He flung the dregs of wine at Edwin Drood
Harold Hume Piffard
circa 1900
11.9 cm high by 7.6 cm wide (4 ⅝ by 3 inches)
Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Frontispiece.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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He flung the dregs of wine at Edwin Drood — Harold Hume Piffard's initial lithograph for Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood in the Collins Pocket Edition, referencing page 95. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Altercation between Neville Landless and Edwin Drood
“I said that in the part of the world I come from, you would be called to account for it.”
“Only there?” cries Edwin Drood, with a contemptuous laugh. “A long way off, I believe? Yes; I see! That part of the world is at a safe distance.”
“Say here, then,” rejoins the other, rising in a fury. “Say anywhere! Your vanity is intolerable, your conceit is beyond endurance; you talk as if you were some rare and precious prize, instead of a common boaster. You are a common fellow, and a common boaster.”
“Pooh, pooh,” says Edwin Drood, equally furious, but more collected; “how should you know? You may know a black common fellow, or a black common boaster, when you see him (and no doubt you have a large acquaintance that way); but you are no judge of white men.”
This insulting allusion to his dark skin infuriates Neville to that violent degree, that he flings the dregs of his wine at Edwin Drood, and is in the act of flinging the goblet after it, when his arm is caught in the nick of time by Jasper.
“Ned, my dear fellow!” he cries in a loud voice; “I entreat you, I command you, to be still!” There has been a rush of all the three, and a clattering of glasses and overturning of chairs. “Mr. Neville, for shame! Give this glass to me. Open your hand, sir. I WILL have it!”
But Neville throws him off, and pauses for an instant, in a raging passion, with the goblet yet in his uplifted hand. Then, he dashes it down under the grate, with such force that the broken splinters fly out again in a shower; and he leaves the house. [Chapter VIII, "Daggers Drawn," 95]
Commentary: Abnticipating the Quarrel between Neville and Edwin
Unless the reader had already enjoyed Dickens's last novel, this scene would hve been incomprehensible. It depicts the altercation between two of the story's principals, Neville Landless (left foreground) from Ceylon, and Edwin Drood (seated, hand raised), while the novel's antagonist, John Jasper (rear), looks on. The plate underscores the rivalry between the young men, and constitutes something of a red herring since it implies that Drood's murderer is Neville rather John Jasper (dispassionately observing the quarrel), who is about to play the peace-maker. The scene, as in Dickens's text, is John Jasper's comfortable room in his "bachelor gatehouse" (91), with "the wine and glasses . . . on the table" (91). The look of genuine fear on Edwin's face contrasts with John Jasper's mild surorise; the illustrator leaves the expression on Neville's face up to the reader to determine.
Relevant Illustration of This Scene from the First Edition (originally, May 1870)
Above: Luke Fildes's earlier illustration emphasizes the contrast between the apparent good feeling Edwin Drood and Neville Landless in On Dangerous Ground (May 1870).
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories. Illustrated by Sir Luke Fildes, R. A. London: Chapman and Hall Limited, 193, Piccadilly. 1880.
Dickens, Charles. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories, illustrated by Harold Hume Piffard. LOndon & Glasgow: Collins' Clear-Type Press, circa 1904.
Created 27 JUne 2022