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Ornate initial capital "P"
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
5 June 1841
3.0 x 2.5 cm, vignetted
Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, The Bradbury & Evans single-volume edition of December 1849, Chapter Thirty-one, Vol. III, 109.
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PONDERING on his unhappy lot, Joe sat and listened for a long time, expecting every moment to hear their creaking footsteps on the stairs, or to be greeted by his worthy father with a summons to capitulate unconditionally, and deliver himself up straightway. But neither voice nor footstep came; and though some distant echoes, as of closing doors and people hurrying in and out of rooms, resounding from time to time through the great passages, and penetrating to his remote seclusion, gave note of unusual commotion downstairs, no nearer sound disturbed his place of retreat, which seemed the quieter for these far-off noises, and was as dull and full of gloom as any hermit’s cell. [Initial-letter for the fifth monthly number:Chapter the Thirty-first, Vol. III, 109]
In this chapter, fed up with his narrow-minded father's dictatorial behaviour, Joe Willet makes up his mind at last to leave The Maypole. Since his best if not his only option is to enlist in the British military, he has a conversation with a recruiting sergeant, and agrees to become a private in the army. But, before he leaves, he decides that he must see Dolly one last time, even if the coquette may not express her genuine affection for him. The initial-letter vignette is consistent with this motif of leaving home for the unknown: there is, after all, a war going on in the American colonies which involves England's traditional enemy, France. In the miniature, a young sailor tries to deal with a gust of wind that fills the slight sails of his gondola-like boat. The vignette seems to accord with Joe's intention to serve in the British army overseas, and "To go abroad." The letter may, therefore, suggest this brief passage in this chapter: "Dolly was a coquette by nature, and a spoilt child. She had no notion of being carried by storm in this way."
Britain would definitely need young men to serve both in the Royal Navy and various divisions of the army as,in addition to conflicts in India, she would be engaged in four conflicts in the period, although the American Revolutionary War was the only theatre of combat when the novel opens, in 1775:
Dickens actually provides clues as to where Joe's regiment, departing the next morning, might be posted — and where Joe thinks he might be sent:
He walked along at a brisk pace, big with great thoughts of going for a soldier and dying in some foreign country where it was very hot and sandy, and leaving God knows what unheard-of wealth in prize-money to Dolly, who would be very much affected when she came to know of it; and full of such youthful visions, which were sometimes sanguine and sometimes melancholy, but always had her for their main point and centre, pushed on vigorously until the noise of London sounded in his ears, and the Black Lion hove in sight. [XXX, 110]
The "hot and sandy" description of Private Joe Willet's overseas posting does not suggest the Georgia campaign in the American theatre, but the First Anglo-Maratha War (1775–1782) in India. The recruiting sergeant whom Joe meets at The Black Lion seems to be promising such a posting: "'To-morrow morning, at half after eight o’clock,' replied the serjeant. 'You’ll go abroad — a country where it’s all sunshine and plunder — the finest climate in the world'" (113).
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') and George Cattermole. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841; rpt., Bradbury & Evans, 1849.
________. 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 17 December 2020
