"'Mr. Micawber' from 'David Copperfield'" by Fred Barnard — third series for "Character Sketches" (1885)

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Mr. Micawber from David Copperfield

Fred Barnard

1885

26.3 cm high by x 19 cm (10 ⅜ by 7 ½ inches), framed

One of six lithographs in A Series of Character Sketches from Dickens, from the Original Drawings by Frederick Barnard.. Series 3: Wilkins Micawber; Miss Betsey Trotwood; Captain Edward Cuttle; Uriah Heep; Dick Swiveller; and Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim. (1885).

His clothes were shabby, but he had an imposing shirt-collar on. He carried a jaunty sort of a stick with a large pair of rusty tassels to it, and a quizzing-glass hung outside his coat. — David Copperfield, Chapter XI, “I Begin Life on My Own Account, and Don’t Like It.” [Click on the illustration to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use this image, and those below, without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Micawber standing outside his flat on Windsor Terrace, London

One dirty-faced man, I think he was a boot-maker, used to edge himself into the passage as early as seven o’clock in the morning, and call up the stairs to Mr. Micawber — ‘Come! You ain’t out yet, you know. Pay us, will you? Don’t hide, you know; that’s mean. I wouldn’t be mean if I was you. Pay us, will you? You just pay us, d’ye hear? Come!’ Receiving no answer to these taunts, he would mount in his wrath to the words ‘swindlers’ and ‘robbers’; and these being ineffectual too, would sometimes go to the extremity of crossing the street, and roaring up at the windows of the second floor, where he knew Mr. Micawber was. At these times, Mr. Micawber would be transported with grief and mortification, even to the length (as I was once made aware by a scream from his wife) of making motions at himself with a razor; but within half-an-hour afterwards, he would polish up his shoes with extraordinary pains, and go out, humming a tune with a greater air of gentility than ever. [Chapter XI, “I Begin Life on My Own Account, and Don’t Like It,” 79 in the Household Edition]

Caption and Commentary

"My address," said Mr. Micawber, "is Windsor Terrace, City Road. I — in short," said Mr. Micawber, with the same genteel air, and in another burst of confidence — ‘I live there." — David Copperfield. [1885, "Series 3."]

Barnard has rethought the perspective entirely, showing Wilkins Micawber entirely by himself as is consistent with the colour portraiture in the third series of lithographs (1885). Although the picture includes no other characters, it emphatically establishes his sartorial sense and his sense of knowing what it is to be a Londoner. In contrast to his many appearances in the various editions of David Copperfield the illustration does not seem to be realising a particular passage; it does, however, reflect on Barnard's and other illustrators' versions of nattily dressed, highly articulate Dickens original. In particular, Barnard emphasizes his smart hat, close-fitting surtout, and imposing shirt-collar, all derived from the original Phiz plates Somebody Turns Up (October 1849) and We are Disturbed in our Cookery (February 1850), and his own I am presented to Mr. Micawber and Mr. Micawber in His Element (1872).

Studies of Wilkins Micawber in Various Editions

Left: Barnard's own version of Micawber in the London streets in the 1872 Household Edition: Mr. Micawber, impressing the names of streets and shapes of corner houses upon me as we went along, that I might find my way back easily in the morning (Chapter XI). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond Edition dual portrait of the Micawbers: Mr. Micawber and His Family (1867). Right: Kyd (Clayton J. Clarke) captures Micawber's characteristic shabby-genteel look in the Player's Cigarette Card No. 41: Mr. Micawber (1910).

Relevant Illustrated Editions of this Novel (1849 through 1910)

David Copperfield (homepage)
Phiz's forty serial illustrations for David Copperfield (May 1849 - November 1850)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 1, 1862)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 2, 1862)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 3, 1862)
Sol Eytinge, Junior's 16 Diamond Edition Illustrations (1867)
W. H. C. Groome's seven illustrations for the Collins Clear-type Pocket Edition, Vol. I (1907)
Kyd's five Player's Cigarette Cards, 1910
Harry Furniss's 29 Illustrations for Dickens's The Personal Experience and History of David Copperfield in the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910)

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield, with 40 illustrations by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1850.

Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield, with 62 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. III.

A Series of Character Sketches from Dickens, from the Original Drawings by Frederick Barnard, Being Facsimiles of Original Drawings by Fred. Barnard. Series 3: Wilkins Micawber; Miss Betsy Trotwood; Captain Edward Cuttle; Uriah Heep; Dick Swiveller and The Marchioness; and Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1885.

A Series of Character Sketches from Dickens, in Colour from the Original Drawings by Frederick Barnard Barnard. [Series 1: Mrs. Gamp, The Two Wellers, Mr. Pecksniff, Caleb Plummer and His Blind Daughter, Captain Cuttle, Bill Sikes. Series 2: Barnaby Rudge, Mr. Peggotty, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim; Mr. Pickwick, Sydney Carton, Mr. Micawber]. London: Waverley, circa 1910.

Created 8 February 2025