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Dr. Losberne consults Mrs. Maylie and Miss Rose
Harold Copping
1893, rpt. 1924
Line drawing
13 cm by 12.5 cm (5 ⅛ by 4 ⅞ inches), vignetted
From Children's Stories from Dickens, p. 34.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
And now what happened to this poor wretched little boy? The door was opened, and he was recognised as one of the daring burglars. He was seized and dragged into the house by the man-servant, and a doctor was sent for.
Doctor Losberne was one of the kindest men in the world, and he had Oliver put to bed, and dressed his wound and did everything he could for him. Then afterwards he saw Mrs. Maylie, the lady of the house, and her daughter Rose, to tell them about the dreadful burglar that had broken into the house the night before.
"This is avery extraordinary thing, Mrs. Maylie," said the doctor, standing with his back to the door as if to keep it shut.
"He is not in danger, I hope?" said the old lady.
"Why it would be an extraordinary thing, under the circumstances," replied the doctor, "though I don't think he is. Have you seen this thief?"
"No," rejoined the old lady.
"Nor heard anything about him?"
No. Rose wished to see the man," said Mrs. Maylie, "but I wouldn't hear of it."
"Humph!" rejoined the doctor. "There's nothing very alarming in his appearance. Have you any objection to see him in my presence?"
If it be necessary," replied the old lady, "certainly not."
. . . . With many more loquacious assurances that they would be agreeably surprised in the aspect of the criminal, the doctor drew the young lady's ar, through one of his, and offering his disengaged hand to Mrs. Maylie, led them with much ceremony and stateliness upstairs.
"Now, said the doctor in a whisper, as he softly turned the handle of the bedroom door, "let us hear what you think of him. He has not been shaved very recently, but he doesn't look all ferocious, notwithstanding. Stop, though — let me see that he is in visiting order first."
Stepping before them he looked into the room, and, motioning them to advance, closed the door when they entered, and gently drew back the curtains of the bed. [Children's Stories from Dickens, pp. 39-40]
Although Copping appeals to the Victorian reader's sentimentality in depicting Oliver in his sick-bed at the Maylies (unbeknownst to either him or readers at this point, his mother's family), Mary Angela Dickens accentuates the humour in Dr. Losberne's playing on Mrs. Maylie's fears of confronting an ill-kempt, adult housebreaker instead of a mere child. In Copping's version of a scene found in most Victorian editions of the story, Mrs. Maylie listens attentively to the physician, but Rose focuses on the sleeping child, clutching something in his hand. Thus, Copping's treatment is largely realistic, with less sentimentality than in other representations of the sleeping Oliver.
Left: Cruikshank's Oliver waited on by the Bow Street Runners (Part 14, May 1838). Centre and right: Harry Furniss's companion illustrations of Oliver watched in his sleep by very different observers with very different intentions: The wounded Oliver smiles in his Sleep, and Monks and Fagin watching Oliver sleep (1910). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Above — before and after: Left: George Cruikshank's steel engraving of Oliver lying unconscious on the Maylies' doorstep: Oliver Twist found wounded at Mrs. Maylie's door (Part 13, April 1838). Right: Mahoney's 1871 wood-engraving of Oliver's tranquil life at the Maylies', When it became quite dark, and they returned home, the young lady would sit down to the piano, and play some pleasant air (Household Edition).
Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: Bradbury and Evans; Chapman and Hall, 1846.
Dickens, Mary Angela, Percy Fitzgerald, Captain Edric Vredenburg, and Others. Illustrated by Harold Copping with eleven coloured lithographs. Children's Stories from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1893.
Matz, B. W., and Kate Perugini; illustrated by Harold Copping. Character Sketches from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924. Copy in the Paterson Library, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Created 23 September 2023