Mr. Jingle by J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") for the 1910 watercolour series: reproduced on John Player cigarette card no. 8: Ninety-two Characters from Dickens: The Pickwick Papers, 2 ½ inches high by 1 ¼ inches wide (6.3 cm high by 3.3 cm wide). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
MR. JINGLE: The Pickwick Papers
Strolling players, chevalier d'industrie [a facetious FRench expression signifying a thief, footpad, or sharp operator], adventurer, Alfred Jingle, Esquire of No Hall. Nowhere, is a type as old, comparatively, as the hills. He came in with the earliest dawn of civilisation, and will endure until its final extinction. Withal, our particular Alfred has a merry wit, a gay conceit, and is brimful of a quaint quirk and quip. Redeemed through the kindness of Mr. Pickwick, he becomes a respectable member of Society and doubtless makes an edifying end. [Verso of Card No. 8]
Kyd's representations of Dickens's thirteen characters from Pickwick Papers are largely based on the original illustrations by Phiz and Seymour, although the modelling of the figures is suggestive of Phiz's own, expanded series for the fifth volume of the Household Edition (1874). Although the popular taste in "characters from Dickens" as well as in "novels from Dickens" has changed markedly over the past century, Alfred Jingle, the charming and irrepressible confidence man with the distinctive, staccato patter, has lost none of his roguish charm.
Dickens introduces the facetious strolling player in the May 1836 (second) instalment in Dr. Slammer's Defiance, but he does not appear again in the Phiz narrative pictorial sequence until Pickwick discovers him and his servant, Job Trotter, incarcerated in the Fleet Prison for Debt in instalment no. 15 (July 1837) in The Discovery of Jingle in the Fleet, Chapter XLII.
Despite its official title, The Pugnacious Cabman, the second Seymour illustration and the incident it realizes might well be described as The First Appearance of Alfred Jingle, Esq. Since Kyd has given us no contextual clues as to the moment realised, we logically fall back on the episode in which Dickens introduced the comic character with the distinctive manner of speaking, when he rescued Pickwick from the pugnacious cabman.
Jingle's Initial Appearance in the Novel: The Rescue of Pickwick from the Cabmen
"What's the fun?" said a rather tall thin young man, in a green coat, emerging suddenly from the coach-yard.
"Informers!" shouted the crowd again.
"We are not," roared Mr. Pickwick, in a tone which, to any dispassionate listener, carried conviction with it.
"Ain't you, though, — ain't you?" said the young man, appealing to Mr. Pickwick, and making his way through the crowd by the infallible process of elbowing the countenances of its component members.
That learned man in a few hurried words explained the real state of the case.
"Come along, then," said he of the green coat, lugging Mr. Pickwick after him by main force, and talking the whole way. "Here, No. 924, take your fare, and take yourself off — respectable gentleman — know him well — none of your nonsense — this way, sir, — where's your friends? — all a mistake, I see — never mind — accidents will happen — best regulated families — never say die — down upon your luck — pull him up — put that in his pipe — like the flavour — damned rascals." And with a lengthened string of similar broken sentences, delivered with extraordinary volubility, the stranger led the way to the travellers' waiting-room, whither he was closely followed by Mr. Pickwick and his disciples. [Chapter II, "The First Day’s Journey, and the First Evening’s Adventures; with their Consequences," p. 5 in the British Household Edition]
Later Versions of Jingle: the Scene in the Fleet (1874, 1910)
Compare the 1837 steel engraving to Phiz's 1874 woodcut of the same narrative moment in the first volume of Chapman and Hall's Household Edition (p. 298): Letting his hat fall on the floor, he stood perfectly fixed and immovable with astonishment.
Above: Phiz revises his approach to the comic moment only slightly, but places the stunned Pickwick just left of centre, regarding the viewer rather than Job Trotter of the plate in Letting his hat fall on the floor, he stood perfectly fixed and immovable with astonishment (See page 298.) in the 1874 Household Edition, engraved by one of the Dalziels. Right: In Harry Furniss's revision of Phiz's illustration, the focal character is no longer Pickwick, who does not even appear in the frame, but Alfred Jingle (centre left), in Jingle in the Fleet (1910). [Click on these images to enlarge them.]
Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910
- Robert Seymour (1836)
- Thomas Onwhyn (1837)
- Felix Octavius Carr Darley (1861)
- Sol Eytinge, Jr. (1867)
- Thomas Nast (1873)
- Harry Furniss (1910)
- Hablot Knight Browne's (Phiz's) Original Serial Illustrations for 1836-37
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the images, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.
Cohen, Jane Rabb. "Chapter Three: Robert Buss." Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980, pp. 51-58.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, R. W. Buss, and Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). London: Chapman & Hall: April 1836 through November 1837.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The American Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. 1.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 16 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 4.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 5.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.
Created 5 January 2015
Last modified 8 July 2025