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Ornate initial capital "T"
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
8 May 1841
3.0 x 2.5 cm, vignetted
Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, The Bradbury & Evans single-volume edition of December 1849, Chapter Twenty-three, Vol. III, 61.
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TWILIGHT had given place to night some hours, and it was high noon in those quarters of the town in which "the world" condescended to dwell —the world being then, as now, of very limited dimensions and easily lodged — when Mr. Chester reclined upon a sofa in his dressing-room in the Temple, entertaining himself with a book.
He was dressing, as it seemed, by easy stages, and having performed half the journey was taking a long rest. Completely attired as to his legs and feet in the trimmest fashion of the day, he had yet the remainder of his toilet to perform. The coat was stretched, like a refined scarecrow, on its separate horse; the waistcoat was displayed to the best advantage; the various ornamental articles of dress were severally set out in most alluring order; and yet he lay dangling his legs between the sofa and the ground, as intent upon his book as if there were nothing but bed before him. [Initial-letter for the fourth monthly number: Chapter the Twenty-third, 61]
Complementing Phiz's design of Hugh Calls on his Patron (8 May 1841) in Master Humphrey's Clock, the ornamental initial letter "T" introduces Hugh's extolling the virtues of alcohol consumption, which credits with having given him audacity ever since, at the age of six, he witnessed his mother's hanging at Tyburn. The corkscrew, bottle, and pot of hot-water (presumably for punch, rather than tea, Mr. Chester's beverage of choice) prepare us for Hugh's revelation that, buoyed up by spirits, he had dared to accost Dolly Varden in the woods neAr The Warren. This confession in turn leads to his producing Emma Haredale's letter to Edward Chester. Dolly's distress enabled him to purloin the letter, which Mr. Chester now reads several times before burning.
Thus, the passage which the display of bottles, cork, and gimlet introduces is this:
"As I don’t mean to ask you, and you might possibly do it without being invited if you went on much further," said Mr Chester with great composure, "we will stop, if agreeable to you, my good friend, at the next glass. You were drinking before you came here."
"I always am when I can get it," cried Hugh boisterously, waving the empty glass above his head, and throwing himself into a rude dancing attitude. "I always am. Why not? Ha ha ha! What’s so good to me as this? What ever has been? What else has kept away the cold on bitter nights, and driven hunger off in starving times? What else has given me the strength and courage of a man, when men would have left me to die, a puny child? I should never have had a man’s heart but for this. I should have died in a ditch. Where’s he who when I was a weak and sickly wretch, with trembling legs and fading sight, bade me cheer up, as this did? I never knew him; not I. I drink to the drink, master. Ha ha ha!"
"You are an exceedingly cheerful young man," said Mr Chester, putting on his cravat with great deliberation, and slightly moving his head from side to side to settle his chin in its proper place. "Quite a boon companion."
"Do you see this hand, master," said Hugh, "and this arm?" baring the brawny limb to the elbow. "It was once mere skin and bone, and would have been dust in some poor churchyard by this time, but for the drink. [Vol. III, 62]
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') and George Cattermole.London: Bradbury & Evans, 1849.
_______. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by A. H. Buckland. London and Glasgow: Collins Clear-type Press. 1900.
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
