"Noah and Charlotte" — tenth illustration for "Oliver Twist" by Sol Eytinge, Jr. (1867)

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Noah and Charlotte

Sol Eytinge, Jr.

1867

Dickens's The Adventures of Oliver Twist; also, Pictures from Italy and American Notes for General Circulation (Diamond Edition)

Having made off with the contents of Sowerberry's cash-register, the surly apprentice Noah Claypole and the Sowerberrys' former housemaid, Charlotte, follow the high road down to London as Oliver did earlier. Their arrival in the criminal underworld of the metropolis proves fortunate for Fagin, who requires somebody unfamiliar to Nancy to follow her. Eytinge depicts Noah as hectoring and exploitative, and Charlotte as a mere beast of burden. Both exhibit the effects of nemesis as they are already worrying about Sowerberry's apprehending them for theft.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Noah and Charlotte approach London

Thus, they had toiled along the dusty road, taking little heed of any object within sight, save when they stepped aside to allow a wider passage for the mail-coaches which were whirling out of town, until they passed through Highgate archway; when the foremost traveller stopped and called impatiently to his companion.

"Come on, can't yer? What a lazybones yer are, Charlotte."

"It's a heavy load, I can tell you," said the female, coming up, almost breathless with fatigue.

"Heavy! What are yer talking about? What are yer made for?" rejoined the male traveller, changing his own little bundle as he spoke, to the other shoulder. "Oh, there yer are, resting again! Well, if yer ain't enough to tire anybody's patience out, I don't know what is!"

"Is it much farther?" asked the woman, resting herself against a bank, and looking up with the perspiration streaming from her face.

"Much farther! Yer as good as there," said the long-legged tramper, pointing out before him. "Look there! Those are the lights of London."

"They're a good two mile off, at least,' said the woman despondingly.

"Never mind whether they're two mile off, or twenty," said Noah Claypole; for he it was; "but get up and come on, or I'll kick yer, and so I give yer notice."

As Noah's red nose grew redder with anger, and as he crossed the road while speaking, as if fully prepared to put his threat into execution, the woman rose without any further remark, and trudged onward by his side.

"Where do you mean to stop for the night, Noah?" she asked, after they had walked a few hundred yards.

"How should I know?" replied Noah, whose temper had been considerably impaired by walking. [Chapter 42, "An Old Acquaintance of Oliver’s, Exhibiting Decided Marks of Genius, Becomes a Public Character in the Metropolis," p. 183]

Commentary: Noah and Charlotte as Punch and Judy

Both later Dickens illustrators, Sol Eytinge (1867) and James Mahoney (1871), have realised the moment when the runaways, Noah and Charlotte, exhausted and footsore — and quite fed up with one another — see the lights of London in the distance. In contrast to these "dark" scenes Harry Furniss (1910) has modelled his composition upon the original Cruikshank plate. In instalment 12 (March 1838), Cruikshank had established the nature of the relationship between the surly charity boy and his rough sweetheart, as well as their appearances, in Mr. Claypole as he appeared when his master was out in Part 12, Chapter 27, a likely common point of reference for all three later illustrators.

Cruikshank's versus Eytinge's Interpretations (1838 and 1867)

Cruikshank shows the runaways already in contact with the criminal underworld at a low public house, The Three Cripples in Little Saffron Hill, that part of London through which the Artful Dodger had earlier conducted Oliver. The bundle that the sturdy Charlotte has shouldered all the way to London now lies between the exploitative males, and Noah is again to the left of the table, satisfying his appetite. Whereas Cruikshank enjoys the character comedy of country-bumpkin Noah's attempting to look as "knowing," as worldly wise, as his new Hogarthian acquaintance, in the 1867 wood-engraving Eytinge depicts Noah and Charlotte as a species of Industrial Age Punch and Judy, with Noah's small burden and upright posture contrasting with the bent-over figure of Charlotte, labouring under the weight of a much larger burden. Gone are Noah's fashionable regency clothes, replaced by viable disguise, a carter's white linen smock-frock that extends past his waist. That the two are apparently suffering not only from the rigours of the journey but also from each other's company would seem to the nineteenth-century reader, whether American or British, to assert the power of Poetic Justice or Nemesis. Eytinge makes the heavy Charlotte puffy and breathless, and the spindly-legged Noah belligerent and red-nosed; in other words, Eytinge renders them as mere caricatures unworthy of our sympathy.

Illustrations of Noah Claypole from various editions (1837-1910)

Left: George Cruikshank's serial engraving The Jew & Morris Both begin to understand each other (1838). Centre: James Mahoney's "Look there! Those are the lights of London" (1871). Right: F. W. Pailthorpe's "Did you want a coffin, Sir?" (1885).

Left: George Cruikshank's original version of Oliver plucks up a spirit. Centre: Harry Furniss's Charles Dickens Library Edition illustration "Fagin and Noah understand each other" (1910). Right: Furniss's Oliver Aroused. [Click on images to enlarge them.]

Related Material

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.

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_______. The Letters of Charles Dickens. Ed. Graham Storey, Kathleen Tillotson, and Angus Eassone. The Pilgrim Edition. Oxford: Clarendon, 1965. Vol. 1 (1820-1839).

_______. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. 55 vols. Il. F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. New York: Sheldon and Co., 1865.

_______. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867. Vol. XI.

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Kitton, Frederic G. "George Cruikshank." Dickens and His Illustrators: Cruikshank, Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Cattermole, Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Frank Stone, Topham, Marcus Stone, and Luke Fildes. 1899. Rpt. Honolulu: U. Press of the Pacific, 2004. Pp. 1-28.

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Created 23 October 2014

Last updated 20 November 2021