"Don't be longer than you can conveniently help, Sir. You're rayther heavy" for Dickens's "Pickwick Papers" by Thomas Nast (1873)

"Don't be longer than you can conveniently help, Sir. You're rayther heavy" by Thomas Nast (1873), in Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club, Chapter XXXIX, 237.

Bibliographical Note

Instead of focussing on the dialogue between Pickwick and Arabella over the high garden wall in Chapter XXXIX, "Mr. Samuel Weller, being entrusted with a Mission of Love, proceeds to execute it; with what success will hereinafter appear," p. 237, Nast shows everyone involved but Arabella. Wood-engraving, 4 ⅛ inches high by 5 ¼ inches wide (10.4 cm high by 13.5 cm wide), framed, half-page; referencing text on the same page; descriptive headline: "Armed with a Dark Lantern" (p. 237). Oddly enough, although Phiz executed the same scene for Chapter XXXIX in the 1874 edition, his illustration appears twelve pages and two chapters later in the 1874 Chapman and Hall edition, which uses precisely the same descriptive headline on p. 277.

Passage Illustrated: Dickens satirizes Pickwick's Gallantry

"There’s the young lady’s footsteps. Now, Mr. Winkle, sir, up vith you."

"Stop, stop!" said Mr. Pickwick, "I must speak to her first. Help me up, Sam."

"Gently, Sir,’ said Sam, planting his head against the wall, and making a platform of his back. "Step atop o’ that ‘ere flower-pot, Sir. Now then, up vith you."

"I’m afraid I shall hurt you, Sam," said Mr. Pickwick.

"Never mind me, Sir," replied Sam. "Lend him a hand, Mr. Winkle, sir. Steady, sir, steady! That’s the time o’ day!"

As Sam spoke, Mr. Pickwick, by exertions almost supernatural in a gentleman of his years and weight, contrived to get upon Sam’s back; and Sam gently raising himself up, and Mr. Pickwick holding on fast by the top of the wall, while Mr. Winkle clasped him tight by the legs, they contrived by these means to bring his spectacles just above the level of the coping.

"My dear," said Mr. Pickwick, looking over the wall, and catching sight of Arabella, on the other side, "don’t be frightened, my dear, it’s only me." "Oh, pray go away, Mr. Pickwick," said Arabella. "Tell them all to go away. I am so dreadfully frightened. Dear, dear Mr. Pickwick, don’t stop there. You’ll fall down and kill yourself, I know you will."

"Now, pray don’t alarm yourself, my dear," said Mr. Pickwick soothingly. "There is not the least cause for fear, I assure you. Stand firm, Sam," said Mr. Pickwick, looking down.

"All right, sir," replied Mr. Weller. "Don’t be longer than you can conweniently help, sir. You’re rayther heavy."

"Only another moment, Sam," replied Mr. Pickwick.

"I merely wished you to know, my dear, that I should not have allowed my young friend to see you in this clandestine way, if the situation in which you are placed had left him any alternative; and, lest the impropriety of this step should cause you any uneasiness, my love, it may be a satisfaction to you, to know that I am present. That's all, my dear." [Chapter XXXIX, "Mr. Samuel Weller, being entrusted with a Mission of Love, proceeds to execute it; with what success will hereinafter appear," p. 236]

Commentary: The Mission to Free Arabella Allen

Dickens has resorted to the gross improbability of having Sam discover so easily where Ben Allen has hidden his sister "in the Downs." The Phiz and Nast illustrations, by contrast, move the narrative along without much regard to the writer's use of coincidence. Responding to Sam's having located Arabella, Pickwick determines to exercise his sense of gallantry by coming to her rescue. In consequence, he now finds himself in a highly precarious position, perched on Sam's shoulders in order to conduct his dialogue with Arabella.

Whereas Nast has attempted through the use of cross-hatching to suggest that the action occurs after dusk, Phiz dispenses with any such method in order to make the scene much clearer; and, indeed, he is able to communicate the parties involved in the scene by showing their faces and postures in a manner far more natural than Nast's composition. In the darkness to the left, Mary or another figure (perhaps the scientific bachelor who spies Pickwick's dark lantern) is observing the Pickwickians' acrobatics.

The Nast and Phiz illustrations complement each other insofar as Phiz's represents the earlier moment, when Pickwick gets up on Sam's back, whereas in Nast's illustration Pickwick stands on Sam's shoulders to converse with Arabella. Whereas Nast's interpretation is more realistic in that all the figures are but dimly apprehended in the darkness, Phiz's more clearly reveals the postures, positions, and expressions of the three principals, avuncular Samuel Pickwick, the romantic Nathaniel Wardle, and the enabling servant, Sam Weller. However, from the point of view of situation and character comedy, Phiz's treatment is vastly more entertaining because his figures are better modelled and individualised; in particular, Pickwick seems oblivious to Sam's exertions as he is caught up in his role as advisor to the young couple, while Sam Weller and Nathaniel Winkle are captured in awkward positions, supporting their chief. In order to show clearly the irregularities of the wall and the tree, as well as the particulars of the three men, Phiz has had to disregard the lack of available light. In contrast, Nast manages his material in a realistic manner, albeit without any humour — but at least his illustration occurs on the same page as the passage visualised, whereas the reader has to flip back a dozen pages to re-read the passage associated with the woodcut on page 289 of the Chapman and Hall Household Edition.

The farcical situation itself seems to be a reprise of the ladies' seminary escapade of chapter 16, which, as Collins and Guiliano note, reveals the influence of Elizabeth Simpson Inchbald's plot gambits upon Dickens, who had read her Collection of Farces (1807): "Dickens surely drew upon Mrs. Inchbald's plays and perhaps other works of popular theatre and literature for this scene" (The Annotated Dickens, I: 378).

Phiz's New Illustration of Pickwick at the Wall (1874)

Above: Phiz updated his 1874 Household Edition program to include the amusing scene at the wall of the ladies' seminary for the 1874 Household Edition: "My dear," said Mr. Pickwick, looking over the wall, and catching sight of Arabella on the other side. "Don't be frightened, my dear, 'tis only me." [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-74

Related Material

Scanned image, colour correction, sizing, caption, and commentary 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.]

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. Engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.

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

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

Dickens, Charles. Pickwick Papers. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne and Others. Edited by Edward Guiliano and Philip Collins. The Annotated Dickens, Volume One. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1986.

Last modified 21 September 2021