Robert Seymour's "Vengeance!" (31 March 1836)

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Vengeance of Captain Walter Waters and Lieutenant Slaughter. Mr. Cymon Tuggs discovered behind the curtains, at the Waters's lodgings

Robert Seymour

31 March 1836

steel engraving

12.2 cm high by 9.4 cm wide (4 ¾ by 3 ⅝ inches), vignetted.

One of Robert Seymour's two illustrations.

First published in Chapman and Hall's Library of Fiction.

Scanned image and text 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.]

Passage Illustrated: Cymon Discovered Hiding Behind a Curtain — The Trap Sprung

Lieutenant Slaughter looked first at one person mysteriously, then at another: then, laid down his cigar, then approached the window on tiptoe, and pointed with his right thumb over his shoulder, in the direction of the curtain.

‘Slaughter!’ ejaculated the captain, rising from table, ‘what do you mean?’

The lieutenant, in reply, drew back the curtain and discovered Mr. Cymon Tuggs behind it: pallid with apprehension, and blue with wanting to cough.

‘Aha!’ exclaimed the captain, furiously. ‘What do I see? Slaughter, your sabre!’

‘Cymon!’ screamed the Tuggses.

‘Mercy!’ said Belinda.

‘Platonic!’ gasped Cymon.

‘Your sabre!’ roared the captain: ‘Slaughter — unhand me — the villain’s life!’

‘Murder!’ screamed the Tuggses.

‘Hold him fast, sir!’ faintly articulated Cymon.

‘Water!’ exclaimed Joseph Tuggs — and Mr. Cymon Tuggs and all the ladies forthwith fainted away, and formed a tableau.

Most willingly would we conceal the disastrous termination of the six weeks’ acquaintance. [282] [return to "Great Expectations in "The Tuggses at Ramsgate," or, The Importance of Being Cymon"]

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. "The Tuggses at Ramsgate." Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People. Illustrated by George Cruikshank and Phiz. The Universal Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1913. "Tales," Chapter IV, pp. 266-282.

Hammerton, J. A . The Dickens Picture-Book: A Record of the Dickens Illustrators. London: Educational Book Co., 1912. Vol. 17. Page 82.

Last modified 31 October 2024