The Fat Boy on the doorstep and The Old Lady's Walk in the Garden — two distinct studies by Harold Copping (1893, rpt. 1924): p. 121, 12.5 cm by 7.5 cm (4 ⅞ by 3 inches), vignetted; and p. 123, 16.7 cm by 12.9 cm (6 ⅝ by 5 inches), respectively. Photographic reproductions of line drawings from Children's Stories from Dickens (1893).
Passage Illustrated: Old Mrs. Wardle's Somnolent Helper
First of all he had to fetch from a peg behind the old lady's bedroom door a close, black satin bonnet, a warm cotton shawl and a thin stick; and then the old lady, after put on the bonnet and shawl at her leisure, would lean one hand on her stick and the other on the fat boy's shoulder, and walk leisurely to the arbour, where the fat boy would leave her to enjoy the fresh air for half an hour. . . . . [121]
The old lady began to shake. "Well, Joe?" she said, wondering if he meant to rob her of her loose coin, knowing that she was too old and feeble to scream for help. "I'm sure I have been a good mistress to you, Joe. You have never had too much to do, and you have always had enough to eat."
This last appeal went straight to the Fat Boy's heart.
"I knows I has," he replied.
"Then what can you want to do now?" asked the old lady. The Fat Boy came closer.
"I wants to make your flesh creep," he said.
"But why?" asked the old lady, trembling again. The Fat Boy explained. He had seen Miss Rachael — Mrs. Wardle's daughter — in this very arbour with one of Mr. Pickwick's party — Mr. Tracy Tupman, to be exact — kissing her hand. [122]
Commentary: "This last appeal went straight to the Fat Boy's heart" (122)
Mary Angela Dickens and her lead illustrator, Harold Copping, have introduced Joe (the subject of the twelfth chapter, the Fat Boy, four times in the five illustrations: asleep on the carriage seat; asleep on the doorstep; once in the arbour, watching Tupman and Rachel Wardle; and finally walking the Old Lady, Mr. Wardle's mother, around the garden at Dingley Dell Farm. Even in the main lithograph, The Fat Boy Awake, Copping's version of Buss's and Phiz's Fat Boy does not seem active and alert; aside from occasional bouts of eating and drinking, he goes through life in a perpetual doze. He is also relatively taciturn, as if even speaking more than a sentence would involve too much exertion.
Our last view of the Fat Boy in the chapter devoted to him is of him asleep in the mild October sunshine, never growing older, and never any thinner: "always a stout Cupid in bottons with shoulder-straps instead of wings . . . heart-free and care-free as a young oyster or a young Dutch cheese" (125).
Other Copping Representations of Joe, The Fat Boy
Other studies of Joe, The Fat Boy (1836-1924)
Left: Phiz's original June 1836 illustration of Joe: The Fat Boy Awake Again. Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s individual character study of the devious gourmand: The Fat Boy in Chapter 54 (1867). Right: The earliest depiction of Joe, The Fat Boy: Robert W. Buss's serial illustration The Arbour Scene (June 1836). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Parallel Scene by Phiz in the British Household Edition (1874)
Above: Phiz's Sam looked at the Fat Boy with great astonishment, but without saying a word, Chapter XXVIII ("A Good-Humored Christmas Chapter," 1874). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Scanned images, captions and commentary by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose, as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert W. Buss, and Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). London: Chapman & Hall: 1836-37.
Dickens, Charles. "Pickwick Papers. Illustrated by Robert Seymour and Hablot Knight Browne. London: Chapman & Hall, 1896.
Dickens, Mary Angela, Percy Fitzgerald, Captain Edric Vredenburg, and Others. Illustrated by Harold Copping with eleven coloured lithographs. Children's Stories from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1893.
Dickens, Mary Angela [Charles Dickens' grand-daughter]. Dickens' Dream Children. London, Paris New, York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., 1924.
Matz, Bernard W., and Kate Perigini [Charles Dickens' daughter]. Character Sketches from Dickens. Illustrated by Harold Copping. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924.
Created 22 September 2023