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Friday and the Bear
Justyne, Leitch, Macquoid, Morgan, Pasquier, & Thomas
Engravers: Butterworth and Heath
1863-64
Wood-engraving
21.6 cm high by 13.9 cm wide, framed.
Cassell's Robinson Crusoe, page 197.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small end of a large branch, and the bear got about half way to him. As soon as the bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was weaker, — "Ha!" says he to us, "now you see me teachee the bear dance:" so he began jumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear began to totter, but stood still, and began to look behind him, to see how he should get back; then, indeed, we did laugh heartily. But Friday had not done with him by a great deal; when seeing him stand still, he called out to him again, as if he had supposed the bear could speak English, “What, you come no farther? pray you come farther;" so he left jumping and shaking the tree; and the bear, just as if he understood what he said, did come a little farther; then he began jumping again, and the bear stopped again. We thought now was a good time to knock him in the head, and called to Friday to stand still and we should shoot the bear: but he cried out earnestly, "Oh, pray! Oh, pray! no shoot, me shoot by and then:" he would have said by-and-by. However, to shorten the story, Friday danced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing enough, but still could not imagine what the fellow would do: for first we thought he depended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunning for that too; for he would not go out far enough to be thrown down, but clung fast with his great broad claws and feet, so that we could not imagine what would be the end of it, and what the jest would be at last. But Friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing the bear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to come any farther, "Well, well," says Friday, "you no come farther, me go; you no come to me, me come to you;" and upon this he went out to the smaller end, where it would bend with his weight, and gently let himself down by it, sliding down the bough till he came near enough to jump down on his feet, and away he ran to his gun, took it up, and stood still. [Chapter XX, "The Fight Between Friday and a Bear," page 199]
The Cassell'shouse-artists of 1863-64 and Wal Paget nearly thirty years later offer very different interpretations of the incident with the bear. Although Friday appears sanguine in both bear encounters (indeed, his posture and facial expression convey a fearless attitude in the earlier illustrations of Cruikshank and Phiz), the bear is about to lunge at the daring Caribbean in the 1863-64 wood-engraving, whereas he seems half-asleep in Paget's version. The reader must consult Defoe's text to see which is the more accurate interpretation:
“What, you come no farther? pray you come farther;" so he left jumping and shaking the tree; and the bear, just as if he understood what he said, did come a little farther; then he began jumping again, and the bear stopped again. [199]
At this point, then, the bear is standing, and is attempting to maintain his balance, whereas only moments before, in the moment that Paget chose to realise, the bear "stood still, and began to look behind him" — but clearly poses Friday no real danger at this point. Hence, both illustrators have taken some liberties with the text in order to convey very different impressions of the bear. Paget's Friday is more soberly dressed, and, although smiling, is not the reckless practical joker one sees in the earlier illustrations. The jaunty feather which Friday alone of all Crusoe's party wears in his hat matches the litheness of his figure and the blitheness of his spirit.
Left: Phiz's slightly whimsical realisation of the same scene: Friday and the Bear out on a Limb (1864). Right: And from the 1831 John Major edition Cruikshank's treatment on the same adventure on the road, Friday and the Bear. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Above: Wal Paget's lithograph of Friday, dressed in a thoroughly European mode, on the limb with a substantial European black bear: "'What, you come no farther?'" [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by himself. With upwards of One Hundred Illustrations. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64.
Last modified 23 March 2018