"The kid followed me" — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

The kid followed me

Wal Paget (1863-1935)

half-page lithograph

12.8 cm high by 8.3 cm wide, vignetted.

1891

Robinson Crusoe, embedded on page 45.

Scanned image 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 photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: "a scene of silent life" (page 45)

The first shot I made among these creatures, I killed a she-goat, which had a little kid by her, which she gave suck to, which grieved me heartily; for when the old one fell, the kid stood stock still by her, till I came and took her up; and not only so, but when I carried the old one with me, upon my shoulders, the kid followed me quite to my enclosure; upon which I laid down the dam, and took the kid in my arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopes to have bred it up tame; but it would not eat; so I was forced to kill it and eat it myself. These two supplied me with flesh a great while, for I ate sparingly, and saved my provisions, my bread especially, as much as possibly I could. [Chapter IV, "First Weeks on the Island," page 44]

Commentary: Crusoe interacts with the Nature of the Island

Heretofore, Crusoe has been reacting with other people, in camaraderie and conflict. Now, Paget depicts him by himself in long series of illustrations interacting with the natural environment: sleeping in a tree within sight of the ocean, hunting birds and goats, interacting with the ship's dog, discovering barley growing on the island, sharpening tools salvaged from the wreck, catching turtles and dolphins, and broiling meat over hot coals.He has become the embodiment of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Noble Savage, but without any society but that of animals. Paget delights in these scenes, representing the multiple species and tropical foliage of theCaribbeanisland.And Paget sees the mature protagonist as a keen observer and problem-solver whose biggest struggle is not with the elements, but with the loneliness of living in a previously uninhabited tropical paradise. A key phrase on the page on which the illustration actually occurs, "beingto enter into a melancholy relation of a scene of silent life" (page 45), is ironic in terms of the roaring of breakers, the crying of birds, and the bleating of the island's numerous goats; however, by "silent life" Crusoe means "a life without human speech," the aspect of human existence so vital for him.

Again, the illustration imposes itself on the text as the last two have, asserting its hegemony by compelling the column of column of print opposite his firearm to shrink in width. This asymetrical relationship is not entirely new to British publishing as Dickens's illustrators, for example, had employed it in dropping wood-engravings in the texts of the Christmas Books that followed the more conventionally laid out A Christmas Carol of 1843. However, Paget here uses the strategy of the vignette dropped into the text to draw readers' attentions to the weapon that will ensure his survival by enabling him to eat and later to protect himself from the cannibals.

Related Material

Related Scenes of Goat-hunting from the 1863-64 Cassell's Edition, Stothard (1790), and Cruikshank (1831)

Left: Thomas Stothard's 1790 realisation of the solitary and somewhat nervous castaway's encountering the goat in the cave: Robinson Crusoe terrified at the dying goat (Chapter IV, "First Few Weeks on the Island," copper-engraving).Centre: George Cruikshank's other scene involving the island's goats, Crusoe discovers a dying goat in a cave (1831).Right: The 1863-64 Cassell edition situates Crusoe's goat-hunting in the context of the island's jungle foliage Crusoe discovers Goats on the island. [Click onthe images to enlarge them.]

Above: Cruikshank's woodblock engraving of Crusoe in protective headgear stalking the island's goats: Crusoe hunting goats (1831). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Reference

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by Himself. With upwards of One Hundred and Twenty Original Illustrations by Walter Paget. London, Paris, and Melbourne: Cassell, 1891.

Last modified 25 April 2018