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“There they both stood, gentlemen . . . the lady, running up to my uncle and throwing her beautiful arms round his neck; “we may yet escape.”
Thomas Onwhyn [“TO del”]
steel engraving
12.3 cm high by 10.6 cm wide (4 ¾ by 4 ⅛ inches), vignetted
Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Chapter XLIX, “Containing the Story of The Bagman's Uncle,” facing 528.
[Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
‘The noise of the combat was terrific; each of the three combatants swearing like troopers, and their swords clashing with as much noise as if all the knives and steels in Newport market were rattling together, at the same time. When it was at its very height, the lady (to encourage my uncle most probably) withdrew her hood entirely from her face, and disclosed a countenance of such dazzling beauty, that he would have fought against fifty men, to win one smile from it and die. He had done wonders before, but now he began to powder away like a raving mad giant.
‘At this very moment, the gentleman in sky-blue turning round, and seeing the young lady with her face uncovered, vented an exclamation of rage and jealousy, and, turning his weapon against her beautiful bosom, pointed a thrust at her heart, which caused my uncle to utter a cry of apprehension that made the building ring. The lady stepped lightly aside, and snatching the young man’s sword from his hand, before he had recovered his balance, drove him to the wall, and running it through him, and the panelling, up to the very hilt, pinned him there, hard and fast. It was a splendid example. My uncle, with a loud shout of triumph, and a strength that was irresistible, made his adversary retreat in the same direction, and plunging the old rapier into the very centre of a large red flower in the pattern of his waistcoat, nailed him beside his friend; there they both stood, gentlemen, jerking their arms and legs about in agony, like the toy-shop figures that are moved by a piece of pack-thread. My uncle always said, afterwards, that this was one of the surest means he knew of, for disposing of an enemy; but it was liable to one objection on the ground of expense, inasmuch as it involved the loss of a sword for every man disabled.
‘“The mail, the mail!” cried the lady, running up to my uncle and throwing her beautiful arms round his neck; “we may yet escape.”
‘“May!” cried my uncle; “why, my dear, there’s nobody else to kill, is there?” My uncle was rather disappointed, gentlemen, for he thought a little quiet bit of love-making would be agreeable after the slaughtering, if it were only to change the subject. [Chapter XLIX, "Containing the Story of The Bagman's Uncle" (September 1837), 528.
“There they both stood, gentlemen, jerking their arms and legs about in agony, like the toy-shop figures that are moved by a piece of pack-thread.
‘“The mail, the mail!” cried the lady, running up to my uncle and throwing her beautiful arms round his neck; “we may yet escape.” [528]
In accordance with the pantomime-like nature of the action in "The Bagman's Story," Onwhyn gives the protagonist a face much like Mr. Punch's. The fireplace in front of which the action occurs, at the ruinous and desolate coaching inn, is immediately to the left. Dimly in the background Onwhyn has placed a stove, as in the text. Attacked by the beautiful traveller's oppressors, the uncle engages both the villains in a sword-fight in order to rescue the young lady. However, by the time the lady mentions escaping by the mail, the uncle has slain his two aristocratic adversaries. Onwhyn's caption emphasizes the comic aspect of his realisation as the uncle has impaled both the son of the Marquess of Filletoville (left, in the tricorn hat) and his older companion, who, like true pantomime villains, refuse to die quietly. Thus, compared to the contribution by Phiz for this serial number, Onwhyn's is far more comical and dramatic, emphasizing the uncle's rescue of the damsel in distress after the ludicrous duel, rather than Phiz's delight in the eighteenth-century costuming and the coaching scene, with its varied cast and the gigantic blunderbuss and longsword.
Left: Phiz's original engraving for the interpolated tale, The Ghostly Passengers in the Ghost of a Mail (September 1837). Right: Phiz's Household Edition woodcut reworks his original 1837 steel engraving as These attentions were directed, not towards him, but to a young lady, who just then appeared at the foot of the steps (1874). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
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, 1874. Vol. 6.
Titley, Graham D. C. "Thomas Onwhyn: a Life in Illustration (1811-1886)." Pearl. University of Plymouth (2018-07-12).
Created 16 February 2024