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Passage Illustrated: A Moment of Tension and Crisis

Clinker accordingly followed us into the room, cap in hand, where, addressing himself to Mrs Tabitha, ‘May it please your ladyship’s worship (cried he) to pardon and forgive my offences, and, with God’s assistance, I shall take care that my tail shall never rise up in judgment against me, to offend your ladyship again. Do, pray, good, sweet, beautiful lady, take compassion on a poor sinner​—​God bless your noble countenance; I am sure you are too handsome and generous to bear malice — I will serve you on my bended knees, by night and by day, by land and by water; and all for the love and pleasure of serving such an excellent lady.’

This compliment and humiliation had some effect upon Tabby; but she made no reply; and Clinker, taking silence for consent, gave his attendance at dinner. The fellow’s natural aukwardness and the flutter of his spirits were productive of repeated blunders in the course of his attendance — At length, he spilt part of a custard upon her right shoulder; and, starting back, trod upon Chowder, who set up a dismal howl — Poor Humphry was so disconcerted at this double mistake, that he dropt the china dish, which broke into a thousand pieces; then, falling down upon his knees, remained in that posture gaping, with a most ludicrous aspect of distress. Mrs. Bramble flew to the dog, and, snatching him in her arms, presented him to her brother saying, ‘This is all a concerted scheme against this unfortunate animal, whose only crime is its regard for me — Here it is, kill it at once, and then you’ll be satisfied.’

Clinker, hearing these words, and taking them in the literal acceptation, got up in some hurry, and seizing a knife from the side-board, cried, ‘Not here, an please your ladyship—It will daub the room—Give him to me, and I’ll carry him to the ditch by the roadside’ To this proposal he received no other answer, than a hearty box on the ear, that made him stagger to the other side of the room. ‘What! (said she to her brother) am I to be affronted by every mangy hound that you pick up on the highway? I insist upon your sending this rascallion about his business immediately’ ‘For God’s sake, sister, compose yourself (said my uncle) and consider that the poor fellow is innocent of any intention to give you offence’ ‘Innocent as the babe unborn’ (cried Humphry). ‘I see it plainly (exclaimed this implacable maiden), he acts by your direction; and you are resolved to support him in his impudence This is a bad return for all the services I have done you; for nursing you in your sickness, managing your family, and keeping you from ruining yourself by your own imprudence—But now you shall part with that rascal or me, upon the spot, without farther loss of time; and the world shall see whether you have more regard for your own flesh and blood, or for a beggarly foundling taken from the dunghill.’ ["To Sir Watkin Phillips," London, May 24, page 95]

Commentary: Who is the Continuing Character?

As John Vladimir Price points out, the eponymous hero does not serve the usual function of a supposed protagonist: “Humphry both is and is not the centre of our attention. Neither a hero nor an anti-hero, but a non-hero, his function in the novel is to conflate as many diverse qualities of character as possible. A number of character traits focus in him, and he has something in common with every other character in the book” (23). Cruikshank therefore follows Smollet, emphasizing other characters as well as Humphry in his illustrations. Looking at his four vignettes for the 1831 edition of The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771), the reader notes that one concerns the irascible Scottish army officer Obadiah Lismahago, whereas the other three (as indicated by their captions) focus on the fortunes of the Brambles' servant, Humphry. Although the principal continuing character is Welsh landowner Matthew Bramble, Smollett undoubtedly created confusion in readers' minds (as well as the minds of his illustrators) by making a secondary character the eponymous figure. One might argue that Cruikshank's emphasis merely reflects Smollett's practice.

In the earlier picaresque novel The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom (1755) Smollett has reasonably defined the genre of the novel as

a large diffused picture, comprehending the characters of life, disposed in different groups, and exhibited in various attitudes, for the purposes of an informal plan, and​general occurrence, to which​every individual figure is subservient. But this plan cannot executed with propriety, probability or success, without a principal personage to attract the attention, unite the incidents, unwind the clue of the labyrinth, and at last close the scene by virtue of his own importance.

Perhaps Cruikshank did not perceive Matthew Bramble as​ the "principal personage" since he does not "attract attention" in the way that the amiable peasant Humphry Clinker does, even though his master is clearly more important. John V. Price has questioned whether Smollett's last novel fits Smollett's own definition of the genre. The fact remains that in his last novel Smollett almost eschews plot in favour of character and the overall structure of the narrative for telling individual incidents given through the correspondence of distinctly voiced characters. If one of Smollett's earliest critics is correct,​ Humphry Clinker is not so much a picaresque novel as a "romance in the epistolary form" (cited in Price, p. 7). Since the novel embraces many eighteenth-century forms — the epistolary narrative, the travelogue, the character sketch, the expository essay, and even the spiritual autobiography — Cruikshank seems to have abandoned any attempt to follow the master because he lacked visual interest, and focussed instead upon the well-meaning but inept servant who gets into and out of scrapes by sheer good luck rather than intelligence. Had he selected one of the two principal letter-writers, Jeremy Melford and Matthew Bramble, as his principal subject since their letters account for more than four-fifths of the novel, Cruikshank would not have been able to highlight the story's funniest scenes. This is the only one of the four vignettes in which Cruikshank clearly depicts Jeremy and Matthew, despite their significance as correspondents.

Another strategy (which mercifully Cruikshank rejected) would have been to respond to Thomas Rowlandson's ten copper-plate engravings for the eighteenth-century edition of the novel, in particular, Direful Consequences of Clinker's Awkwardness, showing both Humphry and Tabitha as grotesques confronting one another. Rowlandson treats the scene as if it were a moment in a stage farce, a tableau vivant in which all the characters are in motion and emotionally engaged in Tabitha's response to Humphry's just having broken the crockery. Cruikshank uses the scene, framed as if it were an oil painting, to satirize the typical upper-middle class family portrait: instead of domestic harmony and staid respectability, he gives us conflict. As Humphry and his mistress present sharply contrasting emotions, the others serve as an audience, Jeremy responding with aloof amusement, Winny with utter surprise, Liddy (undoubtedly used to her aunt's rantings) with equanimity. Meanwhile, Matthew (right), fork raised, appraises Humphry's petition and the broken crockery on the floor.

Had Cruikshank followed the lead of his artistic progenitor (who died only four years before he received the Roscoe commission) and focussed on the distorted characters, Tabitha Bramble — funny because of her very obtuseness, egotism, and lack of common sense — would have assumed greater prominence in the 1831 edition, along with her suitor, Lismahago, a broken down, highly opinionated, contrarian who is an illustrator's delight who appears in three of Rowlandson's 1793 plates, although he is introduced late in the story and disappears for a considerable time. However, Cruikshank must have felt that he had to balance the convention of drawing the chief continuing character with his own taste for quirky, odd, irascible, argumentative, and especially grotesque characters of the Rowlandson variety. Moreover, he must have realised that he had to signal the importance of the phlegmatic Scott to the marriage plot that Smollett has built around the crusty Tabitha Bramble. Thus, in the frontispiece and again in Humphry's Disaster, Cruikshank assimilates the gangly servant into the Bramble family, who appear in the background, in their carriage in the​first​ illustration, and gathered around the table for dinner in the second.​He transforms the chaotic confrontation which Rowlandson depicted into the moment when Matthew Bramble is about to restore order.

Cruikshank juxtaposes Bramble and his favourite, Humphry, right, with the indignant Tabby and her favoured creature, Chowder, left. Jeremy, the recorder of the scene​at the dining-room of the inn at Salt Hill, is to the left rear,​and​his sister,​Liddy, seated at table, is supported by her maid, Winifred Jenkins​(standing), who is about to serve a beverage. The broken crockery which has been the catalyst for the confrontation is front and centre. Thus, Cruikshank integrates​Humphry into the Bramble family​at a moment of contention, when Matt​pronounces judgment on the indulged, naughty hound whom Tabitha has consistently​refused to restrain.​The​family picture, framed in imitation of eighteenth-century illustrations, constitutes something of a turning-point in that, having reached the limit of his​tolerance for his sister's ill-temper, Mr. Bramble puts her in his place to check her rancorous and capricious influence.​Cruikshank has reserved his most virulent satire for her, making her a decrepit harridan — a grotesque. He acknowledges her importance in the story thus far by making hers the largest figure in the composition​because, up to this point, she has been the principal source of conflict within the travelogue. Her brother, the head of the Bramble clan, is once again relegated to a minor position as the two senior Brambles determine whether Humphry, depicted as petitioning Matt and his sister, will stay or go after an inauspicious start.

Other Relevant Material

• Tobias George Smollett: A Timeline

Bibliography

Price, John Valdimir. Tobias Smollet: The Expedition of Humphry Clinker. London: Edward Arnold, 1973.

Smollett, Tobias. The Expedition of Humphry Clinker. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. Volume I of Roscoe's Novelist's Library. London: Printed by A. J. Valpy for James Cochrane & Company and J. Andrews, 1831.

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Last modified 2 June 2018