"Rescue of Lady Rookwood," Sir John Gilbert's third illustration for W. Harrison Ainsworth's "Rookwood. A Romance" (1878) (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." 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. — Book II, "The Sexton," Chapter 6, "The Apparition," pp. 120-21.

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 models the figures, giving each a distinctive posture, and fills the room with the seven figures; 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, 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. 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 Bradleyas 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

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Last modified 19 February 2017