The unhappy wretch was put into the cutter
Harold Hume Piffard
circa 1900
12.1 cm high by 7.6 cm wide (4 ¾ by 3 inches)
Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories, facing p. 384.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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The unhappy wretch was put into the cutter — Harold Hume Piffard's seventh lithograph for Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories: Part III of A Holiday Romance in Ticknor-Fields' Our Young Folks (January through May, 1868). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Boldheart extends Mercy towards his Old Enemy, the Latin Grammar-master
"It may be so," said the captain; "but it shall never be said that Boldheart stained his hour of triumph with the blood of his enemy. Prepare the cutter."
The cutter was immediately prepared.
"Without taking your life," said the captain, "I must yet for ever deprive you of the power of spiting other boys. I shall turn you adrift in this boat. You will find in her two oars, a compass, a bottle of rum, a small cask of water, a piece of pork, a bag of biscuit, and my Latin grammar. Go! and spite the natives, if you can find any."
Deeply conscious of this bitter sarcasm, the unhappy wretch was put into the cutter, and was soon left far behind. He made no effort to row, but was seen lying on his back with his legs up, when last made out by the ship’s telescopes. [A Holiday Romance. III. "Romance from the Pen of Lieu. Col. Robin Redforth {Captain Boldheart}," 400]
Commentary
To fill out the slight volume of Dickens's incomplete serial novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (January through June 1870) the editors of the Collins Pocket Edition have selected three later shorter works: "Hunted Down" (20, 27 August and 3 September, 1859), A Holiday Romance (five parts, January-May 1868), and "George Silverman's Explanation" (originally in The Atlantic Monthly, January-March, 1868). Although Sol Eytinge, Jr., whimsically illustration the children's "romance" for the juvenile magazine Our Young Folks, An Illustrated Magazine For Boys and Girls, Vol. IV, the other periodical pieces originally appeared without illustration.
One might be tempted, given the sombre nature of the illustration, to treat the
marooning of the Latin grammar-master seriously. However, as Dickens's whimsical tone
throughout the adventures of Captain Boldheart in Part Three of A
Holiday Romance suggests, readers should regard Lieu. Col. Robin Redforth's pirate
adventure as a mere spoof of transpontine yarns. After Boldheart's ship, The Beauty has blown the grammar-master's vessel, The Scorpion, out of the waters of the South China Sea, the valiant
victor refrains from making his nemesis walk the plank. Instead, Boldheart consigns
the disconsolate pedagogue, bereft of his entire crew, to an open boat. Dickens here
appears to be thinking of the fate of the skipper of the H. M. S.
Bounty, Captain Bligh, at the hands of Fletcher Christian and the mutineers. The
sallow teacher, without his lecturer's gown, sits in the cutter in the foreground, lost
in his gloomy thoughts, as
Other Boldheart Illustrations from the Our Young Folks edition (1868)
Left: Sir John Gilbert's scene of Boldheart passing judgment on his enemy, The Pirate Colonel and His Captive (1868). Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s initial letter vignette of the diminutive captain and the whale that he single-handedly harpoons, Captain Boldheart and a Whale.
Bibliography
Davis, Linda. "Biographical Note on Harold Hume Piffard (1867-1938)." https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22086/harold-hume-piffa
Dickens, Charles. A Holiday Romance. Our Young Folks (January-May, 1868): I. "From the Pen of William Tinkling, Esquire," II. "From the Pen of Miss Alice Rainbird," III. "From the Pen of Lieutenant-Colonel Robin Redforth," and IV. "From the Pen of Miss Nettie Ashford."
_____. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories. Illustrated by Sir Luke Fildes, R. A. London: Chapman and Hall Limited, 193, Piccadilly. 1880.
_____. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories, illustrated by Harold Hume Piffard. LOndon & Glasgow: Collins' Clear-Type Press, circa 1904.
Created 27 JUne 2022