An examination of Seymour's etchings for "Pickwick" shows that, in the application of the dilute nitric acid to corrode the lines produced by the etching-point, the artist was greatly troubled, and, in order to save his designs and keep faith with the publishers and the public, he was probably compelled to apply for help in his need to one of the artist-engravers residing in his neighbourhood. It has been suggested that certain faults in his plates caused by defective "biting" were remedied by means of the engraving tool; but, so far as I have been able to discover, there is no evidence of this. His plates possess the quality of pure etching; indeed, in that respect they are superior to those by "Phiz" in the same work. It should, however, be noted that there are extant very few copies of "Pickwick" containing impressions from Seymour's own plates; perhaps in not more than one copy out of a hundred will they be found, and this scarcity is explained by the fact that when the plates suffered deterioration through printing, the artist's death prevented him from duplicating them, so that the subjects had to be copied and re-etched by "Phiz." Seymour reversed his designs upon the steel plates, so that when printed they appear exactly as originally drawn. There is reason to infer, from an entry in the artist's memorandum-book, that the first four subjects were etched before he showed them to Dickens, and that they were afterwards re-etched and modified in some degree to suit the author's views.
Besides these illustrations, Seymour is responsible for the design appearing on the green wrapper of the monthly parts, which was engraved on wood by John Jackson. A glance at this at once convinces us how strongly the "sporting" element was at first intended to predominate, for here are displayed trophies of guns, fishing-rods, and other sporting implements; at the top of the page is seen the veritable Winkle aiming at a sparrow, while below, seated on a chair in a punt, peacefully reposes Mr. Pickwick with his rod, watching for a "bite"; in the background of the picture may be recognised Putney Church, as well as the old wooden bridge which once spanned the Thames at this point.
Plate XXI
"THE PICKWICKIANS IN MR. WARDLE'S KITCHEN"
Facsimile of an Unused Design for "The Pickwick Papers" by
R. SEYMOUR
This Drawing illustrates an incident in the fifth chapter.
Lent by Mr. Augustin Daly.
After the publication of "The Pickwick Papers" many veracious reports as to its origin were circulated. In some of these statements Dickens was entirely deprived of the credit of its inception, and partly to assert his claim, but principally because he believed his readers would be interested in the truth of the matter, he related the facts in the already-quoted Preface to the first cheap edition. About two years later he was considerably annoyed by the appearance of a pamphlet purporting to give "An Account of the Origin of the Pickwick Papers," the author of which was the "widow of the distinguished artist who originated the work." Mrs. Seymour printed in her brochure a distorted version of Dickens's Preface, and attempted a reply thereto, by which she endeavoured to show the fallacy of his statements. The following extract from this privately-printed pamphlet sufficiently indicates the tenor of Mrs. Seymour's attempt to prove that the honour belonged exclusively to the artist: "Mr. Dickens edited a work called 'The Pickwick Papers,' which was originated solely by my husband in the summer of 1835, and but for a cold (which brought on a severe illness) which he caught on Lord Mayor's Day, on taking his children to view the procession from the Star Chamber, would have been written, as well as embellished, by himself; this cause alone prevented him from doing so, as the numerous periodicals he was constantly engaged upon had greatly accumulated during his illness."[10] Although such a claim, so seriously maintained, necessitated immediate refutation, Dickens allowed a considerable time to elapse before making a formal denial thereof. With a view to future action, however, he wrote to Edward Chapman for his recollections of the primary events in the history of the work, and accordingly received from him the following reply, dated July 7, 1849: "In November [1835] we published a little book called 'The Squib Annual,' with plates by Seymour, and it was during my visit to him to see after them that he said he should like to do a series of Cockney sporting plates of a superior sort to those he had already published. I said I thought it might do if accompanied by letterpress and published in monthly parts; and this being agreed to, we wrote to the author of 'Three Courses and a Dessert' (a Mr. Clarke). I proposed it; but receiving no answer, the scheme dropped for some months, till Seymour said he wished us to decide, as another job had offered which would fully occupy his time. And it was on this we decided to ask you to do it.... I am quite sure that from the beginning to the end nobody but yourself had anything whatsoever to do with it."
Further publicity was bestowed upon the subject in a letter contributed to the Athenæum of March 24, 1866, by Seymour's son, who not only repeated the principal arguments adduced by the pamphlet, but promised further particulars in a subsequent communication. Whereupon Dickens, rightly considering that the opportunity had now arrived for emphatically repudiating the whole story, forwarded the following letter for publication in the ensuing number of the Athenæum:—
"As the author of 'The Pickwick Papers' (and of one or two other books), I send you a few facts, and no comments, having reference to a letter signed 'R. Seymour,' which in your editorial discretion you published last week.
"Mr. Seymour the artist never originated, suggested, or in any way had to do with, save as illustrator of what I devised, an incident, a character (except the sporting tastes of Mr. Winkle), a name, a phrase, or a word, to be found in 'The Pickwick Papers.'