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Martin Chuzzlewit Suspects the Landlady Without Any Reason
Phiz
January 1843
Steel-engraving
13.1 cm high by 11 cm wide, vignetted
Second regular monthly illustration for Charles Dickens's Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, facing page 24 (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.
"You do your errand, and you earn your fee. Now, who may be your client?" said Martin. Mrs. Lupin looked at her whom he called Mary in astonishment. [Chapter III, "In which certain other Persons are introduced; on the name Terms as in the last Chapter," top of page 24 in the 1844 edition; descriptive headline: "Consternation of Mrs. Lupin" (1897).]
Made inveterately suspicious of others' motives by years of being pursued by his greedy relatives, Old Martin exhibits deep mistrust of the kindly Mrs. Lupin, hostess of the Blue Dragon Inn. The illustration of Mary Graham (right), Old Martin (centre), and the Widow Lupin (left) in old man's bedchamber at the inn realizes the scene in Old Martin's room as the publican of the Blue Dragon enters. Cagey and slightly paranoid Old Martin implies that the landlady, Mrs. Lupin, is an agent of one of the Chuzzlewit clan, all of whom are eager to learn just how ill he is, and whether he will change his will to include them. The next scene, Pleasant Little Family Party at Mr. Pecksniff's, continues this theme of watchful suspicion. Steig notes the symbolism inherent in Old Martin's physical separation from the kindly landlady of the Blue Dragon:
Several of the other plates in the first five parts comment by their subjects on young Martin's situation, and also are important iconographically. Thus, "Martin Chuzzlewit suspects the landlady without reason" (ch. 24), centering upon young Martin's grandfather, parallels the first plate through the theme of exclusion, for old Martin suspects and excludes Mrs. Lupin, and his withdrawal from her and most of humanity is expressed graphically by the curtain which divides the plate in two. The parallel is to Pecksniff's exclusion of John Westlock, whose figure is partly visible in the first plate. Old Martin and his grandson, their egoisms and mutual attainment of self-knowledge, are also paralleled throughout the novel. [Steig, Chapter 3, p. 65]
Left: The Sol Eytinge,Jr. engraving depicting the pater familias and his companion, Old Martin and Mary (1867). Centre: Harold Copping's derivative colour lithograph, Mr. Pecksniff and Old Martin (1924). Right: One of the few Fred Barnard Household Edition illustrations involving Old Martin, "Mr. Pinch," said Mr. Pecksniff, shaking his head, "Oh, Mr. Pinch! I wonder how you can look me in the face!" (1872). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Above: Harry Furniss animates his pen-in-ink drawing translated into a lithograph with the patriarch's energy and drive, although Furniss renders him something of a caricature in Old Martin and the Will in Chapter 3 (1910).
Allingham, Philip V. "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 1 March 2019