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Nicholas caning Squeers before the pupils
Harold Copping
1924
Line drawing (lithograph)
5 ½ by 4 ¾ inches (14 x 12.3 cm)
In "Smike, and Dotheboys Hall in Children's Stories from Dickens, 95.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Squeers continued to gaze upon him, with his eyes starting out of his head; but astonishment had actually, for the moment, bereft him of speech.
"You have disregarded all my quiet interference in the miserable lad's behalf," said Nicholas; "you have returned no answer to the letter in which I begged forgiveness for him, and offered to be responsible that he would remain quietly here. Don't blame me for this public interference. You have brought it upon yourself; not I."
"Sit down, beggar!" screamed Squeers, almost beside himself with rage, and seizing Smike as he spoke.
"Wretch," rejoined Nicholas, fiercely, "touch him at your peril! I will not stand by and see it done. My blood is up, and I have the strength of ten such men as you. Look to yourself, for by Heaven I will not spare you, if you drive me on!"
"Stand back," cried Squeers, brandishing his weapon.
"I have a long series of insults to avenge," said Nicholas, flushed with passion; "and my indignation is aggravated by the dastardly cruelties practised on helpless infancy in this foul den. Have a care; for if you do rouse the devil within me, the consequences shall fall heavily upon your own head!"
He had scarcely spoken, when Squeers, in a violent outbreak of wrath, and with a cry like the howl of a wild beast, struck him a blow across the face with his instrument of torture, which raised up a bar of livid flesh as it was inflicted. Smarting with the agony of the blow, and concentrating into that one moment all his feelings of rage, scorn, and indignation, Nicholas sprang upon him, wrested the weapon from his hand, and pinning him by the throat, beat the ruffian till he roared for mercy.
After beating the schoolmaster, Nicholas packed up a few of his things and started off to find his way back to London; and he had not journeyed far before he was overtaken by Smike. . . . ["Smike, and Dotheboys Hall," Children's Stories from Dickens, pp. 94-96]
Copping leaves the reader to construe the look of anger, indignation, and disgust on the face of Nicholas as he counterattacks. The narrator does not indicate precisely how the situation resolves itself, merely indicating that "Squeers did something more wicked than ever, and was sent to prison" (98). Phiz's original serial illustration from the Yorkshire school chapters of Dickens's serialised novel (July 1838 instalment) has set the standard for all the remaining illustrators apparently, although the Household Edition illustrations, like Copping's, present modelled figures who are far less caricatural. However, Copping minimizes the background, reduces the number of eager spectators to just three principals with front-row seats, and permits Nicholas to dominate the scene by making his head and feet the upper and lower boundaries of the vignetted plate.
Left: Harry Furniss's version focuses on the violence and setting, the schoolroom: Nicholas's Vengeance on Squeers (1910). Right: C. S. Reinhart's stage-like realism and Baroque action: Nicholas varies the Monotony of Dothebys Hall by a most vigorous and remarkable proceeding, which leads to Consequences of some Importance (1875).
Left: The Household Edition by Fred Barnard that deals with the same melodramatic incident, the composite woodblock engraving "Wretch," rejoined Nicholas, fiercely, "touch him at your peril! I will not stand by, and see it done. My blood is up, and I have the strength of ten such men as you" (1875). Right: The original July 1838 Phiz steel-engraving to which the later illustrators allude, Nicholas Astonishes Mr. Squeers and Family.
Clarke, Clayton J. ('Kyd'). The Characters of Charles Dickens pourtrayed in a series of original water colour sketches by "Kyd." [Lithographs] London, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck, n. d. [1898?]
Dickens, Charles. The LIfe and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1839.
Dickens, Mary Angela, Percy Fitzgerald, Captain Edric Vredenburg, and Others. Illustrated by Harold Copping with eleven coloured lithographs. Children's Stories from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1893.
Matz, B. W., and Kate Perugini; illustrated by Harold Copping. "Nicholas Nickleby." Character Sketches from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924. Pp. 39-51.
Created 12 October 2023