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Mr. Pickwick and Sam in the Attorney's Office
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
October 1836
Steel Engraving
11.2 cm high by 9 cm wide — 3 ½ by 4 ⅜ inches
Dickens's Pickwick Papers, from Chapter 20, facing p. 164.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
See below for passage illustrated
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Mr. Weller replied by pointing with his thumb over his shoulder, and Mr. Pickwick, on looking up, became sensible of the pleasing fact, that all the four clerks, with countenances expressive of the utmost amusement, and with their heads thrust over the wooden screen, were minutely inspecting the figure and general appearance of the supposed trifler with female hearts, and disturber of female happiness. [Chapter XX, "Showing How Dodson and Fogg were Men of Business . . . ," 164]
After the misadventure of the wheelbarrow and his subsequent ignominy in the village pound, Pickwick returns to London to confront Mrs. Bardell's attorneys, Dodson and Fogg — unwisely approaching the cunning lawyers without the assistance of his own legal advisor, Mr. Perker. At least he has the advice and assistance of his valet, Sam Weller, whose gesture suggests that he is counselling retreat as the better part of valour. In contrast to Pickwick in later illustrations of this scene, Phiz depicts his protagonist as downcast rather than belligerent and indignant.
The clerks and legal partners in the background are obviously enjoying Pickwick's discomfort, sitting back on their high office chairs and laughing at their woeful adversary. Phiz here does not emphasize Pickwick's error of judgment in defaming the unscrupulous attorneys in front of witnesses (although his accusations are undoubtedly true), but instead uses Pickwick's depression to signal the unfavourable outcome of the trial. Once again, as at Captain Boldwood's hands, Pickwick is a victim of the law. His ill-advised indignation is pathetic — even the clock from behind the office's gasolier or gas chandelier appears to be laughing at him in Phiz's original illustration for October 1836.
According to Johannsen (1956), this is an example of Plate A 2 (that is, the second treatment on the steel plate for serial number 7, October 1836. Note that "the shading within the bookshelves has been extended entirely to the top, the panels on the doors have been completed. . . . The window bars have been drawn out in full" (32).
Left: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond Edition realisation of the unscrupulous lawyers: Messrs. Dodson and Fogg (1867). Right: Phiz's Household Edition version has an angrier Pickwick: "You just come away," said Mr. Weller. "Battledore and shuttlecock’s a wery good game, vhen you ain’t the shuttlecock and two lawyers the battledores." (1874). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Left: Thomas Onwhyn's "extra" illustration for Chapter 20: “Go on, Sir said Mr. Fogg,” “do go on . . . to be pleasant.” (30 June 1837). Right: Thomas Nast's American Household Edition woodcut "Pray do it, Sir!" (1873). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980.
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).
__________. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. Engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
__________. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. The Household Edition. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. New York: Harper and Brothers 1873.
__________. Pickwick Papers. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874.
Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture-Book. London: Educational Book Co., 1910.
Johannsen, Albert. "The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club. Part VII. Plate 17. Page 201." Phiz Illustrations from the Novels of Charles Dickens. Chicago: U. Chicago Press, 1956. Pp. 32-34.
Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978, pp. 51-85.
Last modified 15 February 2024