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Mr. Jonas exhibits Presence of Mind
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
April 1844
Steel-engraving
15.2 cm high by 11.3 cm wide, vignetted
Illustration for Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
The original 1844 edition of Dickens's Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit placed Mr. Jonas exhibits Presence of Mind (the thirty-first monthly illustration of the novel) facing p. 484 in the forty-second chapter. The 1867 and 1897 editions added the following descriptive headline: "Accident and Opportunity.""
The travellers had opened the carriage door, and had either jumped or fallen out. Jonas was the first to stagger to his feet. He felt sick and weak, and very giddy, and reeling to a five-barred gate, stood holding by it; looking drowsily about as the whole landscape swam before his eyes. But, by degrees, he grew more conscious, and presently observed that Montague was lying senseless in the road, within a few feet of the horses.
In an instant, as if his own faint body were suddenly animated by a demon, he ran to the horses’ heads; and pulling at their bridles with all his force, set them struggling and plunging with such mad violence as brought their hoofs at every effort nearer to the skull of the prostrate man; and must have led in half a minute to his brains being dashed out on the highway.
As he did this, he fought and contended with them like a man possessed, making them wilder by his cries.
"Whoop!" cried Jonas. "Whoop! again! another! A little more, a little more! Up, ye devils! Hillo!"
As he heard the driver, who had risen and was hurrying up, crying to him to desist, his violence increased.
"Hiilo! Hillo!" cried Jonas.
"For God's sake!" cried the driver. "The gentleman — in the road — he'll be killed!"
The same shouts and the same struggles were his only answer. But the man darting in at the peril of his own life, saved Montague's, by dragging him through the mire and water out of the reach of present harm. That done, he ran to Jonas; and with the aid of his knife they very shortly disengaged the horses from the broken chariot, and got them, cut and bleeding, on their legs again. The postillion and Jonas had now leisure to look at each other, which they had not had yet. [Chapter XLII, "Continuation of the Enterprise of Mr. Jonas and his Friend," page 485 in the 1844 Edition]
Although the illustrations correspond, sometimes in amazing detail, with the text, in notable several instances Phiz and Dickens’s text part company. Sylvère Monod, who notes several trifling instances, then focuses on the differences between Dickens's narrating the coach accident and Phiz's depiction of Jonas's presence of mind in dealing with the terrified horses immediately after the accident, when he attempts to use the coaching accident to cover the murder Tigg Montague (the latest avatar of Montague Tigg), the swindling life-assurance magnate and blackmailer:
Jonas is said, in the text, to have run to the horses' heads, and pulled at their bridles, in order to brings their hoofs nearer to the skull of Montague, who is lying senseless on the road. On the plate, Browne shows one horse lying on its back, entangled in the ruined chariot, while Jonas holds the bridle of the other horse, already free from the carriage, standing on its hind legs and backing towards Montague. Admittedly, there is a certain lack of coherence in the story itself, which seems to imply that Jonas is pushing both horses, still harnessed to the overthrown vehicle and not yet having found their legs. For, a little later, the driver will disengage the horses from the broken chariot and get them, 'cut and bleeding, on their legs again', and the driver will admonish Jonas. . . . The text, in fact, tells two stories, but the plate tells a third, independent of both. [Monod, p. 184]
Monod might have added that the viewer finds Phiz's version of the accident more visually engaging as Jonas wrestles to control the fractious carriage horse apparently without fear for his own safety as the driver comes running to take charge (upper left). One passenger's legs are sticking up, as if the accident has turned him upside down, and Montague's left leg is caught in the hedge at the side of the road as he lies on his back, within inches of the horse's hooves. However, until readers familiarize themselves with the text, the Jonas's intentions in the picture are ambiguous: is he trying to save the unconscious financier, or is he deliberately pushing the rearing steed towards the head? Montague's head is vulnerable, for it lacks even the protection of a hat, which Phiz has placed prominently in the middle of road. This plate, one of the most vigorous and dynamic in the entire series, keeps the reader in suspense as to both the outcome of the carriage accident and whether Jonas will lose his best chance of eliminating his adversary. As Michael Steig in Dickens and Phiz remarks of the scenes leading up to Tigg's murder,
Tigg appears in a more sinister form in Mr. Nadgett breathes, as usual, an atmosphere of mystery (ch. 38), in which Jonas is the central figure. As Nadgett and Tigg reveal to Jonas their knowledge of his (apparent) poisoning of his father, the glove on the floor appears to be reaching for his throat. The consequence of this revelation, Jonas' first attempt to murder Tigg, is dealt with by Browne in a style different from that of the other etchings in this novel: in Mr. Jonas exhibits his presence of mind (ch. 42) he has created a circular composition with Jonas at the center of a whirling vortex, the positions of Tigg and Jonas almost exactly reversed from those in the plate just discussed. The composition here is dynamic, yet compact and formal. although Browne may have been influenced by George Cruikshank's book illustrations, Cruikshank's oval or circular designs usually freeze the action rather than achieving the tension Browne creates. In addition, Browne once again uses visual parallels, making Tigg's gesture echo Anthony's, also on the edge of death, in The dissolution of Partnership. This parallel is ironic because Jonas' mistaken belief that he has killed his father leads him here to attempt, and later to accomplish, the murder of Tigg. [Steig, page 72 [Link to complete text]
Phiz's handles the design for this illustration in a freer manner than the others in the series because he does not rely on the built environment for its context. The rutted road and decayed fencing subtly contribute to the suspense, especially since the two crossbars in the right foreground resemble grave-markers. In masterful use of perspective Phiz carries the viewer's eye to the escarpment in the distance, suggesting the remoteness of the locale — and therefore one ideally suited to Jonas's despatching Tigg, but for the inconvenient presence of the driver (upper left), who appears not to have been hurt in the accident and therefore would bear witness at an inquest if Jonas were to use the horse to crack open Tigg's skull, so full of plots and strategems.
Above: Fred Barnard's realisation of the scene in which Jonas contemplates simply slitting Tigg's throat, "Now, could you cut a man's throat with such a thing as this?" demanded Jonas (1872). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1844.
_____. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Edited by Andrew Lang. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). The Gadshill Edition: 34 volumes. London: Chapman and Hall; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897. 2 vols.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Monod, Sylvère. "External and Additional Material." Martin Chuzzlewit. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1985. Pp. 173-185.
Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. [Complete text in the Victorian Web
Vann, J. Don. "Martin Chuzzlewit, twenty parts in nineteen monthly installments, January 1843 — July 1844." New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Pp. 66-67.
Last modified 28 April 2019