power to tell. No man's imagination can overstep the reality. But I kept my
own counsel, and I did my work. I knew from the first, that if I could not
do my work as well as any of the rest, I could not hold myself above slight
and contemptI soon became at least as expeditious and as skilful with my
hands, as either of the other boys. Though perfectly familiar with them, my
conduct and manners were different enough from, theirs to place a space
between us. They, and the men, always spoke of me as "the young gentleman"
A certain man (a soldier once) named Thomas, who was the foreman, and
another named Harry, who was the carman and wore a red jacket, used to call
me "Charles" sometimesin speaking to me; but I think it was mostly when
we were very confidentialand when I made some efforts to entertain them
over our work with the results of some of the old readingswhich were fast
perishing out of my mind. Poll Green uprose once, and rebelled against the
"young gentleman" usage; but Bob Fagin settled him speedily.
Bob Fagin was very good to me on the occasion of a bad attack of my old
disorderI suffered such excruciating pain that time that they made a
temporary bed of straw in my old recess in the counting-houseand I rolled
about on the floor, and Bob filled empty blacking bottles with hot water,
and applied relays of them to my side half the day. I got better and quite
easy towards evening; but Bob (who was much bigger and older than I) did
not like the idea of my going home alone, and took me under his protection.
I was too proud to let him know about the prison; and after making several
efforts to get rid of him, to all of which Bob Fagin in his goodness was
deaf, shook hands with him on the steps of a house near Southwark Bridge on
the Surrey side, making believe that I lived there. As a finishing piece of
reality in case his looking back, I knocked at the door, I recollectand
asked, when the woman opened it, if that was Mr.Robert Fagin's house.
Charles trachtte de schijn van 'genteel' te zijn, op te houden. Hij was typisch shabby-genteel
geworden!
II
Maar ook zijn ouders werden shabby-genteel: op 20 februari 1824, kort nadat Charles begon te
werken, werd John Dickens aangehouden op vordering van James Karr, een bakker, aan wie John £40
verschuldigd was. Reeds in 1823 had John Dickens de armenbelasting niet betaald dan na een
dagvaarding, en daarna had hij de plaatselijke belasting voor bestrating en licht niet kunnen opbrengen.
Insolventie en gevangenschap wegens schulden was in die tijd, in tegenstelling tot bankroet, een grote
schande. Slechts handelaren konden bankroet gaan. In zijn beroemde Commentaries on the Caw of England
in Four Books, van 1766, dat tot diep in de 19de eeuw gezaghebbend bleef, schreef Blackstone:
A bankrupt was before defined to be "a trader, who secretes himself, or
does certain other acts, tending to defraud his creditors." He was formerly
considered merely in the light of a criminal or offender; and in this
spirit we are told by sir Edward Coke, that we have fetched as well the
name, as the wickednessof bankrupts from foreign nations. But at present
the laws of bankruptcy are considered as laws calculated for the benefit of
trade, and founded on the principles of humanity as well as justice; and to
that end they confer some privilegesnot only on the creditorsbut also
on the bankrupt or debtor himself. On the creditorsby compelling the
bankrupt to give up all his effects to their use, without any fraudulent
concealment; on the debtor; by exempting him from the rigor of the genera]
law, whereby his person might be confined at the discretion of his
creditor, though in reality he has nothing to satisfy the debt; whereas the
law of bankruptcy, taking into consideration the sudden and unavoidable
accidents to which men in trade are liable, has given them the liberty of
