"Father!" said Minnie, playfully. "What a porpoise you do grow!" 1872. Tenth illustration by Fred Barnard (engraved by the Dalziels) for the Household Edition of David Copperfield (Chapter IX, "I Have a Memorable Birthday," p. 57). 9.3 cm high by 13.7 cm wide (3 ¾ by 5 ⅜ inches), framed. Headline on p. 57: "My Mother Protests Against Peggotty's Insinuations." [Click on image to enlarge it. Mouse over text for links.]
Passage Illustrated: A Visit to the Local Undertaker's
Harry Furniss's interpretation of David's being fitted out for a mourning suit: Little David at the Undertaker's (1910).
I put my hand in his, wondering who he was, and we walked away to a shop in a narrow street, on which was written OMER, DRAPER, TAILOR, HABERDASHER, FUNERAL FURNISHER, &c. It was a close and stifling little shop; full of all sorts of clothing, made and unmade, including one window full of beaver-hats and bonnets. We went into a little back-parlour behind the shop, where we found three young women at work on a quantity of black materials, which were heaped upon the table, and little bits and cuttings of which were littered all over the floor. There was a good fire in the room, and a breathless smell of warm black crape—I did not know what the smell was then, but I know now.
The three young women, who appeared to be very industrious and comfortable, raised their heads to look at me, and then went on with their work. Stitch, stitch, stitch. At the same time there came from a workshop across a little yard outside the window, a regular sound of hammering that kept a kind of tune: RAT—tat-tat, RAT—tat-tat, RAT—tat-tat, without any variation.
"Well," said my conductor to one of the three young women. "How do you get on, Minnie?"
"We shall be ready by the trying-on time," she replied gaily, without looking up. "Don’t you be afraid, father."
Mr. Omer took off his broad-brimmed hat, and sat down and panted. He was so fat that he was obliged to pant some time before he could say:
"That’s right.
"Father!" said Minnie, playfully. "What a porpoise you do grow!"
"Well, I don’t know how it is, my dear," he replied, considering about it. "I am rather so." [Chapter IX, "I Have a Memorable Holiday," 62]
Commentary: David reacts to news of his Mother's death
The last that David sees of his mother is her waving to him from the garden gate, holding up her baby. Two months have passed at Salem House School, and it is now a cold day in March — and David's birthday. When he is specially summoned to the headmaster's office, Creakle quickly breaks the dreadful news of his mother's death. Discounting his stepfather as a source caring nurturance, David immediately realizes that he is an orphan. Shocked, he departs for home the next afternoon on the "heavy night-coach." Arriving in Yarmouth about mid-morning the next day. Instead of being met by Barkis or Peggotty, he is hailed by "a fat, short-winded, merry-looking, little old man in black, with rusty little bunches of ribbons at the knees of his breeches" (62). His guide turns out to be the local haberdasher, who doubles as the funeral director. The three Omer daughters are anything but lugubrious and sober-sided as they gaily welcome their father and his latest client. Thus, David steps into the shop, where the jovial tailor takes his measurements for a mourning suit of "super fine" cloth.
Related Material
- David Copperfield (homepage)
- The Remains of the Day: Death and Dying in Victorian Illustration
- Phiz's 40 serial illustrations for David Copperfield (May 1849 - November 1850)
- O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 1, 1862)
- O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 2, 1862)
- O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 3, 1862)
- Sol Eytinge, Junior's 16 Diamond Edition Illustrations (1867)
- W. H. C. Groome's 7 illustrations for the Collins Clear-type Pocket Edition, Vol. I (1907)
- Kyd's five Player's Cigarette Cards, 1910
- Harry Furniss's 29 Illustrations for Dickens's The Personal Experience and History of David Copperfield in the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910)
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
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 [rpt. from 1850]. 2 vols.
_______. David Copperfield, with 61 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. 3.
_______. The Personal History and Experiences of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. X.
The copy of the Household Edition from which this picture was scanned was the gift of George Gorniak, Editor of The Dickens Magazine, whose subject for the fifth series, beginning in January 2010, is this novel.
Created 17 August 2016 Last modified 13 July 2022