"The Brave Courier," initial illustration for "Pictures From Italy" by Sol Eytinge, Jr.

The Brave Courier

Sol Eytinge, Jr.

1867

Dickens's The Adventures of Oliver Twist, also, Pictures from Italy, American Notes for General Circulation (Diamond Edition)

After the fictional account of Oliver's descent into and return from the familiar-but-foreign cityscape of London's criminal underworld, the reader of the eleventh Diamond Edition volume encounters non-fiction accounts of Dickens's travels France and Italy in 1844-45, when family finances dictated that he and his entourage should live somewhere far less expensive than London, and of his impressions of the eastern United States garnered in his initial reading tour of January through June, 1842.

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

Passage Illustrated

We are astir at six next morning. It is a delightful day, shaming yesterday's mud upon the carriage, if anything could shame a carriage, in a land where carriages are never cleaned. Everybody is brisk; and as we finish breakfast, the horses come jingling into the yard from the Post-house. Everything taken out of the carriage is put back again. The brave Courier announces that all is ready, after walking into every room, and looking all round it, to be certain that nothing is left behind. Everybody gets in. Everybody connected with the Hôtel de l'Ecu d'Or is again enchanted. The brave Courier runs into the house for a parcel containing cold fowl, sliced ham, bread, and biscuits, for lunch; hands it into the coach; and runs back again.

What has he got in his hand now? More cucumbers? No. A long strip of paper. It's the bill.

The brave Courier has two belts on, this morning: one supporting the purse: another, a mighty good sort of leathern bottle, filled to the throat with the best light Bordeaux wine in the house. He never pays the bill till this bottle is full. Then he disputes it.

He disputes it now, violently. He is still the landlord’s brother, but by another father or mother. He is not so nearly related to him as he was last night. The landlord scratches his head. The brave Courier points to certain figures in the bill, and intimates that, if they remain there, the Hôtel de l'Ecu d’Or is thenceforth and for ever an hôtel de l'Ecu de cuivre. The landlord goes into a little counting-house. The brave Courier follows, forces the bill and a pen into his hand, and talks more rapidly than ever. The landlord takes the pen. The Courier smiles. The landlord makes an alteration. The Courier cuts a joke. The landlord is affectionate, but not weakly so. He bears it like a man. He shakes hands with his brave brother, but he don't hug him. Still, he loves his brother; for he knows that he will be returning that way, one of these fine days, with another family, and he foresees that his heart will yearn towards him again. ["Going Through France," p. 246]

Commentary

Ticknor-Fields' intention in placing Pictures from Italy in the eleventh volume was undoubtedly to complement a high-interest text — The Adventures of Oliver Twist — with several lesser pieces, although even in 1867 the controversy on that side of the Atlantic regarding American Notes had probably not entirely died down, with accusations in the Northern press that Dickens was "pro-Confederacy." Whereas in the original 1846 Bradbury and Evans volume edition of the Italian travelogue illustrator Samuel Palmer had emphasized the atmospheric landscapes and cityscapes of the Italian peninsula, Sol Eytinge, Jr., in the Diamond Edition focuses for two of the three wood-engravings upon two singular characters in the opening section — neither of them Italian: the Dickenses' travel guide, "The Brave Courier," and the wizened harpy ("The Goblin") who conducts them through the former headquarters of the Inquisition at Papal Palace in Avignon.

The illustrations of the 1867 volume contextualize the narrative voice as that of Dickens English traveller in the Continent rather than on Dickens the social commentator or expatriate living abroad. The choice of the Dickenses' courier as the subject of the first of the three illustrations for the Italian travelogue may suggest that Eytinge was sounding cautionary notes about billing practices in continental hotels for wealthy Americans about to undertake European tours, ands unfamiliar with European "haggling."

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. Pictures from Italy and American Notes for General Circulation. Works of Charles Dickens. Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867. Vol. 11.

Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. 3.

Last modified 3 November 2014