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Then Old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig
Harold Copping
1893
Black-and-white lithograph
16.4 cm by 10.8 cm (6 ⅜ by 4 inches), vignetted
From A Christmas Carol (1911), facing p. 50.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were mince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind! The sort of man who knew his business better than you or I could have told it him!) struck up "Sir Roger de Coverley." Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them; three or four and twenty pair of partners; people who were not to be trifled with; people who would dance, and had no notion of walking. ["Stave Two: The First of the Three Spirits," 49]
The novella's previous illustrators have focussed on Fezziwig's amicable, even avuncular relationship with his employees, in sharp contrast to Scrooge's cool demeanour with his own clerk. Previous interpretations have shown Old Fezziwig greeting his guests and taking the lead in the country dance Sir Roger de Coverly, as in Leech's 1843 frontispiece of the Regency-period. Here, Fezziwig as master of ceremonies, so to speak, wears the tailcoat, stockings, breeches, and wig that were the fashion of the previous generation. In contrast to the other illustrators' dance scenes, Copping offers a full-length portrait of the genial employer as he invites not only his wife, but by implication Scrooge and all readers to join the dance of life.
Left: Eytinge's 1868 interpretation of Fezziwig's dance moves, The Fezziwig Ball. Centre: Leech's 1843 interpretation of the country dance in the urban warehouse, Mr. Fezziwig's Ball. Right: Furniss's lively reinterpretation of the employees' dance, The Fezziwig's Ball (1912).
Above: Abbey's American Household Edition reinterpretation of the same dance scene, Old Fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop the dance, cried out, "Well done!" (1876). Charles Green's contemporary reinterpretation of the warehouse office part, Christmas Eve at Old Fezziwig's (1912).
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being A Ghost Story for Christmas. Illustrated by John Leech. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol in Prose: being a ghost story for Christmas. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Junior. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1869.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Illustrated by Harold Copping. London, Paris, New, York: Raphael Tuck, 1911.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Illustrated by Charles Green, R. I. London: A & F Pears, 1912.
Created 6 October 2023