I stirred him a little
Wal Paget (1863-1935)
half-page lithograph
15.5 cm high by 8 cm wide, vignetted.
1891
Robinson Crusoe, embedded on page 128; signed "Wal Paget" lower left.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Passage Illustrated: The Dying Goat Frightens Crusoe
I took up a firebrand, and in I rushed again, with the stick flaming in my hand: I had not gone three steps in before I was almost as frightened as before; for I heard a very loud sigh, like that of a man in some pain, and it was followed by a broken noise, as of words half expressed, and then a deep sigh again. I stepped back, and was indeed struck with such a surprise that it put me into a cold sweat, and if I had had a hat on my head, I will not answer for it that my hair might not have lifted it off. But still plucking up my spirits as well as I could, and encouraging myself a little with considering that the power and presence of God was everywhere, and was able to protect me, I stepped forward again, and by the light of the firebrand, holding it up a little over my head, I saw lying on the ground a monstrous, frightful old he-goat, just making his will, as we say, and gasping for life, and, dying, indeed, of mere old age. I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out, and he essayed to get up, but was not able to raise himself; and I thought with myself he might even lie there — for if he had frightened me, so he would certainly fright any of the savages, if any of them should be so hardy as to come in there while he had any life in him. [Chapter XII, "A Cave Retreat," page 127]
Commentary
Basing his choice on several earlier programs of illustration (those by Thomas Stothard (1790), George Cruikshank (1831), and the Cassell illustrators of 1863-64) Paget communicates Crusoe's continuing terror at the thought of a cannibal invasion, of being taken by surprise, captured — an eaten. Despite Crusoe's conquest of the island in the previous decades, he has never entered this cave before, so that this setting is as unfamiliar and terrifying to him as the notion that he is not alone on the island after all. In Crusoe finds a Dying Goat in particular Paget had a viable model for his more realistic interpretation of the iconic scene of the mundane transformed into the terrifying by an over-active imagination. Unlike previous illustrators, Paget is able to use the new medium of the lithograph to create the interesting effect of Crusoe's seeming to emerge from the page, of of the text itself creating a frame for the irregular illustration.
Related Material
- Daniel Defoe
- Illustrations of Robinson Crusoe by various artists
- Illustrations of children’s editions
- The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe il. H. M. Brock at Project Gutenberg
- The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe at Project Gutenberg
Parallel Scenes from Stothard (1790),Cruikshank (1831), and Cassell (1863-64)
Left: Thomas Stothard's 1790 realisation of the solitary and somewhat nervous castaway's encountering the goat in the cave: Robinson Crusoe terrified at the dying goat. Centre:George Cruikshank'ssimilar scene involving the island's goats,Crusoe discovers a dying goat in a cave (1831).Right:The previous Cassell edition's depiction of Crusoe and the goat in the cave, Crusoe finds a Dying Goat. [Click onthe images to enlarge them.]
Reference
Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by Himself. With upwards of One Hundred and Twenty Original Illustrations by Walter Paget. London, Paris, and Melbourne: Cassell, 1891.
Last modified 2 May 2018