"Britain and Clemency reading the Bill" — Green's twenty-fourth illustration for "The Battle of Life" (1893, 1912)

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Britain and Clemency reading the Bill

Charles Green

1893 & 1912

10.5 x 8.3cm, vignetted

Dickens's The Battle of Life, The Pears' Centenary Edition, IV, 111.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated

"Oh! Wait a minute. Here's a printed bill to stick on the wall. Wet from the printer's. How nice it smells!"

"What's this?" said Ben, looking over the document.

"I don't know," replied his wife. "I haven't read a word of it."

"To be sold by Auction," read the host of the Nutmeg-Grater, "unless previously disposed of by private contract."

"They always put that," said Clemency.

"Yes, but they don't always put this," he returned. "Look here, 'Mansion,' &c. — 'offices,' &c., 'shrubberies,' &c., 'ring fence,' &c. 'Messrs. Snitchey and Craggs,' &c., 'ornamental portion of the unencumbered freehold property of Michael Warden, Esquire, intending to continue to reside abroad'!" ["Part the Third," 1912 Pears edition, 110]

Commentary

Green or his editor, Clement Shorter, has augmented the short title on page 14 (Britain and Clemency reading the Bill) with a direct quotation beneath the actual illustration: "'To be sold by Auction,' read the host of the Nutmeg-Grater, 'Mansion,' &c. — 'offices,' &c., 'shrubberies,' &c., 'ring fence,' &c. 'Messrs. Snitchey and Craggs,' &c." (111, and, in the text, at the bottom of the facing page). The caption omits the key part of the bill of sale: "freehold property of Michael Warden, Esquire, intending to continue to reside abroad'!" In other words, Warden does not intend to return to England, and, therefore, Marion (thought to have run off with him) will not be returning. The only illustration in the 1846 sequence that alludes directly to The Nutmeg Grater Inn is Clarkson Stanfield's The Nutmeg Grater (see below), a picturesque setting for the opening action of "Part the Third." Through this small-scale illustration Green alludes to the popular misconception in the village that Marion Jeddler ran off with Michael Warden, a misconception that Warden himself is about to dispel.

Illustrations for the Other Volumes of the Pears' Centenary Christmas Books of Charles Dickens (1912)

Each contains about thirty illustrations from original drawings by Charles Green, R. I. — Clement Shorter [1912]

A Christmas Carol (28 plates) Vol. I (1912)
The Chimes (31 plates) Vol. II
L. Rossi's The Cricket on the Hearth (22 plates) Vol. III
The Haunted Man (31 plates) Vol. V

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Battle of Life. Illustrated by Charles Green, R. I. London: A & F Pears, 1912.

Created 25 May 2015

Last modified 23 March 2020