Gruffahuff walking in the palace garden by W. M. Thackeray, 1855. Wood-engraving, probably by William Linton. 7.7 cm high by 8.9 cm wide (3 by 3 ⅜ inches), vignetted, from The Rose and The Ring, p. 311. Descriptive headlines: "How the Princess, as She Played, Met a Little Beggar Maid" (310-11). [Click on image to enlarge it. Mouse over links.]
Passage Illustrated: Reverting to the Dame Part, Gruffahuff the Governess
‘But you are a darling little angel all the same,’ says the governess.
‘Yes; I know I am,’ said Angelical ‘Dirty little girl, don’t you think I am very pretty?’ Indeed, she had on the finest of little dresses and hats; and, as her hair was carefully curled, she really looked very well.
‘Oh, pooty, pooty!’ says the little girl, capering about, laughing, and dancing, and munching her bun; and as she ate it she began to sing, ‘Oh, what fun to have a plum bun! how I wis it never was done!’ At which, and her funny accent, Angelica, Giglio, and the King and Queen began to laugh very merrily.
‘I can dance as well as sing,’ says the little girl. ‘I can dance, and I can sing, and I can do all sorts of ting.’ ["V. How Princess Angelica Took a Little Maid," 311]
Commentary
Thackeray now jumps ahead half-a-dozen years in Chapter Five. The events surrounding the christening of Princess Angelica in Chapter Four are now well behind us. Her parents, then a prince and princess, are now King and Queen, residing in the palace. Angelica has acquired a governess, the somewhat masculine-looking Mrs. Gruffahuff, with whom she is walking in the palace gardens. When they encounter a hungry peasant girl of about Angelica's own age, the Princess learns about hunger, and offers the starving child her bun: "‘Hungry! what is that?" asked Princess Angelica, and gave the child the bun." Angelica then asks her parents if she may engage the peasant girl as her maid.
Although Michael Angelo Titmarsh (Thackeray) includes the reactions of the King and Queen im his account of this meeting, he includes neither of them in his illustration. Rather, his focus is Mrs. Gruffahuff, holding a diminutive parasol, and the contrasting children. Angelica wears a sunhat and the clothing of a wealthy nineteenth-century child, whereas the peasant child, Betsinda, has a profusion of dark hair, no hat, and clothing in rags. The illustration thus reminds Victorian readers of the plight of the urban poor, whose standard of living was vastly below that of the upper-middle class, the target audience of The Rose and The Ring.
Image scan 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. ]
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 18 July 2022