"I sowed my grain" — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

I sowed my grain

Wal Paget (1863-1935)

half-page lithograph

11.5 cm high by 8.4 cm wide, vignetted.

1891

Robinson Crusoe, embedded on page 72.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Sowing the Long-nurtured Barley Seed

I have mentioned that I had saved the few ears of barley and rice, which I had so surprisingly found spring up, as I thought, of themselves, and I believe there were about thirty stalks of rice, and about twenty of barley; and now I thought it a proper time to sow it, after the rains, the sun being in its southern position, going from me. Accordingly, I dug up a piece of ground as well as I could with my wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, I sowed my grain; but as I was sowing, it casually occurred to my thoughts that I would not sow it all at first, because I did not know when was the proper time for it, so I sowed about two-thirds of the seed, leaving about a handful of each. It was a great comfort to me afterwards that I did so, for not one grain of what I sowed this time came to anything: for the dry months following, the earth having had no rain after the seed was sown, it had no moisture to assist its growth, and never came up at all till the wet season had come again, and then it grew as if it had been but newly sown. Finding my first seed did not grow, which I easily imagined was by the drought, I sought for a moister piece of ground to make another trial in, and I dug up a piece of ground near my new bower, and sowed the rest of my seed in February, a little before the vernal equinox; and this having the rainy months of March and April to water it, sprung up very pleasantly, and yielded a very good crop; but having part of the seed left only, and not daring to sow all that I had, I had but a small quantity at last, my whole crop not amounting to above half a peck of each kind. But by this experiment I was made master of my business, and knew exactly when the proper season was to sow, and that I might expect two seed-times and two harvests every year. [Chapter VII, "Agricultural Experience," pp. 75-76]

Commentary: Sowing the Seed

In the 1863-64 Cassell edition Thomas Macquoid had continued the theme of Crusoe's moving away from hunting and towards an agricultural experience after he had discovered barley growing. Here, having survived a near-death experience, Crusoe becomes a sower of the seed literally, but also metaphorically the founding father of the island as a vast and fertile plantation. Macquoid's ornate border of mature barely in the earlier illustration had implied that his endeavours will bear fruit. The fruitful border suggests that, by trial and error with agriculture as with all his other activities, Crusoe will eventually enjoy the moderate success of the patient amateur. Since Crusoe has had an evangelical conversion after a debilitating fever (a religious experience which other illustrators have emphasized but which Paget only suggests), Crusoe's replicating the image of the Sower of the Word is both symbolic and realistic. As the model planter, he lays the foundation for the island's plantations in the second half of the novel, and facilitates the Christianizing of the island.Paget hints at nature's undoing of his patient labour by the birds that are following the oblivious sower at a discrete distance.

Related Material

Reference

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by Himself. With upwards of One Hundred and Twenty Original Illustrations by Walter Paget. London, Paris, and Melbourne: Cassell, 1891.

Last modified 28 April 2018