"Matter!" cried the voice of Mr. Pecksniff, as Pecksniff in the flesh smiled amiably upon him. "The matter, Mr. Jonas!" — Fred Barnard's twenty-fourth illustration for Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit (Chapter XVIII), page 153. [Pecksniff has come up to London to discuss "business" with Jonas's father, Anthony Chuzzlewit, parsimonious brother of the wealthy Martin Chuzzlewit, Senior.] 9.5 cm x 13.8 cm, or 3 ¾ high by 5 ½ inches, framed. Running head: "Jonas and His Unnatural Parent," 153. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Meanwhile, Back in London . . . Villain meets Villain
"What’s the matter?" cried Jonas, falling back. "Who is it? Where do you come from? What do you want?"
"Matter!" cried the voice of Mr. Pecksniff, as Pecksniff in the flesh smiled amiably upon him. "The matter, Mr. Jonas!"
"What are you prying and peering about here for?" said Jonas, angrily. "What do you mean by coming up to town in this way, and taking one unawares? It’s precious odd a man can’t read the — the newspaper — in his own office without being startled out of his wits by people coming in without notice. Why didn’t you knock at the door?"
"So I did, Mr. Jonas," answered Pecksniff, "but no one heard me. I was curious," he added in his gentle way as he laid his hand upon the young man’s shoulder, "to find out what part of the newspaper interested you so much; but the glass was too dim and dirty."
Jonas glanced in haste at the partition. Well. It wasn’t very clean. So far he spoke the truth.
"Was it poetry now?" said Mr. Pecksniff, shaking the forefinger of his right hand with an air of cheerful banter. "Or was it politics? Or was it the price of stock? The main chance, Mr Jonas, the main chance, I suspect."
"You ain’t far from the truth," answered Jonas, recovering himself and snuffing the candle; ‘but how the deuce do you come to be in London again? Ecod! it’s enough to make a man stare, to see a fellow looking at him all of a sudden, who he thought was sixty or seventy mile away."
"So it is," said Mr Pecksniff. "No doubt of it, my dear Mr. Jonas. For while the human mind is constituted as it is —"
"Oh, bother the human mind," interrupted Jonas with impatience, "what have you come up for?"
"A little matter of business," said Mr. Pecksniff, "which has arisen quite unexpectedly." [Chapter XVIII, "Does Business with the House of Anthony Chuzzlewit and Son, from which One of the Partners Retires Unexpectedly," 155; Running head; "In Secret Conference," 155]
Commentary: A Caricature of a Villain
For the essentially realistic style of Fred Barnard, leading New Man of the Sixties, this full-length portrait of a snarling villain, the self-entitled and self-centred Jonas Chuzzlewit, cupidinous scion of the miserly Anthony Chuzzlewit, is decidedly "over the top." Unbeknownst to the oily Seth Pecksniff, Jonas has been taunting his miserly father for remaining inconveniently alive and not leaving his vast fortune to his son. The little matter of business which the Wiltshire architect has come to negotiate with Anthony is the marriage between Jonas and his daughter Mercy. The old man suddenly falls ill in the midst of the negotiations, but Pecknsniff's presence is convenient enough, remarks Jonas, for nobody can accuse him of having caused this sudden illness, an illness which, hint the closing lines of the chapter, proves fatal. Through this ugly portrait Barnard emphasizes Jonas's animalistic nature, for he is by turns a coward and a bully, surly and truculent in manner, and instantly recognizable in voice and image.
Studies of Jonas and Old Chuffey in other editions
Left: Phiz's study of Anthony's dramatic collapse in the counting-house: The Dissolution of a Partnership (August 1843). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s treatment of the trio emphasizes their physical similarities: Anthony and Jonas Chuzzlewit and Chuffey (1867). Right: Harry Furniss's study of the aged, infirm, and apparently mentally incompetent clerk: Old Chuffey (1910). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Dickens, Charles. The Dickens Souvenir Book. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1871-1880. The copy of The Dickens Souvenir Book from which these pictures were scanned is in the collection of the Main Library of The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B. C.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne. London: Chapman and Hall, 1844.
_____. Martin Chuzzlewit. Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. 55 vols. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. New York: Sheldon and Co., 1863. Vol. 2 of 4.
_____. Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. 2.
_____. Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated Sterling Edition. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne and Frederick Barnard. Boston: Dana Estes, n. d. [1890s]
_____. Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 7.
Steig, Michael. "From Caricature to Progress: Master Humphrey's Clock and Martin Chuzzlewit." Ch. 3, Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U.P., 1978. Pp. 51-85. [See e-text in Victorian Web.]
Steig, Michael. "Martin Chuzzlewit's Progress by Dickens and Phiz." Dickens Studies Annual 2 (1972): 119-149.
31 January 2008
Last modified 20 November 2024