"Mr. Pinch," said Mr. Pecksniff, shaking his head, "Oh, Mr. Pinch! I wonder how you can look me in the face!" by Fred Barnard. (1872) Chapter XXXI. [Old Martin (left), Seth Pecksniff (centre), and Tom Pinch, fired after years of devoted service.] 13.3 cm x 17.5 cm, or 5 ¼ high by 6 ⅞ inches, framed, engraved by the Dalziels. Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, Being Eight Hundred and Sixty-Six Drawings by Fred Barnard, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), J. Mahoney, Charles Green, A. B. Frost, Gordon Thomson, J. McL. Ralston, H. French, E. G. Dalziel, F. A. Fraser, and Sir Luke Fildes. Printed from the Original Woodblocks Engraved for "The Household Edition," page 204. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: The Sanctimonious Pecksniff Discharges Faithful Tom Pinch
When Tom came back, he found old Martin sitting by the window, and Mr. Pecksniff in an imposing attitude at the table. On one side of him was his pocket-handkerchief; and on the other a little heap (a very little heap) of gold and silver, and odd pence. Tom saw, at a glance, that it was his own salary for the current quarter.
"Have you fastened the vestry-window, Mr. Pinch?’ said Pecksniff.
"Yes, sir."
"Thank you. Put down the keys if you please, Mr. Pinch."
Tom placed them on the table. He held the bunch by the key of the organ-loft (though it was one of the smallest), and looked hard at it as he laid it down. It had been an old, old friend of Tom’s; a kind companion to him, many and many a day.
"Mr Pinch," said Pecksniff, shaking his head: "Oh, Mr. Pinch! I wonder you can look me in the face!"
Tom did it though; and notwithstanding that he has been described as stooping generally, he stood as upright then as man could stand. [Chapter XXXI, "Mr. Pinch is Discharged of a Duty Which He Never Owed to Anybody; and Mr. Pecksniff Discharges a Duty Which He Owes to Society," pp. 253-254. Running head: "And Does His Duty to Society," 253]
Commentary
Having overheard Mary Graham and Tom Pinch in conversation in the nearby church, Pecksniff knows that Mary has told the faithful apprentice of Pecksniff's romantic overtures to Old Martin's assistant. To be rid of this roadblock to his ambitions to marry Mary and become Old Martin's chief beneficiary, Pecksniff now fires Tom — ostensibly because Tom has made overtures to Mary! With what meagre wages he had been owed, Tom now makes his way to London.
Images of the hypocritical Pecksniff dismissing the faithful Pinch (1843-1924)
Left: Hablot Knight Browne's Mr. Pecksniff Discharges a Duty Which He Owes Society (December 1843). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Mr. Pecksniff and his Daughters (1867). Right: John Gilbert's polished Mr. Pecksniff's Courtship (1863). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Left: Clayton J. Clarke's Player's Cigarette Card study of the humbug, Mr. Pecksniff (1910). Centre: Harry Furniss's version of Tom Pinch's being fired, The Dismissal of Tom Pinch (1910). Right: Harold Copping's synthesis of all former Pecksniffs, Mr. Seth Pecksniff and Old Martin Chuzzlewit (1924). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned images 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 them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne. London: Chapman and Hall, 1844.
Dickens, Charles. Martin Chuzzlewit. Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. 55 vols. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. New York: Sheldon and Co., 1863. Vol. 1 of 4.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Junior. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
_____. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, with 59 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition, volume 2. London: Chapman and Hall, 1871-1880. The copy of the Household Edition from which this picture was scanned was the gift of George Gorniak, proprietor of The Dickens Magazine, whose subject for the fifth series, beginning in January 2008, was this novel.
Dickens, Charles. Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 7.
"The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit: Fifty-nine Illustrations by Fred Barnard." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, Being Eight Hundred and Sixty-Six Drawings by Fred Barnard, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), J. Mahoney, Charles Green, A. B. Frost, Gordon Thomson, J. McL. Ralston, H. French, E. G. Dalziel, F. A. Fraser, and Sir Luke Fildes. Printed from the Original Woodblocks Engraved for "The Household Edition." London: Chapman and Hall, 1908. Pp. 185-216.
Steig, Michael. "From Caricature to Progress: Master Humphrey's Clock and Martin Chuzzlewit." Ch. 3, Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U.P., 1978. Pp. 51-85. [See e-text in Victorian Web.]
Steig, Michael. "Martin Chuzzlewit's Progress by Dickens and Phiz." Dickens Studies Annual 2 (1972): 119-149.
16 January 2008
Last modified 23 November 2024