Crusoe rescuing Friday
Sir John Gilbert, R. A.
1867?
Steel-engraving
7.1 cm high x 5.5 cm, vignetted
Illustration for Daniel Defoe's Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, facing p. 144.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Passage Illustrated
I crossed towards the sea; and having a very short cut, and all down hill, placed myself in the way between the pursuers and the pursued, hallowing aloud to him that fled, who,looking back, was at first perhaps as much frightened at me as at them; but I beckoned with my hand to him to come back; and, in the meantime, I slowly advanced towards the two that followed; then rushing at once upon the foremost, I knocked him down with the stock of my piece. I was loath to fire, because I would not have the rest hear; though, at that distance, it would not have been easily heard, and being out of sight of the smoke, too, they would not have known what to make of it. Having knocked this fellow down, the other who pursued him stopped, as if he had been frightened, and I advanced towards him: but as I came nearer, I perceived presently he had a bow and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at me: so I was then obliged to shoot at him first, which I did, and killed him at the first shot. The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he saw both his enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet was so frightened with the fire and noise of my piece that he stood stock still. . . . [Chapter XIV, "A Dream Realised," p. 159]
Commentary
The identification of the scene realised is a challenge to the reader since the plate is proleptic, occurring fifteen pages ahead of the text it illustrates. Then, too, the illustrator has organised the composition along a left-to-right linear perspective, so that a terrified Friday is running directly into the viewer's point of examination. Immediately behind him, Robinson Crusoe discharges a firearm at close quarters at one of Friday's pursuers, the smallest of the three figures because the most distant. Crusoe in his goatskin clothing, weapon raised, apparently has just fired, so that the cannibal is nearly upon him. Thus, the illustrator appears to have conflated the pair of pursuers, and that the man whom Crusoe is shooting is the archer — although Defoe makes it clear that this second assailant is some distance away. The result is an off-centred plate full of action and suspense, with the emphasis not on the rescuer but on man pursued and terrified, for Gilbert has placed the twisting Friday closest to the viewer.
Related Scenes in Stothard (1790), Cruikshank (1831), and Phiz (1864)
Left: Thomas Stothard's stalwart Crusoe comes to Friday's rescue, Robinson Crusoe first sees and rescues his man Friday (1790). Centre: George Cruikshank's 1831 realisation of the rescue scene, Crusoe having just rescued Friday (frontispiece, Volume I). Right: Phiz's full-page steel-engraving focussing on the same scene, but with considerably more peripheral action, Robinson Crusoe rescues the Spaniard (1864). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Related Material
Bibliography
De Foe, Daniel. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Written by Himself. Illustrated by Gilbert, Cruikshank, and Brown. London: Darton and Hodge, 1867?].
Last modified 16 February 2018