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Will Atkins, Crusoe, and the Priest
William Luson Thomas
Engravers: Butterworth and Heath
1864
Wood-engraving
17.5 cm high (including caption) by 14.1 cm wide, framed.
Cassell's Robinson Crusoe, page 293.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our business there was over, so we went back our own way; and when we came back, we found them waiting to be called in. Observing this, I asked my clergyman if we should discover to him that we had seen him under the bush or not; and it was his opinion we should not, but that we should talk to him first, and hear what he would say to us; so we called him in alone, nobody being in the place but ourselves, and I began with him thus: —
"Will Atkins," said I, "prythee what education had you? What was your father?"
W. A. — A better man than I shall ever be; sir, my father was a clergyman.
R. C. — What education did he give you?
W. A. — He would have taught him well, sir, but I despised all education, instruction, or correction, like a beast as I was.
R. C. — It is true, Solomon says, "He that despises reproof is brutish."
W. A. — Ay, sir, I was brutish indeed, for I murdered my father: for God's sake, sir, talk no more about that; sir, I murdered my poor father.
R. C. — Ha! a murderer!
Here the priest started (for I interpreted every word he spoke) and looked pale: it seems he believed that Will had really killed his father. [Chapter VII, "Conversation betwixt Will Atkins and His Wife," page 292]
The Roman Catholic priest is quite naturally shocked after Atkins' confession of patricide, but this is mere exaggeration stemming from Atkins' guilt at having rejected his father's teachings. He confesses that, although he did not cut his father's throat, he shortened his days by his ungrateful and rebellious conduct. Hence, the Cassell illustrator, William Luson Thomas, shows the barefoot planter as shamefaced, and the elderly Crusoe as trying to comfort him as the shocked priest observes the pair. Atkins remarks that Crusoe can know nothing of the guilt he feels, but Crusoe, likewise having disregarded his parents' wishes, knows all too well about "the anguish of . . . ingratitude" (p. 294), and fully explains the significance of Atkins' emotional outburst to the "young" clergyman.
Since Atkins like the other colonists (both Spanish and English) has taken a native wife, Crusoe is delighted to learn that Atkins, formerly a ruffian, has embraced Christianity, which, as it turns out, was a natural inclination against which as an adolescent he had rebelled. Atkins has even taken steps to educate his wife in the precepts of the Old Country's monotheistic religion, and shortly watches devoutly as the Catholic priest baptises her with the name "Mary." The author's choice of Christian name may have conditioned the illustrator's representation as middle-aged, as if he were the very image of the biblical Joseph, husband of the mother of Jesus. The Cassell program of illustration focuses on Crusoe's relationship with the young planter, implying, perhaps, that Will regards Crusoe as a reminder of his own father and his father's Christian teachings.
Left: The Wehnert engraving of the scene in which Crusoe visits Will and his wife, Crusoe giving Bible to Will Atkins (1862). Centre: Paget's version of the marriage ceremony of Will and Mary Atkins, Made her kneel by him (1891). Right: The original Stothard scene of Crusoe's return, Robinson Crusoe distributing tools of husbandry among the inhabitants (1820). [Click on images to enlarge them.]
Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by himself. With upwards of One Hundred Illustrations. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64.
Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Exciting Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, as Related by Himself. With 120 original illustrations by Walter Paget. London, Paris,and Melbourne: Cassell, 1891.
Last modified 3 April 2018