Bardell v. Pickwick: The Trial for Breach of Promise of Marriage Held at the Guildhall Sittings, on April 1, 1828, before Mr. Justice Stareleigh and a Special Jury of the City of London

by Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald

Excerpt from Bardell V. Pickwick: The Trial for Breach of Promise of Marriage Held at the Guildhall Sittings, on April 1, 1828, Before Mr. Justice Stareleigh and a Special Jury of the City of London

There are few things more familiar or more interesting to the public than this cause celebre. It is better known than many a real case: for every one knows the Judge, his name and remarks - also the Counsel - (notably Sergeant Buzfuz) - the witnesses, and what they said - and of course all about the Plaintiff and the famous Defendant. It was tried over seventy years ago at "the Guildhall Settings," and was described by Boz some sixty-three years ago. Yet every detail seems fresh - and as fresh as ever. It is astonishing that a purely technical sketch like this, whose humours might be relished only by such specialists as Barristers and Attorneys, who would understand the jokes levelled at the Profession, should be so well understanded of the people. All see the point of the legal satire. It is a quite a prodigy. Boz had the art, in an extraordinary degree, of thus vividly commending trade processes, professional allusions, and methods to outsiders, and making them humourous and intelligible. A witness Jackson, when he came to "serve" Mr. Pickwick and friends with the subpoenas. It is a dry, business-like process, but how racy Boz made it. A joke sparkles in every line.

Genres: Classics, Historical Fiction, British Literature, Literature, Fiction

134 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1883

About the author

Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald (1834 - 1925) was an Anglo-Irish author and critic, painter and sculptor. He was born in Ireland at Fane Valley, County Louth, educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, and at Trinity College, Dublin. He was called to the Irish bar and was for a time crown prosecutor on the northeastern circuit.

After moving to London, he became a contributor to Charles Dickens's magazine, Household Words, and later dramatic critic for the Observer and the Whitehall Review. Among his many writings are numerous biographies and works relating to the history of the theatre.

Reviews

[Rohan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a real curio of a work. I read it in a poorly formatted Kindle e-book version, which made it a little frustrating to follow. I've never actually come across a piece of 'criticism' like this. Percy Fitzgerald had been a companion of Dickens, having met him in Ireland whilst working in the legal profession and having eventually become a contributor for Dickens magazine Household Words. In 1914 he would publish his Memories of Charles Dickens, but prior to that volume he put together this literary oddity about one of Dickens most beloved works The Pickwick Papers.

What makes this work so unusual is that it attempts to mimic the format of a legal report, covering the fictional trial of Pickwick, who has been accused of breaking a promise to marry his landlady. In amongst copious amounts of quotation from the source text, Fitzgerald elucidates some of the factual material that Dickens may have been bringing to the work from his days as a court reporter and law clerk. Having a degree of experience in legal matters, Fitzgerald is also able to point out where Dickens knowledge of the British legal system is accurate and where it may stray a little from the true state of things.

Intriguingly at the end of the piece Fitzgerald begins to reverse the critical process of the work and rather than find the sources of Dickens fiction, looks toward how the fictional trial informed public knowledge of legal matters. A particularly telling detail in the latter part of the text is the fact that the OED is said to illustrate the legal term 'cognovit' with reference to the Bardell v. Pickwick trial.

If you're a Dickens completist then this is going to be required reading. However even for the casual reader of the great man's work, it is well worth a brief sojourn through Fitzgerald's curious close reading. For me it was most enjoyable to read the obvious affection with which Fitzgerald couldn't help but write about the man he still called Boz.

[Una · Rating 3 out of 5]

The old style of writing can be very confusing!!

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange story. I am not sure whether it is fact or fiction, although Dickens sites some case notes and others have written books with the same title. A women takes a man to court for breach of promise as he allegedly failed to marry her. She apparently signed an agreement with some lawyers and it turned out she not only had to forfeit the judgment but ended up in debtors prison for failing to pay costs. It is possibly an expose on the corruption of the 19th century judicial system but I'll need a lawyer myself to see what it is they are talking about.