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Mr. Pickwick in chase of his hat
Robert Seymour
May 1836
steel engraving
11 cm high by 10 cm wide, vignetted
Chapter 4, Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, facing p. 38
[Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
There are very few moments in a man’s existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat. A vast deal of coolness, and a peculiar degree of judgment, are requisite in catching a hat. A man must not be precipitate, or he runs over it; he must not rush into the opposite extreme, or he loses it altogether. The best way is to keep gently up with the object of pursuit, to be wary and cautious, to watch your opportunity well, get gradually before it, then make a rapid dive, seize it by the crown, and stick it firmly on your head; smiling pleasantly all the time, as if you thought it as good a joke as anybody else.
There was a fine gentle wind, and Mr. Pickwick’s hat rolled sportively before it. The wind puffed, and Mr. Pickwick puffed, and the hat rolled over and over as merrily as a lively porpoise in a strong tide: and on it might have rolled, far beyond Mr. Pickwick’s reach, had not its course been providentially stopped, just as that gentleman was on the point of resigning it to its fate.
Mr. Pickwick, we say, was completely exhausted, and about to give up the chase, when the hat was blown with some violence against the wheel of a carriage, which was drawn up in a line with half a dozen other vehicles on the spot to which his steps had been directed. Mr. Pickwick, perceiving his advantage, darted briskly forward, secured his property, planted it on his head, and paused to take breath. He had not been stationary half a minute, when he heard his own name eagerly pronounced by a voice, which he at once recognised as Mr. Tupman’s, and, looking upwards, he beheld a sight which filled him with surprise and pleasure. [Chapter IV, "A Field Day and Bivouac — More New Friends — An Invitation to the Country," p. 38]
Seymour effectively delineated the social context in which Pickwick feels embarrassed and frustrated by the pursuit of his hat, for his original illustration in the serial publication of the novel clearly depicts the spectators, the local middle-class observers of the field day in front of whom Pickwick feels decidedly foolish. Pickwick, the tails of his coat flying in the wind, gives the crowd (including the people in the coach and the boy up the tree) more of a show than they had bargained for, as the farce of Pickwick's pursuit upstages the pageantry of the military review, which Seymour does not even attempt to depict. The larger, composite woodblock engravings, however, describe effectively how all three Pickwickians, inexperienced in watching such events, inadvertently and inconveniently place themselves in the midst of the action.
Above: Thomas Nast's equally cartoonish 1873 wood-engraving of the farcical scene in which the trio become trapped on the exercise field by the military parade, Mr. Pickwick displayed that perfect coolness and self-possession, which are the indispensable accompaniments of a great mind [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Above: Phiz's equally cartoonish 1874 wood-engraving of the farcical scene in which the trio are bowled over by the military parade, Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Winkle had each performed a compulsory summerset with remarkable agility [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980.
Dickens, Charles. "Pickwick Papers (1836-37). Il. Robert Seymour and Hablot Knight Browne. London: Chapman & Hall.
Dickens, Charles. Pickwick Papers. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874.
Dickens, Charles. Pickwick Papers. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873.
Created 4 July 2002
Last modified 6 January 2020