Tony Weller and His Grandson — Phiz's eighth illustration for Charles Dickens's Master Humphrey's Clock, No. 6, "Further Particulars of Master Humphrey's Visitor." 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ inches (8.1 cm high x 10.9 cm wide). (London: Chapman & Hall, 25 April 1840), p. 70. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Context of the Illustration: Mr. Samuel Weller's Father, Tony, and His Son (also Tony)
"That ’ere Tony is the blessedest boy" — said Mr. Weller, heedless of this rebuff, "the blessedest boy as ever I see in my days! of all the charmin’est infants as ever I heerd tell on, includin’ them as was kivered over by the robin-redbreasts arter they’d committed sooicide with blackberries, there never wos any like that ’ere little Tony. He’s alvays a playin’ vith a quart pot, that boy is! To see him a settin’ down on the doorstep pretending to drink out of it, and fetching a long breath artervards, and smoking a bit of firevood, and sayin’, “Now I’m grandfather” — to see him a doin’ that at two year old is better than any play as wos ever wrote. “Now I’m grandfather!” He wouldn’t take a pint pot if you wos to make him a present on it, but he gets his quart, and then he says, “Now I’m grandfather!”’ ["Further Particulars of Master Humphrey's Visitor," 70]
Commentary: Even Pickwick and the Wellers Could Not Save Dickens's Miscellany
Phiz has imagined Tony inculcating the values and usages of a coachman in a suitable setting: a stable. Modern readers may be aghast that, while jolly, vastly overweight Tony smokes a long-stemmed pipe, his grandson effects to smoke a twig in imitation of his much admired grandparent, even as he balances an enormous pewter mug on his knees. But even general jolliness and dialectal witticisms proved insufficient compensation for the lack of an instalment of a new serial novel. Dickens's readers were voting by witholding their three pennies per issue. By the fourth number Dickens had only one recourse to save The Clock: give the reading public what it really wanted.
In "The Story of This Book," the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910), the editor of the eighteen-volume series, J. A. Hammerton notes that the two serial novels, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge, almost immediately superseded the flimsy weekly vehicle that Dickens had devised as a platform for short fiction, sketches, squibs, and tomfoolery: "The chapters published separately as Master Humphrey's Clock are, in a way, the framework of these two famous novels, and we have here an instance against Euclid of the parts being greater than the whole!" (Vol. VI, i). However, of the eighty-six numbers of the miscellany, fully forty carried instalments of The Old Curiosity Shop and forty-two carried instalments of Barnaby Rudge. In fact, only the first through third numbers of the three-penny weekly (4 April through 18 April 1840) and the final number (4 December 1841) carried no instalments of either serial novel.
Although every Dickensian has a kindly affection for Master Humphrey's Clock, if only for the sake of the further fleeting glimpses it presents of certain old favourites, such as Mr. Pickwick and the Wellers, and the gratifying progress of the third generation of the Wellers, the book, as it exists, is of course to be regarded chiefly as a literary curiosity. [J. A. Hammerton, VI: iii]
Even Phiz's excellent illustrations of the Wellers and their interactions with Master Humphrey's housekeeper could not induce the reading public to accord Master Humphrey's Clock the same triumphant reception that it had given The Pickwick Papers only three years earlier. The miscellany concludes with what Hammerton terms "a cosy farewell to the Wellers, not to say a last look at Mr. Pickwick as one of the executors of Master Humphrey's will" (iii), the other being the Deaf Gentleman who finds Master Humphrey dead in his chair.
Relevant Illustrations from Other Editions (1840 and 1907)
Left: "Now I'm grandfather" by W. H. C. Groome (1907). Centre: Phiz's A Chip Off the Old Block in "Mr. Weller's Watch" (1840). Right: "He wouldn't pass vun single blessed post." by W. H. C. Groome (Collins Pocket Edition, 1907).
Other Illustrated Editions of Master Humphrey's Clock
- Harry Furniss's Six Charles Dickens Library Edition Illustrations for Master Humphrey's Clock (1910)
- W. H. C. Groome's Illustrations for Master Humphrey's Clock (1907)
- Fred Barnard's Four Household Edition Illustrations for Master Humphrey's Clock (Vol. XX, 1879)
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 image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Cohen, Jane Rabb. "George Cattermole." Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio U. P., 1980. Pp. 125-134.
Davis, Paul. "Master Humphrey's Clock." Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to his Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998. P. 238.
Dickens, Charles. Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by George Cattermole and Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). London: Chapman and Hall, 4 April 1840 — 6 February 1841, plus the final part, 4 December 1841.
_______. Master Humphrey's Clock. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Reprinted Pieces, and Other Stories. With thirty illustrations by L. Fildes, E. G. Dalziel, and F. Barnard. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. XX. Pp. 253-306.
_______. Master Humphrey's Clock and Pictures from Italy. With eight illustrations by W. H. C. Groome. London and Glasgow, 1907. Vol. XLIX. Pp. 1-168.
_______. Barnaby Rudge and Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Volume VI.
Hammerton, J. A. "The Story of This Book." The Dickens Picture Book: A Record of the Dickens Illustrators. Master Humphrey's Clock. The Charles Dickens Library. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Pp. i-iii.
Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Vann, J. Don. "The Old Curiosity Shop in Master Humphrey's Clock, 25 April 1840 — 6 February 1841." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Pp. 64-65.
Created 4 September 2022