"Bunsby put his arm around Mrs. MacStinger" by W. H. C. Groome: seventh lithograph for Dickens's "Dombey and Son" (1900)

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Bunsby put his arm around Mrs. MacStinger

W. H. C. Groome

1900

12 x 8.2 cm, framed

Lithograph

Dickens's Dombey and Son (pp. 426 + 422), facing vol. 2, page 88.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Signalling Bunsby's marrying Mrs. MacStinger

"And who may you be, if you please!" retorted Mrs MacStinger, with chaste loftiness. "Did you ever lodge at Number Nine, Brig Place, Sir? My memory may be bad, but not with me, I think. There was a Mrs. Jollson lived at Number Nine before me, and perhaps you’re mistaking me for her. That is my only ways of accounting for your familiarity, Sir."

"Come, come, my lass, awast, awast!" said Bunsby.

Captain Cuttle could hardly believe it, even of this great man, though he saw it done with his waking eyes; but Bunsby, advancing boldly, put his shaggy blue arm round Mrs. MacStinger, and so softened her by his magic way of doing it, and by these few words — he said no more — that she melted into tears, after looking upon him for a few moments, and observed that a child might conquer her now, she was so low in her courage. [Chapter 39, "Further Adventures of Captain Edward Cuttle, Mariner," vol. 2, p. 117]

Other Illustrators' Depictions of Mrs. MacStinger and The Old Sailors (1847 to 1877)

Left: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s character study of the odd couple on their wedding day: Mrs. MacStinger and Bunsby (1867). Centre: Phiz's humorous depiction of the widow's terrifying both sailors in the back-parlour: The Midshipman is boarded by the Enemy (October 1847). Right: Fred Barnard's Household Edition illustration of the waspish widow: "What do you want with Captain Cuttle, I should wish to know?" said Mrs. MacStinger (1877).

Related Material

Dombey and Son (homepage)
Phiz's 40 Illustrations for Dombey and Son (1846-48)
Felix Octavius Carr Darley's Captain Cuttle . . . too his own [watch] down from the mantel-shelf for Volume 4 of Dombey and Son, Wholesale Retail & for Exportation, 1862
Sol Eytinge, Junior's 16 Diamond Edition Illustrations (1867)
Fred Barnard's 61 Illustrations for Dombey and Son, 1877
Kyd's five Player's Cigarette Cards, 1910
Harry Furniss's illustrations for the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910)
Harold Copping's Captain Cuttle's Bright Idea, 1924.

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. H. C. Groome. London and Glasgow, 1900, rpt. 1934. 2 vols. in one.

Created 27 January 2021