Dickens's "Jenny Wren and Riah" by Harold Copping (1924) (original) (raw)

Passage Illustrated: Riah comforts Jenny Wren over the death of "Mr. Dolls"

"He's her father, sir," said Riah in a low tone to the doctor who was now bending over the stretcher.

"So much the worse," answered the doctor, "for the man is dead."

Yes, "Mr. Dolls" was dead, and many were the dresses which the weary fingers of the sorrowful little worker must make in order to pay for his humble funeral, and buy a black frock for herself. Often the tears rolled down on to her work. "My poor child," she said to Riah, "my poor old child, and to think I scolded him so."

"You were always a good, brave, patient girl," returned Riah, smiling a little over her quaint fancy about her child, "always good and patient, however tired."

And so the poor little "person of the house" was left alone but for the faithful affection of the kind Jew, and her friend Lizzie. ["Jenny Wren" in Children's Stories from Dickens, 47]

Commentary: Jenny Wren and Riah after the Funeral

Copping dramatizes Jenny's having lost her dysfunctional parent, but being comforted by the kindly Riah. His friendship with her is, as the editors of The Dickens Index describe it, "The chief solace of Riah's hard life" (217), and for Jenny he is her "fairy godmother." Copping's twin study of the kindly Riah and the Doll's Dressmaker as an exemplar of the artist, alludes to Marcus Stone's original serial illustration Miss Wren fixes her idea (October 1865).

Illustrations by Marcus Stone, Felix Octavius Carr Darley, and Sol Eytinge, Junior

• Marcus Stone's Library Edition Illustrations, May 1864 through November 1865
• Sol Eytinge, Junior's The Person of the House and The Bad Child in the Diamond Edition, Volume VIII (1867)
• Darley's Volume One Frontispiece: Mr. Boffin engages Mr. Wegg (1866)
• Darley's Volume Two Frontispiece: Riderhood Checkmated (1866)
• Darley's Volume Three Frontispiece: The End of a Long Journey (1866)

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicholas, et al. "Riah." The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1990, p. 217.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Marcus Stone. London: Chapman and Hall, 1867.

Dickens, Mary Angela [Charles Dickens' grand-daughter]. Dickens' Dream Children. London, Paris New, York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., 1924.

Dickens, Mary Angela, Percy Fitzgerald, Captain Edric Vredenburg, and Others. Illustrated by Harold Copping with eleven coloured lithographs. Children's Stories from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1893.

Matz, B. W., and Kate Perugini; illustrated by Harold Copping. "Jenny Wren." Character Sketches from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924. Pp. 42-48.

Created 13 October 2023