Passage Illustrated: Making Himself Appealing to the Feminine Gender

As such of the fat people who did not happen to fall asleep after dinner entered upon a most vigorous game at ball, we slipped away alone into a thicker part of the wood, hoping to fall in with Mr. Balim, the greater part of the young people having dropped off in twos and threes and the young ladies’ young gentleman among them. Nor were we disappointed, for we had not walked far, when, peeping through the trees, we discovered him before us, and truly it was a pleasant thing to contemplate his greatness.

The young ladies’ young gentleman was seated upon the ground, at the feet of a few young ladies who were reclining on a bank; he was so profusely decked with scarfs, ribands, flowers, and other pretty spoils, that he looked like a lamb — or perhaps a calf would be a better simile — adorned for the sacrifice. One young lady supported a parasol over his interesting head, another held his hat, and a third his neck-cloth, which in romantic fashion he had thrown off; the young gentleman himself, with his hand upon his breast, and his face moulded into an expression of the most honeyed sweetness, was warbling forth some choice specimens of vocal music in praise of female loveliness, in a style so exquisitely perfect, that we burst into an involuntary shout of laughter, and made a hasty retreat. [Chapter XII, "The Young Ladies’ Young Gentleman," 73]

Commentary

Dickens presents "The Young Ladies’ Young Gentleman" as a type rather than an individual, but eventually does identify him as "Mr. Balim" (with a pun on the biblical prophet "Balaam"). Now coming into his own as short-story writer rather than the mere compiler of character sketches, Dickens is highly specific about the locales of Epping Forest, Chigwell, and Woburn Place, Russell Square. Again, the picture at the head of the sketch sets up an anticipatory mindset in the readers as they must speculate for eight pages as to the explanation for Mr. Balim's extraordinary posture and pose, declaiming under a parasol in a leafy bower. He seems to have attached himself to no one young lady, but is disposed to chat about such feminine interests as millinery and dresses with an expert's knowledge with every young lady whom he encounters. Thus, all the young ladies pronounce him as duck, a dear, a love, and an angel. But Dickens leaves us hanging, and never completes the story by having Balim marry. But the biblical name fits our final view of "The Young Ladies’ Young Gentleman," who has certainly made an ass of himself.

However, in the "Conclusion" Dickens as an essayist offers pointed "advice" for all his young lady readers:

As there are some good points about many of them, which still are not sufficiently numerous to render any one among them eligible, as a whole, our respectful advice to the young ladies is, to seek for a young gentleman who unites in himself the best qualities of all, and the worst weaknesses of none, and to lead him forthwith to the hymeneal altar, whether he will or no. And to the young lady who secures him, we beg to tender one short fragment of matrimonial advice, selected from many sound passages of a similar tendency, to be found in a letter written by Dean Swift to a young lady on her marriage. [75]

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.

---

Victorian
Web

Illustra-
tion

Phiz

Sketches of
Young Gentlemen

Next

Created 12 May 2023