380
The Green Bag
the most obscure — a distinct type of the legal confraternity. It is remark able, too, that they are all sharply de nned and individualized, running from the low shyster type of Sampson Brass to the bland and dignified Lord Chan cellor himself. In type, temperament or idiosyncrasy every one of them is sui generis; for among these dramatis persona of his comedies and tragedies of human life, he has run the whole gamut of human emotion comprehend ing in delineation and detail a diversity exceeded only by humanity itself. Besides these, there are innumerable lawyers' clerks, some of whom are famous to us as quaint characters aside from their professional association There is our old friend Dick Swiveller, always getting those "inscrutable and unmitigated staggerers" at the mysteri ous conduct of his lawyer-employers. There is Tom Pinch, who tries to draw out Mr. Fips as to the identity of his employer, but gets for his pains only the equivocal answer, "Be careful how you go, it's rather dark." There is John Wemmick, who must be first "seen" before his employer, Jaggers, will talk with a client, and who never permits a hint or mention of the "Aged Parent" or the "castle" while in the office. There is the smart and "spoffish" law-student, "Bleak House" there are four — Conversation Kenge, Mr. Tulkinghorn, Mr. Vholes and Mr. Tangle; in "Old Curiosity Shop" there are two — Sampson and Sally Brass; in "Our Mutual Friend" there are two — Mortimer Lightwood and Eugene Wrayburn; in "The Tale of Two Cities" there are two — Sydney Carton and William Stryver; there is one in "Martin Chuzzlewit" — Mr. Fips; one in "Edwin Drood" — Hiram Grewgious; one in "Great Expectations" — Mr. Jaggers; and one in "Little Dorrit" — Mr. Rugg. And in the short stories, sketches and plays there are eight — Samuel Briggs and Percy Noakes ("The Steam Excursion); Joseph Overton ("The Great Wringlebury Duel"); Mr. Bintrey ("No Thoroughfare"); Mr. Clarkson ("The Detective Police"); Thomas Craggs and Jonathan Snitchey ("The Battle of Life"); and Owen Overton ("The Strange Gentle man").
Percy N'oakes. And there is Bazzard, who has written "The Thorn of Anxi ety," a tragedy which, like a thorn in the flesh, "will not come out." Dickens himself was frank to confess that he exaggerated these types in his license as a satirist; for it must be ad mitted at the beginning that an ac quaintanceship with these legal gentle men does not beget a flattering impression of the profession, or its fol lowers, in England during Dickens' day. The early experiences of the novelist as a reporter in the London police courts had brought him into contact with the lowest and most debased class of lawyers who practised there, and these impressions remained with him in describing the scenes and characters of his novels in later years. There is Uriah Heep, in "David Copperfield," the sly, oily villian, always humble and deprecatory, but weaving all things to his own purposes. There are Sampson Brass and Mr. Sally Brass, in "Old Curiosity Shop," the lowest types of shysters, who in the end meet with the retribution they deserve. There is Mr. Fips, in "Martin Chuzzlewit," with his dark, yellow-jaundiced little office at the back of the house, with the worn out mat outside, which regularly tripped up every one of his clients and apprised him of their visits; and with the great black sprawling splash inside in one corner, which looked as if some old clerk had cut his throat there, years ago, and had let out ink instead of blood. There is the yellow-haired Mr. Rugg, in "Little Dorrit," whose round white visage looked as if all his blushes had been drawn out long ago. He is a collector of debts, general agent, and landlord of Mr. Pancks. The tenancy of Mr. Pancks was limited to one airy bedroom; he covenanting and agreeing with Mr. Rugg, his landlord, that in
