Will Marks reading the News concerning Witches by George Cattermole. 3 ½ x 4 ½ inches (8.7 cm by 11.7 cm). Vignetted, wood-engraved. Master Humphrey's Clock, No. 4 (25 April 1840), fifteenth plate in the series. Part 4, First Chapter of "Mr. Pickwick's Tale," p. 56. [Click on the images to enlarge them. Mouse over links]
Passage Illustrated: "A Good Many Years Ago," in the Reign of James the First
W. H. Groome's full-page illustration for this story in the Collins Pocket Edition: Will seized a woman by the wrist (1907).
One fine midsummer evening, a group of persons were gathered in this place, listening intently to Will Marks (that was the nephew’s name), as with his cap very much on one side, his arm coiled slyly round the waist of a pretty girl who sat beside him, and his face screwed into a comical expression intended to represent extreme gravity, he read — with Heaven knows how many embellishments of his own — a dismal account of a gentleman down in Northamptonshire under the influence of witchcraft and taken forcible possession of by the Devil, who was playing his very self with him. John Podgers, in a high sugar-loaf hat and short cloak, filled the opposite seat, and surveyed the auditory with a look of mingled pride and horror very edifying to see; while the hearers, with their heads thrust forward and their mouths open, listened and trembled, and hoped there was a great deal more to come. Sometimes Will stopped for an instant to look round upon his eager audience, and then, with a more comical expression of face than before and a settling of himself comfortably, which included a squeeze of the young lady before mentioned, he launched into some new wonder surpassing all the others.
The setting sun shed his last golden rays upon this little party, who, absorbed in their present occupation, took no heed of the approach of night, or the glory in which the day went down, when the sound of a horse, approaching at a good round trot, invading the silence of the hour, caused the reader to make a sudden stop, and the listeners to raise their heads in wonder. Nor was their p. 266wonder diminished when a horseman dashed up to the porch, and abruptly checking his steed, inquired where one John Podgers dwelt. ["Mr. Pickwick's Story," Chapter 1, pp. 56-57]
Commentary: The witty Will Marks foils the stodgy John Podgers
The editor of Master Humphrey's Clock, twenty-eight-year-old Charles Dickens, has positioned Cattermole's elegant illustration of the scene on John Podgers's porch in Windsor at mid-summer after the account of Mr. Pickwick's visit to Master Humphrey. As he intends to become one of Master Humphrey's circle, he has left a bundle, which, it turns out, contains "Mr. Pickwick's Tale" in two chapters. A crowd of more than a dozen neighbours, a credulous lot, sit attentively, listening to Will, John Podgers's twenty-year-old-old nephew, read a broadsheet account of witchcraft in Northamptonshire. To the left-hand side, the amorous young lady holds the broadsheet, but has not yet kissed the reader, while to Will's immediate right (stage left, so to speak) Cattermole has stationed the corpulent uncle, exactly as Dickens describes him: "John Podgers, in a high sugar-loaf hat and short cloak, filled the opposite seat." Something of an antiquarian, Cattermole seems to have modelled the porch of the Jacobean house in Windsor on church porches from the period, and has taken pains to give all the characters clothing suitable to small-town England early in the seventeenth century. As a result of the arrival of the messenger on horseback, the scene will shortly shift to Kingston-upon-Thames some 33 kilometers or about twenty miles away. Here in the complementary illustration by Phiz, Will Marks Takes up His Position for the Night a Will Marks in a very different hat takes up his post to await the witches.
Relevant Illustrations from Other Editions (1872-1910)
Left: Harry Furniss's focus is on the teller of the tale rather than on the story itself in Mr. Pickwick Examining the Clock (1910). Right: Fred Barnard in the Household Edition realizes a key moment in satire on popular beliefs about witchcraft in the reign of James I: At last they made a halt at the opening of a lonely, desolate space, and, pointing to a black object at some distance, asked Will if he saw that, yonder. (1872).
Other Illustrated Editions of Master Humphrey's Clock
- Harry Furniss's Six Charles Dickens Library Edition Illustrations for Master Humphrey's Clock (1910)
- W. H. C. Groome's Illustrations for Master Humphrey's Clock (1907)
- Fred Barnard's Four Household Edition Illustrations for Master Humphrey's Clock (Vol. XX, 1872)
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Cohen, Jane Rabb. "George Cattermole." Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio U. P., 1980. Pp. 125-134.
Davis, Paul. "Master Humphrey's Clock." Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to his Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998. P. 238.
Dickens, Charles. Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by George Cattermole and Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). London: Chapman and Hall, 4 April 1840 — 4 December 1841.
_______. Master Humphrey's Clock. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Reprinted Pieces, and Other Stories. With thirty illustrations by L. Fildes, E. G. Dalziel, and F. Barnard. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. XX. Pp. 253-306.
_______. Master Humphrey's Clock and Pictures from Italy. With eight illustrations by W. H. C. Groome. Collins Pocket Editions. London and Glasgow: Collins Clear-type Press, 1907. Vol. XLIX. Pp. 1-168.
_______. Barnaby Rudge and Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. Charles Dickens Library Edition. Volume VI. London: Educational Book, 1910.
Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture Book: A Record of the Dickens Illustrators. Ch. XIV. "Master Humphrey's Clock." The Charles Dickens Library. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Pp. 259-265.
Patten, Robert L. "Cattermole, George." In Schlicke, Paul, ed. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1999. Pp. 68-69.
Vann, J. Don. "The Old Curiosity Shop in Master Humphrey's Clock, 25 April 1840 — 6 February 1841." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Pp. 64-65.
Created 30 August 2022