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Jack Sheppard tricking Shotbolt the Gaoler
George Cruikshank
October 1839
Etching
11.9 x 9.7 cm
"Epoch the Third, 1724. The Prison Breaker," Vol. 3, for Ch. 13, "The Supper at Mr. Kneebone's," in William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard. A Romance, facing page 82.
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"Here," replied Sheppard, dragging out Shotbolt by the collar, while Blueskin pushed him behind, and Mrs. Maggot held up a lantern, which she found in the shop. "In with him!"
"Ay — ay, yer hon'r," cried the foremost chairman, lending a helping hand. "Get in wid ye, ye villin!"
And, despite his resistance, Shotbolt was thrust into the chair, which was instantly fastened upon him.
"There, he's as safe as Jack Sheppard in the Condemned Hould," laughed the man.
"Off with you to Newgate!" cried Jack, "and don't let him out till you get inside the Lodge. There's a letter for the head turnkey, Mr. Irreton. D'ye hear."
"Yes, yer hon'r," replied the chairman, taking the note.
"What are you waiting for?" asked Jack, impatiently.
"The gen'l'man as hired us," replied the chairman.
"Oh! he'll be after you directly. He's settling an account in the house. Lose no time. The letter will explain all."
The chair was then rapidly put in motion, and speedily disappeared.
"What's to be done next?" cried Blueskin, returning to Rachel, who was standing with Edgeworth Bess near the door.
"I shall go back and finish my supper," said Mrs. Maggot.
"And so shall I," replied Edgeworth Bess.
"Stop a minute," cried Jack, detaining his mistresses. "Here we part, — perhaps for ever. I've already told you I'm about to take a long journey, and it's more than probable I shall never return." — "Epoch the Third. 1724. The Prison Breaker," Chapter 13, "The Supper at Mr. Kneebone's," p. 40-44.
The rather long chapter constitutes an instalment in Bentley's Miscellany in its own right, and is accompanied by a single illustration, the dark plate of the greedy Newgate turnkey's being hoiston his own petard by being consigned to his own prison, supposedly as Jack Sheppard recaptured. Conspiring with the fatuous wollen-draper, William Kneebone, to apprehend Jack Sheppard, when, having escaped the Condemned Cell in the Castle at Newgate, Jack takes up Kneebone's facetious invitation to dinner that very night at Wych Street, in the very house in which he grew up and served his apprenticeship. Shotbolt, having hired some stout Irish sedan chairmen, is muffled up and transported to the prison in place of the intrepid housebreaker. The farcical incident's following Jonathan Wild's inconveniently locking himself in the well-hole after brutally despatching Sir Rowland Trenchard in melodramatic fashion at the close of the September instalment accords with Dickens's notion of "streaky bacon" plot construction in serialised fiction, varying the fare placed before the reader from comedic to romantic to deadly serious. Shotbolt's being thus tricked after hiding under Kneebone's dining-table for hours would certainly constitute the first of these.
The artist's rendering of the comic scene is a suitable complement to Ainsworth's humourous description of Jack's turning the tables on the greedy gaoler, who had coveted the huge reward that Jonathan Wild had posted for Jack's recapture by morning. The considerable financial reward entices Shotbolt to attempt the daunting task of re-capturing the escapee before dawn: the governor of Newgate Prison has added one hundred guineas for Jack's apprehension to the two hundred pounds that Jonathan Wild has already offered. In the illustration, Jack is dressed (or, perhaps, overdressed) in much the manner that Ainsworth describes him as he enters Kneebone's dining-room:
He was wrapped in a laced roquelaure, which he threw off on his entrance into the room. It has been already intimated that Jack had an excessive passion for finery; and it might have been added, that the chief part of his ill-gotten gains was devoted to the embellishment of his person. On the present occasion, he appeared to have bestowed more than ordinary attention on his toilette. His apparel was sumptuous in the extreme, and such as was only worn by persons of the highest distinction. It consisted of a full-dress coat of brown flowered velvet, laced with silver; a waistcoat of white satin, likewise richly embroidered; shoes with red heels, and large diamond buckles; pearl-coloured silk stockings with gold clocks; a muslin cravat, or steen-kirk, as it was termed, edged with the fine point lace; ruffles of the same material, and so ample as almost to hide the tips of his fingers; and a silver-hilted sword. This costume, though somewhat extravagant, displayed his slight, but perfectly-proportioned figure to the greatest advantage. The only departure which he made from the fashion of the period, was in respect to the peruke — an article he could never be induced to wear. In lieu of it, he still adhered to the sleek black crop, which, throughout life, formed a distinguishing feature in his appearance. Ever since the discovery of his relationship to the Trenchard family, a marked change had taken place in Jack's demeanour and looks, which were so much refined and improved that he could scarcely be recognised as the same person. — "Supper at Mr. Kneebone's," p. 59-60.
The other figures in the street outside the woollen-draper's shop past midnight are Edgeworth Bess (right), Poll Maggot beside her in the doorway, and in front of shop's shutters Blueskin, pushing the gagged and muffled form of Shotbolt, who is being grabbed by the dandyish Jack as the Irish chairmen (left) prepare the conveyance by raising the roof. Holding the source of illumination, the closed lantern, aloft is presumably Rachel, Kneebone's shrewd young Jewish housekeeper who has cooperated with Jack and his confederates, and seems to have formed some romantic attachment to Blueskin. Judging by the light emanating from inside the sedan chair, there must be a candle or small lantern inside the vehicle. With the note indicted by Shotbolt, Austin at the prison will be expected the escaped felon momentarily. One wonders if Jack and Blueskin will really escape to France, or whether Wild will somehow intercept them; then, too, the readers must wonder what is in the two packets of letters that Sir Rowland Trenchard left with Kneebone for delivery, and whether either packet will shed any light on Thames's identity and cement his status as the heir to the Trafford estates in Lancashire.
Ainsworth, William Harrison. Jack Sheppard. A Romance. With 28 illustrations by George Cruikshank. In three volumes. London: Richard Bentley, 1839.
Ainsworth, William Harrison. Jack Sheppard. Edited by Edward Jacobs and Manuela Mourao. With 31 illustrations. Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2007.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: Bradbury and Evans; Chapman and Hall, 1846.
Meisel, Martin. Chapter 13, "Novels in Epitome." Realizations: Narrative, Pictorial, and Theatrical Arts in Nineteenth-Century England. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989. Pp. 247-282.
Sutherland, John. "Jack Sheppard" in The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 19893. Pp. 323-324.
Vann, J. Don. "Jack Sheppard in Bentley's Miscellany, January 1839 — February 1840." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Page 19.
Last modified 24 December 2016