The Middle-Aged Lady in the Double-Bedded Room — nineteenth steel engraving for Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club; two versions by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne) for the November 1836 (eighth monthly) number and the 1838 bound volume; Chapter XXII, “Mr. Pickwick journeys to Ipswich, and meets with a romantic Adventure with a middle-aged Lady in Yellow Curl Papers,” facing page 233. Original illustration is 13.3 cm high by 10.5 cm wide (5 ⅛ by 4 inches), partly framed. The initial or A engraving of Plate 19, as Johannsen (1956) notes, has the lady in a much darker skirt; "Phiz, del is very faintly engraved near the lower center, and page 233 somewhat to the right of it" (36). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Passage Illustrated: Another Highly Embarrassing Moment for the Protagonist
The only way in which Mr. Pickwick could catch a glimpse of his mysterious visitor with the least danger of being seen himself, was by creeping on to the bed, and peeping out from between the curtains on the opposite side. To this manoeuvre he accordingly resorted. Keeping the curtains carefully closed with his hand, so that nothing more of him could be seen than his face and night-cap, and putting on his spectacles, he mustered up courage and looked out.
Mr. Pickwick almost fainted with horror and dismay. Standing before the dressing–glass was a middle-aged lady, in yellow curl-papers, busily engaged in brushing what ladies call their "back hair." However the unconscious middle-aged lady came into that room, it was quite clear that she contemplated remaining there for the night; for she had brought a rushlight and shade with her, which, with praiseworthy precaution against fire, she had stationed in a basin on the floor, where it was glimmering away, like a gigantic lighthouse in a particularly small piece of water.
"Bless my soul!" thought Mr. Pickwick, "what a dreadful thing!"
"Hem! said the lady; and in went Mr. Pickwick’s head with automaton-like rapidity.
"I never met with anything so awful as this," thought poor Mr. Pickwick, the cold perspiration starting in drops upon his nightcap. "Never. This is fearful.
It was quite impossible to resist the urgent desire to see what was going forward. So out went Mr. Pickwick's head again. The prospect was worse than before. The middle-aged lady had finished arranging her hair; had carefully enveloped it in a muslin nightcap with a small plaited border; and was gazing pensively on the fire. [Chapter XXII, “Mr. Pickwick journeys to Ipswich, and meets with a romantic Adventure with a middle-aged Lady in Yellow Curl Papers,” pp. 314-315]
Commentary: A Favourite of Dickens's Illustrators
As it seems to be a scene drawn straight of a French farce and places the novel's protagonist in a compromising situation, the many illustrators of the novel have found it appealing, although the Grangerising artist Thomas Onwhyn, perhaps feeling that he could not compete with Phiz's original, elected to show the consequence of the error: the lady erroneously concludes that her mail-order fiancé Peter Magnus and the embarrassed Pickwick are about to fight a duel over her, and informs of the local magistrate, Mr. Nupkins, of their supposed intentions.
Phiz seems to have re-thought the composition, as in the second version (which he etched for the 1838 bound volume) he deliberately obscured the lock in the background, as if to subtly suggest that Pickwick feels entrapped; "The lady's back hair is being held out horizontally. She is younger and better looking than in plate A' (Johannsen 36). The artist has lightened the room, as if to relieve some of the tension and decrease Pickwick's inner dread. The picture creates its comic effect by contrasting Pickwick's terror with the oblivious expression of the middle-aged lady, Miss Witherfield.
Scenes from Mr. Pickwick's encounter with Miss Witherfield (1837-74)
Left: Harry Furniss's lithograph for this chapter, Mr. Pickwick in the Wrong Room (1910), depicts only the shocked bachelor's face and Miss Witherfield's Medusa-like shadow. Right: Phiz's composite woodblock engraving for this same incident, "Standing before the dressing-glass was a middle-aged lady in yellow curl-papers, busily engaged in brushing what ladies call their 'back hair'" (1874), focuses on Pickwick, but shows Miss Witherfield before her mirror. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Left: Thomas Nast's American Household Edition's engraving for this chapter, "Wretch," said the lady (1873). Right: Thomas Onwhyn's "extra" illustration investigating the upshot of Miss Witherfield's accusing her fiané, Peter Magnus, and Pickwick as preparing for a duel, in Magistrate Nupkins' parlour: “What prevents me,” said Mr. Nupkins, with magisterial dignity, as Job was brought in, — “what prevents me from detaining these men as rogues and impostors? It is a foolish mercy. What prevents me?’” “‘Pride, old fellow, pride,” replied Jingle, quite at his ease. “Wouldn’t do — no go — caught a captain, eh? — ha! ha! very good — husband for daughter — biter bit — make it public — not for worlds — look stupid — very!’” Page 276 (31 July 1837). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910
- Robert Seymour (1836)
- R. W. Buss's Monthly Plates (June 1836)
- Thomas Onwhyn's "Extra" Illustrations (1837)
- Felix Octavius Carr Darley (1861)
- Sol Eytinge, Jr. (1867)
- Thomas Nast (1873)
- Hablot Knight Browne (1874)
- Clayton J. Clarke (1910)
- Harry Furniss (1910)
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the images, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).
_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 16 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 4.
_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 6.
_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.
Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture-Book. London: Educational Book Co., 1910.
Johnannsen, Albert. "The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club." Phiz Illustrations from the Novels of Charles Dickens. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1956. Pp. 1-74.
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.
Created 3 November 2019
Last modified 12 March 2024