"Put on his hat, adjusted it by the glass, drew on his gloves, and at last walked slowly out." — Chapter 32. C. S. Reinhart's thirty-third illustration for Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby" (1875)

Put on his hat, adjusted it by the glass, drew on his gloves, and at last walked slowly out [Page 177] by Charles Stanley Reinhart (1875), in Charles Dickens's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Harper & Bros. New York Household Edition, for Chapter XXXII. 10.6 x 13.6 cm (4 ¼ by 5 ⅜ inches), framed. Running head: "Interview with Mr. Mulberry" (177). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Passage Illustrated: Nicholas Fumes as Sir Mulberry Hawk Delays

It was evident from the tone in which the younger member of the party appeared to remonstrate with his friend, that he objected to this course of proceeding, and urged him to comply with the request which Nicholas had made. Sir Mulberry, however, who was not quite sober, and who was in a sullen and dogged state of obstinacy, soon silenced the representations of his weak young friend, and further seemed — as if to save himself from a repetition of them—to insist on being left alone. However this might have been, the young gentleman and the two who had always spoken together, actually rose to go after a short interval, and presently retired, leaving their friend alone with Nicholas.

It will be very readily supposed that to one in the condition of Nicholas, the minutes appeared to move with leaden wings indeed, and that their progress did not seem the more rapid from the monotonous ticking of a French clock, or the shrill sound of its little bell which told the quarters. But there he sat; and in his old seat on the opposite side of the room reclined Sir Mulberry Hawk, with his legs upon the cushion, and his handkerchief thrown negligently over his knees: finishing his magnum of claret with the utmost coolness and indifference.

Thus they remained in perfect silence for upwards of an hour—Nicholas would have thought for three hours at least, but that the little bell had only gone four times. Twice or thrice he looked angrily and impatiently round; but there was Sir Mulberry in the same attitude, putting his glass to his lips from time to time, and looking vacantly at the wall, as if he were wholly ignorant of the presence of any living person.

At length he yawned, stretched himself, and rose; walked coolly to the glass, and having surveyed himself therein, turned round and honoured Nicholas with a long and contemptuous stare. Nicholas stared again with right good-will; Sir Mulberry shrugged his shoulders, smiled slightly, rang the bell, and ordered the waiter to help him on with his greatcoat.

The man did so, and held the door open.

"Don’t wait," said Sir Mulberry; and they were alone again. [Chapter XXXII, "Relating chiefly to some remarkable Conversation, and some remarkable Proceedings to which it gives rise," 177]

The Situation Described: Nicholas confronts Hawk at a Park Lane Hotel in London

Phiz's serial illustration depicts Nicholas's learning of the danger to which Ralph Nickleby has exposed his niece: Nicholas Attracted by the Mention of His Sister's Name in the Coffee-Room (January 1839).

Having learned from a recently received letter that Nicholas is returning to London that very evening, Newman Noggs becomes concerned that the youth will attempt to chastise and even assault Ralph Nickleby for his introducing Kate to his dissipated aristocratic associates Sir Mulberry Hawk and Lord Frederick Verisopht. Consequently, he and Miss La Creevy conspire to keep Nicholas from seeing his sister by agreeing to staying away from home; Miss La Creevy even takes Kate to the theatre for the evening.

Dickensian coincidence places Nicholas in the box adjacent to that which the licentious Sir Mulberry Hawk and his dissolute associates have established themselves, bandying about the name of "Little Kate Nickleby." Incensed, Nicholas calls out the haughty aristocrat, but receives no satisfaction: the supercilious cad refuses to disclose his name. Showing Nicholas gripping the corner of the table, Reinhart leaves the reader to imagine what Nicholas is thinking as he struggles to restrain his temper. hand akimbo on his hip, Hawk suavely adjust his hat for rakish effect in the mirror above the fireplace in the coffee-room whose opulent appointments suggest the quality of the establishment in which the accidental meeting occurs

Both Household Edition illustrators have chosen to focus not on Nicholas's apprehension of his sister's situation through an overheard coffee-house conversation (the scene which Phiz described in January 1839). However, whereas Barnard provides a dramatic confrontation of Hawk and Nicholas in the former's carriage, Reinhart shows Hawk's supercilious treatment of the man whom he has wronged.

The British Household Edition's Version of Noggs's Ranting to Miss La Creevy

Above: Fred Barnard's 1875 British Household Editioncomposite woodblock engraving of Nicholas's tussle with Hawk in his carriage following their altercation indoors: Sir Mulberry, shortening his whip, applied it furiously the head and shoulders of Nicholas. It was broken in the struggle; Nicholas gained the heavy handle, and with it laid open one side of his antagonist's face from the eye to the lip.

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 18 August 2021