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The Consultation
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
December 1862
steel engraving
11.1 cm high by 9.8 cm wide (4 ⅜ by 3 ¾ inches), vignetted
November 1862
Twenty-first serial iIllustration for Charles Lever's Barrington (Chapter 42, facing p. 337).
[Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
“Are we alone?” asked Stapylton, cutting short the bland speech with which Dill was making his approaches. “Draw that curtain a bit, and take a good look at me. Are my eyes bloodshot? Are the pupils dilated? I had a bad sunstroke once; see if there be any signs of congestion about me.”
“No, I see none. A little flushed; your pulse, too, is accelerated, and the heart's action is laboured —”
“Never mind the heart; if the head be well, it will take care of it. Reach me that pocket-book; I want to acquit one debt to you before I incur another. No humbug between us;” and he pressed some notes into the other's palm as he spoke. “Let us understand each other fully, and at once. I'm not very ill; but I want you.”
“And I am at your orders.”
“Faithfully, — loyally?”
“Faithfully, — loyally!” repeated the other after him.
“You've read the papers lately, — you've seen these attacks on me?”
“Yes.”
“Well, what do they say and think here — I mean in this house — about them? How do they discuss them? Remember, I want candor and frankness; no humbug. I'll not stand humbug.”
“The women are against you.”
“Both of them?”
“Both.”
“What do you mean, sir?” replied Stapylton, savagely. [Chapter XLI, "The Doctor and His Patient," pp. 336-337]
Here we confirm that Stapylton's sudden "illness" has not been caused by the press's unfavourable comments about his conduct at the Peterloo Massacre. Recognizing a fellow confidence-man, Stapylton bribes Dr. Dill into proclaiming his being genuinely ill — and into revealing what the others in the house think of him: "Remember, I want candour and frankness; no humbug. I'll not stand humbug!" (337). Dill reveals that Stapylton is not likely to succeed in his suit.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Lever, Charles. Barrington. With 25 engravings by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. London: Chapman and Hall, 1863.
Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978.
Sutherland, John A. "Barrington." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989, rpt. 1990, pp. 48-49.
Created 10 August 2002 Last updated 14 October 2026