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Context of the Illustration: What has become of the New Tenant?

"It would be an extremely unpleasant circumstance if he was to bounce out suddenly," said Brass."Keep the stairs clear. I should be more than a match for him, of course, but I’m the master of the house, and the laws of hospitality must be respected. — Hallo there! Hallo, hallo!"

While Mr. Brass, with his eye curiously twisted into the keyhole, uttered these sounds as a means of attracting the lodger’s attention, and while Miss Brass plied the hand-bell, Mr. Swiveller put his stool close against the wall by the side of the door, and mounting on the top and standing bolt upright, so that if the lodger did make a rush, he would most probably pass him in its onward fury, began a violent battery with the ruler upon the upper panels of the door. Captivated with his own ingenuity, and confident in the strength of his position, which he had taken up after the method of those hardy individuals who open the pit and gallery doors of theatres on crowded nights, Mr. Swiveller rained down such a shower of blows, that the noise of the bell was drowned; and the small servant, who lingered on the stairs below, ready to fly at a moment’s notice, was obliged to hold her ears lest she should be rendered deaf for life. [Chapter XXXV, 332-33]

Related Resources

• Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop — Some Discussions
• The Old Curiosity Shop Illustrated: A Team Effort by "The Clock Works."
• Kyd's Characters from Dickens (1889)

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by William H. C. Groome. The Collins' Clear-Type Edition. Glasgow & London: Collins, 1900.

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Created 7 August 2020

Last modified 23 November 2020