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The Goblin and The Sexton [alternate]
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
January 1837 (Part Ten)
Steel Engraving
13.5 cm high by 11 cm wide — 5 ¼ by 4 ¼ inches
Dickens's Pickwick Papers, from Chapter XXIX, facing p. 247.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
See below for passage illustrated and commentary.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Seated on an upright tombstone, close to him, was a strange, unearthly figure, whom Gabriel felt at once, was no being of this world. His long, fantastic legs which might have reached the ground, were cocked up, and crossed after a quaint, fantastic fashion; his sinewy arms were bare; and his hands rested on his knees. On his short, round body, he wore a close covering, ornamented with small slashes; a short cloak dangled at his back; the collar was cut into curious peaks, which served the goblin in lieu of ruff or neckerchief; and his shoes curled up at his toes into long points. On his head, he wore a broad-brimmed sugar-loaf hat, garnished with a single feather. The hat was covered with the white frost; and the goblin looked as if he had sat on the same tombstone very comfortably, for two or three hundred years. He was sitting perfectly still; his tongue was put out, as if in derision; and he was grinning at Gabriel Grub with such a grin as only a goblin could call up. [Chapter XXIX, "The Story of the Goblins who stole a Sexton," 247]
Johannsen notes that there are several significant differences between Phiz's two versions of the whimsical engraving for "The Story of the Goblins who stole a Sexton." He terms this alternate Plate B1, and points out six points that distinguishes it from Plate A:
a) The tree has a knot where the face was in Plate A.
b) There is a tombstone at the right of the sexton's left foot.
c) The artist's signature is clear and lies below the grass.
d) There is a a round finial at the apex of the roof.
e) There is a bone between the lantern and the skull to the right of the lantern.
f) The upper branch of the tree shows above the church tower in the illustration. [pp. 42-44]
This alternate plate has a background slightly out of focus, so that the clouds, the church and its tower are not as sharply cut as in the A version. The face of the Sexton is much darker, but the goblin's stockings are more obviously striped.
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).
Johannsen, Albert. "Chapter One: The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club." Phiz Illustrations from the Novels of Charles Dickens. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956. Pp. 1-75.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 2. "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 24-50.
Created 11 November 2024