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Crusoe conversing with the Priest
William Luson Thomas
Engraver: Linton
1863-64
Wood-engraving
22.2 cm high (including caption) by 14.2 cm wide, framed.
Cassell's Robinson Crusoe, page 281.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
“Sir,” says he, “asking your pardon for such freedom, you are right in this, that, it being done in your absence, you could not be charged with that part of the crime; but, I beseech you, flatter not yourself that you are not, therefore, under an obligation to do your utmost now to put an end to it. You should legally and effectually marry them; and as, sir, my way of marrying may not be easy to reconcile them to, though it will be effectual, even by your own laws, so your way may be as well before God, and as valid among men. I mean by a written contract signed by both man and woman, and by all the witnesses present, which all the laws of Europe would decree to be valid.”
I was amazed to see so much true piety, and so much sincerity of zeal, besides the unusual impartiality in his discourse as to his own party or church, and such true warmth for preserving people that he had no knowledge of or relation to from transgressing the laws of God. But recollecting what he had said of marrying them by a written contract, which I knew he would stand to, I returned it back upon him, and told him I granted all that he had said to be just, and on his part very kind; that I would discourse with the men upon the point now, when I came to them; and I knew no reason why they should scruple to let him marry them all, which I knew well enough would be granted to be as authentic and valid in England as if they were married by one of our own clergymen. [Chapter VI, "The French Clergyman's Counsel," page 280]
Relations between England and France had much improved by the 1860s as a result of the Crimean War. However, given the centuries' old animosity between the two great European powers, especially during the Napoleonic Wars, public sentiment about the Anglo-French alliance (1855) was ambivalent in the 1860s. When Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe the two imperial powers were habitual rivals, particularly on the eastern seaboard of North America and in the Caribbean. From the period of Defoe's birth through the early eighteenth century England and France were perpetual enemies, fighting each other in such conflicts as the Dutch-Portuguese War (1602-61), the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars (1665-74), the Franco-Dutch War (1672-78), the Nine Years' War (1688-97), and, most significantly, the War of Spanish Succession or Queen Anne's War (1701-1714). Thus, the Presbyterian Defoe's depicting a French Catholic priest in a positive light betokens the writer's as well as the protagonist's particularly enlightened and non-partisan view. The story at the beginning of Part 2 utilizes the fact that transAtlantic routes between the Kingdom of France and Quebec (New France) crossed English shipping routes to the West Indies at the end of the seventeenth century. In consequence, Crusoe had come to the assistance of a French merchant vessel earlier, and had acquired as a passenger on board his own vessel, bound for the Caribbean, a French Catholic cleric of non-partisan and enlightened Christian views. Defoe must resort to this coincidence in order to effect the formal marriage of Will Atkins as there are no other clergy of any denomination on the island.
The Cassell's program of illustration depicts the priest as much younger than Crusoe, who in this particular illustration appears quite elderly for a man in his sixties. Other illustrations in this series show a very different Crusoe: fashionably dressed, vigorous, and interested in every aspect of the affairs of the colony, of which he regards himself the father. Crusoe and the Catholic priest, incidentally, are speaking French throughout this section since the Frenchman speaks neither Spanish nor English. Crusoe's linguistic facility apparently reflects Defoe's own as, having been a merchant and trader throughout Europe, Defoe spoke and wrote half-a-dozen European languages, including Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. The Cassell's artist may even intend the study of the aged Crusoe here to represent the fifty-nine-year-old author who in 1727 published a rationalist discourse on the issue of marriage from a social rather than religious perspective, A Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.
Left: Thomas Stothard's study of Crusoe's distributing supplies to the colonists of both nationalities, Robinson Crusoe distributing tools of husbandry among the inhabitants. Centre: George Cruikshank's equivalent scene, Crusoe distributing agricultural implements. Right: Wal Paget's realisation of Crusoe and the French priest discussing the religious education of the colonists and their wives in "We walked on" (1891). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Above: Cruikshank's small-scale realisation of Crusoe's interest in spreading the words and spirit of the Gospel, Crusoe presents a Bible to Will Atkins and his native wife (1831). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Above: Wal Paget's vignette of Crusoe and the priest discussing religious matters: "Made me a very low bow" (1891). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
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 1 April 2018