Britain hears a Footstep
Charles Green
1912
10.8 x 7.8cm, vignetted
Dickens's The Battle of Life, The Pears' Centenary Edition, IV, 81.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Charles Green —> The Battle of Life —> Charles Dickens —> Next]
Context of the Illustration
“Hark! That's a curious noise!"
"Noise!" repeated Clemency.
"A footstep outside. Somebody dropping from the wall, it sounded like," said Britain. "Are they all abed up-stairs?"
"Yes, all abed by this time," she replied.
"Didn't you hear anything?" . . .
"I tell you what," said Benjamin, taking down a lantern. "I'll have a look round, before I go to bed myself, for satisfaction's sake. Undo the door while I light this, Clemmy.". . . Mr. Britain . . . sallied out, nevertheless, armed with the poker, and casting the light of the lantern far and near in all directions.
"It's as quiet as a churchyard," said Clemency, looking after him; "and almost as ghostly, too!" ["Part the Second," 1912 Pears Edition, 76-77]
Commentary
After the scene of Britain and Clemency in the Kitchen (76), in which the comic servants seem to be approaching an understanding about sharing a future, Dickens continues to develop the notion that a putative elopement between Michael Warden and Marion Jeddler is afoot. Marion's dialogue on the same page as this illustration of a vigilant Benjamin Britain intensifies the air of mystery surrounding Marion's breakdown earlier,realised in the illustration By the Fireside in Dr. Jeddler's Study (68).
In his introduction to this fourth volume of Pears' Christmas Books, critic Clement Shorter, editor of The English Illustrated Magazine, noted how Dickens's chief illustrator for the 1846 edition John Leech, mistook Dickens's narrativeintention (probably through a cursory rather than careful reading of ",Part the Second"), and therefore provided an illustration of The Supposed Elopement As Illustrated by John Leech (see below), reproduced in the "Introduction" (9), originally the lower portion of The Night of the Return (see below):
Dickens entered into a considerable correspondence over the illustrations of his story. Over one of these an artist seems to have "come a cropper." That artist was Leech, who, assuming that Marion Jeddler had eloped with Michael Warden, presented this in a picture which has been published in almost every edition since that day. Curiously enough no one pointed out the mistake between the years 1846, when the story was first published, and 1871, when the first volume of Forster's "Life of Dickens" appeared. In one of his letters to Forster he speaks of the "horror and agony not to be expressed" with which he discovered this error of Leech's, but he would not say anything about it for fear of giving pain "to our kind-hearted Leech." [8-9]
One may readily appreciate Leech's mistake as Dickens made suggestionsin "Part the Second" about asupposedelopement, beginning with Michael Warden's stating to his attorneys that his marrying an heiress such as Marion would resolve his financial difficulties and enable him to remain in England — and, quite by coincidence, of course — Warden leaves the village at approximately the same date that Marion vanishes. Although one may forgive Leech, Green has taken pains in his series to avoid any such misapprehension of the plot, with the result that Britain's sallying forth with a fireplace poker, having heard a footstep outside, is something of a red herring in the matter of Marion's mysterious disappearance.
The short title on page 14 ("Britain hears a footstep") is augmented by a direct quotation beneath the illustration: "Sallied out, nevertheless, armed with the poker, and casting the light of the lantern far and near in all directions." [81]
Relevant Illustrations from the 1846and later editions
Left: Daniel Maclise's The Secret Interview, which implies, of course that the young couple are about to elope (1846). Centre: John Leech's dual illustration of the Christmas party and the supposed elopement, The Night of the Return. Right: Harry Furniss's intimation that Michael Warden and Marion are eloping, For Alfred's Sake (1910).
Above: E. A. Abbey's 1876 wood-engraving of the scene outside Dr. Jeddler's home as Alfred discovers that Marion is missing, And sunk down in his former attitude, clasping one of Grace's cold hands in his own.
Above: Fred Barnard's 1878 wood-engraving of the scene in which Alfred, just arrived, learns that there is trouble at home: "What is the matter?" he exclaimed. "I don't know. I — I am afraid to think. Go back. Hark!"[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. The Battle of Life: A Love Story. Illustrated by John Leech, Richard Doyle, Daniel Maclise, and Clarkson Stanfield. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1846.
_____. The Battle of Life: A Love Story. Illustrated by John Leech, Richard Doyle, Daniel Maclise, and Clarkson Stanfield. (1846). Rpt. in Charles Dickens's Christmas Books, ed. Michael Slater. Hardmondsworth: Penguin, 1971, rpt. 1978.
_____. The Battle of Life. Illustrated by Charles Green, R. I. London: A & F Pears, 1912.
_____. Christmas Books. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
_____. Christmas Books, illustrated by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1878.
_____. Christmas Books, illustrated by A. A. Dixon. London & Glasgow: Collins' Clear-Type Press, 1906.
_____. Christmas Books. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910.
_____. Christmas Stories. Illustrated by E. A. Abbey. The Household Edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1876.
Created 19 May 2015
Last modified 20 March 2020