Luffey by J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") for the 1910 watercolour series: reproduced on John Player cigarette card no. 6: Ninety-two Characters from Dickens: The Pickwick Papers, Chapter VII. 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.]
Commentary: Another Cricketer: Luffey, "The Deadliest Bowler" against All-Muggleton
Owing, perhaps, to the popularity of such British sports as cricket, Clayton J. Clarke once again introduces a cricketer from the early numbers of Pickwick Papers, even though, like Dumkins, he is very much a minor character. This time, the player is the noted bowler for the Dingley Dell side in the June 1836 (third) serial instalment, originally illustrated by R. W. Buss in The Cricket Match. The verso of the seventh Player's Cigarette Card offers the following commentary on this leading member of the home team:
LUFFEY
The deadliest bowler and "highest ornament" of the Dingley Dell team. It is impossible to read without emotion (in Chap. VII) of "the breathless silence which ensued when Mr. Luffey retired a few paces behind the wicket of the passive Podder [batter for All Maggleton], and applied the ball to his right eye for several seconds, and then with a sudden cry of 'Play!' launchd it straight and swift towards the centre stump of the wicket."
Physically Kyd has distinguished Luffey the bowler from Dumkins the batsman by his thinner face, looking left rather than right, and his colourful suspenders. So minor a character in the Dickens canon is Luffey that he does not appear in The Dickens Index, edited by Michael Slater et al., and he merits the barest of mentions in Paul Davis's Charles Dickens A to Z.
Clearly the popular taste in "characters from Dickens" as well as in "novels from Dickens" has changed markedly over the past century, so that even few educated readers would associate this cricket player with the "deadliest bowler" of Dingley Dell team in the Dingley Dell match with All-Muggleton in Dickens's first novel, set in the Kentish countryside.
Passage from Chapter VII, "How the Dingley Dell Cricket Club played All-Muggleton . . . "
The umpires were stationed behind the wickets; the scorers were prepared to notch the runs; a breathless silence ensued. Mr. Luffey retired a few paces behind the wicket of the passive Podder, and applied the ball to his right eye for several seconds. Dumkins confidently awaited its coming with his eyes fixed on the motions of Luffey.
"Run — run — another. — Now, then throw her up — up with her — stop there — another — no — yes — no — throw her up, throw her up!" — Such were the shouts which followed the stroke; and at the conclusion of which All-Muggleton had scored two. Nor was Podder behindhand in earning laurels wherewith to garnish himself and Muggleton. He blocked the doubtful balls, missed the bad ones, took the good ones, and sent them flying to all parts of the field. The scouts were hot and tired; the bowlers were changed and bowled till their arms ached; but Dumkins and Podder remained unconquered. Did an elderly gentleman essay to stop the progress of the ball, it rolled between his legs or slipped between his fingers. Did a slim gentleman try to catch it, it struck him on the nose, and bounded pleasantly off with redoubled violence, while the slim gentleman’s eyes filled with water, and his form writhed with anguish. Was it thrown straight up to the wicket, Dumkins had reached it before the ball. In short, when Dumkins was caught out, and Podder stumped out, All-Muggleton had notched some fifty-four, while the score of the Dingley Dellers was as blank as their faces. The advantage was too great to be recovered. In vain did the eager Luffey, and the enthusiastic Struggles, do all that skill and experience could suggest, to regain the ground Dingley Dell had lost in the contest — it was of no avail; and in an early period of the winning game Dingley Dell gave in, and allowed the superior prowess of All-Muggleton. [Chapter VII, "How Mr. Winkle, instead of shooting at the Pigeon, and killing the Crow, shot the Crow and wounded the Pigeon; How the Dingley Dell Cricket Club played All-Muggleton, and how All-Muggleton dined at the Dingley Dell expense; with other interesting and instructive matters," pp. 69-70]
Parallel Cricketing Scenes by Phiz and Harry Furniss (1874 and 1910)
Left: Harry Furniss's 1910 version incorporates the Pickwickians, and places the cricket match in the background: Mr. Pickwick at the Cricket Match. Right: Phiz's revised version of the cricket scene for the British Household Edition (1874) focusses on the wonder-struck Wardle and the actor hogging the limelight after the game, as Pickwick observes Jingle's performance from the left: Mr. Wardle looked on, in silent wonder.
Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910
- Robert Seymour (1836)
- R. W. Buss (1836)
- Hablot Knight Brown (1836-37)
- Thomas Onwhyn's "Extra" Illustrations (1837)
- Felix Octavius Carr Darley (1861)
- Sol Eytinge, Jr. (1867)
- An introduction to the Household Edition (1871-79)
- Thomas Nast (1873)
- Hablot Knight Browne (1874)
- Harry Furniss (1910)
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 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 7 July 2025