"Now, Wal'r, my boy, you may help me on with them slops." — seventeenth illustration by W. L. Sheppard for Dickens's "Dombey and Son" (American Household Edition, 1873)

"Now, Wal'r, my boy, you may help me on with them slops." by W. L. Sheppard. Seventeenth illustration for Dickens's Dombey and Son in the American Household Edition (1873), Chapter XV, "Amazing Artfulness of Captain Cuttle, and a new Pursuit for Walter Gay," 94. 9.4 x 13.5 cm (3 ¾ by 5 ¼ inches) framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated

Phiz's February 1847 introduction of the jovial retired sailor in Profound Cogitation of Captain Cuttle in Chapter XV.

Finally, the Captain left off biting his nails, and said, “Now, Wal”r, my boy, you may help me on with them slops.” By which the Captain meant his coat and waistcoat.

Walter little imagined why the Captain was so particular in the arrangement of his cravat, as to twist the pendent ends into a sort of pigtail, and pass them through a massive gold ring with a picture of a tomb upon it, and a neat iron railing, and a tree, in memory of some deceased friend. Nor why the Captain pulled up his shirt-collar to the utmost limits allowed by the Irish linen below, and by so doing decorated himself with a complete pair of blinkers; nor why he changed his shoes, and put on an unparalleled pair of ankle-jacks, which he only wore on extraordinary occasions. The Captain being at length attired to his own complete satisfaction, and having glanced at himself from head to foot in a shaving-glass which he removed from a nail for that purpose, took up his knotted stick, and said he was ready. [Chapter XV, "Amazing Artfulness of Captain Cuttle, and a new Pursuit for Walter Gay," 93]

Commentary: The Comic Captain Once Again

Dickens seems to have delighted in the salty diction of nautical characters such as Captain Cuttle, and Sheppard makes the meaning of "slops" obvious in his illustration of Walter's helping the genial sailor on with his blue coat: in the plural, the nautical term "slops" originally indicated in the parlance of 19th c. British sailors the breeches of the period, ending just below the knees or above the ankles, in the eighteenth century. In fact, of course, Walter is not assisting the Captain in getting into his trousers, but his uniform. The term was still current in the 1840s because it related the clothing of the sailor to the laundry process: "The dirty wastewater of a house," and therefore washing the clothing and even the bedding belonging to sailors. By Dickens's time, the expression "slops" would have indicated "Ready-made clothing and other furnishings supplied to seamen from the ship's stores; hence, ready made, cheap, or inferior garments generally" (see Gyford)). The crossed cutlasses in the background and the squat bottle of Hollands on the table behind Walter reiterate that this is Captain Cuttle's parlour, but not that last seen in "Wal'r! - "I've got it." in Chapter X. In that prior illustration Sheppard had included a model of sailing vessel and just a single wall-mounted cutlass as that scene was Sol Gillis's back-parlour at The Little Midshipman instrument-maker's shop. This earlier parlour will shortly be the scene of Captain Cuttle's business meeting with Mr. Dombey, whom he hopes will relieve Sol Gillis from his present financial difficulties.

Illustrations of Captain Cuttle in Other Editions (1867-1924)

Left: Fred Barnard's Household Edition illustration of Captain Cuttle's buying flowers in a London street: Before they had gone very far, they encountered a woman selling flowers; when the captain, stopping short, as if struck by a happy idea, made a purchase. . . . (1877). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond Edition illustration of the retired sailor: Captain Cuttle (1867). Right: Kyd's Player Cigarette Card No. 25: Captain Cuttle (1910). Far right: Harold Copping's study of the Captain, Walter, and Sol Gills: Before they had gone very far, they encountered a woman selling flowers; when the captain, stopping short, as if struck by a happy idea, made a purchase . . . (1924).

Related Material, including Other Illustrated Editions of Dombey and Son (1846-1910)

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Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. L. Sheppard. The Household Edition. 18 vols. New York: Harper & Co., 1873.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1862. Vols. 1-4.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. III.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard [62 composite wood-block engravings]. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

__________. Dombey and Son. With illustrations by H. K. Browne. The illustrated library Edition. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, c. 1880. II.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. 61 wood-engravings. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. H. C. Groome. London and Glasgow, 1900, rpt. 1934. 2 vols. in one.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. IX.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). 8 coloured plates. London and Edinburgh: Caxton and Ballantyne, Hanson, 1910.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). The Clarendon Edition, ed. Alan Horsman. Oxford: Clarendon, 1974.

Dickens, Mary Angela, Percy Fitzgerald, Captain Edric Vredenburg, and Others. Illustrated by Harold Copping with eleven coloured lithographs. "Little Paul Dombey," the tenth chapter in Children's Stories from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1893. Pp. 101-109.

Gyford, Phil. "Slops." 16 March 2006. The Diary of Samuel Pepys. Daily entries from the 17th century London diary. https://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/6075/ Accessed 31 January 2022.

Created 31 January 2022