Dickens and His Illustrators Part 15

"MY DEAR CATTERMOLE,--I am going to propound a mightily grave matter to you. My new periodical work appears--or I should rather say the first number does--on Sat.u.r.day, the 28th of March.... The t.i.tle is 'Master Humphrey's Clock.'

Now, among other improvements, I have turned my attention to the ill.u.s.trations, meaning to have woodcuts dropped into the text, and no separate plates. I want to know whether you would object to make me a little sketch for a woodcut--in indian-ink would be quite sufficient--about the size of the enclosed sc.r.a.p; the subject, an old quaint room with antique Elizabethan furniture, and in the chimney-corner an extraordinary old clock--the clock belonging to Master Humphrey, in fact, and no figures. This I should drop into the text at the head of my opening page.

"I want to know, besides--as Chapman & Hall are my partners in the matter, there need be no delicacy about my asking or your answering the question--what would be your charge for such a thing, and whether (if the work answers our expectations) you would like to repeat the joke at intervals, and if so, on what terms? I should tell you that I intend to ask Maclise to join me likewise, and that the copying, the drawing on wood, and the cutting will be done in first-rate style.... I want to talk the matter over with you, and wish you would fix your own time and place....--Faithfully yours

"CHARLES d.i.c.kENS."

We gather from this letter that Cattermole was then unaccustomed to drawing upon the wood block, and therefore executed his designs upon paper, to be afterwards copied upon wood by a practical hand. In the next communication, dated a few days later, it will be seen that the artist agreed to d.i.c.kens's proposals (preferring, however, to select his own subjects), and that "Phiz's" pencil was made available for copying purposes; the drawing here referred to being that of the "old quaint room" which forms the heading of the first chapter of "Master Humphrey's Clock." The novelist wrote:--

"I think the drawing most famous, and so do the publishers, to whom I sent it to-day. If Browne should suggest anything for the future which may enable him to do you justice in copying (on which point he is very anxious), I will communicate with you. It has occurred to me that perhaps you will like to see his copy on the block before it is cut, and I have therefore told Chapman & Hall to forward it to you.

"In future, I will take care that you have the number to choose your subject from. I ought to have done so, perhaps, in this case; but I was very anxious that you should do the room...."

The artistic skill of the eminent draughtsman and engraver, Samuel Williams, was at first similarly requisitioned for copying purposes, as proved by the signature appended to the ill.u.s.tration of Little Nell's room in the initial chapter of "The Old Curiosity Shop," the original drawing of which was undoubtedly supplied by Cattermole, who, before very long, was enabled to dispense with these professional services.

Judging from the amount of correspondence still extant, d.i.c.kens was constantly in communication with Cattermole respecting the ill.u.s.trations for "Master Humphrey's Clock." In a letter dated March 9, 1840, he said:--

"I have been induced, on looking over the works of the 'Clock,' to make a slight alteration in their disposal, by virtue of which the story about 'John Podgers' will stand over for some little time, and that short tale will occupy its place which you have already by you, and which treats of the a.s.sa.s.sination of a young gentleman under circ.u.mstances of peculiar aggravation.[29] I shall be greatly obliged to you if you will turn your attention to this last morsel as the feature of No. 3, and still more if you can stretch a point with regard to time (which is of the last importance just now), and make a subject out of it, rather than find one in it. I would neither have made this alteration nor have troubled you about it, but for weighty and cogent reasons which I feel very strongly, and into the composition of which caprice or fastidiousness has no part....

Footnote 29: "Mr. Pickwick's Tale," in the first chapter.

"I cannot tell you how admirably I think Master Humphrey's room comes out, or what glowing accounts I hear of the second design you have done.[30] I had not the faintest antic.i.p.ation of anything so good, taking into account the material and the despatch."

Footnote 30: See headpiece to "First Night of the Giant Chronicles."

The text of "Master Humphrey's Clock" afforded the artist many congenial themes for his pencil. The story of Little Nell evidently fascinated him, and the various subjects selected for ill.u.s.tration were lovingly dealt with. An interval of several months elapsed before the following instructions were received by him respecting future designs:--

"I sent the MS. of the enclosed proof, marked 2, up to Chapman & Hall from Devonshire, mentioning a subject of an old gateway,[31] which I had put in expressly with a view to your ill.u.s.trious pencil. By a mistake, however, it went to Browne instead.

Footnote 31: See ill.u.s.tration in "The Old Curiosity Shop,"

chap, xxvii.

PLATE x.x.xIX

QUILP'S WHARF

_Facsimile_ of the Original Sketch for "The Old Curiosity Shop" by

GEORGE CATTERMOLE

_Lent by Mrs. Edward Franks._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"The subject to which I wish to call your attention is in an unwritten number to follow this one, but it is a mere echo of what you will find at the conclusion of this proof marked 2. I want the cart, gaily decorated, going through the street of the old town with the wax brigand displayed to fierce advantage, and the child seated in it also dispersing bills. As many flags and inscriptions about Jarley's Wax Work fluttering from the cart as you please. You know the wax brigands, and how they contemplate small oval miniatures? That's the figure I want. I send you the sc.r.a.p of MS. which contains the subject.

"Will you, when you have done this, send it with all speed to Chapman & Hall, as we are mortally pressed for time...."

For some reason, the drawing of Mrs. Jarley's cart was not executed by Cattermole; perhaps he was otherwise occupied at the moment, so that the work fell to Browne, whose initials are appended. Concerning the frontispiece the novelist offered some valuable suggestions, of which the artist readily availed himself:--

"Will you turn your attention to a frontispiece for our first volume, to come upon the left-hand side of the book as you open it, and to face a plain printed t.i.tle? My idea is, some scene from 'The Curiosity Shop,'

in a pretty border, or scroll-work, or architectural device; it matters not what, so that it be pretty. The scene even might be a fanciful thing, partaking of the character of the story, but not reproducing any particular pa.s.sage in it, if you thought that better for the effect.

"I ask you to think of this, because, although the volume is not published until the end of September, there is no time to lose. We wish to have it engraved with great care and worked very skilfully; and this cannot be done unless we get it on the stocks soon. They will give you every opportunity of correction, alteration, revision, and all other -ations and -isions connected with the fine arts."

In this design will be found Cattermole's only representations of Mr.

Pickwick and the two Wellers. In the following letter (dated December 21 [1840]), some hints were given as to the treatment of one of the most charming ill.u.s.trations in the series, viz., the picturesque parsonage-house which was the temporary home of Little Nell and her Grandfather. The lanthorn here referred to is not only omitted from the drawing, but we fail to find it mentioned in the text:--

"Kit, the single gentleman, and Mr. Garland go down to the place where the child is, and arrive there at night. There has been a fall of snow.

Kit, leaving them behind, runs to the old house, and, with a lanthorn in one hand and the bird in its cage in the other, stops for a moment at a little distance with a natural hesitation before he goes up to make his presence known. In a window--supposed to be that of the child's little room--a light is burning, and in that room the child (unknown, of course, to her visitors, who are full of hope) lies dead.

"If you have any difficulty about Kit, never mind about putting him in...."

The next letter contained useful suggestions for the delineation of the most pathetic scenes in "The Old Curiosity Shop."

(1.) The child lying dead in the little sleeping-room, which is behind the open screen. It is winter-time, so there are no flowers; but upon her breast and pillow, and about her bed, there may be strips of holly and berries, and such free green things. Window overgrown with ivy. The little boy who had that talk with her about angels may be by the bedside, if you like it so; but I think it will be quieter and more peaceful if she is quite alone. I want it to express the most beautiful repose and tranquillity, and to have something of a happy look, if death can.

(2.) The child has been buried inside the church, and the old man, who cannot be made to understand that she is dead, repairs to the grave and sits there all day long, waiting for her arrival, to begin another journey. His staff and knapsack, her little bonnet and basket, &c., lie beside him. 'She'll come to-morrow,' he says when it gets dark, and goes sorrowfully home. I think an hour-gla.s.s running out would help the notion; perhaps her little things upon his knee or in his hand.

"I am breaking my heart over this story, and cannot bear to finish it."

PLATE XL

TWO STUDIES FOR

"THE DEATH-BED OF LITTLE NELL"

_Facsimile_ of the Original Drawings for "The Old Curiosity Shop" by

GEORGE CATTERMOLE

_Lent by Mr. S. J. Davey and Mrs. Edward Franks._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

In the first of these two delightful drawings the artist rightly omitted the figure of the boy, and in order to emphasise the sense of repose in that humble death-chamber, he introduced a bird, which is seen perched upon the window-ledge, while the hour-gla.s.s (suggested for the second picture) seemed to him more appropriate here. Cattermole made two or three sketches of No. 1 before he quite satisfied the author, who had asked him to carry out certain alterations, these resulting in such a marked improvement that d.i.c.kens wrote: "I cannot tell you how much obliged I am to you for altering the child, or how much I hope that my wish in that respect didn't go greatly against the grain."[32] "Will you do me," he asks, in the same letter, "a little tailpiece for the 'Curiosity' story?--only one figure if you like--giving some notion of the etherealised spirit of the child; something like those little figures in the frontispiece." This little allegory formed the closing ill.u.s.tration.

Footnote 32: Macready, upon whom the death of Little Nell had a painful effect, was much impressed by this ill.u.s.tration, as an entry in his diary testifies: "Found at home ... an onward number of 'Master Humphrey's Clock.' I saw one print in it of the dear dead child that gave a dead chill through my blood.

I dread to read it, but must get it over."

"Barnaby Rudge" immediately followed "The Old Curiosity Shop," under the collective t.i.tle of "Master Humphrey's Clock." For the first chapter of this stirring romance Cattermole provided a charming ill.u.s.tration, depicting the old "Maypole" Inn, which, however, was not intended to portray the "delicious old inn" opposite Chigwell churchyard, referred to by d.i.c.kens in a letter to Forster at this time, it being an entirely fanciful design. When the novelist saw the drawing on wood of this subject he was delighted. "Words cannot say how good it is," he wrote to the artist. "I can't bear the thought of its being cut, and should like to frame and glaze it in _statu quo_ for ever and ever." On January 28, 1841, he queried:--

"I want to know whether you feel ravens in general and would fancy Barnaby's raven in particular? Barnaby being an idiot, my notion is to have him always in company with a pet raven, who is immeasurably more knowing than himself. To this end I have been studying my bird, and think I could make a very queer character of him. Should you like the subject when this raven makes his first appearance?"