker will assist Pickwick in his defense against Mrs. Bardell's suit for breach-of-promise, and will eventually facilitate Pickwick's release from the Fleet Prison.

Harry Furniss's 1910 Revision of the 1874 illustration

Above: Harry Furniss's re-working Phiz's treatment of the momentous meeting at the White Hart Inn: Mr. Pickwick meets Sam Weller in the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Related Material

Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910

Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. Formatting by George P. Landow. [You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.

Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File and Checkmark Books, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 22 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 2.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 5.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. 1.

_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 16 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 4.

_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 6.

_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.

Guiliano, Edward, and Philip Collins, eds. The Annotated Dickens.2 vols. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1986. Vol. I.

Steig, Michael. Chapter 2. "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 24-50.

Created 8 March 2012

Last updated 21 April 2024