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Mr. Tapley succeeds in finding a jolly subject for contemplation
Phiz
July 1843
Steel-engraving
13.9 cm high by 10.6 cm wide, vignetted
Fourteenth regular monthly illustration for Charles Dickens's Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, facing page 212 (1844 edition) in the seventeenth chapter: 1897 descriptive headline, "A Man and A Brother."
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Mr. Tapley appeared to be taking his ease on the landing of the first floor; for sounds as of some gentleman established in that region whistling Rule Britannia with all his might and main, greeted their ears before they reached the house. On ascending to the spot from whence this music proceeded, they found him recumbent in the midst of a fortification of luggage, apparently performing his national anthem for the gratification of a grey-haired black man, who sat on one of the outworks (a portmanteau), staring intently at Mark, while Mark, with his head reclining on his hand, returned the compliment in a thoughtful manner, and whistled all the time. He seemed to have recently dined, for his knife, a casebottle, and certain broken meats in a handkerchief, lay near at hand. He had employed a portion of his leisure in the decoration of the Rowdy Journal door, whereon his own initials now appeared in letters nearly half a foot long, together with the day of the month in smaller type; the whole surrounded by an ornamental border, and looking very fresh and bold. [Chapter XVII, "Martin enlarges his circle of Acquaintance ; Increases his stock of Wisdom; And has an excellent Opportunity of comparing his own experiences with those of Lummy Ned of the Light Salisbury,as related by his friend Mr. William Simmons," page 212 in the 1844 edition]
The picture of Mark Tapley, the door of the New York Rowdy Journal, and the liberated slave Cicero complements the first plate for monthly instalment seven, which shows the journal's "war correspondent," Jefferson Brick (centre), the journal's editor, Colonel Diver (left), and their 'European' guest, Martin (right). True to his Christian name, Mr. Tapley has made his "mark" upon the scandal-sheet's portal, having emblazoned not merely his initials (as in the letterpress) but his full name in ornate calligraphy, as if the office has now become his. The moment that Phiz has realized is this:
Having decorated the "Rowdy Journal" door with his own initials, he was whistling "Rule Britannia" for the gratification of a black man who stared intently at him.
Dickens and Phiz probably anticipated that readers of the July 1843 instalment would compare the pair of engravings that would have preceded the seventh number itself. By focussing on the former slave, Cicero, the writer and illustrator draw readers' attentions to the great flaw in the much-vaunted myth of American republican virtue. The picture of the jolly Englishman of proletarian origins, the door of the New York Rowdy Journal, and the liberated slave complements the first July 1843 illustration, which also involves an Englishman scrutinizing an American institution, namely free speech and the Fifth Estate, in the persons of the newspaper editor, Colonel Diver and his juvenile War Correspondent, Jefferson Brick. True to his Christian name, Mr. Tapley has made his "mark" upon the scandal-sheet's portal, having emblazoned not merely his initials (as in the letterpress) but his full name in ornate calligraphy, as if the office has now become his.
Phiz has diverged from the letterpress in having Mark carve his full name rather than merely his initials upon the door of the newspaper, but then Dickens may not have specified this detail in his earlier instructions and Phiz may have elected not to change his design when he read the chapter in proof. As it stands, however, the illustration challenges the authority of the letterpress, the ornate signature asserting a kind of disrespectful "Mark Tapley was here" assertion. The sprawling, large-scale signature in a cloud of squiggles hovers above the recumbent figure, as if to identify Mark with the newspaper's "rowdiness."
The allusion may well be to an abolitionist poster then current in the northern American states; however, When Mark Tapley refers to Cicero as a "brother," he is probably alluding to one of the numerous anti-slavery medallions which Josiah Wedgewood issued from 1787 as his contribution to the abolitionist movement of Thomas Clarkson. One of the American recipients, Benjamin Franklin, may have translated the image of a kneeling African slave in chains to the celebrated poster produced in 1837 to incite American anti-slavery sentiment. Since Martin and Mark have just that morning landed in New York, it is unlikely that either of the young Englishmen has encountered the poster, however, so that Mark must be alluding to the motto on the Wedgewood medallion, "Am I not a man and a brother?" produced at his Staffordshire pottery works from a design by sculptor Henry Webber. Its appeal to both the reason and the sentiment of the late eighteenth century led to its becoming the basis for abolitionist posters distributed in British coffee houses, taverns, inns, reading societies, reading rooms, and assembly rooms — the various kinds of places in which Mark has apparently seen the iconic image:
"I mean that he's been one of them as there's picters of in the shops. A man and a brother, you know, sir," said Mr. Tapley, favouring his master with a significant indication of the figure so often represented in tracts and cheap prints." [Chapter XVII]
In this passage from Martin Chuzzlewit Dickens may well be making use of a poster that then had currency on both sides of the Atlantic:
The large, bold woodcut image of a supplicant male slave in chains appears on the 1837 broadside publication of John Greenleaf Whittier's antislavery poem, "Our Countrymen in Chains." The design was originally adopted as the seal of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery in England in the 1780s, and appeared on several medallions for the society made by Josiah Wedgwood as early as 1787. Here, in addition to Whittier's poem, the appeal to conscience against slavery continues with two further quotes. The first is the scriptural warning, "He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. "Exod[us] XXI, 16." Next the claim, "England has 800,000 Slaves, and she has made them free. America has 2,250,000! and she holds them fast!!!!" The broadside is advertised at "Price Two Cents Single; or $1.00 per hundred. [Originally published by the New York office of the Anti-Slavery Society — "Am I not a man and a brother?" in the Library of Congress]
The illustrations reminds readers of the twenty-first century that slavery, although outlawed in the British Empire in 1832, continued to flourish in the American South until President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in the midst of the American Civil War twenty years later, stipulating that "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." We should view the reception of the Phiz illustration in Great Britain and America in 1843, however, in the context of the U. S. Supreme Court's ruling that the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 was perfectly constitutional. In reaction, three Northern and anti-slavery States (New York, Vermont, and Ohio) had challenged the validity of the ruling by passing personal liberty laws which recognized former slaves as citizens, even as the Georgia legislature affirmed that it would never recognize Blacks as citizens. Therefore, in depicting Cicero in a positive light Dickens and Phiz were casting their lot with the Abolitionists as to whether the American Negro should enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or whether he or she was merely some White American's personal property. For the next eight years, however, undoubtedly mindful of the firestorm of controversy that Martin Chuzzlewit and American Notes for General Circulation had caused on both sides of the Atlantic, Dickens published nothing further about the failed "Republic of his Imagination." However, in his new journal begun in 1850, Household Words he ran a number of articles about his personal horror of American slavery, including "Frauds on the Fairies" (1 October 1853) and "North American Slavery" (18 September 1852).
Left: Marcus Stone's Household edition of American Notes illustration about the social evils of American slavery, Black and White in Chapter 9 (1866). Centre: Harry Furniss's version of Martin's inspection of the newspaper office, "The Rowdy Journal" Office (1910). Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s more appreciative treatment of the newspaper editor and his minion, Colonel Diver and Jefferson Brick (1867). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Above: Fred Barnard's realisation of the Martin's encountering journalist Colonel Diver on the deck of the packet-ship in New York harbour, "It is in such enlightened means," said a voice, almost in Martin's ear, "That the bubbling passions of my country find a vent." (1872).
Above: Fred Barnard's realisation of the Martin's meeting Cicero, "You're the pleasantest fellow I have seen yet," said Martin, clapping him on the back, "And give me a better appetite than bitters" (1872).
Adrian, Arthur A. "Dickens on American Slavery: A Carlylean Slant." PMLA. 67.4 (June, 1952): 315-29.
Allingham, Philip V. "Historical Background." The Dickens Magazine: Martin Chuzzlewit. 5.2 (August, 2008): 8.
_____. "Phiz's Illustrations, Part Two." [Ch. 16-23] The Dickens Magazine: Martin Chuzzlewit. 5.2 (August, 2008): 9-13.
"American Anti-Slavery." "Am I not a man and a brother?" 1837. Online version available from Library of Congress. Web. 9 January 2019.
Browning, Logan Delano. "America, United States of." Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens, ed. Paul Schlicke. Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1999. Pp. 14-18.
Davis, Paul. "Slavery." Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998. P. 356.
Dickens, Charles. American Notes for General Circulation and Pictures from Italy in Works. Illustrated by Marcus Stone. Illustrated Library Edition. London: Chapman and Hall: 1866, rpt. 1874.
_____. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1844.
Harvey, John R. Ch. 6, "Dickens and Browne: Martin Chuzzledwit to Bleak House." Victorian Novelists and Their Illustrators. London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1970.
Kaplan, Fred. Chapter 5: "The Emperor of Cheerfulness (1842-1844)." Dickens: A Biography.New York: William Morrow, 1988. Pp.122-160.
Morley, Henry, and Charles Dickens. "North American Slavery." Household Words VI.130 (18 September 1852): 1-6.
Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978.
Slater, Michael. Chapter 8: "America brought to book, 1842." Charles Dickens.New Haven and London: Yale U. P., 2009. Pp. 175-206.
Vann, J. Don. "Martin Chuzzlewit, twenty parts in nineteen monthly installments, January 1843 — July 1844." New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Pp. 66-67.
The Wedgewood Museum. "Josiah Wedgwood I (1730-95): The First Generation." Online version available from The Learning Archives: Slavery. Web. 9 January 2019.
Modified 8 January 2019
Last updated 12 November 2024