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Quilp, Mrs. Quilp, and Mrs. Jiniwin
Sol Eytinge, Jr.
1867
Wood-engraving
9.9 x 7.5 cm (framed)
Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop & Reprinted Pieces (Diamond Edition), facing XII, 5.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
The old lady gave a gasp, but nothing came of it; Quilp resumed, with the same malice in his eye and the same sarcastic politeness on his tongue.
"You look ill, Mrs. Jiniwin; I know you have been exciting yourself too much — talking perhaps, for it is your weakness. Go to bed. Do go to bed."
"I shall go when I please, Quilp, and not before."
"But please to do now. Do please to go now," said the dwarf.
The old woman looked angrily at him, but retreated as he advanced, and falling back before him, suffered him to shut the door upon her and bolt her out among the guests, who were by this time crowding downstairs. Being left alone with his wife, who sat trembling in a corner with her eyes fixed upon the ground, the little man planted himself before her, and folding his arms looked steadily at her for a long time without speaking. [Chapter IV, 30]
Eytinge does not achieve the emphasis on the figure and actions of Quilp that Dickens's original "Clockworks Team" provided throughout the 1840-41 serial run. In the Master Humphrey's Clock sequence, Quilp figures prominently in eighteen of the seventy-two illustrations, but in Eytinge's short program this is his only appearance. Despite the fact that many readers associate Quilp with the unrelenting, sexually-motivated pursuit of Little Nell, Eytinge brings in the antagonist at the first opportunity, and, as is consistent with his grouping principle, shows Quilp in the company of his brow-beaten young wife and her adversarial mother, Mrs. Jiniwin. Although the figures and expressions of the two women are unremarkable, Eytinge has embellished upon Quilp's repulsiveness, making him a hideous living-death's-head by emphasizing his disproportionately large head and his teeth. Oddly enough, Eytinge has actually increased Quilp's height substantially, so that, were he not bending over, he would be as tall as the two women. Eytinge has further reduced his height by removing his hat, which he wears in the majority of the 1840-41 illustrations by Phiz.
Above: Phiz's original group set in which Quilp disturbs his wife's tea-party at their home on Tower Hill: 11 July 1840 illustration Quilp Surprising his Wife’s Visitors; or, Quilp Interrupts at Tea from Master Humphrey's Clock (23 May 1840).
Left and right: Clayton J. Clarke's amusing caricatures of the demonic villain in the Player's Cigarette card series, Quilp (Card No. 27, 1910) and Quilp in his series of Dickens characters, dating from 1888.
Of the five chief nineteenth-century illustrated editions that preceded Furniss's 32-illustration volume in 1912, only three had long programs exclusively produced by a single artist: Eytinge (1867), Worth (1876), and Green (1876).
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Old Curiosity Shop in Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Phiz, George Cattermole, Samuel Williams, and Daniel Maclise. 3 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841.
_______. The Old Curiosity Shop and Reprinted Pieces. 18 Illustrations by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. XII.
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.
Schlicke, Paul, ed. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1999.
Winter, William. "Charles Dickens" and "Sol Eytinge." Old Friends: Being Literary Recollections of Other Days. New York: Moffat, Yard, & Co., 1909. 181-202, 317-319.
Created 29 May 2020
Last modified 10 August 2020