[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> George Cruikshank —> Guy Fawkes —> W. H. Ainsworth]

Passage Illustrated

"Is it possible they can be in the chimney?" cried Topcliffe. "Why, I myself have examined it twice."

"We are here, nevertheless," replied Garnet, who heard the remark; "and if you would take us alive, lose no time."

The hint was not lost upon Topcliffe. Casting a triumphant look at Bromley, he seized a torch from one of his attendants, and getting into the chimney, soon perceived the entrance to the recess.

On beholding his prey, he uttered an exclamation of joy, and the two miserable captives, seeing the savage and exulting grin that lighted up his features, half repented the step they had taken. It was now, however, too late, and Garnet begged him to help them out.

"That I will readily do, father," replied Topcliffe. "You have given us a world of trouble. But you have made ample amends for it now."

"Had we been so minded, you would never have found us," rejoined Garnet. "This cell would have been our sepulchre."

"No doubt," retorted Topcliffe, with a bitter laugh. "But a death on the scaffold is preferable to the horrors of starvation."

Finding it impossible to remove Garnet, whose limbs were so cramped that they refused their office, he called to the troopers below to bring a ladder, which was placed in the chimney, and then, with some exertion, he succeeded in getting him down. This done, he supported him towards Sir Henry Bromley, who was standing near a small table in the gallery.

"I told you your time would not be thrown away, Sir Henry," he observed; "here is Father Garnet. It is well you yielded yourself to-night, father," he added, to Garnet, with his customary cynical chuckle; "for Sir Henry had resolved to depart to-morrow."

"Indeed!" groaned Garnet. "Help me to a chair."

While this was passing, Oldcorne was brought down by two of the troopers, and the unfortunate priests were conveyed to an adjoining chamber, where they were placed in a bed, their stiffened limbs chafed, and cordials administered to them. They were reduced, however, to such extremity of weakness, that it was not judged prudent to remove them till the third day, when they, together with their two servants, Owen and Chambers, who were as much enfeebled as themselves, were conveyed to Worcester. [Book the Third, "The Conspirators," Chapter VIII, "Hendlip," page 327]

Commentary: "Come in, Equivocator!"

The plate which appears as the last in 1842 Routledge edition originally appeared in Bentley's Miscellany, Vol. 10, opposite page 105, which is the opening of the August 1841 instalment, Book III, Chapter VII, "Viviana's Last Night at Ordsall Hall." The illustration, however, realizes the final page of Chapter VIII, "Hendlip."

The Jesuit priests associated with the Gunpowder Plot, though hardly integral to it, have been hiding for a week in cramped priest's holes in a chimney-piece in a Staffordshire country-house owned by the Abingdons, a prominent Catholic family. Tipped off that Garnet and Oldcorne have been hiding there, Topcliffe, armed with a warrant from the Earl of Salisbury arrives, with the local sheriff, Sir Henry Bromley, but the pair consistently fail to find the hidden Jesuits — although they uncover numerous secret passages and hidden rooms. However, severely cramped and nearly starving, the Jesuits cannot tolerate remaining in their priest holes any longer, and, after five days of torture by contortion and starvation, ask to be pulled out. Cruikshank realizes the moment at which, nearly comatose, Garnet (centre) finally meets the arch priest-hunter, Topcliffe, and Father Oldcorne, his beads and crucifix prominently featured, descends with considerable assistance from his "retreat" in the chimney of the enormous Elizabethan fireplace. The selective lighting of the area of the fireplace and chimney and the framework of the supporting beams create a picture-within-a-picture, with the readers and Bromley as the viewers. To make the composition completely reflective of the text, Cruikshank has placed Bromley outside the inner frame, and Topcliffe holding a torch (right). FRom the ladder in the background, behind Oldcorne, a gloved hand assists in lowering the old Jesuit. Although Topcliffe serves the important role as the chief detective and pursuer of the Conspirators, Cruikshank keeps his face a bit of a mystery, perhaps to add an air of mystery to the agent who rooted out the Gunpowder Plot. In fact, Richard Topcliffe (14 November 1531–late 1604), the notorious investigator and torturer during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, was already dead when these events transpired.

Cruikshank renders pathetic and emaciated the two clandestine priests whom the Protestant authorities have labelled "Enemies of the English People." Apprehended at last on 27 January 1606, these frail, long-bearded seniors, unable even to stand, represent no significant threat. Ainsworth has made them more complicit in the Gunpowder Plot than they actually were. However, Henry Garnett's subsequently defending himself in court as merely "equivocating" rather than "lying" about his foreknowledge of the conspiracy became famous through the "Porter Scene" in The Tragedy of Macbeth (Act II, Sc. iii), so that his name has forever been linked to the events of 5 November 1605. The novel characterizes fifty-year-old Garnet (1555-1606) both as a member of the plot, and as a sad, pathetic fugitive reduced to hiding out in a cell-of-little-ease. In fact, as Superior ofd the English Jesuits he had exhorted English Catholics not to engage in violent rebellion. However, as he received knowledge of the plot through the confessional, he failed to inform the authorities, although he did communicate to his superiors in Rome what he had learned as a result of hearing Catesby's confession.

The Order of the Illustrations: A Bibliographical Note

The Bentley triple-decker of July 1841 has correctly positioned the Death of Viviana, facing the relevant text on page 347. The other late illustration, The Discovery of Garnet and Oldcorne at Hendlip, occupies the penultimate position, again facing the relevant passage on page 327. Thus, the error in their order crept into the single-volume Routledge edition published in 1842.

The final illustration from the triple-decker, The Execution of Guy Fawkes, which would appear as the frontispiece of the George Routledge single-volume edition of 1842, occurs in the same instalment in the magazine serialisation, facing p. 536 in Chapter XVI. Neither plate, then, in the three separate Routledge volumes follows the pattern which Bentley's established over the course of serialisation, in which the monthly illustration typically led off the latest instalment and the magazine itself. In fact, the Routledge printer probably misjudged the order of the last three illustrations from the periodical and triple-decker because Routledge had decided to use the execution scene as the frontispiece. If the twenty-second illustration in the volume, The Discovery of Garnet and Oldcorne at Hendlip, facing page 347, were transposed with the plate showing Viviana's final moments, the order of these final plates in the single-volume edition of 1842 would be correct. Clearly the textual material on page 347 relates to the Hendlip plate. The picture of the two Jesuits just released from their hiding places at Hendlip faces page 347 in the 1842 Routledge edition, but pertains to the text adjacent to Viviana's death, on page 326. The order of the two plates has been reversed, since Chapter VIII, "Hendlip," should not be illustrated by the Death of Viviana, which ought to be the visual climax of the novel in single-volume edition, if we exempt the execution scene because the publisher has chosen to make it the frontispiece.

References

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Guy Fawkes, or The Gunpowder Treason: An Historical Romance. With 22 illustrations by George Cruikshank. London: Cunningham & Mortimer, 1841 (first edition). Rpt., London: George Routledge & Sons, 1842, rpt. 1857 and 1878. [See the text and images of the novel posted in May 2013 at Project Gutenberg Australia's website: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1302021h.html.]

"The Trial of Henry Garnet, 1606: Father Henry Garnet and the Gunpowder Plot." Online version available from The British Library, "Discovering Literature: Shakespeare and the Renaissance." Web. 23 November 2015.

Vann, J. Don. "Guy Fawkes in Bentley's Miscellany, January 1840-November 1841." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. P. 20.

---

Victorian
Web

Illus-
tration

W. Harrison
Ainsworth

George
Cruikshank

Guy
Fawkes

Last modified 2 September 2018