"Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Winkle had each performed a compulsory summerset with remarkable agility" — fifth illustration by Phiz for Dickens's "Pickwick Papers" (British Household Edition, 1874)

Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Winkle had each performed a compulsory summerset with remarkable agility (See page 26.) by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne) for the British Household Edition (1874) of Dickens's Pickwick Papers, p. 17. Chapter IV, "A Field-day and Bivouac — More new friends; and an Invitation to the Country." Wood-engraving, 4 ¼ inches high by 5 ½ inches wide (11.1 cm high by 14.3 cm wide), framed, half-page; referencing text on page 26; descriptive headline: "Dismal Jemmy" (p. 17). [Click on the illustration to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Having a Field-Day; or, Getting out of the way with Alacrity

Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Winkle had each performed a compulsory summerset [summersault] with remarkable agility, when the first object that met the eyes of the latter as he sat on the ground staunching with a yellow silk handkerchief the stream of life which issued from his nose, was his venerated leader at some distance off, running after his own hat, which was gambolling playfully away in perspective. [Household Edition, Chapter IV, "A Field-day and Bivouac — more new friends; and an Invitation to the Country," p. 26]

Commentary

Robert Seymour's original serial illustration of Pickwick at the field day emphasizes a limited number of spectators, including Wardle and Joe, the Fat Boy, and does not include the military review: Mr. Pickwick in chase of his hat (May 1836).

In the second (May 1836) serial instalment, acting under Dickens's directions, Robert Seymour had reluctantly depicted a scene from the pathetic "Stroller's Tale," a radical departure from the original conception of "Cockney sporting scenes." Dickens's grim interpolated tale concerning a dipsomaniacal entertainer furnished a counterpoint to the farcical adventures of the Pickwickians. Seymour's second subject, Pickwick's pursuit of his hat in the aftermath of a military review at Rochester, Phiz reworked rather ingeniously to include the troops (rear) and Pickwick's fellow-sufferers, Snodgrass and Winkle, literally bowled over by the inexorable progress of half-a-dozen regiments.

Thus, Phiz improves upon Robert Seymour's rather cluttered and decontextualized Pickwick in chase of his hat (May 1836) by placing the three Londoners in the foreground, the troops and their officer on horseback in the background — and eliminating the townspeople watching the military review since their presence is not germane to the physical comedy. Phiz thereby also avoids the melancholy subject of the clown's drinking himself to death, "The Stroller's Tale" of Chapter III, perhaps because it might remind even readers in the 1870s of the tragic suicide of the gifted Seymour, who, like the alcoholic Stroller, was "an oversensitive artist, compelled to make a living by amusing others" (Cohen 45).

Parallel Scenes by Nast and Furniss (1836 and 1910)

Left: Thomas Nast's equally cartoonish 1873 wood-engraving of the farcical scene in which the trio become trapped on the exercise field by the military parade, Mr. Pickwick displayed that perfect coolness and self-possession, which are the indispensable accompaniments of a great mind (1873). Right: Harry Furniss's version of the review scene: Mr. Pickwick at the Review (Charles Dickens Library Edition, 1910). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Related Material

Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910

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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. Pp. 24-50.

Created 12 March 2012

Last modified 9 April 2024