“Brother Tadger, Sir,” said Mr. Stiggins, suddenly increasing in ferocity, and turning sharp round on the little man in the drab shorts, “you are drunk, Sir.” — Thomas Onwhyn's twenty-third extra illustration for Charles Dickens's “The Pickwick Club” (26 October 1837)

[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Thomas Onwhyn —> Extra Illustrations for Pickwick —> Charles Dickens —> Next]

“Brother Tadger, Sir,” said Mr. Stiggins, suddenly increasing in ferocity, and turning sharp round on the little man in the drab shorts, “you are drunk, Sir.”

Thomas Onwhyn [“TO del”]

steel engraving

12.1 cm high by 10.8 cm wide (4 ¾ by 4 ¼ inches), vignetted

Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Chapter XXXIII, “Mr. Weller the Elder Delivers Some Critical Sentiments Respecting Literary Composition; And, Assisted by his Son Samuel, Pays a Small Instalment of Retaliation to the Account of the Reverend Gentleman with the Red Nose,” facing 351.

[Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Brother Stiggins pitches into Brother Tadger (for instalment No. 11)

‘Will you address the meeting, brother?’ said Mr. Humm, with a smile of invitation.

‘No, sir,’ rejoined Mr. Stiggins; ‘No, sir. I will not, sir.’

The meeting looked at each other with raised eyelids; and a murmur of astonishment ran through the room.

‘It’s my opinion, sir,’ said Mr. Stiggins, unbuttoning his coat, and speaking very loudly — ‘it’s my opinion, sir, that this meeting is drunk, sir. Brother Tadger, sir!’ said Mr. Stiggins, suddenly increasing in ferocity, and turning sharp round on the little man in the drab shorts, ‘you are drunk, sir!’ With this, Mr. Stiggins, entertaining a praiseworthy desire to promote the sobriety of the meeting, and to exclude therefrom all improper characters, hit Brother Tadger on the summit of the nose with such unerring aim, that the drab shorts disappeared like a flash of lightning. Brother Tadger had been knocked, head first, down the ladder.

Upon this, the women set up a loud and dismal screaming; and rushing in small parties before their favourite brothers, flung their arms around them to preserve them from danger. An instance of affection, which had nearly proved fatal to Humm, who, being extremely popular, was all but suffocated, by the crowd of female devotees that hung about his neck, and heaped caresses upon him. The greater part of the lights were quickly put out, and nothing but noise and confusion resounded on all sides. [Chapter XXXIII, “Mr. Weller the Elder Delivers Some Critical Sentiments Respecting Literary Composition; And, Assisted by his Son Samuel, Pays a Small Instalment of Retaliation to the Account of the Reverend Gentleman with the Red Nose,” 351]

Commentary: More Satirizing Stiggins the Shepherd and His Flock

Part Twelve (March 1837) is composed of just two chapters, an instalment which Onwhyn waited several months to illustrate, giving him ample opportunity to see what Phiz and Dickens had done with the Tony Weller/Stiggins comic subplot. Onwhyn had offered the book-collecting public his initial interpretation two months earlier, whereas Phiz's initial version of Tony Weller had appeared in The Valentine in March 1837. But Onwhyn's second depiction of the coachman closely resembles that by Phiz in that March plate rather than his own version of Tony Weller in “He called me a wessel, Sammy_a wessel of wrath_and all sorts of names . . . and walked off” (issued on 31 August 1837). Clearly, with Phiz's version in mind, Onwhyn decided to make his own figure align rather than conflict with Phiz's.

In Chapter XXXIII, Dickens creates the illusion of a contemporary action by having Sam compose a Valentine for Mary, the Nupkins' maid; however, confusions are bound to arise since he signs it with the couplet "Your love-sick / Pickwick." The composition of the Valentine was the scene that Phiz and Dickens chose to illustrate, but Onwhyn had an obvious choice for his "extra" illustration: after Tony convinces his son to accompany him to the monthly meeting of the Brick Lane Branch of the United Grand Junction Ebenezer Temperance Association, the street-wise Cockneys unmask the hypocritical Stiggins before the congregation as a closet alcoholic.

However, Onwhyn essentially has the hypocrite unmask himself as, in a drunken stupour, he attacks another congregant for enebriation, much to the amusement of the Wellers (right). The reaction of Stiggins's female devotees in the background is one of consternation. The reader undoubtedly wonders why Sam is helping Tony off with his great coachman's coat as Stiggins punches Tadger in the face, forcing him out of the room, "head-first," without use of the ladder (left). The coachman's removing his coat seems to imply that Tony is about to intervene, and pummel Stiggins again as he did in Chapter XXII. And, in fact, he signals this intention to Sam, and then acts upon it: "his heroic parent had penetrated into a remote corner of the room, and attacked the reverend Mr. Stiggins with manual dexterity." Details which are notably missing in the illustration are the much-adored Mr. Humm, Branch Secretary, and Tadger's smalls. However, at least Tony here resembles Phiz's in The Valentine.

The Reverend Mr. Stiggins in the Household Editions (1873-74)

Left: Thomas Nast's American Household Edition's engraving for the Chapter XXVII, "Governor in?" inquired Sam (1873). Right: Phiz's British Household Edition woodcut reworks his original 1837 steel engraving as Before Sam could interfere to prevent it, his heroic parent had penetrated into a remote corner of the room, and attacked the Reverend Stiggins with manual dexterity (Ch. XXII, 1874). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Left: The American edition's illustration by Thomas Nast that gives us the scene from inside the public house, Resuming his kicking with greater agility than before (1873). Right: Phiz's re-drafted version of the same scene for the Household Edition, Mr. Weller . . . . . immersing Mr. Stiggins's head in a horse-trough. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Phiz's Scenes Involving Tony Weller and the Reverend Stiggins

The Valentine (March 1837 instalment)

The Red-Nosed Man Discourseth (August 1837 instalment)

Tony Weller ejects Mr. Stiggins (November 1837 instalment)

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).

_______. The Pickwick Papers. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874; New York: Harpers and Brothers, 1874. Vol. 6.

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

Created 18 February 2024