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"He rattles at the shutters!" cried the man
Felix O. C. Darley
1862
9 x 8.4 cm vignetted
Photogravure
Frontispiece to vol. 1 of Dickens's Barnaby Rudge. A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty, in the Sheldon and Company (New York) Household Edition (1862).
[Click on illustration to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham from his own collection.
"It is too late!' cried the widow, who had listened for the step, and not to him. "Hark to that foot upon the ground. Do you tremble to hear it! It is my son, my idiot son!"
As she said this wildly, there came a heavy knocking at the door. He looked at her, and she at him.
"Let him come in," said the man, hoarsely. "I fear him less than the dark, houseless night. He knocks again. Let him come in!"
"The dread of this hour," returned the widow, "has been upon me all my life, and I will not. Evil will fall upon him, if you stand eye to eye. My blighted boy! Oh! all good angels who know the truth — hear a poor mother's prayer, and spare my boy from knowledge of this man!"
"He rattles at the shutters!" cried the man. "He calls you. That voice and cry! It was he who grappled with me in the road. Was it he?"
She had sunk upon her knees, and so knelt down, moving her lips, but uttering no sound. As he gazed upon her, uncertain what to do or where to turn, the shutters flew open. — Chapter 17, page 199.
Dickens's original illustrators for part-publication, H. K. Browne and George Cattermole, realised very few scenes involving Barnaby's father. In chapter seventeen, Old Rudge raves at Mrs. Rudge, then hides just before Barnaby arrives, a scene in Part Ten which Phiz realised as Barnaby greets his mother! (17 April 1841) — showing in a theatrical manner Old Rudge hiding behind door to the widow's parlour. Eytinge may have been influenced by Darley's choice of subject, showing Old Rudge by himself, fighting the rain and darkness. Both American artists conceive of Mrs. Rudge as a respectable, working class widow and her husband as an eighteenth-century thug.
With so many episodes and characters to focus upon between the opening at the Maypole Inn and the conclusion of volume one (Chapter 26), it is surprising that Darley elected to reveal the plot secret that Old Rudge was still alive. Certainly Barnaby and his pet raven, Grip (also by Phiz in chapter 17), would have been the most obvious subject for the frontispiece for volume one, but Darley reserves those characters for the third volume. Reading the illustration proleptically is not easy, however, as Darley in his caption has identified neither a specific page nor even a particular chapter, so that the reader must wait almost two hundred pages to encounter the moment realised in the text.
The "parlor" (American spellings have displaced British in this edition) of the pious widow and devoted mother is the backdrop for the action. Having served her felonious husband "some fragments of cold meat and bread" (197), she is forced to give up her purse just prior to Barnaby's arrival. Darley placed a substantial jug, an overturned pewter chalice, a small amount of meat and bread, a knife and several plates on the cloth-covered table to signify that Old Rudge has finished his meal. The constant menace that the abusive husband represents to his wife Darley implies by his ominous shadow, pointing, like his arm, towards the door, and therefore to the expected son who has no knowledge of his being alive. Although her posture suggests her entreating Rudge to depart, he has no intention of leaving because he has nowhere else to hide from the authorities. The simple, sturdy furniture and stone fireplace imply a simple, virtuous existence, albeit one without much luxury or comfort, and the clothing of both characters implies an eighteenth-century setting reinforcing the subtitle specifying that this will be an historical novel in the manner of Sir Walter Scott: Barnaby Rudge. A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty.
Left: Phiz's Barnaby Greets his Mother! (1841). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Juniors's Barnaby and his Mother (1867). Right: Sol Eytinge, Juniors' Old Rudge (1867).
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Darley, Felix Octavius Carr. Character Sketches from Dickens. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1888.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by George Cattermole and Hablot Knight Browne. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1849.
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge. A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. Illustrated by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Gilbert. New York: Sheldon and Co., 1862. 2 vols.
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge. Ed. Kathleen Tillotson. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') and George Cattermole. The New Oxford Illustrated Dickens. London: Oxford University Press, 1954, rpt. 1987.
Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 14: Barnaby Rudge." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 1, pp. 213-265.
Vann, J. Don. Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: Modern Language Association, 1985.
Last modified 22 October 2015
