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Terrible Position of Mr. Pickwick
Harry Furniss
1910
13.9 cm x 9.5 cm, vignetted
Fifteenth regular illustration for Dickens's Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing II, 156.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"Oh, you kind, good, playful dear," said Mrs. Bardell; and without more ado, she rose from her chair, and flung her arms round Mr. Pickwick’s neck, with a cataract of tears and a chorus of sobs.
"Bless my soul," cried the astonished Mr. Pickwick; "Mrs. Bardell, my good woman — dear me, what a situation—pray consider. — Mrs. Bardell, don't — if anybody should come — "
"Oh, let them come," exclaimed Mrs. Bardell frantically; "I'll never leave you — dear, kind, good soul;’ and, with these words, Mrs. Bardell clung the tighter.
"Mercy upon me," said Mr. Pickwick, struggling violently, "I hear somebody coming up the stairs. Don’t, don't, there's a good creature, don't." But entreaty and remonstrance were alike unavailing; for Mrs. Bardell had fainted in Mr. Pickwick's arms; and before he could gain time to deposit her on a chair, Master Bardell entered the room, ushering in Mr. Tupman, Mr. Winkle, and Mr. Snodgrass. [Chapter XII, "Descriptive of a very Important Proceeding on the part of Mr. Pickwick; no less an Epoch in his life, than in this History," 87-88]
Even though Furniss had an 1836 precedent for this scene, he certainly would also have had access to a comparable Phiz illustration in the 1874 Household Edition. However, Furniss may not have seen Pickwick's tranquil interview with Mrs. Bardell in the Nast illustration for the American edition of 1873. Thus, Furniss's describing Mrs. Bardell's romantic overture in such vigorous terms seems to have been his own original conception — and in his dynamic realisation of the "proposal" scene his widow is neither dowdy nor plain.
Furniss's version constitutes a vast improvement over his principal sources, the somewhat stilted August 1836 steel-engraving and the 1874 theatrical realisation in which only Master Bardell exhibits any sign of animation, but in which at least Phiz has made the middle-aged widow passably attractive. Whereas Phiz had, in both instances, made the three friends as much the subject as Mrs. Bardell and Mr. Pickwick, Furniss wisely has relegated the visitors to the upper right corner and focussed upon the infatuated widow and the utterly stunned Pickwick. Both Phiz illustrations, "Take this little villain away," said the agonised Mr. Pickwick (1874) and Mrs. Bardell faints in Mr. Pickwick's arms (1836), imply that Tommy is a little brute attacking the defenceless Pickwick in the shins, whereas Dickens's approach in the text is more nuanced because he states that Tommy erroneously believes that his mother is being assaulted. Furniss has re-visited the text as well as integrated material from the Phiz illustrations. Although this is a pivotal scene in the novel's plot, Furniss does not repeat Mrs. Bardell's appearance in his series. The scene occurs in Pickwick's apartments in Goswell Street. Since Pickwick hears his friends coming up the stairs, we are not in his sitting room on the first floor front. However, the presence of books suggests the setting is a parlour, which might explain why Mrs. Bardell is vigorously dusting the furniture when Pickwick broaches the subject (in oblique terms) of hiring Sam Weller as his valet. Furniss provides little justification for the land lady's presence in Pickwick's rooms.
Left: Phiz's original conception of the scene of the supposedly interrupted includes the bemused Pickwickians Snodgrass, Tupman, and Winkle: Take this little villain away, said the agonised Mr. Pickwick (August 1836). Centre: Eytinge's caricatural study of the scene in Mrs. Bardell's kitchen: Mrs. Bardell and Friends (1867). Right: Kyd's derivative study of Pickwick's landlady, Mrs. Bardell (circa 1910).
Above: Thomas Nast's version of the scene in the American Household Edition (1873), which precedes to passionate outburst from Pickwick's landlady, an illustration which Furniss may not have seen: "He, too, will have a companion.
Above: Phiz revised his original plate in a more naturalistic vein for the 1874 British Household Edition: "Take this little villain away," said the agonised Mr. Pickwick. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Clarke, Clayton J. ('Kyd'). The Characters of Charles Dickens portrayed in a series of original watercolours by "Kyd." London, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, n. d.
Clarke, Clayton J. ('Kyd'). "Sam Weller." John Player Cigarette Cards. Nottingham, 1910. No. 14.
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_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.
_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867.
_____. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. The Household Edition. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. 16 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers 1873. Vol. 4.
Matz, B. W., and Kate Perugini; illustrated by Harold Copping. Character Sketches from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924.
_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 5.
_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.
Created 14 September 2019
Last modified 5 February 2020