"What Ralph Nickleby saw at Mrs. Mantalini's" — Furniss's twenty-first illustration for Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby" (1910)

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What Ralph Nickleby saw at Mrs. Mantalini's

Harry Furniss

1910

5 ¼ by 3 ½ inches (13.5 cm high x 9.1 cm wide), vignetted

There were all the young-lady workers, with bonnets and without, some gathered round Madame Mantalini, in tears upon one chair; others round Miss Knag, in opposition tears upon another; and others round Mr. Mantalini, whose head and shoulders were supported by a very tall footman. — p. 588.

Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing IV, 576.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Ralph Nickleby discovers that Mantalini has attempted suicide — again

Guided by the noise of a great many voices all talking together, and passing the girl in his impatience, before they had ascended many steps, Ralph quickly reached the private sitting-room, when he was rather amazed by the confused and inexplicable scene in which he suddenly found himself.

There were all the young-lady workers, some with bonnets and some without, in various attitudes expressive of alarm and consternation; some gathered round Madame Mantalini, who was in tears upon one chair; and others round Miss Knag, who was in opposition tears upon another; and others round Mr. Mantalini, who was perhaps the most striking figure in the whole group, for Mr. Mantalini’s legs were extended at full length upon the floor, and his head and shoulders were supported by a very tall footman, who didn’t seem to know what to do with them, and Mr. Mantalini’s eyes were closed, and his face was pale and his hair was comparatively straight, and his whiskers and moustache were limp, and his teeth were clenched, and he had a little bottle in his right hand, and a little tea-spoon in his left; and his hands, arms, legs, and shoulders, were all stiff and powerless. And yet Madame Mantalini was not weeping upon the body, but was scolding violently upon her chair; and all this amidst a clamour of tongues perfectly deafening, and which really appeared to have driven the unfortunate footman to the utmost verge of distraction.

"What is the matter here?" said Ralph, pressing forward.

At this inquiry, the clamour was increased twenty-fold, and an astounding string of such shrill contradictions as "He’s poisoned himself" — "He hasn’t" — "Send for a doctor" — "Don’t" — "He’s dying" — "He isn’t, he’s only pretending" — with various other cries, poured forth with bewildering volubility, until Madame Mantalini was seen to address herself to Ralph, when female curiosity to know what she would say, prevailed, and, as if by general consent, a dead silence, unbroken by a single whisper, instantaneously succeeded. [Chapter XLIV, "Mr. Ralph Nickleby cuts an old Acquaintance. It would also appear from the Contents hereof, that a Joke, even between Husband and Wife, may be sometimes carried too far," 588]

Commentary: Revising Phiz's May 1839 steel-engraving

Furniss offers here a revision of the original May 1839 serial illustration. Furniss de-emphasizes Ralph Nickleby's commending presence in the text (for Dickens develops the scene from his objective perspective) and brings the prostrate figure of the would-be suicide well down, so that the hyperbolic rascal's slumped figure dominates the composition. Significantly, in the Phiz original Madame Mantalini is conscious, and able to enter into a dialogue with Ralph, where Furniss juxtaposes her attractive, unconscious form against the fetching faces of young shop-assistants, and has eliminated the unattractive Miss Knag entirely. To enhance the physical comedy, Phiz may have modelled the focal point of the farcical scene, the fallen Mantalini, upon the traditional Renaissance Pieta, the lamentation of the women over the body of the dead Christ, just taken down from the cross. The poisoning scene is a mere comic relief from Ralph's and Hawk's plans of vengeance. Certainly, although hardly a spiritual type, the unconscious, elegantly dressed (pseudo) Italian is in a similar position, although Furniss minimizes the figure of the footman who is supporting Mantalini. The overall effect of Furniss's reinterpretation is an advance in composition and focus, while maintaining the character comedy and emphasizing the beauty of Mrs. Mantalini's employees, most of whom seem infatuated with her husband.

And what has occasioned this botched suicide attempt, in which the errant husband has employed (supposedly) prussic acid from the local chemist's shop? Mrs. Mantalini has finally cut him off financially: "In future, he shall support himself if he can" (590).

Parallel Illustrations from Earlier Editions (1839-1867)

Left: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond Edition study of the novel's comic husband and wife: Mr. and Madame Mantalini (1867). Right: the original Phiz illustration from May 1839 suggests that he and Dickens enjoyed Mantalini's histrionics in Mr. Mantalini Poisons Himself for the Seventh Time.

Bibliography

Barnard, J. "Fred" (illustrator). Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, with fifty-eight illustrations. The Works of Charles Dickens: The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Volume 15. Rpt. 1890.

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.

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

Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872. I.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. With 39 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). London: Chapman & Hall, 1839.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. IV.

__________. "Nicholas Nickleby." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard et al. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1908.

Created 8 September 2021