Dick Swiveller's Surprise
Harold Copping
1924
Colour lithography
18.3 cm. by 12.4 cm.
From Character Sketches from Dickens, facing p. 56 (illustrating The Old Curiosity Shop)
Scanned image, caption, and commentary below by Philip V. Allingham
An occasion soon presented itself. The Marchioness dealt, turned up a knave, and omitted to take the usual advantage; upon which Mr. Swiveller called out as loud as he could— "Two for his heels!" [Ch. 64, originally in part 35, 2 January 1841]
In chapter 57, Dick had introduced his companion at the Brasses' to the joys of beer and cribbage, a scene that Phiz had commemorated in "The Marchioness at Cards" (5 December 1840). In chapter 62, Dick is discharged at Quilp's behest, and subsequently contracts a high fever. Three weeks later he recovers from his delirium to find that the Marchioness had run away from the Brasses at Bevis Marks to look after him, and has in the interim pawned all of his clothes in order to purchase medicine for him. Later, she testifies against her employers, incriminating Quilp and exonerating Kit Nubbles. Ultimately, once he has come into a modest inheritance, Dick repays the kindness of the Marchioness by paying for her education, giving her the decidedly peculiar name "Sophronia Sphinx," and (in chapter 73) marrying her. Thus, the relationship of Dick and the girl, based on friendship and shared experiences, is the healthy antithesis of Quilp's diseased obsession with Little Nell.
In Copping's second of three illustrations for The Old Curiosity Shop both the servant-girl and Dick Swiveller seem to have grown up. The single candle casts the room into shadow as it highlights her face and his, and the cards on the table. This scene of wonder and re-awakening is in sharp contrast to Phiz's handling of the earlier scene from chapter 57 in which, leaning back in a stupor, Dick drains a tankard of beer while Marchioness, a diminutive witch, scrutinizes her cards in the chaotic office of the Brasses in "The Marchioness at Cards" (part 31, 5 December 1840). Copping realistically subordinates all elements in his composition to the two figures, while Phiz, combining cartoonish distortion with early Victorian detailism, surrounds his figures with furniture and material objects.
References
Matz, B. W., and Kate Perugini; illustrated by Harold Copping. Character Sketches from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924. Copy in the Paterson Library, Lakehead University.
Last modified 6 March 2009