"Hugh frightens Dolly Varden" — Harry Furniss's eleventh illustration for Dickens's "Barnaby Rudge" (1910)

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Hugh frightens Dolly Varden

The rough bearing, and his wild, uncouth appearance, had often filled the girl with a vague apprehension even when other people were by, and had occasioned her to shrink from him involuntarily. The having him for an unbidden companion in so solitary a place, with the darkness fast gathering about them, renewed and even increased the alarm she had felt at first.

Harry Furniss

1910

13.7 cm x 9 cm, (5 ½ by 3 ¾ inches), vignetted

Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, The Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910), facing VI, 161.

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Context of the Illustration: The Young Ostler a Woodland Pan

It was for the moment an inexpressible relief to Dolly, to recognise in the person who forced himself into the path so abruptly, and now stood directly in her way, Hugh of the Maypole, whose name she uttered in a tone of delighted surprise that came from her heart.

"Was it you?" she said, "how glad I am to see you! and how could you terrify me so!"

In answer to which, he said nothing at all, but stood quite still, looking at her.

"Did you come to meet me?" asked Dolly.

Hugh nodded, and muttered something to the effect that he had been waiting for her, and had expected her sooner.

"I thought it likely they would send," said Dolly, greatly reassured by this.

"Nobody sent me," was his sullen answer. "I came of my own accord."

The rough bearing of this fellow, and his wild, uncouth appearance, had often filled the girl with a vague apprehension even when other people were by, and had occasioned her to shrink from him involuntarily. The having him for an unbidden companion in so solitary a place, with the darkness fast gathering about them, renewed and even increased the alarm she had felt at first.

If his manner had been merely dogged and passively fierce, as usual, she would have had no greater dislike to his company than she always felt — perhaps, indeed, would have been rather glad to have had him at hand. But there was something of coarse bold admiration in his look, which terrified her very much. She glanced timidly towards him, uncertain whether to go forward or retreat, and he stood gazing at her like a handsome satyr; and so they remained for some short time without stirring or breaking silence. At length Dolly took courage, shot past him, and hurried on.

"Why do you spend so much breath in avoiding me?" said Hugh, accommodating his pace to hers, and keeping close at her side.

"I wish to get back as quickly as I can, and you walk too near me, answered Dolly." [Chapter the Twenty-first, 161]

Commentary

In the 1841 edition published serially in Master Humphrey's Clock<./span>, Phiz had seized upon the key elements of Dickens's verbal portrait of Hugh to describe an athletic, sun-burnt, swarthy hostler of coarse, dark, gypsy-like aspect, carelessly dressed but "picturesque" in the overall effect he creates. Furniss seizes upon Hugh's loutish behaviour to characterise Hugh as a Pan-like figure who lears at the timid, delicate, fashionably attired urban beauty, almost forcing her off the path. The illustrator reinforces his subject's relationship with undisciplined by reflecting Hugh's nature wild hair and careless dress in the woodland backdrop. All of this Furniss has derived not merely from Hugh's insinuating manner, but from a single Dickensian phrase: "like a handsome satyr."

Illustrations involving Hugh the Varlet in Other Editions (1862, 1867, and 1910)

Left: Phiz's original scene of Hugh's terrifying the beautiful heroine in a woodland setting, removed from any possibility of rescue: Hugh Accosts Dolly Varden (10 April 1841). Centre: F. O. C. Darley's engraved title-page for the 1862 second volume issued by Sheldon and Company, New York: Hugh and Dolly Varden. Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond edition illustration of the sordid, lower-class villains of the melodrama: Dennis and Hugh in Chapter 74 (1867).

Related Material including Other Illustrated Editions of Barnaby Rudge

Charles Dickens’s Barnaby Rudge (homepage)
Cattermole's 17 illustrations (13 Feb.-27 Nov. 1841)
Phiz's Original Serial Illustrations (13 Feb.-27 Nov. 1841)
Cattermole and Phiz: The First illustrators: A Team Effort by "The Clock Works"
Felix Octavius Carr Darley's Six Illustrations (1865 and 1888)
Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s ten Diamond Edition illustrations (1867)
Fred Barnard's 46 Illustrations for the Household Edition (1874)
A. H. Buckland's six illustrations for the Collins' Clear-type Edition (1900)

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge in Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Phiz and George Cattermole. 3 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841; rpt., Bradbury and Evans, 1849.

_______. Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. Frontispieces by F. O. C. Darley. Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon and Co., 1865. 3 vols.

_______. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 16 vols. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.

_______. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. VI.

Created 24 May 2020

Last modified 15 December 2020