Redlaw with his Sister on Christmas Morning by Charles Green. 1895. 11 x 14.6 cm, exclusive of frame. Dickens' The Haunted Man and The Ghost's Bargain. A Fancy for Christmas Time, Pears Centenary Edition (1912), in which the plates often have captions that are different from the short titles given in the "List of Illustrations" (15-16). For example, the series editor, Clement Shorter, has used a direct quotation that illustrates how the recollection of Redlaw as a student was visited the library of the old college by his sister, a moment narrated not by the professor (who has lost the capacity to remember either pleasant or unpleasant experiences), but by Philip Swidger: "I recollect, as I was stirring up the blaze for the young lady to warm her pretty feet by" (146, quoted from the following page). The Pears Edition plate and its caption require a careful reading of the accompanying text to establish the context and underlying meaning of Philip Swidger's recollection, which constitutes the volume's only visual flashback.
The Context of the Illustration
I recollect, as I was stirring up the blaze for the young lady to warm her pretty feet by, she read the scroll out loud, that is underneath that pictur, 'Lord, keep my memory green!' She and my poor wife fell a talking about it; and it's a strange thing to think of, now, that they both said (both being so unlike to die) that it was a good prayer, and that it was one they would put up very earnestly, if they were called away young, with reference to those who were dearest to them. 'My brother,' says the young lady — 'My husband,' says my poor wife. — 'Lord, keep his memory of me, green, and do not let me be forgotten!'" ["Chapter Three: The Gift Reversed," Pears Centenary Edition, 145-47]
Commentary
Green begins the final movement in his extensive program of illustration for the novella with a scene not previously illustrated — a flashback. In this antepenultimate illustration for the novella, Green reifies a minor but emotionally significant moment in Redlaw's back story, when, in memory, Philip Swidger takes Redlaw back to his own days as a student in the old college. In this Regency Christmas scene before the Elizabethan fireplace, both Philip's wife and Redlaw's young sister are still alive, as they jointly remark upon the motto underneath the portrait of the college's founder, a portrait which Green uses to end his program in "Lord, keep my Memory Green. — The Founder's Portrait. With fully thirty-one illustrations to complete, Green here fills yet another gap in the original series of sixteen plates by depicting one of Redlaw's most cherished recollections (all temporarily lost to him as a result of the Phantom's dubious "gift"). One Christmas decades earlier, his much-loved sister had visited him when he himself was a student at the college, a scene which recalls Fan's visiting young Master Scrooge in a flashback in A Christmas Carol. Although the narrator here is old Philip, whose memory (thanks to the benign influence of Milly) is quite unimpaired, Green focuses instead on the stylishly dressed brother and sister.
Green would have been well aware of the significance of the portrait, both in the original series and especially Fred Barnard's depiction of the founder's portrait in his final illustration for the Household Edition of 1878 (see below). In the 1848 volume, Clarkson Stanfield in The Christmas Dinner in the Great Hall (see below) has the motto in a scroll across the bottom of the elegant architectural scene, but here Green underscores the significance of the motto by showing the substance of the theme in an illustration —- the tenth and final full-page illustration, and the largest of all thirty-one illustrations. In Green's elegantly realised flashback, the youth of Redlaw and the presence of his sister establish the chronological setting because Green has dressed them in the fashions of the Regency. Moreover, in this visual flashback, Philip (now an old man) is middle-aged, reinforcing the fact that the scene is et some twenty years earlier. Green’s image of the restoration of memories both painful and pleasant includes not only these figures but also the college's library’s seventeenth-century paneling, sideboard, and almost monumental fireplace.
Relevant illustrations from Various Editions, 1848 through 1910
Left: Stanfield's tranquil realisation of the final scene, The Christmas Dinner in the Great Hall. Right: Barnard's placid interpretation of the final moment of the story, the portrait of the college's founder, "Lord, keep my Memory Green!" (1878).
Illustrations for the Other Volumes of the Pears' Centenary Christmas Books of Charles Dickens (1912)
Each contains about thirty illustrations from original drawings by Charles Green, R. I. — Clement Shorter [1912]
- A Christmas Carol (28 plates) Vol. I (1892)
- The Chimes (31 plates) Vol. II (1894)
- L. Rossi's The Cricket on the Hearth (22 plates) Vol. III (1912)
- The Battle of Life (28 plates) Vol. IV (1893)
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Cohen, Jane Rabb. "The Illustrators of the Christmas Books, John Leech." Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: University of Ohio Press, 1981. 141-151.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Haunted Man; or, The Ghost's Bargain. Illustrated by John Leech, Frank Stone, John Tenniel, and Clarkson Stanfield. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1848.
_____. The Haunted Man. Illustrated by John Leech, Frank Stone, John Tenniel, and Clarkson Stanfield. (1848). Rpt. in Charles Dickens's Christmas Books, ed. Michael Slater. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971, rpt. 1978. II, 235-362, and 365-366.
_____. The Haunted Man and The Ghost's Bargain. A Fancy for Christmas Time. Illustrated by Charles Green, R. I. (1895). London: A & F Pears, 1912.
_____. Christmas Books. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
_____. Christmas Books, illustrated by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1878.
_____. Christmas Books, illustrated by A. A. Dixon. London & Glasgow: Collins' Clear-Type Press, 1906.
_____. Christmas Books. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910.
_____. Christmas Stories. Illustrated by E. A. Abbey. The Household Edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1876.
_____. The Haunted Man. Christmas Stories. Illustrated by Felix Octavius Carr Darley. The Household Edition. New York: James G. Gregory, 1861. II, 155-300.
Created 14 September 2015
Last modified 13 April 2020