"Rescue of Lady Rookwood," third George Cruikshank illustration for Ainsworth's "Rookwood. A Romance" (1834, il. 1836) (original) (raw)

Passage Illustrated

"A woman!" repeated Rust, in a surly tone; "devilish like a woman, indeed. Few men could do what she has done. Give the word, and I fire. As to seizing her, that's more than I'll engage to do."

"You are a coward," cried Jack. "I will steer clear of blood​—​if I can help it. Come, madam, surrender, like the more sensible part of your sex, at discretion. You will find resistance of no avail." And he stepped boldly towards her.

Lady Rookwood pulled the trigger. The pistol flashed in the pan. She flung away the useless weapon without a word.

"Ha, ha!" said Jack, as he leisurely stooped to pick up the pistol, and approached her ladyship; "the bullet is not yet cast that is to be my billet. Here," said he, dealing Rust a heavy thump upon the shoulder with the butt-end of the piece, "take back your snapper, and look you prick the touchhole, or your barking-iron will never bite for you. And now, madam, I must take the liberty of again handing you to a seat. Dick Wilder, the cord​—​quick. It distresses me to proceed to such lengths with your ladyship​—​but safe bind, safe find, as Mr. Coates would say."

"You will not bind me, ruffian."

"Your ladyship is very much mistaken​— I have no alternative​—​ your ladyship's wrist is far too dexterous to be at liberty. I must furthermore request of your ladyship to be less vociferous​— you interrupt business, which should be transacted with silence and deliberation."

Lady Rookwood's rage and vexation at this indignity were beyond all bounds. Resistance, however, was useless, and she submitted in silence. The cord was passed tightly round her arms, when it flashed upon her recollection for the first time that Coates and Tyrconnel, who were in charge of her captive in the lower corridor, might be summoned to her assistance. This idea no sooner crossed her mind than she uttered a loud and prolonged scream.

"'Sdeath!" cried Jack; "civility is wasted here. Give me the gag, Rob."

"Better slit her squeaking-pipe at once," replied Rust, drawing his clasped knife; "she'll thwart everything."

"The gag, I say, not that."

"I can't find the gag," exclaimed Wilder, savagely. "Leave Rob Rust to manage her​—​he'll silence her, I warrant you, while you and I rummage the room."

"Ay, leave her to me," said the other miscreant. "Go about your business, and take no heed. Her hands are fast​— she can't scratch. I'll do it with a single gash​—​send her to join her lord, whom she loved so well, before he's under ground. They'll have something to see when they come home from the master's funeral —​their mistress cut and dry for another. Ho, ho!"

"Mercy, mercy!" shrieked Lady Rookwood.

"Ay, ay, I'll be merciful," said Rust, brandishing his knife before her eyes. "I'll not be long about it. Leave her to me​—​I'll give her a taste of Sir Sydney."

"No, no, Rust; no bloodshed," said Jack, authoritatively; "I'll find some other way to gag the jade."

At this moment a noise of rapid footsteps was heard within the passage.

"Assistance comes," screamed Lady Rookwood. "Help! help!"

"To the door!" cried Jack. The words were scarcely out of his mouth before Luke dashed into the room, followed by Coates and Tyrconnel.

Palmer and his companions levelled their pistols at the intruders, and the latter would have fired, but Jack's keen eye having discerned Luke amongst the foremost, checked further hostilities for the present. Lady Rookwood, meanwhile, finding herself free from restraint, rushed towards her deliverers, and crouched beneath Luke's protecting arms, which were extended, pistol in hand, over her head. Behind them stood Titus Tyrconnel, flourishing the poker, and Mr. Coates, who, upon the sight of so much warlike preparation, began somewhat to repent having rushed so precipitately into the lion's den.

"Luke Bradley!" exclaimed Palmer, stepping forward.

"Luke Bradley!" echoed Lady Rookwood, recoiling and staring into his face.

"Fear nothing, madam," cried Luke. "I am here to assist you​— I will defend you with my life."

"You defend me!" exclaimed Lady Rookwood, doubtfully.​ ​ — Book II, "The Sexton," Chapter 6, "The Apparition," p. 120-121.

Commentary

The "apparition" of Sir Piers Rookwood, dressed as he was often in life, in a huntsman's coat and cap, is in fact Jack Palmer (the Yorkshire alias of the notorious highwayman Dick Turpin), who has apparently come in disguise to rob Lady Rookwood rather than to haunt her. Maud Rookwood's scheme to see her son inherit the estate​ involves destroying the marriage license issued to Sir Piers and Luke's mother in order​to ensure that her son, Ranulph Rookwood, is ​the solen claimant to​the Rookwood ​ inheritance. In the illustration, Jack Palmer and his somewhat inept confederates, Rob Rust and Dick Wilder, square off against Luke and Lady Rookwood's deliverers, the attorney Coates and the poker-wielding, liveried servant Titus Tyrconnel, with the kneeling widow (dressed in mourning) between the opposing sides, as in the text. The scene of her captivity (from which Luke gallantly intends to free her, although in fact she intends to rob him of his patrimony) is her bedroom, signified by the ornate four-poster in the background. The orientation of the Cruikshank copper engraving Rescue of Lady Rookwood, and the earlier plate is far more theatrical, with Luke, pistols extended, and cowering Lady Rookwood (centre), Palmer and his brace of masked ruffians to the right, and, just entering the room, Lady Rookwood's liveried servant (left)​and family lawyer (dressed in suitable 18th c. professional-class fashion in the Cruikshank engraving), all on the same plane.​ In contrast, John Gilbert in Rescue of Lady Rookwood is less concerned with historically accurate clothing, dramatic postures, and humorous physiognomies; a thorough realist, despite the somewhat improbable subject matter, Gilbert models the figures, giving each a distinctive posture, and fills the room with the seven figures, minimizing the importance of Palmer's henchmen by throwing to the left margin. Although Gilbert has maintained Cruikshank's original tension between the highwaymen and Lady Maud's rescuers, he has reversed the orientation of the two groups and the open door (to the left in Cruikshank, to the right in Gilbert). However, to break up the two blocks of figures Gilbert has emphasized the overturned padded chair, down centre, in which Palmer was about to tie and gag Lady Rookwood.​ Stalwart Luke Bradley defies the housebreakers, an earnest look of indignation in the Gilbert wood-engraving replacing Luke's more neutral expression in Cruikshank. The tableau vivant effect in Cruikshank, a frozen moment on stage, becomes a dramatically swirling, kinetic action organised in a Baroque manner around the vortex of Lady Maud's contrapposto figure as she swerves around to glance upon Palmer with disdain. Significantly, although Luke is pointing a pistol directly at him, Palmer has lowered his pistol because, in the topsy-turvey inheritance plot, he finds himself on Luke's side. Both the Gilbert and the Cruikshank illustrations establish Luke Bradley as the story's morally conflicted hero:

Luke's fundamental good nature also comes to the fore when he attempts to rescue Lady Rookwood, his father's second wife, from the robbers who menace her, despite the fact that she has shown herself to be his implacable enemy. Though he allows Alan Rookwood to maeuver him into a marriage with the unwilling Eleanor Mowbray, which means abandoning [his gypsy-lover] Sybil and depriving his half-brother Ranulph of his affianced bride, Luke is not without remorse at "the enormity of the cruel dishonourable act" (III, xi). — George Worth, Chapter 5, "Dramatis Personae," II, "The Tormented Protagonist," p. 95).

Bibliography

"Ainsworth, William Harrison." http://biography.com

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Jack Sheppard. A Romance. With 28 illustrations by George Cruikshank. In three volumes. London: Richard Bentley, 1839.

Carver, Stephen. Ainsworth and Friends: Essays on 19th Century Literature & The Gothic. Accessed 1 November 2016. https://ainsworthandfriends.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/william-harrison-ainsworth-the-life-and-adventures-of-the-lancashire-novelist/

Dickens, Charles. Pilgrim ed. of the Letters of Charles Dickens, Vol. 5 (1847-1849). Ed. Graham Storey and Katherine Tillotson. Oxford: Clarendon, 1981.

Golden, Catherine J. "Ainsworth, William Harrison (1805-1882." Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia, ed. Sally Mitchell. New York and London: Garland, 1988. Page 14.

Kelly, Patrick. "William Harrison Ainsworth." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 21, "Victorian Novelists Before 1885," ed. Ira Bruce Nadel and William E. Fredeman. Detroit: Gale Research, 1983. Pp. 3-9.

Muir, Percy. "Two Colossi — Thomas Bewick and George Cruikshank." Victorian Illustrated Books. London: B. T. Batsford, 1971. Pp. 25-58.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1978.

Sutherland, John. "Rookwood" in The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 19893. Pp. 544-545.

Worth, George J. William Harrison Ainsworth. New York: Twayne, 1972.

Last modified 19 February 2017