to it by my friend and colleague (and fellow ex-editor of The Dickensian), Dr Andrew
Sanders.
Dickens, of course, inherits and builds on a long tradition of the satirical
presentations of lawyers in West European literature, a tradition clearly based on fear
and resentment of the power that lawyers have in society. Chaucer's Man of Law, to whom
everything was fee simple", Shakespeare's constant sniping at lawyers 'dreaming on fees",
binding England in "rotten parchment bonds", and so on, lead on to the villainous lawyers
we meet in Restoration Comedy and the eighteenth-century novel. Bartolo's great "Vendetta"
aria in The Marriage of Figaro might perhaps stand as the epitome of this rich vein of
anti-lawyer writing in Western literature.
The special jargon and strange world of the law certainly appealed strongly to
Dickens's imagination. He was always fascinated by trades and professions, and the way
people's work affected their language and their whole attitude to life (we might recall
the butcher in Martin Chuzzlewit who begged to place the meat Tom Pinch had just bought
in Tom's pocket - Tom had been trying to squeeze it in - "for meat" he [the butcher]
said with some emotion, "must be humoured and not drove").
Among the earliest fruits of Dickens's fascination with the law are Mr Perker,
Dodson and Fogg, Solomon Pell of the Insolvent Debtors' Court, Sergeant Buzfuz and the
other legal characters in Pickwick. Mr Pickwick soon learns that members of the legal
profession view the law itself and their colleagues very differently from the way he does:
'Ah my dear sir', said little Mr Perker, bustling up from his
chair. 'Well, my dear sir, and what's the news about your matter, eh?
Anything more about our friends in Freeman's Court? They've not been
sleeping, I know that. Ah, they're very smart fellows; very smart
indeed'.
As the little man concluded, he took an emphatic pinch of
snuff as a tribute to the smartness of Messrs Dodson and Fogg.
'They are great scoundrels' said Mr Pickwick.
'Aye, aye', said the little man; 'that's a matter of opinion,
you know, and we won't dispute about terms; because of course you
can't be expected to view these subjects with a professional eye'.
And he is saved only by Sam's intervention from innocently playing right into the hands
of the "scoundrels":
'And before I go, gentlemen', said the excited Mr Pickwick,
turning round on the landing, 'permit me to say that of all the
disgraceful and rascally proceedings-'
'Stay, sir, stay', interposed Dodson, with great politeness. 'Mr
Jackson! Mr Wicks!'
'Sir', said the two clerks, appearing at the bottom of the stairs.
'I merely want you to hear what this gentleman says', replied
Dodson. 'Pray, go on, sir -disgraceful and rascally proceedings, I think
you said?'
'I did', said Mr Pickwick, thoroughly roused. 'I said, sir, that
of all the disgraceful and rascally proceedings that ever were
attempted, this is the most so. I repeat it, sir'.
'You hear that, Mr Wicks?' said Dodson.
'You won't forget these expressions, Mr Jackson?' said Fogg.
