“He’s not used to ladies' society, and it makes him bashful. If you’ll order the waiter to deliver him anything short, he won’t drink it off at once, won’t he? — only try him.”</a></span> Page 497. — Thomas Onwhyn’s twenty-seventh extra illustration for Charles Dickens's “The Pickwick Club” (26 October 1837)

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“He’s not used to ladies’ society, and it makes him bashful. If you’ll order the waiter to deliver him anything short, he won’t drink it off at once, won’t he? — only try him.”

Thomas Onwhyn [“TO del”]

steel engraving

12 cm high by 10.9 cm wide (4 ½ by 4 ¼ inches), vignetted

Charles Dickens’s The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Chapter XLVI, “Records A Touching Act if Delicate Feeling, not Unmixed with Pleasantry, Achieved and Performed by Messrs. Dodson and Fogg,” facing 497.

[Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: The Devious Jackson Delivers Mrs. Bardell to the Fleet Prison

‘Oh, ask your friend to come here, Sir,’ said Mrs. Bardell. ‘Pray ask your friend here, Sir.’

‘Why, thank’ee, I’d rather not,’ said Mr. Jackson, with some embarrassment of manner. ‘He’s not much used to ladies’ society, and it makes him bashful. If you’ll order the waiter to deliver him anything short, he won’t drink it off at once, won’t he! — only try him!’ Mr. Jackson’s fingers wandered playfully round his nose at this portion of his discourse, to warn his hearers that he was speaking ironically.

The waiter was at once despatched to the bashful gentleman, and the bashful gentleman took something; Mr. Jackson also took something, and the ladies took something, for hospitality’s sake. Mr. Jackson then said he was afraid it was time to go; upon which, Mrs. Sanders, Mrs. Cluppins, and Tommy (who it was arranged should accompany Mrs. Bardell, leaving the others to Mr. Raddle’s protection), got into the coach. [Chapter XLVI, “Records A Touching Act if Delicate Feeling, not Unmixed with Pleasantry, Achieved and Performed by Messrs. Dodson and Fogg,” 497]

Commentary: The Outing to The Spaniards comes to an Unexpected Conclusion

Onwhy has already introduced the devious minion of Dodson and Fogg, the fashionably dressed, cheeky Jackson, in “I suppose, Sir,” said Mr. Pickwick, “that it is the intention of your employers to seek to criminate me, upon the evidence of my own friends.” “Very good plant,” replied Jackson, “But it won’t do.” “No harm trying, but there’s little to be got out of me.” in Chapter XXXI. This illustration announces its location through its embedded signage: The Spaniards Tea-gardens in Hampstead Heath, the destination for Mrs. Bardell's outing with some of her friends from Goswell Street: Mrs. Rogers, Mr. and Mrs. Raddle, little Mrs. Cluppins, the first-floor lodger, and Mrs. Sanders. But who is Jackson's surly companion to the right — "a shabby man in black leggings" who is holding a stout ash stick? Onwhyn's contemporary viewers would have recognised Isaac instantly as a type: a bailiff.

The text, of course, resolves both his identity and the reason for his accompanying Jackson to the tea-gardens. He indicates that Dodson and Fogg require her on "very important and pressing business," and that his companion, "Isaac," will be accompanying them to the law offices. The issue, as Jackson mentions once they are in the carriage, is the cognivit that she signed over to the lawyers for the costs of the legal action against Pickwick. She promptly falls asleep. When she suddenly awakens when the carriage halts, Isaac and Jackson conduct Mrs. Bardell not into the law offices, but into the Fleet, where, on the second story, she suddenly encounters Mr. Pickwick. That telling moment has already been realised by Phiz as Mrs. Bardell encounters Mr. Pickwick in the Prison (August 1837), a plate which Onwhyn would have seen several months before composing this scene the Spaniards.

Mrs. Bardell as depicted in other editions (1836-1874)

Mrs. Bardell faints in Mr. Pickwick's arms by Phiz (August 1836)
Mrs. Bardell encounters Mr. Pickwick in the Prison by Phiz (August 1837)
"He, too, will have a companion," resumed Mr. Pickwick by Thomas Nast (1873)
"Take this little villain away," said the agonised Mr. Pickwick by Phiz (1874)
Mrs. Bardell screamed violently; Tommy roared; Mrs. Cluppins shrunk within herself; and Mrs. Sanders made off without more ado by Phiz (1874)
Terrible Position of Mr. Pickwick by Harry Furniss (1910)

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).

_______. The Pickwick Papers. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874; New York: Harpers and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 6.

Titley, Graham D. C. "Thomas Onwhyn: a Life in Illustration (1811-1886)." Pearl. University of Plymouth (2018-07-12).

Created 29 February 2024