"Mr. Stiggins . . . proceeded to deliver an edifying discourse for the benefit of the company" — illustration by Phiz for Dickens's "Pickwick Papers" (1874)

Mr. Stiggins, getting on his legs as well as he could, proceeded to deliver an edifying discourse for the benefit of the company (See page 317.) by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne) on page 329 in the Household Edition (1874) of Dickens's Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Chapter XLV, “Descriptive of an affecting Interview between Mr. Samuel Weller and a Family Party. Mr. Pickwick makes a Tour of the diminutive World he inhabits, and resolves to mix with it in future as little as possible.” Wood-engraving, 4 ¼ inches high by 5 ½ inches wide (11 cm high by 14.1 cm wide), framed, half-page; descriptive headline: "Grace and Gracelessness" (p. 317). [Click on the illustration to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Tony Pronounces on the Reverend Stiggins

‘I mean this here, Sammy,’ replied the old gentleman, ‘that wot they drink, don’t seem no nourishment to ‘em; it all turns to warm water, and comes a-pourin’ out o’ their eyes. ‘Pend upon it, Sammy, it’s a constitootional infirmity.’

Mr. Weller delivered this scientific opinion with many confirmatory frowns and nods; which, Mrs. Weller remarking, and concluding that they bore some disparaging reference either to herself or to Mr. Stiggins, or to both, was on the point of becoming infinitely worse, when Mr. Stiggins, getting on his legs as well as he could, proceeded to deliver an edifying discourse for the benefit of the company, but more especially of Mr. Samuel, whom he adjured in moving terms to be upon his guard in that sink of iniquity into which he was cast; to abstain from all hypocrisy and pride of heart; and to take in all things exact pattern and copy by him (Stiggins), in which case he might calculate on arriving, sooner or later at the comfortable conclusion, that, like him, he was a most estimable and blameless character, and that all his acquaintances and friends were hopelessly abandoned and profligate wretches. Which consideration, he said, could not but afford him the liveliest satisfaction. Chapter XLV, “Descriptive of an affecting Interview between Mr. Samuel Weller and a Family Party. Mr. Pickwick makes a Tour of the diminutive World he inhabits, and resolves to mix with it in future as little as possible,” 317]

Commentary: "The Red-Faced Man Discourseth" Revisited

Having satirized education in the plot gambit involving the seminary for young ladies and the law in An admonitory gesture from Perker restrained him in the trial scene of Chapter XXXIV, Phiz, taking his cue from the text, now pillories the non-established, dissenting, or "Non-conformist" church epitomized by the ultra-Protestant preacher, Stiggins. Tony Weller has derisively denominated the boozer as "the red-nosed man" — an obvious reference to the outward and visible sign of his bibulous hypocrisy. Stiggins as the chief of the Dorking branch of the Brick Lane Branch of the United Grand Junction Ebenezer Temperance Association is publican Mrs. Weller's spiritual counsellor. Sam and Tony are both indignant that he sponges off her at her Marquis of Granby public house. This much, of course, the chief illustrator had established as far back as the sixteenth serial number of 1836-37.

What separates the 1874 composite woodblock engraving from the original, somewhat cartoonish original is realism, including Phiz's modelling of the figures and handling of the stage set. Stiggins is strident and hyperbolic, but no longer grotesque. And Mrs. Weller with her forlorn look as she glances across the table at her complacent husband has become the only sympathetic figure in the composition. Phiz has failed to render the principal character, Sam Weller, either as curious or as critical as he appears to the right in the August 1837 steel-engraving; here he merely smiles vacantly. This later treatment seems to represent a closeup as the gasolier in the ceiling has disappeared, the area in the foreground shortened in order to give additional prominence to the four, highly individualised characters. Tony is no longer asleep, but is certainly nodding off, as if to communicate wordlessly his opinion of Stiggins's sermonical rant.

Relevant Serial and Charles Dickens Library Edition (1837 & 1910) Illustrations

Left: The same scene in the original 1836-37 serial: The Red-Nosed Man Discourseth (August 1837). Right: Harry Furniss seems to have based his lithograph on the more exuberant style of the 1837 original in Mr. Stiggins on his Legs (1910).

Related Material

Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910

Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. Formatting by George P. Landow. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.

Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File and Checkmark Books, 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. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 22 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 2.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 5.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. 1.

_______. 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.

Guiliano, Edward, and Philip Collins, eds. The Annotated Dickens. 2 vols. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1986. Vol. I.

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 11 March 2012

Last modified 26 April 2024