"Mr. Bob Sawyer was seated: not in the dickey, but on the roof of the chaise" — fiftieth illustration by Phiz for Dickens's "Pickwick Papers" (1874)

Mr. Bob Sawyer was seated: not in the dickey, but on the roof of the chaise (See page 350.) by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne) on page 361, for Chapter L, “How Mr. Pickwick sped upon his Mission, and how he was reinforced in the outset by a most unexpected Auxiliary.” Wood-engraving, 4 ⅛ inches high by 5 ⅜ inches wide (10.5 cm high by 13.7 cm wide), framed, half-page; descriptive headline: "Refreshments by the Way" (p. 351). [Click on the illustration to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: The Bibulous Medical Student Takes a Ride

Here a prolonged imitation of a key–bugle broke upon the ear, succeeded by cheers and screams, all of which evidently proceeded from the throat and lungs of the quietest creature breathing, or in plainer designation, of Mr. Bob Sawyer himself.

Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Ben Allen looked expressively at each other, and the former gentleman taking off his hat, and leaning out of the coach window until nearly the whole of his waistcoat was outside it, was at length enabled to catch a glimpse of his facetious friend.

Mr. Bob Sawyer was seated, not in the dickey, but on the roof of the chaise, with his legs as far asunder as they would conveniently go, wearing Mr. Samuel Weller's hat on one side of his head, and bearing, in one hand, a most enormous sandwich, while, in the other, he supported a goodly-sized case-bottle, to both of which he applied himself with intense relish, varying the monotony of the occupation by an occasional howl, or the interchange of some lively badinage with any passing stranger. The crimson flag was carefully tied in an erect position to the rail of the dickey; and Mr. Samuel Weller, decorated with Bob Sawyer's hat, was seated in the centre thereof, discussing a twin sandwich, with an animated countenance, the expression of which betokened his entire and perfect approval of the whole arrangement.

This was enough to irritate a gentleman with Mr. Pickwick's sense of propriety, but it was not the whole extent of the aggravation, for a stage–coach full, inside and out, was meeting them at the moment, and the astonishment of the passengers was very palpably evinced. The congratulations of an Irish family, too, who were keeping up with the chaise, and begging all the time, were of rather a boisterous description, especially those of its male head, who appeared to consider the display as part and parcel of some political or other procession of triumph. [Chapter L, “How Mr. Pickwick sped upon his Mission, and how he was reinforced in the outset by a most unexpected Auxiliary,” 350]

Commentary: The Lord of Misrule atop the Chaise Reprised

Having finally gone bankrupt in his apothecary business in Bristol — no surprise, given his heavy drinking in Chapter XXXV — Bob Sawyer now decides to accompany Mr. Pickwick and Ben Allen on their mission to Birmingham to bring Winkle's father onside about his son's marriage to Ben's sister, Arabella. As in the text, Bob makes merry with bread and a bottle as a curious Pickwick regards him. The "moment" realised is, in fact, an extensive passage describing the riotous conduct of the jovial former medical student and Bristol chemist riding on the top of the chaise or two-person carriage.

Although Phiz has used his October 1837 steel-engraving as a starting point, he has adapted his rather cartoonish materials and Baroque design to the new Realism of the Sixties. For example, although the fifty-nine-year-old veteran illustrator has distributed the Irish beggars, the passing coach, and the postillion exactly as in the original, the dust of the road is not nearly so much an obscuring element, and he has inserted a mile-stone in the lower left. More significantly, this 1874 Pickwick does not look nearly as judgmental and censorious as his 1837 counterpart, and Phiz has enlarged the figures of the ragged adults and hyperactive children in the foreground, and rendered them realistically rather than as grotesques. The whole scene seems rather sedate and far less charged than the caricatural original: for instance, whereas in the October 1837 plate the coachman whip curls in a loop (upper left), as if suggesting an action-packed moment, Phiz has curtailed that vignette by eliminating the loop in the whip.

Scenes with The Trio on the Road to Birmingham in Other Editions (1837-1910)

Left: Thomas Onwhyn's "extra" illustration complements Phiz's original engraving for the penultimate instalment of the serial novel, Mr. Bob Sawyer whose wit had lain dormant for some minutes, placed his hands upon his knees and made a face after the portraits of the late Mr. Grimaldi as clown. (November 15, 1837). Centre: Mr. Bob Sawyer's Mode of Travelling (October 1837). Right: Harry Furniss's humorous revision of an original Phiz illustration of the bibulous physician, Bob Sawyer elevated (1910). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

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 image 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.

Levy, H. M. Jr., and Ruff, William. "The Interpolated Tales in Pickwick Papers, A Further Note." Dickens Studies 3, 2 (October 1967), pp. 122-125.

Patten, Robert L. "The Interpolated Tales in Pickwick Papers." Dickens Studies 1, 2 (May 1965), pp. 86-89.

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.

Thomas, Deborah A. Dickens and The Short Story. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.

Created 11 March 2012

Last modified 28 April 2024