“Silas Wegg makes an Agreeable Promise” — Harry Furniss's twentieth illustration for “Our Mutual Friend” (1910)

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Silas Wegg makes an Agreeable Promise

Harry Furniss

1910

13.8 cm x 9.1 cm, or 5 ½ by 3 ½ inches, vignetted

The Charles Dickens Library Edition, Vol. XV, Book 3, “A Long Lane,” Chapter XIV, “Mr. Wegg Prepares a Grindstone for Mr. Boffin's Nose,” facing 609.

‘My time, sir,’ returned Wegg, ‘is yours. In the meanwhile let it be fully understood that I shall not neglect bringing the grindstone to bear, nor yet bringing Dusty Boffin’s nose to it. His nose once brought to it, shall be held to it by these hands, Mr. Venus, till the sparks flies out in showers.’ — Our Mutual Friend, p. 607.

[Click on the images on this page to enlarge them.]

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Passage Illustrated: The Inept Plotting of Venus and Wegg, Contrasting the Lammles'

With this agreeable promise Wegg stumped out, and shut the shop-door after him. ‘Wait till I light a candle, Mr. Boffin,’ said Venus, ‘and you’ll come out more comfortable.’ So, he lighting a candle and holding it up at arm’s length, Mr Boffin disengaged himself from behind the alligator’s smile, with an expression of countenance so very downcast that it not only appeared as if the alligator had the whole of the joke to himself, but further as if it had been conceived and executed at Mr. Boffin’s expense.

‘That’s a treacherous fellow,’ said Mr. Boffin, dusting his arms and legs as he came forth, the alligator having been but musty company. ‘That’s a dreadful fellow.’

‘The alligator, sir?’ said Venus.

‘No, Venus, no. The Serpent.’ [Book Three, Chapter XIV, “Mr. Wegg Prepares a Grindstone for Mr. Boffin's Nose,” 607]

Commentary: At the Curtain of Part 14 (June 1865) — “More Plotting against Boffin”

As greedy Wegg rants about Boffin's being made to pay for their silence regarding the second will they have discovered, Boffin listens safely from his place of hiding. However, unlike the Stone and Mahoney illustrations, this 1910 lithograph implies that Harry Furniss's interest is not so much in Venus's shop and its macabre contents as in the two characters who discuss how they may blackmail Boffin. Venus in the original serial plate by Marcus Stone, Mr. Wegg Prepares a Grindstone for Mr. Boffin's Nose (for the curtain of the June 1865 or fourteenth number), is easily distinguished by his shock of ginger hair and leather apron, and Wegg by his top hat and peg-leg. Furniss employs the same strategies, emphasizing the peg-leg by placing it at the centre of the composition. As in Stone's and Mahoney's versions, the grinning skull suggests, as does Dickens's mention of the French gentleman (the shop's articulated skeleton), that there is an eavesdropper on this very private conversation. However, Furniss does more than suggest Boffin's presence: he shows his face conspicuously at the back of the scene, at floor level. His presence, so obvious to the viewer but undetected by the street-vendor (but, of course, known to Venus, who has positioned Boffin in his hiding place, behind the young alligator), underscores the essentially comic nature of the textual “overheard conversation” which both Stone and Mahoney had treated rather more seriously. Furniss's major departure, however, is in style rather than composition; in order to heighten the farce, Furniss renders Wegg in a purely caricatural fashion, eschewing the realism of the Stone and Mahoney illustrations entirely.

Relevant Illustrations in the Original (Serial) and Household Editions (1865 and 1875)

Left: Marcus Stone's initial serial plate for the June 1865 (fourteenth) number: Mr. Wegg Prepares a Grindstone for Mr. Boffin's Nose (Book III, Chapter 12). Right: James Mahoney's version of Wegg and Venus in the taxidermy shop, plotting to defraud Boffin: Mr. Venus produced the document, holding on by his usual corner. Mr. Wegg, holding on by the opposite corner, sat down on the seat so lately vacated by Mr. Boffin, and looked it over in the same chapter. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Related Materials

Illustrations by Marcus Stone (40 plates from the Chapman and Hall edition of May 1864 through November 1865)
Frontispieces by Octavius Carr Darley (4 photogravures from the Hurd and Houghton Household Edition of 1872)
Illustrations by Sol Eytinge, Jr. (16 plates from the Ticknor and Fields' Diamond Edition of 1867)
James Mahoney (58 plates from the Chapman and Hall Household Edition of 1875)
Harry Furniss (28 lithographs from the Charles Dickens Library Edition, Vol. XV, 1910)
Clayton J. Clarke (two studies from his designs for the Player's Cigarette Cards, 1910)

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.

The Characters of Charles Dickens Pourtrayed in a Series of Original Water Colour Sketches by “Kyd.” London, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, 1898[?].

Cordery, Gareth, and Joseph S. Meisel, eds. The Humours of Parliament: Harry Furniss's View of Late-Victorian Culture. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2014. [Review by Françoise Baillet]

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1999.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Marcus Stone [40 composite wood-block engravings]. The Authentic Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens. 21 vols. London: Chapman and Hall; New York: Charles Scribners' Sons, 1901 [based on the original nineteen-month serial and the two-volume edition of 1865]. Vol. XIV.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1872. 4 vols.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. VIII.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by James Mahoney. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Volume IX.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. XV.

Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 21: The Other Novels." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Vol. XVII. 441-442.

Kitton, Frederic G. Dickens and His Illustrators. London: George Redway, 1899. Rpt. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 2004.

Vann, J. Don. "Our Mutual Friend, twenty parts in nineteen monthly instalments, May 1864—November 1865." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985. 74.

Created 11 August 2025