"'What do you mean to do for me, old fellow?' asked Mr. Lenville, poking the struggling fire" — Chapter 24. C. S. Reinhart's twenty-sixth illustration for Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby" (1875)

"What do you mean to do for me, old fellow?" asked Mr. Lenville, poking the struggling fire [Page 131] by Charles Stanley Reinhart (1875), in Charles Dickens's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Harper & Bros. New York Household Edition, for Chapter XXIV. 10.6 x 13.7 cm (4 ¾ by 5 ¼ inches), framed. Running head: "Touches of Nature" (131). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Passage Illustrated: The Resident Dramatist meets the Tragedian of the Company

The gentlemen entreated him not to hurry himself; and, to beguile the interval, had a fencing bout with their walking-sticks on the very small landing-place: to the unspeakable discomposure of all the other lodgers downstairs.

"Here, come in," said Nicholas, when he had completed his toilet. "In the name of all that’s horrible, don’t make that noise outside."

"An uncommon snug little box this," said Mr. Lenville, stepping into the front room, and taking his hat off, before he could get in at all. "Pernicious snug."

"For a man at all particular in such matters, it might be a trifle too snug," said Nicholas; ‘for, although it is, undoubtedly, a great convenience to be able to reach anything you want from the ceiling or the floor, or either side of the room, without having to move from your chair, still these advantages can only be had in an apartment of the most limited size."

"It isn’t a bit too confined for a single man," returned Mr. Lenville. "That reminds me, — my wife, Mr. Johnson, — I hope she’ll have some good part in this piece of yours?"

"I glanced at the French copy last night," said Nicholas. ‘It looks very good, I think."

"What do you mean to do for me, old fellow?" asked Mr. Lenville, poking the struggling fire with his walking-stick, and afterwards wiping it on the skirt of his coat. "Anything in the gruff and grumble way?"

"You turn your wife and child out of doors," said Nicholas; "and, in a fit of rage and jealousy, stab your eldest son in the library."

"Do I though!" exclaimed Mr. Lenville. "That’s very good business."

"After which," said Nicholas, "you are troubled with remorse till the last act, and then you make up your mind to destroy yourself. But, just as you are raising the pistol to your head, a clock strikes — ten."

"I see" cried Mr. Lenville. "Very good." [Chapter XXIV, "Of the Great Bespeak for Miss Snevellicci, and the first Appearance of Nicholas upon any Stage," 126]

Commentary: Dickens Satirizes the Tawdry State of the Early Victorian Stage

Both illustrations for the twenty-fourth chapter in the British and American Household Editions underscore Dickens's satirical expos@eacute; of the early Victorian stage, using Vincent Crummles's (T. D. Davenport's) itinerant company as the vehicle. Having accepted Crummles' offer of employment as both an actor and a resident dramatist, translating plays fron the French, Nicholas under the pseudonym "Johnson" entertains two of the company's leading actors the morning after Crummles has hired him and Smike. Folair, a specialist in pantomime, and Lenville, enactor of heavy-weight and tragic roles, are obviously concerned that Johnson provide them with substantial roles in his next translation.

Further 'Backstage' Scenes by Phiz, Darley, Eytinge, Reinhart, and Furniss.

Left: The Country Manager Rehearses a Combat (October 1838), in which Phiz introduces Nicholas, Smike, and the reader to the Victorian theatre behind the scenes. Centre: The Great Bespeak for Miss Snevellici, in which the reader must adopt the actors' perspective of the ragtag provincial audience. Right: Nicholas Instructs Smike in the Art of Acting, in which Nicholas's caricatured companion struggles to learn his minor part, despite his friend's best efforts (November 1838).

Left: Felix Octavius Carr Darley's 1861 lithographic frontispiece The Rehearsal (1861). Right: Harry Furniss's 1910 lithograph representing the same scene, Nicholas and Smike behind the Scenes, in the Charles Dickens Library Edition.

Left: Fred Barnard 1875 Household Edition composite woodblock engraving of another chapter 24 scene: "As an exquisite embodiment of the poet's visions, and a realisation of human intellectuality, gilding with a refulgent light our dreamy moments, and laying open a new and magic world before the mental eye, the drama is gone, perfectly gone," said Mr. Curdle. Right: Harry Furniss's study of the tragedian's companion during his interview his "Mr. Johnson": Mr. Folair, the Pantomimist (1910).

Related material by other illustrators (1838 through 1910)

Scanned image, colour correction, sizing, caption, and commentary by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose, as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Bibliography

Barnard, J. "Fred" (il.). Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, with fifty-nine illustrations. The Works of Charles Dickens: The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Volume 15. Rpt. 1890.

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872. I.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. With 39 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). London: Chapman & Hall, 1839.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 4.

__________. "Nicholas Nickleby." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard et al.. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1908.

Created 3 August 2021