"Mr. Tupman" by Thomas Nast (1873) for Dickens's "Pickwick Papers," Harper & Bros.

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Household Edition: Mr. Tupman

Thomas Nast

1873

composite woodblock engraving

13.7 cm high by 10.3 cm wide, framed; page 49

The Works of Charles Dickens, "Household Edition": The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Society. New York. Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

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 the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Bibliographical Note

The illustration appears in the American Edition of Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club, Chapter VIII, "Strongly Illustrative of the Position, That the Course of True Love is not a Railway," facing page 48 (although it is unnumbered, it counts as page 49). Wood-engraving, 5 ½ inches high by 4 1⁄16; inches wide (13.7 cm high by 10.3 cm wide), framed, full-page; referencing text on page 51. New York: Harper & Bros., Franklin Square, 1873.

Context of the Illustration: Mr. Tracy Tupman, The Poetic Bachelor, woos Rachael Wardle

The spinster aunt trembled, till some pebbles which had accidentally found their way into the large watering-pot shook like an infant's rattle.

"Miss Wardle," said Mr. Tupman, "you are an angel."

"Mr. Tupman!" exclaimed Rachael, blushing as red as the watering-pot itself.

"Nay," said the eloquent Pickwickian — "I know it but too well."

"All women are angels, they say," murmured the lady playfully.

"Then what can you be; or to what, without presumption, can I compare you?" replied Mr. Tupman. "Where was the woman ever seen who resembled you? Where else could I hope to find so rare a combination of excellence and beauty? Where else could I seek to — Oh!" Here Mr. Tupman paused, and pressed the hand which clasped the handle of the happy watering-pot.

The lady turned aside her head. "Men are such deceivers," she softly whispered.

"They are, they are," ejaculated Mr. Tupman; "but not all men. There lives at least one being who can never change — one being who would be content to devote his whole existence to your happiness — who lives but in your eyes — who breathes but in your smiles — who bears the heavy burden of life itself only for you."

"Could such an individual be found —" said the lady.

"But he can be found," said the ardent Mr. Tupman, interposing. "He is found. He is here, Miss Wardle." And ere the lady was aware of his intention, Mr. Tupman had sunk upon his knees at her feet.

"Mr. Tupman, rise," said Rachael.

"Never!" was the valorous reply. "Oh, Rachael!" He seized her passive hand, and the watering-pot fell to the ground as he pressed it to his lips. — "Oh, Rachael! say you love me." [Chapter VIII, "Strongly Illustrative of the Position, That the Course of True Love is not a Railway," page 51]

Commentary: A Much Celebrated Moment Re-conceived

This full-page image constitutes an extension of the text rather than an illustration of it, since Dickens nowhere describes Tupman in the manor-farm's garden with the Greco-Roman deity of romantic love. Thomas Nast chose to foil his more conventional, comedic treatment of the courtship in the garden (seen in "He knows nothing of what has happened," he whispered.) in order to satirize the middle-aged lover, Tracy Tupman. Whereas Joe, "The Fat Boy" and Wardle's page, interrupts Tupman's rapturous declaration and embarrasses the unlikely lovers in the garden bower at Dingley Dell in both of Phiz's illustrations (1836 and 1874), Nast introduces Joe's accompanying Tupman and Miss Wardle back to the manor-house by presenting the corpulent Tupman in a Regency dress and a symbolic pose. In the initial Nast garden composition, Cupid is about to discharge his arrow as Tupman puts his hand to his heart, as if professing eternal devotion to the very spirit of love, incarnated as the sister of the farm's owner, the Pickwickians' host, Mr. Wardle. If the bird-hunting mishap has enabled Tupman to woo the well-off spinster, his has indeed been a fortunate fall. From the very outset, Dickens has characterised the poetical Tupman's "ruling passion" as an "admiration for the fair sex." Now Nast renders him more than slightly ridiculous by showing him in the throes of a juvenile passion. Just when the affair seems to be going so well, Alfred Jingle, the out-of-work actor and smooth-talking confidence man, arrives to sabotage the romance, and in Chapter VIII elope with the wealthy Rachael. The course of true love does indeed not run smoothly for any of these middle-aged lovers as Mr. Wardle buys off the fortune-hunter and Rachael Wardle marries nobody. Disappointed in love, Tracy Tupman retires to Richmond-on-Thames, where his youthful and jaunty air win him the admiration of legions of elderly, single ladies. Biographer Peter Ackroyd suggests that the name "Tupman" had long held Rochester associations for Dickens as "one of John Dickens's colleagues in the Navy Pay Office had been an extra clerk by the name of S. Tupman" (24).

Two Parallel Scenes by Phiz

Left: Phiz’s initial treatment of the farcical courtship scene. Right: His illustration of the same scene in the 1874 edition. [Click on images to enlarge them.]

Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-74

Related Material

Bibliography

Ackroyd, Peter. Dickens. London : Sinclair-Stevenson, 1990.

Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour and Hablot Knight Browne. London: Chapman & Hall, 1837.

Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. The Household Edition. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. New York: Harper and Brothers 1873.

Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. The Household Edition. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1874.

Last modified 19 July 2019