Caleb Plummer and His Blind Daughter, Bertha
Fred Barnard
1884
11.1 x 9 cm framed
One of six lithographs in A Series of Character Sketches from Dickens, from the Original Drawings by Frederick Barnard. . .. Series 2: Tony and Sam Weller; Caleb Plummer and his blind daughter, Bertha; Little Nell and her grandfather, and Rogue Riderhood, Dan'l Peggotty, and Seth Pecksniff. (1884).
Dickens describes with detailed dialogue the scene between the father the daughter in the toymakers' workroom in their Dorset cottage. Caleb has attempted to maintain the illusion that they were affluent rather than penurious, and that their employer, Tackleton, is a generous father-figure rather than a cynical capitalist. [Click on illustration to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [See below for commentary, and mouse over the text for links.]
Passage Illustrated
"So you were out in the rain last night, father, in your beautiful, new, great-coat," said Caleb's daughter.
"In my beautiful new great-coat," answered Caleb, glancing towards a clothes-line in the room, on which the sackcloth garment previously described, was carefully hung up to dry.
"How glad I am you bought it, father!"
"And of such a tailor, too," said Caleb. "Quite a fashionable tailor. It's too good for me."
The Blind Girl rested from her work, and laughed with delight. "Too good, father! What can be too good for you?"
"I'm half-ashamed to wear it though," said Caleb, watching the effect of what he said, upon her brightening face; "upon my word. When I hear the boys and people say behind me, 'Hal-loo! Here's a swell!' I don't know which way to look. And when the beggar wouldn't go away last night; and, when I said I was a very common man, said 'No, your Honor! Bless your Honor, don't say that!' I was quite ashamed. I really felt as if I hadn't a right to wear it."
Happy Blind Girl! How merry she was, in her exultation!
"I see you, father," she said, clasping her hands, "as plainly, as if I had the eyes I never want when you are with me. A blue coat —"
"Bright-blue," said Caleb.
"Yes, yes! Bright-blue!" exclaimed the girl, turning up her radiant face; "the color I can just remember in the blessed sky! You told me it was blue before! A bright-blue coat —" "Chirp the Second," p. 91 in the 1878 edition]
Caption and Commentary
"'I see you, father," sh said, clapping her hands, "as plainly as if I had the eyes I never want when you are with me.'" — Cricket on the Hearth. [1884, "Series 2."]
Barnard has taken the opportunity afforded by the colour lithograph to reflect on his own and other illustrators' versions of the visual realisations of the witty dialogue between father and daughter that opens the second chapter ("Chirp") the the 1845 Christmas Book that was so successful on the British stage in multiple adaptations throughout the century. And his treatment here with deep aerial perspective of the little room does suggest a staging of the sentimental scene. The lithograph keeps the bric-a-brac of the toys in progress to a minimum, uses the bare floorboards to emphasize the perspective, and has a blank, slightly discoloured plaster wall in the background to draw the eye forward to the two figures. Barnard realizes Caleb and his daughter realistically, making them, therefore, a sharp departure from the caricatures of the 1845 Christmas Book.
The Toymakers' Workroom in the 1845 and 1878 Editions
Three illustrations of Caleb and Bertha Plummer in their parlour, which doubles as their workroom: Left: Richard Doyle's "Chirp the Second". Centre: John Leech's Caleb at Work. Right: Barnard's detailed realisation of the scene in the workshop when Tackleton arrives: "The extent to which he's winking at this moment!" whispered Caleb to his daughter. "Oh, my gracious!" (1878).
Links to Related Material
- The Five Christmas Books, and the Christmas Stories published in Periodicals
- The Christmas Stories of Charles Dickens
- Illustrations of Dickens's The Cricket on the Hearth
You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them (Philip Allingham) and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. The Christmas Books, with 28 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1878. Vol. XVII.
Dickens, Charles. The Cricket on the Hearth. A Fairy Tale of Home. Illustrated by John Leech, Daniel Maclise, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield, and Edwin Landseer. Engraved by George Dalziel, Edward Dalziel, T. Williams, J. Thompson, R. Graves, and Joseph Swain. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1846 [December 1845].
Dickens, Charles. The Cricket on the Hearth. Christmas Books. Illustrated Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1878. Vol. XVII. Pp. 77-117.
A Series of Character Sketches from Dickens, from the Original Drawings by Frederick Barnard, Being Facsimiles of Original Drawings by Fred. Barnard. Series 2: Tony and Sam Weller; Caleb Plummer and his blind daughter, Bertha; Little Nell and her grandfather; Rogue Riderhood; Dan'l Peggotty Searching for Little Emily; and Seth Pecksniff. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1884.
Created 30 January 2025