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The Father of the Marshalsea
Harry Furniss
1910
13 x 9 cm vignetted
Dickens's Little Dorrit, in The Charles Dickens Library Edition, Book the First, "Poverty," Chapter 6, "The Father of the Marshalsea," facing XII, 80.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
The turnkey went off the lock of this world next day. His words were remembered and repeated; and tradition afterwards handed down from generation to generation — a Marshalsea generation might be calculated as about three months — that the shabby old debtor with the soft manner and the white hair, was the Father of the Marshalsea.
And he grew to be proud of the title. If any impostor had arisen to claim it, he would have shed tears in resentment of the attempt to deprive him of his rights. A disposition began to be perceived in him to exaggerate the number of years he had been there; it was generally understood that you must deduct a few from his account; he was vain, the fleeting generations of debtors said.
All new-comers were presented to him. He was punctilious in the exaction of this ceremony. The wits would perform the office of introduction with overcharged pomp and politeness, but they could not easily overstep his sense of its gravity. He received them in his poor room (he disliked an introduction in the mere yard, as informal — a thing that might happen to anybody), with a kind of bowed-down beneficence. They were welcome to the Marshalsea, he would tell them. Yes, he was the Father of the place. [Book the First, "Poverty," Chapter 6, "The Father of the Marshalsea, 67]
Furniss, perhaps at J. A. Hammerton's suggestion, has provided the following detailed subtitle or caption for this lithograph from pen-and-ink: All new-comers were presented to the shabby old debtor with the soft manner and the white hair — Mr. Dorrit. He received them in his poor room with a kind of bowed-down beneficence. They were welcome to the Marshalsea, he would tell them — Dorrit, 67.
Furniss conveys so much about William Dorrit through his posture and gestures, suggesting that with affable ease he holds court beside a barred window, and conceives of himself as a sort of ruler among the debtors, deferred to, flattered, and consulted. Other nineteenth-century illustrators have tried to strike the balance between feeble age and pomposity in capturing the image of The Father of the Masrshalsea, but none has approached this later study of the theatrical, self-deluded old debtor.
Left: Sol Eytinge, Junior's frontispiece for the 1867 volume, Little Dorrit and Her Father. Right: Phiz's rendition of the Dorrit brothers acknowledging the Collegians in the Yard: The Brothers (Book 1, Chapter 19; Part 10, September 1856).
Left: James Mahoney's version of the Dorrits' triumphant exit from the Marshalsea, Through these spectators, the little procession, headed by the two brothers, moved slowly to the gate (Book 1, Ch. 36). Right: F. O. C. Darley's 1863 frontispiece of the scene in which William Dorrit learns of his providential inheritance, Joyful Tidings (Volume 2)
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Authentic Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1901 [rpt. 30 May 1857 volume].
_______. Little Dorrit. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. Vols. I-IV.
_______. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867.
_______. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by James Mahoney. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1873. V.
_______. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. XII.
Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 19: Little Dorrit." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. XVII, 398-427.
Created 10 February 2020
Last modified 18 November 2020