"My child-wife's old companion" for "David Copperfield" by "Phiz"

My child-wife's old companion

Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)

September 1850

Etching on steel

Dickens's David Copperfield, chapter 53, "Another Retrospect."

Source: Centenary Edition, volume two, facing page 400.

In the second illustration in the seventeenth monthly number, which was issued in September 1850 and comprises chapters 51 through 53, Phiz again utilizes the guitar as a symbol of the musical Dora, a signifier which he employed previously in "Our Housekeeping", but here the effect is sentimental rather than satirical as the instrument's broken strings foreshadow the impending death of its owner and that of her pet and alter ego, Jip the spaniel, still alive at David's feet in this illustration.

Image scan, caption, and commentary below 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 the image and (2) link your document to this URL.]

Commentary

According to J. A. Hammerton (1910), the moment that Phiz has realized as the culmination of the Dora plot follows this:

More restless than he was, [Jip] crawls out of his house, and looks at me, and wanders to the door, and whines to go upstairs.

"Not to-night, Jip! Not to-night!"

He comes very slowly back to me, licks my hand, and lifts his dim eyes to my face.

Oh, Jip! It may be, never again!"[Vol. 2, 400]

Hammerton, however, incorrectly captions the picture with the sentence in which Jip actually dies: "He lies down at my feet, stretches himself out as if to sleep, and with a plaintive cry, is dead." As in the text, Phiz stationed David in his easy-chair by the fire, his posture suggestive of reflection, if not "blind remorse." However, in the passage illustrated David is apparently alone, for Agnes has received Dora's message and has gone upstairs. Although Phiz's young women all too often resemble one another, here Phiz utilizes the physical similarities between Dora, presiding over the scene from the painting above David, and Agnes, standing in the doorway with a church spire behind her, to imply that Agnes will take Dora's place as David's wife. The cross signifies both a funeral and a wedding. Behind her, "The bright moon is high and clear" (400), but Phiz has caused a cloud to move across it, and has positioned it immediately above Agnes's head. Since Dickens does not mention the Thames lying beyond the window of David and Dora's cottage at Highgate, we must assume that the boat and its occupant are a symbolic rendering of David on "the sea of . . . remembrance."

As both Steig and Cohen note, details within the theatrical set reflect David's relationship with Dora and her youthful death, especially the sheet music by the broken-stringed guitar (the words "REQUIEM" and "MOZART" easily deciphered) and the candle that smokes as it gutters out, in keeping with the impending death of Jip and, as Agnes's posture and presence at the doorway imply, the announcement that Dora of the curls has just expired upstairs, bequeathing her husband to Agnes of the disciplined hairdo. She possesses "that air of decorum that will characterize their future home and life together" (Cohen 105), while her predecessor, the last Mrs. Copperfield of the portrait, resembles Clara Copperfield in the earlest illustrations of the book, both in "childish looks and manner" (Cohen 105). Jip's exotic doghouse, a bit of chonoissierie of the type favoured by the Prince Regent at his Brighton Pavillion in the era of the visionary poets Keats, Shelley, and Coleridge, a canine-sized pagoda, reflects Dora's impractical, romantic, unworldy nature. The motif of the embracing amorini at the top of the fireplace screen suggests the passionate but one-dimensional nature of David and Dora's relationship, whereas the mask at the bottom, lowering at Jip, suggests that he, like his mistress, is marked for death. In the clock on the mantelpiece, the ornamental dog who is guarding his sleeping master implies David's fidelity to Dora's memory. The figurines, particularly the cupid holding aloft two rose candle receptacles, suggest the immaturity of David and Dora as they embarked upon matrimony. The only clutter evident in a household formerly characterized by nothing but confusion is associated with Dora, whose presence is implied by the music portfolio and the guitar: a book not re-shelved and a sealed envelop upon the floor (perhaps implying Dora's petitioning Agnes to look after David when she is gone). In contrast, the areas dominated by David, the writing desk and bookcase, are tidy and well-organized. Cohen notes that the rather small chair beside David's, like the portfolio and a butterfly on an inkwell, suggests "David's impending bereavement" (105).

Additional information about the plate

Second September 1850 illustration. Source: Centenary Edition (1911), volume two, facing page 400. All forty Phiz plates were etched in duplicate, as was the case with Dombey and Son, the duplicates differing only slightly from the originals. Phiz contributed forty etchings and the "life of every man" wrapper design.

References

Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio U. P., 1980.

Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield, il. Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Centenary Edition. 2 vols. London and New York: Chapman & Hall, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911.

Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture-Book. London: Educational Book Co., 1910.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana U. P., 1978.

Last modified 16 February 2010