"Martha, the Wanderer" — Furniss's twenty-first illustration for Dickens's "David Copperfield" (Charles Dickens Library Edition, vol. X, 1910)

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Martha, the Wanderer

Harry Furniss

1910

13.8 x 9.2 cm (5 ½ by 3 ⅝ inches).

As I passed the steps of the portico, I encountered, at the corner, a woman's face. It looked into mine, passed across the narrow lane, and disappeared. On the steps of the church I stood face to face with Mr. Peggotty! Then I remembered the woman was Martha Endell — Copperfield, p. 563.

Dickens's The Personal History and Experience of David Copperfield, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing X, 577.

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Passage Illustrated: A Reorientation of Phiz's Original Serial Illustration

It had been a bitter day, and a cutting north-east wind had blown for some time. The wind had gone down with the light, and so the snow had come on. It was a heavy, settled fall, I recollect, in great flakes; and it lay thick. The noise of wheels and tread of people were as hushed, as if the streets had been strewn that depth with feathers.

My shortest way home, — and I naturally took the shortest way on such a night — was through St. Martin’s Lane. Now, the church which gives its name to the lane, stood in a less free situation at that time; there being no open space before it, and the lane winding down to the Strand. As I passed the steps of the portico, I encountered, at the corner, a woman’s face. It looked in mine, passed across the narrow lane, and disappeared. I knew it. I had seen it somewhere. But I could not remember where. I had some association with it, that struck upon my heart directly; but I was thinking of anything else when it came upon me, and was confused.

On the steps of the church, there was the stooping figure of a man, who had put down some burden on the smooth snow, to adjust it; my seeing the face, and my seeing him, were simultaneous. I don’t think I had stopped in my surprise; but, in any case, as I went on, he rose, turned, and came down towards me. I stood face to face with Mr. Peggotty!

Then I remembered the woman. It was Martha, to whom Emily had given the money that night in the kitchen. Martha Endell — side by side with whom, he would not have seen his dear niece, Ham had told me, for all the treasures wrecked in the sea.

We shook hands heartily. At first, neither of us could speak a word. [Chapter XL, "The Wanderer," 583]

Commentary: An Atmospheric Shift in Emphasis

In Furniss's reference plates by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne) and Fred Barnard in the Household Edition the reader readily sees that point of interest is the meeting between Dan'l Peggotty and David; Phiz situates this meeting inside The Golden Key public house, but Barnard in the snow on St. Martin's Lane. Furniss changes the situation again, most obviously, by thrusting the respectably clad bourgeois David and Peggotty in his great coat well into the background. Furniss obscures their figures in the blowing snow, and effectively foregrounds the pathetic, poorly clad, wind-swept ex-seamstress, Martha, by sharply delineating her chilled figure. She had appeared at the very rear of Phiz's comparable monthly illustration, The Wanderer, as David confers with Mr. Peggotty in the taproom of The Golden Key, but neither her identity nor her purpose is immediately apparent in Phiz's serial engraving. Furniss, however, makes her identity the focal point of the picture by virtue of his caption: Her presence here cannot be mere coincidence; and by his title, Martha, the Wanderer), which implies that she, too, has been pursuing some sort of quest.

Those familiar with the neoclassical Church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields in Central London will recognise the porticoed building in the background. Furniss fills the composition with the terrific energy of the winter storm, which obscures the figures and the church in the centre and background, forcing the eye of the viewer well forward to the hunched woman in the blowing skirts, casting a backward glance at the two pedestrians even as she shivers in the cold. Thus, Furniss shifts the reader's attention from the substance of Peggotty's update on his search for Em'ly to the fate of the book's other wayward woman. The illustrator forces the reader to ponder what her motivation is in shadowing Em'ly's uncle.

David's encountering Mr. Peggotty at The Golden Cross in 1850 and 1872 Editions

Left: Fred Barnard's Household Edition scene of David's encountering Em'ly's saviour in the snowstorm: I stood face to face with Mr. Peggotty! (1872). Right: Hablot Knight Browne's original serial illustration depicting David's interview with Dan'l Peggotty in the taproom of The Golden Key: The Wanderer (May 1850).

Relevant Illustrated Editions of this Novel (1849 through 1910)

Hablot Knight Browne's Forty steel engravings for the Chapman and Hall Edition (May 1849 through November 1850)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York Sheldon & Co. edition (Vol. 1, 1863)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York Sheldon & Co. edition (Vol. 2, 1863)
Sir John Gilbert's Frontispiece in the New York Sheldon & Co. edition (Vol. 3, 1863)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York Sheldon & Co. edition (Vol. 4, 1863)
Sol Eytinge, Junior's 16 wood engravings for the Diamond Edition (1867)
Fred Barnard's 62 Composite Woodblock Engravings for the Household Edition (1872)
Clayton J. Clarke's (Kyd's) Watercolours and Player's Cigarette Card Designs (1889)

Bibliography

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

Cordery, Gareth. "Remaking Miss Mowcher's Acquaintance." Dickens Quarterly 29, 1 (March 2012): 11-31.

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

Dickens, Charles. The Personal History of David Copperfield, illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Centenary Edition. London & New York: Chapman & Hall, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911. 2 vols.

_______. The Personal History of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. V.

_______. David Copperfield, with 61 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. III.

_______. The Personal History and Experiences of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. X.

Hammerton, J. A., ed. The Dickens Picture-Book: A Record of the the Dickens Illustrations. London: Educational Book, 1910.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U.P., 1978.

Created 17 March 2022