"I call myself the Samson of the fire-wood guillotine" — illustration for "A Tale of Two Cities," Book III, chapter 5, by John McLenan

"I call myself the Samson of the fire-wood guillotine"

John McLenan

Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, Book III, chapter 5 ("The Wood-Sawyer")

The twenty-first installment of the novel appeared in Harper's Weekly (8 October 1859): 653; it had originally appeared in the UK on Saturday, 1 October in All the Year Round

[See below for passage illustrated]

Scanned image by Philip V. Allingham; text by PVA and George P. Landow.

[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. .]

Passage Illustrated

"Ah! But it's not my business. My work is my business. See my saw! I call it my Little Guillotine. La, la, la; La, la, la! And off his head comes!"

The billet fell as he spoke, and he threw it into a basket.

"I call myself the Samson of the firewood guillotine. See here again! Loo, loo, loo; Loo, loo, loo! And off her head comes! Now, a child. Tickle, tickle; Pickle, pickle! And off its head comes. All the family!"

Lucie shuddered as he threw two more billets into his basket, but it was impossible to be there while the wood-sawyer was at work, and not be in his sight. Thenceforth, to secure his good will, she always spoke to him first, and often gave him drink-money, which he readily received.

References

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities: A story of the French Revolution. Project Gutenberg e-text by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska. Release Date: September 25, 2004 [EBook #98].

Last modified 25 November 2007