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Nicholas Makes His First Visit to Mr. Bray
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
June 1839
Steel-engraving
5 by 4 ⅛ inches (12.7 cm high x 10.6 cm wide), vignetted
Twenty-ninth plate for Dickens's Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Chapter XLVI.
Source: J. A. Hammerton, The Dickens Picture-Book, p. 166.
And yet Nicholas was in the Rules of the King’s Bench Prison! If he had been in Italy indeed, and the time had been sunset, and the scene a stately terrace! But, there is one broad sky over all the world, and whether it be blue or cloudy, the same heaven beyond it; so, perhaps, he had no need of compunction for thinking as he did.
It is not to be supposed that he took in everything at one glance, for he had as yet been unconscious of the presence of a sick man propped up with pillows in an easy-chair, who, moving restlessly and impatiently in his seat, attracted his attention.
He was scarce fifty, perhaps, but so emaciated as to appear much older. His features presented the remains of a handsome countenance, but one in which the embers of strong and impetuous passions were easier to be traced than any expression which would have rendered a far plainer face much more prepossessing. His looks were very haggard, and his limbs and body literally worn to the bone, but there was something of the old fire in the large sunken eye notwithstanding, and it seemed to kindle afresh as he struck a thick stick, with which he seemed to have supported himself in his seat, impatiently on the floor twice or thrice, and called his daughter by her name.
"Madeline, who is this? What does anybody want here? Who told a stranger we could be seen? What is it?"
"I believe —" the young lady began, as she inclined her head with an air of some confusion, in reply to the salutation of Nicholas.
"You always believe," returned her father, petulantly. "What is it?"
By this time Nicholas had recovered sufficient presence of mind to speak for himself, so he said (as it had been agreed he should say) that he had called about a pair of hand-screens, and some painted velvet for an ottoman, both of which were required to be of the most elegant design possible, neither time nor expense being of the smallest consideration. He had also to pay for the two drawings, with many thanks, and, advancing to the little table, he laid upon it a bank note, folded in an envelope and sealed.
"See that the money is right, Madeline," said the father. "Open the paper, my dear." [Chapter XLVI, "Throws some Light upon Nicholas's Love; but whether for Good or Evil the Reader must determine" (Part 15, June 1839)]
After the two large-group scenes for May, Phiz elects to produce compositions that focus on the relationships between three characters in each of the June (Part 15) etchings. Here, Nicholas, acting as the agent for the Cheerybles (who have bought drawings from her in order to support her), visits Madeline Bray and her invalid father, who must live within the "Rules" of the King's Bench Prison, St. George's Fields, for a debt incurred to the usorious Ralph Nickleby.
As he enters the debtor's sitting-room, Nicholas is surprised to see that the object of his employers' financial assistance is none other than the beautiful young lady who attracted his attention earlier at the registry office and in Charles Cheeryble's private office in Chapter 40. Her artistic creations have funded Bray's renting of the apartment and the purchase of such elegant furnishings as the harp (shown right) and a piano (presumably too large an object to be worked conveniently into the picture). Phiz has used cross-hatching to suggest the dimness of the interior, but has otherwise not suggested the dilapidated nature of Bray's residence. As in the letterpress, as Nicholas enters the upstairs front room, Madeline is seated at a table by the window (not shown, but a source of light, left) drawing, while her father, scarcely fifty yet emaciated, sits propped up by pillows in an easy chair. The scene realized, therefore encompasses almost a whole page in this forty-sixth chapter.
Left: C. S. Reinhart's American Household Edition interpretation of the third meeting of Nicholas and the young lady: "I must speak to her — I will! I will not leave this house without." Right: Harry Furniss's interpretation of Nicholas's later rescue of Madeline: Nicholas rescues Madeline (1910).
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Left: Fred Barnard finally brings Nicholas and Madeline face to face in "No matter! Do you think you bring your paltry money here s a favour or gift; or as a matter of business, and in return for value received?" (1875). Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond Edition study of the novel's belatedly introduced secondary heroine: Walter Bray and Madeline (1867).
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 14 May 2009 Last modified 7 September 2021