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He fell into a kind of frenzy at his own disgrace, and struck Sir Percival.
John McLenan
23 June 1860
11.3 cm high by 8.8 cm wide (4 ¼ by 3 ½ inches), vignetted, p. 380; p. 196 in the 1861 volume.
Thirty-first regular illustration for Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel (1860).
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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"He fell into a kind of frenzy at his own disgrace, and struck Sir Percival." — staff artist John McLenan's thirty-first composite woodblock engraving for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, Instalment 31, published on 23 June 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. IV, "The Second Epoch; "The Narrative of Walter Hartright, Resumed. VI," p. 380; p. 196 in the 1861 volume. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Mrs. Clements waited for a moment before she went on. Even in that moment, I began to doubt whether the clue that I thought I had found was really leading me to the central mystery of the labyrinth after all. Was this common, too common, story of a man’s treachery and a woman’s frailty the key to a secret which had been the lifelong terror of Sir Percival Glyde?
“Well, sir, Catherick took my husband’s advice and waited,” Mrs. Clements continued. “And as I told you, he hadn’t long to wait. On the second day he found his wife and Sir Percival whispering together quite familiar, close under the vestry of the church. I suppose they thought the neighbourhood of the vestry was the last place in the world where anybody would think of looking after them, but, however that may be, there they were. Sir Percival, being seemingly surprised and confounded, defended himself in such a guilty way that poor Catherick (whose quick temper I have told you of already) fell into a kind of frenzy at his own disgrace, and struck Sir Percival. He was no match (and I am sorry to say it) for the man who had wronged him, and he was beaten in the cruelest manner, before the neighbours, who had come to the place on hearing the disturbance, could run in to part them. All this happened towards evening, and before nightfall, when my husband went to Catherick’s house, he was gone, nobody knew where. No living soul in the village ever saw him again. He knew too well, by that time, what his wife’s vile reason had been for marrying him, and he felt his misery and disgrace, especially after what had happened to him with Sir Percival, too keenly. The clergyman of the parish put an advertisement in the paper begging him to come back, and saying that he should not lose his situation or his friends. But Catherick had too much pride and spirit, as some people said — too much feeling, as I think, sir — to face his neighbours again, and try to live down the memory of his disgrace. My husband heard from him when he had left England, and heard a second time, when he was settled and doing well in America. He is alive there now, as far as I know, but none of us in the old country — his wicked wife least of all — are ever likely to set eyes on him again.”
“What became of Sir Percival?” I inquired. “Did he stay in the neighbourhood?”
“Not he, sir. The place was too hot to hold him. He was heard at high words with Mrs. Catherick the same night when the scandal broke out, and the next morning he took himself off.”
“And Mrs. Catherick? Surely she never remained in the village among the people who knew of her disgrace?” [Part 31: "Hartright's Narrative, VI," p. 380; p. 192 in the 1861 volume.]
The way to the Secret lay through the mystery, hitherto impenetrable to all of us, of the woman in white. The approach to that in its turn might be gained by obtaining the assistance of Anne Catherick’s mother, and the only ascertainable means of prevailing on Mrs. Catherick to act or to speak in the matter depended on the chance of my discovering local particulars and family particulars first of all from Mrs. Clements. After thinking the subject over carefully, I felt certain that I could only begin the new inquiries by placing myself in communication with the faithful friend and protectress of Anne Catherick. [Part V, 190 in the 1861 edition.]
As Hartright now learns from Mrs. Clements, Anne Catherick has never actually known the secret. Rather, she has heard her mother in conversation with Glyde refer to the Secret. She has merely pretended to know that Glyde and her mother inserted a falsified account of the marriage of Sir Percival's parents in the parish's vestry registry of births, deaths, and weddings. In fact, Sir Percival is illegitimate, and therefore not entitled to either his lands or his title. But the vestry clerk, Mr. Catherick, had incorrectly assumed that the clandestine meetings between Glyde and his wife were evidence of an extra-marital affair. Hence, Mr. Catherick, the clerk at Welmingham church, had roundly beaten Sir Percival in the churchyard, just outside the vestry. But, as yet, Walter does not know about Glyde's counterfeiting an entry in the registry: that he will learn from Mrs. Catherick herself when he visits the combative old woman at Welmingham.
McLenan implies that the vigorous, enraged husband has the upper hand, having already knocked Sir Percival to the ground as an anxious Mrs. Catherick watches from the background. But the text supports a counter-narrative: for all his indignation, the vestry clerk fails to gain the upper hand in the churchyard conflict. After the initial shock, Glyde defends himself vigorously, but at the moment realized the neighbours have yet to arrive to witness Glyde’s brutal retaliation. The reader may wish to know that the narrative will support the illustration, but clearly Catherick is humiliated by the man whom he assumes has been having an affair with his wife.
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. New York: Harper & Bros., 1861 (first printing, 15 August 1860; reissued in single-column format in 1902, 548 pages).
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by John McLenan. Vols. III-IV (26 November 1859 through 8 September 1860).
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Ed. Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert and F. A. Fraser. Toronto: Broadview, 2006.
Peters, Catherine. "Chapter Twelve: The Woman in White (1859-1860)." The King of the Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins. London: Minerva Press, 1992. 205-25.
Vann, J. Don. "The Woman in White in All the Year Round, 26 November 1859 — 25 August 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. 44-46.
Created 29 July 2024