Short by J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") for the watercolour series (1910): reproduced on John Player cigarette card no. 26: Ninety-two Characters from Dickens: The Old Curiosity Shop. 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.]
SHORT (The Old Curiosity Shop)
A merry-faced little man, manipulator of “Punch” puppets and partner of the misanthropic Codlin. His real name is Harris, but the small size of his legs having earned him the sobriquet of “Short Trotters,” this, in the process of time and the natural sequence of events, has become still further reduced to “Short.” Is good-natured, and friendly to Nell. [Verso of Card No. 26]
Passage Illustrated: Nell and Her Grandfather encounter the itinerant “Punch” Men
The old man and the child quitted the gravel path, and strayed among the tombs; for there the ground was soft, and easy to their tired feet. As they passed behind the church, they heard voices near at hand, and presently came on those who had spoken.
They were two men who were seated in easy attitudes upon the grass, and so busily engaged as to be at first unconscious of intruders. It was not difficult to divine that they were of a class of itinerant showmen — exhibitors of the freaks of Punch — for, perched cross-legged upon a tombstone behind them, was a figure of that hero himself, his nose and chin as hooked and his face as beaming as usual. Perhaps his imperturbable character was never more strikingly developed, for he preserved his usual equable smile notwithstanding that his body was dangling in a most uncomfortable position, all loose and limp and shapeless, while his long peaked cap, unequally balanced against his exceedingly slight legs, threatened every instant to bring him toppling down.
In part scattered upon the ground at the feet of the two men, and in part jumbled together in a long flat box, were the other persons of the Drama. The hero’s wife and one child, the hobby-horse, the doctor, the foreign gentleman who not being familiar with the language is unable in the representation to express his ideas otherwise than by the utterance of the word ‘Shallabalah’ three distinct times, the radical neighbour who will by no means admit that a tin bell is an organ, the executioner, and the devil, were all here. Their owners had evidently come to that spot to make some needful repairs in the stage arrangements, for one of them was engaged in binding together a small gallows with thread, while the other was intent upon fixing a new black wig, with the aid of a small hammer and some tacks, upon the head of the radical neighbour, who had been beaten bald.
They raised their eyes when the old man and his young companion were close upon them, and pausing in their work, returned their looks of curiosity. One of them, the actual exhibitor no doubt, was a little merry-faced man with a twinkling eye and a red nose, who seemed to have unconsciously imbibed something of his hero’s character. The other — that was he who took the money — had rather a careful and cautious look, which was perhaps inseparable from his occupation also.
The merry man was the first to greet the strangers with a nod; and following the old man’s eyes, he observed that perhaps that was the first time he had ever seen a Punch off the stage. (Punch, it may be remarked, seemed to be pointing with the tip of his cap to a most flourishing epitaph, and to be chuckling over it with all his heart.) [Chapter XVI, Master Humphrey's Clock, Book One, 177 — Part Ten: Chapter XVI, 11 July 1840)]
Other Artists' Conceptions of "Dour" Codlin and "Merry" Short (1840 & 1872)
Left: Phiz's caricatural style hardly flatters the Punch-and-Judy performers, even though the text underscores their affability: Punch in the Churchyard (Part Ten: 11 July 1840). Right: Worth's more prosaic Household Edition illustration establishes the ill-kempt natures of Codlin and Short in Nelly, kneeling down beside the box, was soon busily engaged in her task for Chapter XVI (1872).
Commentary: Colourful “Short” as a Foil to Colourless Tommy Codlin
As is consistent with the original serial wood-engravings, Kyd provides a visual analogue for Dickens's presenting his Punch-and-Judy puppeteers as foils, or sharply contrasting types, to underscore their essentially different character traits: portly, constantly smiling, optimistic, and jolly Short versus his dour, misanthropic, gaunt, and buttoned-up partner, Tommy Codlin. Following the models that Phiz's celebrated illustration Punch in the Churchyard provided him, Kyd has given portly Short (“Harris,” also known as “Trotters”) a pleasant expression and a waistcoat, and the lean Codlin a long coat and striped trousers; however, in Kyd's illustration it is the sour-expressioned Codlin and not the amicable Short who is carrying the trumpet. As befits the Player's Cigarette Card series, both puppeteers are smoking small pipes.
What strikes us most about these companion portraits is the absence of colour in Kyd's characterisation of Codlin. In terms of their names, Codlin’s lack of any sort of amusing nickname in light of Short’s having three (“Short,” “Short Trotters,” and “Trotters”) suggests that there is nothing endearing about the partner who handles the finances. And his bland, grey costume underscores his dour personality. In contrast, Kyd has used colour to his advantage in his portrait of the Punch man, a feature of illustration not present in the original serial's 1840s composite woodblock engravings: as opposed to Codlin's full-length, buttoned-up grey greatcoat, Short wears his tan-coloured topcoat open, revealing his blue-and-white neckcloth, red waistcoat, and checkered trousers. The crimson of the waistcoat is emphasized by a slight redness in his face and the colour of his Punch puppet. Kyd connects the colour schemes by giving Codlin's greatcoat a red lining.
Relevant illustrations from Other Editions (1840 and 1910)
Left: Phiz's study of the puppeteers as the Gentleman, searching for news of Nell, interrogates them in Chapter XXXVII: Interview with Codlin and Short (26 September 1840). Right: Harry Furniss's realisation of the churchyard scene in the Charles Dickens Library edition, Codlin and Short in the Churchyard (1910).
Relevant Illustrations from the 1861 and 1888 editions by Darley
- O. C. Darley's Little Nell and her Grandfather (1888)
- O. C. Darley's "Do I love thee, Nell," said he; "say do I love thee, Nell, or not?" (Frontispiece, Vol. 1, 1861)
- O. C. Darley's The Fugitives (Frontispiece, Vol. 2, 1861)
Other Artists' Illustrations for Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop (1841-1924)
- George Cattermole (13 plates selected)
- Hablot Knight Browne (61 wood-engravings)
- Felix O. C. Darley (4 photogravure plates)
- Sol Eytinge, Jr. (8 wood engravings)
- Thomas Worth (47 wood engravings)
- W. H. C. Groome (9 lithographs)
- Harry Furniss (31 lithographs plus engraved title)
- Harold Copping (2 chromolithographs selected)
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: Illustrated Editions of The Old Curiosity Shop
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; rpt., Bradbury and Evans, 1849.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. XII.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Thomas Worth. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Bros., 1872. I.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Charles Green. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1876. XII.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. With nineteen steel-plate illustrations from original wood-engravings by Phiz and George Cattermole. 2 vols. "New Illustrated Library Edition" of the Works of Charles Dickens. New York: Hurd and Houghton; Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1876. Vols. VI and VII.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by William H. C. Groome. The Collins' Clear-Type Edition. Glasgow & London: Collins, 1900.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910. V.
Hammerton, J. A. "XIII. The Old Curiosity Shop." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910. XVII, 170-211.
Vann, J. Don. "The Old Curiosity Shop in Master Humphrey's Clock, 25 April 1840-6 February 1841." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. 64-65.
Created 7January 2015
Last updated 14 July 2024