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Crusoe and Poll the Parrot in dialogue.
George Cruikshank
1831
Wood-engraving
6.7 cm high by 6.8 cm wide, vignetted
Illustration for Daniel Defoe's Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, p. 140.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
It would have made a stoic smile, to have seen me and my little family sit down to dinner. There was my majesty the prince and lord of the whole island; I had the lives of all my subjects at my absolute command; I could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it away, and no rebels among all my subjects. Then, to see how like a king I dined, too, all alone, attended by my servants! Poll, as if he had been my favourite, was the only person permitted to talk to me. My dog, who was now grown old and crazy, and had found no species to multiply his kind upon, sat always at my right hand; and two cats, one on one side of the table and one on the other, expecting now and then a bit from my hand, as a mark of especial favour. [Chapter IX, "A Boat," pp. 139-140]
Crusoe mentions the parrot, another survivor of the wreck on a number of occasions. He is a significant companion until the arrival of Friday because Crusoe has been teaching him how to speak English:
Within doors, that is, when it rained, and I could not go out, I found employment on the following occasions; always observing, that all the while I was at work, I diverted myself with talking to my parrot, and teaching him to speak, and I quickly learned him to know his own name, and at last to speak it out pretty loud, Poll, which was the first word I ever heard spoken in the island by any mouth but my own. [Chapter IX, "A Boat," p. 112]
I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my old hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed. This little wandering journey, without settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to me, that my own house, as I called it to myself, was a perfect settlement to me compared to that; and it rendered everything about me so comfortable, that I resolved I would never go a great way from it again while it should be my lot to stay on the island.
I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my long journey; during which most of the time was taken up in the weighty affair of making a cage for my Poll, who began now to be a mere domestic, and to be well acquainted with me. [Chapter VIII, "Surveys His Position," pp. 104-105]
Thus, in the illustration Cruikshank reveals a thorough knowledge of the text in that he has synthesized material about the dog and the parrot from a number of passages. Here, Cruikshank enforces belief in the illustration by using Defoe's own technique of supplying countless small but telling details: the umbrella, hat, and rifle (left); two cats looking at Crusoe (left and right); the hammock and blanket (right); spade and pot (down right); wicker fishing basket (down left); and table laden with food and a pewter mug salvaged from the wreck. A charming touch characteristic of Cruikshank is the attentiveness the other animals (both cats and the dog) to their master's speech lessons for the parrot — and the artist's placing his initials prominently beside the musket and umbrella (left).
Left: Stothard's 1790 realisation of the interior of the hut in a later episode, Robinson Crusoe and Friday making a tent to lodge Friday's father and the Spaniard (copper-plate engraving, [Chapter XVI, "Rescue of the Prisoners from the Cannibals"). Centre: A realisation of the interior of the hut, Robinson Crusoe reading the Bible (1818). Right: The Cassell's study of Crusoe's instructing Poll the Parrot, Crusoe teaching his Parrot to talk (1863-64). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, with introductory verses by Bernard Barton, and illustrated with numerous engravings from drawings by George Cruikshank expressly designed for this edition. 2 vols. London: Printed at the Shakespeare Press, by W. Nichol, for John Major, Fleet Street, 1831.
De Foe, Daniel. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Written by Himself. Illustrated by Gilbert, Cruikshank, and Brown. London: Darton and Hodge, 1867?].
Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner. (1831). Illustrated by George Cruikshank. Major's Edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1890.
Patten, Robert L. "Phase 2: "'The Finest Things, Next to Rembrandt's,' 1720–1835." Chapter 20, "Thumbnail Designs." George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, vol. 1: 1792-1835. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers U. P., 1992; London: The Lutterworth Press, 1992. Pp. 325-339.
Last modified 22 February 2018