The Walls of Juliet's House by Thomas Nast, in Charles Dickens's Pictures from Italy, Sketches, and American Notes, eighth chapter, "By Verona, Mantua, and Milan, across The Pass of the Simplon into Switzerland," p. 42. Wood-engraving, 2 ⅛ by 3 ⅜ inches wide (5.5 cm high by 8.7 cm wide), vignetted.
Passage Complemented: Romeo imagined climbing the wall to the Balcony
I read Romeo and Juliet in my own room at the inn that night — of course, no Englishman had ever read it there, before — and set out for Mantua next day at sunrise, repeating to myself (in the coupé of an omnibus, and next to the conductor, who was reading the Mysteries of Paris),
There is no world without Verona’s walls But purgatory, torture, hell itself. Hence-banished is banished from the world, And world’s exile is death —
which reminded me that Romeo was only banished five-and-twenty miles after all, and rather disturbed my confidence in his energy and boldness. [Chapter 8, "By Verona, Mantua, and Milan, across The Pass of the Simplon into Switzerland," 42]
Related Material
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- Gordon Thomson — Playing at Mora
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- Dickens and Family at the Villa di Bella Vista (The Bagnerello), Albaro: July-September, 1844
- Charles Dickens, 1843 daguerrotype by Unbek in America; the earliest known photographic portrait of the author
Scanned image, colour correction, sizing, caption, and commentary 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 the image, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.] Click on the image to enlarge it.
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. Chapter 8, "By Verona, Mantua, and Milan, across The Pass of the Simplon into Switzerland." Pictures from Italy, Sketches by Boz, and American Notes. Illustrated by A. B. Frost and Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1877. 41-47.
_______. Pictures from Italy and American Notes. Illustrated by A. B. Frost and Gordon Thomson. London: Chapman and Hall, 1880. 1-381.
Created 15 May 2019
Last modified 8 June 2020