“Go on, Sir said Mr. Fogg,” “do go on . . . to be pleasant.” — Thomas Onwhyn's fifteenth extra illustration for Charles Dickens's "The Pickwick Club" (30 June 1837)

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“Go on, Sir said Mr. Fogg,” “do go on . . . to be pleasant.”

Thomas Onwhyn [signed “Sam Weller, del”]

steel engraving

10 cm high by 9.4 cm wide (4 ⅞ by 4 ¼ inches), vignetted

Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Chapter XX, "Showing How Dodson and Fogg were Men of Business, and Their Clerks Men of Pleasure; And How an Affecting Interview Took Place Between Mr. Weller and His Long-Lost Parent; Showing also What Choice Spirits Assembled at the Magpie and Stump, and What a Capital Chapter the Next One Will Be" (October 1836), facing page 203.

[Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Pickwick Becomes Irate in Dealing with the Attorneys

‘And before I go, gentlemen,’ said the excited Mr. Pickwick, turning round on the landing, ‘permit me to say, that of all the disgraceful and rascally proceedings —’

‘Stay, sir, stay,’ interposed Dodson, with great politeness. ‘Mr. Jackson! Mr. Wicks!’

‘Sir,’ said the two clerks, appearing at the bottom of the stairs.

‘I merely want you to hear what this gentleman says,’ replied Dodson. ‘Pray, go on, sir — disgraceful and rascally proceedings, I think you said?’

‘I did,’ said Mr. Pickwick, thoroughly roused. ‘I said, Sir, that of all the disgraceful and rascally proceedings that ever were attempted, this is the most so. I repeat it, sir.’

‘You hear that, Mr. Wicks,’ said Dodson.

‘You won’t forget these expressions, Mr. Jackson?’ said Fogg.

‘Perhaps you would like to call us swindlers, sir,’ said Dodson. ‘Pray do, Sir, if you feel disposed; now pray do, Sir.’

‘I do,’ said Mr. Pickwick. ‘You are swindlers.’

‘Very good,’ said Dodson. ‘You can hear down there, I hope, Mr. Wicks?’

‘Oh, yes, Sir,’ said Wicks.

‘You had better come up a step or two higher, if you can’t,’ added Mr. Fogg. ‘Go on, S ir; do go on. You had better call us thieves, Sir; or perhaps You would like to assault one of us. Pray do it, Sir, if you would; we will not make the smallest resistance. Pray do it, Sir.’

As Fogg put himself very temptingly within the reach of Mr. Pickwick’s clenched fist, there is little doubt that that gentleman would have complied with his earnest entreaty, but for the interposition of Sam, who, hearing the dispute, emerged from the office, mounted the stairs, and seized his master by the arm.

‘You just come away,’ said Mr. Weller. ‘Battledore and shuttlecock’s a wery good game, vhen you ain’t the shuttlecock and two lawyers the battledores, in which case it gets too excitin’ to be pleasant.’ [Chapter XX, “Showing How Dodson and Fogg were Men of Business, and Their Clerks Men of Pleasure; And How an Affecting Interview Took Place Between Mr. Weller and His Long-Lost Parent; Showing also What Choice Spirits Assembled at the Magpie and Stump, and What a Capital Chapter the Next One Will Be,” 203]

Commentary: A More Assertive Side of Samuel Pickwick

“‘Go on, Sir said Mr. Fogg, ‘do go on, Sir. You had better call us thieves, Sir: or perhaps You would like to assault one of us. Pray do it, Sir, if you would; we will not make the smallest resistance.’

Although Onwhyn's modelling of the characters and the detailism of the lawyers' office is not up to the standard of most his previous "extra" illustrations, his characterisation of the smug, hectoring attorneys and the incensed Pickwick are an advance over the companion plate by Phiz for this same chapter, the sanctioned illustration, Mr. Pickwick and Sam in the Attorney's Office (October 1836). Pickwick, incensed at the effrontery of Dodson and Fogg, would certainly have assaulted them but for the timely intervention of the cool-headed Sam Weller. However, with neither his characteristic hat or striped vest, Onwhyn's Sam here does not much resemble the Cockney boots of previous illustrations. The applauding audience of law-office clerks are better individualised and posed in the Phiz original.

Other Versions of Pickwick's Confrontation with Dodson and Fogg (1836 through 1874)

Left: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond Edition realisation of the unscrupulous lawyers: Messrs. Dodson and Fogg (1867). Right: Phiz's Household Edition version has an angrier Pickwick: "You just come away," said Mr. Weller. "Battledore and shuttlecock’s a wery good game, vhen you ain’t the shuttlecock and two lawyers the battledores." (1874). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Left: Phiz's original version: Mr. Pickwick and Sam in the Attorney's Office (Chapter 20, October 1836). Right: Thomas Nast's American Household Edition woodcut "Pray do it, Sir!" (1873). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).

Titley, Graham D. C. "Thomas Onwhyn: a Life in Illustration (1811-1886)." Pearl. University of Plymouth (2018-07-12).

Created 12 February 2024