"I hanged them in chains." — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

I hanged them in chains

Wal Paget (1863-1935)

lithographic vignette

8 cm high by 4.5 cm wide

1891

Robinson Crusoe, embedded on page 85.

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. ["Running head, "Farming Operations," page 84]

Commentary

This closeup of the birds that Crusoe has shot as they tried to consume his seed complements the half-page illustration of Crusoe's shooting them, "I fired again" on the facing page (84), so that the reader starts the moment illustrated on the former, left-hand page, and completes it on the right-hand page. Paget underscores the futility of Crusoe's attempting to make an example of these malefactors to others of their species considering repeating their offence, for their thievery is purely instinctual and not at all rational. The sequence, therefore, may be an oblique allusion to the ongoing Victorian era debate on the deterrent value of capital punishment.

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