"I am robbed! I am ruined!" — Chapter LVI, Fred Barnard's fifty-second illustration for "Nicholas Nickleby" (1875)

"I am robbed! I am ruined!" for Chap. LVI; fifty-second illustration for the British Household Edition, illustrated by Fred Barnard with fifty-nine composite woodblock engravings (1875). The framed illustration is 10.5 cm high by 13.7 cm wide (4 ⅛ by 5 ⅜ inches), p. 373. Running head: "Something Missing" (373). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Passage Illustrated: Arthur Gride discovers the theft of the Bray will

Left: C. S. Reinhart's 1875 woodblock engraving of Ralph Nickleby's trying to ascertain from Gride what Peg Sliderskew has stolen: "I am robbed! I am ruined!"

Gride, who had been peering narrowly about the room, fell, at that moment, upon his knees before a large chest, and uttered a terrible yell.

"How now?" said Ralph, looking sternly round.

"Robbed! robbed!" screamed Arthur Gride.

"Robbed! of money?"

"No, no, no. Worse! far worse!"

"Of what then?" demanded Ralph.

"Worse than money, worse than money!" cried the old man, casting the papers out of the chest, like some beast tearing up the earth. "She had better have stolen money — all my money — I haven’t much! She had better have made me a beggar than have done this!"

"Done what?" said Ralph. "Done what, you devil’s dotard?"

Still Gride made no answer, but tore and scratched among the papers, and yelled and screeched like a fiend in torment.

"There is something missing, you say," said Ralph, shaking him furiously by the collar. "What is it?"

"Papers, deeds. I am a ruined man. Lost, lost! I am robbed, I am ruined! She saw me reading it — reading it of late — I did very often — She watched me, saw me put it in the box that fitted into this, the box is gone, she has stolen it. Damnation seize her, she has robbed me!"

"Of what?" cried Ralph, on whom a sudden light appeared to break, for his eyes flashed and his frame trembled with agitation as he clutched Gride by his bony arm. "Of what?"

"She don’t know what it is; she can’t read!" shrieked Gride, not heeding the inquiry. "There’s only one way in which money can be made of it, and that is by taking it to her. Somebody will read it for her, and tell her what to do. She and her accomplice will get money for it and be let off besides; they’ll make a merit of it — say they found it — knew it — and be evidence against me. The only person it will fall upon is me, me, me!" [Chapter LVI, "Ralph Nickleby, baffled by his Nephew in his late Design, hatches a Scheme of Retaliation which Accident suggests to him, and takes into his Counsels a tried Auxiliary," 302]

Commentary: Peg Sliderskew has robbed Arthur Gride on his wedding day

Arthur Gride's slightly demented and largely deaf housekeeper, whom Barnard characterizes as a hideous crone, has absconded with certain valuable papers belonging. The master discovers the theft of his deal box from his chest of papers only after Walter Bray has suddenly died and Nicholas has whisked the bride away from Gride and his uncle. Her motive may well have been jealousy, for she resents Gride's having chosen an adolescent bride rather than a woman of his own age, such as herself. Discovering the robbery when he and Ralph finally get into the house after going over the garden wall, Gride takes cold comfort in the fact that the illiterate Peg will not be able to assess the value of what she has stolen. He reasons that she will therefore require some literate confederate's assistance in assessing the value of the legal documents. One particular document concerns him since she has taken a bond that implicates him in the plot to defraud Madeline Bray and control her considerable inheritance in her grandfather's will. He fears that he will spend his final years in Newgate if the authorities acquire the bond. Ralph Nickleby determines to intervene, and offers Squeers a hundred pounds to recover the papers.

Fred Barnard depicts Gride's visage as sharply distorted by his fear of prison. Ralph, dressed for the street since the pair have just arrived by carriage from Walter Bray's apartments near the King's Bench Prison, attempts to restrain Gride, demanding to know what is missing. Gride in his haste has thrown off his ht and plunges his hand into the papers, looking for his small deal box. As Ralph rationally interrogates his confederate, Gride, on his knees, raves as he fails to see the box where he left it. Peg must be at fault.

Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators

Scanned image, colour correction, sizing, caption, and commentary 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

Barnard, J. "Fred" (il.). Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, with fifty-nine illustrations. The Works of Charles Dickens: The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. XV. Rpt. 1890.

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 Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872. I.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. With 39 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). London: Chapman & Hall, 1839.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 4.

__________. "Nicholas Nickleby." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard et al. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1908.

Created 18 September 20211