"Mr. Toots becomes particular — Diogenes also" — fourteenth serial illustration by "Phiz" for "Dombey and Son" (April 1847) (original) (raw)

Passage Illustrated: The Amorous Mr. Toots and Susan Nipper

Upon the next day, therefore, Mr Toots, putting into requisition some of the greatest marvels that Burgess and Co. had ever turned out, went off to Mr. Dombey’s upon this design. But his heart failed him so much as he approached the scene of action, that, although he arrived on the ground at three o’clock in the afternoon,it was six before he knocked at the door.

Everything happened as usual, down to the point where Susan said her young mistress was well, and Mr Toots said it was of no consequence. To her amazement, Mr Toots, instead of going off, like a rocket, after that observation, lingered and chuckled.

"Perhaps you’d like to walk upstairs, Sir!" said Susan.

"Well, I think I will come in!" said Mr Toots.

But instead of walking upstairs, the bold Toots made an awkward plunge at Susan when the door was shut, and embracing that fair creature, kissed her on the cheek.

"Go along with you!" cried Susan, "or I'll tear your eyes out."

"Just another!" said Mr. Toots.

"Go along with you!" exclaimed Susan, giving him a push. "Innocents like you, too! Who’ll begin next? Go along, Sir!"

Susan was not in any serious strait, for she could hardly speak for laughing; but Diogenes, on the staircase, hearing a rustling against the wall, and a shuffling of feet, and seeing through the banisters that there was some contention going on, and foreign invasion in the house, formed a different opinion, dashed down to the rescue, and in the twinkling of an eye had Mr. Toots by the leg. [Chapter XXII, "A Trifle of Management by Mr. Carker the Manager," 379-80]

Barnard's, Eytinge's, Kyd's and Furniss's Mr. Toots Plates (1867, 1877, and 1910)

Left: Harry Furniss's portrait of Toots's wedding speech: Mr. Toots makes a speech (1910). Left of centre: Barnard's realisation of Toots as a schoolboy at Dr. Blimber's, a fashion-plate even then: "Your father's regularly rich, ain't he?" inquired Mr. Toots.(1877). Right of centre: Sol Eytinge, Junior's study of the fatuous but fashionable Regency beau and his boxing trainer: Mr. Toots and the Chicken (1867). Right: Clayton J. Clarke's watercolour study: Mr. P. Toots (1910).

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. With illustrations by H. K. Browne. The illustrated library Edition. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, c. 1880.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). 8 coloured plates. London and Edinburgh: Caxton and Ballantyne, Hanson, 1910.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). The Clarendon Edition, ed. Alan Horsman. Oxford: Clarendon, 1974.

Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 16: Dombey and Son."The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Vol. 17, 294-337.

Kitton, Frederic George. Dickens and His Illustrators: Cruikshank, Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Cattermole, Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Frank Stone, Landseer, Palmer, Topham, Marcus Stone, and Luke Fildes. Amsterdam: S. Emmering, 1972. Re-print of the London (1899) edition.

Lester, Valerie Browne. Ch. 12, "Work, Work, Work." Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. 128-160.

Steig, Michael. Chapter 4. "Dombey and Son: Iconography of Social and Sexual Satire." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 86-112.

Vann, J. Don. Chapter 4."Dombey and Son, twenty parts in nineteen monthly installments, October 1846-April 1848." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. 67-68.

Wilson, Angus. Chapter 4, "Away From It All and Back Again 1840-50." The World of Charles Dickens. New York: Viking, 1970. 145-216.

Created 8 August 2015

Last modified 1 February 2021