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“He is a strolling actor,” said the Lieutenant contemptuously. . . .
Thomas Onwhyn ["Sam Weller del" for delineavit, Latin]
steel engraving
14.9 cm high by 10.9 cm wide (5 ⅞ by 4 ⅜ inches), vignetted
March 1837 (First Extra instalment)
Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Chapter III (April 1836), facing page 33.
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‘Sir,’ said the doctor, suddenly addressing Mr. Tupman, in a tone which made that gentleman start as perceptibly as if a pin had been cunningly inserted in the calf of his leg, ‘you were at the ball here last night!’
Mr. Tupman gasped a faint affirmative, looking very hard at Mr. Pickwick all the while.
‘That person was your companion,’ said the doctor, pointing to the still unmoved stranger.
Mr. Tupman admitted the fact.
‘Now, sir,’ said the doctor to the stranger, ‘I ask you once again, in the presence of these gentlemen, whether you choose to give me your card, and to receive the treatment of a gentleman; or whether you impose upon me the necessity of personally chastising you on the spot?’
‘Stay, sir,’ said Mr. Pickwick, ‘I really cannot allow this matter to go any further without some explanation. Tupman, recount the circumstances.’
Mr. Tupman, thus solemnly adjured, stated the case in a few words; touched slightly on the borrowing of the coat; expatiated largely on its having been done ‘after dinner’; wound up with a little penitence on his own account; and left the stranger to clear himself as best he could.
He was apparently about to proceed to do so, when Lieutenant Tappleton, who had been eyeing him with great curiosity, said with considerable scorn, ‘Haven’t I seen you at the theatre, Sir?’
‘Certainly,’ replied the unabashed stranger.
‘He is a strolling actor!’ said the Lieutenant contemptuously, turning to Doctor Slammer. — ‘He acts in the piece that the officers of the 52nd get up at the Rochester Theatre to-morrow night. You cannot proceed in this affair, Slammer — impossible!’
‘Quite!’ said the dignified Payne.
‘Sorry to have placed you in this disagreeable situation,’ said Lieutenant Tappleton, addressing Mr. Pickwick; ‘allow me to suggest, that the best way of avoiding a recurrence of such scenes in future will be to be more select in the choice of your companions. Good-evening, Sir!’ and the lieutenant bounced out of the room. [Chapter III, "A New Acquaintance. The Stroller's Tale. A Disagreeable Interruption, and an Unpleasant Encounter," 33]
“He is a strolling actor,” said the Lieutenant contemptuously. “He acts in the piece that the officers of the 52nd get up at the Rochester theatre to-morrow night. You cannot proceed in this affair, Slammer, impossible!” Page 33
Alfred Jingle first appears in Chapter Two of the novel, as he accompanies the Pickwickians on their initial coach journey. As they leave the Golden Cross Inn at Charing Cross, Jingle holds forth in his characteristic "staccato" mode on the dangers of decapitation as illustrated by low archways, and cites as an example of King Charles I, beheaded at nearby Whitehall Palace.
Initially, Dickens designates him merely as “the stranger,” but Seymour names him in the early illustration Dr. Slammer’s defiance of Jingle in the second chapter (in the initial instalment: April 1836). The page's header underscores the anticlimax: "The Affair of Honour melts away." Slammer has been acting under the misapprehension that the man who insulted him at the Bull Inn in the Rochester High Street was a member of the Pickwickians, Mr. Tracy Tupman, rather than the dissoute actor, Alfred Jingle. Whereas the faces of the others gathered around the table suggest consternation, Jingle (seated downstage) smiles affably as Lieutenant Tappleton identifies him. The others at the table include Pickwick, Winkle, Doctor Payne, Snodgrass, Tupman, and, of course, the formerly irate regimental physician, Dr. Slammer.
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).
Titley, Graham D. C. "Thomas Onwhyn: a Life in Illustration (1811-1886)." Pearl. University of Plymouth (2018-07-12).
Created 3 February 2024