"For my sake — for mine, Lenville — forego all idle forms, unless you would like to see me a blighted corse at your feet." — Chapter 29. C. S. Reinhart's thirty-first illustration for Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby" (1875)

"For my sake — for mine, Lenville — forego all idle forms, unless you would like to see me a blighted corse at your feet." [Page 163] by Charles Stanley Reinhart (1875), in Charles Dickens's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Harper & Bros. New York Household Edition, for Chapter XXIX. 10.7 x 13.7 cm (4 ¼ by 5 ⅜ inches), framed. Running head: "Self-sacrifice of Mr. Lenville" (163). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Passage Illustrated: A (Pseudo) Dramatic Confrontation Backstage

Nicholas Hints at the Probability of His Leaving the Company (December 1838).

Whether it was the absence of the fetters or not, it made no very deep impression on Mr. Lenville’s adversary, however, but rather seemed to increase the g ood-humour expressed in his countenance; in which stage of the contest, one or two gentlemen, who had come out expressly to witness the pulling of Nicholas’s nose, grew impatient, murmuring that if it were to be done at all it had better be done at once, and that if Mr. Lenville didn’t mean to do it he had better say so, and not keep them waiting there. Thus urged, the tragedian adjusted the cuff of his right coat sleeve for the performance of the operation, and walked in a very stately manner up to Nicholas, who suffered him to approach to within the requisite distance, and then, without the smallest discomposure, knocked him down.

Before the discomfited tragedian could raise his head from the boards, Mrs. Lenville (who, as has been before hinted, was in an interesting state) rushed from the rear rank of ladies, and uttering a piercing scream threw herself upon the body.

"Do you see this, monster? Do you see this?" cried Mr. Lenville, sitting up, and pointing to his prostrate lady, who was holding him very tight round the waist.

"Come," said Nicholas, nodding his head, "apologize for the insolent note you wrote to me last night, and waste no more time in talking."

"Never!’ cried Mr. Lenville.

"Yes — yes — yes!" screamed his wife. "For my sake — for mine, Lenville — forego all idle forms, unless you would see me a blighted corse at your feet."

"This is affecting!" said Mr. Lenville, looking round him, and drawing the back of his hand across his eyes. ‘The ties of nature are strong. The weak husband and the father — the father that is yet to be — relents. I apologise."

"Humbly and submissively?" said Nicholas.

"Humbly and submissively," returned the tragedian, scowling upwards. "But only to save her, — for a time will come —"

"Very good," said Nicholas; "I hope Mrs. Lenville may have a good one; and when it does come, and you are a father, you shall retract it if you have the courage. There. Be careful, sir, to what lengths your jealousy carries you another time; and be careful, also, before you venture too far, to ascertain your rival’s temper." With this parting advice Nicholas picked up Mr. Lenville’s ash stick which had flown out of his hand, and breaking it in half, threw him the pieces and withdrew, bowing slightly to the spectators as he walked out. [Chapter XXIX, "Of the Proceedings of Nicholas, and certain Internal Divisions in the Company of Mr. Vincent Crummles," ]

Commentary: The Company's Jealous Leading Actor Fails to Intimidate Nicholas

Nicholas's popularity as the Crummles' company's leading man at the Portsmouth theatre has excited the envious malice of the resident tragedian, Thomas Lenville. Accordingly the middle-aged actor's wounded vanity has prompted him to call out the young actor who has stolen his usual "reception" (three rounds of applause) before the entire company on stage. Lenville expects that Nicholas will acceded to having his nose publicly pulled, and that the story will appear in the local paper, thereby restoring Lenville's celebrity. What he has not counted on is Nicholas's manly resistance.

Reinhart does not make Mrs. Lenville's pregnancy obvious, nor does he render her anything less than middle-aged. She melodramatically throws herself upon her husband to protect him from further assault by Nicholas. However, the youth merely laughs at his fallen adversary, and does not seem at all disposed to continue the assault. According to the illustration, the company have already dispersed, leaving just a few onlookers among the male cast, behind Lenville, and the female cast, behind Nicholas. The sharpness of Reinhart's style here matches the edge of Dickens's satire of the vanquished bully.

The British Household Edition's Version of the Confrontation

Above: Fred Barnard's 1875 British Household Editioncomposite woodblock engraving of the onstage altercation between the older and younger actor: "But they shall not protect ye!" said the tragedian, taking an upward look at Nicholas, beginning at his boots and ending at the crown of his head, &c.

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.

Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1875.

__________. "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 11 August 2021