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The Seizure of Guy Fawkes
John McLaren Ralston
Engraver: E. Dalziel
1878
Wood engraving
13.8 cm high by 10.5 cm wide (5 7/16 by 4 ⅛ inches)
Dickens's A Child's History of England, Chapter XXXII, 148.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [See below for commentary.]
That the conspirators had their fears, is certain; for, Tresham himself said before them all, that they were every one dead men; and, although even he did not take flight, there is reason to suppose that he had warned other persons besides Lord Mounteagle. However, they were all firm; and Fawkes, who was a man of iron, went down every day and night to keep watch in the cellar as usual. He was there about two in the afternoon of the fourth, when the Lord Chamberlain and Lord Mounteagle threw open the door and looked in. "Who are you, friend?" said they. "Why," said Fawkes, "I am Mr. Percy’s servant, and am looking after his store of fuel here." "Your master has laid in a pretty good store,’ they returned, and shut the door, and went away. Fawkes, upon this, posted off to the other conspirators to tell them all was quiet, and went back and shut himself up in the dark, black cellar again, where he heard the bell go twelve o’clock and usher in the fifth of November. About two hours afterwards, he slowly opened the door, and came out to look about him, in his old prowling way. He was instantly seized and bound, by a party of soldiers under Sir Thomas Knevett. He had a watch upon him, some touchwood, some tinder, some slow matches; and there was a dark lantern with a candle in it, lighted, behind the door. He had his boots and spurs on — to ride to the ship, I suppose — and it was well for the soldiers that they took him so suddenly. If they had left him but a moment’s time to light a match, he certainly would have tossed it in among the powder, and blown up himself and them. [Chapter XXXII — "England under James the First," Part the First, 145]
McLaren Ralston dramatizes and details the arrest of the leading Gunpowder Plotter in vigorous and compelling detail. Since Dickens consistently shows nothing but contempt for the first in the Stuart line ("His Sowship"), the illustrator has wisely selected an exciting incident that has nothing to do with James's interminable constitutional wrangling about the Act of Union or the administration of the Church of England.
Unpromising as Dickens's brief description may have been, McLaren Ralston fleshes it out dramatically as a party of the government agents apprehends the traitor in the crypt of Westminster Hall. Fawkes struggles with his captors to escape, but their numbers and determination overwhelm him. Although they are armed with rapiers, none of the four agents has had to draw a weapon, although one threatens to punch Fawkes as he is held from behind in what might be a scene from a play such. Significantly the illustrator has omitted the thirty-six barrels of gunpowder which the conspirators had left Fawkes to guard in the vault beneath the House of Lords. Oddly enough, Ralston has also omitted the dark-lanterns with which the arresting party must have been equipped.
Perhaps for compactness of design, Ralston has reduced the arresting party from eight to just three, even though many readers of the Victorian period, partly through William Harrison Ainsworth's serial novel (1840-41), would have known that the party included at least eight. George Cruikshank's illustration shows the eight, several armed with halberds, implying that they are members of a military unit. Cruikshank has relegated the leader, Sir Thomas Knevett, and the confidential agent, Richard Topcliffe, to the background, and dramatically has one of the guards shove a pistol in Fawkes' face. In contrast, Ralston focuses on activity and form of Knevett, heavily armed (left). Perhaps Topcliffe is the agent who in wrestling with the prisoner has lost his hat.
Left: Cruikshank's illustrations for Ainsworth's Guy Fawkes, or The Gunpowder Treason: An Historical Romance in Bentley's Miscellany. Left: Guy Fawkes laying the train (February 1841). Centre: Guy Fawkes and Catesby landing the Powder (October 1840). Right: The authorities apprehend the soldier-of-fortune in the crypt: Guy Fawkes arrested by Sir Thomas Knevett and Topcliffe (March 1841).
Ainsworth, William Harrison. Guy Fawkes, or The Gunpowder Treason: An Historical Romance. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. Bentley's Miscellany, IX: January 1840-November 1841.
Avery, Gillian, ed. Charles Dickens: "A Holiday Romance" and Other Writings for Children with All the Original Illustrations. Everyman edition. London: J. M. Dent, 1995.
Dickens, Charles. A Child's History of England". Illustrated by John McLaren Ralston. Household Edition. London: Chapman & Hal1, 1878. XVIII.
_______. A Child's History of England in Works. Centenary Edition. 36 vols. London: Chapman and Hall; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910-12.
Created 7 March 2021