"Now, could you cut a man's throat with such a thing as this?" demanded Jonas. (1872). Forty-sixth illustration by Fred Barnard for Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit (Chapter XLI), page 321. [Mr. Jobling, the Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life Insurance Company's examining physician, looks askance over his wine at company shareholder Jonas Chuzzlewit, who is already contemplating murdering his business associate, Mr. Montague, to free himself from the difficult position in which Montague's possessing some "secret" about Jonas has placed him.] 10.6 x 13.8 cm, or 4 ¼ high by 5 ½ inches, framed, engraved by the Dalziels. Running head: “Another Turn of the Screw." [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: A Little Verbal Fencing over Wine
Mr. Jobling pulled out his shirt-frill of fine linen, as though he would have said, 'This is what I call nature in a medical man, sir;' and looked at Jonas for an observation.
Jonas not being in a condition to pursue the subject, took up a case of lancets that was lying on the table, and opened it.
"Ah!" said the doctor, leaning back in his chair, "I always take 'em out of my pocket before I eat. My pockets are rather tight. Ha, ha, ha!"
Jonas had opened one of the shining little instruments; and was scrutinizing it with a look as sharp and eager as its own bright edge.
"Good steel, doctor. Good steel! Eh!"
"Ye-es," replied the doctor, with the faltering modesty of ownership. "One might open a vein pretty dexterously with that, Mr Chuzzlewit."
"It has opened a good many in its time, I suppose?" said Jonas looking at it with a growing interest.
"Not a few, my dear sir, not a few. It has been engaged in a — in a pretty good practice, I believe I may say," replied the doctor, coughing as if the matter-of-fact were so very dry and literal that he couldn't help it. "In a pretty good practice," repeated the doctor, putting another glass of wine to his lips.
"Now, could you cut a man's throat with such a thing as this?" demanded Jonas.
"Oh certainly, certainly, if you took him in the right place," returned the doctor. "It all depends upon that." [Chapter XLI, "Mr. Jonas and His Friend, Arriving at a Pleasant Understanding, Set Forth upon an Enterprise," 324]. Running Head: "A Wild Night Impends," 325]
Commentary: A Sinister Insinuation
What makes the drawing-room conversation so visually interesting is the contrast in the characters' expressions. While the elderly Jobling eyes his guest with mild curiosity, Jonas (centre) studies the physician as well as the lancet with a subtly sinister intent. And whereas the corpulent, elegantly dressed but balding Jobling holds his wine glass by the base as he occupies a throne-like, overstuffed chair, Jonas informally leans well forward, perching his youthful, flexible body on the physician's table. Jonas's highly informal pose complements his crafty expression as he inquires in a sinister, insinuating manner about the efficacy of the lancet as a deadly weapon. In contrast to Phiz's studies of the surly villain, Barnard compels his viewers to take the cunning Jonas Chuzzlewit very seriously here.
Relevant Illustrations from Other Editions, 1844-1910
Left: Harry Furniss's somewhat derivative realisation of the scene in which Mr. Tigg Montague, the insurance company director, receives his investor Jonas Chuzzlewit just after reviewing Detective Nadgett's report, Jonas Chuzzlewit and Montagu Tigg (1910). Right: Harry Furniss's complement to the rising tension as Jonas looks for an opportunity to murder Montague Tigg or "Tigg Montague," On the Road to Salisbury (Chapter 42). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Left: Hablot Knight Browne's realisation of Jonas's immediate reaction to Tigg's blackmailing him, Mr. Nadgett Breathes, as Usual, an Atmosphere of Mystery (Chapter 38, February 1844). Right: Phiz's dynamic realisation of Jonas's attempting to murder Tigg by having the horses trample him as they travel to Salisbury, Mr. Jonas Exhibits his Presence of Mind (April 1844). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use the 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
Barnard, Fred. Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens. London: Chapman and Hall, 1908.
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne. London: Chapman and Hall, 1844.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne. London: Chapman and Hall, 1844.
_____. 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. 2 of 4.
_____. 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, 22 volumes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. 2. [The copy of the Household Edition from which these pictures were scanned was the gift of George Gorniak, proprietor of The Dickens Magazine, whose subject for the fifth series, beginning in January 2008, was this 1843-44 novel.
_____. Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 7.
Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 15: Martin Chuzzlewit." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 17. Pp. 267-294.
Kyd [Clayton J. Clarke]. Characters from Dickens. Nottingham: John Player & Sons, 1910.
"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.
Matz, B. W., and Kate Perugini; illustrated by Harold Copping. Character Sketches from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924.
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.
29 January 2008
Last modified 26 November 2024