Michael Fuchs University of Oldenburg The Visual Criticism of Thomas Stothard’s Designs of Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe for The Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas (1821) Kwinten Van De Walle This contribution examines Thomas Stothard’s illustrations of Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe for the 1821 issue of The Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas. An analysis of the twenty-five images in the illustrated diary-cum-almanac demonstrates how Stothard develops a multifaceted and multi-layered visual narrative which captures and elucidates the original text in a variety of ways. Rather than simply serving a decorative function in a fashionable print medium, then, the illustrations can, and should, be read as acts of visual literary criticism. They function as explanatory and analytical responses that promote different possible readings and interpretations of the original, typographic text. Highlighting two main aspects in the novel, the world of medieval romance and the female protagonists, Stothard’s images represent an innovative and unique moment in the extensive reception history of Scott’s popular Romantic novel. According to A Glossary to Literary Terms, literary criticism implies the “general principles, together with a set of terms, distinctions, and categories, to be applied to identifying and analyzing works of literature, as well as the criteria (the standards, or norms) by which these works and their writers are to be evaluated" (Abrams & Harpham 2012: 67). This process encompasses such activities as the “interpretation of [literature’s] meaning, analysis of its structure and style, judgement of its worth by comparison with other works, estimation of its likely effect on readers, and the establishment of general principles by which literary works (individually, AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 46 (2021) · Heft 1 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.2357/ AAA-2021-0005 Kwinten Van de Walle 94 in categories, or as a whole) can be evaluated and understood” (Baldick 2001: 54). Over time, the concept ‘criticism’ has come to encompass a wide variety of approaches and has been used to qualify a multitude of different types of texts, in different forms, engaging with literature through explanation, analysis, and evaluation. The term is unfortunately not commonly applied to literary illustration. Illustration studies scholars are still routinely required to validate their research in relation to traditional literary studies, specifically in terms of what their work contributes to the understanding of literary works. Early theorists have pointed out the relevance and value of literary illustration for literary criticism. Edward Hodnett established a functional correlation between literature and illustration. Recollecting the old adage that literature should delight as well as instruct, he posits that literary illustration likewise “exists primarily for the edification and pleasure of the general reader” (1982: 3). Stephen C. Behrendt asserts that illustrations historically represent “serious and considered attempts to provide - in the non-verbal language of visual art - sophisticated critical and interpretive statements about the texts they adorned” (1988: 29). Reflecting on how illustrations affect readers’ understanding and interpretation of the text, he defines the illustrator as a third party who interposes between author and reader and who can “only be regarded as a critic - as an interpreter or elucidator” (1988: 30). Visual criticism in the form of literary illustration, then, operates like textual criticism in that it fulfils explanatory and interpretative roles for the benefit of the reader. The main, and only, difference is that in illustrations the criticism is expressed through the visual medium. Despite recognising their critical function, scholars frequently still regard illustrations as secondary to the primary, typographic text, which they hold to body forth the author’s ideas most directly and fully. Illustrations are accordingly depreciated as visual offshoots, deriving their existence and meaning from the text. As research by Sandro Jung (2015a, 2018) has indicated, however, illustration played a central role in the promotion and dissemination of literary texts, in the process impacting their reception and cultural reputation. In this sense, illustrations should be approached as an integral part of what Jerome McGann has termed the textual condition. His theory stipulates that texts are “autopoietic mechanisms operating as selfgenerating feedback systems that cannot be separated from those who manipulate and use them” (1991: 15). Literary illustrations are thus not just mere by-products or responses, but inherent stages in “a ceaseless process of textual development and mutation” (McGann 1991: 9). They are visual manifestations of texts, generating new meanings and interpretations Consolidating these theories, I would argue that the visual mediation of a text is a product of meaningful acts of criticism. The illustration of a literary text historically implied a substantial financial expense on the part of publishers. It was consequently in their best interest to secure a profita- The Visual Criticism of Thomas Stothard’s Designs of W. Scott’s Ivanhoe 95 ble return on investment. Even though the decision was economically motivated, the process involved a strategic estimation, or critical assessment, of the potential cultural validity of the text in question. Artists commissioned to produce the illustrations interacted critically with their source in two ways. On the one hand, they had to decide on the right subject for their illustration(s), to determine “which of all the possible moments of choice are the ones that are most significant in terms of contributing to the reader’s understanding of the text and of reinforcing the emotional effects” realized through the text (Hodnett 1982: 8). At the same time, the artists’ translation of the text into the visual medium was always transformative and interpretive. Illustrators’ craft thus involved the evaluative and interpretive facets of literary criticism. The potential buyer of the illustrated edition, finally, had to assess which illustrated text (or sometimes even which illustrated edition of the same text) to purchase. This evaluation was informed not only by the medium, the format, and the execution of the illustrations, but also by the way in which they invested a text with symbolical capital and cultural prestige. In short, the various agents participating in the production and consumption of literary illustrations, in different ways, were engaged in multiple acts of criticism. This contribution will demonstrate how critical processes of visual meaning-making and interpretation similarly informed the visual apparatus of the historical illustrated pocket diary-cum-almanac. Generally overlooked by and often even unknown to literary scholars, book historians and print culture scholars alike, the up-market illustrated almanac was an object of fashionable upperand middle-class consumption in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In his work on the subject, Jung has indicated how publishers of illustrated pocket diaries often capitalised on and contributed to contemporary cultural tastes by means of visual embellishments (2011, 2012). Consolidating existing research on The Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas, I will study Thomas Stothard’s illustrations of Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe in the Pocket Atlas for the year 1821. My examination adopts a comparative illustration studies approach, in that it considers the images in relation to other printed book illustrations and embeds them within the broader context of contemporary visual culture. At the same time, however, it conforms to G. Thomas Tanselle’s theory that textual criticism can be applied to, and supplements the study of, other verbal and non-verbal media: “The textual study of any work, mixed or not, can proceed more thoughtfully and logically if it is conducted with an awareness of the relationships among the media employed by all arts and the conditions set by each medium in regard to textual change” (2005-2006: 3). The main premise for my analysis is that illustrations, similar to verbal texts, are regulated by a set of organisational and compositional codes. They are medial constructs that are ideologically inflected and should be read as distinct critical, i.e., explanatory and interpretive, responses to the text. It is, therefore, possible to undertake a close reading of the illustrations Kwinten Van de Walle 96 alongside other contemporary visual and non-visual responses to Ivanhoe to unravel how Stothard visually reacted to Scott’s novel, in the process establishing an alternative reading of his own. Even though illustrated pocket diaries circulated in large numbers on an annual basis, research on the subject has been relatively limited. 1 Ephemeral in nature, the diary would often be discarded after use, as a result of which survival rates are low. 2 A study of the print form and its illustrations is rewarding, however. It facilitates insight into late eighteenthand early nineteenth-century fashions, consumer practices, and commodity culture. Moreover, literary pocket diary illustrations can demonstrate contemporary critical-interpretative, as well as ideological, engagements with and responses to literary texts. Even though the vignettes are physically demarcated from the engraved text on the printed diary page, as well as specially removed from the typographic text of the edition of Ivanhoe, the latter is evoked through the short captions accompanying the illustrations. These text-image composites constitute epitexts: they appear independently from the text of the literary edition, yet still derive meaning from it. The images are situated in a virtual space, which enables a more creative engagement with the ways in which the vignettes are understood as meaningful - irrespective of whether readers are seeking to relate the illustrations to specific textual passages or not. Produced by the Southampton-based publisher, Thomas Baker, between 1779 and 1826, The Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas was one of the longestrunning and most influential diary-cum-almanacs in the long eighteenth century. 3 From 1784 onwards, each issue contained a set of twenty-four engravings illustrating a specific literary text. The vignettes, bordered by an oval, octagonal, or rectangular frame, appeared in pairs (two per month) at the top of the diary pages of the Pocket Atlas. The illustrations were engraved by William Angus after designs by Stothard, who was one of the most prolific illustrators of his time and who had been elected Fellow to the Royal Academy in 1793 (Coxhead 1906: 8 & 30). Measuring about 2 by 4.5 cm, the vignettes were an essential component and branding device. Whereas in the latter part of the eighteenth century Baker selected popular literary texts the copyright of which had already lapsed for illustration, from the beginning of the nineteenth century onwards, he frequently chose texts by living authors for illustration. In this manner, he 1 William Peacock’s The Polite Repository, or, Pocket Companion, one of the leading examples in the history of illustrated pocket diaries, was said to have had an annual print run of 7,000 copies (Jung 2013: 63). 2 Some illustrations have been preserved and collected in albums, but there is usually no clear indication, apart from the caption, which texts the images were supposed to have illustrated. 3 Jung has worked extensively on The Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas, especially on Stothard’s illustrations of poetry (2011, 2015b, 2019, 2020, 2021). The Visual Criticism of Thomas Stothard’s Designs of W. Scott’s Ivanhoe 97 took advantage of and further added to the popularity of more recent publications. This strategy is especially visible in his illustrating the works of early Romantic poets. He commissioned illustrations for such texts as Robert Bloomfield’s The Farmer Boy (1802), George Crabbe’s poetry (1810), and even Lord Byron’s works (1814 and 1818), in the process “creat[ing] an institutionalized Romantic canon” (Jung 2019: 144). In what follows on Stothard’s illustrations of Scott’s Ivanhoe for the 1821 issue of the Pocket Atlas, I am not only adding to current research on the mediation of British literature in Baker’s diary, but also making a contribution to Scott studies more generally. Even though Stothard illustrated at least nine of Scott’s works for the Pocket Atlas between 1807 and 1824, these visual responses have, to date, been overlooked by Scott scholars. 4 This is a major lacuna in the documented reception history of this canonical Romantic author, and one which I aim to address in this article. The selection and chronology of Scott titles for illustration in the Pocket Atlas reveals Baker’s awareness of, and ability to capitalise on, current trends in the literary marketplace. Ivanhoe was the second of five Scott novels illustrated in the Pocket Atlas, after Guy Mannering, which had been the subject for the 1817 issue. In this respect, the pocket diary series reflects Scott’s career transition from critically acclaimed poet to immensely successful and popular novelist. A veritable cultural phenomenon, Scott’s Waverley novels were consumed by a large number of readers and were translated into a variety of other media, serving as inspiration for paintings, stage adaptations, and chapbook abridgments. 5 Even though poetry was still preferred as “the most significant, high-profile aesthetic and ideological” subject of literary illustration (Haywood, Matthews & Shannon 2019: 13), Scott’s novels were rapidly reshaping the cultural landscape. The illustrations in the Pocket Atlas reflect this development. Whereas Baker rarely had prose titles illustrated before 1817 6 , no fewer than five of 4 All of Stothard’s illustrations of Scott’s works for the Pocket Atlas were published within one to three years of the original publication date (in the list, the first number is the year of original publication and the second the year of the Pocket Atlas): The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805/ 1807), Marmion (1808/ 1809), Lady of the Lake (1810/ 1812), Bridal of Triermain (1813/ 1815), Guy Mannering (1815/ 1817), Ivanhoe (1820/ 1821), Kenilworth (1821/ 1822), The Pirate (1822/ 1823), Peveril of the Peak (1822/ 1824). None of these illustrations are included in the online database Illustrating Scott: A Database of Printed Illustrations to the Waverley Novels, 1814-1901. Project director Peter Garside has however made reference to Stothard’s vignettes in one of his articles on illustrations of Scott’s works (2013: 134). 5 For a discussion of painterly responses to Scott’s works, see Gordon (1971) and Altick (1985). The standard work on dramatic adaptations is Bolton 1992, while a list of chapbooks inspired by the Scottish author is provided in Parsons 1965. 6 The exceptions are Samuel Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison (year of appearance in the Pocket Atlas unknown), John Hawkesworth’s translation of Fénelon’s Les Aventures de Télémaque (1798), Tobias Smollet’s translation of Le Sage’s Gil Blas (1800), and Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield (1805). Kwinten Van de Walle 98 the last ten issues of the Pocket Atlas were published with vignettes of novelistic works, all of which were Scott titles. Baker’s reorientation of illustration subjects was prompted by, while simultaneously feeding into, the popularity and prominence of Scott’s novels. Scott’s Ivanhoe, A Romance by the Author of Waverley represented a shift in the author’s oeuvre as well as in the marketing and publishing of his novels. Building on the success of his earlier Waverley novels, Scott in 1819 turned from Scotland in the eighteenth century towards England in the Middle Ages. He capitalised on readers’ increasing fascination with the nation’s (medieval) history. In the process, Scott established “a brand of historical fiction that crossed the boundaries between high literature and popular entertainment, between commerce and culture, and that offered, in a hitherto unprecedented way, an imaginative engagement with the past in the form of colourful stories” (Rigney 2012: 5). Issued towards the end of 1819, though dated 1820 on the title page, the novel appeared in a new material package under the incentive of Archibald Constable’s new London-based partners, the publishing firm, Hurst, Robinson & Co. The publishers made the novel available on a higher-quality paper in a three-volume octavo, instead of the four-volume duodecimo format of Scott’s previous works. 7 The edition sold for 30s. (Millgate 1994: 808) and featured seven illustrations: six full-page copperplate engravings and an engraved title page embellished with a vignette. 8 Centrally highlighted on the title page, the illustrations were executed by Charles Heath after designs by Richard Westall, both well-established names in their respective trades. 9 Around the same time, a further three illustrations appeared alongside extracts from the novel in the new series of The Lady's Magazine; or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex. 10 Westall once again supplied the designs, which were engraved by the Heath firm, though this time by the senior partner, James. The Heaths seem to have taken advantage of their share in covering part of the illustration costs for the first edition of Ivanhoe to issue these unapproved engravings (Garside 2010: 174). Rather than 7 For more information on the development and production of the first edition of Ivanhoe, as well as the challenges and obstacles encountered by the various agents involved, see Millgate (1994). 8 The illustrations were also collected and published in an individual suite shortly afterwards. 9 Charles Heath was the son of James Heath, who had provided many engravings for illustrated editions of literary texts and had often engraved Thomas Stothard’s work, most notably in the context of Harrison’s Novelist’s Magazine. Richard Westall was a Royal Academician and frequent book illustrator who had also painted for the Shakespeare Gallery and the Milton Gallery. 10 The illustrations appeared in the first (February), third (March), and fourth (April) numbers of the first volume of the new series of The Lady’s Magazine, launched in 1820. The Visual Criticism of Thomas Stothard’s Designs of W. Scott’s Ivanhoe 99 taking action, however, the publishers tolerated the publication of the illustrations in The Lady’s Magazine, as it further boosted the appeal and sales of Scott’s latest novel. Issued about a year after the publication of the first edition of the novel, Stothard’s designs for the 1821 issue of the Pocket Atlas represent a notable early intervention in the illustration history of Ivanhoe. As will become clear, Stothard not only responded to Westall and Heath’s illustrations, but also expanded on them significantly. In addition to the twenty-four diary page head vignettes, this issue of the Pocket Atlas also included a full-page frontispiece engraving. Altogether, the set of illustrations presents the most extensive visual (re)interpretation of Scott’s novel, one which would quantitively not be surpassed, as later illustrated editions of Ivanhoe never contained more than twelve images. 11 When read sequentially and in their entirety, Stothard’s designs advance a strongly narrative interpretation of the text. Moreover, representing the third published visual response and available at a more affordable price than the illustrated edition of the novel, the vignettes reached a substantial group of consumers shortly after the novel’s publication. The first vignette on the verso page for January depicts the opening scene of the novel and introduces the characters Gurth the swineherd and Wamba the jester, both “thrall[s] of Cedric of Rotherwood” (Scott 1998: 19) 12 . Gurth, represented on the left, can be recognised by his tunic, the ram’s horn hanging from his belt, and his trusty dog, Fangs, sitting at his side. Seated on a large stone from a nearby druidic monument is the court fool, Wamba, clearly distinguishable by his jester cap. The characters’ clothing and their suggested social standing in the image corresponds with their textual description. The only detail missing, probably for pragmatic and technical reasons, are the neck collars, which would have confirmed their status as servants to the local lord Cedric. The caption “thou speakest but sad truths” relates to the characters’ discussion of the linguistic differences between the respective Anglo-Saxon and Norman-French nouns for animals and the meat obtained from them. In the very first image then, Stothard evokes the political-historical conflict between the Saxons and the Normans at the heart of the novel. Even though it will not feature centrally 11 The edition of Ivanhoe issued as part of John C. Nimmo’s 48-volume edition of Scott’s Waverley novels (London: 1892-1894) included a total of twelve illustrations. The second-largest set for a competing illustrated edition of the novel issued at the same time as part of a 25-volume collection by Adam and Charles Black (London & Edinburgh: 1892-1894) consisted of only ten images. 12 All subsequent references to the primary text are taken from this edition and will parenthetically be provided in the text. Kwinten Van de Walle 100 in the vignette series, its importance for the narrative is highlighted alongside the negative consequences for common people such as Gurth and Wamba. Figure 1. January vignette (recto). The Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas for the Year MDCCCXXI. (Southampton: T. Baker). Reproduced with permission from a copy in professor Sandro Jung’s possession. The recto image for January resumes the socio-political dimension introduced in the first illustration (Figure 1). It depicts Prior Aymer of Jorvaulx Abbey asking the serfs for directions to the nearest place of hospitality to find shelter from an approaching storm. Even though the size of the vignette did not allow for a depiction of the Prior’s rich and splendorous attire, his wealth is represented by means of the silver bells on his mule’s bridle. At the Prior’s side is his travel companion and the novel’s main antagonist, the Templar Knight Brian de Bois-Guilbert. For similar pragmatic reasons, Bois-Guilbert is depicted in full armour instead of the more travel-appropriate garments he is wearing in the novel, so as to make it easier for readers to identify him as a knight. Even though his armour lacks any further discernible elements, the turbaned, foreign retinue following behind help establish Bois-Guilbert as crusader who has recently returned to England. The meeting between the travellers and the serfs is also the subject of the title-page vignette in the first edition of Ivanhoe. Westall in his design focused on Bois-Guilbert’s violent reaction to Gurth’s defiance towards him. Atop his rearing horse, the Norman knight raises his riding rod towards the swineherd, who has assumed a battle-ready posture. The Prior is barely visible in the background as he is looking on. Stothard, by contrast, opted to depict the moment preceding the altercation. In doing so, he distanced himself from Westall’s dramatic and figurative style, adopting a more narrative mode instead. Even though Stothard in this manner refrained from depicting the first physical manifestation of the Norman- Saxon conflict in the novel, the friction between the groups is suggested by the striking contrast between Gurth and Wamba’s dress and that of the The Visual Criticism of Thomas Stothard’s Designs of W. Scott’s Ivanhoe 101 Prior and the knight’s well-equipped and mounted company, as well as the Prior’s patronising tone as implied in the caption “I ask’d you my children”. This brief comparison between Westall and Stothard’s designs reveals the wide range of representational and interpretative possibilities offered by the illustration medium. In opting to illustrate the same scene, Stothard responds to both Scott’s text and Westall’s design. His vignette derives its meaning not only from its visual representation of the former, but also from its inter-iconic engagement with the latter. Each illustrator distils “images evoked by the written word and translates … them into finite graphic images” (Hodnett 1982: 19), but each in his own manner and with distinct interpretive implications. The images possess similarities, especially in that they depict the same passage and the same four characters, but it is in their differences that the reader can find the key to the divergent interpretations. Westall concentrates on Bois-Guilbert’s agitated demeanour to achieve a sensational effect and to draw the potential reader into the violent action of Scott’s story. Stothard’s more subdued representation is more appropriate for the narrative mode of the vignette series. The second vignette visually represents the Saxon-Norman conflict only abstractly evoked in Gurth and Wamba’s conversation in the first image, but not in an explicit manner, since this will be the main purpose of the verso illustration for February. In this vignette, the viewer is for the first time presented with the eponymous hero, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, though in the disguise of a simple palmer. After guiding the Prior and his company to Cedric’s estate at Rotherwood, the unnamed palmer is invited to take part in the evening banquet organised by the Saxon noble. Seated at the main table from right to left are the now unarmoured Bois-Guilbert, the Prior, Cedric, and Cedric’s ward and one of the last descendants of the Saxon kings of England, the Lady Rowena. In the background behind the table are Wamba and a number of other servants. Commanding the most attention in the left-hand foreground of the image is the figure of the palmer, as he waves an accusatory finger in Bois-Guilbert’s direction in response to the latter’s boast that the troops accompanying King Richard I on the crusade were inferior to the Knight Templars. Other than reincorporating the Norman-Saxon conflict in the form of Ivanhoe and Bois-Guilbert’s antagonism, the illustration with the caption “second to none” represents Ivanhoe’s strong and passionate defence of the valour and strength of the English nobility in the crusades. Adhering closely to the text, the image establishes his character as the main Saxon upholder of Norman chivalric values and the “symbol of a new, unified England” (Duncan 1955: 299). In the verso vignette for February, Stothard revisits another scene which was a subject for illustration in the first edition of the novel, namely that of the palmer’s audience with Rowena. After hearing the pilgrim mention Ivanhoe’s name during dinner, Rowena invites him to share any information he might have, since she is anxious and curious to hear any news Kwinten Van de Walle 102 of her childhood companion and love interest. The kneeling hero is surprisingly not depicted in the easily recognisable black garments of the palmer, as had been the case in the previous vignette and in the plate to the 1820 edition of Ivanhoe. Instead, he is clothed in a lighter and plainer habit, which serves to accentuate Rowena’s dress. Seated on her thronelike chair, surrounded by four burning candelabras against a simple and undecorated background, she is depicted in the centre of the image in the stately “magnificence of a Saxon princess … born to exact general homage” (55). At the same time, her elegant, yet plain light dress symbolises her female virtue and innocence, thus foreshadowing how suitable a match she is for Ivanhoe. An analysis of the first four illustrations exemplifies the careful configuration of Stothard’s vignette series and how it frames a particular reading of Scott’s Ivanhoe. Because the illustrations are located in close physical proximity at the head of the diary pages and share the same representational mode, they invite a sequential reading and combine into an elaborate, intratextual visual narrative. Focusing on shared themes, highlighting character relationships, and visualising major symbols, they offer a medial (re)interpretation of the original text and invest it with new meaning. Put differently, the illustrations develop a critical-interpretive reading, which feeds back into the user’s experience and understanding of the text. At the same time, however, the owner of the pocket diary would not necessarily have grasped the full extent of Stothard’s hermeneutic reappraisal of Ivanhoe. The user need not and most frequently will not have read the set sequentially or in its entirety, instead engaging with individual images through the practical day-to-day use of the diary. In a conventional illustrated edition of a literary text, interpretative images appear immediately adjacent or, in the case of frontispieces, at least in physical proximity to the verbal text. Even in this setup, as a result of the medial differences, “the verbal and visual texts displace one another, albeit generally very rapidly, within [the reader’s] consciousness” (Behrendt 1988: 30). In the case of the Pocket Atlas the illustrations are entirely removed from the typographic text of the edition, consequently fully displacing and even replacing it. The resulting potential dissonance between text and image is further complicated by the ambiguous function of the captions. Scott’s text is evoked through the captions, but due to the lengthy format of the novel the quotations are entirely decontextualised. Furthermore, the image does not always relate to the caption in the same manner. In the recto vignette for April, the depiction of a knight depositing a coronet in front of his preferred lady is a direct and self-contained visual manifestation of the accompanying caption. By contrast, it is considerably more difficult to determine how the caption “Thou speakest but sad truths” relates to the depiction of the two figures in the verso vignette for January. In the latter case, a full The Visual Criticism of Thomas Stothard’s Designs of W. Scott’s Ivanhoe 103 understanding of the text-image construct would be contingent on correctly placing it within Scott’s narrative context. Even a comprehensive reading of the April vignette as part of the novel Ivanhoe would depend on the user’s ability to identify the depicted characters. Due to the physical removal of the Pocket Atlas illustrations from the typographic text then, readers would only be able to derive the full meaning of Stothard’s visual representation and reinterpretation, if they were able to recognise the individual scenes and to situate them within Scott’s narrative. The vignettes thus promote different possible readings and practices of engagement with Scott’s novel, depending on a partial or complete viewing of the series as well as readers’ familiarity with the text. The multifaceted nature of Stothard’s enterprise will become apparent from an examination of the remaining illustrations in the series. With the verso vignette for March, the reader is transported to the tournament at Ashby. Whereas Westall devoted only a single illustration to the subject, Stothard dedicated no fewer than five vignettes to the events: he depicts Ivanhoe, who entered the tournament as the anonymous Disinherited Knight, during one of his individual jousting matches (March verso); as he deposits a coronet before Rowena, thus appointing her the Queen of Beauty and of Love (March recto); a scene from the general group bout on the second day of the tournament (April verso); Ivanhoe as he is made to kneel in front of Rowena to receive the champion’s crown (April recto); and finally, Robin of Locksley, more popularly known as Robin Hood, during the archery competition (May verso). Figure 2. April vignette (recto). The Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas for the Year MDCCCXXI. (Southampton: T. Baker). Reproduced with permission from a copy in professor Sandro Jung’s possession. Even though Stothard depicts specific scenes from the tournament, in some of the images there is a marked deviation from the text. In the two images with Rowena, notably, Ivanhoe is depicted with an open visor (Figure 2). This small, yet significant detail is in stark contrast with Scott’s narrative, where the knight takes particular care to remain anonymous. It is only at the end of the tournament, after he has defeated his Norman opponents and is about to be crowned champion, that the marshals forcibly remove Kwinten Van de Walle 104 his helmet. Westall in his design rendered this scene in all its dramatic intensity, depicting Ivanhoe, his face now clearly visible, as, wounded, he collapses on the stairs in front of Rowen’s seat. Opting for a static composition developed across a diagonal line, he highlights the surrounding characters’ dramatic reaction to the discovery of Ivanhoe’s true identity. Stothard’s composition of the same scene, by contrast, is more balanced. It lacks the intersecting diagonal line and is organised across horizontal and vertical lines instead. As the caption indicates, the vignette depicts the moment “the Champion was made to kneel”, just before the helmet is removed, in the process creating a moment of tension and suspense. Similar to his representation of the encounter between Gurth and Wamba and the Prior’s company, Stothard distances himself from Westall’s style and opts for a more suggestive and narratively driven representational mode instead. In deviating from Scott’s text and his predecessor’s earlier designs, Stothard’s visual series not only supplements and supports, but also recreates and reimagines Scott’s narrative. This supplementary text-interpretive dimension and another reason for the artist’s motivation behind this visualisation can also be found in the Ashby tournament sequence as a whole. An examination of the vignettes and the captions indicates that, even though the images refer to specific passages from the narrative, they also provide more generalised depictions of scenes at a medieval tournament. The viewer can observe multiple knights as they “encounter” one another in combat (March verso & April verso); another as “he deposited the coronet” (March recto), a custom traditionally imagined to have been upheld at chivalric tournaments; and finally, a bowman at an archery tournament “again ben[ding] his bow” (May recto). By introducing more generic and self-contained depictions of knights and competitors in moments of martial prowess and chivalric heroism, Stothard’s illustrations develop an alternative visual narrative which moves beyond the confines of Scott’s text. They not only offer a specifically interpretative visual reading of Ivanhoe, but also produce a more suggestively and generically inflected tale evocative of the distinct romance scenes and settings in Ivanhoe. Stothard’s vignettes thus display an awareness of the novel’s positive reception with the reviewers as well as with the general public. Scott himself was commonly praised for the ways in which he explored Britain’s romanticised and mythified national past. The reviewer for the Monthly Review, for example, expressed his “unfeigned praise of the extensive research, the playful vivacity, the busy and stirring incidents, the humorous dialogue, and the picturesque delineations, with which ‘Ivanhoe’ abounds” (1820: 88-89). The reviewer for the Edinburgh Review similarly praised Scott for the way in which he made the medieval world come to life for the reader: The Visual Criticism of Thomas Stothard’s Designs of W. Scott’s Ivanhoe 105 [The author] has made marvellous good use of the scanty materials at his disposal - and eked them out both by the greatest skill and dexterity in their arrangement, and by all the resources that original genius could render subservient to such a design. … And has at the same time given an air both of dignity and reality to this story … he has made such admirable use of his great talents for description, and invested those traditional and theatrical persons with so much of the feelings and humours that are of all ages and all countries, that we frequently cease to regard them … as parts of a fantastical pageant. (1820, 7) It is because of these qualities that Ivanhoe was such an instant hit and became “arguably the best known, most widely disseminated, most internationally successful and most enduring of all Scott’s works” (Rigney 2012: 79). Capitalising on and further enhancing consumer interest in Britain’s mythical and historical national past, Ivanhoe and Scott’s other medieval romances were a vital factor for the nineteenth-century Medieval Revival (Chandler 1965) and still influence people’s conception of the Middle Ages to this day (Rigney 2012: 80). Recognising how this thematic dimension had added to the novel’s success, Stothard made sure to capture the same elements in his visual mediation. The fact that Stothard’s vignette series created meaning on various levels, however, implied that the Pocket Atlas appealed to a variety of readers, ranging from those who had an intimate knowledge of Scott’s text to those who were only aware of its favourable reputation and reception. In the latter case, the images simply capitalised on the fashionable popularity of Scott’s Ivanhoe, “thus underscoring the cultural status of the individuals purchasing and using the Pocket Atlas” (Jung 2021: 63). The developing of multifarious meanings for different readers is not only evident in the vignettes depicting the Ashby tournament, but also in two other groups of images that share the same theme or subject. The first group comprises the sequence of three vignettes depicting the novel’s second anonymous character, the Black Knight, and his evening with the Holy Clerk of Copmanhurst. Reflecting the narrative shift in focus towards the stranger who saved Ivanhoe’s life at a crucial stage in the tournament’s general bout, the illustrations depict the Black Knight’s arrival at the hermit’s hut (May recto); his presenting himself as the Clerk opens the door (June verso); and their jovial dinner conversation (June recto). Once again, despite illustrating specific scenes from the text, the vignettes can easily be read as more generic representations of knights and clergy typical of medieval romances. The recto vignette for June also evokes the popular ballad tradition, a formative part of Scott’s life and career. The caption “Joy to the Fair” is repeated several times in the Black Knight’s English ballad “The Crusader’s Return”, the first of “many a song [that] was exchanged betwixt them” (152). Featuring centrally in the knight and the hermit’s evening of revelry, the ballads, believed to have originated in the minstrelsy, helped further ground Scott’s narrative in a medieval setting. Most, if not all, of Kwinten Van de Walle 106 Stothard’s vignettes similarly succeed in visually reimagining the novel’s many staple romance elements. An owner of the 1821 issue of the Pocket Atlas will thus have had a chance to experience and familiarise themselves with the medieval world of Scott’s novel through an entirely different medium. Figure 3. June vignette (verso). The Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas for the Year MDCCCXXI. (Southampton: T. Baker). Reproduced with permission from a copy in professor Sandro Jung’s possession. Despite the generic simplification prompted by the individual images, the series sequentially continues to develop its complex intratextual narrative. Stothard’s depiction of the Black Knight, especially in the verso image for June carries strong visual symbolism (Figure 3). The knight’s posture, as he stands in front of the hermitage’s door, “the torch glanc[ing] on his Armour”, is decidedly stately and chivalrous. Leaning gently on his sword with his right hand, the tip of the blade on the ground, and steadying his horse with his left hand, he remains unfazed in the face of the hermit’s imposing, armed figure and his agitated dogs. The depiction and posture of the Black Knight is repeated and only slightly altered in the verso vignette for September, in which he reveals his true identity as King Richard I. In this manner, the earlier image compositionally foreshadows the revelation, while also highlighting the innate chivalry and nobility in his character. It likewise offers a visual reinterpretation of the hermit’s original behaviour in Scott’s novel. Whereas in the text the clerk seemingly reluctantly replaces his hostile attitude towards his intrusive guest with a “churlish courtesy” (142), in the image it becomes an instinctive response to the true and kingly nature of the Black Knight. In representing Richard I as a noble and chivalrous king, the illustrations notably eliminate the ambiguity in Scott’s original character. Even though the narrator considers Richard in a positive light as the Norman king recognising and honouring the loyalty of his Saxon servants, he adds a deeply critical evaluation of the character towards the end of the novel: “In the lion-hearted King, the brilliant, but useless character, of a knight of romance, was in a great measure realised and revived; … his feats of chivalry furnishing themes for bards and minstrels, but affording none of those The Visual Criticism of Thomas Stothard’s Designs of W. Scott’s Ivanhoe 107 solid benefits to his country on which history loves to pause, and hold up as an example to posterity” (367). Stothard thus glosses over Scott’s more progressive and critical vision. Instead, he glorifies Richard as the archetypical knightly king in line with the generically uncomplicated reading of the novel as a medieval romance. The second group of images appealing to contemporary consumers’ fascination with the Middle Ages focuses on the architectural seats of some of the feudal lords in the novel. The recto vignettes for July and August both feature Torquilstone, the residence of the Norman baron, Reginald Frontde-Boeuf, and the site of the most extensive confrontation, in the form of a heavily fought siege, between the Normans and the Saxons. The recto image for September depicts the castle of Coningsburgh, the home of Athelstane, the last Saxon contender to the English throne. The portrayal of these fictional locations not only served to emphasise the medieval narrative setting, but also indicates another way in which Stothard responded to the latest fashions. Whereas Baker had decidedly fixed upon literary illustrations for the branding of the Pocket Atlas, some of the other illustrated pocket diaries capitalised on and fed into developments in other cultural branches. William Peacock’s Polite Repository, the longest-running British illustrated pocket diary, for instance, included engravings of country seats of gentlemen and nobility, and national monuments, in the process “contribut[ing] to the emerging tourist industry in Britain and foster[ing] a vision of the nation and of Britishness as represented by its architecture and landscape” (Jung 2013: 64). A large portion of Stothard’s illustrations for the Pocket Atlas focuses on another subject which contributed to Ivanhoe’s instantaneous popularity and offered the artist the opportunity to expand his visual narrative. A total of nine vignettes feature one or both of the two prominent female characters, Rowena and Rebecca, the latter the Jewess who nurtures Ivanhoe back to health after the tournament. It is especially Rebecca who was beloved by the critics and the reading public alike. Reviews frequently singled her out as one of the best and most memorable characters in the novel. They variously labelled her as “heroic” (ER 1820: 39; MR 1820: 85), “divine” (ER 1820: 50), and “amiable” (MR 1820: 85; British Review 1820: 441) and praised her for her beauty and virtue. The reviewer for the British Review, though critical of Scott’s introduction of Jewish characters in the novel, nevertheless acknowledged Rebecca’s “attractiveness and exquisiteness” and applauded her “beautiful and noble-minded” character for her “virtue and honour” (BR 1820: 397, 415, 414). The Edinburgh Review called her “almost the only lovely being in the story” (1820: 53), while the Monthly Review even went as far as describing her as “obviously the heroine, though perhaps not so intended” (1820: 77). The latter assessment also carried Kwinten Van de Walle 108 over into various of the contemporary stage adaptations and chapbook versions of Ivanhoe. 13 These modified versions regularly attributed a more central role to Rebecca, as apparent from such titles as Thomas Dibdin’s Ivanhoe; or, the Jew’s Daughter (1820) and William Moncrieff’s Ivanhoe! or the Jewess (1822). She sometimes even became the titular character: for example, in Rebecca, the Jewess. A Tale (1822) or Michael Rophino Lacy’s opera The Maid of Judah; or, the Knights Templar (1830). It was not unusual for adaptations to rewrite the ending of the novel or to produce a continuation, and to have Ivanhoe marry Rebecca, in response to the popular opinion that she would have been a far better match than Rowena. Stothard’s vignettes offer complex, contrastive interpretations of these characters and their roles in Scott’s narrative. The illustrations initially attributed the most importance to Rowena: all of the images in which she features occur in the first half of the series, with the exception of the verso vignette for July. The depiction of her character is consistent with that in the recto image for February. Her dress is light, sober, and elegant, and she always sits in throne-like seats or elevated positions highlighting her social prominence, such as at the master table at Rotherwood or in the stands at the Ashby tournament. Stothard emphasises her dignified spirit and nobility of character to express her aristocratic Saxon lineage. In this manner, he promotes a reading of her character as vital for the unification of the Norman and Saxon identities, symbolised through her marriage with Ivanhoe at the conclusion of the novel. Figure 4. July vignette (verso). The Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas for the Year MDCCCXXI. (Southampton: T. Baker). Reproduced with permission from a copy in professor Sandro Jung’s possession. Stothard develops a markedly different visual representation for Rebecca’s character. The verso vignette for July functions as the transitional image in which the focus shifts from Rowena in the first to Rebecca in the second half of the vignette series (Figure 4). Depicting the first meeting between 13 For a detailed overview and a consideration of the dramatic adaptations of Ivanhoe, see Bolton (1992: 342-372). For a list of chapbook versions of the novel, see Parsons (1965: 202-205). The Visual Criticism of Thomas Stothard’s Designs of W. Scott’s Ivanhoe 109 the women in the text, it introduces Rebecca to the visual narrative, while also being the last vignette to feature Rowena. The encounter occurs shortly after the tournament at Ashby. Abandoned and robbed of their horses by their hired bodyguards, Rebecca and her father Isaac are looking for travelling companions to face the perilous journey ahead. They come across Cedric’s party first and, after Isaac’s unsuccessful petition, Rebecca appeals to Rowena instead. The illustration of this scene not only foregrounds the ways in which female compassion and sensibility symbolically counterbalance the harsh and inherently racist rationality of the male characters, but also introduces a strong distinction between the two characters. It faithfully renders the way in which Rebecca in Scott’s original text “knelt down, and, after the Oriental fashion in addressing superiors, kissed the hem of Rowena’s garment” (160). Portraying Rebecca in a subservient position in front of Rowena, who remains physically elevated on her horse, Stothard establishes her social inferiority, which is also verbally emphasised in the caption “knelt down”. Figure 5. August vignette (verso). The Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas for the Year MDCCCXXI. (Southampton: T. Baker). Reproduced with permission from a copy in professor Sandro Jung’s possession. The image also sets the tone for the depiction of Rebecca’s character in the rest of the illustrations. Even though both women are subsequently abducted and each dishonourably beset by a Norman suitor - Rowena by King John’s loyal follower, Maurice de Bracy, and Rebecca by Bois-Guilbert, Stothard elected to focus only on the Jewess’ trials and tribulations in the remainder of his vignette designs. In the verso image for August, she is “standing on the very edge” of the ramparts of Torquilstone castle, praying to the heavens as she attempts to escape Bois-Guilbert’s advances (Figure 5). The last three vignettes of the series similarly centre on Rebecca’s distress during her captivity and trial at Templestowe, where Lucas de Beaumanoir, the grandmaster of the Templar Order, threatens to have her executed on suspicion of witchcraft. In the recto image for November, a seated Rebecca helplessly stares at the pyre upon which she is to be burned, while ominous figures loom in the background. In the verso image for December, Stothard takes some artistic liberty and inserts her into the scene of Kwinten Van de Walle 110 Ivanhoe’s final duel with Bois-Guilbert. Appearing in the background of the image, Rebecca clasps her hands together in a supplicating motion and raises them upwards in a posture closely resembling that in the verso vignette for August. In the concluding image to the series, finally, she reappears on the foreground, seeking consolation in the arms of her father Isaac, who “recalled her scattered feelings”. A clear pattern emerges from the illustrations of Rebecca’s character. She consistently appears in heightened moments of anguish and adversity, a helpless victim to the events befalling her. In this manner, Stothard pictorially identifies and analyses Rebecca as the prototypical damsel in distress of medieval romance. This interpretation is most clearly articulated in the aforementioned depiction of Rebecca on the ramparts of Torquilstone, a subject which had also been chosen by Westall for illustration. Once again, Stothard adopts a conspicuously different approach. In Westall’s composition, Rebecca, pictured in full Oriental dress and richly ornamented turban on her head, has one foot on the ramparts, the other elevated from the floor to suggest her fleeing motion. Her arms are stretched out sideways, her gaze lingering on the doorway to the castle turret. In a moment of dramatic intensity, Rebecca hovers indecisively between two perilous choices: to the left, a fall to her certain death; to the right, the unwelcome advances of her assailant, Bois-Guilbert, suggestively present in the form of the Templar’s hands materialising from the doorway. In Stothard’s design, Rebecca firmly “stood on the very Verge” of the ramparts with both feet, her hair loose in the wind. Whereas Westall still assigns an active role to Rebecca as she struggles with the difficult choice ahead of her, Stothard strips her of all agency. Throwing up her hands in despair, she seems to surrender herself to her tragic fate and prays for deliverance instead, while Bois-Guilbert reaches out to grab her. By depriving Rebecca of her agency and portraying her as utterly helpless, Stothard offers a one-dimensional reading of Scott’s character. In the novel, she does assume a more active role at times, most notably when she tends to Ivanhoe’s wounds after the tournament and refuses to leave his side even at the peril of her own life. She also provides a more nuanced and critical reflection on the chivalric pursuit of honour and glory during the siege of Torquilstone. Too weak to take any action or to procure their escape, Ivanhoe laments his inability to assist the Saxon besiegers and to win glory in honourable battle. Rebecca calls attention to the fundamentally violent nature of knighthood, denouncing it as a “sacrifice to a demon of vain-glory” at the expense of “domestic love, kindly affection, peace and happiness” (249). Scott also endows her character with strong tragic potential. A morally upright and benevolent figure challenging the social and religious status quo, she does not hesitate to use her father’s financial wealth and medicinal knowledge for the benefit of her fellow human beings. She is nevertheless consistently reviled and even persecuted as a heathen Jewess or objectified and pursued as the exotic other. Not even the The Visual Criticism of Thomas Stothard’s Designs of W. Scott’s Ivanhoe 111 chivalric Ivanhoe manages to relinquish his religious prejudices, thus resulting in her departure from England at the end of the novel. Stothard’s designs for the Pocket Atlas, by comparison, unequivocally transformed Rebecca into the innocent maiden, whose life and virtue require repeated protection and saving by the romance hero. According to genre convention, this reinterpretation of Rebecca’s character as the damsel in distress also sets her up as destined to marry her noble saviour, Ivanhoe, at the end of the narrative. Stothard’s vignettes thus visually recast Rebecca in a role which aligned with the public’s general opinion. Figure 6. Frontispiece. The Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas for the Year MDCCCXXI. (Southampton: T. Baker). Reproduced with permission from a copy in professor Sandro Jung’s possession. As much as this visual representation of Rebecca’s character seems to be at odds with both Scott’s text and the depiction of Rowena’s character in the first half of the vignette series, Stothard eventually reconciles their respective roles and function within the novel in the frontispiece to the 1821 issue of the Pocket Atlas (Figure 6). The plate depicts the women’s second and final meeting in the last chapter of Ivanhoe. The recently wedded Rowena receives a visit from Rebecca, who wishes to express her gratitude for Ivanhoe’s saving her life at Templestowe before setting off for Spain. In the image, Rebecca, easily recognisable through her turban, kneels down on one knee and kisses the hem of Rowena’s bridal dress, while the latter raises her hands in surprise. In the background, the bride’s trusted handmaid, Elgitha, looks back towards the women, while she closes the door, thus endowing the scene with a sense of intimacy. Kwinten Van de Walle 112 The frontispiece not only illustrates the emotional encounter, but also brings together and unifies the different strands of the visual narrative focused on the female characters. In a composition which echoes that of the depiction of their first meeting in the July vignette, Stothard once again places Rowena in the socially superior position. This aspect is further augmented through a deviation from the original text. In Scott’s narrative, Rowena’s face is still covered by her bridal veil. She only removes it at Rebecca’s request, which not only allowed the Jewess to behold her ‘rival’ in famed beauty, but also put the women more on the same level. By omitting this detail, Stothard’s design avoids this moment of interpersonal equality. The image thus solidifies Rowena’s social station and definitively reasserts her symbolic importance in the narrative. The Saxon princess is the only suitable match for Ivanhoe: their marriage represents the resolution of the Norman-Saxon conflict and serves as the “ceremonial pledge of the future peace and harmony” between the two peoples (398). In this manner, Stothard carefully caters to readers’ preference of Rebecca’s character, while also adhering to and supporting Scott’s original narrative. Within the visual apparatus of the Pocket Atlas, the frontispiece occupies a unique and prominent position. On the one hand, it provides the concluding image of Stothard’s visual series. At the same time, however, the frontispiece is actually the first image which users would have encountered upon opening the diary. Issued in a larger, full-page format and executed by a different engraver, John Romney, it appears markedly distinct from the diary page vignettes. In this respect, the frontispiece has an ambiguous relationship with the rest of the illustrations in the pocket diary. Placed in frontal position, the plate with its delicate rendering of the two female characters was aimed at the polite tastes of the diary’s prospective buyers. Reflecting the refinement of its genteel users, the frontispiece enhanced the commodity value and symbolic capital of the Pocket Atlas. The frontispiece also impacted Stothard’s visual mediation of Scott’s novel. Even though it is compositionally - i.e., it shares the same representational mode and subjects - part of the vignette series, it is both physically and medially removed from the other illustrations and acquires a more independent status. Similar to frontispieces in illustrated editions of literary works it functions as a means “to assert generic status, to guide interpretation, and even to instruct the reader” (Barchas 2003: 34). In this case, however, the frontispiece operates as a gateway into the illustrated text of Ivanhoe as well as the visual text developed by Stothard in his designs. Focusing on Rowena and Rebecca rather than the eponymous hero or any of the other male characters, the frontispiece foreshadows how Stothard’s vignettes promote a visual reading centred on the female element in Ivanhoe. Indeed, the compassion and gentility governing the interaction of the women functions as a critical alternative to the novel’s male-dominated society. The interpretative reading developed in the illustrations demonstrates how the chivalric pursuit of honour and glory too frequently The Visual Criticism of Thomas Stothard’s Designs of W. Scott’s Ivanhoe 113 victimises women, as exemplified by the depiction of Rebecca’s misfortunes. The Jewess only manages to find safety and security in the presence of her Saxon counterpart, Rowena, whose character is established as sufficiently dignified and confident to withstand the threats of the patriarchal medieval world. An additional argument in favour of this particular reasoning is the fact that Stothard was the first to bring both women together in his designs. Thomas Stothard’s designs for the 1821 number of The Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas represent a significant intervention not just in the illustration history, but also in the transmission of Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. The third and most extensive early visual mediation, the vignettes engage intericonically with existing illustrations, while also introducing new narrative subjects in response to the work’s contemporary reception. Mainly focusing on two aspects that made the novel popular and fashionable, the world of medieval romance and the female protagonists, Stothard provided new ways for readers to engage and familiarise themselves with the original text. Rather than simply rendering individual scenes or characters, however, he actively reimagined and reinterpreted the story by means of a dynamic and multi-layered visual narrative. His portrayal of Rowena and Rebecca in a group of compositionally linked and interwoven illustrations in particular reflects the diverse ways in which complex readings could be promoted through the visual medium. What provides Stothard’s illustrations - not just those of Ivanhoe, but of the other works as well - with such a singular status is their distinct text-image relationship. Published in the ephemeral print medium of the pocket diary and epitextually removed from the original text, the images invite diary owners to develop an interpretation outside of the conventional illustrated edition. Readers sufficiently familiar with Scott’s novel would have been able to comprehend Stothard’s innovative visual adaptation. But even if their knowledge of Ivanhoe were not extensive enough, they would have been able to enjoy and understand Stothard’s series as a portrayal of medieval romance. Methodologically, an analysis such as the one developed in this contribution demonstrates how the study of literary illustration can be of considerable value for the field of literary studies. Abandoning traditional notions of the fixed, abstract text in favour of a more flexible understanding of the dynamic mutability and transformative potential of texts, scholars should approach and examine illustrations as just another textual response to a literary text. An inherent part of the textual condition, illustrations are a manifestation, translated into the visual medium, of a literary text on “the double helix of a work’s reception history and its production history” (McGann 1991: 16). They represent a stage in what Arjun Appadurai has termed “the social life” of a text (1986: 3), during which several cultural agents - author, designer, engraver, publisher, reader, and consumer - at a specific point in time and space creatively engaged with the text and imbued it with new meaning. Kwinten Van de Walle 114 This innovative reshaping of the text through illustration should, as I have argued, fundamentally be approached as an act of visual literary criticism. Stothard’s vignettes of Ivanhoe serve as a clear example, as they simultaneously performed various of the component elements associated with criticism at the outset of this contribution. They provide nuanced critical analyses, for example, of the roles and functions of Rebecca and Rowena. They offer varying, complex visual-critical (re)interpretations of Scott’s medieval romance novel through the selection and representation of specific subjects and passages, the composition of and intratextual connection between the different images, and their meaningful similarities and contrasts with the original text as well as other visual and non-visual responses. Finally, the very fact that Ivanhoe was selected for illustration was the result of a critical-evaluative assessment: Baker capitalised on and further elevated the popular reputation of Scott’s novel by including it in the fashionable Pocket Atlas’s “growing archive of images that visually interpreted culture” (Jung 2013: 76). Literary illustration, as exemplified by Stothard’s designs, thus represents a unique resource for the textual study of literature and its historical reception. Acknowledgments Research for this article was conducted during a postdoctoral fellowship sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. I would like to thank Professor Sandro Jung for his insightful feedback on an early draft of this article, as well as for generously allowing me to use the copy and the illustrations of the 1821 issue of the Pocket Atlas in his personal collection. Works Cited Abrams M. H., and Geoffrey Galt Harpham (2012). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Tenth Edition. 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