"Ring Also" [Gruffanuff transformed into a door-knocker], eighth illustration by W. M. Thackeray for "The Rose and The Ring" (1855)

Ring Also [Gruffanuff transformed into a door-knocker]

W. M. Thackeray

1855

Wood engraving, probably by William Linton

6.8 cm high by 4.7 cm wide (2 ¼ by 1 ¾ inches), vignetted

Eighth illustration for Thackeray’s The Rose and The Ring, p. 308.

Scanned image and text 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.]

Passage Illustrated: A Fairytale Transformation in the Pantomime

‘You are going to stay at that door all day and all night, and for many a long year,’ the Fairy said, very majestically; and Gruffanuff, coming out of the door, straddling before it with his great calves, burst out laughing, and cried, ‘Ha, ha, ha! this is a good un! Ha — ah — what’s this? Let me down — O — o — H’m!’ and then he was dumb!

For, as the Fairy waved her wand over him, he felt himself rising off the ground, and fluttering up against the door, and then, as if a screw ran into his stomach, he felt a dreadful pain there, and was pinned to the door; and then his arms flew up over his head; and his legs, after writhing about wildly, twisted under his body; and he felt cold, cold, growing over him, as if he was turning into metal; and he said, ‘O — o — H’m!’ and could say no more, because he was dumb.

He was turned into metal! He was, from being brazen, brass! He was neither more nor less than a knocker! And there he was, nailed to the door in the blazing summer day, till he burned almost red-hot; and there he was, nailed to the door all the bitter winter nights, till his brass nose was dropping with icicles. And the postman came and rapped at him, and the vulgarest boy with a letter came and hit him up against the door. And the King and Queen (Princess and Prince they were then) coming home from a walk that evening, the King said, ‘Hullo, my dear! you have had a new knocker put on the door. Why, it’s rather like our porter in the face! What has become of that boozy vagabond?’ ["IV. How Blackstick was Not Asked to the Princess Angelica’s Christening," pp. 306-7]

Commentary: A Swift Fairy Tale Nemesis

Thackeray's transformation of the porter into a door-knocker has a contemporary relevance. What is the point of knocking if one must also ring the very Victorian doorbell? The wired-doorbell was in fact a fairly recent invention. In America, the first Secretary of Washington, D. C.'s Smithsonian Institute, Joseph Henry, had invented the device in 1831. However, it took some time to catch on. Descriptive headlines: "All Ye Footmen Rude and Rough, Warning Take from Gruffanuff!" (308-9).

Bibliography

Furniss, Harry. The Rose and The Ring; or, The History of Prince Giglio and the Prince Bulbo. William Makepeace Thackeray's Christmas Books. With illustrations by the author and Harry Furniss. The Harry Furniss Centenary Edition. London: Macmillan and Co., 1911. Pp. 287-428.

Titmarsh, M. A. [W. M. Thackeray].The Rose and The Ring. London: Smith, Elder, 1855.

Created 17 July 2022