Sam Weller by J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") for the 1910 watercolour series: reproduced on John Player cigarette card no. 17: Ninety-two Characters from Dickens: The Pickwick Papers. 2 ½ inches high by 1 ¼ inches wide (6.3 cm high by 3.3 cm wide). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
SAM WELLER (The Pickwick Papers)
If Mr. Pickwick may be considered in the light of a nineteenth century Don Quixote, with how much more truth is Mr. Samuel Weller to be regarded as a modern Sancho Panza. His imperturbable humour, his endless droll simile which, for want of a better word, have been dubbed "Wellerisms" — are they not written in the book of Pickwick to delight all readers for ever and a day? [Verso of Card No. 17]
Passage Illustrated: The Momentous Introduction of Cockney Wit Sam Weller
Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s dual portrait of the "editors" of Pickwick Papers after Pickwick's retirement (The Diamond Edition, 1867).
He [Jingle] was yet on his way [back] to the White Hart, when two plump gentleman and one thin one entered the yard, and looked round in search of some authorised person of whom they could make a few inquiries. Mr. Samuel Weller happened to be at that moment engaged in burnishing a pair of painted tops, the personal property of a farmer who was refreshing himself with a slight lunch of two or three pounds of cold beef and a pot or two of porter, after the fatigues of the Borough market; and to him the thin gentleman straightway advanced.
"My friend," said the thin gentleman.
"You're one o' the adwice gratis order," thought Sam, "or you wouldn't be so wery fond o' me all at once." But he only said — "Well, Sir."
"My friend," said the thin gentleman, with a conciliatory hem — "have you got many people stopping here now? Pretty busy. Eh?"
Sam stole a look at the inquirer. [Chapter X, "Clearing up all the doubts (if any existed) of the disinterestedness of Mr. Jingle's character," 78]
Versions of the Original Plate from Pickwick Papers (July 1836)
Left to right: (a) Page 94 (the 'broken walking-stick" from the serial number). (b) Pen-and-wash revision of the July 1836 plate. (b) First appearance of Mr. Samuel Weller (early impression, 17 November 1837). All three courtesy of C. Ralph Hayes, Sidney, British Columbia.
Commentary: Sam Weller — Pickwick's Street-wise Cockney "Boots"
Ever since his initial appearance in the narrative-pictorial sequence of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club in The First Appearance of Sam Weller (Chapter 10, July 1836) Victorian readers would have instantly recognized the nattily-dressed Cockney "boots" that retired businessman Samuel Pickwick encounters in the galleried White Hart Inn, Southwark. The significance of that momentous meeting cannot be overestimated since it propelled sales of the serial novel to 40,000 numbers per month, and led to the overnight transformation of twenty-four-year-old shorthand reporter Charles John Huffam Dickens into a best-selling author. Very quickly after his appearance in that summer number, "Wellerisms" (Cockney witticisms in the manner of the inimitable Sam) became all the rage in London — as for example, "It's over and can't be helped, and that's one consolation, as they always say in Turkey, ven they cuts the wrong man's head off" (Chapter XXIII, p. 157 in the Household Edition; cited by Hill and Starr, 6).
Revised Versions of the Same Scene (1874 and 1910)
Left: Phiz's Household Edition composite woodblock engraving Sam stole a look at the inquirer (Chapter X). Right: Harry Furniss's 1910 lithograph for the Charles Dickens Library Edition: Mr. Pickwick meets Sam Weller (Chapter X).
Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910
- Robert Seymour (1836)
- Thomas Onwhyn (1837)
- Felix Octavius Carr Darley (1861)
- Sol Eytinge, Jr. (1867)
- Thomas Nast (1873)
- Harry Furniss (1910)
Above: The cover for A Dickens Day Book (1987) emphasizes Sam's working-class origins in "The Borough."
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
The Characters of Charles Dickens pourtrayed in a series of original watercolours by “Kyd.” London, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, nd. [1910?]
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, R. W. Buss, and Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). London: Chapman & Hall: April 1836 through November 1837.
_______. 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. Vol. 1.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 22 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 2.
_______. 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 Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 16 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 4.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.
Hill, Elizabeth W., and Martha H. Starr. "Sam Weller." A Dickens Day Book. Washington, DC: Starrhill Press, 1987. Cover, and p. 5.
Created 6January 2015
Last updated 12 July 2025