Affectionate Behaviour of Messrs. Pyke and Pluck
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
December 1838
Steel-engraving
11.6 high cm by 10.6 cm wide, vignetted
Seventeenth plate for Dickens's Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Chapter XXVII.
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Passage Illustrated: The Sycophants Play Mrs. Nickleby
Mr. Pyke no sooner ascertained that he was quite right in his conjecture, than he launched into the most extravagant encomiums of the divine original; and in the warmth of his enthusiasm kissed the picture a thousand times, while Mr. Pluck pressed Mrs. Nickleby's hand to his heart, and congratulated her on the possession of such a daughter, with so much earnestness and affection, that the tears stood, or seemed to stand, in his eyes." [Ch. XXVII, "Mrs. Nickleby becomes Acquainted with Messrs. Pyke and Pluck, whose Affection and Interest are beyond all Bounds," Part 9, December 1838]
Commentary
Phiz in the ninth monthly serial part (December 1838) satirizes the comic antics Pyke and Pluck, who adroitly play on Mrs. Nickleby's desire to consort with the aristocracy. Phiz and Dickens introduce readers to Sir Mulberry Hawk's procurers, the interchangeable psychophants Pyke and Pluck. Aside from assisting their patron in his sexual conquests, the pair are helping him fleece the gullible Lord Frederick Verisopht.
Other Editions' Versions of The Comic Duo (1867-1910)
Left: In the 1875 British Household Edition Fred Barnard introduces Sir Mulberry and his favoured creature in Sir Mulberry Hawk and his friend exchanged glances over the top of the bonnet. Right: Harry Furniss's 1910 lithographic study of the theatrical Pyke: Mr. Pyke finds the miniature of Kate Nickleby, in the Charles Dickens Library Edition.
Left: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s American Diamond Editioncomposite woodblock group portrait of the comic quartet: Hawk, Verisopht, Pyke, and Pluck (1867). Right: C. S. Reinhart's realistic revision of the same scene in the American Household Edition: Affectionate Behavior of Messrs. Pyke and Pluck (1875).
Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators
- Nicholas Nickleby (homepage)
- "Hush!" said Nicholas, laying his hand upon his shoulder. (Vol. 1, 1861)
- The Rehearsal (Vol. 2, 1861)
- "My son, sir, little Wackford. What do you think of him, sir?" (Vol. 3, 1861)
- Newman had caught up by the nozzle an old pair of bellows . . . (Vol. 4, 1861).
- Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s 16 illustrations for The Diamond Edition (1867)
- Fred Barnard's 59 Illustrations for the Household Edition (1875)
- C. S. Reinhart's 52 Illustrations for the American Household Edition (1875)
- Harry Furniss's 29 illustrations for Nicholas Nickleby in the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910)
- Kyd's four Player's Cigarette Cards (1910)
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1839.
_______. Nicolas Nickleby. Illustrated by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne). The Gadshill Edition, ed. Andrew Lang. The Works of Charles Dickens in Thirty-four Volumes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1897. Vols. IV and V.
_______. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., Late Ticknor and Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., 1875 [re-print of 1867 Diamond Edition, Vol. IV].
_______. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1875. I.
_______. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-nine illustrations by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. IV.
__________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. IV.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 2. "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 24-50.
Vann, J. Don. "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, twenty parts in nineteen monthly installments, April 1838-October 1839." New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. 63.
Created 25 April 2002 Last modified 31 July 2021