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Pleasant Little Family Party at Mr. Pecksniff's
Phiz
February 1843
Steel-engraving
14.2 cm high by 11 cm wide, vignetted
Third regular monthly illustration for Charles Dickens's Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, facing page 42 (1844 edition) in the fourth chapter.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
But when the company arrived! That was the time. When Mr Pecksniff, rising from his seat at the table's head, with a daughter on either hand, received his guests in the best parlour and motioned them to chairs, with eyes so overflowing and countenance so damp with gracious perspiration, that he may be said to have been in a kind of moist meekness! And the company; the jealous stony-hearted distrustful company, who were all shut up in themselves, and had no faith in anybody, and wouldn’t believe anything, and would no more allow themselves to be softened or lulled asleep by the Pecksniffs than if they had been so many hedgehogs or porcupines!
First, there was Mr. Spottletoe who was so bald and had such big whiskers, that he seemed to have stopped his hair, by the sudden application of some powerful remedy, in the very act of falling off his head, and to have fastened it irrevocably on his face. Then there was Mrs. Spottletoe, who being much too slim for her years, and of a poetical constitution, was accustomed to inform her more intimate friends that the said whiskers were ‘the lodestar of her existence;’ and who could now, by reason of her strong affection for her uncle Chuzzlewit, and the shock it gave her to be suspected of testamentary designs upon him, do nothing but cry — except moan. Then there were Anthony Chuzzlewit, and his son Jonas; the face of the old man so sharpened by the wariness and cunning of his life, that it seemed to cut him a passage through the crowded room, as he edged away behind the remotest chairs; while the son had so well profited by the precept and example of the father, that he looked a year or two the older of the twain, as [41/42] they stood winking their red eyes, side by side, and whispering to each other softly. Then there was the widow of a deceased brother of Mr. Martin Chuzzlewit, who being almost supernaturally disagreeable, and having a dreary face and a bony figure and a masculine voice, was, in right of these qualities, what is commonly called a strong-minded woman; and who, if she could, would have established her claim to the title, and have shown herself, mentally speaking, a perfect Samson, by shutting up her brother-in-law in a private madhouse, until he proved his complete sanity by loving her very much. Beside her sat her spinster daughters, three in number, and of gentlemanly deportment, who had so mortified themselves with tight stays, that their tempers were reduced to something less than their waists, and sharp lacing was expressed in their very noses. Then there was a young gentleman, grandnephew of Mr. Martin Chuzzlewit, very dark and very hairy, and apparently born for no particular purpose but to save looking-glasses the trouble of reflecting more than just the first idea and sketchy notion of a face, which had never been carried out. Then there was a solitary female cousin who was remarkable for nothing but being very deaf, and living by herself, and always having the toothache. Then there was George Chuzzlewit, a gay bachelor cousin, who claimed to be young but had been younger, and was inclined to corpulency, and rather overfed himself; to that extent, indeed, that his eyes were strained in their sockets, as if with constant surprise; and he had such an obvious disposition to pimples, that the bright spots on his cravat, the rich pattern on his waistcoat, and even his glittering trinkets, seemed to have broken out upon him, and not to have come into existence comfortably. Last of all there were present Mr Chevy Slyme and his friend Tigg. And it is worthy of remark, that although each person present disliked the other, mainly because he or she did belong to the family, they one and all concurred in hating Mr. Tigg because he didn’t.
Such was the pleasant little family circle now assembled in Mr Pecksniff’s best parlour, agreeably prepared to fall foul of Mr. Pecksniff or anybody else who might venture to say anything whatever upon any subject.
"This," said Mr. Pecksniff, rising and looking round upon them with folded hands, "does me good. It does my daughters good. We thank you for assembling here. We are grateful to you with our whole hearts. It is a blessed distinction that you have conferred upon us, and believe me" — it is impossible to conceive how he smiled here — "we shall not easily forget it."
"I am sorry to interrupt you, Pecksniff," remarked Mr. Spottletoe, with his whiskers in a very portentous state; "but you are assuming too much to yourself, sir. Who do you imagine has it in contemplation to confer a distinction upon you, sir?"
A general murmur echoed this inquiry, and applauded it. [Chapter IV, "From which it will appear that if Union be Strength, and Family Affection be Pleasant to Contemplate, the Chuzzlewits were the Strongest and most Agreeable Family in the World," pp. 40-42 in the 1844 edition; descriptive headline in the 1868 edition: "An Agreeable Family Circle"; descriptive headline in the 1897 edition "Indignation of Mr. Spottletoe"]
Thir dread commander: he above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent
Stood like a Tow'r; his form had yet not lost
All her Original brightness, nor appear'd
Less than Arch-Angel ruin'd. . . . [Paradise Lost, I,
589-93]
In the accompanying text of the first two monthly instalments, Dickens establishes the governing motif of "self" in the novel through the pettiness of the Chuzzlewit clan, who have descended upon the little Wiltshire village in of pursuit the wealthy old Martin. Phiz has already depicted the sanctimonious Wiltshire village architect Seth Pecksniff and his egocentric daughters in the first serial illustration, Meekness of Mr. Pecksniff and his charming daughters, so that serial readers would easily have been able to recognise Pecksniff in this, his second appearance. For the initial illustration in the second monthly number Phiz provides both a reprise of the hypocritical Pecksniff and a group study of the extended Chuzzlewit family, with the familiar figure of Pecksniff in their midst, the calm eye in the midst of the storm. Pecksniff in his assumption of personal piety throughout Martin Chuzzlewit anticipates the "umble" villain of David Copperfield (1849-50), Uriah Heep, who is, in essence, Pecksniff re-visited and re-vitalized. In this third serial illustration, the greedy Pecksniff attempts to seize the leadership of the hopeful legatees of Old Martin. Phiz underscores Pecksniff's piously proclaiming himself their leader and protector, by placing behind his head, upper centre, an oval halo, the frame of a picture, surmounted by an eagle. In this background picture, Michael Steig has detected a reproduction in miniature which he interprets as a miniature of Jacques-Louis David's The Coronation of Napoleon (1805-7), in which the Emperor of the French, who has recently seized power in a coup d'etat, now seeks legitimacy. The embedded picture serves two other purposes, namely to providie a halo for the hypocrite's head and to render him the focal point of the whole composition. Other pictures likewise halo the heads of Tigg the swindler (left) and the splenetic Spottletoe (right). Through this device Phiz implies that Pecksniff is the central person of an unholy trinity, and thereby renders the whole plate a parody of Milton's "Great Consult" among the rebel angels under their leader, Satan, in Paradise Lost, Book One. Phiz places Tigg's head in exact parallel to Pecksniff's, perhaps to imply that, as a parasite and swindler, he is like Pecksniff in his posturing and deceipt.
Phiz's image of Seth Pecksniff as a great pretender is consistent with Dickens's conception of the novel's central antagonist. Apparently, Dickens based his characterization on philanthropist and writer S. C. Hall, who was born in 1800, and therefore would have about Pecksniff's age at the time that Dickens wrote Martin Chuzzlewit. As an inveterate snob and deceiver, the character of Pecksniff effectively underscores Dickens's theme about the negative effects of egotism and hypocrisy. Underscoring Pecksniff's vanity, Phiz may also be using the oval frame to make the village architect a parody of Christ at His baptism; to parody Pecksniff's grandiose self-conception the illustrator has replaced the Holy Dove with a black "imperial" eagle holding two balls in its mouth by a string, anchored to the wall and appearing to hover above the apostolic head. The eagle motif, which Michael Steig has pronounced significant in three other Phiz series, may also suggest the more predatory motive underlying the family gathering. Around the upright pillar of Seth Pecksniff the vulture-like members of the extended Chuzzlewit clan swirl in consternation at his presumption in thinking of himself as their natural leader. As in Dickens's description of the scene, in the illustration Phiz has included fourteen additional figures: the two flanking Miss Pecksniffs (the ironically named Charity and Mercy) reiterated by their pictures which hang conspicuously on the rear wall, right and left; the bald, splenetic cousin, Mr. Spottletoe (down left in this stage scene); the wary, cunning Anthony Chuzzlewit and his diabolical son, Jonas, up right; the widow of the senior Martin's brother and three spinster daughters, stage right of Pecksniff; Martin senior's grand-nephew, "very dark and very hairy"; the "gay bachelor cousin" and relict of the Regency, George Chuzzlewit, the corpulent figure, his waistcoat bulging, seated down left; Montague Tigg and his protégé, Chevy Slyme, being the figures immediately to Pecksniff's right. The composition as a whole, a scene of comic disorder, follows Dickens's principle of grouped pairs balanced to the left and right of the prop and pillar of the House of Chuzzlewit, in front of whom (appropriate to his self-appointed role as "Prince of Peace") is a closed Bible on the covered table. Dickens's verbal description, with such telling details as Pecksniff's crossed hands and the look-alike duo of Anthony and Jonas Chuzzlewit, has given Phiz plenty of material for visual elaboration. The moment realized, not hinted at in the generalized caption, is Spottletoe's denunciation of Pecksniff for his presumption to be acknowledged as the head of the clan, despite the fact that his name is not even "Chuzzlewit." Dickens and Phiz have based the ironic caption on a phrase a few lines ahead of Spottletoe's denunciation, "the pleasant little family circle."
Browne has carefully differentiated the characters, giving Tigg, the hanger-on, a prominent position and having Mercy and Charity react according to their personalities, the former amused and astonished, the latter vingary and disdainful." [Steig, Ch. 3, 65]
Phiz's best piece of dramatic invention is capturing Spottletoe's shaking his fist in the seraphic face of Pecksniff; far more significant, however, are the emblematic embellishments already noted in for Pecksniff, particularly his beatific head, crowned by spiky hair and haloed by the circular coronation piece. If the composition has a weak point, other than its crowded effect, it is that Phiz is depicting characters who are not so much individuals pursuing particular motives as what Guerard has termed "thematic données" (239), the scavengers who as in Ben Jonson's Volpone have gathered to rend asunder the carcass once the chief beast expires.
Left: Harry Furniss's study of Pecknsniff and his daughters, The Pecksniffs posing to receive Matin (Chapter 7, 1910) continues Phiz's satire. Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Mr. Pecksniff and his Daughters (1867). Right: John Gilbert's rather more realistic study of Mr. Pecksniff, Mr. Pecksniff's Courtship (1863). [Click on 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. "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.
Guerard, Albert J. "Martin Chuzzlewit: The Novel as Comic Entertainment." The Triumph of the Novel: Dickens, Dostoevsky, Faulkner. Chicago & London: U. Chicago P., 1976. Pp. 235-260.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. Merritt Y. Hughes. New York: Odyssey, 1957.
Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington and London: Indiana U. P., 1978.
_____. "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.
Modified 7 March 2019
Last updated 12 November 2024