One of whom told us she "had no money for beggar boys." — Book 1, chap. iii. Third illustration for Forster's Life of Charles Dickens in the twenty-second volume of the Household Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens, illustrated by Fred Barnard (1879). Composite woodblock engraving by the Dalziels, 10.8 cm by 14.1 cm (4 ¼ by 5 ⅝ inches), page 21. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Young Charles Dickens Pretends to be a Street Beggar
"I quite remember Dickens on one occasion heading us in Drummond Street in pretending to be poor boys, and asking the passers-by for charity, — especially old ladies, one of whom told us she 'had no money for beggar-boys.' On these adventures, when the old ladies were quite staggered by the impudence of the demand, Dickens would explode with laughter and take to his heels. [Book One, Chapter III, "School-Days and Start in Life, 1824-1830," 21]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the images, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Ackroyd, Peter. Dickens: A Biography. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1990.
Barnard, Fred, et al. Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens; being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard, Hablot K. Browne (Phiz), J. Mahoney [and others] printed from the original woodblocks engraved for "The Household Edition". London: Chapman & Hall, 1908. Page 562.
Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. London: Chapman & Hall, 1872 and 1874. 3 vols.
Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman & Hall, 1879. Vol. XXII.
Created 8 October 2009 Last modified 5 January 2025