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Meekness of Mr. Pecksniff and his charming daughters
Phiz
January 1843
Steel-engraving
13.6 cm high by 10.7 cm wide, vignetted
First regular monthly illustration for Charles Dickens's Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, facing page 14 (1844 edition) in the second chapter.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"Come in!" cried Mr. Pecksniff — not severely; only virtuously. "Come in!"
An ungainly, awkward-looking man, extremely short-sighted, and prematurely bald, availed himself of this permission; and seeing that Mr Pecksniff sat with his back towards him, gazing at the fire, stood hesitating, with the door in his hand. He was far from handsome certainly; and was drest in a snuff-coloured suit, of an uncouth make at the best, which, being shrunk with long wear, was twisted and tortured into all kinds of odd shapes; but notwithstanding his attire, and his clumsy figure, which a great stoop in his shoulders, and a ludicrous habit he had of thrusting his head forward, by no means redeemed, one would not have been disposed (unless Mr Pecksniff said so) to consider him a bad fellow by any means. He was perhaps about thirty, but he might have been almost any age between sixteen and sixty; being one of those strange creatures who never decline into an ancient appearance, but look their oldest when they are very young, and get it over at once.
Keeping his hand upon the lock of the door, he glanced from Mr. Pecksniff to Mercy, from Mercy to Charity, and from Charity to Mr Pecksniff again, several times; but the young ladies being as intent upon the fire as their father was, and neither of the three taking any notice of him, he was fain to say, at last,
"Oh! I beg your pardon, Mr Pecksniff: I beg your pardon for intruding; but —"
"No intrusion, Mr. Pinch," said that gentleman very sweetly, but without looking round. "Pray be seated, Mr. Pinch. Have the goodness to shut the door, Mr. Pinch, if you please." [Chapter II, "Wherein become better acquainted," page 14 in the 1844 edition; descriptive headline: "Mr. Westlock" (1897).]
Since the January instalment in fact went on sale in late December, we may reasonably assume that Browne executed the accompanying pair of etchings as triplicate steels in early December after reading the first three chapters in proof. Already we see evidence of the illustrator's providing embedded details that make Pecksniff readily identifiable throughout the sequence by virtue of his rectangular head, puritanical habiliments, and spiky hair — prounced features that such later illustrators as Eytinge, Barnard, and Furniss felt bound to maintain in their depictions of the arch-hypocrite. Phiz has derived the "two jutting heights of collar," the grizzled, "bolt upright" tonsorial crown, and languid eyelids directly from Dickens's initial description of the village architect and professional mentor of such budding apprentices as John Westlock and Tom Pinch. The text mentions the furnishings of the room, particularly the bust and portrait of Pecksniff, as well as the "frizzled" hair of the younger Miss Pecksniff. But whereas Dickens describes the girl's hair in Chapter 2, he does not describe the Spiller portrait and Spoker bust until Chapter 5 in the second monthly part, so that these emblematic details may well have originated with Phiz. Indeed, Fred Barnard in the frontispiece to the 1872 Household Edition deemed these details so revealing of Pecksniff's egotism that he developed a scene in which the architect is admiring his own bust, as if regarding himself in a mirror.
The moment illustrated seems to be when Tom Pinch, stooping before the potentate, has opened the parlour door and tentatively entered, leaving John Westlock on the threshold as Tom attempts to make peace between former master and former pupil. With his rake-like figure and prematurely balding pate, Tom Pinch appears exactly as Dickens describes him (Penguin p. 68-70). The architectural studies hanging on the wall, however, were merely suggested to Phiz by the author's mentioning the kinds of architectural studies Pecksniff habitually sets his apprentices: "Public Buildings." The study immediately behind Pecksniff's head looks very much like a workhouse, factory, or prison block, all of which identifications are suggestive of his treatment of Westlock and Pinch. Akin to their father's self-satisfaction and lack of conscience about his callous exploitation of these young men's talents are the sisters' complacent expressions, their half-shut eyes mirroring exactly their father's.
The Latin motto beneath a framed picture of a monument, "Pecksniff Fecit," implies the master-architect's conception of himself as another Marcus Agrippa, the trusted architectural second-in-command of Augustus Caesar who, having achieved victory at Actium, determined to transform Rome's buildings from brick to marble, his chief architectural legacy being the splendid Pantheon. In "em>fecit" there may also be an English pun, implying Pecksniff's duplicity. From this plate onward we associate the number three with Pecksniff, as if he is the head of a trinity, his daughters being his complements as a three-personed deity. Michael Steig in his article "Martin Chuzzlewit's Progress by Dickens and Phiz" notes the Hogarthian detailing for which Phiz had become renowned. The poor box and pair of scales on the mantelpiece imply that the apparent benevolence and virtue of the Pecksniff trio is nicely calculated and hardly altruistic. A self-serving hypocrite in image as in letterpress, Pecksniff almost applauds himself as his finger-tips touch, supremely self-confident and unflappable, even when confronted by one who is quite undeceived: former pupil John Westlock, whose presence is implied only by the open door. The only Charity and Mercy, however, that Westlock encounters are the ironically named daughters.
Left: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s 1867 study of the complacent Pecksniff and his plain and pretty daughters, Pecksniff and hgis Daughters (Chapter 2, Diamond Edition). Centre: Harry Furniss's realisation of the scene in which the family effusively welcomes Martin, The Pecksniffs posing to receive Martin (1910). Right: Fred Barnard's characterisation of Pecksniff as endearingly vain, Uncaptioned title-page vignette (1872). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Above: Fred Barnard's realisation of the novel's opening scene, with Pecksniff blown down on his own steps, Uncaptioned illustration to begin Chapter One(1872).
Allingham, Philip V. "Introductory Notes." The Dickens Magazine: Martin Chuzzlewit. 5.1 (Feb., 2008): 8-9.
_____. "Phiz's Illustrations, Part One." [Ch. 2-7] The Dickens Magazine: Martin Chuzzlewit. 5.1 (Feb., 2008): 12-15.
Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1844.
_____. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Edited by Andrew Lang. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). The Gadshill Edition: 34 volumes. London: Chapman and Hall; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897. 2 vols.
_____. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Edited by Margaret Cardwell. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). The Clarendon Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Monod, Sylvère. "External and Additional Material." Martin Chuzzlewit. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1985. Pp. 173-185.
Steig, Michael. "From Caricature to Progress: Master Humphrey's Clock and Martin Chuzzlewit." Ch. 3, Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U.P., 1978. Pp. 51-85.
_____. "Martin Chuzzlewit's Progress by Dickens and Phiz." Dickens Studies Annual, 2 (1972): 119-149.
Vann, J. Don. "Martin Chuzzlewit, twenty parts in nineteen monthly installments, January 1843 — July 1844." New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Pp. 66-67.
Last modified 9 January 2019