"Whether I sicks or monthlies, Ma'am, . . . . I do require it, which I makes confession, to be brought reg'lar and draw'd mild." — Fred Barnard's thirty-first composite wood-block engraving for Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, Chapter XXV, page 209. [Dickens has Mrs. Gamp stipulate her conditions of employment, including regular service of alcoholic beverages, in order to underscore her bibulous nature and lax professional standards as a private nurse.] 10.5 x 13.7 cm, or 4 ¼ high by 5 ½ inches, framed, engraved by the Dalziels. Running head: "The Bull's Patient," 209. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Her Terms for Working at The Bull in Holborn, London
"Oh! Fie, fie! Nonsense, Mrs. Gamp," replied the undertaker. "Devilish smart, though. Ca-pi-tal!" — this was in a whisper. "My dear" — aloud again — "Mrs. Gamp can drink a glass of rum, I dare say. Sit down, Mrs Gamp, sit down."
Mrs. Gamp took the chair that was nearest the door, and casting up her eyes towards the ceiling, feigned to be wholly insensible to the fact of a glass of rum being in preparation, until it was placed in her hand by one of the young ladies, when she exhibited the greatest surprise.
"A thing," she said, "as hardly ever, Mrs. Mould, occurs with me unless it is when I am indispoged, and find my half a pint of porter settling heavy on the chest. Mrs. Harris often and often says to me, 'Sairey Gamp,' she says, 'you raly do amaze me!' 'Mrs. Harris,' I says to her, 'why so? Give it a name, I beg.” “Telling the truth then, ma’am,” says Mrs. Harris, 'and shaming him as shall be nameless betwixt you and me, never did I think till I know’d you, as any woman could sick-nurse and monthly likeways, on the little that you takes to drink.' 'Mrs. Harris,' I says to her, 'none on us knows what we can do till we tries; and wunst, when me and Gamp kept ‘ouse, I thought so too. But now,' I says, 'my half a pint of porter fully satisfies; perwisin’, Mrs Harris, that it is brought reg’lar, and draw’d mild. Whether I sicks or monthlies, ma’am, I hope I does my duty, but I am but a poor woman, and I earns my living hard; therefore I do require it, which I makes confession, to be brought reg’lar and draw’d mild.'” [Chapter XXV, "Is Part Professional; and Furnishes the Reader with Some Valuable Hints in Relation to the Management of a Sick Chamber," 207. Running head "Mrs. Harris is Mentioned," 207]
Commentary
While Jonas is down in Wiltshire, visiting the Pecksniffs and his rich uncle, Mr. Mould, the local undertaker in Holborn, recommends that Mrs. Gamp be hired to look after the ill Chuffey. She is already working as a night nurse at the Bull Inn, attending to a young man suffering from a fever. In his delirium in the middle of the night, he cries out, "Chuzzlewit! Jonas! No!" (212). Dickens leaves us in suspense at the curtain as he does not make it clear what else Mrs. Gamp has heard, and whether it incriminates Jonas. See also The Immortal Sairey! A Gallery of Dickens's Mrs. Gamp by Phiz and Others (1843-1910).
Relevant Sairey Gamp illustrations, 1843 to 1910
Left: Phiz's Mrs. Gamp Propoges a Toast (Ch. 49, June 1844). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Sairey Gamp and Bestsey Prig (1867). Right: Harry Furniss's synthesis of the character as drawn by Phiz and Barnard, Sairey Gamp (1910).
Left: F. O. C. Darley's frontispiece for volume two, "The creetur's head's so hot," said Mrs. Gamp, alluding to her attendance on the old clerk, Chuffey. Centre: Kyd's miniature portrait of Mrs. Gamp walking through the streets with hat, bag, and umbrella, Sairey Gamp (card no. 24, 1910). Right: From Kyd's book of remarkable Dickens characters, Sairey Gamp in watercolour, as seen in Ch. 19. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Above: Fred Barnard's Mrs. Gamp favours the company with an exhibition of professional skill, old Chuffey being the object of her ministrations (Chapter XLVI, the Household Edition, 1872). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Above: Fred Barnard's Sairey Gamp rose — morally and physically rose — and denounced her." (Chapter XLIX, the Household Edition, 1872). [Click on image to enlarge it.]
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 22 November 2024