-'3 -
WAS CHARLES DICKENS 'SHABBY-GENTEEL?
I
In zijn Charles Dickens, The Major Novels citeert John Lucas uit een van de Sketches bj Bo% een
scheldpartij, ontaardend in een handgemeen tussen enkele vrouwen in de volkswijk, waarnaar
de schets is genoemd: Seven Dials. Daarna citeert hij uit de schets Shabby-genteel People:
if you see hurrying along a by-streetkeeping as close as he can to
the area-railingsa man about forty or fifty, clad in an old rusty suit,
of threadbare black cloth which shines with constant wear as if it had been
bees-waxed - the trousers tightly strapped down, partly for the look of the
thing and partly to keep his old shoes from slipping off at the heels, - if
you observe, too, that his yellowish-white neckerchief is carefully pinned
up, to conceal the tattered garment underneath, and that his hands are
encased in the remains of an old pair of beaver gloves, you may set him
down as a shabby-genteel man. A glance at that depressed face, and timorous
air of conscious poverty, will make your heart ache - always supposing that
you are neither a philosopher nor a political economist
Lucas concludeert dan:
A street fight could also make the heart ache. If the fight Dickens writes
about isn't meant to do that, it is because he doesn't take its
participants as seriously as he takes the shabby-genteel people, about whom
he knew, from whom he came, and who formed at least one section of his
readership(3)
Aan het einde van deze schets vraagt de schrijver nadrukkelijk ons medeleven met shabby-genteel
people. Als wij lezen, wat hij daar schrijft, dan dringt het tot ons door, dat Dickens' boeken wemelen
van dergelijke karakters:
A shabby-genteel man may have no occupation, or may be a corn agent, or
a coal agent, or a wine merchantor a collector of debts, or a broker's
assistantor a broken-down attorney. He may be a clerk of the lowest
description, or a contributor to the press of the same grade. Whether our
readers had noticed these men, in their walks, as often as we have, we know
not; this we know - that the miserable poor man (not matter whether he owes
his distress to his own conduct, or that of others) who feel his poverty
and vainly strives to conceal it, is one of the most pitiable objects in
human nature. Such objects, with few exceptionsare shabby-genteel
people.
Enkele van deze karakters in Dickens' werken zijn: "a broker's assistent": The Broker's Man in Sketches
by Boy/ "a coal agent": mr.Micawber in David Copperjield(a) "a broken-down attorney": Brass in The
Old Curiosity shop (2); "a collector of debts": 'Coavinses', in Bleak House (3); Plornish in Little Dorrit (4);
mr. Jingle in The Pickwick Papers (5). In Shabby-genteel People schreef Dickens, dat men hen vooral
aantrof bij en in de Insolvent Debtors' Court: wij vinden hen dan ook in grote getale bij die
rechtbank in The Pickwick Papers. Tot hen behoort ook Mr. Solomon Pell, de attorney van Mr. Weller
en diens zoon Sam. Zelfs huizen kunnen shabby-genteel zijn (6).
The shabby-genteel people, from whom he came', schreef Lucas: Elizabeth Barrow en
John Dickens, zijn ouders.
a. "The opinion of those other branches of my family," pursued Mrs. Micawber, "is that Mr. Micawber should
immediately turn his attention to coals." David Copperfield ch. 17
