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Mrs. Caudle has sent the girl out
Charles Keene
1866
Wood-engraving
9.8 x 8.8 cm, vignetted
Twelfth illustration for Douglas Jerrold's Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures (first published in 1845): "The Fifth Lecture," p. 22.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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"No, indeed, he couldn't be content with my pickled cabbage —; and I should like to know who makes better —; but he must have walnuts. And you, too, like a fool —; now, don't you think to stop me, Mr. Caudle; a poor woman may be trampled to death, and never say a word —; you, too, like a fool —; I wonder who'd do it for you to insist upon the girl going out for pickled walnuts. And in such a night too! With snow upon the ground. Yes; you're a man of fine feelings, you are, Mr. Caudle; but the world doesn't know you as I know you fine feelings, indeed! to send the poor girl out, when I told you and told your friend, too —; a pretty brute he is, I'm sure — that the poor girl had got a cold and I dare say chilblains on her toes. But I know what will be the end of that; she'll be laid up, and we shall have a nice doctor's bill. And you'll pay it, I can tell you —; for I won't. ["Fifth Lecture. — "Mr. Caudle has Remained down stairs till Past One, with a Friend," p. 21]
We encounter the illustration after the text in which Mrs. Caudle complains about her husband's sending the maid out in the evening for a jar of pickled walnuts. The jar that the bundled-up maid is carrying is identical to that on the table in the initial illustration for this "Fifth Lecture," leading the viewer to surmise that the pair of gentlemen, Caudle and his respectable-looking guest, have exhausted the supply as they are consuming the "beautiful" (22) cold leg of pork left over from the family supper. Far from looking cold and pinched, the maid seems to be enjoying her outing, or at least her conversation with the local Bobby, an incident which is entirely the illustrator's invention. It is as if Jerrold has given Keene too little to work with, and the illustrator feels that he must improvise a scene with visual and narrative appeal. Moreover, he feels compelled to offer an image that rebuts Mrs. Caudle's suggestion that the girl is being inconvenienced by being ordered out on "such a night." Keene makes the amount of snow on the ground negligible, although he gives the maid inappropriate footwear, pumps instead of boots.
Jerrold, Douglas. Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures, as Suffered by the late Job Caudle.Edited from the Original MSS. by Douglas Jerrold. With a frontispiece by Leech, and as motto on the title-page, "Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Fury's lap. —; Shakespeare." London: Punch Office; Bradbury and Evans, 1846.
Jerrold, Douglas. Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures . Illustrated by John Leach and Richard Doyle. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1856.
Jerrold, Douglas. Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures. Illustrated by Charles Keene. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1866.
Last modified 12 November 2017