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Joe Willet
"A man with one armis not of much use in the busy world. . . . He can't say, “I will turn my hand to this,” or “I won’t turn my hand to that,” but must take what he can do, and be thankful it’s no worse."
Harry Furniss
1910
15.0 cm x 8 cm (5 ⅞ by 3 ⅛ inches), vignetted
Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, The Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910), facing VI, 608.
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"What shall I tell you, father?" asked Joe, laying his hand upon his sire’s shoulder, and looking down into his face. "That I have come back, poorer than a church mouse? You know that. That I have come back, maimed and crippled? You know that."
"It was took off," muttered Mr. Willet, with his eyes upon the fire, "at the defence of the Salwanners, in America, where the war is."
"Quite right," returned Joe, smiling, and leaning with his remaining elbow on the back of his father’s chair; "the very subject I came to speak to you about. A man with one arm, father, is not of much use in the busy world."
This was one of those vast propositions which Mr Willet had never considered for an instant, and required time to ‘tackle.’ Wherefore he made no answer.
"At all events," said Joe, "he can’t pick and choose his means of earning a livelihood, as another man may. He can’t say “I will turn my hand to this,” or “I won’t turn my hand to that,” but must take what he can do, and be thankful it’s no worse. [Chapter LXXVIII, 610]
Furniss's emphasis on the story of Joe Willet and Dolly Varden in the final frames presents a visual reinterpretation of the historical novel set amidst the Riots of 'Eighty as an historical romance. The young soldier, wounded at the Siege of Savannah, George, during the American Revolutionary War returns to London just in time to join forces with Edward Chester. Together they rescue Haredale from the mob and Dolly and Emma from the clutches of Hugh, Sim, and Gashford. This emphasis relegates the other narratives (Barnaby and his mother, Haredale's duel with Sir John Chester, and the romance between Emma Haredale and Edward Chester) to secondary plot-lines.
Leaving London for a Caribbean posting in 1775, Joe Willet had been re-stationed to the American colonies when the Revolution broke out. He found himself in the colony of Georgia, in defence of the port of Savannah against a besieging force of French regulars and the new American army. The anti-British forces attempted to retake Savannah from September 16 to October 18, 1779. Although Dickens does not so indicate, it would seem likely that Joe lost his arm on 9 October 9 as a major Franco-American assault against the British position failed. Thus, Joe recuperates and is mustered out in the spring of 1780, and must return to London in late May or early June, 1780, juist as the ultra-Protestant mobs began looting and burning of Catholic chapels in foreign embassies. Local magistrates such as the Lord Mayor of London, who were afraid of drawing the mob's wrath, failed to issue the Riot Act, so matters were then placed in the hands of the regular army. Furniss's depicting Joe Willet in uniform; vivifies his brief account of his overseas service, and explains his competency in disguising himself and using military tactics to infiltrate enemy lines to save Emma and Dolly.
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 July 2020
Last modified 15 December 2020