Sketches of Young Gentleman with Illustrations by Phiz and the Chapman & Hall advertiser for Quiz's (pseudonym of the Rev. Edward Caswall) Sketches of Young Ladies: In Which These Interesting Members of the Animal Kingdom Are Classified, According to Their Several Instincts, 31 December 1836. [It has already gone through its sixth edition.] Wood engraving for Chapter 9, "The Theatrical Young Gentleman." 15.3 cm high by 10.1 cm wide (6 by 4 inches), framed. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Passage Illustrated: Two Types of Theatrical Gentleman: The Civilian and the Soldier
There are innumerable disquisitions of this nature, in which the theatrical young gentleman is very profound, especially to ladies whom he is most in the habit of entertaining with them; but as we have no space to recapitulate them at greater length, we must rest content with calling the attention of the young ladies in general to the theatrical young gentlemen of their own acquaintance. [Chapter IX, "The Theatrical Young Gentleman," 55]
Commentary: "To the Young Ladies of the United Kingdom. . . ."
Phiz extends the text by depicting a civilian and a military youth caught up in middle-class, parlour theatricals with young, fashionably dressed women. The figure to the left distraught, as if he cannot manage the dialogue that the prompter (left) is trying to get him to deliver. In the upper register, two fashionably dressed young men of the late Regency (or early Victorian era) wearing slippers are smoking as they recline against gigantic canes with tassles attached.
Phiz's arch commentary that precedes the initial offering, "The Bashful Young Gentleman," takes issue with Quiz's Sketches of Young Ladies in his "Humble Dedication" to the Young Ladies who were the subject of Chapman and Hall's recent "work purporting to be 'Sketches of Young Ladies;' written by Quiz, illustrated by Phiz, and published in one volume, square twelvemo" (v). Indeed, he accuses his predecessor, Quiz, of libelling young ladies, first by classifying them as animals, and then labelling them "Troglodites" or cave-dwellers. He continues this facetious and playful tone throughout the slender book. To underscore the disposable but salutary nature of 76-page volume measuring 15.2 cm by 10.2 cm the "Dedicator" (i. e., Dickens, although never so named anywhere in the volume) draws a parallel between this slight work and "the printed directions issued with Doctor Morison's pills" (viii). Of the ten figures on Phiz's cover, the bespectacled sketch-artist underneath the heading "Sketches" may be taken as representing the anti-Quiz editor "Dedicator."
Scanned images and texts by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Ackroyd, Peter. Dickens: A Biography. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1990.
Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.
Caswell, Edward. Sketches of Young Ladies: In Which These Interesting Members of the Animal Kingdom Are Classified, According to Their Several Instincts. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman and Hall, 31 December 1836.
Dickens, Charles. Sketches by Boz Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People. With 56 illustrations by George Cruikshank and Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. The Universal Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens in 22 volumes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1913.
_______. Sketches of Young Couples. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman and Hall, 1840.
_______. Sketches of Young Gentlemen. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman and Hall, 1838.
Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Slater, Michael. Charles Dickens. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009.
Bentley, Nicholas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. "Sketches of Young Couples." The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. P. 237.
Steig, Michael. Chapter Two: "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 24-85.
Created 8 May 2023