The Marchioness by J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") for the watercolour series (1910): reproduced on John Player cigarette card no. 28: 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.]
THE MARCHIONESS (The Old Curiosity Shop.)
A shrewd little maid-of-all-work, a half-starved, nameless drudge in the service of Brass and the “Dragon.” Discovered by Mr. Richard Swiveller “airing her eye at the keyhole,” she is, by that eccentric genius, initiated into the mysteries of cribbage and the delights of “purl,” and dubbed “Marchioness” upon the spot. Her “key-hole” propensities are the ultimare means of establishing Kit's innocence. [Verso of Card No. 28 in the series of 50]
Passage Illustrated: Dick Treats the Small Servant to Beer and Cards
‘Could you eat any bread and meat?’ said Dick, taking down his hat. ‘Yes? Ah! I thought so. Did you ever taste beer?’
'I had a sip of it once,’ said the small servant.
‘Here’s a state of things!’ cried Mr Swiveller, raising his eyes to the ceiling. ‘She never tasted it — it can’t be tasted in a sip! Why, how old are you?’
‘I don’t know.’
Mr. Swiveller opened his eyes very wide, and appeared thoughtful for a moment; then, bidding the child mind the door until he came back, vanished straightway.
Presently, he returned, followed by the boy from the public-house, who bore in one hand a plate of bread and beef, and in the other a great pot, filled with some very fragrant compound, which sent forth a grateful steam, and was indeed choice purl, made after a particular recipe which Mr Swiveller had imparted to the landlord, at a period when he was deep in his books and desirous to conciliate his friendship. Relieving the boy of his burden at the door, and charging his little companion to fasten it to prevent surprise, Mr Swiveller followed her into the kitchen.
‘There!’ said Richard, putting the plate before her. ‘First of all clear that off, and then you’ll see what’s next.’
The small servant needed no second bidding, and the plate was soon empty.
‘Next,’ said Dick, handing the purl, ‘take a pull at that; but moderate your transports, you know, for you’re not used to it. Well, is it good?’
‘Oh! isn’t it?’ said the small servant.
Mr. Swiveller appeared gratified beyond all expression by this reply, and took a long draught himself, steadfastly regarding his companion while he did so. These preliminaries disposed of, he applied himself to teaching her the game, which she soon learnt tolerably well, being both sharp-witted and cunning.
‘Now,’ said Mr. Swiveller, putting two sixpences into a saucer, and trimming the wretched candle, when the cards had been cut and dealt, ‘those are the stakes. If you win, you get ‘em all. If I win, I get ‘em. To make it seem more real and pleasant, I shall call you the Marchioness, do you hear?’
The small servant nodded.
‘Then, Marchioness,’ said Mr Swiveller, ‘fire away!’
The Marchioness, holding her cards very tight in both hands, considered which to play, and Mr. Swiveller, assuming the gay and fashionable air which such society required, took another pull at the tankard, and waited for her lead. [Master Humphrey's Clock, 5 December 1840, Chapter LVII, pp. 119-120]
Commentary: The odd little girl with adult shrewdness, nicknamed "The Marchioness"
Left: Brigden's 1978 redrafting of Kyd's original illustration, The Marchioness.
Even at the turn of the century, the popular taste still ran towards the earlier farce and character comedy of Dickens. The Kyd series includes a total of nine character cards from the 1840-41 cast of The Old Curiosity, or 18% of the total series: Dick Swiveller, no. 11; Mr. Chuckster, no. 12; the innocent and virtuous heroine, Nell, no. 22; the Punch-and-Judy man Short (Harris), no. 26; the villainous, lecherous Quilp, no. 26; the Brasses' quirky maid The Marchioness, no. 28; the oily attorney, Sampson Brass, no. 29; his termagant sister, the dictatorial Sally Brass, no. 30; and the morose itinerant puppeteer Tommy Codlin, no. 31.
The odd little girl with adult shrewdness, nicknamed "The Marchioness" by law clerk Dick Swiveller, is one of those mistreated Dickens's children who transcend the deprivations of childhood and illegitimacy to become functional adults. The nameless servant of the Brasses acquires an education — and becomes the wife of Dick Swiveller, whom she earlier nursed in his lodgings after she had run away from her cruel employers, the Brasses. With a great many nineteenth-century models from which to choose, Kyd seems to have based his 1910 interpretation of the small servant on Phiz's original serial illustration for Chapter LVII in Master Humphrey's Clock, The Marchioness at Cards (5 December 1840).
A Gallery of Illustrations of The Marchioness or "Sophronia Sphynx" (1840-1910)
Later illustrations by Eytinge (1867) and Furniss (1910): left: Dick Swiveller and The Marchioness (1867). Right: W. H. C. Groome's lithograph of the card-playing scene: The Marchioness considered which to play (1900).
Left: Worth's caricatural presentation of the Marchioness here accords well with the comic nature of the text: "Clear that off, and then you'll see what's next." (American Household Edition: 1872), Chapter 57, 197. Right: Green provides better modelled, more realistic figures for the same scene in "Then, Marchioness," said Mr. Swiveller, "fire away!" (1876).
Above: Harry Furniss's trio of amusing caricatures of the Brasses' "small servant," looking decidedly more like a child than an adolescent: Dick Swiveller hears the Marchioness say "No!", The Marchioness, and Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness (1910).
Left: Harold Copping's study of the opening of their relationship, with a child-like small servant asking Dick to show the vacant room to the Single Gentleman in Chapter 34: Dick Swiveller meets the Marchioness (1924). Right: Thomas Worth's American Household Edition scene of Dick and the Marchioness as husband wife, entertaining Chuckster: Upon every anniversary Mr. Chuckster came to dinner in Chapter LXXIII (1872).
Left: The Cheap Edition portrait of an adolescent and quite demure servant, Phiz's The Marchioness (1848). Right: Phiz's serial version of the card-playing scene: The Marchioness playing Cards (5 December 1840).
Various 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
Brigden, C. A. T. “The Marchioness.” The Characters from Charles Dickens as depicted by Kyd. Rochester, Kent: John Hallewell, 1978. Page 19.
The Characters of Charles Dickens pourtrayed in a series of original watercolours by “Kyd.” London, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, nd.
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 8 January 2015
Last updated 15 July 2025