"I fired again." — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

I fired again

Wal Paget (1863-1935)

half-page lithograph

13 cm high by 11 cm wide, vignetted.

1891

Robinson Crusoe, embedded on page 84.

Scanned image 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 photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Crusoe defends his field against avian predation

I stayed by it to load my gun, and then coming away, I could easily see the thieves sitting upon all the trees about me, as if they only waited till I was gone away, and the event proved it to be so; for as I walked off, as if I was gone, I was no sooner out of their sight than they dropped down one by one into the corn again. I was so provoked, that I could not have patience to stay till more came on, knowing that every grain that they ate now was, as it might be said, a peck-loaf to me in the consequence; but coming up to the hedge, I fired again, and killed three of them. This was what I wished for; so I took them up, and served them as we serve notorious thieves in England — hanged them in chains, for a terror to others. It is impossible to imagine that this should have such an effect as it had, for the fowls would not only not come at the corn, but, in short, they forsook all that part of the island, and I could never see a bird near the place as long as my scarecrows hung there. This I was very glad of, you may be sure, and about the latter end of December, which was our second harvest of the year, I reaped my corn. [Running head, "Farming Operations," page 84]

Commentary

Paget has the reader process the text at the top of the page as he or she attends to the birds in the distance, immediately besides the words "notorious thieves in England" (p. 84). This conjunction would not seem to be the result of sheer coincidence, then, as Crusoe at this point does indeed regard the birds as predators who are ruining his chances of drawing off a crop of barely, the seeds for which have taken him years to nurture. As yet, the image of Crusoe is the unfamiliar one, as he is still wearing European broadcloth, as in the previous illustrations all the way back to A confused screaming and crying on page 40.

Related Material

Reference

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by Himself. With upwards of One Hundred and Twenty Original Illustrations by Walter Paget. London, Paris, and Melbourne: Cassell, 1891.

Last modified 29 April 2018