Mr. Lambkin in a moment of delightful delirium
George Cruikshank
1844
Steel-engraving
10.1 cm high by 8.8 cm wide, framed
Twelfth illustration for George Cruikshank's The Bachelor’s Own Book; Or, The Progress Of Mr. Lambkin (Gent.), in the Pursuit Of Pleasure And Amusement (page 23, right-hand side of the sixth plate, complementing Lambkin's making the acquaintance of the Swindelles).
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Mr. Lambkin in a moment of delightful delirium puts his name to some little bits of paper to oblige his very delightful friend the Hon. D. Swindelle, whom he afterwards discovers to be nothing more than a rascally Black-leg. — he is invited to visit some chambers in one of the small Inns of Court, where he finds himself completely at the mercy of Messrs. Ogre and Nippers, whose demands make an awful hole in his Cheque-book. [page 23]
Above: Detail of Cruikshank's embedded commentary on the financial chicanery of Lambkin's "delightful new friend," The Hon. D. Swindelle. [Click on image to enlarge it.]
The titles on the various filing drawers therefore constitute embedded texts that comment derisively on the nature of the financier's clients and suggest an undercurrent of fraud, particularly "Lord Walker" which suggests the proverbial — Hooky Walker, as in "You're trying to make a fool of me" or "What utter nonsense!" Indeed, the the very titles on the filing drawers suggest that Lambkin will be a fool if he puts his money in this man's keeping.
Left to right, top row: A. Patent Pump de Sucker — Company B. The Hon.ble Mr. Fubbs C. Trustees of the Dunnup Estate
Left to right, bottom row: D. The Hon.ble D. Swindelle E. Lord Walker F. Messrs. Doodem & Badems.
Moreover, Cruikshank includes details in the office furnishings that suggest anything but prosperity: the broken chair (centre), and the threadbare carpet with a hole worn into it belie the ostentatious cravat and seals of the financier. Poor Lambkin barely knows what to make of all this as he reaches into his pocket. He afterwards concludes that Swindelle is a "rascally Black-leg," in other words, metaphorically, an "infectious disease of cattle and sheep." In 1844, the colloquialism did not yet mean "strike-breaker," a usage which dates from the middle of the nineteenth century as trade unionism led to strikes; rather, Cruikshank means "Black-leg" in its an earlier sense of "swindler" or "cheat," with the implicit comparison to a thieving crow or rook. Cruikshank makes the swindler a corpulent, almost Neanderthal type, rather like his celebrated pictures of the notorious housebreaker Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist.
Cruikshank's characterization of D. Swindelle as a fraudster in 1844 is consistent with Dickens's transformation of Montague Tigg the cadger into Tigg Montague the insurance executive at that very time in the serialisation of Martin Chuzzlewit. Thus, Lambkin's visit to Swindelle's countinghouse may constitute a literary allusion. However, it is also likely a topical allusion in which both Dickens and Cruikshank referencing the notorious Independent and West Middlesex Assurance Company debacle of December 1840 — and other corporate swindles of the period, in particular the nefarious business practices of financiers in the Railway Mania of the 1840s. The heavy-jowled Swindelle in the Cruikshank is a far cry, however, from the sometimes nattily dressed and always lean Montague of Phiz in the Dickens novel featuring transatlantic confidence schemes.
Cruikshank, George. The Bachelor’s Own Book; Or, The Progress Of Mr. Lambkin, In The Pursuit Of Pleasure And Amusement. Glasgow: David Bryce, 1844, rpt. 1880.
Last modified 22 May 2018
