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Tappertit Presiding over the 'Prentice Knights
There soon appeared at the same door, two other ‘prentices, having between them a third, whose eyes were bandaged.
Harry Furniss
1910
14.3 cm x 9.0 cm (5 5⁄16 by 3 ½ inches), vignetted
Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, The Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910), facing VI, 64.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
The ‘prentice made answer that a stranger was in attendance, who claimed admission into that secret society of ‘Prentice Knights, and a free participation in their rights, privileges, and immunities. Thereupon Mr Tappertit flourished the bone again, and giving the other skull a prodigious rap on the nose, exclaimed "Admit him!" At these dread words the ‘prentice bowed once more, and so withdrew as he had come.
There soon appeared at the same door, two other ‘prentices, having between them a third, whose eyes were bandaged, and who was attired in a bag-wig, and a broad-skirted coat, trimmed with tarnished lace; and who was girded with a sword, in compliance with the laws of the Institution regulating the introduction of candidates, which required them to assume this courtly dress, and kept it constantly in lavender, for their convenience. One of the conductors of this novice held a rusty blunderbuss pointed towards his ear, and the other a very ancient sabre, with which he carved imaginary offenders as he came along in a sanguinary and anatomical manner.
As this silent group advanced, Mr Tappertit fixed his hat upon his head. The novice then laid his hand upon his breast and bent before him. When he had humbled himself sufficiently, the captain ordered the bandage to be removed, and proceeded to eye him over.
"Ha!" said the captain, thoughtfully, when he had concluded this ordeal."Proceed."
The long comrade read aloud as follows: — "Mark Gilbert. Age, nineteen. Bound to Thomas Curzon, hosier, Golden Fleece, Aldgate. Loves Curzon’s daughter. Cannot say that Curzon’s daughter loves him. Should think it probable. Curzon pulled his ears last Tuesday week." [Chapter VIII, 65-66]
In his revision of the scene which Phiz composed seventy years earlier, Furniss has subordinated everything to the three central characters: the recorder, the long fellow whose back serves as a writing desk, the Glory of the 'Prentice Knights, waving his thigh-bone. The blind-folded acolyte enters from the side, but does not distract the viewer from the central figures and their gigantic beer-mugs. Furniss's distinctive detailism here involves accentuating the skulls, which seem artificial in their size when one compares them to Sim's much smaller cranium.
Phiz's original realisation of the same scene with an emphasis on the large number of apprentices gathered for the nocturnal meeting: The Secret Society of the 'Prentice Knights (13 March 1841).
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge in Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Phiz and George Cattermole. 3 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841; rpt., Bradbury and Evans, 1849.
_______. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. VI.
Created 24 May 2020
Last modified 16 December 2020