Mr. Bumble by J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") for the 1910 watercolour series: reproduced on John Player cigarette card no. 3: Ninety-two Characters from Dickens: The Adventures of Oliver Twist. 2 ½ inches high by 1 ¼ inches wide (6.3 cm high by 3.3 cm wide). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Right: George Cruikshank's second serial depiction of the parish beadle, Mr. Bumble and Mrs. Corney taking tea (February 1838).
Of the set of 50 cigarette cards, initially produced in 1910 and reissued in 1923, five or 10% concern a single early novel, The Adventures of Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress, originally published monthly in Bentley's Miscellany (February 1837 through April 1839), attesting to the enduring popularity of Dickens's second picaresque comic novel. The much-loved early Dickens characters from this second serialised novel include The Artful Dodger (Card No. 1), Fagin (Card No. 2), the present specimen (Card No. 3), Oliver himself ("Asking for more") (Card No. 4), and the brutal villain, house-breaker Bill Sikes (Card No. 9). Kyd depicted the ego-centric parish official twice more, in two Characters from Dickens series: Mr. Bumble (1900) and Mr. Bumble (Raphael Tuck). The verso of the image offers the following commentary:
A parish beadle, typifying in his portly personality the whole pride, power and force of Beadledom — a Beadledom eighty years ago [i. e., circa1830] was something like a power in the land. Marries shrewish Mrs. Corney, the matron [of the workhouse]; rises to the mastership of the workhouse; and, after draining the cup of matrimonial bitterness to its very dregs, ends his days a pauper inmate of the establishment which once trembled at his frown.
Passage Illustrated: The Self-Important Parish Beadle in His Splendid Equipage
"Goodness gracious! is that you, Mr. Bumble, sir?” said Mrs. Mann, thrusting her head out of the window in well-affected ecstasies of joy. “(Susan, take Oliver and them two brats up stairs, and wash ’em directly.) — My heart alive! Mr. Bumble, how glad I am to see you, sure-ly!”
Now Mr. Bumble was a fat man, and a choleric one; so, instead of responding to this open-hearted salutation in a kindred spirit, he gave the little wicket a tremendous shake, and then bestowed upon it a kick which could have emanated from no leg but a beadle’s.
“Lor, only think,” said Mrs. Mann, running out, — for the three boys had been removed by this time, — “only think of that! That I should have forgotten that the gate was bolted on the inside, on account of them dear children! Walk in, sir; walk in, pray, Mr. Bumble, do sir.”
Although this invitation was accompanied with a curtsey that might have softened the heart of a churchwarden, it by no means mollified the beadle. [Chapter Two, "Treats of Oliver Twist's Growth, Education, and Board," 1846 edition, pp. 4-5]
Relevant Illustrations from the serial and later editions (1837-1910)
Left: George Cruikshank's Oliver escapes being bound apprentice to a Sweep (Bumble's first appearance). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Junior's Mrs. Corney and Mr. Bumble. Right: James Mahoney's Household Edition illustration (1871) "Don't sigh, Mrs. Corney". [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Left: Harry Furniss's Oliver Refuses to be Bound over to a Sweep" (1910). Centre: Harry Furniss's "Mr. Bumble and Mrs. Corney" (1910). Right: F. W. Pailthorpe's study of Bumble's contemplating becoming lord of Mrs. Corney's possessions as he does a jig: Inexplicable Conduct of Mr. Bumble (1886). [Click on images to enlarge them.]
Related Material
- Depictions of Bumble, the Parish Beadle from Oliver Twist and other Beadles
- Oliver Twist as a Triple-Decker
- Oliver untainted by evil
- Like Martin Chuzzlewit, it agitates for social reform
- Oliver Twist Illustrated, 1837-1910
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the images and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: Chapman & Hall: 1846.
Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1861. 2 vols.
Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. XI.
Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Illustrated by James Mahoney. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1871. Vol. I.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. III.
Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 11: Oliver Twist." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Vol. 17. Pp. 129-146.
Created 2 January 2015
Last modified 2 July 2025