"Donald, The Gypsy, and His Dog, Bogey" in John Colman's "Elfie: A Barrister's Story"

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Donald, The Gypsy, and His Dog, Bogey (uncaptioned)

Charles Green

31 July 1886

8.5 cm high by 4.7 cm wide, vignetted

John Coleman's "Elfie: A Barrister's Story" in The Graphic, No. 870, Vol. 34, 117.

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Passage realized: "... we saw a tall, swarthy-looking young man, smoking his pipe, and leaning with folded arms against a stile at the top of a close on the other side of the street.... He was the very type of a pure-blooded gipsy, tall, slender, dark-complexioned, black hair and eyes, dark-bearded, with rings in his ears." [Continued below.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated [contd.]

Although it was still freezing bitterly, his shirt sleeves were turned up to the shoulder, displaying his muscular but finely-formed arms; a yellowish hairy cap was stuck jauntily on one side of his head; he had a well-worn double-breasted vest of crimson plush, with white mother-of-pearl buttons. His shirt was open at the neck, with a yellow silk handkerchief carelessly twisted round it. [Part One, Section II, "Hal's Wynd," 117]

Commentary

What appears as a headnote vignette in the first stage of the first-person narrative, "The Wild Horses," causes the serial reader some confusion: this colourful figure with his bull dog is not the strolling English player, Jamie, who becomes the middle-aged "barrister" and narrator of the tale. Rather, the colourful gipsy is a minor figure in the second stage of the story, selected no doubt to set the scene of the whole narrative, and support Coleman's generous use of Scottish dialect. The young actors study him as he studies them on the main street of the Scots village of Hal in which they have just been landed. Undoubtedly, Green was looking for a detailed description to realise at the head of the folio page, and seized upon the first likely passage as his subject. In consequence, although Donald and his bull dog provide an engaging enough entry into Coleman's magazine fiction, their presence at the head is somewhat misleading.

Bibliography

Coleman, John. "Elfie: A Barrister's Story — Part One." The Graphic Magazine. Illustrated by Charles Green, R. I. No. 870, Vol. 34. 31 July 1886, pp. 117-118. "Part Two": No. 871, Vol. 34. 7 August 1886, pp. 145-148.

Created 3 May 2025