"You infernal scoundrel, how dare you tell me that?" — twenty-first illustration for "Great Expectations" by John McLenan (23 February 1861) (original) (raw)

Passage Illustrated: Mr. Jaggers's Difficult Clients

“Here’s Mike,” said the clerk, getting down from his stool, and approaching Mr. Jaggers confidentially.

“Oh!” said Mr. Jaggers, turning to the man, who was pulling a lock of hair in the middle of his forehead, like the Bull in Cock Robin pulling at the bell-rope; “your man comes on this afternoon. Well?”

“Well, Mas’r Jaggers,” returned Mike, in the voice of a sufferer from a constitutional cold; “arter a deal o’ trouble, I’ve found one, sir, as might do.”

“What is he prepared to swear?”

“Well, Mas’r Jaggers,” said Mike, wiping his nose on his fur cap this time; “in a general way, anythink.”

Mr. Jaggers suddenly became most irate. “Now, I warned you before,” said he, throwing his forefinger at the terrified client, “that if you ever presumed to talk in that way here, I’d make an example of you. You infernal scoundrel, how dare you tell ME that?”

The client looked scared, but bewildered too, as if he were unconscious what he had done. [Chapter XX, 118; Plate 15 (facing p. 104) in the T. B. Peterson single-volume edition of 1861.]

Commentary: In Jaggers' Offices at Little Britain

Pip, having arrived in London by coach, sees his "guardian" in action, counselling and commanding the street people who depend upon his courtroom skills to stay out of prison. Pip's introduction to the metropolis through the characters of Jaggers, his clerk, Wemmick, and several suspicious-looking street people who are clients initiates Pip and the reader into the second phase of the novel. McLenan makes "Mike" look sufficiently tough to be a petty criminal, but with a squared head suggestive of obtuseness. Wemmich seems noncommital, and Pip puzzled as Jaggers puts this difficult client in his place. Although he seems irate in the letterpress, McLenan's barrister is utterly unperturbed, for he has doubtless something similar from the majority of his morally dubious clients offering alibi witnesses.

Images of the Formidable Jaggers from Other Editions (1876 and 1910)

Left: In the Household Edition, F. A. Fraser captures the essence of the petty criminals whom Jaggers defends: "Say another word — one single word — and Wemmick shall give you your money back" (1876). Right: Harry Furniss's realisation of the same scene: Mr Jaggers and His Clients (1910).

Other Artists’ Illustrations for Dickens's Great Expectations

Edward Ardizzone (2 plates selected)
H. M. Brock (8 lithographs)
J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") (2 lithographs from watercolours)
Felix O. C. Darley (4 photogravure plates)
Sol Eytinge, Jr. (8 wood engravings)
Marcus Stone (8 wood engravings)
Frederic W. Pailthorpe (21 steel engravings)
F. A. Fraser in the Household Edition (29 wood engravings)
Harry Furniss (28 plates)
Charles Green (10 lithographs)

Bibliography

Allingham, Philip V. "The Illustrations for Great Expectations in Harper's Weekly (1860-61) and in the Illustrated Library Edition (1862) — 'Reading by the Light of Illustration'." Dickens Studies Annual, Vol. 40 (2009): 113-169.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by John McLenan. Vol. IV (1860).

______. ("Boz."). Great Expectations. With thirty-four illustrations from original designs by John McLenan. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson (by agreement with Harper & Bros., New York), 1861.

______. Great Expectations. Volume 6 of the Household Edition. Illustrated by F. A. Fraser. London: Chapman and Hall, 1876.

Paroissien, David. The Companion to "Great Expectations." Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2000.

Created 20 November 2007