“'Damn you,' said I . . . I will have it.'” — Thomas Onwhyn's eighth extra illustration for Charles Dickens's "The Pickwick Club" (30 June 1837)

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“'Damn you,' said I . . . I will have it.'”

Thomas Onwhyn [unsigned]

steel engraving

14.5 cm high by 9.5 cm wide (5 ¼ by 3 ¾ inches), vignetted

June 30, 1837 (third instalment)

Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Chapter XI, “Involving Another Journey, and an Antiquarian Discovery. Recording Mr. Pickwick’s Determination to be Present at an Election; and Containing a Manuscript of the Old Clergyman’s.” (July 1836), facing page 111.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: The Confrontation between the Madman and his irate Brother-in-Law (July 1836)

‘I saw the sudden change that came upon him beneath my gaze. He was a bold man, but the colour faded from his face, and he drew back his chair. I dragged mine nearer to him; and I laughed — I was very merry then — I saw him shudder. I felt the madness rising within me. He was afraid of me.

‘“You were very fond of your sister when she was alive,” I said. — “Very.”

‘He looked uneasily round him, and I saw his hand grasp the back of his chair; but he said nothing.

‘“You villain,” said I, “I found you out: I discovered your hellish plots against me; I know her heart was fixed on some one else before you compelled her to marry me. I know it — I know it.”

‘He jumped suddenly from his chair, brandished it aloft, and bid me stand back — for I took care to be getting closer to him all the time I spoke.

‘I screamed rather than talked, for I felt tumultuous passions eddying through my veins, and the old spirits whispering and taunting me to tear his heart out.

‘“Damn you,” said I, starting up, and rushing upon him; “I killed her. I am a madman. Down with you. Blood, blood! I will have it!”

‘I turned aside with one blow the chair he hurled at me in his terror, and closed with him; and with a heavy crash we rolled upon the floor together.

‘It was a fine struggle that; for he was a tall, strong man, fighting for his life; and I, a powerful madman, thirsting to destroy him. I knew no strength could equal mine, and I was right. Right again, though a madman! His struggles grew fainter. I knelt upon his chest, and clasped his brawny throat firmly with both hands. His face grew purple; his eyes were starting from his head, and with protruded tongue, he seemed to mock me. I squeezed the tighter. [Chapter XI, “Involving Another Journey, and an Antiquarian Discovery. Recording Mr. Pickwick’s Determination to be Present at an Election; and Containing a Manuscript of the Old Clergyman’s,” 111]

Commentary: A Departure from the Style of Robert Seymour and Phiz in "The Madman's Tale"

‘“Damn you,” said I, starting up, and rushing upon him; “I killed her. I am a Madman. Down with you. Blood, blood. I will have it.” Page 111.

Since this interpolated tale involves emotionally-wrought characters from the past ("many years ago") and not genial Pickwickians, Onwhyn has composed his parlour scene in a style radically different from that of Seymour and Phiz. The candle flares up in the darkened room, illuminating the curtains and the distorted visages of the enraged adversaries, a soldier (left) and upper-middle-class "gentleman" in formal dress (right). There is very much a Baroque sense of "caught in the moment" as a chair, balanced on its back legs is about to fall upstage (right). But what grips the viewer's attention is the snarling faces of the opponents in this unusual arena of combat, a perfectly orderly English parlour. This story was not illustrated at the time Chapman and Hall issued it in the fourth instalment, and in fact has never been illustrated since Onwhyn's 31 July 1837 "extra" engraving. For whatever reason, the original illustrators of the serial novel only occasionally provided pictorial realisations of the various interpolated tales, namely for "The Dying Clown," "The Last Visit of Heling to the Old Man," "The Goblin and the Sexton," and "The Ghostly Passengers in the Ghost of a Mail."

Returning to the eleventh chapter (the the serial reader had perused the text of the psychological, Poe-esque first-person narrative in June 1836, but is now regarding the Onwhyn illustration on the last day of June, 1837), the reader must study "A Madman's Manuscript" to clarify the moment realised and its significance. Neither adversary is especially worthy of the reader's compassion, for the madman has been cruel to his young wife, and her brother (the madman's brother-in-law) has prevented her from marrying the man she loved, has insisted she marry the wealthy narrator (who has yet to reveal his insanity), and has used his brother-in-law's money to purchase his commission. Thus, his officer's uniform is "The livery of his degradation." But this scene marks a turning point, for the servants break into the room just as the madman is strangling the officer, and the narrator's psychosis is known to all. Shortly he is consigned to a "grey cell where the sun-light seldom comes," and spends the rest of his life in an asylum.

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).

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

Created 9 February 2024