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Mr. Pickwick Examines the Clock
Harry Furniss
1910
13.9 x 9 cm, vignetted
Dickens's Master Humphrey's Clock, completes Vol. 6 of the Charles Dickens Library Edition; facing page 50.
"And this," said Mr. Pickwick, stopping short, "is the clock! Dear me! And this is really the old clock!"
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Mr. Pickwick, having with many blushes placed in my hands a small roll of paper, which he termed his ‘qualification,’ put a great many questions to me touching my friends, and particularly Jack Redburn, whom he repeatedly termed "a fine fellow," and in whose favour I could see he was strongly predisposed. When I had satisfied him on these points, I took him up into my room, that he might make acquaintance with the old chamber which is our place of meeting.
"And this," said Mr. Pickwick, stopping short, "is the clock! Dear me! And this is really the old clock!"
I thought he would never have come away from it. ["Master Humphrey's Visitor," 50]
In the of tales Gog and Magog and the contributions of Master Humphrey's special guests, Mr. Pickwick and his valet, Sam Weller, Dickens in this 19th century "Miscellany" (modelled after Joseph Addison's 18th century Spectator) seems to be on the verge of discovering the framed tale. In Household Words and All the Year Round in the 1850s and 1860s Dickens would bring this form to managerial perfection, writing the opening and the closing, and having his stable of talented journalists (including Hesba Stretton, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, Henry Morley, and Richard Hengist Horne) compose the intervening tales for particular characters whom Dickens had introduced. But here, in Master Humphrey's Clock we are still a decade away from Dickens's bringing his concept of "writing in company" to fruition in such pieces for the Christmas season as The Seven Poor Travellers (1854). As with Gog and Magog in the 11 April 1840 number, Dickens seems to be trying to set up a frame in anticipation that his literary acquaintances would rise to the occasion. They did not, and ultimately, despite its brilliant serial novels, Master Humphrey's Clock failed because, indefatigible editor and inventive short story writer though he was, twenty-eight-year-old Dickens could not sustain the Miscellany design by himself.
"Mr. Pickwick's Tale" actually stretched across two numbers (2 and 9 May, 1840, the fifth and sixth numbers) while Dickens was still fully engaged writing the weekly instalments of The Old Curiosity Shop. He made no further attempt at a framed tale for almost twelve years, when he composed the frajmework for A Round of Stories for the Christmas Fire for Household Words in the 1852 Extra Christmas Number: "The Poor Relation's Story" and "The Child's Story." Dickens had yet to refine the concept of the serial short story, so that each of his abortive efforts in Master Humphrey's Clock ultimately goes nowhere. For the sake of revealing the tastes and opinions of his old-fashioned narrator, Dickens sets "Mr. Pickwick Tale" in the time of James the First, but fails to exploit the possibilities of its historical setting; he also fails to address the realities of the present so well reflected in both The Old Curiosity Shop (set in the 1820s) and Barnaby Rudge, set between 1775 and 1780. He failed to make tales by the Guildhall giants, Pickwick, and Weller regular features of his weekly, but brought Samuel Pickwick back for a reprise as he was winding up the Clock: the retired businessman and leader of the Pickwick Club is named as one of the executors of Master Humphrey's will.
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. , 1988.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. "Master Humphrey's Visitor." Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. VI, 45-51.
Hammerton, J. A. "The Story of the Book." Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. VI. i-iii.
Created 25 December 2019