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Mr. Peggotty and Little Em'ly
Harold Copping
1911, 1924
Colour lithography; originally "oilette."
Approximately 7 x 5 inches (17.8 x 12.4 cm), framed.
From Character Sketches from Dickens, facing p. 92.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"I am as rough as a Sea Porkypine; but no one . . . can know what our little Em'ly is to me." — David Copperfield. [Character Sketches from Charles Dickens, Postcard No. 9852 in a set of six cards]
Left: Phiz's 1850 title-page vignette for the volume is his clearest exterior view of the houseboat on the Yarmouth sands. Right: Barnard's "That's not it?" said I, "that ship-looking thing?" "That's it, Mas'r Davy," returned Ham. (1872)
Copping dramatises the bonhomie of the protagonist's second or adoptive family, the chief members of which are "[Uncle Daniel] Peggotty and Little Em'ly." The physical setting, already well known by 1911 thanks to realisations by Phiz (original edition, serialised 1849-50) and Fred Barnard in the Household Edition (Vol. III, 1872) is the doorstep of the Peggottys' whimsical house on the Yarmouth sands. The moment that Copping has depicted he has based on David's recollections of his first meeting with Little Em'ly, which occurs in instalment one (Chapter 3, "I Have a Change"), May 1849.
"Of all my books, I like this [David Copperfield] the best. It will be easily believed that I am a fond parent to every child of my fancy, and that no one can ever love that family as dearly as I love them; but, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child, and his name is David Copperfield."
"So wrote Dickens in the preface to the original edition, and his own choice of "Dickens's Best Child" is shared by thousands of his readers. The book is in many respects the story of Dickens's own life up to a certain period, and the reality of it has stamped it as one of the first half-dozen novels in the language."
"Full as it is of incident, whimsicality, humour, pathos and adventure, the outstanding features of the book are its group of characters, all of whom become staunch friends wherever his books are read." [Editor B. W. Matz in Character Sketches from Dickens, 89].
Matz notes that Kate Perugini has fashioned "David Copperfield" (pp. 89-107) out four incidents in Dickens's mid-century novel: "all deal with different periods of David's life, associated with Little Em'ly, Mr. Micawber, Uriah Heep, and many other — all old acquaintances" (89). In fact, as the depictions of David in the four illustrations make obvious, the illustrator's interests here lie with David the impressionable child rather than with David the accomplished, reflective adult.
Left: Phiz's August 1849 illustration Mrs. Gummidge casts a Damp on our Departure offers a view of the houseboat that is inconsistent with the size of the interior I am hospitably received by Mr. Peggotty (May 1849), the initial depiction view of the houseboat on the Yarmouth sands in the serial. Right: Phiz's original illustration of David with Little Em'ly at the Peggottys' fireside: I am hospitably received by Mr. Peggotty (May 1849).
Left: Sol Eytinge, Junior's portrait of the Peggottys:
Copping, Harold. "Mr. Peggotty and Little Em'ly." Character Sketches from Dickens. A set of six cards. Oilette. London: Raphael Tuck, 1911.
Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Centenary Edition. London and New York: Chapman & Hall, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911.
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.
Created 16 February 2009 Last modified 15 October 2023