"Mr. Mantalini plays at 'Tom Tiddler's Ground'" — Furniss's seventeenth illustration for Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby" (1910)

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Mr. Mantalini plays at "Tom Tiddler's Ground"

Harry Furniss

1910

5 ¾ by 3 ¾ inches (14.5 cm high x 9.6 cm wide), vignetted

Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing IV, 432.

Newman Noggs ushered into Ralph Nickleby's office no less a person than Madame Mantalini, at the sight of whom Mr. Mantalini evinced considerable discomposure. "Oh, you are here," said Madame Mantalini. "Yes, my life and soul, I am," replied her husband, dropping on his knees, and pouncing with kitten-like playfulness upon a stray sovereign. (435)

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Mantalini's wife interrupts his negotiations with Ralph Nickleby

Ralph pushed some papers from him as he spoke, and carelessly rattled his cash-box, as though by mere accident. The sound was too much for Mr. Mantalini. He closed the bargain directly it reached his ears, and Ralph told the money out upon the table.

He had scarcely done so, and Mr. Mantalini had not yet gathered it all up, when a ring was heard at the bell, and immediately afterwards Newman ushered in no less a person than Madame Mantalini, at sight of whom Mr. Mantalini evinced considerable discomposure, and swept the cash into his pocket with remarkable alacrity.

"Oh, you are here," said Madame Mantalini, tossing her head.

"Yes, my life and soul, I am," replied her husband, dropping on his knees, and pouncing with kitten-like playfulness upon a stray sovereign. "I am here, my soul’s delight, upon Tom Tiddler’s ground, picking up the demnition gold and silver."

"I am ashamed of you," said Madame Mantalini, with much indignation.

"Ashamed — of me, my joy? It knows it is talking demd charming sweetness, but naughty fibs," returned Mr. Mantalini. "It knows it is not ashamed of its own popolorum tibby."

Whatever were the circumstances which had led to such a result, it certainly appeared as though the popolorum tibby had rather miscalculated, for the nonce, the extent of his lady’s affection. Madame Mantalini only looked scornful in reply; and, turning to Ralph, begged him to excuse her intrusion. [Chapter XXXIV, "Wherein Mr. Ralph Nickleby is visited by Persons with whom the Reader has been already made acquainted," 435]

Commentary: Mrs. Mantalini Determines to "Allowance" her Errant Husband

The comic interlude is a further instance of Dickens's "streaky bacon" plot construction as it follows immediately upon Ralph Nickleby's perusing a letter in which Nicholas denounces the uncle's treatment of his niece, and places a curse on his death-bed and grave. Although she is a highly competent businesswoman, Mayfair dressmaker Madame Mantalini has failed until recently to see through her handsome, n'er-do-well "foreign" husband's blandishments. But now, having had to sell Miss Knag a share of her business in order to avoid bankruptcy, Madame Mantalini has determined to restrain her husband's excesses by placing him on a clothing allowance. Here, she makes known her intention to her husband and his financial backer, who is just about to accept at discount a pair notes that Mantalini has purloined from his wife's desk.

In Furniss's illustration, the childish reprobate dives onto the carpet to secure a sovereign that the money-lender has apparently dropped. He "pounces" like a playful domestic animal "with kitten-like playfulness"; nobody, the scene implies, should lend such a money-grubber so much as a ha'penny and expect to get it back. The arrival of the Mantalinis separately at Nickleby's counting-house to borrow money on notes issued to his wife nevertheless brings the unscrupulous money-lender good news: they recount how Nicholas has run into trouble with the law as a result of his altercation with Sir Mulberry Hawk outside a Park Lane hotel about his unwanted advances towards Kate. In the previous study of the ne'er-do-well Mr. Alfred Mantalini, Furniss had focused on Mantalini's fashionable exterior as a reflection of his egotism, emphasizing his magnificent whiskers. Here, in contrast, Furniss underscores Mantalini's childish nature. The caption's mentioning "Tom Tiddler's Ground" combines his debasing himself for money with an allusion to the children's game in which the players sing "Here we are on Tom Tiddler's ground / Picking up gold and silver" (The Dickens Index, 263).

Phiz had realised the same scene in the February 1839 instalment of the novel, but had depicted Mantalini in a tearful, self-pitying condition as his fashionably attired wife announces her intention to cut him off financially. Like Phiz, Furniss strategically places Newman Noggs at the back of the scene, overhearing and observing the entire conversation. The wife, the clerk, and the money-lender study the money-grubbing debtor who has thrown down his respectable top-hat and cane to grovel for four small coins (rather than a single gold sovereign, which Dickens specifies). The text suggests that he has spotted a large, gold coin which since 1817 would have been worth one pound sterling rather than one pound, one shilling (the value of a guinea). Furniss has changed the single sovereign into four shillings to further demean Mantalini.

Illustrations of Mantalinis from Other Editions (1839, 1867, and 1875)

Left: Phiz's realizes the same scene, but includes Madame Mantalini: Mr. and Mrs. Mantalini in Ralph Nickleby's Office (February 1839), Chapter 34. Centre: Fred Barnard presents Mantalini's manipulative nature through his theatrically proposing suicide in the Household Edition: The dressing-room door being hastily flung open, Mr. Mantalini was disclosed to view, with his shirt collar symmetrically thrown back: putting a fine edge to a breakfast knife by means of his razor strop. (1875). Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr., presents the couple as a study in contrasts: Mr. and Madame Mantalini (1867).

Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators

Bibliography

Barnard, J. "Fred" (illustrator). Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, with fifty-eight illustrations. The Works of Charles Dickens: The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Volume 15. Rpt. 1890.

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872. I.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. With 39 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). London: Chapman & Hall, 1839.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. IV.

__________. "Nicholas Nickleby." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard et al. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1908.

Created 16 August 2021