"Oh, my lungs and liver, will you go for threepence?" (1872). Fifteenth illustration by Fred Barnard (engraved by the Dalziels) for the Household Edition of David Copperfield (Chapter XIII, "The Sequel of My Resolution," p. 89). 9.3 x 13.7 cm (3 ⅝ by 5 ⅜ inches) framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it; mouse over links.]
David's Misadventure with the Insane Used-Clothing Vendor
Sol Eytinge, Junior, emphasizes the demented nature of Dickens's used-clothing vendor in his Diamond Edition illustration of the incident: David's Bargain (1867).
"Oh, what do you want?" grinned this old man, in a fierce, monotonous whine. "Oh, my eyes and limbs, what do you want? Oh, my lungs and liver, what do you want? Oh, goroo, goroo!"
I was so much dismayed by these words, and particularly by the repetition of the last unknown one, which was a kind of rattle in his throat, that I could make no answer; hereupon the old man, still holding me by the hair, repeated:
"Oh, what do you want? Oh, my eyes and limbs, what do you want? Oh, my lungs and liver, what do you want? Oh, goroo!" — which he screwed out of himself, with an energy that made his eyes start in his head.
"I wanted to know," I said, trembling, "if you would buy a jacket."
"Oh, let’s see the jacket!" cried the old man. ‘Oh, my heart on fire, show the jacket to us! Oh, my eyes and limbs, bring the jacket out!"
With that he took his trembling hands, which were like the claws of a great bird, out of my hair; and put on a pair of spectacles, not at all ornamental to his inflamed eyes.
"Oh, how much for the jacket?" cried the old man, after examining it. "Oh — goroo! — how much for the jacket?"
"Half-a-crown," I answered, recovering myself.
"Oh, my lungs and liver," cried the old man, "no! Oh, my eyes, no! Oh, my limbs, no! Eighteenpence. Goroo!"
Every time he uttered this ejaculation, his eyes seemed to be in danger of starting out; and every sentence he spoke, he delivered in a sort of tune, always exactly the same, and more like a gust of wind, which begins low, mounts up high, and falls again, than any other comparison I can find for it.
"Well," said I, glad to have closed the bargain, ‘I’ll take eighteenpence." [Ch. XIII, "The Sequel of My Resolution," 92]
Commentary: A Purgatorial Experience on the Road through Kent to Dover
David resolves to abandon the bottling factory at Hungerford Stairs and throw himself upon the mercy of an aunt he has never met, althugh he is not even sure whether she lives in Dover, Hythe, or Sandgate. But he is desperate to escape the drudgery of Murdstone and Grinby’s. Readers of the serial instalment for Part Five (September 1849) encountered with David a number of peculiar characters on his sometimes nightmarish six-day ordeal entirely on foot from London through Rochester and Canterbury in Kent to his aunt’s cottage on the outskirts of Dover. In Chapter 13, he makes up for the loss of Peggotty’s half-guinea by selling his weskit for ninepence to Mr. Dolloby (a resource of the Micawbers) and his coat to an (apparently) insane marine-store clothing dealer in Chatham (known to Dickens from his father's working for the Naval Pay Office there). In consequence, a dusty David is in rags and tatters by the time that he announces himself to Betsey Trotwood and her benign male companion, the mildly demented Mr. Dick.
In the Household Edition volume, the editors have inserted the picture of the bizarre used-clothing dealer in Chapter 12, adjacent to David's encounter with the peculiar street youth who absconds with his half-guinea and his trunk. Barnard depicts the emporium as a mere stall rather than a shop as David sits on the curb in the dirty lane in Chatham, negotiating with the shaggy, disreputable owner, who seems to gesture at his wares as he begins the protracted process of bargaining David down. One of the jackets hanging near the vendor does indeed suggest that he deals principally in sailor's clothes. When David agrees to the proposed eighteenpence for the jacket, the lunatic demands instead that David make it an exchange. David outwits him, and he eventually pays the ill-clad boy half-a-penny at a time, getting to the total of a shilling in two hours. David finally departs for four pence more, and manages a further seven miles on the road, sleeping under a haystack.
Relevant Illustrated Editions of this Novel (1863 through 1910)
- O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 1, 1863)
- O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 2, 1863)
- Sir John Gilbert's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 3, 1863)
- O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 4, 1863)
- Sol Eytinge, Junior's 16 wood engravings for the Diamond Edition (1867)
- Fred Barnard's 62 Composite Woodblock Engravings for the Household Edition (1872)
- Clayton J. Clarke (Kyd): Kyd's Designs for the Player's Cigarette Cards (1889)
- Harry Furniss's Twenty-nine lithographs for the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910).
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.]
Bibliography
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.
Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Centenary Edition. 2 vols. London and New York: Chapman & Hall, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911.
_______. The Personal History of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. V.
_______. David Copperfield, with 61 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. III.
_______. The Personal History and Experiences of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. X.
Created 13 June 2009 Last modified 24 July 2022