"Mr. Pyke finds the miniature of Kate Nickleby" — Furniss's fourteenth illustration for Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby" (1910)

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Mr. Pyke finds the miniature of Kate Nickleby

Harry Furniss

1910

3 ½ by 5 ½ inches (13.6 cm high x 8.9 cm wide), vignetted

Mr. Pluck, squeezing Mrs. Nickleby's hand, said, "Sir Mulberry is your daughter's devoted slave. Hem!" "Hah!" cried Mr. Pyke, snatching something from the chimneypiece. "What is this! what do I behold!" "It ius my daughter's portrait," said Mrs. Nickleby. — Nickleby, p. 352.

Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing IV, 352.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Sir Mulberry Hawk's Parasitical Companion pursues Kate

"Say nothing; not a word, not a word, my dearest madam," urged Mr. Pluck. "Mrs. Nickleby,’ said that excellent gentleman, lowering his voice, ‘there is the most trifling, the most excusable breach of confidence in what I am about to say; and yet if my friend Pyke there overheard it—such is that man’s delicate sense of honour, Mrs. Nickleby — he’d have me out before dinner-time."

Mrs. Nickleby cast an apprehensive glance at the warlike Pyke, who had walked to the window; and Mr. Pluck, squeezing her hand, went on:

"Your daughter has made a conquest — a conquest on which I may congratulate you. Sir Mulberry, my dear ma’am, Sir Mulberry is her devoted slave. Hem!"

"Hah!" cried Mr. Pyke at this juncture, snatching something from the chimney-piece with a theatrical air. "What is this! what do I behold!"

"What do you behold, my dear fellow?" asked Mr. Pluck.

"It is the face, the countenance, the expression," cried Mr. Pyke, falling into his chair with a miniature in his hand; "feebly portrayed, imperfectly caught, but still the face, the countenance, the expression."

"I recognise it at this distance!" exclaimed Mr. Pluck in a fit of enthusiasm. "Is it not, my dear madam, the faint similitude of —"

"It is my daughter’s portrait," said Mrs. Nickleby, with great pride. And so it was. And little Miss La Creevy had brought it home for inspection only two nights before.

Mr. Pyke no sooner ascertained that he was quite right in his conjecture, than he launched into the most extravagant encomiums of the divine original; and in the warmth of his enthusiasm kissed the picture a thousand times, while Mr. Pluck pressed Mrs. Nickleby’s hand to his heart, and congratulated her on the possession of such a daughter, with so much earnestness and affection, that the tears stood, or seemed to stand, in his eyes. Poor Mrs. Nickleby, who had listened in a state of enviable complacency at first, became at length quite overpowered by these tokens of regard for, and attachment to, the family; and even the servant girl, who had peeped in at the door, remained rooted to the spot in astonishment at the ecstasies of the two friendly visitors. [Chapter XXVII, "Mrs. Nickleby becomes acquainted with Messrs. Pyke and Pluck, whose Affection and Interest are beyond all Bounds," 352-353]

Commentary: Sir Mulberry's Sycophants at Work

Furniss here is offering an updated ands revised version of the original Phiz serial illustration for the December 1838 monthly number, Affectionate Behaviour of Messrs. Pyke and Pluck, through which Phiz and Dickens introduce readers to Sir Mulberry Hawk's procurers, the interchangeable sycophants Pyke and Pluck. Aside from assisting their patron in his sexual conquests, the pair are helping the predatory Sir Mulberry fleece the gullible Lord Frederick Verisopht.

Other Editions' Versions of The Comic Duo (1867-1875)

Left: In the 1875 British Household Edition Fred Barnard introduces Sir Mulberry and his favoured creature in Sir Mulberry Hawk and his friend exchanged glances over the top of the bonnet. Right: Hablot Knight Browne's original serial illustration introducing Sir Mulberry's ridiculous minions: Affectionate Behaviour of Messrs. Pyke and Pluck (December 1838).

Left: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s American Diamond Editioncomposite woodblock group portrait of the comic quartet: Hawk, Verisopht, Pyke, and Pluck (1867). Right: C. S. Reinhart's realistic revision of the same scene in the American Household Edition: Affectionate Behavior of Messrs. Pyke and Pluck (1875).

Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators

Bibliography

Barnard, J. "Fred" (illustrator). Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, with fifty-eight illustrations. The Works of Charles Dickens: The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Volume 15. Rpt. 1890.

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872. I.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. With 39 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). London: Chapman & Hall, 1839.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. IV.

__________. "Nicholas Nickleby." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard et al.. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1908.

Created 31 July 2021