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Crusoe and Friday out Shooting
Justyne, Leitch, Macquoid, Morgan, Pasquier, & Thomas
Engravers: Butterworth and Heath
1863-64
Wood-engraving
17.5 cm high by 14.3 cm wide, framed.
Cassell's Robinson Crusoe, page 141.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
After I had been two or three days returned to my castle, I thought that, in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of feeding, and from the relish of a cannibal’s stomach, I ought to let him taste other flesh; so I took him out with me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out of my own flock; and bring it home and dress it; but as I was going I saw a she-goat lying down in the shade, and two young kids sitting by her. I catched hold of Friday. “Hold,” said I, “stand still;” and made signs to him not to stir: immediately I presented my piece, shot, and killed one of the kids. [Chapter XV, "Friday's Education," p. 142]
Although the servant and the master are out hunting, only Crusoe has a firearm. Consequently, he instructs his student without giving his acolyte the benefit of the kind of equipment that Friday will need to be successful. The dual portrait of the somewhat apprehensive young aboriginal and the wise, self-possessed, bearded, middle-age European effectively contrasts the technologically advanced Crusoe and the Noble Savage, his well-made limbs unobscured by goatskin clothing. Subsequently, Crusoe acknowledges Friday's superior understanding of the natural environment, and, after his initial attempts at boat-building, defers to Friday's knowlege of the local vegetation, which also suggests that he would know more about how to hunt in the locale. The running head in this section, "Friday becomes Useful" (p. 143) indicates that Crusoe intends to utilize Friday's youthful vigour in far more than just hunting.
Left: Stothard's 1790 realisation of the rescue scene, an illustration of which Cruikshank was probably aware, Robinson Crusoe first sees and rescues his man Friday (copper-plate engraving, [Chapter XIV, "A Dream Realised"). Centre: Phiz's steel-engraved frontispiece, with the surviving pursuer about to attack the unwitting Crusoe, Robinson Crusoe rescues Friday (1864). Right: Colourful realisation of the same scene, with a decidedly subservient and Negroid Friday contrasting the Caucasian Crusoe: Friday's first interview with Robinson Crusoe. (1818). [Click on the 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.
Last modified 20 March 2018