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Mr. Squeers and Mrs. Sliderskew Unconscious of Visitors
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
September 1839
Steel-engraving
11.8 cm by 10.6 cm, vignetted
Illustration for Dickens's Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Chapter LVI, facing page 484 of volume 2 in the Gadshill Edition (1897).
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
As they stole farther and farther in by slight and scarcely perceptible degrees, and with such caution that they scarcely seemed to breathe, the old hag and Squeers little dreaming of any such invasion, and utterly unconscious of there being any soul near but themselves, were busily occupied with their tasks. The old woman, with her wrinkled face close to the bars of the stove, puffing at the dull embers which had not yet caught the wood; Squeers stooping down to the candle, which brought out the full ugliness of his face, as the light of the fire did that of his companion; both intently engaged, and wearing faces of exultation which contrasted strongly with the anxious looks of those behind, who took advantage of the slightest sound to cover their advance, and, almost before they had moved an inch, and all was silent, stopped again. This, with the large bare room, damp walls, and flickering doubtful light, combined to form a scene which the most careless and indifferent spectator (could any have been present) could scarcely have failed to derive some interest from, and would not readily have forgotten.
Of the stealthy comers, Frank Cheeryble was one, and Newman Noggs the other. Newman had caught up, by the rusty nozzle, an old pair of bellows, which were just undergoing a flourish in the air preparatory to a descent upon the head of Mr. Squeers, when Frank, with an earnest gesture, stayed his arm, and, taking another step in advance, came so close behind the schoolmaster that, by leaning slightly forward, he could plainly distinguish the writing which he held up to his eye.
Mr. Squeers, not being remarkably erudite, appeared to be considerably puzzled by this first prize, which was in an engrossing hand, and not very legible except to a practised eye. Having tried it by reading from left to right, and from right to left, and finding it equally clear both ways, he turned it upside down with no better success.
"Ha, ha, ha!" chuckled Peg, who, on her knees before the fire, was feeding it with fragments of the box, and grinning in most devilish exultation. "What's that writing about, eh?"
"Nothing particular," replied Squeers, tossing it towards her. "It's only an old lease, as well as I can make out. Throw it in the fire."
Mrs. Sliderskew complied, and inquired what the next one was. [Chapter LVII, "Ralph Nickleby, Baffled by his Nephew in his late Design, Hatches a Scheme of Retaliation which Accident Suggests to Him, and Takes into his Counsels a Tried Auxiliary"]
Even as Wackford Squeers and Arthur Gride's repulsive housekeeper, Peg Sliderskew, gloat over the legal documents that she has stolen from her employer, including one relating to Madeline Bray's inheritance, Frank Cheeryble and Newman Noggs advance upon the schemers "with noiseless footsteps" in Chapter 57, "Ralph Nickleby, Baffled by his Nephew in his late Design, Hatches a Scheme of Retaliation which Accident Suggests to Him, and Takes into his Counsels a Tried Auxiliary" (Part 18). Anything that cannot be readily converted to cash, such as promissory notes from profligate Members of Parliament (who, while sitting members, could not be sued), Squeers instructs Peg to burn. Among the last of Gride's cache of financial papers Squeers finds one reading, "Madeline Bray — come of age or marry — the said Madeline. . . ."
The scene occurs an upstairs garret in a ramshackle house located in an obscure court in Lambeth, on the south side of the Thames. As in the accompanying text, in the illustration, the "stealthy comers" have stolen by degrees to a position immediately behind Squeers (acting once again as Ralph Nickleby's agent) so that Frank can read by the light of the single candle (centre) whatever deeds Squeers picks up to inspect. Noggs has snatched up a pair of bellows with which to knock Squeers unconscious at an opportune moment. The smoke from the stove drifts left while the shadow cast by Noggs's hat points right, balancing the forces that intend to rescue the document against those that intend to destroy it and thereby deprive Madeline Bray of her inheritance. Documents intended for disposal lie strewn across the floor in the foreground as in the text, although the dingy ceiling does not contain "fantastic figures traced upon it by the wet and damp"; nevertheless, Phiz effectively communicates the gloomy, chaotic cell and the unfolding drama that will culminate with Newman Noggs's brining down the bellows upon Squeers's head, at the centre of the comic comeuppance. The illustration on the facing page therefore suitably underscores Dickens's assessment of the serio-comic situation:
This, with the large bare room, damp walls, and flickering doubtful light, combined to form a scene which the most careless and indifferent spectator (could any such have been present) could scarcely have failed to derive some interest from, and would not readily have forgotten. [pp. 405-406]
Phiz adds to the excitement of the moment by showing Noggs poised to strike, and Frank cautioning him to wait, as the eye moves from the left-hand register, with Noggs's hat and its shadow as the apex of a triangle, to the right, the stove only partially sketched in, wherein Peg is burning documents and the small deal box she discovered them in.
Left: Sol Eytinge, Junior, in the Diamond Edition focuses on Squeers's slatternly, repulsive companion in crime: Peg Sliderskew (1867). Centre: Harry Furniss's Charles Dickens Library Edition study of Peg and Squeers going through the papers as Frank Cheeryble and Newman Noggs creep up upon them: Squeers and Peg play havoc with Gride's Papers (1910). Right: C. S. Reinhart's 1875 woodblock engraving of the same scene: "Fill it again, and hand it over to you." in the American Household Edition.
Above: Fred Barnard brings Squeers and Sliderskew over a bottle rather than the papers in the same scene: "Do you see this? This is a bottle." (1875).
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1839.
_____. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Ed. Andrew Lang. Illustrated by 'Phiz' (Hablot Knight Browne). The Gadshill Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1897. 2 vols.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 2, "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 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. Page 63.
Created 11 May 2009 Last modified 15 September 2021