“Next second her tall and willowy form was staggering back across the room, as though she had been shot or stabbed” (headpiece): ninth composite woodblock illustration by Edward Killingworth Johnson, R. W. S., in H. Rider Haggard's "SHE:" A History of Adventure, 7 ⅛ by 9 inches (17.9 cm high by 22.9 cm wide). The Graphic (27 November 1886): Volume XXXIV, p. 577, framed. In the Harper's volume, the scale of the plate has been considerably reduced: 3 ½ by 5 ⅜ inches (8.7 cm high by 13.6 cm wide), p. 197. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated
“Thou seest, my Holly,” said Ayesha, with a little laugh, “it was needful that I should give these people a lesson in obedience. That girl went nigh to disobeying me, but then she did not learn this morn how I treat the disobedient. Well, she has gone; and now let me see the youth,” and she glided towards the couch on which Leo lay, with his face in the shadow and turned towards the wall.
“He hath a noble shape,” she said, as she bent over him to look upon his face.
Next second her tall and willowy form was staggering back across the room, as though she had been shot or stabbed, staggering back till at last she struck the cavern wall, and then there burst from her lips the most awful and unearthly scream that I ever heard in all my life.
“What is it, Ayesha?” I cried. “Is he dead?”
She turned, and sprang towards me like a tigress.
“Thou dog!” she said, in her terrible whisper, which sounded like the hiss of a snake, “why didst thou hide this from me?” And she stretched out her arm, and I thought that she was about to slay me.
“What?” I ejaculated, in the most lively terror; “what?” [Chapter XVI, "The Balance Returns," 578]
Commentary: "there lies my lost Kallikrates."
Of what is Ayesha accusing the terrified Ludwig Horace Holly? Clearly, her anger has been provoked by what she has just seen: the face of Leo Vincey, Holly's adopted son. As the lineal descendant of the Egyptian priest Kallicrates and his wife, Amenartas, Leo undoubtedly resembles his handsome ancestor, whom in a fit of jealous rage Ayesha had killed two thousand years before.
This moment is the classic serial curtain, a real cliff-hanger, for Leo is about to succumb to malarial fever, and Ayesha (who is something of a chemist, apparently) has just minutes to save him, for she must administer the specially prepared draft in the phial (not pictured) before the youth dies. The reader naturally wonders if her mistrust of Holly will prevent her from acting in time, thereby causing Leo's death. So shaken is she by the uncanny resemblance that she gives Holly the pottery jar so that he can administer the life-restoring potion.
As in the accompanying letterpress to which this instalment leads, Job and Ustane have been dismissed; and, as in the text, Leo's posture clearly suggests that he is expiring as Ayesha is "carried away" by her emotions, even though we may judge her emotional state only by her pose, and by Holly's shock at being accused of keeping Leo's resemblance to Kallikrates a secret. Now, as the instalment ends, she is overjoyed that she has saved Leo in the nick of time, but Holly is conflicted, for he is both relieved and jealous of the physical attention that she is lavishing on the recovering patient.
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 it, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Haggard, H. Rider. "SHE:" A History of Adventure. Illustrated by E. K. Johnson. The Graphic Magazine, Vols. XXXIV and XXXV. 2 October 1886 to 8 January 1887.
Haggard, H. Rider. She: A History of Adventure. Illustrated by E. K. Johnson. New York: Harper & Bros., 1887.
Haggard, H. Rider. She: A History of Adventure. Illustrated by Maurice Greiffenhagen and Charles H. M. Kerr. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1888, rpt. 1927.
"Johnson, Edward Killingworth." Haynes Fine Art. Web. Accessed 8 April 2025. https://www.haynesfineart.com/artists/edward-killingworth-johnson-uk
Royal Mummies recently Unbandaged at the Boulak Museum, Egypt. The Graphic Magazine, No. 870, Vol. XXXIV. 31 July 1886, p. 102 and 109.
Created 13 May 2025