Ornamental tailpiece
George Cruikshank
February 1840
Etching
4.3 x 6.8 cm
"Epoch the Third, 1724. The Prison Breaker," Vol. 3, for Ch. 32, "The Closing Scene," in William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard. A Romance, page 312.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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The body of Jack Sheppard, meanwhile, was borne along by that tremendous host, which rose and fell like the waves of the ocean, until it approached the termination of the Edgeware Road.
At this point a carriage with servants in sumptuous liveries was stationed. At the open door stood a young man in a rich garb with a mask on his face, who was encouraging the mob by words and gestures. At length, the body was brought towards him. Instantly seizing it, the young man placed it in the carriage, shut the door, and commanded his servants to drive off. The order was promptly obeyed, and the horses proceeded at a furious pace along the Edgeware Road.
Half an hour afterwards the body of Jack was carefully examined. It had been cut down before life was extinct, but a ball from one of the soldiers had pierced his heart.
Thus died Jack Sheppard.
That night a grave was dug in Willesden churchyard, next to that in which Mrs. Sheppard had been interred. Two persons, besides the clergyman and sexton, alone attended the ceremony. They were a young man and an old one, and both appeared deeply affected. The coffin was lowered into the grave, and the mourners departed. A simple wooden monument was placed over the grave, but without any name or date. In after years, some pitying hand supplied the inscription, which ran thus — JACK SHEPPARD[.] London: Printed by Samuel Bentley, Bangor House, Shoe Lane. — Chapter XXXII, "The Closing Scene," p. 239-312.
A fitting end to Ainsworth's illustrated novel, the "monument" is both an image and the name of the eponymous hero, also spelled out in the text in " The Name on the Beam" to complement the illustration of the same name. There is no period after Jack's name, suggesting that his story will endure in Ainsworth's novel. The two instances of his name as an illustration in the text bracket his career as a criminal, from his self-absorption as Owen Wood's carpentry apprentice to his grave as a hero of the people.
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 28 December 2016
