"My Aunt and Her Secret" — Furniss's twenty-fourth illustration for Dickens's "David Copperfield" (Charles Dickens Library Edition, vol. X, 1910)

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My Aunt and Her Secret

Harry Furniss

1910

14.8 x 9.7 cm (5 ¾ by 3 ¾ inches).

My aunt came out and told some money into the man's hand. "What's the use of this?" he demanded. "I can spare no more," returned my aunt. "Then I can't go," said he. "Here!" You may take it back!" — Copperfield, p. 689.

Dickens's The Personal History and Experience of David Copperfield, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing X, 672.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: The Revelation of Aunt Betsey's Secret Marriage

It was midnight when I arrived at home. I had reached my own gate, and was standing listening for the deep bell of St. Paul’s, the sound of which I thought had been borne towards me among the multitude of striking clocks, when I was rather surprised to see that the door of my aunt’s cottage was open, and that a faint light in the entry was shining out across the road.Thinking that my aunt might have relapsed into one of her old alarms, and might be watching the progress of some imaginary conflagration in the distance, I went to speak to her. It was with very great surprise that I saw a man standing in her little garden.He had a glass and bottle in his hand, and was in the act of drinking. I stopped short, among the thick foliage outside, for the moon was up now, though obscured; and I recognized the man whom I had once supposed to be a delusion of Mr. Dick’s, and had once encountered with my aunt in the streets of the city.

He was eating as well as drinking, and seemed to eat with a hungry appetite. He seemed curious regarding the cottage, too, as if it were the first time he had seen it. After stooping to put the bottle on the ground, he looked up at the windows, and looked about; though with a covert and impatient air, as if he was anxious to be gone.The light in the passage was obscured for a moment, and my aunt came out. She was agitated, and told some money into his hand. I heard it chink.‘What’s the use of this?’ he demanded.

"I can spare no more," returned my aunt.

"Then I can’t go," said he. "Here! You may take it back!"

"You bad man," returned my aunt, with great emotion; "how can you use me so? But why do I ask? It is because you know how weak I am! What have I to do, to free myself for ever of your visits, but to abandon you to your deserts?’‘And why don’t you abandon me to my deserts?" said he.

"You ask me why!" returned my aunt. "What a heart you must have!"

He stood moodily rattling the money, and shaking his head, until at length he said:

"Is this all you mean to give me, then?"

"It is all I can give you," said my aunt. "You know I have had losses, and am poorer than I used to be. I have told you so. Having got it, why do you give me the pain of looking at you for another moment, and seeing what you have become?"

"I have become shabby enough, if you mean that," he said. "I lead the life of an owl."

"You stripped me of the greater part of all I ever had," said my aunt. [Chapter XLVII, "Martha," 689]

Commentary: The figures foregrounded, the nocturnal setting obscured

The principal incident in the chapter, as announced by its title, is Martha's attempted suicide in the Thames, interrupted by Dan'l Peggotty and David (as emphasized in Phiz's illustration The River); but Dickens's presents the sensational revelation of Betsey Trotwood's unfortunate marriage here, too. Like David, the reader is both intrigued and shocked. No wonder, then, that rather than reinterpret the riverside illustration, Furniss should choose this topic for the subject of his dark plate, even though Dickens has prepared us for this revelation in Chapter Twenty-three and Barnard had underscored the mystery with an illustration of the encounter with the street beggar (see below). The medium of the dark plate is admirable suited to the mystery surrounding this importunate beggar who haunts Aunt Betsey.

The lithograph is admirably executed as a nocturnal scene, with the background obscured in darkness and only the figures of Aunt Betsey and the beggar discernible. Furniss leaves only the open door (rear, centre) as the source of light for the atmospheric illustration that picks up the mystery of Aunt Betsey's estranged husband, now obviously a sponging alcoholic. He had apparently so ill-used her in their youth that she had left him, and resumed her maiden name and independence. But here, as in Ch. XXIII, the unnamed brute periodically returns to petition her for funds to fuel his addiction.

Realisations of Martha's Attempted Suicide and the Estranged Husband (1850 and 1872)

Left: Fred Barnard's Household Edition scene of Aunt Betsey's being pursued by her estranged husband in the street: "Trot! My dear Trot!!" cried my aunt, in a terrified whisper, and pressing my arm. "I don't know what I am to do." (1872). Right: Hablot Knight Browne's original serial illustration of David and Peggotty's interrupting Martha's suicide attempt: River (August 1850).

Relevant Illustrated Editions of this Novel (1849 through 1910)

Hablot Knight Browne's Forty steel engravings for the Chapman and Hall Edition (May 1849 through November 1850)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York Sheldon & Co. edition (Vol. 1, 1863)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York Sheldon & Co. edition (Vol. 2, 1863)
Sir John Gilbert's Frontispiece in the New York Sheldon & Co. edition (Vol. 3, 1863)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York Sheldon & Co. 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's (Kyd's) Watercolours and Player's Cigarette Card Designs (1889)

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.

Cordery, Gareth. "Remaking Miss Mowcher's Acquaintance." Dickens Quarterly 29, 1 (March 2012): 11-31.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. The Personal History of David Copperfield, illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Centenary Edition. London & New York: Chapman & Hall, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911. 2 vols.

_______. 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.

Hammerton, J. A., ed. The Dickens Picture-Book: A Record of the the Dickens Illustrations. London: Educational Book, 1910.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U.P., 1978.

Created 18 March 2022