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Passage Illustrated: Jip disrupts the Storybook Courtship

I suppose that when I saw Dora in the garden and pretended not to see her, and rode past the house pretending to be anxiously looking for it, I committed two small fooleries which other young gentlemen in my circumstances might have committed — because they came so very natural to me. But oh! when I did find the house, and did dismount at the garden-gate, and drag those stony-hearted boots across the lawn to Dora sitting on a garden-seat under a lilac tree, what a spectacle she was, upon that beautiful morning, among the butterflies, in a white chip bonnet and a dress of celestial blue! There was a young lady with her — comparatively stricken in years — almost twenty, I should say. Her name was Miss Mills. And Dora called her Julia. She was the bosom friend of Dora. Happy Miss Mills!

Jip was there, and Jip would bark at me again. When I presented my bouquet, he gnashed his teeth with jealousy. Well he might. If he had the least idea how I adored his mistress, well he might!

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Copperfield! What dear flowers!" said Dora.

I had had an intention of saying (and had been studying the best form of words for three miles) that I thought them beautiful before I saw them so near HER. But I couldn’t manage it. She was too bewildering. To see her lay the flowers against her little dimpled chin, was to lose all presence of mind and power of language in a feeble ecstasy. I wonder I didn’t say, ‘Kill me, if you have a heart, Miss Mills. Let me die here!"

Then Dora held my flowers to Jip to smell. Then Jip growled, and wouldn’t smell them. Then Dora laughed, and held them a little closer to Jip, to make him. Then Jip laid hold of a bit of geranium with his teeth, and worried imaginary cats in it. Then Dora beat him, and pouted, and said, "My poor beautiful flowers!" as compassionately, I thought, as if Jip had laid hold of me. I wished he had!

"You’ll be so glad to hear, Mr. Copperfield," said Dora, "that that cross Miss Murdstone is not here. She has gone to her brother’s marriage, and will be away at least three weeks. Isn’t that delightful?" [Chapter XXXIII, "Blissful," 481]

Commentary: A Garden Idyll at Mr. Spenlow's

The chapter title, "Blissful," prepares readers for the news that Miss Murdstone, Dora's odious companion, has departed for his brother's wedding festivities, leaving the field clear for David. Furniss depicts the couple as young, "blissful," and naive. The colouration of the picture shows Dora and the surrounding vegetation (the flowering lilac bush) in the garden bower as white, but David's dark suit in opposition to the furry dark ball in the lower left corner: the jealous, snarling Jip. Furniss has carefully hidden the bonneted head of a young woman, Julia Mills (the more pleasant companion who is amenable to David's flowering relationship with Dora) to the left. Indeed, the reader — like David himself — barely notices her.

Other Studies of Dora Spenlow and Jip (1850-1890)

Left: George Arents' Cigarette Card No. 22, from Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, a series of 40: Dora Spenlow (c. 1880-1890). Centre: Fred Barnard's Household Edition characterisation of the charming but unfortunately vacuous Miss Spenlow: Dora (1872). Right: Phiz's original serial illustration of the scene in which Mr. Spenlow introduces his daughter to David: I fall into Captivity (Instalment No. 9, January 1850). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Relevant Illustrated Editions of this Novel (1849 through 1910)

• Hablot Knight Browne's Forty steel engravings for the Chapman and Hall Edition (May 1849 through November 1850)
• O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 1, 1863)
• O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 2, 1863)
• Sir John Gilbert's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 3, 1863)
• O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 4, 1863)
• Sol Eytinge, Junior's 16 wood engravings for the Diamond Edition (1867)
• Fred Barnard's 62 Composite Woodblock Engravings for the Household Edition (1872)
• Clayton J. Clarke's (Kyd's) Watercolours and Player's Cigarette Card Designs (1889)

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.

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

Dickens, Charles. The Personal History of David Copperfield, illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Centenary Edition. London & New York: Chapman & Hall, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911. 2 vols.

_______. The Personal History of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. V.

_______. David Copperfield, with 61 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. III.

_______. The Personal History and Experiences of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. X.

"Dora Spenlow." George Arents Collection. The New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-789e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Hammerton, J. A., ed. The Dickens Picture-Book: A Record of the the Dickens Illustrations. London: Educational Book, 1910.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978.

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Created 14 March 2022