Passage Illustrated: A Horde of Vigorous Offspring

The friend turns pale when this order is given, and paler still when it is followed up by a great pattering on the staircase, (not unlike the sound of rain upon a skylight,) a violent bursting open of the dining-room door, and the tumultuous appearance of six small children, closely succeeded by a strong nursery-maid with a twin in each arm. As the whole eight are screaming, shouting, or kicking — some influenced by a ravenous appetite, some by a horror of the stranger, and some by a conflict of the two feelings — a pretty long space elapses before all their heads can be ranged round the table and anything like order restored; in bringing about which happy state of things both the nurse and footman are severely scratched. At length Mrs. Whiffler is heard to say, ‘Mr. Saunders, shall I give you some pudding?’ A breathless silence ensues, and sixteen small eyes are fixed upon the guest in expectation of his reply. A wild shout of joy proclaims that he has said ‘No, thank you.’ Spoons are waved in the air, legs appear above the table-cloth in uncontrollable ecstasy, and eighty short fingers dabble in damson syrup. [Chapter V, "The Couple who dote upon their Children," pp. 45-46]

Commentary

Phiz has realised both the figures of "six or eight at least" (41) in the opening paragraph's description of the number of children by simultaneously depicting the static, beautifully dressed and tranquilly posed six "model" children in the large, ornately-framed oil painting above the table in the chaotic dining-room, and the total of eight (including infant triplets, apparently) in the room. But readers have every right to wonder how the couple can "dote" on such an obstreperous and rampaging group, and to be mystified about the identity of sour-faced older man in the centre of the composition. Reading further into the sketch, we discover that the older man is a visitor, and that the children have just been summoned from the nursery for his inspection. However, Phiz has intensified the oppression exercised by the Whiffler menagerie by rendering the twins as triplets. The family grouping in the background, with the tranquil children arranged in order from oldest (left) to youngest (right) contrasts sharply the unrestrained exuberance of the five hellions in the foreground.

Bibliography

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 of Young Couples. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman and Hall, 1840.

Dickens, Charles. 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.

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Created 23 April 2023

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