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Mrs. Gamp
Phiz
October 1843
Steel-engraving
Detail from the twentieth monthly illustration for Dickens's Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, facing p. 320 (1844 edition) in Ch. XXVI.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
She was a fat old woman, this Mrs Gamp, with a husky voice and a moist eye, which she had a remarkable power of turning up, and only showing the white of it. Having very little neck, it cost her some trouble to look over herself, if one may say so, at those to whom she talked. She wore a very rusty black gown, rather the worse for snuff, and a shawl and bonnet to correspond. In these dilapidated articles of dress she had, on principle, arrayed herself, time out of mind, on such occasions as the present; for this at once expressed a decent amount of veneration for the deceased, and invited the next of kin to present her with a fresher suit of weeds; an appeal so frequently successful, that the very fetch and ghost of Mrs Gamp, bonnet and all, might be seen hanging up, any hour in the day, in at least a dozen of the second-hand clothes shops about Holborn. The face of Mrs Gamp — the nose in particular — was somewhat red and swollen, and it was difficult to enjoy her society without becoming conscious of a smell of spirits. Like most persons who have attained to great eminence in their profession, she took to hers very kindly; insomuch that, setting aside her natural predilections as a woman, she went to a lying-in or a laying-out with equal zest and relish. [Chapter XIX, “The Reader is brought into communication with some Professional Persons, and sheds a tear over the filial Piety of Good Mr. Jonas,” page 236]
span class="illustration">Mrs. Gamp has her Eye on the Future, althiough somewhat cluttered as a design, effectively introduces the novel's chief comic character, Sairey Gamp. Although Dickens may not have seen Honoré Daumier's La Garde-Malade in the 22 May 1842 issue of the Paris magazine of topical commentary and humour Le Charivari, Phiz almost certainly had, for the decrepit image of the French sick-room nurse bears a strong resemblance to the various Phiz illustrations involving Sairey Gamp. Dickens's inspiration, contends Goldie Morgentaler, lay closer to home:
The character was inspired by the nurse of a friend of Angela Burnett Coutts, who had a habit of running her nose along the fender. Dickens confers the same habit on Mrs. Gamp (see ch. 25). At a time when home nursing was the rule, Dickens's portrayal of the snuff-taking, cucumber-loving, gin-swilling, money-grubbing, callous Sarah Gamp gave home nurses a bad name, and, Anne Summers suggests, contributed to the masculinization of the medical profession. [Morgentaler, 355]
Although Dickens introduces Mrs. Gamp as a "professional person" in her female bastion above Poll Sweedlepipe's shop in Chapter XIX, "The Reader is brought into Communication with some Professional Persons, and sheds a Tear over the filial Piety of good Mr. Jonas," in the eighth instalment (August 1843), Phiz does not introduce her in full form until Chapter 26 in the tenth monthly number (October 1843). Consequently, one may conclude that Phiz had several months in which to collect his thoughts about this physically distinctive character with the unmistakable voice, and probably enquire of the author whether she would be a minor character, or would play a more significant role in the plot. In fact, she proves something of a touchstone, connecting characters as various as Nadgett (her landlord), Old Chuffey and Lewsome (her medical charges), Jonas Chuzzlewit (an employer), and ulimately John Westlock.
Phiz's interpretation of Sairey's having "an eye to the future" in the plate's title encompasses both Merry and Sairey, for as she presents her midwife's card the young Mrs. Chuzzlewit seems to appeal to the reader for sympathy. Phiz has the androgynous nurse with exaggerated, alcoholic nurse holding a cale on one hand (signifying her watching at the patient's bedside) and a business-card in the other, suggestive of her assumption of professional and quasi-male status:
She was a fat old woman, this Mrs Gamp, with a husky voice and a moist eye, which she had a remarkable power of turning up, and only showing the white of it. Having very little neck, it cost her some trouble to look over herself, if one may say so, at those to whom she talked. She wore a very rusty black gown, rather the worse for snuff, and a shawl and bonnet to correspond. In these dilapidated articles of dress she had, on principle, arrayed herself, time out of mind, on such occasions as the present; for this at once expressed a decent amount of veneration for the deceased, and invited the next of kin to present her with a fresher suit of weeds; an appeal so frequently successful, that the very fetch and ghost of Mrs Gamp, bonnet and all, might be seen hanging up, any hour in the day, in at least a dozen of the second-hand clothes shops about Holborn. The face of Mrs Gamp — the nose in particular — was somewhat red and swollen, and it was difficult to enjoy her society without becoming conscious of a smell of spirits. Like most persons who have attained to great eminence in their profession, she took to hers very kindly; insomuch that, setting aside her natural predilections as a woman, she went to a lying-in or a laying-out with equal zest and relish. [Chapter XIX, "The Reader is brought into Communication with some Professional Persons, and sheds a Tear over the filial Piety of good Mr. Jonas," page 236]
Morgentaler notes that Dickens's satirical portrayal of Mrs. Gamp contributes to the novel's selectively misogynistic stance. Dickens praises Mary Graham for her spiritual, submissive, and sympathetic nature, ridicules Chariy Pecksniff as a mean-spirited shrew, and has a tendency to caricature older women such as Mrs. Gamp. He consistently describes in "overly reverential" (p. 356) language the novel's heroines, Mary Graham and Ruth Pinch. The cause of Dickens's negative attitude towards Mrs. Gamp, contends Morgentaler, lies in her financial and vocational independence. In other words, because she earns a living by a quasi-professional practice, she has usurped male authority, and defers to no male authority figure (conveniently, her husband is dead). Morgentaler cites the interpretation of Anne Summers that Dickens is critical about Sarah Gamp's being paid for medical expertise (dubious though it may be), but does not "vilify the doctors for exacly the same pecuniary interest" (Summers, p. 385). Like a mortician, Mrs. Gamp makes a living from the afflictions of her patients. Sarah Gamp and Betsey Prigg as sick-room attendants and mid-wives "make a living from disease and death" (Morgentaler, p. 355), and this exploitation of the ill and suffering makes them objectionable in Dickens's eyes, and therefore fit subjects for satire. Coarsened by engaging in work outside the home and given something of a masculine visage from excessive drinking, Sarah Gamp in Phiz's illustrations possesses an overblown, unhealthy female body because she is something of an aberration.
Left: Harry Furniss's study of the great comic creation for the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910), Sairey Gamp. Centre: F. O. C. Darley's frontispiece for volume two, "The creetur's head's so hot," said Mrs. Gamp, alluding to her attendance on the old clerk, Chuffey (1863). Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Sairey Gamp and Betsey Prig. (1867). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Left: Phiz's original conception of Sairey Gamp interacting with Merry to the narrative-pictorial series: Mrs. Gamp has her Eye on the Future (October 1843). Centre: Kyd's miniature portrait of Mrs. Gamp walking through the streets with hat, bag, and umbrella, Sairey Gamp (card no. 24, 1910). Right: From Kyd's book of remarkable Dickens characters, Sairey Gamp in watercolour, as seen in Ch. 19.
Above: Fred Barnard's Mrs. Gamp favours the company with an exhibition of professional skill, old Chuffey being the object of her ministrations in Chapter 46 of the Household Edition (1872).
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Last modified 8 January 2019