Part 10

Browne's versatile pencil was again actively employed in embellishing the story begun by Dickens soon after his return from America in 1842, and to this he contributed forty etchings. Here the figures are drawn on a larger scale than usual, thus affording more scope for the delineation of character.

The frontispiece is a most elaborate design, representing the principal characters and incidents in the story, with Tom Pinch at the organ as a central idea. In the illustration where Mark Tapley is seen starting from his native village for London, "Phiz" exhibits his sense of the picturesque in the old gables and dormers of the ancient tenements in the background, while that depicting "Mr. Pecksniff on his Mission" is an excellent verisimilitude of such a locality as Kingsgate Street of fifty years since. But the etching in "Chuzzlewit" which may be described as the artist's happiest effort as a comic creation is that where Mrs. Gamp "propoges" a toast. Here he has admirably illustrated the text,--the two midwives in friendly chat, surrounded by bandboxes and other accessories, while behind are seen the immortal Sarah's rusty gowns, which, depending from the bedposts, "had so adapted themselves by long usage to her figure, that more than one impatient husband, coming in precipitately at about the time of twilight, had been for an instant stricken dumb by the supposed discovery that Mrs. Gamp had hanged herself."

All the designs for "Martin Chuzzlewit" were etched on quarto plates, two on each plate. Five of these plates were etched three times, these including, besides the frontispiece and vignette title, the first six illustrations in the book, and two which appeared in the fourteenth number, viz., "Mr. Pinch Departs to Seek his Fortune," and "Mr. Nadgett Breathes, as Usual, an Atmosphere of Mystery." A careful examination of different copies of the first edition will disclose minute variations in these particular illustrations, worthy of special mention being the vignette title, where, in the earliest impressions, the £ mark is incorrectly placed after the figures in the amount of reward on the bill.

In the majority of the "Chuzzlewit" etchings there is a vigour and precision of touch indicating the artist's riper experience. It must, however, be admitted that a few of the plates are so feeble in execution in comparison with the rest as to suggest that "Phiz's" drawings were copied on the plate by a less expert etcher. An instance of this poverty of execution will be found in the first design, depicting "The Meekness of Mr. Pecksniff and his Charming Daughters," and the fact that this plate is unsigned seems significant; in reply to my enquiry respecting it, Mr. Robert Young assured me that "no one ever copied or etched plates for Browne; he traced the subject on the steel himself, and etched every line before it was bitten in. I know no reason for the omission of his signature to any of his plates."

In a few instances the artist has not strictly followed the text. For example, in the plate where Mr. Pecksniff calls upon Mrs. Gamp, the pie-shop is placed next door, whereas it is clearly described as being next door _but one_. In the etching of Mark Tapley "finding a jolly subject for contemplation," instead of Mark's name being inscribed in full upon the "Rowdy Journal" door, his initials only should appear, "in letters nearly half a foot long, together with the day of the month in smaller type;" the four horses harnessed to the coach in which Tom Pinch departs to seek his fortune ("Phiz's" horses, by the way, are always well drawn) are described as "greys," while in the plate only one is thus represented. Such discrepancies, however, although interesting to note, are unimportant. As usual, we find in the accessories (such as the titles of books and pictures) sly touches of humour peculiarly _àpropos_ of the principal theme. "Phiz's" design for the wrapper of the monthly parts is emblematical of the story; here "silver spoons" and "wooden ladles," as embodied in the original title, play a conspicuous part.

The "Chuzzlewit" drawings, all of which have been preserved, are executed in pencil, some having washes of neutral tint. They vary but slightly from the etchings, the greatest differences being noted in the first two designs, this doubtless arising from the difficulty experienced by the artist in immediately seizing the author's meaning. In one special instance Dickens favoured his illustrator with very precise instructions. Respecting the American scenes, the artist desired more details than usual, so he received from the novelist the following letter (now in Mr. J. F. Dexter's collection), giving particulars for the plate representing "The Thriving City of Eden, as it appeared in Fact."

"Martin and Mark are displayed as the tenants of a wretched log hut (for a pattern whereof see a vignette brought by Chapman & Hall) in a perfectly flat, swampy, wretched forest of stunted timber in every stage of decay, with a filthy river running before the door, and some other miserable log houses distributed among the trees, whereof the most ruinous and tumble-down of all is labelled 'Bank and National Credit Office.' Outside their door, as the custom is, is a rough sort of form or dresser, on which are set forth their pot and kettle and so forth, all of the commonest kind. On the outside of the house, at one side of the door, is a written placard, 'Chuzzlewit and Co., Architects and Surveyors,' and upon a stump of tree, like a butcher's block, before the cabin, are Martin's instruments--a pair of rusty compasses, &c. On a three-legged stool beside this block sits Martin in his shirt sleeves, with long dishevelled hair, resting his head upon his hands--the picture of hopeless misery--watching the river and sadly remembering that it flows towards home. But Mr. Tapley, up to his knees in filth and brushwood, and in the act of endeavouring to perform some impossibilities with a hatchet, looks towards him with a face of unimpaired good humour, and declares himself perfectly jolly. Mark, the only redeeming feature. Everything else dull, miserable, squalid, unhealthy, and utterly devoid of hope--diseased, starved, and abject. The weather is intensely hot, and they are but partially clothed."

The artist, naturally bewildered by such elaborate directions, has written underneath this note: "I can't get all this perspective in, unless you will allow of a long subject--something less than a mile!"

For the plate, "Martin Chuzzlewit Suspects the Landlady," two drawings were prepared, but the second was probably only to guide the biter-in of the steel as to the effect of light and shade required; for it occasionally happened that "Phiz" had not time to give verbal instructions to his assistant, when he would send a rough indication of what was needed in the matter of _chiaroscuro_. In the original drawing representing "The Meekness of Mr. Pecksniff and his Charming Daughters," the figure of Tom Pinch differs from the plate, and shows signs of having been quickly sketched in, as though the first idea was not to introduce him at all; in a second delineation of the same subject this figure is limned with greater care.

The original designs for "Chuzzlewit" were disposed of at Sotheby's in 1889 for £433, 13s., the beautifully-finished drawing of the frontispiece realising £35, while that of "Mrs. Gamp 'Propoges' a Toast," rightly considered as one of the artist's _chef-d'oeuvres_, was purchased for £35, 10s.

To the Library Edition (1858-59) "Phiz" contributed a vignette for the title-page of each of the two volumes of "Martin Chuzzlewit," which were engraved on steel from the original water-colour drawings. The subject of the first design is almost a repetition of the etching in the original issue, and depicts the "Meekness of Mr. Pecksniff and his Charming Daughters," the ladies being certainly more attractive in the later conception. In the second vignette we see Mrs. Gamp and Betsy Prig, at the moment when the latter, in her wrath, denied the existence of the memorable Mrs. Harris.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: =Dombey and Son, 1846-48.=]

Among the forty illustrations prepared by "Phiz" for "Dombey and Son" will be found some of the artist's happiest efforts. By this time his experience with the etching-needle enabled him to execute his designs upon the steel plates with wonderful facility and dexterity, and continual practice had made him almost perfect in this particular branch of art. All these plates were etched in duplicate; the greater number were drawn on quarto plates, having two subjects on each as usual, but the frontispiece, the last four illustrations, and the duplicates of three others were etched singly on steels of octavo size.[25]

Footnote 25: An American edition (published in 1844) contains fourteen clever _replicas_ of the "Dombey" etchings.

The duplicates do not vary much; that in which an alteration is most noticeable, although hardly perceptible, is "Abstraction and Recognition," the bills on the wall near Alice in one plate being less mutilated than in the other. There was such a large circulation of the book in part form that the printing from the plates could not be executed quickly enough, the etchings being rarely sent in until the last minute; so that it became necessary to resort to lithographic transfers until the duplicate plates could be etched. In "Dombey and Son" the artist first introduced the oblong form of illustration, this lending itself more appropriately to the subjects so treated, and in succeeding novels we find a fair sprinkling of designs of this shape. When nearing the end of the story he essayed, with considerable success, a new method of obtaining _chiaroscuro_, and he afterwards adopted it whenever striking effects were required. The only plate in "Dombey" so treated is "On the Dark Road," on which, by means of a ruling-machine, a tint had been placed before the subject was drawn, and, by a process of biting-in, stopping-out, and burnishing, an effect resembling mezzotint was obtained. The machine was kept in Mr. Young's studio at Furnival's Inn, and could be manipulated by a boy, the operation of "ruling" being a purely mechanical one; it was the subsequent treatment by acid and burnisher, in reproducing the tones of the original drawing, that required the knowledge of an expert.

A few anomalies may be discovered in the "Dombey" plates. In the various representations of Captain Cuttle the artist has depicted him, in two instances, with the hook upon the left arm instead of the right. When comparing the three plates portraying Sol Gills's little back-parlour, certain little discrepancies are apparent, such as the altered position of the model of a brig, &c. In the plate entitled "The Wooden Midshipman on the Look-out," Florence is delineated as a well-developed young woman, whereas, according to the text, she was then but a mere child of fourteen. In the same illustration the artist has drawn a pair of horses (or rather their heads) which can have no possible connection with the omnibus near by, although they are evidently intended to be associated therewith. In the etching "Abstraction and Recognition," Alice and her mother standing in the archway are much too tall; it is interesting to note here the advertisement on the wall of Cruikshank's "Bottle," which may be considered as denoting the popularity of that remarkable series of pictures, then being issued. Two palpable errors are discoverable in the illustration entitled "On the Dark Road," for not only does the driver hold the reins in the wrong hand, but it will be seen that the wheels of the rapidly-moving carriage are really represented as stationary, while the "off" wheels are omitted altogether. In the last plate but one, the figure of Florence is not sufficiently visionary, and therefore fails to convey the author's meaning respecting the conscience-stricken Dombey.

Hablôt Browne invariably laboured under some disadvantage when designing his illustrations for Dickens; indeed, he was sometimes compelled to draw his inspiration merely from the author's verbal explanation or reading of a particular passage; so it is not surprising that we discover an occasional discrepancy. In the case of "Dombey," he experienced a difficulty of another kind, for during the writing of the story Dickens was living at Lausanne in Switzerland, and the sketches had to be sent there for his criticism and approval, which not only caused delay, but gave the artist some trouble in understanding the suggestions made by the author when returning the drawings.

PLATE XXXV

"MR. CHADBAND 'IMPROVING' A TOUGH SUBJECT"

_Facsimile_ of the Original Drawing for "Bleak House" by

H. K. BROWNE ("PHIZ")

In the Etching the figure of Jo is placed on the opposite side of the picture.

_Lent by Her Grace the Duchess of St. Albans._

Several letters from Dickens to Forster at this time express solicitude concerning these plates. Writing from Lausanne on the 18th of July 1846, he said: "The prints for illustration, and the enormous care required, make me excessively anxious." A nervous dread of caricature on the face of his merchant-hero had led him to indicate by a living person the type of city gentleman he would have had the artist select. "The man for Dombey," he explained, "if Browne could see him, the class man to a T, is Sir A----E----, of D----'s;" and this is all he meant by his reiterated urgent request, "I do wish he could get a glimpse of A., for he is the very Dombey." It seems, however, that the "glimpse of A." was impracticable, so it was resolved to send, for selection by himself, glimpses of other letters of the alphabet--actual heads as well as fanciful ones--and the sheetful of sketches forwarded for this purpose contains no less than twenty-nine typical Dombey portraits, comprising full-length and half-length presentments, as well as studies of heads in various poses, but with the same hard characteristic expression.[26] Against four of them "Phiz" has placed little arrows, to indicate that (in his opinion) they best accorded with the author's conception. The Dombey actually etched was not, after all, an absolute transcript of these tentative ideas, but seems to be a combination of several; and it is curious to note that, in the various representations of the proud city merchant as seen in the plates, "Phiz" did not keep religiously to the same type. That Dickens considered the artist's presentment as satisfactory is proved by his remark to Forster, "I think Mr. Dombey admirable," this doubtless referring to the illustration entitled "Mr. Dombey and the World." In a fragment of a letter preserved by Mr. J. F. Dexter may be read a few instructions to the artist with reference to the delineation of Mr. Dombey and his second wife: "It is a part of his character that he should be just the same as of yore. And in the second subject, I should like Edith Granger to possess the reader with a more serious notion of her having a serious part to play in the story. I really hardly know, however, what [part] beyond an expression of utter indifference towards Mr. Dombey...."

Footnote 26: In Mr. Andrew Lang's opinion, these sketches for Mr. Dombey look like "a collection of criminal butlers."

In the letter to Forster already quoted, the novelist sent (for transmission to the artist) a few hints for the earlier designs: "Great pains will be necessary with Miss Tox. The Toodle family should not be too much caricatured, because of Polly. I should like Browne to think of Susan Nipper, who will not be wanted in the first number. After the second number, they will all be nine or ten years older, but this will not involve much change in the characters, except in the children and Miss Nipper." After the completion of the first two plates, Dickens seems to have been in better heart about his illustrator, for, again writing to Forster from Lausanne, he said: "Browne seems to be getting on well. He will have a good subject in Paul's christening. Mr. Chick is like D., if you'll mention that when you think of it." Then, a little later: "Browne is certainly interesting himself and taking pains." He seems, however, to have been greatly disappointed with the designs in the second number, viz., "The Christening Party" (which he anticipated would be a success) and "Polly Rescues the Charitable Grinder," declaring them to be so "dreadfully bad" (in the sense of not keeping strictly to the text) that they made him "curl his legs up." This failure on the part of the artist caused him to feel unusually anxious in regard to a special illustration on which he had set much store, intended for the number he then had in hand. Communicating with Forster anent this, he said: "The best subject for Browne will be at Mrs. Pipchin's; and if he liked to do a quiet odd thing, Paul, Mrs. Pipchin, and the Cat, by the fire, would be very good for the story. I earnestly hope he will think it worth a little extra care." On first seeing the etching of this subject, he was sorely displeased, and could not refrain from thus expressing himself to Forster: "I am really _distressed_ by the illustration of Mrs. Pipchin and Paul. It is so frightfully and wildly wide of the mark. Good Heaven! in the commonest and most literal construction of the text it is all wrong. She is described as an old lady, and Paul's 'miniature arm-chair' is mentioned more than once. He ought to be sitting in a little arm-chair down in the corner of the fireplace, staring up at her. I can't say what pain and vexation it is to be so utterly misrepresented. I would cheerfully have given a hundred pounds to have kept this illustration out of the book. He never could have got that idea of Mrs. Pipchin if he had attended to the text. Indeed, I think he does better without the text; for then the notion is made easy to him in short description, and he can't help taking it in." It is certainly strange that the sketch for this subject was not submitted to Dickens for approval before it was etched. We are told by Forster that the author felt the disappointment more keenly because "the conception of the grim old boarding-house keeper had taken back his thoughts to the miseries of his own child-life, and made her, as her prototype in verity was, a part of the terrible reality." In justice to the artist, it must be conceded that the etching of this subject seems to be an excellent rendering of the description of the scene as conveyed in the letterpress.

"Phiz" sometimes complained that Dickens did not send him more than a few printed lines as a guide to the subject to be illustrated, and, being kept in ignorance as to the context, he found it difficult to delineate the characters as well as the novelist might wish. Occasionally, as we have seen, he received quite a lengthy note when at work upon the designs, these communications sometimes being partly literal extracts from the text and partly condensation, such as the following:--

"Paul (a year older) has left Mrs. Pipchin's and gone to Doctor Blimber's establishment at Brighton. The Doctor only takes ten young gentlemen. Doctor Blimber's establishment is a good hot-house for the young mind, with a forcing apparatus always at work. Mental green peas are produced there at Christmas, and intellectual asparagus all the year round. Every description of Greek and Latin vegetable is got off the driest twigs of boys under the frostiest circumstances. Mrs. Blimber is fond of the boys not being like boys, and of their wearing collars and neckerchiefs. They have all blown before their time. The eldest boy in the school--young Toots by name, with a swollen nose and an exceedingly large head--left off blowing suddenly one day, and people _do_ say that the Doctor rather overdid it with him, and that when he began to have whiskers he left off having brains. All the young gentlemen have great weights on their minds. They are haunted by verbs, noun-substantives, roots, and syntactic passages. Some abandoned hope half through the Latin Grammar, and others curse Virgil in the bitterness of their souls. Classical Literature in general is an immense collection of words to them. It's all words and grammar, and don't mean anything else.

"Subject--These young gentlemen out walking, very dismally and formally (observe it's a very expensive school), with the lettering, _Doctor Blimber's young gentlemen as they appeared when enjoying themselves_. I think Doctor Blimber, a little removed from the rest, should bring up the rear, or lead the van, with Paul, who is much the youngest of the party. I extract the description of the Doctor. [Here follows a quotation from the eleventh chapter.]

"Paul as last described, but a twelvemonth older. No collar or neckerchief for him, of course. I would make the next youngest boy about three or four years older than he."

A remarkable oversight on the part of "Phiz" with reference to this plate is immediately observable, for while Dickens explicitly states the number of Dr. Blimber's pupils as ten, the artist has introduced no less than seventeen young gentlemen. Concerning the illustration, "Major Bagstock is Delighted to have that Opportunity," there is extant an interesting letter (dated March 10, 1847) from Dickens to "Phiz" (printed for the first time in Mr. D. C. Thomson's Memoir of H. K. Browne), in which the novelist is very explicit respecting his requirements:--

"MY DEAR BROWNE-- ... The occasion of my coming home makes me very late with my number, which I have only begun this morning; otherwise you should have been fed sooner....The first subject I am now going to give is very important to the book. _I should like to see your sketch of it if possible._

"I should premise that I want to make the Major, who is the incarnation of selfishness and small revenge, a kind of comic Mephistophilean power in the book; and the No. begins with the departure of Mr. Dombey and the Major on that trip for change of air and scene which is prepared for in the last Number. They go to Leamington, where you and I were once. In the Library the Major introduces Mr. Dombey to a certain lady, whom, as I wish to foreshadow dimly, said Dombey may come to marry in due season. She is about thirty, not a day more--handsome, though haughty-looking--good figure, well dressed, showy, and desirable. Quite a lady in appearance, with something of a proud indifference about her, suggestive of a spark of the Devil within. Was married young. Husband dead. Goes about with an old mother, who rouges, and who lives upon the reputation of a diamond necklace and her family. Wants a husband. Flies at none but high game, and couldn't marry anybody not rich. Mother affects cordiality and heart, and is the essence of sordid calculation. Mother usually shoved about in a Bath chair by a page who has rather outgrown and outshoved his strength, and who butts at it behind like a ram, while his mistress steers herself languidly by a handle in front. Nothing the matter with her to prevent her walking, only was once when a Beauty sketched reclining in a Barouche, and having outlived the Beauty and the Barouche too, still holds to the attitude as becoming her uncommonly. Mother is in this machine in the sketch. Daughter has a parasol.