Uncaptioned headpiece: The Beadle in Church. Drawn by A. B. Frost. Wood engraving. For "Our Parish: I," in Dickens's Sketches by Boz Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-Day People, "Chapter I. The Beadle. — The Parish Engine. — The School-master." Top of page 89. Wood-engraving; 4 ¼ by 5 ¼ inches (10.5 cm high by 13.3 cm wide), framed.
This three-quarter-page illustration introducing the earliest of Dickens's journalistic sketches conveys a sense of authentic description of a real community, the London neighbourhoods that Dickens knew from the age of twelve, when he came up from Rochester to join his family after his father, John, was transferred in his position of clerk in the Naval Pay Office from Chatham to the capital — with loss of "out-pay." The headpiece for the "Our Parish" section of the Household Edition volume showcases Frost's skills as a draughtsman and engraver, and demonstrates his capacity as an artist to depict kinetic motion — in this case, Frost captures and individualizes the movements of the uniformed Beadle as he hastens to chastise a boy for misbehaviour in church, leaning over the pew to strike the occupant of the next pew. Scanned image, colour correction, sizing, caption, and commentary by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose, as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.] Click on the image to enlarge it.
- Headpiece: "Our Parish." (p. 89)
Passage Illustrated: A Character Study of a Vindictive Functionary — Simmons the Beadle
The parish beadle is one of the most, perhaps the most, important member of the local administration. He is not so well off as the churchwardens, certainly, nor is he so learned as the vestry-clerk, nor does he order things quite so much his own way as either of them. But his power is very great, notwithstanding; and the dignity of his office is never impaired by the absence of efforts on his part to maintain it. The beadle of our parish is a splendid fellow. It is quite delightful to hear him, as he explains the state of the existing poor laws to the deaf old women in the board-room passage on business nights; and to hear what he said to the senior churchwarden, and what the senior churchwarden said to him; and what "we" (the beadle and the other gentlemen) came to the determination of doing. A miserable-looking woman is called into the boardroom, and represents a case of extreme destitution, affecting herself — a widow, with six small children. "Where do you live?" inquires one of the overseers. "I rents a two-pair back, gentlemen, at Mrs. Brown's, Number 3, Little King William's-alley, which has lived there this fifteen year, and knows me to be very hard-working and industrious, and when my poor husband was alive, gentlemen, as died in the hospital" — "Well, well," interrupts the overseer, taking a note of the address, "I'll send Simmons, the beadle, to-morrow morning, to ascertain whether your story is correct; and if so, I suppose you must have an order into the House — Simmons, go to this woman’s the first thing to-morrow morning, will you?" Simmons bows assent, and ushers the woman out. Her previous admiration of "the board" (who all sit behind great books, and with their hats on) fades into nothing before her respect for her lace-trimmed conductor; and her account of what has passed inside, increases — if that be possible — the marks of respect, shown by the assembled crowd, to that solemn functionary. As to taking out a summons, it's quite a hopeless case if Simmons attends it, on behalf of the parish. He knows all the titles of the Lord Mayor by heart; states the case without a single stammer: and it is even reported that on one occasion he ventured to make a joke, which the Lord Mayor's head footman (who happened to be present) afterwards told an intimate friend, confidentially, was almost equal to one of Mr. Hobler's.
See him again on Sunday in his state-coat and cocked-hat, with a large-headed staff for show in his left hand, and a small cane for use in his right. How pompously he marshals the children into their places! and how demurely the little urchins look at him askance as he surveys them when they are all seated, with a glare of the eye peculiar to beadles! The churchwardens and overseers being duly installed in their curtained pews, he seats himself on a mahogany bracket, erected expressly for him at the top of the aisle, and divides his attention between his prayer-book and the boys. Suddenly, just at the commencement of the communion service, when the whole congregation is hushed into a profound silence, broken only by the voice of the officiating clergyman, a penny is heard to ring on the stone floor of the aisle with astounding clearness. Observe the generalship of the beadle. His involuntary look of horror is instantly changed into one of perfect indifference, as if he were the only person present who had not heard the noise. The artifice succeeds. After putting forth his right leg now and then, as a feeler, the victim who dropped the money ventures to make one or two distinct dives after it; and the beadle, gliding softly round, salutes his little round head, when it again appears above the seat, with divers double knocks, administered with the cane before noticed, to the intense delight of three young men in an adjacent pew, who cough violently at intervals until the conclusion of the sermon.
Such are a few traits of the importance and gravity of a parish beadle — ["Our Parish," Chapter I, pp. 89-90]
Commentary: The Bane of a Boy's Existence
An unpleasant minor figure in the introductory "Our Parish" section of Dickens's Sketches by Boz Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People (1836), the local beadle chrystalizes into one of the most distasteful and hypocritical antagonists in the Dickens canon in the writer's second novel as the odious Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist, or, The Parish Boy's Progress (1837-39). In his gorgeous state-coat and cocked-hat, the beadle in Dickens cuts an awe-inspiring figure who maintains order in the parish and as a civic official carries out duties both religious and educational.
As is also the case with the arrogant, self-centred Bumble, Cruikshank and Frost alike depict the beadle in "Our Parish" as a pompous enforcer of parish regulations — the epitome of the pettiness of local ("parish") politics. The name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon "bydel," a herald or messenger from an authority, or a preacher; in Old English the title of the officer responsible for summoning householders to the parish council. In the novel, then running in serial in Bentley's Miscellany, Bumble serves as the parish constable, overseeing both the workhouse and orphanage. Here, however, the substantial functionary with the monitory cane serves merely as the reprimander of the bad conduct of errant boys during the Sunday morning prayers in the Anglican Church.
Relevant illustrations of a Pasrish Beadle by Cruikshank, Kyd, Mahoney, Furniss, and Pears (1836-1910)
Left: The original Cruikshank engraving of Bumble which likely influenced later illustrators' notions about the figure of the Beadle generally, Mr. Bumble and Mrs. Corney taking tea (February 1838). Centre: Kyd's derivative chromolithograph, Mr. Bumble (1910). Right: The original Cruikshank illustration for this first chapter, The Parish Engine (8 February 1836).
Left: Kyd's Player's cigarette card no. 3, Mr. Bumble (1910). Centre: Harry Furniss's The Election of Beadle, frontispiece and illustration for Chapter 4 (1910). Centre right: Charles Pears' Mr.Bumble and Mrs. Corney (1910). Dickens's "'Then you're a tramp,' he ses. 'I'd rather be that than a beadle,' I ses." from "Tramps," Chapter Eleven in The Uncommercial Traveller (1877).
Above: James Mahoney's 1871 wood-engraving of the fatuous beadle in full uniform consoling the tearful matron of the workhouse, "Don't sigh, Mrs. Corney."
Bibliography
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Dickens, Charles. "Our Parish," Chapter 1, "The Beadle. The Parish Engine. The Schoolmaster." Christmas Books and Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1875 [rpt. of 1867 Ticknor & Fields edition]. Pp. 231-234.
Dickens, Charles. "The Election for the Beadle." "Our Parish."Sketches by Boz. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1876. Vol. 13.
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Long, William F., and Paul Schlicke. "Bung Against Spruggins: Reform in 'Our Parish.'" Dickens Quarterly 34, 1 (March 2017): 5-13.
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Last modified 27 February 2019