The Military Young Gentlemen and the Chapman & Hall title-page with Dickens's name (or pseudonym "Boz") conspicuously absent. — Phiz's initial illustration for Charles Dickens's Sketches of Young Gentlemen, 1838. Steel engraving for Chapter 4, "The Military Young Gentleman." 10 cm high by 8.7 cm wide (3 ¾ by 3 ½ inches), vignetted. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Passage Illustrated: Lounging in the London Streets near a Pastry-cook's
But the really military young gentleman is waiting all this time, and at the very moment that an apology rises to our lips, he emerges from the barrack gate (he is quartered in a garrison town), and takes the way towards the high street. He wears his undress uniform, which somewhat mars the glory of his outward man; but still how great, how grand, he is! What a happy mixture of ease and ferocity in his gait and carriage, and how lightly he carries that dreadful sword under his arm, making no more ado about it than if it were a silk umbrella! The lion is sleeping: only think if an enemy were in sight, how soon he’d whip it out of the scabbard, and what a terrible fellow he would be!
But he walks on, thinking of nothing less than blood and slaughter; and now he comes in sight of three other military young gentlemen, arm-in-arm, who are bearing down towards him, clanking their iron heels on the pavement, and clashing their swords with a noise, which should cause all peaceful men to quail at heart. They stop to talk. See how the flaxen-haired young gentleman with the weak legs — he who has his pocket-handkerchief thrust into the breast of his coat-glares upon the fainthearted civilians who linger to look upon his glory; how the next young gentleman elevates his head in the air, and majestically places his arms a-kimbo, while the third stands with his legs very wide apart, and clasps his hands behind him. Well may we inquire — not in familiar jest, but in respectful earnest — if you call that nothing. Oh! if some encroaching foreign power — the Emperor of Russia, for instance, or any of those deep fellows, could only see those military young gentlemen as they move on together towards the billiard-room over the way, wouldn’t he tremble a little! [Chapter IV, "The Military Young Gentleman," pp. 25-26]
Commentar: An Unsavoury Neighbourhood
The background details that Phiz has supplied give much-needed context to the street scene: The White Hart Inn and Billard Room in the background, and the delivery girl for a pastry-cook in the foreground establish a convivial atmosphere of fast food, pub food and drink, and days idled away over the billiard table. Given so indolent and caloric lifestyle, we are surprised by the slenderness of the four youths, two of whom carry over-sized swords in scabbards.
The inn is a definite clue as to the physical setting: until 1895, this cobblestone thoroughfare was known as "Hart Street," in fact the eastern part of James Street from early seventeenth century. By 1690 no fewer than nine licensed victuallers were doing business in Hart Street.
A disorderly house at No. 49 attracted the attention of the parish vestry in 1787, . . . and by the early nineteenth century parish records contain a number of references to nuisances in the street. Disorderly houses were complained of again in 1819. In 1829 the Committee of Management set up a sub-committee to consider complaints of the presence of four 'Dung Pits'. On investigation, two were judged to be 'offensive', as the neighbours threw filth and dead animals into them. Only one was recommended for removal, as the footway on the south side of the street in their locality was not made use of, and the abolition of all the pits would have been an inconvenience to stable-keepers. (fn. 28) In the early 1840's brothels, particularly near Bow Street, were again attracting parochial attention: (fn. 29) one good man living on the corner with that street suggested in 1844 that the name of Bow Street should, by reason of its ill fame, be changed, and likewise that of Hart Street, 'which is as notorious as any Street in London — Any name would be better than the old one'. [British History Online, "King Street and Floral Street Area: Floral Street."]
In his authoritative biography, Peter Ackroyd notes that Dickens's task, modelled on the original volume of character sketches by "Quiz" (the nom-de-plume of the Rev. Edward Caswall, writing anonymously for Chapman and Hall), was to render callow, young "gentlemen," or, at least, middle-class youth on the town, as types. And, indeed, Phiz renders these young military officers as nattily dressed, svelte "types" who are all meticulous in appearance, but whose physiognomies convey nothing of substance about either their characters or intellects. Phiz has individualised their faces without distinguishing their uniforms or physiques, and has given them impossibly slender waists — and impressive swords, of course.
As Steig notes, it was in these illustrations that Phiz began to use the roulette to create backgrounds: "The first use of the roulette by Browne . . . is in Dickens' Sketches of Young Gentlemen, published in February 1838. Although it is primarily a time-saver and Browne often uses it mechanically, this technique introduces a new smoothness of tone into his shading and is often employed in careful combination with other, less mechanical techniques" (43). It is evident here in the shop front to the right, and especially in the parlour walls of The Domestic Young Gentleman.
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.]
Related Material
Bibliography
Ackroyd, Peter. Dickens: A Biography. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1990.
BHO: British History Online. "King Street and Floral Street Area: Floral Street." Survey of London: Volume 36, Covent Garden. Originally published by London County Council, London, 1970. Web. 22 April 2023.
Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.
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. 237.
Steig, Michael. Chapter Two: "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. 24-85.
Created 22 April 2023