Old John Asleep in his Cozy Bar by George Cattermole. 3 ¾ x 4 ½ inches (9.1 cm by 11.4 cm). Vignetted, wood-engraved tailpiece for Chapter 25, Barnaby Rudge. 15 May 1841 in serial publication (twenty-seventh plate in the series). Part 14 in the novel, serialised in Master Humphrey's Clock, Vol. III (part 57), 80. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Cattermole's version of the Host of the Maypole

It went round by the Maypole, and stopped at the door. Joe was from home, and Hugh came sluggishly out to hand up the parcel that it called for. There was no fear of old John coming out. They could see him from the coach-roof fast asleep in his cosy bar. It was a part of John’s character. He made a point of going to sleep at the coach’s time. He despised gadding about; he looked upon coaches as things that ought to be indicted; as disturbers of the peace of mankind; as restless, bustling, busy, horn-blowing contrivances, quite beneath the dignity of men, and only suited to giddy girls that did nothing but chatter and go a-shopping. "We know nothing about coaches here, sir," John would say, if any unlucky stranger made inquiry touching the offensive vehicles; "we don’t book for ‘em; we’d rather not; they’re more trouble than they’re worth, with their noise and rattle. If you like to wait for ‘em you can; but we don’t know anything about ‘em; they may call and they may not—there’s a carrier — he was looked upon as quite good enough for us, when I was a boy." [Vol. III, Chapter the Twenty-fifth, 80]

Related Scene from the Phiz Sequence: Chapter XXV

Related Material including Other Illustrated Editions of Barnaby Rudge

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

Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') and George Cattermole. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841; rpt., Bradbury & Evans, 1849.

Vann, J. Don. "Barnaby Rudge in Master Humphrey's Clock, 13 February 1841-27 November 1841." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. 65-6.


Created 4 January 2006

Last modified 15 December 2020