Chapter II: Part 2

There is yet another odd coincidence. Everyone knows how Bob Sawyer's party was disturbed by Mrs. Raddle's angry expostulations, and the guests had to disperse. Well, Mr. Boswell, who had much of the Sawyer tone--gave a party at his rooms in Downing Street, and his landlord behaved so outrageously, that he gave him notice, and the next day quitted his rooms. "I feel I shall have to give my landlady notice," said Mr. Sawyer with a ghastly smile. Mr. Boswell had actually to take some of the invited guests to the Mitre and entertain them there.

There is a pleasant passage connected with Dr. Johnson's visit to Plymouth, with his old friend Sir Joshua. He was much pleased with this jaunt and declared he had derived from it a great accession of new ideas . . . "The magnificence of the Navy the ship building and all its circumstances afforded him a grand subject of contemplation." He contemplated it in fact, as Mr. Pickwick contemplated Chatham and the Medway. The commissioner of the dockyard paid him the compliment, etc. The characteristic part, however, was that the Doctor entered enthusiastically into the local politics. "There was a new town rising up round the dockyard, as a rival to the old one, and knowing from the sagacity and just observation of human nature, that it is certain if a man hates at all, he will hate his next neighbour, he concluded that this new and rising town could but excite the envy and jealousy of the old. He therefore set himself resolutely on the side of the old town, the _established_ town in which he was. Considering it a kind of duty to _stand_ by it. He accordingly entered warmly into its interests, and upon every occasion talked of _the Dockers_ as "upstarts and aliens." As they wanted to be supplied with water from the old town, not having a drop themselves, Johnson affecting to entertain the passions of the place, was violent in opposition; and half laughing at himself for his pretended zeal, and where he had no concern, exclaimed: "No! I am against the _Dockers_; I am a Plymouth man. Rogues! let them die of thirst; they shall not have a drop. I _hate_ a Docker!"

Now all this is very like what the amiable Pickwick would have done; in fact like something he _did_ do and felt, when he repaired to Eatanswill for the election. On entering the town he at once chose his party, and took it up enthusiastically. "With his usual foresight and sagacity," like Dr. Johnson, he had chosen a fortunately desirable moment for his visit. "Slumkey for ever," roared the honest and independent. "Slumkey for ever!" echoed Mr. Pickwick, taking off his hat. "No Fizkin," roared the crowd. "Certainly not," shouted Mr. Pickwick. "Who is Slumkey?" whispered Mr. Tupman. "I don't know," said Mr. Pickwick, in the same tone. "Hush! don't ask any questions. It's always best on these occasions to do what the mob do." "But suppose there are two mobs," suggested Mr. Snodgrass. "Shout with the largest," replied Mr. Pickwick. Volumes could not have said more. On asking for rooms at the Town Arms, which was the Great White Horse, Mr. Pickwick was asked "was he Blue." Mr. Pickwick in reply, asked for Perker. "He is blue I think." "O yes, sir." "Then _we_ are blue," said Mr. Pickwick, but observing the man looked rather doubtful at this accommodating account he gave him his card. Perker arranged everything. "Spirited contest, my dear sir," he said, "I am delighted to hear it," said Mr. Pickwick. "I like to see sturdy patriotism, on whatever side it is called forth." Later, we are told, Mr. Pickwick entered heart and soul into the business, and, like the sage, caught the prevailing excitement. "Although _no great partisan of either side_, Mr. Pickwick was sufficiently fired by Mr. Pott's enthusiasm to apply his whole time and attention to the proceedings, etc." All this, of course, does not correspond exactly, but the spirit of the selections are the same.

The Doctor it is known, would go out at midnight with his friends Beauclerk and Layton to have what he called "a rouze," and Garrick was humorously apprehensive that he would have to bail out his old friend from the watchhouse. Mr. Pickwick had many a "rouze" with his followers. And Johnson himself, in the matter of drink, was at one time as bad as Mr. Pickwick, only he had a better head, and could "carry his liquor discreetly," like the Baron of Bradwardine. He had actually to give up drink on account of this tendency to excess.

PICKWICKIAN ORIGINALS.

There is a shrewd remark of the late Bishop Norwich, Dean Stanley's father, that to catch and describe the tone and feeling of a place gives a better idea of it than any minute or accurate description. "Some books," he says, "give one ideas of places without descriptions; there is something which suggests more vivid and agreeable images than distinct words. Would _Gil Blas_ for instance? It opens with a scene of history, chivalry, Spain, orange trees, fountains, guitars, muleteers; there is the picturesque and the sense of the picturesque, as distinct as the actual object." Now this exactly applies to "Pickwick," which brings up before us Rochester, Ipswich, Muggleton, Birmingham, and a dozen other places to the tourist. The night of the arrival at Birmingham for instance, and the going out after dinner to call on Mr. Winkle, sen., is strangely vivid.

{Map of the Pickwick Tours: p70.jpg}

So real is our Pickwickian Odyssey that it can be followed in all its stages as in a diary. To put it all in "ship shape" as it were and enhance this practical feeling I have drawn out the route in a little map. It is wonderful how much the party saw and how much ground they covered, and it is not a far-fetched idea that were a similar party in our day, good humoured, venturesome and accessible, to visit old-fashioned, out of the way towns, and look out for fun, acquaintances and characters, they might have a good deal of the amusement and adventure that the Pickwickians enjoyed.

The Pickwickians first went to Rochester, Chatham, Dingley Dell, and perhaps to Gravesend. Mr. Pickwick with Wardle then pursued Jingle to town, returning thence to the Dell, which he at once left for Cobham, where he found his friend Tupman. The party then returned to town. Next we have the _first_ visit to Ipswich--called Eatanswill--from which town Mr. Pickwick and Sam posted to Bury St. Edmunds; thence to London. Next came their third expedition to Dingley Dell for the Christmas festivities. Then the second visit to Ipswich. Then the journey to Bath, and that from Bath to Bristol. Later a second journey to Bristol--another from Bristol to Birmingham, and from Birmingham to London, Mr. Pickwick's final junketing before retiring to Dulwich.

Yet another interesting side of the Pickwick story is its almost biographical character. Boz seems to take us with him from his very boyhood. During the old days when his father was at Chatham he had seen all the Rochester incidents, sat by the old Castle and Bridge, noted with admiring awe the dockyard people, the Balls at "The Bull," the Reviews on the Lines. The officers--like Dr. Slammer, all the figures--fat boy included--were drawn from this stage of his life. The Golden Cross, which figures also in _Copperfield_, he had constantly stopped at. He knew, too, the inns in the Boro'. The large legal element and its odd incidents and characters he had learned and studied during his brief apprenticeship to the Law. The interior economy of the Fleet Prison he had learned from his family's disastrous experiences; the turnkeys, and blighted inhabitants he had certainly taken from life. But he shifted the scene from the Marshalsea to the King's Bench Prison--the former place would have been too painful a reminiscence for his father. To his reporting expeditions we owe the Election scenes at Ipswich, and to another visit for the same object, his Bath experiences. Much of the vividness and reality of his touchings, particularly in the case of Rochester and its doings, is the magnifying, searching power resulting from a life of sorrow in childhood, family troubles working on a keen, sensitive nature; these made him appreciate and meditate on all that was going on about him, as a sort of relief and relaxation. All the London scenes the meetings at taverns--were personal experiences. Among his friends were medical students and many odd beings. We can trace his extraordinary appreciation of Christmas--and its genial, softening festivities--which clung to him till it altogether faded out, to the same sense of relief; it furnished an opportunity of forgetting for a time (at least), the dismal, gloomy home.

Boz, if he drew his characters from life, did not draw wholesale; he would take only a portion of a character that pleased him and work it up in combination with another distinct character. It was thus he dealt with Leigh Hunt, borrowing his amusing, airy frivolity, and combining it with the meanness and heartlessness of Skimpole. I have always fancied that Dowler in "Pickwick" was founded--after this composite principle--on his true-hearted but imperious friend, Forster. Forster was indeed also a perfect reproduction of Dr. Johnson and had the despotic intolerance--in conversation certainly--of that great man. Like him "if his pistol missed fire, he knocked you down with the butt end of it." He could be as amiable and tender-hearted as "old Sam" himself. Listening to Dowler at the coach office in Piccadilly we--who knew Forster well--seemed to hear his very voice. "It was a stern-eyed man of about five-and-forty, who had large black whiskers. He was buttoned up to the chin in a brown coat and had a large seal-skin cap and a cloak beside him. He looked up from his breakfast as Mr. Pickwick entered with a fierce and peremptory air, _which was very dignified_, and which seemed to say that he rather expected _somebody wanted to take advantage of him_, _but it wouldn't do_" . . . "Are you going to Bath?" said the strange man. "I am, sir," replied Mr. Pickwick. "And these other gentleman?" "They are going also," said Mr. Pickwick. "Not inside--I'll be damned if you're going inside," said the strange man. "Not all of us," said Mr. Pickwick. "No--not all of you," said the strange man, emphatically. "We take two places. If they try and squeeze six people into an infernal box that only holds four I'll take a post-chaise and bring an action. It won't do," etc. This recalls the pleasant story about Forster and the cabman who summoned him. The latter was adjudged to be in the wrong and said he knew it, but "that he was determined to show him up, he were _such a harbitrary cove_." None enjoyed this story more than Forster himself, and I have heard him say to a lady humorously, "Now you must. You know I am 'such a harbitrary cove.'" Dear good old Forster!

I must confess all Pickwickians would like to know biographical details, as one might call them, about the personages engaged in the trial. I need not repeat that Judge Stareleigh was drawn from Mr. Justice Gazalee, or that Buzfuz was founded on Mr. Serjeant Bompas, or Bumpus. Charles Carpenter Bompas was his full designation. He was made a Serjeant in 1827, the very year of the memorable trial. He obtained a Patent of Precedence in 1834. "Buzfuz's son"--Mr. W. Bompas, Q.C., who will pardon the freedom of the designation--was born in the year of the celebrated trial. He was the youngest son and had a very distinguished career both at College and at the Bar, being a "leader" on his circuit, revising barrister, bencher, recorder, and was last year appointed a County Court judge.

Who were Serjeant Snubbin, Skimpin, and Phunkey? No traditions have come to us as to these gentlemen. Skimpin may have been Wilkins, and Snubbin a Serjeant Arabin, a contemporary of Buzfuz. But we are altogether in the dark.

We should have liked also to have some "prehistoric peeps" at the previous biography of Mr. Pickwick before the story began. We have but a couple of indications of his calling: the allusion by Perker at the close of the story--"The agent at Liverpool said he had been obliged to you many times when you were in business." He was therefore a merchant or in trade. Snubbin at the trial stated that "Mr. Pickwick had retired from business and was a gentleman of considerable independent property."

In the original announcement of the "Pickwick Papers" there are some scraps of information about Mr. Pickwick and the Club itself. This curious little screed shows that the programme was much larger than the one carried out:--

"On the 31st of March, 1836, will be published, to be continued Monthly, price One Shilling, the First Number of

THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB; containing a faithful record of the PERAMBULATIONS, PERILS, TRAVELS, ADVENTURES, AND SPORTING TRANSACTIONS OF THE CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.

EDITED BY "BOZ."

And each Monthly Part embellished with four illustrations by Seymour.

"The Pickwick Club, so renowned in the annals of Huggin Lane, and so
closely entwined with the thousand interesting associations connected
with Lothbury and Cateaton Street, was founded in the year one
thousand eight hundred and twenty-two, by Samuel Pickwick--the great
traveller--whose fondness for the useful arts prompted his celebrated
journey to Birmingham in the depth of winter; and whose taste for the
beauties of nature even led him to penetrate to the very borders of
Wales in the height of summer.

"This remarkable man would appear to have infused a considerable
portion of his restless and inquiring spirit into the breasts of other
members of the Club, and to have awakened in their minds the same
insatiable thirst for travel which so eminently characterized his own.
The whole surface of Middlesex, a part of Surrey, a portion of Essex,
and several square miles of Kent were in their turns examined and
reported on. In a rapid steamer they smoothly navigated the placid
Thames; and in an open boat they fearlessly crossed the turbid Medway.
High-roads and by-roads, towns and villages, public conveyances and
their passengers, first-rate inns and road-side public houses, races,
fairs, regattas elections, meetings, market days--all the scenes that
can possibly occur to enliven a country place, and at which different
traits of character may be observed and recognized, were alike visited
and beheld by the ardent Pickwick and his enthusiastic followers.

"The Pickwick Travels, the Pickwick Diary, the Pickwick
Correspondence--in short, the whole of the Pickwick Papers'--were
carefully preserved, and duly registered by the secretary, from time
to time, in the voluminous Transactions of the Pickwick Club. These
Transactions have been purchased from the patriotic secretary, at an
immense expense, and placed in the hands of 'Boz,' the author of
"Sketches Illustrative of Every Day Life and Every Day People"--a
gentleman whom the publishers consider highly qualified for the task
of arranging these important documents, and placing them before the
public in an attractive form. He is at present deeply immersed in his
arduous labours, the first fruits of which will appear on the 31st
March.

"Seymour has devoted himself, heart and graver, to the task of
illustrating the beauties of Pickwick. It was reserved to Gibbon to
paint, in colours that will never fade, the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire--to Hume to chronicle the strife and turmoil of the two
proud houses that divided England against herself--to Napier to pen,
in burning words, the History of the War in the Peninsula--the deeds
and actions of the gifted Pickwick yet remain for 'Boz' and Seymour to
hand down to posterity.

"From the present appearance of these important documents and the
probable extent of the selections from them, it is presumed that the
series will be completed in about twenty numbers."

From this it will be seen that it was intended to exhibit all the humours of the social amusements with which the public regaled itself. Mr. Pickwick and friends were to be shown on board a steamer; at races, fairs, regattas, market days, meetings--"at all the scenes that can possibly occur to enliven a country place, and at which different traits of character may be observed and recognized." This was a very scientific and well drawn scheme; and it was, on the whole, most faithfully and even brilliantly carried out. But with infinite art Boz emancipated himself from the formal hide-bound trammels of Syntax tours and the like, when it was reckoned that the hero and his friends would be exhibited like "Bob Logic" and "Tom and Jerry" in a regular series of public places. "Mr. Pickwick has an Adventure at Vauxhall," "Mr. Pickwick Goes to Margate," etc.: we had a narrow escape, it would seem, of this conventional sort of thing, and no doubt it was this the publishers looked for. But "Boz" asserted his supremacy, and made the narrative the chief element.

It was interesting thus to know that Mr. Pickwick had visited the borders of Wales--I suppose, Chester--but what was his celebrated journey to Birmingham, prompted by his "fondness for the useful arts"? This could hardly refer to his visit to Mr. Winkle, sen. The Club, it will be seen, was founded in 1822, and its place of meeting would appear to have been this Huggin Lane, City, "so intimately associated with Lothbury and Cateaton Street." The picture of the meeting of the Club shows us that it consisted of the ominous number of _thirteen_. There is not room for more. They seem like a set of well-to-do retired tradesmen; the faces are such as we should see on the stage in a piece of low comedy: for the one on the left Mr. Edward Terry might have sat. The secretary sits at the bottom of the table, with his back to us, and the chairman, with capacious stomach, at the top. Blotton, whom Mr. Pickwick rather unhandsomely described as a "vain and disappointed haberdasher," may have followed this business. He is an ill-looking fellow enough, with black, bushy whiskers. The Pickwickians are decidedly the most gentlemanly of the party. But why was it necessary for Mr. Pickwick to stand upon a chair? This, however, may have been a custom of the day at free and easy meetings.

"Posthumous _papers_"--moreover, did not correctly describe the character of the Book, for the narrative did not profess to be founded on documents at all. He was, however, committed to this title by his early announcement, and indeed intended to carry out a device of using Snodgrass's "Note Books," whose duty it was during the course of the adventures to take down diligently all that he observed. But this cumbrous fiction was discarded after a couple of numbers. "Posthumous papers" had been used some ten years before, in another work.

Almost every page--save perhaps a dismal story or two--in the 609 pages of Pickwick is good; but there are two or three passages which are obscure, if not forced in humour. Witness Mr. Bantam's recognition of Mr. Pickwick, as the gentleman residing on Clapham Green--not yet Common--"who lost the use of his limbs from imprudently taking cold after port wine, who could not be moved in consequence of acute suffering, and who had the water from the King's Bath bottled at 103 degrees, and _sent by waggon to his bedroom in Town_; when he bathed, sneezed, and same day recovered." This is grotesque enough and farcical, but without much meaning. On another occasion we are told that Tupman was casting certain "_Anti_-Pickwickian glances" at the servant maids, which is unmeaning. No doubt, _Un_-Pickwickian was intended.

Why is there no "Pickwick Club" in London? It might be worth trying, and would be more successful than even the Johnson Club. There is surely genuine "stuff" to work on. Our friends in America, who are Pickwickian _quand meme_, have established the "All-Around Dickens Club." The members seem to be ladies, though there are a number of honorary members of the other sex, which include members of "Boz's" own family, with Mr. Kitton, Mr. W. Hughes, Mr. Charles Kent, myself, and some more. The device of the club is "Boz's" own book-plate, and the "flower" of the club is his favourite geranium. The President is Mrs. Adelaide Garland; and some very interesting papers, to judge from their titles, have been read, such as "Bath and its Associations with Landor," "The City of Bristol with its Literary Associations," "The Excursion to the Tea Gardens of Hampstead," prefaced by a description of the historic old inn, "Poem by Charles Kent," "Dickens at Gad's Hill," "A Description of Birmingham, its Institutions, and Dickens' Interest therein"; with a "Reading of Mr. Pickwick's Mission to Birmingham, Coventry and the adjacent Warwickshire Country," etc. There is also a very clever series of examination questions by the President in imitation of Calverley's.

"Had Mr. Pickwick loved?" Mr. Lang asks; "it is natural to believe that he had never proposed, never. His heart, however bruised, was neither broken nor embittered." His temperament was certainly affectionate--if not absolutely amatory: he certainly never missed an opportunity where a kiss was practicable.

But stay! has anyone noted that on the wall of his room at Dulwich, there hangs the portrait of a lady--just over this might seem to mean something. But on looking close, we see it is the dear filial old fellow's mother. A striking likeness, and she has spectacles like her celebrated son.

As all papers connected with the Pickwick era are scarce and meagre--for the reason that no one was then thinking of "Boz"; any that have come down to us are specially interesting. Here are a few "pieces," which will be welcomed by all Pickwickians. The first is a letter of our author to his publishers.

"Furnival's Inn,
"Friday Morning.

"DEAR SIR,--I am very glad to find I shall have the pleasure of
celebrating Mr. Pickwick's success with you on Sunday. When you have
sufficiently recovered from the fatigues of publication, will you just
let me know from your books how we stand. Drawing 10 pounds one day,
and 20 pounds another, and so forth, I have become rather mystified,
and jumbled up our accounts in my brain, in a very incomprehensible
state.

"Faithfully yours,
"CHARLES DICKENS."

This must have been written at the conclusion of the story in 1837, and is in a very modest tone considering how triumphant had been the success. Connected with this is a paper of yet more interest, a receipt for payment for one of the early numbers.

{Manuscript of a letter by Dickens: p88.jpg}

For this Pickwickian Banquet, he had reluctantly to give up one at the home of his new friend Forster. In an unpublished letter, he writes to him as "Dear Sir"--the beginning of a four-and-thirty years' friendship--"I have been so much engaged in the pleasing occupation of moving." He was unable to go to his new friend to dinner because he had been "long engaged to the Pickwick publishers to a dinner in honour of that hero, which comes off to-morrow."

In an interesting letter of Dickens'--Pickwickian ones are rare--sold at Hodgson's rooms, July, 1895, he writes: "Mr. Seymour shot himself before the second number of the Pickwick papers, not the third as you would have it, was published. While he lay dead, it was necessary the search should be made in his working room for the plates to the second number, the day for publication of which was drawing near. The plates were found unfinished, with their faces turned to the wall." This scrap brought 12 pounds 10s. Apropos of prices, who that was present will forget the scene at Christie's when the six "Pickwick Ladles" were sold? These were quaint things, like enlarged Apostle Spoons, and the figures well modelled. They had been made specially, and presented to "Boz" on the conclusion of his story, by his publishers. The Pickwick Ladle brought 69 pounds. Jingle, 30 pounds. Winkle, 23 pounds. Sam, 64 pounds. Old Weller, 51 pounds; and the Fat Boy, 35 pounds 14s., or over 280 pounds in all. Nay, the leather case was put up, and brought three guineas. We recall Andrew Halliday displaying one to us, with a sort of triumph. Charles Dickens, the younger, got two, I think; Messrs. Agnew the others.

CONCERNING THE PLATES AND EXTRA PLATES AND "STATES" OF PICKWICK.

It is an interesting question what should be the relation of illustration to the story, and of the artist to the story-teller; and what are the limitations of their respective provinces. Both should work independently of each other; that is, the artist should tell the story from his own point of view--he is not merely to servilely translate the situations into "black and white." He should be, in fact, what the actor is to a drama. When Eugene Delacroix's illustrations to Goethe's "Faust" were shown to the great author, he expressed admiration of their truth and spirit; and on his secretary saying that they would lead to a better understanding of his poem, said: "With that we have naught to do; on the contrary, the more complete imagination of such an artist compels us to believe that the situations as he represents them are preferable to them as described. It is therefore likely that the readers will find that he exerts a strong force upon their imagination." This shows, allowing something for the compliment, what a distinct force the great writer attributed to the artist, that he did not consider him an assistant or merely subsidiary. The actor becomes, after his fashion, a distinct creator and originator, supplying details, etc., of his own, but taking care that these are consistent with the text and do not contradict it in any way.

This large treatment was exactly "Phiz's." He seems to "act" "Boz's" drama, yet he did not introduce anything that was not warranted by the spirit of the text. He found himself present at the scene, and felt how it _must_ have occurred. He had a wonderful power of selecting what was essential and what should be essential. Nor did he make a minute inventory of such details as were mentioned in the text. Hence the extraordinary vitality and spirit of his work. There is action in all, and each picture tells its own story. To see the merit of this system, we have only to contrast with it such attempts as we find in modern productions, where the artist's method is to present to us figures grouped together, apparently talking but not _acting_--such things as we have week by week in _Punch_. The late Sir John Millais and other artists of almost equal rank used to furnish illustrations to serial stories, and all their pictures were of this kind--two or three figures--well drawn, certainly--one standing, the others sitting down, it may be, engaged in conversation. This brought us "no forrarder" and supplied no dramatic interest.

It should be said, however, that it is only to "Pickwick" that this high praise can be extended. With every succeeding story the character of the work seemed to fall off, or rather the methods of the artist to change. It may have been, too, the inspiration from a dramatic spirited story also failed, for "Boz" had abandoned the free, almost reckless style of his first tale. There was a living distinctness, too, in the Pickwickian _coterie_, and every figure, familiar and recognizable, seemed to have infinite possibilities. The very look of them would inspire.

In this spirit of vitality and reality also, "Phiz" rather suggests a famous foreign illustrator, Chodowiecki, who a century ago was in enormous request for the illustration of books of all kinds, and whose groups and figures, drawn with much spirit and roundness, arrested the eye at once and told the situation. Later "Phiz" fell off in his work and indeed adopted quite new and more commercial methods, such as would enable him to get through the vast amount of work that came to him. There were no longer these telling situations to limn which spoke for themselves, and without straw, bricks are not to be made. In this later manner we seem to have bid adieu to the inspiration--to the fine old _round_ style of drawing--where the figures "stand out" completely. He adopted a sort of sketchy fashion; his figures became silhouettes and quite flat. There was also a singular carelessness in finish--a mere outline served for a face. The result was a monotony and similarity of treatment, with a certain unreality and grotesqueness which are like nothing in life. In this, however, he may have been inspired by the grotesque personages he was put to illustrate--the Smallweeds and the like.

It would be an interesting speculation to consider what would have become of "Pickwick" had this artist not been forthcoming. Would we have really known our Mr. Pickwick and his "followers" as we do now, or, indeed, would we have so keenly appreciated the humorous situations? I believe not. It was the graven figures of these personages, and the brilliant way in which the situations were concentrated, as it were, into a point, that produced such striking effect: without these adjuncts the Head of the Club and his friends would have been more or less abstractions, very much what the characters in Theodore Hook's "Gilbert Gurney" are. Take Mr. Pickwick. The author supplied only a few hints as to his personal appearance--he was bald, mild, pale, wore spectacles and gaiters; but who would have imagined him as we have him now, with his high forehead, bland air, protuberant front. The same with the others. Mr. Thackeray tried in many ways to give some corporeal existence to his own characters to "Becky," Pendennis, and others; but who sees them as we do Mr. Pickwick? So with his various "situations"--many most dramatic and effective, but no one would guess it from the etchings. The Pickwick scenes all tell a story of their own; and a person--say a foreigner--who had never even heard of the story would certainly smile over the situations, and be piqued into speculating what could be the ultimate meaning.

At the exhibition "illustrating a century and a half of English humorists," given by the Fine Art Society--under the direction of Mr. Joseph Grego--in October, 1896, there was a collection of original Pickwick drawings no less than fifty-six in number. There were three by Seymour, two by Bass and thirty-four by Phiz, all used in the book; while of those unused--probably found unsuitable, there were five by Buss, including a proposed title-page, and two of the Fat Boy "awake on this occasion only." There were also five by Phiz, which were not engraved, and one by Leech. The drawing of the dying clown, Seymour was engaged upon when he committed suicide. Of Buss' there were two of Mr. Pickwick at the Review, two of the cricket match, two of the Fat Boy "awake," "the influence of the salmon"--unused, "Mr. Winkle's first shot"--unused, studies of character in Pickwick, and a study for the title-page. The poor, discarded Buss took a vast deal of pains therefore to accomplish his task. Of Phiz's unused designs there was "Mr. Winkle's first shot" and two for the Gabriel Grub story, also one for "the Warden's room." Most interesting of all was his "original study" for the figure of Mr. Pickwick.

Mr. Grego, himself an excellent artist, placed at the door of the society a very telling figure of Mr. Pickwick displayed on a poster and effectively coloured. It was new to find our genial old friend smiling an invitation to us--in Bond Street. This--which I took for a lithographed "poster"--was Mr. Grego's own work, portrayed in water colours.

There have been many would-be illustrators of the chronicle, some on original lines of their own; but these must be on the whole pronounced to be failures. On looking at them we somehow feel that the figures and situations are wholly strange to us; that we don't know them or recognize them. The reason is possibly that the artists are not in perfect sympathy or intelligence with the story; they do not know every turning, corner and cranny of it, as did "Phiz"--and indeed as did everyone else living at that time; they were not inspired, above all, by its author. But there was a more serious reason still for the failure. It will be seen that in Phiz's wonderful plates the faces and figures are more or less _generalized_. We cannot tell exactly, for instance, what were Mr. Winkle's or even Sam Weller's features. Neither their mouths, eyes, or noses, could be put in distinct shape. We have only the general air and tone and suggestion--as of persons seen afar off in a crowd. Yet they are always recognizable. This is art, and it gave the artist a greater freedom in his treatment. Now when an illustrator like the late Frederick Barnard came, he drew his Jingle, his Pickwick, Weller, and Winkle, with _all_ their features, in quite a literal and particular fashion--the features were minutely and carefully brought out, with the result that they seem almost strange to us. Nor do they express the characters. There _is_ an expression, but it seems not the one to which we are accustomed. Mr. Pickwick is generally shown as a rather "cranky" and testy old gentleman in his expressions, whereas the note of all "Phiz's" faces is a good softness and unctuousness even. Now this somewhat philosophical analysis points to a principle in art illustration which accounts in a great measure for the unsatisfactory results where it is attempted to illustrate familiar works--such as those of Tennyson, Shakespeare, etc. The reader has a fixed idea before him, which he has formed for himself--an indistinct, shapeless one it might be, but still of sufficient outline to be disturbed. Among the innumerable presentments of Shakespeare's heroines no one has ever seen any that satisfied or that even corresponded. They are usually not generalized enough. Again, the readers of "Pickwick" grew month by month, or number by number, more and more acquainted with the characters: for the figures and faces appeared over and over and yet over again.

The most diverting, however, of all these imitators and extra-illustrators is assuredly the artist of the German edition. The series is admirably drawn, every figure well finished, but figures, faces, and scenes are unrecognizable. It is the Frenchman's idea of Hamlet. Mr. Pickwick and his friends are stout Germans, dressed in German garments, sitting in German restaurants with long tankards with _lids_ before them. The incidents are made as literal and historical as possible. The difficulty, of course, was that none of their adventures could have occurred in a country like Germany, or if they did, would have become an affair of police. No German could see humour in that. Notwithstanding all this, the true Pickwickian will welcome them as a pleasant contribution to the Pickwickian humour, and no one would have laughed so loudly at them as Boz himself.

The original illustrations form a serious and important department of Pickwickian lore, and entail an almost _scientific_ knowledge. Little, indeed, did the young "Boz" dream, when he was settling with his publishers that the work was to contain forty-two plates--an immense number it might seem--that these were to fructify into such an enormous progeny. We, begin, of course, with the regular official plates that belong strictly to the work. Here we find three artists at work--each succeeding the other--the unfortunate Robert Seymour coming first with his seven spirited pictures; next the unlucky Buss, with his two condemned productions, later to be dismissed from the book altogether; and finally, "Phiz," or Hablot K. Browne, who furnished the remaining plates to the end. As is well known, so great was the run upon the book that the plates were unequal to the duty, and "Phiz" had to re-engrave them several times--often duplicates on the one plate--naturally not copying them very closely. Hence we have the rather interesting "variations." He by-and-bye re-engraved Seymour's seven, copying them with wonderful exactness, and finally substituted two of his own for those of the condemned Buss. The volume, therefore, was furnished with seven Seymours, and their seven replicas, the two Buss's, their two replicas, and the thirty-three "Phiz" pictures, each with its "variation."

These variations are very interesting, and even amusing. On an ordinary careless glance one would hardly detect much difference--the artist, who seemed to wish to have a certain freedom, made these changes either to amuse himself or as if resenting the monotony of copying. In any case they represent an amount of patient labour that is quite unique in such things.

The Pickwickian "student" may be glad to go with us through some of the plates and have an account of these differences. We must premise that the first state of the plates may be considered "proofs before letters"--the descriptive titles being only found in the later editions.

1. "The Frontispiece." (We shall call the second state _b_, the first _a_.) In _a_ the signature "Phiz," "fct." or "fecit" is on the left, in _b_ it is divided half on each side. The harlequin painting has a full face in _a_, a side face in _b_. The face at the apex of the picture has a mouth closed in _b_, and open in _a_. There are variations in nearly all the grotesque faces; and in _b_ the faces of Mr. Pickwick and Sam are fuller and more animated. In _b_ the general treatment of the whole is richer.

2. "The Title-page." In _a_ the sign has Veller, in _b_ Weller. Old Weller's face in _b_ is more resolved and animated; in _a_ water is flowing from the pail.

3. "Mr. Pickwick Addressing the Club." Mr. Pickwick in _b_ is more cantankerous than in _a_--all the faces scarcely correspond in expression, though the outlines are the same. The work, shading, etc., is much bolder in _b_.

4. "Scene with the Cabman." Very little difference between the plates, save in the spectacles lying on the ground. These are trivialities.

5. "The Sagacious Dog." _b_ is more heavily shaded, but _a_ is much superior in the dog and face of the sportsman. Trees in _b_ more elaborate.

6. "Dr. Slammer's Defiance." The figures on the top of the stairs are much darker and bolder in _b_. Jingle's and Tupman's faces are better in _b_ than in _a_, and Jingle's legs are better drawn in _b_.

7. "The Dying Clown." A most dramatic and tragic conception, which shows that Seymour would have been invaluable later on for Dickens' more serious work. The chief differences are in the face of the man at his bedside and the candle.

8. "Mr. Pickwick in Search of his Hat." The drawing of Mr. Pickwick's legs is rather strange. The right leg could hardly be so much twisted back while Mr. Pickwick runs straight forward; his left hand or arm is obscure in both. All the faces differ--the hat in _b_ has much more the look of being blown along than that in _a_.

9. "Mr. Winkle Soothes a Refractory Steed." Seymour's horse is infinitely more spirited and better drawn than Phiz's. Its struggling attitude is admirable. Seymour's landscape is touched more delicately; the faces differ in both.

10. "The Cricket Match." First Buss plate. He introduced a farcical incident not in the text--the ball knocking off the fielder's hat, who is quite close to the batsman. A very poor production. Observe the "antediluvian" shape of the bat--no paddings on the legs. The sketch is valuable as showing how _not_ to interpret Dickens' humour, or rather how to interpret it in a strictly _literal_ way--that is, without humour.

11. "Tupman in the Arbour." Second Buss plate--rather ostentatiously signed "Drawn and etched by R. W. Buss." Tupman appears to be tumbling over Miss Wardle.

12. The same subject by "Phiz." A remarkable contrast in treatment; there is the suggestion of the pair being surprised. We see how the fat boy came on them. The old Manor Farm in the background, with its gables, etc., is a pleasing addition, and like all "Phiz's" landscapes, delicately touched in. The scared alarm on the two faces is first-rate--even Miss Wardle's foot as well as Tupman's is expressive. There appears to be no "variation" of this plate.

13. "The Influence of the Salmon." A truly dramatic group overflowing with humour. Note no fewer than ten faces in the background, servants, etc., all expressing interest according to their class and degree. The five chief characters express drunkenness in five different fashions: the hopeless, combative, despairing, affectionate, etc. Wardle's stolid calm is good.

14. "The Breakdown." This was "Phiz's" _coup d'essai_ after he was called in, and is a most spirited piece. But the variations make the second plate almost a new one. The drawing, grouping, etc., in _b_ are an enormous improvement, and supply life and animation. The three figures, Pickwick, Wardle, and the postillion, are all altered for the better. In _b_ Mr. Pickwick's nervousness, as he is extricated from the chaise, is well shown. The postillion becomes a round spirited figure, instead of a mere sketch; Wardle, as in the text, instead of stooping down and merely showing his back, is tramping about gesticulating. A very spirited white horse is introduced with a postillion as spirited; the single chaise in the distance, the horses drawn back, and Jingle stretching out, is admirable. It is somehow conveyed in a clever way in _b_ that Miss Wardle is peeping through the hind window at the scene. There is a wheel on the ground in _b_, and one hat; in _a_ there are two hats--Mr. Pickwick's, which is recognizable, and Wardle's.

15. "First Appearance of Mr. S. Weller." In the first issue a faint "Nemo" can be made out in the corner, and it is said the same signature is on the preceding plate, though I have never been able to trace it clearly. This plate, as is well known, represents the court of the Old White Hart Inn in the Borough, which was pulled down some years ago. On this background--the galleries, etc., being picturesquely indicated--stand out brilliantly the four figures. The plate was varied in important ways. In the _b_ version some fine effects of light and shade are brought out by the aid of the loaded cart and Wardle's figure. Wardle's hat is changed from a common round one to a low broad-leafed one, his figure made stouter, and he is clothed with dark instead of white breeches, his face broadened and made more good-humoured. Sam's face in _b_ is made much more like the ideal Sam; that in _a_ is grotesque. Perker's face and attitude are altered in _b_, where he is made more interrogative. Mr. Pickwick in _b_ is much more placid and bland than in _a_, and he carries his hat more jauntily. Top-boots in _b_ are introduced among those which Sam is cleaning. He, oddly, seems to be cleaning a _white_ boot. A capital dog in _b_ is sniffing at Mr. Pickwick's leg; in _a_ there is a rather unmeaning skulking animal. All the smaller figures are altered.

16. "Mrs. Bardell Faints." The first plate is feeble and ill-drawn, though Mrs. Bardell's and Tupman's faces are good, the latter somewhat farcical; the boy "Tommy" is decidedly bad and too small. Mr. Pickwick's face in _a_ is better than in _b_. In the second attempt all is bolder and more spirited. The three Pickwickians are made to express astonishment, even in their legs. There is a table-desk in _a_, not in _b_. A clock and two vases are introduced, and a picture over the mirror representing a sleeping beauty with a cupid.

17. "The Election at Eatanswill." The first plate represents an election riot in front of the hustings, which is wild and fairly spirited. But no doubt it appeared somewhat confused to the artist. In his second he made it quite another matter. Over the hustings he introduced a glimpse of the old Ipswich gables. He changed the figure and dress of Fizkin, the rival candidate. He had Perker sitting on the rail, but substituted a standing-up figure, talking--presumably Perker, but taller than that gentleman. In _b_, Mr. Pickwick's face expresses astonishment at the disorder; in _a_ he is mildly placid. In _b_ the figure behind Mr. Pickwick is turned into Sam by placing a cockade on his hat. Next to Fizkin is a new portly figure introduced. The figures in the crowd are changed in wholesale fashion, and yet the "root idea" in both is the same. An artist, we fancy, would learn much from these contrasts, seeing how strikingly "Phiz" could shift his characters. In the first draft there was not sufficient movement. To the left there was a stout sailor in a striped jacket who was thrusting a pole into the chest of a thin man in check trousers. This, as drawn, seemed too tranquil, and he substituted a stouter, more jovial figure with gymnastic action--the second was made more contrasted. Next him was a confused group--a man with a paper cap, in place of which he supplied a stout man on whom the other was driven back, and who was being pushed from behind. The animation of the background is immensely increased by hats, and arms, and sticks being waved. Everything is bolder and clearer. The second trombone player, however, is not so spirited as the first, and the drum- beater becomes rather a "Punch and Judy" showman. An artistic effect of light is produced by this drum. There are a great many more boards, too, introduced in _b_.

"Mrs. Leo Hunter's Fancy dress Dejeune." In _b_ the finish and treatment are infinitely improved. Mr. Pickwick's face and figure is more refined and artistic. The way he holds his hat in his right hand and his left also are improved; both are more extended. Mr. Snodgrass's left leg is brought behind Mr. Pickwick's in _b_. Water--a pond perhaps--is in front. Tupman's hat is altered in _b_, and feathers added; his face is more serious and less grotesque. Mrs. Pott is more piquant, as the author suggested to the artist. The birdcage, instead of being high in the tree, is lowered and hangs from it. The most curious change is that of Pott, who in _a_ is out of all scale, seeming to be about seven feet high. He was lowered in _b_, and given a beard and a more hairy cap. It was said, indeed, that the original face was too like Lord Brougham's, but the reason for the change was probably what I have given.

"The Young Ladies' Seminary." All details are changed. The rather "cranky" face of Mr. Pickwick, utterly unlike him, was improved and restored to its natural benevolence; more detail put into the faces, notably the cook's. The girls are made more distinct and attractive--the lady principal at the back made effective; all the foliage treated differently, a tree on the left removed. In _a_ there is a sort of hook on the inside of the door to hold a bell, which is absent; in _b_ it is added. The bolts, etc., are different.

"Mr. Pickwick in the Pound." _b_ is more brilliant and vastly improved; the smaller donkey is removed, the three reduced to two; the sweep's cap is made _white_; the faces are altered, and made more animated. Mr. Pickwick's figure in the barrow is perhaps _not_ improved, but his face is.

"Mr. Pickwick in the Attorney's Office." Sam's face in _a_ was quite unlike, and was improved; the position of his legs altered. The other points are much the same.

"Last Visit of Heyland to the Old Man." This is a sort of anticipation of "Phiz's" later treatment of tragic subjects, as supplied for "Bleak House" and such stories. Heyling's cloak in _b_ is draped over his left arm, the boards of the door are outlined differently. In _a_ the face of the old man a side one, with little expression; in _b_ it was made three- quarters, and contorted with horror--the attitude powerfully expressive, indeed. The figures of both are worth comparing.

"The Double-bedded Room." In _b_ the lady's face is refined, and made less of the "nut-cracker" type. The comb is removed, her feet are separated, and the figure becomes not ungraceful. A white night-gown in _b_ is introduced; in _a_ it is her day-gown, and dark; the back of the chair in _b_ is treated more ornamentally; in _a_ a plain frilled nightcap is hung on the chair, changed in _b_ to a more grotesque and "Gamp-like" headgear. Nothing can be better in _a_ than the effect of light from the rushlight on the floor. This is helped by the lady's figure, which is darkened in _a_, and thrown out by the white curtains behind. Mr. Pickwick's face in _a_ is not good, and much improved in _b_. It will be noted that the artist often thus failed in his hero's face--"missing his tip," as it were. This picture admirably illustrates the artist's power of _legitimately_ emphasizing details--such as the night-cap--to add to the comic situation.

"Mr. Weller Attacks the Executive of Ipswich." There is scarcely any alteration worth notice.

"Job Trotter Encounters Sam." The two plates are nearly the same, except that Mary's face is made prettier. Sam's is improved, and Job Trotter's figure and face more marked and spirited.

"Christmas Eve at Mr. Wardle's." The changes here are a cat and dog introduced in the foreground in _b_, instead of the dog which in _a_ is between Mr. Pickwick and the old lady.

"Gabriel Grubb." A face is introduced into a branch or knot of the tree--an odd, rather far-fetched effect. The effectively outlined church in the background is St. Albans Abbey.

"Mr. Pickwick Slides." In _b_ Mr. Winkle's skates are introduced. In one version there are _five_ stakes instead of four, and Miss Allen's fur boots and feet are depicted differently in each.

"Conviviality at Bob Sawyer's." The two plates correspond almost exactly--save for a slight alteration in the arrangement of the books in the case.

"Mr. Pickwick Sits for his Portrait." Slight alterations in the faces and in the bird-cage. The arrangement of the panes in the window is also different. Mr. Pickwick's face is made more intelligent. A handle is supplied to a pewter pot on the floor.

"The Warden's Room." Almost exactly the same in both. But why has Mr. Pickwick his spectacles on when just roused from sleep? There is a collar to the shirt hanging from the cord.

"The Meeting with Jingle." Very slight changes in the faces. The child's face in _b_ is admirable, and, like one of Cruikshank's miniatures, it conveys alarm and grief. The face of the woman watering her plant is improved. Note the Hogarthian touch of the initials carved on the window, sufficiently distinct and yet not intrusively so. This is a most skilfully grouped and dramatic picture, and properly conveys the author's idea.

"The Ghostly Passenger." This illustration of what is one of the best tales of mystery is equally picturesque and original. The five figures in front are truly remarkable. The elegant interesting figure of the woman, the fop with his hat in the air, the bully with the big sword, the man with the blunderbuss, and the bewildered rustic, to say nothing of the muffled figures on the coach, make up a perfect _play_. There seems a flutter over all; it is like, as it was intended to be, a scene in a dream.

"Mr. Winkle Returns under Extraordinary Circumstances." There is little difference between the plates, save as to the details of the objects in the cupboard. In _b_ some bottles have been introduced on the top shelf. Mrs. Winkle's is a pleasing, graceful figure in both, and improved and refined in _b_. More spirit, too, is put into Mr. Pickwick's figure as he rises in astonishment. It may be noted what a graceful type of womanhood then prevailed, the face being thrown out by "bands" of hair and ringlets, the large spreading bonnets and white veils. Mary wears an enormous bonnet or hat like her mistress.

"Mr. Sawyer's Mode of Travelling." The amazing spirit and movement of this picture cannot be too much praised. The chaise seems whirling along, so that the coach, meeting it, seems embarrassed and striving to get out of the way. The Irish family, struggling to keep up with the chaise, is inimitable. There are some changes in _b_. The man with the stick behind has a bundle or bag attached. The mother with her three children is a delightful group, and much improved in the second plate. The child holding up flowers is admirably drawn. The child who has fallen is given a different attitude in _b_. The dog, too, is slightly altered.

"The Rival Editors." There is little change made, save that more plates, jugs, etc., are introduced. The "row" is shown with extraordinary spirit. Note the grotesque effect of Pott's face, shown through the cloth that Sam has put over his head. The onions have got detached from the hank hung to the ceiling, and are tumbling on the combatants, and--a capital touch this--the blackbird, whose cage has been covered over to secure its repose, is shown in _b_ dashing against the bars. We might ask, however, what does the cook there, and why does she "trouble herself about the warming-pan"?