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“‘Where are they! Tell me when to fire. . Where are they?’”
Thomas Onwhyn [unsigned]
steel engraving
13 cm high by 11.8 cm wide (5 by 4 ½ inches), vignetted
Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Chapter XIX, "A Pleasant Day, with an Unpleasant Termination" (October 1836), facing page 190.
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There was a sharp whirring noise, that made Mr. Winkle start back as if he had been shot himself. Bang, bang, went a couple of guns — the smoke swept quickly away over the field, and curled into the air.
‘Where are they!’ said Mr. Winkle, in a state of the highest excitement, turning round and round in all directions. ‘Where are they? Tell me when to fire. Where are they — where are they?’
‘Where are they!’ said Wardle, taking up a brace of birds which the dogs had deposited at his feet. ‘Why, here they are.’
‘No, no; I mean the others,’ said the bewildered Winkle.
‘Far enough off, by this time,’ replied Wardle, coolly reloading his gun.
‘We shall very likely be up with another covey in five minutes,’ said the long gamekeeper. ‘If the gentleman begins to fire now, perhaps he’ll just get the shot out of the barrel by the time they rise.’
‘Ha! ha! ha!’ roared Mr. Weller.
‘Sam,’ said Mr. Pickwick, compassionating his follower’s confusion and embarrassment. [Chapter XIX, “A Pleasant Day, with an Unpleasant Termination,” 190]
“‘Where are they! Tell me when to fire. . Where are they?’ Tell me when to fire. Where are they — where are they?’”
‘Where are they!’ said Wardle, taking up a brace of birds which the dogs had deposited at his feet. ‘Where are they’ ‘Why, here they are.’” [Page 190]
Since this is one of Dickens's favourite farcical gambits early in The Pickwick Papers, the official illustrators have favoured us with several interpretations of the Pickwickians as exemplary "Cockney sportsmen," a satirical type derived from Robert Surtees' Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities (1831, 1838) in The New Sporting Magazine in monthly instalments. The single member of the Pickwick Club who is the regular butt of this joke is the scatter-brained Mr. Nathaniel Winkle. Here, Pickwick presides oversees the group from a wheelbarrow (left), attended by Sam. Beside Sam is the "long gamekeeper, apparently reloading his rifle. Winkle, centre, dangerously points his firearm at Mr. Wardle, despite PIckwick's recent admonition that he point the muzzle at the ground. To the right is Mr. Tupman, also being very casual in the disposition of his weapon. Their host for these field sports, Mr. Wardle (right of centre) holds up one of the birds that the dogs have just dropped at Winkle's feet.
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).
Titley, Graham D. C. "Thomas Onwhyn: a Life in Illustration (1811-1886)." Pearl. University of Plymouth (2018-07-12).
Created 16 February 2024