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Hugh Accosts Dolly Varden
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
(Part XI) 24 April 1841
4 ½ x 3 ¼ inches (11.8 cm by 8.2 cm), vignetted
Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, the twenty-first regular illustration (the sixteenth contribution by Phiz). Vol. III, Chapter the Twenty-first , 49; originally in Part 54 in Master Humphrey's Clock.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
It was for the moment an inexpressible relief to Dolly, to recognise in the person who forced himself into the path so abruptly, and now stood directly in her way, Hugh of the Maypole, whose name she uttered in a tone of delighted surprise that came from her heart.
"Was it you?" she said, "how glad I am to see you! and how could you terrify me so!"
In answer to which, he said nothing at all, but stood quite still, looking at her.
"Did you come to meet me?" asked Dolly.
Hugh nodded, and muttered something to the effect that he had been waiting for her, and had expected her sooner.
"I thought it likely they would send," said Dolly, greatly reassured by this.
Nobody sent me," was his sullen answer. "I came of my own accord."
The rough bearing of this fellow, and his wild, uncouth appearance, had often filled the girl with a vague apprehension even when other people were by, and had occasioned her to shrink from him involuntarily. The having him for an unbidden companion in so solitary a place, with the darkness fast gathering about them, renewed and even increased the alarm she had felt at first. [Chapter the Twenty-first, Vol. III, 49]
Cattermole and Phiz depict the charming heroine of the novel, Dolly
Varden, some nine times in in their seventy-six illustrations. Likewise, they depict the
loutish Hugh, horse-wrangler at the Maypole, ten times, including by himself in the Phiz
portrait of an inebriated
Phiz's balanced composition effectively contrasts the feminine and delicate Dolly, framed by a tree in full-leaf, with the savage Hugh, framed by an angular, leafless tree whose trunk and limbs complement Hugh's powerful physique. Lately Dolly has been both coquettish (in thinking of her admiring coach-builder) and courageous (in refusing to give up Emma's letter to Geoffrey Haredale), so that readers come to this textual moment and its realisation with some ambivalence. However, Dolly's self-possession and Hugh's sullenness render her sympathetic as she battles her "vague apprehension" (50) with self-assertiveness as she dares to strike Hugh for his physical presumption.
Although Phiz has taken pains to ulitize the setting for the encounter which Dickens specifies in Chapter XX, he has omitted the chimneys in the Warren in the distance. However, here has included one of the two hedges, the wicket-gate. Already, she has passed through the emotional reaction of "delighted surprise" (49) at recognizing Hugh, a familiar figure from the Maypole, and therefore initially welcome. From her expression and turning her back on him, she is clearly no longer "glad" to see "Hugh of the Maypole," who functions as the evil wolf of fairy-tale and legend to her Red Riding-hood, with markedly sexual overtones The important aspect of the description of Hugh that Phiz has admirably captured is his brazen look of "coarse bold admiration" (50). Hugh oggles her shrinking figure knowingly in a posture that suggests he is considering how he should proceed: will intimidation satisfy Hugh, or will he go further in satisfying his desire to control Dolly and possess her beauty? The artist has made good use of Boz's phrase "stood gazing at her like a handsome satyr" (50). His sardonic bemusement now turns savage as he threatens her if ever she tells anybody about their encounter. Interrupted by Joe's response to Dolly's cries for help, before Joe's timely arrival Hugh menaces both Dolly and those whom she cares about with a vague threat: should she confide in anybody (particularly Joe) about Hugh's behaviour, "Tell him; and see what follows!" (51).
Left: F. O. C. Darley's engraved title-page for the 1862 second volume issued by Sheldon and Company, New York: Hugh and Dolly Varden, showing the same scene. Centre: Harry Furniss's version of Hugh's attempting to intimidate the heroine: Hugh Frightens Dolly (Ch. 21). Right: In Chapter 27, Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s representation of the surly villain in quite another context: Dennis and Hugh (1867).
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') and George Cattermole. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841; rpt., Bradbury & Evans, 1849.
________. Barnaby Rudge — A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. VII.
________. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. VI.
________. Barnaby Rudge. Ed. Kathleen Tillotson. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') and George Cattermole. The New Oxford Illustrated Dickens. London: Oxford University Press. 1954, rpt. 1987.
Hammerton, J. A. "Ch. XIV. Barnaby Rudge." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition, illustrated by Harry Furniss. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. 213-55.
Vann, J. Don. "Charles Dickens. Barnaby Rudge in Master Humphrey's Clock, 13 February-27 November 1841." New York: MLA, 1985. 65-66.
Created 1 August 2015
Last modified 25 December 2020