xxx xxx

The Princess Alicia — otherwise known as The Princess Alicia and the Seventeen Cooks, second full-page illustration for A Holiday Romance in Ticknor-Fields' Our Young Folks, An Illustrated Magazine For Boys and Girls, Vol. IV (facing p. 133), March 1868. Wood-engraving, 20.5 cm high by 12.7 cm wide (8 by 5 inches), vignetted. Left: The colourized version serves as the cover of the Every Edition (1995).

Passage Realised: Princess Alicia and the Seventeen Cooks

Well! and so another time the baby fell under the grate. The seventeen young princes and princesses were used to it; for they were almost always falling under the grate or down the stairs; but the baby was not used to it yet, and it gave him a swelled face and a black eye. The way the poor little darling came to tumble was, that he was out of the Princess Alicia’s lap just as she was sitting, in a great coarse apron that quite smothered her, in front of the kitchen-fire, beginning to peel the turnips for the broth for dinner; and the way she came to be doing that was, that the king’s cook had run away that morning with her own true love, who was a very tall but very tipsy soldier. Then the seventeen young princes and princesses, who cried at everything that happened, cried and roared. But the Princess Alicia (who couldn’t help crying a little herself) quietly called to them to be still, on account of not throwing back the queen up-stairs, who was fast getting well, and said, ‘Hold your tongues, you wicked little monkeys, every one of you, while I examine baby!’ Then she examined baby, and found that he hadn’t broken anything; and she held cold iron to his poor dear eye, and smoothed his poor dear face, and he presently fell asleep in her arms. Then she said to the seventeen princes and princesses, ‘I am afraid to let him down yet, lest he should wake and feel pain; be good, and you shall all be cooks.’ They jumped for joy when they heard that, and began making themselves cooks’ caps out of old newspapers. So to one she gave the salt-box, and to one she gave the barley, and to one she gave the herbs, and to one she gave the turnips, and to one she gave the carrots, and to one she gave the onions, and to one she gave the spice-box, till they were all cooks, and all running about at work, she sitting in the middle, smothered in the great coarse apron, nursing baby. By and by the broth was done; and the baby woke up, smiling, like an angel, and was trusted to the sedatest princess to hold, while the other princes and princesses were squeezed into a far-off corner to look at the Princess Alicia turning out the saucepanful of broth, for fear (as they were always getting into trouble) they should get splashed and scalded. When the broth came tumbling out, steaming beautifully, and smelling like a nosegay good to eat, they clapped their hands. [Part II, "Romance. From the Pen of Miss Alice Rainbird," 133]

Commentary: The Domestic Princess

In his February plate for the series, The Princess Alicia (Vol. IV, No. 3), Gilbert's choice of scene and manner of execution are ineffective, despite the fact that the picture compels the reader to wait over four pages for the textual complement, thereby generating some suspense. Gilbert has determined to present the heroine and her siblings, the seventeen young princes and princesses, as cooks. But "When the broth came tumbling out . . . , they clapped their hands" (133) has far less potential for illustration than either the opening or closing appearances of the Good Fairy Grandmarina. Though the fire-irons, bowls, and cooks' caps made of old newspapers are well drawn, these domestic details hardly excite the interest (let alone the imagination) of the young viewer: the broth, after all, is far less miraculous than the fish-bone for which this instalment of A Holiday Romance is usually named. Furthermore, although this was Gilbert's greatest opportunity to render a dynamic female character, he has elected instead to show Alicia in a purely domestic role, as her siblings' care-giver and cook rather than as a protagonist faced with the moral choice of when she should resort to magic instead of her own resourcefulness.

Other plates by Gilbert

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.]

Bibliography

Allingham, Philip V. "The Original Illustrations for Dickens's A Holiday Romance by John Gilbert, Sol Eytinge, and G. G. White as these appeared in Our Young Folks, An Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. IV." Dickensian 92, 1 (Spring 1996): 31-47.

Cunnington, Phillis, and Anne Buck. Children's Costume in England 1300-1900. London: Adams and Charles Black, 1965.

Dickens, Charles. A Holiday Romance in Our Young Folks, An Illustrated Magazine For Boys and Girls, Vol. IV. Boston: Ticknor Fields, January-May, 1868. Rpt. All the Year Round, 1868.

Dickens, Charles. A Holiday Romance and Other Writings for Children. Ed. Gillian Avery. Everyman Dickens. London: J. M. Dent; Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 1995.


Created 19 April 2002

Last modified 29 January 2023