"He knows me, and I know him. Do you know me? Hey?" said Mr. Creakle, pinching my ear with ferocious playfulness. 1872. Seventh illustration by Fred Barnard (engraved by the Dalziels) for the Household Edition of David Copperfield (Chapter VI, "I Enlarge My Circle of Acquaintances"). 10.1 cm high by 13.8 cm wide (4 ¼ by 5 ½ inches), framed; but inserted in the middle of page 33 in Chapter V, "I Am Sent away from Home." [Click on image to enlarge it. Mouse over text for links.]
Passage Illustrated: Headmaster Creakle as Murdstone's Surrogate in Brutality
Mr. Creakle’s part of the house was a good deal more comfortable than ours, and he had a snug bit of garden that looked pleasant after the dusty playground, which was such a desert in miniature, that I thought no one but a camel, or a dromedary, could have felt at home in it. It seemed to me a bold thing even to take notice that the passage looked comfortable, as I went on my way, trembling, to Mr. Creakle’s presence: which so abashed me, when I was ushered into it, that I hardly saw Mrs. Creakle or Miss Creakle (who were both there, in the parlour), or anything but Mr. Creakle, a stout gentleman with a bunch of watch-chain and seals, in an arm-chair, with a tumbler and bottle beside him.
"So!" said Mr. Creakle. "This is the young gentleman whose teeth are to be filed! Turn him round."
The wooden-legged man turned me about so as to exhibit the placard; and having afforded time for a full survey of it, turned me about again, with my face to Mr. Creakle, and posted himself at Mr. Creakle’s side. Mr. Creakle’s face was fiery, and his eyes were small, and deep in his head; he had thick veins in his forehead, a little nose, and a large chin. He was bald on the top of his head; and had some thin wet-looking hair that was just turning grey, brushed across each temple, so that the two sides interlaced on his forehead. But the circumstance about him which impressed me most, was, that he had no voice, but spoke in a whisper. The exertion this cost him, or the consciousness of talking in that feeble way, made his angry face so much more angry, and his thick veins so much thicker, when he spoke, that I am not surprised, on looking back, at this peculiarity striking me as his chief one. "Now," said Mr. Creakle. "What’s the report of this boy?"
"There’s nothing against him yet," returned the man with the wooden leg. "There has been no opportunity."
I thought Mr. Creakle was disappointed. I thought Mrs. and Miss Creakle (at whom I now glanced for the first time, and who were, both, thin and quiet) were not disappointed.
"Come here, sir!" said Mr. Creakle, beckoning to me.
"Come here!" said the man with the wooden leg, repeating the gesture.
"I have the happiness of knowing your father-in-law," whispered Mr. Creakle, taking me by the ear; "and a worthy man he is, and a man of a strong character. He knows me, and I know him. Do YOU know me? Hey?’ said Mr. Creakle, pinching my ear with ferocious playfulness.
"Not yet, sir," I said, flinching with the pain. [Chapter VII, "I Enlarge My Circle of Acquaintances, pp. 41-42; head of page 41 caption: "Mr. Creakle Comes Home."]
Commentary: Exchanging one authoritarian rule for another
Barnard introduces Salem House School as a less-than-benevolent dictatorship run by a brutal, unenlightened administration and a few decent teachers such as the musical Mr. Mell. In his opening illustration for David's schooling Barnard includes a map of the south of England with the English Channel on the wall behind the well-dressed bully, the headmaster, Mr. Creakle, the books in the case, and the globe to suggest that Salem House has some educational pretentions. The bottle of alcohol on the table beside the headmaster and his peg-legged adjudant undercut these pedagogical properties, however, and the master's pulling David by the ear forcibly reveals the fat teacher's sadistic proclivities. The textual moment underscores the connection between the physically oppressive headmaster and psychologically oppressive stepfather whom David had hoped to escape by going away to school: "I have the happiness of knowing your father-in-law" is Creakle's way of suggesting that he will be acting in loco parentis, for by "father-in-law" he means "step-father." The women in Barnard's illustration are, like David's mother, helpless observers who cannot ameliorate the adult male brutality.
Other Illustrators' Depictions of David's Salem House experiences (1849 to 1910)
Left: Phiz's July 1849 serial illustration depicts an uproarious classroom scene at Salem House: Steerforth and Mr. Mell (Part 6, Ch. 19). Right: Harry Furniss's contribution to the Salem House chapters underscores the essential injustice of the regime: Mr. Mell is Dismissed from Salem House (1910).
Related Material
- David Copperfield (homepage)
- Phiz's 40 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 7 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)
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 Personal History of David Copperfield, illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Centenary Edition. London & New York: Chapman & Hall, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911 [rpt. from 1850]. 2 vols.
_______. David Copperfield, with 61 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. 3.
_______. David Copperfield. Illustrated by W. H. C. Groome. London and Glasgow: Collins Clear-type Press, 1907. No. 1.
The copy of the Household Edition from which this picture was scanned was the gift of George Gorniak, Editor of The Dickens Magazine, whose subject for the fifth series, beginning in January 2010, is this novel.
Created 10 July 2018 Last modified 11 July 2022