Mr. Linkinwater Intimates His Approval of Nicholas
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby
1838
Wood engraving
Source: J. A. Hammerton, The Dickens Picture-Book, p. 161.
Image scan and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Passage Illustrated: Putting Tim Linkinwater out to pasture
"Where is Tim Linkinwater?" said brother Ned.
Stop, stop, stop!" said brother Charles, taking the other aside. "I've a plan, my dear brother, I've a plan. Tim is getting old, and Tim has been a faithful servant, brother Ned, and I don't think pensioning Tim's mother and sister, and buying a little tomb for the family when his poor brother died, was a sufficient recompense for his faithful services."
However, the specific passage illustrated comes two chapters later, when Tim reviews his forty-four years' worth of ledgers for Nicholas's inspection as the brothers enter the counting-house:
. . .Tim Linkinwater, without looking round, impatiently waved his hand as a caution that profound silence must be observed, and followed the nib of the inexperienced pen [of Nicholas, writing in the latest ledger] with strained and eager eyes.
The brothers looked on with smiling faces, but Tim Linkinwater smiled not, nor moved for some minutes. At length, he drew a long slow breath, and, still maintaining his position on the tilted stool, glanced at brother Charles, secretly pointed with the feather of his pen towards Nicholas, and nodded his head in a grave and resolute manner, plainly signifying "He'll do." [Chapter XXXVII, "Nicholas finds further Favour in the Eyes of the Brothers Cheeryble and Mr. Timothy Linkinwater. The Brothers give a Banquet on a great Annual Occasion. Nicholas, on returning Home from it, receives a mysterious and important Disclosure from the Lips of Mrs. Nickleby," March 1839]
Commentary: Workers in Charity as well as Business Colleagues
Though first disclosed in Phiz's narrative-pictorial sequence in their counting-house, Tim Linkinwater and the benign capitalists Brothers Cheeryble are the complete antithesis of Newmann Noggs and his duplicitous master, Ralph Nickleby. The charitable businessmen and their jolly clerk will prove key elements in the resolution of the plot, including the marriages of the hero and heroine, Nicholas and Kate Nickleby.
While perusing the advertisements for vacancies at the Register Office, Nicholas exchanges glances with a jolly-looking, older gentleman who has been clearly studying him as he prosecutes his job search. As the pair strike up a conversation, Nicholas reveals that his father has recently died and that he as the only son must look after his mother and sister. He reveals Kate's recent difficulties in London while he has been out of town. The fellow offers to take Nicholas to a situation at a warehouse bearing the signage "“The Cheeryble Brothers.” It soon becomes apparent that the twins, Charles and Edwin, are trying to entice their old clerk, Tim Linkinwater, into some form of staged retirement after forty-four years of faithful service. The logical solution is to hire Nicholas to become Tim's assistant so that he can eventually take over Tim's responsibilities entirely. Thus, Chales Cheeryble combines benevolence (offering remunerative employment to an educated young man who has recently lost his father) and good business, taking the workload off the shoulders of the elderly clerk, whom they plan to make a partner in their business.
Other Editions' Versions of the Benevolent Businessmen and their Clerk (1867-1910)
Left: Sol Eytinge, Jr., introduces the Cheerybles and their whimsical, old clerk at Chapter 35: Cheeryble Brothers and Tim Linkinwater (March 1839). Right: C. S. Reinhart's 1875 American Household Edition composite woodblock engraving of business meeting in the counting-house: His conductor advanced, and exchanged a warm greeting with another old gentleman, the very type and model of himself.
Left: Fred Barnard's 1875 woodblock engraving of the Cheerybles, their clerk, and Nicholas in the same scene, "I'm not coming an hour later in the morning, you know," said Tim, breaking out all at once, and looking very resolute. "I'm not going to sleep in the fresh air — no, nor I'm not going into the country either.", in the British Household Edition. Right: Harry Furniss's version of the benevolent twins in the Charles Dickens Library Edition: Nicholas in the Counting House (1910).
Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators
- Nicholas Nickleby (homepage)
- "Hush!" said Nicholas, laying his hand upon his shoulder. (Vol. 1, 1861)
- The Rehearsal (Vol. 2, 1861)
- "My son, sir, little Wackford. What do you think of him, sir?" (Vol. 3, 1861)
- Newman had caught up by the nozzle an old pair of bellows . . . (Vol. 4, 1861).
- Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s 18 illustrations for The Diamond Edition (1867)
- Fred Barnard's 59 Illustrations for the Household Edution (1877)
- C. S. Reinhart's 52 Illustrations for the American Household Edution (1875)
- Harry Furniss's 29 illustrations in the
- Harry Furniss's 29 illustrations for Nicholas Nickleby in the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910)
- Kyd's four Player's Cigarette Cards (1910)
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1839.
_______. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Ed. Andrew Lang. Illustrated by 'Phiz' (Hablot Knight Browne). The Gadshill Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1897. 2 vols.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 2. "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 24-50.
Thomas, Deborah A. "Chapter 2: Imaginative Overindulgence." Dickens and the Short Story. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982. 7-31.
Vann, J. Don. "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, twenty parts in nineteen monthly installments, April 1838-October 1839." New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. 63.
Created 3 April 2002 Last modified 31 August 2021