"Oh, Mr. Linkinwater, you’re joking!" "No, no, I'm not. I'm not indeed," said Tim. "I will, if you will. Do my dear!
Fred Barnard
1875
13.9 x 10.5 cm (5 ⅜ by 4 ⅛ inches), vignetted, p. 413. For Chapter 63.
Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, The Household Edition, p. 413.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"It’s a pleasant thing," said Tim, "to people like us, who have passed all our lives in the world alone, to see young folks that we are fond of, brought together with so many years of happiness before them."
"Ah!" cried the little woman with all her heart, "that it is!"
"Although," pursued Tim "although it makes one feel quite solitary and cast away. Now don’t it?"
Miss La Creevy said she didn’t know. And why should she say she didn’t know? Because she must have known whether it did or not.
"It’s almost enough to make us get married after all, isn’t it?" said Tim.
"Oh, nonsense!" replied Miss La Creevy, laughing. "We are too old."
"Not a bit," said Tim; "we are too old to be single. Why shouldn’t we both be married, instead of sitting through the long winter evenings by our solitary firesides? Why shouldn’t we make one fireside of it, and marry each other?"
"Oh, Mr. Linkinwater, you’re joking!"
"No, no, I’m not. I’m not indeed," said Tim. "I will, if you will. Do, my dear!"
"It would make people laugh so."
"Let ‘em laugh," cried Tim stoutly; "we have good tempers I know, and we’ll laugh too. Why, what hearty laughs we have had since we’ve known each other!"
"So we have," cried Miss La Creevy — giving way a little, as Tim thought. [Chapter LXIII, "The Brothers Cheeryble make various Declarations for themselves and others. Tim Linkinwater makes a Declaration for himself," 412]
At the Cherrybles' townhouse, an hour before the dinner to which the brothers have invited Nicholas, Kate, and significant others ion the circle, Frank has confessed his love for Kate Nickleby. Madeline Bray, now an heiress thanks to the will that Frank has secured, is going to marry Nicholas. To complete the symmetries of these romantic closures, Dickens now arranges matters so that Tim Linkinwater and Miss La Creevy are left alone together in the widow-seat in the parlour. Although this is the first mention of a there being relationship between them, the elderly couple have been friends for quite some time time: what, then, would be more appropriate than a "December-December" marriage?
Charles Cheeryble has produced a copy of Madeline’s grandfather’s will. He had disowned her when she had refused to leave her father, but her grandfather reconsidered and within three week had made a new will, bequeathing her twelve thousand pounds when she comes of age or marries. Ned Cheeryble has announced all this to Mrs. Nickleby and Miss La Creevy, both of whom are crying joyfully. Now, Tim asks Miss La Creevy to share his fireside and what remains of his life; if she will marry him, in sickness and in health they will have companionship and mutual sympathy.
The Barnard illustration, coming just after the dialogue in the British Household Edition, therefore captures the very moment of Tim's proposal, but incorporates the details of the physical situation which Dickens has provided:
Now, Tim and Miss La Creevy had met very often, and had always been very chatty and pleasant together — had always been great friends — and consequently it was the most natural thing in the world that Tim, finding that she still sobbed, should endeavour to console her. As Miss La Creevy sat on a large old-fashioned window-seat, where there was ample room for two, it was also natural that Tim should sit down beside her; and as to Tim’s being unusually spruce and particular in his attire that day, why it was a high festival and a great occasion, and that was the most natural thing of all.
Tim sat down beside Miss La Creevy, and, crossing one leg over the other so that his foot — he had very comely feet and happened to be wearing the neatest shoes and black silk stockings possible — should come easily within the range of her eye, said in a soothing way:
"Don’t cry!" {Chapter LXIII, p. 411].
Barnard places a skeletal tree and dimly seen shapes of buildings outside the window, as if to imply the urban context and dimly seen future that the couple will face. The cushion for the capacious window-seat is not evident, but the somewhat old-fashioned, formal clothing and comfortable postures of the couple complement the text. Thus, the illustration synthesizes a full double-columned page of text, concluding with this affirmation of their intended union of hearthsides, as fate seems to have dictated:
Five minutes after this honest and straightforward speech, little Miss La Creevy and Tim were talking as pleasantly as if they had been married for a score of years, and had never once quarrelled all the time; and five minutes after that, when Miss La Creevy had bustled out to see if her eyes were red and put her hair to rights, Tim moved with a stately step towards the drawing-room, exclaiming as he went, "There an’t such another woman in all London — I know there an’t!" (412)
Above: C. S. Reinhart's 1875 American Household Editioncomposite woodblock engraving of Tim Linkinwater proposing marriage: "Come," said Tim, "let’s be a comfortable couple.".
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.
Morley, John. Death, Heaven and the Victorians. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972.
Created 24 September 2021
