- 87 -
Miss Sophy bit her lip and affected to look with great interest
after Mr Cheggs, who was quaffing lemonade in the distance.
"I came here", said Dick, rather oblivious of the purpose with
which he had really come, "with my bosom expanded, my heart dilated,
and my sentiments of a corresponding description. I go away with
feelings that may be conceived, but cannot be described: feeling within
myself the desolating truth that my best affections have experienced,
this night, a stifler"!
From this we see, surely, that what Dickens liked in the sort of song Dick quotes
is not so much its merits as its demerits: its potential for absurdity when used outside the
enclosed world it creates for itself.
We can see Dickens enjoying liking something for the wrong reasons when we move
once again into the field of architecture, and look at what he said about his house in
Devonshire Terrace. Writing to Forster when considering leasing it, he declares, "A house
of great promise (and great premium), "undeniable" situation, and excessive splendour, is
in view". Though doubtless he really did appreciate the grandeur of place (after modest
Doughty Street), what Dickens clearly most appreciates here is posturing as someone for
whom such terms as "'undeniable' situation" matter.
Though he did not carry the joke so far as choosing to surround himself with
ugliness, Dickens was evidently able to derive a great deal of enjoyment from such a quality
in furniture and fittings. Consider his description of Mr Podsnap's plate:
Hideous solidity was the characteristic of the Podsnap plate.
Everything was made to look as heavy as it could, and to take up as
much room as possible. Everything said boastfully, "Here you have as
much of me in my ugliness as if I were only lead; but I am so many
ounces of precious metal worth so much an ounce;-wouldn't you like
to melt me down"? A corpulent straddling epergne, blotched all over
as if it had broken out in an eruption rather than been ornamented,
delivered this address from an unsightly silver platform in the centre
of the table. Four silver wine-coolers, each furnished with four staring
heads, each head obtrusively carrying a big silver ring in each of its
ears, conveyed the sentiment up and down the table, and handed it
on to the pot-bellied silver salt-cellars. All the big silver spoons and
forks widened the mouths of the company expressly for the purpose
of thrusting the sentiment down their throats with every morsel they
ate.
The majority of the guests were like the plate, and included
several heavy articles weighing ever so much.
Dickens's disapproval of Podsnappery doesn't conceal his robust enjoyment of getting his
mind around its separate ingredients.
The fun Dickens got out of dandyism is demonstrated, I think, in some of the perplexities
of Mr Toots in Dombey and Son
Notwithstanding his modest confidence in himself, Mr Toots
appeared to be involved in a good deal of uncertainty whether, on
the whole, it was judicious to button the bottom button of his
waistcoat, and whether, on a calm revision of all the circumstances,
it was best to wear his wristbands turned up or turned down. Observing
that Mr Feeder's were turned up, Mr Toots turned his up; but the
wristbanks of the next arrival being turned down, Mr Toots turned
his down. The differences in point of waistcoat buttoning, not only