Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Lammle by Sol Eytinge, Jr. 1867. 7.4 cm high by 10 cm wide (3 by 4 inches). The tenth plate for the eighth volume of the Diamond Edition, Dickens's Our Mutual Friend, facing p. 168).
Commentary: The Cunning Lammles and Fascination Fledgby
Dickens's connecting Alfred Lammle and "Fascination" Fledgeby with the fashionable bachelor apartments at The Albany, near Piccadilly Circus, to the modern reader would suggest an intertextual relationship between Oscar Wilde's society farce The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) and Dickens's assault on the mercenary nature of mid-Victorian society in Our Mutual Friend (1864-65). However, Alfred and Sophronia Lammle, depicted by Marcus Stone on the beach on their Isle of Wight honeymoon in The Happy Pair (sixth illustration) and by Sol Eytinge in his tenth illustration set some time later in the couple's Piccadilly parlour, are far less benign than the somewhat vacuous ingenues of Wilde's play thirty years later. By the time that we encounter them in the Ticknor Fields 1867 edition of the novel, we are quite aware of the Lammles' plans to gull the discontented heiress and daughter of a marine insurance broker, Georgiana Podsnap, in a scheme involving marrying her to the ridiculous Fledgeby.
Despite the respectability of their Sackville Street parlour and correctness of their breakfast table, through their poses and sharp features illustrator Sol Eytinge reveals the couple's predatory natures. As Dickens's text implies, the pair are hatching a scheme intent upon separating the wealthy Podsnap from some of his fortune by arranging a surreptitious marriage for his daughter. In the illustration for Book Two, "Birds of a Feather," Chapter IV, "Cupid Prompted," Eytinge implies that the Lammles are experts at sharp practice by the pointed nose (Dickens specifies he has "too much nose"), sharp fingers, and demonic grin of the husband, and the casual self-assurance of the wife, who even in private demonstrates the acute fashion sense that has rendered her a "consciously 'splendid woman'" (159) in the Veneerings' social set. Eytinge suggests their Piccadilly townhouse's "handsome fittings and furnishings" (160) through the tables and paintings, although he does not include the mirror which reflects Sophronia Lammle's smirking expression as she deprecates Miss Podsnap just after the young lady has left the room.
Nothing more was said between the happy pair. Perhaps conspirators who have once established an understanding, may not be over fond of repeating the terms and objects of their conspiracy. [162]
Eytinge's depiction of the fortune-hunting Lammles is consistent with Marcus Stone's sixth illustration, The Happy Pair (July 1864) which shows the couple on their honeymoon at Shanklin on the Isle of Wight, then a fashionable vacation-spot. In Stone's earlier illustration for Book One, "The Cup and the Lip," Chapter X, "A Marriage Contract," however, the husband and wife are in a "moody humour" (75) because each has married the other for "property" and has just realized that the partner has none. At the conclusion of that scene the pair resolve to work together to deceive others in "Any scheme that will bring [them] money." In Stone's illustration, ironically entitled "The Happy Pair," only Alfred Lammle is of a decidedly Mephistophelean character. In contrast, Eytinge more accurately conveys a sense of their devious natures through delineating their facial features while Stone concentrates on showing their listless postures, fashionable dress, and Alfred Lammle's luxuriant, "gingerous whiskers" (75).
Since Eytinge specifically sets his scene at a breakfast table, he is probably conflating the earlier scene, immediately after Miss Podsnap's departure, with a later scene, in which Alfred is "Fascination" Fledgeby's guest at breakfast in his chambers at The Albany in Book Two, "Birds of a Feather," Chapter V, "Mercury prompting." The scene between the mercenary husband and wife in the previous chapter is probably later in the day; Dickens mentions no meal in connection with the visitor just departed, and the fashionable Lammles would not likely have such a visitor at breakfast. The artist, however, may have conceived of Lammles as sychophantal lay-abouts, and chosen to imply that they rise late as Alfred is an "adventurer" of no particular occupation. At Fledgeby's,
Alfred Lammle pushed his plate away (no great sacrifice under the circumstances of there being so little in it), thrust his hands in his pockets, leaned back in his chair, and contemplated Fledgeby in silence. [168-169]
Lammle in Eytinge's plate is animatedly conversing with his wife, seated in throne-like repose; she regards him and his marital scheme somewhat skeptically, if one may judge by her expression. We can well imagine Alfred's saying that Fledgeby in matters involving money is "a match for the Devil," and Sophronia's riposting, "Is he a match for you?" (167).
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham, Professor Emeritus, Lakehead University. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL.]
Bibliography
Schlicke, Paul, ed. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1999.
Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend, illustrated by Marcus Stone. Intro. Andrew Sanders. Everyman's Library. London and Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Vol. VIII. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
Kitton, Frederic George. Dickens and His Illustrators: Cruikshank, Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Cattermole, Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Frank Stone, Landseer, Palmer, Topham, Marcus Stone, and Luke Fildes. Amsterdam: S. Emmering, 1972. Re-print of the London 1899 edition.
Winter, William. "Charles Dickens" and "Sol Eytinge." Old Friends: Being Literary Recollections of Other Days. New York: Moffat, Yard, & Co., 1909. Pp. 181-202, 317-319.
Created 3 November 2010 last updated 17 March 2023