Plate XIII
"FAGIN IN THE CONDEMNED CELL"
Facsimile of a Trial Sketch by
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK
Minor Writings in "Bentley's Miscellany." Certain humorous pieces written by Dickens for Richard Bentley were also illustrated by Cruikshank. The first paper, entitled "Public Life of Mr. Tulrumble, once Mayor of Mudfog" (published in January 1837), contains an etching of Ned[5] Twigger in the kitchen of Mudfog Hall, and the next contribution, purporting to be a "Full Report of the Second Meeting of the Mudfog Association for the Advancement of Everything" (September, 1838) is embellished with a very ludicrous illustration, entitled "Automaton Police Office and Real Offenders, from the model exhibited before Section B of the Mudfog Association." This design depicts the interior of a police-court in which all the officials are automatic—an ingenious rendering of the idea propounded by Mr. Coppernose to the President and members of the Association. To the second paper the artist also supplied a woodcut portrait of "The Tyrant Sowster," of whom he made no less than six studies before he succeeded in producing a satisfactory presentment of Mudfog's "active and intelligent" beadle.
In his juvenile days Dickens wrote a farce entitled "The Lamplighter," which, owing to its non-acceptance by the theatrical management for whom it was composed, he converted into an amusing tale called "The Lamplighter's Story." This constituted his share in a collection of light essays and other papers gratuitously supplied by well-known authors, and issued in volume form under the title of "The Pic Nic Papers," for the benefit of the widow of Macrone, Dickens's first publisher. The work, edited by Dickens, was launched by Henry Colborn in 1841, in three volumes, with fourteen illustrations by Cruikshank, "Phiz," and other artists. The first volume opened with "The Lamplighter's Story," for which Cruikshank provided an etching entitled "The Philosopher's Stone," the subject represented being the unexpected explosion of Tom Grig's crucible. This was the last illustration executed by the artist for Dickens's writings,[6] and it may be added that some impressions of the plate were issued in proof state "before letters," but these are exceedingly rare. Although for many years afterwards they continued fast friends, it may be (as Mr. Graham Everitt conjectures) that Cruikshank found it impossible to co-operate any longer with so exacting an employer of artistic labour as Charles Dickens, who remonstrated, with some show of reason, that he was the best judge of what he required pictorially,—an argument, however, which did not suit the independent spirit of the artist. Of his genius Dickens was ever a warm admirer, and remarking upon the exclusion of so able a draughtsman from the honours of the Royal Academy, because, forsooth! his works were not produced in certain mediums, the novelist pertinently asks: "Will no Associates be found upon its books one of these days, the labours of whose oil and brushes will have sunk into the profoundest obscurity, when many pencil-marks of Mr. Cruikshank and Mr. Leech will be still fresh in half the houses in the land?"
It will be remembered that George Cruikshank published a version of the Fairy Tales, converting them into stories somewhat resembling Temperance tracts. Dickens was greatly incensed, and, half-playfully and half-seriously, protested against such alterations of the beautiful little romances, this re-writing them "according to Total Abstinence, Peace Society, and Bloomer principles, and expressly for their propagation;" in an article published in Household Words, October 1, 1853, entitled "Frauds on the Fairies," the novelist enunciates his opinions on the subject, and gives the story of Cinderella as it might be "edited" by a gentleman with a "mission." This elicited a reply from Cruikshank (in a short-lived magazine bearing his name, and launched by him in 1854), which took the form of "A Letter from Hop-o'-my-Thumb to Charles Dickens, Esq.," commencing with "Right Trusty, Well-Beloved, Much-Read, and Admired Sir," the artist contending that he was justified in altering "a common fairy-tale" when his sole object was to remove objectionable passages, and, in their stead, to inculcate moral principles. There is no doubt, however, that Dickens's rebuke seriously affected the sale of the Fairy Library.
Plate XIV
FIRST IDEA AND SKETCH FOR "FAGIN IN THE CONDEMNED CELL"
And Various Studies for Scenes and Characters in "Oliver Twist"
Facsimile of Original Drawings by
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK
In 1847 Dickens instituted a series of theatrical entertainments for certain charitable objects, the distinguished artists and writers who formed the goodly company of amateur actors including George Cruikshank. On one occasion they made a tour in the provinces, giving performances at several important towns, and on the conclusion of this "splendid strolling" Dickens wrote an amusing little jeu d'esprit in the form of a history of the trip, adopting for the purpose the phraseology of Mrs. Gamp. It was to be a new "Piljian's Projiss," with illustrations by the artist-members; but, for some reason, it was destined never to appear in the manner intended by its projector. Forster has printed all that was ever written of the little jest, where we find a humorous description of Cruikshank in Mrs. Gamp's vernacular: "I was drove about like a brute animal and almost worritted into fits, when a gentleman with a large shirt-collar and a hook nose, and a eye like one of Mr. Sweedlepipe's hawks, and long locks of hair, and wiskers that I wouldn't have no lady as I was engaged to meet suddenly a turning round a corner, for any sum of money you could offer me, says, laughing, 'Halloa, Mrs. Gamp, what are you up to?' I didn't know him from a man (except by his clothes); but I says faintly, 'If you're a Christian man, show me where to get a second-cladge ticket for Manjester, and have me put in a carriage, or I shall drop!' Which he kindly did, in a cheerful kind of a way, skipping about in the strangest manner as ever I see, making all kinds of actions, and looking and vinking at me from under the brim of his hat (which was a good deal turned up), to that extent, that I should have thought he meant something but for being so flurried as not to have no thoughts at all until I was put in a carriage...." When Mrs. Gamp was informed, in a whisper, that the gentleman who assisted her into the carriage was "George," she replied, "What George, sir? I don't know no George." "The great George, ma'am—the Crookshanks," was the explanation. Whereupon Mrs. Gamp continues: "If you'll believe me, Mrs. Harris, I turns my head, and see the wery man a making picturs of me on his thumb-nail at the winder!" The artist took part in several plays under Dickens's management, but, although it is not recorded that he created great sensation as an actor, it seems evident that his impersonations met with the approval of the novelist, who was a thorough martinet in Thespian matters.