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Sentiment
George Cruikshank
1839
Etching on copper
10.7 x 8.4 cm vignetted
"Sentiment" ["Theodosius Introduced to the New Pupil"] for Chapter 3 in "Tales," by Charles Dickens in Sketches by Boz, originally published in Bell's Life in London (7 June 1834), and illustrated by Cruikshank in 1836, facing p. 242 in the 1839 edition.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Not even the announcement of the arrival of Mr. Theodosius Butler could induce her to leave the corner of the back drawing-room in which she was seated.
"Now, Theodosius," said Miss Maria Crumpton, after that enlightened pamphleteer had nearly run the gauntlet of the whole company, "I must introduce you to our new pupil."
Theodosius looked as if he cared for nothing earthly.
"She's the daughter of a member of parliament," said Maria. — Theodosius started.
"And her name is —?" he inquired.
"Miss Brook Dingwall."
"Great Heaven!" poetically exclaimed Theodosius, in a low tone.
Miss Crumpton commenced the introduction in due form. Miss Brook Dingwall languidly raised her head.
"Edward!" she exclaimed, with a half-shriek, on seeing the well-known nankeen legs.
Fortunately, as Miss Maria Crumpton possessed no remarkable share of penetration, and as it was one of the diplomatic arrangements that no attention was to be paid to Miss Lavinia's incoherent exclamations, she was perfectly unconscious of the mutual agitation of the parties; and therefore, seeing that the offer of his hand for the next quadrille was accepted, she left him by the side of Miss Brook Dingwall.
"Oh, Edward!" exclaimed that most romantic of all romantic young ladies, as the light of science seated himself beside her, "Oh, Edward, is it you?"
Mr. Theodosius assured the dear creature, in the most impassioned manner, that he was not conscious of being anybody but himself.
"Then why — why — this disguise? Oh! Edward M'Neville Walter, what have I not suffered on your account?" — "Tales," Chapter 3, "Sentiment," p. 248.
Originally published in Bell's Life in London on 7 June 1834, the sketch once again presents a portrait of young, middle-class Londoners trying to free themselves of the constraints that their middle-class status and family situations impose upon them. The Miss Crumptons, a pair of middle-aged sisters who run a girls' school in Hammersmith, receive a summons to the Adelphi rooms of Cornelius Brook Dingwall, Member of Parliament (for which constituency Dickens never tells us). The egotistical politician specifically wants the spinster-teachers to "cure" his daughter, the adolescent Lavinia, of "sentiment," by which readers are to understand a romantic attachment. Whereas George Cruikshank's 1836 illustration Sentiment — Theodosius Introduced to the New Pupil focusses on the incipient romance as angular Miss Maria Crumpton (in a ridiculous dress and millinery confection) introduces her guest, the slender-legged, long-headed pamphleteer Theodosius Butler, to the shocked Lavinia Brook Dingwall, unaware that there is a prior relationship between the two, Barnard exploits the physical comedy afforded by Lavinia's young brother at the interview. Although Dickens would seem to be on side of the lovers in Cruikshank's illustration, and the Barnard wood-engraving in no way enhances the readers' opinion of her egotistical father, the story does not end especially happily for the sentimental Lavinia, who is cut off by her controlling father, united to a humbug, and exiled to a childless existence in a remote cottage near a brick-field:
[Brook Dingwall] hurriedly opened it. A letter from his daughter, and another from Theodosius. He glanced over their content — "Ere this reaches you, far distant — appeal to feelings — love to distraction — bee's-wax — slavery," &c., &c. He dashed his hand to his forehead, and paced the room with fearfully long strides, to the great alarm of the precise Maria.
"Now mind; from this time forward," said Mr. Brook Dingwall, suddenly stopping at the table, and beating time upon it with his hand; "from this time forward, I never will, under any circumstances whatever, permit a man who writes pamphlets to enter any other room of this house but the kitchen. — I'll allow my daughter and her husband one hundred and fifty pounds a-year, and never see their faces again: and, damme! ma'am, I'll bring in a bill for the abolition of finishing-schools."
Some time has elapsed since this passionate declaration. Mr. and Mrs. Butler are at present rusticating in a small cottage at Ball's-pond, pleasantly situated in the immediate vicinity of a brick-field. They have no family. Mr. Theodosius looks very important, and writes incessantly; but, in consequence of a gross combination on the part of publishers, none of his productions appear in print. His young wife begins to think that ideal misery is preferable to real unhappiness; and that a marriage, contracted in haste, and repented at leisure, is the cause of more substantial wretchedness than she ever anticipated [prior to her elopement].
On cool reflection, Cornelius Brook Dingwall, Esq., M. P., was reluctantly compelled to admit that the untoward result of his admirable arrangements was attributable, not to the Miss Crumptons, but his own diplomacy. He, however, consoles himself, like some other small diplomatists, by satisfactorily proving that if his plans did not succeed, they ought to have done so. Minerva House is in status quo, and "The Misses Crumpton" remain in the peaceable and undisturbed enjoyment of all the advantages resulting from their Finishing-School. — "Tales," Chapter 3, "Sentiment,"pp. 250-51.
Above: Fred Barnard's satirical study of the pompous Member of Parliament and the spinster-teachers whom he hopes will cure his adolescent daughter of her romantic attachment, The dear little fellow, having recovered his animal spirits, was standing upon her most tender foot. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
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Last modified 22 May 2017