"The Election" — eighteenth illustration by Harry Furniss for Dickens's "Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" (1910) (original) (raw)

Passage Realised: Partisan Demonstrations in the Town Square

The stable-yard exhibited unequivocal symptoms of the glory and strength of the Eatanswill Blues [Tories]. There was a regular army of blue flags, some with one handle, and some with two, exhibiting appropriate devices, in golden characters four feet high, and stout in proportion. There was a grand band of trumpets, bassoons, and drums, marshalled four abreast, and earning their money, if ever men did, especially the drum-beaters, who were very muscular. There were bodies of constables with blue staves, twenty committee-men with blue scarfs, and a mob of voters with blue cockades. There were electors on horseback and electors afoot. There was an open carriage-and-four, for the Honourable Samuel Slumkey; and there were four carriage-and-pair, for his friends and supporters; and the flags were rustling, and the band was playing, and the constables were swearing, and the twenty committee-men were squabbling, and the mob were shouting, and the horses were backing, and the post-boys perspiring; and everybody, and everything, then and there assembled, was for the special use, behoof, honour, and renown, of the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, of Slumkey Hall, one of the candidates for the representation of the borough of Eatanswill, in the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Loud and long were the cheers, and mighty was the rustling of one of the blue flags, with "Liberty of the Press" inscribed thereon, when the sandy head of Mr. Pott was discerned in one of the windows, by the mob beneath; and tremendous was the enthusiasm when the Honourable Samuel Slumkey himself, in top-boots, and a blue neckerchief, advanced and seized the hand of the said Pott, and melodramatically testified by gestures to the crowd, his ineffaceable obligations to the Eatanswill Gazette. [Chapter XIII, "Some account of Eatanswill; Of the state of parties therein. . . ," 173-74]

The Competing Parties Become Embroiled in Hand-to-Hand Combat

In the Fin-de-siécle illustrator's visual satire of the raucous and uncivilised elections in Great Britain a century earlier, Samuel Pickwick and his stalwart companions are nowhere to be seen. The illustration in its detail seems to encompass not only the extensive passage referenced above, but another on the pages following in which the adherents of the Buffs and the Blues scuffle in the main street:

How or by what means it became mixed up with the other procession, and how it was ever extricated from the confusion consequent thereupon, is more than we can undertake to describe, inasmuch as Mr. Pickwick’s hat was knocked over his eyes, nose, and mouth, by one poke of a Buff flag-staff, very early in the proceedings. He describes himself as being surrounded on every side, when he could catch a glimpse of the scene, by angry and ferocious countenances, by a vast cloud of dust, and by a dense crowd of combatants. He represents himself as being forced from the carriage by some unseen power, and being personally engaged in a pugilistic encounter; but with whom, or how, or why, he is wholly unable to state. He then felt himself forced up some wooden steps by the persons from behind; and on removing his hat, found himself surrounded by his friends, in the very front of the left hand side of the hustings. The right was reserved for the Buff party, and the centre for the mayor and his officers; one of whom — the fat crier of Eatanswill — was ringing an enormous bell, by way of commanding silence, while Mr. Horatio Fizkin, and the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, with their hands upon their hearts, were bowing with the utmost affability to the troubled sea of heads that inundated the open space in front; and from whence arose a storm of groans, and shouts, and yells, and hootings, that would have done honour to an earthquake. [Chapter XIII, "Some account of Eatanswill; Of the state of parties therein. . . ," 175-76]

Commentary

Dickens introduces the embedded signage which is trampled underfoot several pages before the hitherto orderly processions and bands of the Blues and Buff become combatants in the streets of Eatanswill. Although the scene in front Slumkey's election headquarters, the Town Arms Inn, seems chaotic as the Blues band advances through the borough amidst partisan strife, Furniss has embedded various placards to comment upon this fictitious 1827 bye-election: "Liberty of the Press," "Horatio Fitzkin: Vote Early" (advertisement for the Buff or Liberal Candidate), "Down with Fitzkin" (lower left). These evidences of electoral preference are lost in the mob scene, whose violence and Baroque energy contrast the civilised backdrop which includes the porch of the inn (derived from the original Phiz illustration), a classical bank building, other substantial edifices, including a church tower (resembling that of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields in London) upper right. Amidst this epic melee an adherent of the Blue party tramples another from the Buffs beneath his placard "Horatio Fitzkin. Vote for Fitzkin" (lower right). Indeed, the majority of the signs apparently express support for the Buffs: the illustrator juxtaposes "Fitzkin for MP" against "Slumkey for ever" (centre) and, upper right, "Down with Slumkey" against the many signs in support of "Horatio Fitzkin." An effigy of the Tory candidate labelled "Samuel Slumkey" contrasts the actual candidate on the porch.

The 1836 and 1873-74 Illustrations of The Election at Eatanswill

Left: Phiz's August 1836 Pickwick illustration, The Election at Eatanswill.Middle: Right: Thomas Nast's focus on the baby-kissing Slumkey rather than the chaotic demonstrations of partisan support, "He's kissing 'em all!" (1873).

Parallel Scene by Phiz in the British Household Edition (1874)

Above: Phiz's "He has come out," said little Mr. Perker . . . . (1874).

Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910

Bibliography

"Constituencies: Bury St. Edmunds." "Section: 1820-1832" in The History of Parliament: British Political, Social, and Local History. Online version available from The History of Parliament Trust 1964-2019. Web. 17 November 2019.

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. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Authentic Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1901 [rpt. of the 1868 volume, based on the 30 May 1857 volume].

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. 14 vols.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 16 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 4.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 5.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.

Fisher, D. R. (ed.). The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1820-1832. Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 2009.

Slater, Michael. Charles Dickens. New Haven: Yale U. P., 2009.

Vann, J. Don. "The Pickwick Papers, twenty parts in nineteen monthly instalments, April 1836-November 1837." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985, 61.

Created 20 November 2019

Last modified 10 February 2020