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Beau Diddapper
George Cruikshank
January-March 1832
steel-engraving
8.6 cm high x 8.3 cm wide, vignetted
Illustration by George Cruikshank for Henry Fielding's The Adventures of Joseph Andrews (1743), Book IV, Chapter Ch. XI, "In Which the History is Continued," facing p. 321.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Joseph Andrews had borne with great uneasiness the impertinence of beau Didapper to Fanny, who had been talking pretty freely to her, and offering her settlements; but the respect to the company had restrained him from interfering whilst the beau confined himself to the use of his tongue only; but the said beau, watching an opportunity whilst the ladies' eyes were disposed another way, offered a rudeness to her with his hands; which Joseph no sooner perceived than he presented him with so sound a box on the ear, that it conveyed him several paces from where he stood. The ladies immediately screamed out, rose from their chairs; and the beau, as soon as he recovered himself, drew his hanger: which Adams observing, snatched up the lid of a pot in his left hand, and, covering himself with it as with a shield, without any weapon of offence in his other hand, stept in before Joseph, and exposed himself to the enraged beau, who threatened such perdition and destruction, that it frighted the women, who were all got in a huddle together, out of their wits, even to hear his denunciations of vengeance. Joseph was of a different complexion, and begged Adams to let his rival come on; for he had a good cudgel in his hand, and did not fear him. Fanny now fainted into Mrs. Adams's arms, and the whole room was in confusion, when Mr. Booby, passing by Adams, who lay snug under the pot-lid, came up to Didapper, and insisted on his sheathing the hanger, promising he should have satisfaction; which Joseph declared he would give him, and fight him at any weapon whatever. [Book IV, Chapter XI, "In Which the History is Continued," p. 321]
Improvising from materials readily available in a kitchen, Parson Adams in his clergyman's cassock poses as an epic hero, employing a pot lid as a shield to protect Joseph Andrews and Fanny Wellborn, who stand behind him. The discrepancy between the action (a one-on-one combat) and the domestic setting (a kitchen complete with grandfather clock, dresser and plates, and fireplace, left rear) suggests that Fielding is adapting the mock epic genre of Alexander Pope as part of his satire of both the diminutive dandy and the assertive parson. The stalwart Adams raises his familiar crab-stick to defend himself and Fanny Goodwill, in tears, as Beau Didapper (left),having drawn his short-sword or hangar, adopts the formal attack stance of a duellist.The strategist behind Didapper's assault on Fanny, Lady Booby, is the fashionably dressed, middle-aged woman, centre, between the combatants. She and three other spectators have just entered in alarm. At the instigation of Lady Booby, who is still sexually attracted to Joseph, Beau Didapper serves as the randy aristocrat's vehicle for sabotaging the forthcoming marriage of Fanny and Joseph. When Didapper, utilizing too direct an approach, had arrived at Adams' cottage in order to seduce Fanny, she was anything but interested in reciprocating his rough advances. The beau had then provoked Joseph into a physical altercation, in which Adams has just intervened as Joseph was unarmed.
After Lady Booby and her minion depart in disgust, the peddler, having seen the Lady, feels compelled to relate a tale that will clarify the births of Fanny and Joseph. While in the army, the peddler had met his wife, but they had not been married long before she died. On her death bed, she had confessed that she had once stolen an exquisitely beautiful female infant from a family named Andrews, and that she had then sold the child to the local squire, Sir Thomas Booby. At this point, the peddler seems to be raising the possibility that Fanny may be Joseph's sister. The company is momentarily shocked, but there is general relief that the crime of incest has been narrowly averted by the peddler's subsequent narration.
Cruikshank was probably not aware of Fielding's having based the figure of Didapper on an actual historical personage, namely John, Lord Hervey (1696-1743), who occupied the place of vice-chamberlain in the household of King George II. Martin C. Battestin has suggested that poet Alexander Pope's friend and fellow-satirist Henry Fielding intended the character of Beau Didapper in The Adventures of Joseph Andrews to be read as a caricature of Hervey. The novelist describes Didapper as obedient to the commands of a "Great Man" (a popular expression among 18th c. satirists for the Whig Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole) "which he implicitly submitted to, at the Expence of his Conscience, his Honour, and of his Country." Fielding also compares Didapper to the mythological Hylas, whom Parson Adams mistakes for a woman in the dark on account of his soft skin. Fielding had already satirised him in The Grub Street Opera (1741) as a servile groom. The suggestion in the novel of Hervey's being a coward is incomptible, however, with his challenging Sir William Pulteney, First Earl of Bath (1684-1764) to a duel, from which Hervey narrowly escaped with his life. The similarity in physique between Didapper and Hervey is undeniable, however. Since Hervey was afflicted by epilepsy and required a rigid diet, his weak appearance was a constant source of ridicule to his enemies, including Fielding.
Allen, Walter. "The Eighteenth Century." The English Novel: A Short Critical History. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1954. Pp. 43-102.
Burton, Anthony. "Cruikshank as an Illustrator of Fiction." George Cruikshank: A Revaluation. Ed. Robert L. Patten. Princeton: Princeton U. P., 1974, rev., 1992. Pp. 92-128.
Chesson, W. H. George Cruikshank. London: Duckworth, n. d.
Cohen, Jane Rabb. Part One, "Dickens and His Early Illustrators: 1. George Cruikshank. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio University Press, 1980. Pp. 15-38.
Fielding, Henry. The Adventures of Joseph Andrews and his friend, Parson Abraham Adams. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: James Cochrane and Co.,1832; rpt., London: George Bell, 1904.
Fielding, Henry. Joseph Andrews, Shamela and Related Writings.Ed. Homer Goldberg. New York: Norton Critical Editions, 1987.
Kitton, Frederic G. "George Cruikshank." Dickens and His Illustrators. London: Chapman & Hall, 1899. Pp. 1-28.
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Patten, Robert L. "Phase 2: The Finest Things, Next to Rembrandt's — Chapter 21, "An 'Average-European' Style." George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, vol. 1: 1792-1835. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers U. P., 1992; London: The Lutterworth Press, 1992. Pp. 341-354.
Last modified 8 March 2018