“The Happy Pair of Swindlers” — Harry Furniss's nineteenth illustration for “Our Mutual Friend” (1910)

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The Happy Pair of Swindlers

Harry Furniss

1910

13.8 cm x 9.1 cm, or 5 ½ by 3 ½ inches, vignetted

The Charles Dickens Library Edition, Vol. XV, Book 3, “A Long Lane,” Chapter XII, “Meaning Mischief,” facing 576.

Seeing that his wife was turning something in her mind, Mr. Lammle gathered up the skirts of his dressing-gown under one arm, and collecting his ample whiskers in the other hand, kept his eye upon her silently. — Our Mutual Friend, p. 580.

[Click on the images on this page to enlarge them.]

Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.].

Passage Illustrated: Reverting to the Plotting of the Unscrupulous Lammles

‘Do you believe Fledgeby?’

‘Sophronia, I never believe anybody. I never have, my dear, since I believed you. But it looks like it.’

Having given her this back-handed reminder of her mutinous observations to the skeleton, Mr. Lammle rose from table — perhaps, the better to conceal a smile, and a white dint or two about his nose — and took a turn on the carpet and came to the hearthrug.

‘If we could have packed the brute off with Georgiana;—but however; that’s spilled milk.’

As Lammle, standing gathering up the skirts of his dressing-gown with his back to the fire, said this, looking down at his wife, she turned pale and looked down at the ground. With a sense of disloyalty upon her, and perhaps with a sense of personal danger — for she was afraid of him — even afraid of his hand and afraid of his foot, though he had never done her violence — she hastened to put herself right in his eyes.

‘If we could borrow money, Alfred —’

‘Beg money, borrow money, or steal money. It would be all one to us, Sophronia,’ her husband struck in.

‘—Then, we could weather this?’

‘No doubt. To offer another original and undeniable remark, Sophronia, two and two make four.’

But, seeing that she was turning something in her mind, he gathered up the skirts of his dressing-gown again, and, tucking them under one arm, and collecting his ample whiskers in his other hand, kept his eye upon her, silently.

‘It is natural, Alfred,’ she said, looking up with some timidity into his face, ‘to think in such an emergency of the richest people we know, and the simplest.’

‘Just so, Sophronia.’

‘The Boffins.’

‘Just so, Sophronia.’ [Book Three, Chapter XII, “Meaning Mischief,” 580]

Commentary: Arrived at Part 14 (June 1865) — “A Behind the Scenes” Dialogue

Riah, acting on Fledgby's behalf, is closing in on the Lammles, squeezing them to pay their considerable debts to Pubsey & Co. In fact, Marcus Stone had offered Furniss a version of the subsequent scene between Mrs. Lammle and Fledgby, but the later artist has chosen to realise the scene that precedes that in the serial. Furniss's lithograph is a much improved composition, as Furniss has made his figures far more natural than those in Stone's illustration Mr. Fledgeby departs on his Errand of Mercy.

The setting is the Lammles' parlour at breakfast. The couple are considering their prospects, and have mutually agreed to use their knowledge of Rokesmith's proposal to Bella to manipulate Boffin into discharging the secretary John Rokesmith (whose romantic interest in Bella they have discovered), and replace him with Alfred Lammle in order to advance their larger scheme of defrauding Boffin. Seeing Fascination Fledgeby arriving at their door, Lammle retreats upstairs, leaving his wife to deal with their inconvenient caller. However, Furniss has elected to depict the couple shortly before they plan their strategy to defraud Boffin: Sophronia, deeply concerned about a shortage of income going back several months, looks almost despondent, in contrast to the sanguine expression on Alfred's bearded face. The Victorian bric-a-brac in the background (lamp, statue under glass, and ornately framed mirror) suggests an affluent "society" lifestyle maintained by their wits rather than their labours or inheritance.

Relevant Illustrations in the Original (Serial) and Diamond Editions (1865 and 1867)

Left: Marcus Stone's second serial plate for the May 1865 (thirteenth) number: Mr. Fledgeby departs on his Errand of Mercy (Book III, Chapter 12). Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s 1867 Diamond Edition illustration of the plotting swindlers, with a far sharper-looking Alfred: Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Lammle (facing p. 168, Book Two, Chapter IV). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Related Materials

Illustrations by Marcus Stone (40 plates from the Chapman and Hall edition of May 1864 through November 1865)
Frontispieces by Octavius Carr Darley (4 photogravures from the Hurd and Houghton Household Edition of 1872)
Illustrations by Sol Eytinge, Jr. (16 plates from the Ticknor and Fields' Diamond Edition of 1867)
James Mahoney (58 plates from the Chapman and Hall Household Edition of 1875)
Harry Furniss (28 lithographs from the Charles Dickens Library Edition, Vol. XV, 1910)
Clayton J. Clarke (two studies from his designs for the Player's Cigarette Cards, 1910)

Bibliography

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

The Characters of Charles Dickens Pourtrayed in a Series of Original Water Colour Sketches by “Kyd.” London, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, 1898[?].

Cordery, Gareth, and Joseph S. Meisel, eds. The Humours of Parliament: Harry Furniss's View of Late-Victorian Culture. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2014. [Review by Françoise Baillet]

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1999.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Marcus Stone [40 composite wood-block engravings]. The Authentic Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens. 21 vols. London: Chapman and Hall; New York: Charles Scribners' Sons, 1901 [based on the original nineteen-month serial and the two-volume edition of 1865]. Vol. XIV.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1872. 4 vols.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. VIII.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by James Mahoney. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Volume IX.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. XV.

Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 21: The Other Novels." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Vol. XVII. 441-442.

Kitton, Frederic G. Dickens and His Illustrators. London: George Redway, 1899. Rpt. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 2004.

Vann, J. Don. "Our Mutual Friend, twenty parts in nineteen monthly instalments, May 1864—November 1865." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985. 74.

Created 10 August 2025