"Aqualine, you hag. Do you see it? Do you call this flat?", Chapter XLIX of Dickens's Old Curiosity Shop by Thomas Worth in the first Household Edition volume published by Harper & Bros., New York (1872), 155: 4 ⅛ x 5 ¼ inches (10.5 x 13.4 cm) framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: A Descriptive Advertisement
"This is an occupation," said the lawyer, laying down his pen and emptying his glass, "which seems to bring him before my eyes like the Ghost of Hamlet’s father, in the very clothes that he wore on work-a-days. His coat, his waistcoat, his shoes and stockings, his trousers, his hat, his wit and humour, his pathos and his umbrella, all come before me like visions of my youth. His linen!’ said Mr. Brass smiling fondly at the wall, ‘his linen which was always of a particular colour, for such was his whim and fancy — how plain I see his linen now!"
"You had better go on, sir," said Mrs. Jiniwin impatiently.
"True, ma’am, true," cried Mr. Brass. "Our faculties must not freeze with grief. I’ll trouble you for a little more of that, ma’am. A question now arises, with relation to his nose."
"Flat," said Mrs. Jiniwin.
"Aquiline!" cried Quilp, thrusting in his head, and striking the feature with his fist. "Aquiline, you hag. Do you see it? Do you call this flat? Do you? Eh?"
"Oh capital, capital!" shouted Brass, from the mere force of habit. "Excellent! How very good he is! He’s a most remarkable man — so extremely whimsical! Such an amazing power of taking people by surprise!"
Quilp paid no regard whatever to these compliments, nor to the dubious and frightened look into which the lawyer gradually subsided, nor to the shrieks of his wife and mother-in-law, nor to the latter’s running from the room, nor to the former’s fainting away. [Chapter XLIX, 155-56]
Related Material about The Old Curiosity Shop
- Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop (homepage)
- The Old Curiosity Shop Illustrated: A Team Effort by "The Clock Works"
- Illustrated Editions of The Old Curiosity Shop
- Kyd's Characters from Dickens (1889)
Scanned image and text 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
Dickens, Charles. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Thomas Worth. The Household Edition. 16 vols. New York: Harper & Bros., 1872. I.
Created 25 August 2020
Last modified 26 November 2020