The Puzzle of Dickens's Last Plot [20]
evidence the Nemesis awaiting Jasper.
"Another hypothesis - following on the Carker theme in 'Dombey and Son' - is that Jasper, a dissolute and degenerate man, lascivious, and heartless, may have wronged a child of the woman's; but it is not likely that Dickens would repeat the Mrs. Brown story."
Jasper, PERE, father of John Jasper and of Mrs. Drood, however handsome, ought not to have deserted Mrs. Jasper. Whether John Jasper, prematurely devoted to opium, became Edwin's guardian at about the age of fifteen, or whether, on attaining his majority, he succeeded to some other guardian, is not very obvious. In short, we cannot guess why the Princess Puffer hated Jasper, a paying client of long standing. We are only certain that Jasper was a bad fellow, and that the Princess Puffer said, "I know him, better than all the Reverend Parsons put together know him." On the other hand, Edwin "seems to know" the opium woman, when he meets her on Christmas Eve, which may be a point in favour of her being his long-lost grandmother.
Jasper was certainly tried and condemned; for Dickens intended "to take Mr. Fildes to a condemned cell in Maidstone, or some other gaol, in order to make a drawing." (6) Possibly Jasper managed to take his own life, in the cell; possibly he was duly hanged.
Jasper, after all, was a failure as a murderer, even if we suppose him to have strangled his nephew successfully. "It is obvious to the most excruciatingly feeble capacity" that, if he meant to get rid of proofs of the identity of Drood's body by means of quicklime, it did not suffice to remove Drood's pin, watch, and chain. Drood would have coins of the realm in his pockets, gold, silver, bronze. Quicklime would not destroy these metallic objects, nor would it destroy keys, which would easily prove Drood's identity. If Jasper knew his business, he would, of course, rifle ALL of Edwin's pockets minutely, and would remove the metallic buttons of his braces, which generally display the maker's name, or the tailor's. On research I find "H. Poole & Co., Savile Row" on my buttons. In this inquiry of his, Jasper would have discovered the ring in Edwin's breast pocket, and would have taken it away. Perhaps Dickens never thought of that little fact: if he did think of it, no doubt he found some mode of accounting for Jasper's unworkmanlike negligence. The trouser-buttons would have led any inquirer straight to Edwin's tailor; I incline to suspect that neither Dickens nor Jasper noticed that circumstance. The conscientious artist in crime cannot afford to neglect the humblest and most obvious details.
CONCLUSION
ACCORDING to my theory, which mainly rests on the unmistakable evidence of the cover drawn by Collins under Dickens's directions, all "ends well." Jasper comes to the grief he deserves: Helena, after her period of mourning for Neville, marries Crisparkle: Rosa weds her mariner. Edwin, at twenty-one, is not heart-broken, but, a greatly improved character, takes, to quote his own words, "a sensible interest in works of engineering skill, especially when they are to change the whole condition of an undeveloped country" - Egypt.
These conclusions are inevitable unless we either suppose Dickens to have arranged a disappointment for his readers in the TABLEAU of Jasper and Drood, in the vault, on the cover, or can persuade ourselves that not Drood, but some other young man, is revealed by the light of Jasper's lantern. Now, the young man is very like Drood, and very unlike the dark fierce Helena Landless: disguised as Drood, this time, not as Datchery. All the difficulty as to why Drood, if he escaped alive, did not at once openly denounce Jasper, is removed when we remember, as Mr. Archer and I have independently pointed out, that Drood, when attacked by Jasper, was (like Durdles in the "unaccountable expedition") stupefied by drugs, and so had no valid evidence against his uncle. Whether science is acquainted with the drugs necessary for such purposes is
"Another hypothesis - following on the Carker theme in 'Dombey and Son' - is that Jasper, a dissolute and degenerate man, lascivious, and heartless, may have wronged a child of the woman's; but it is not likely that Dickens would repeat the Mrs. Brown story."
Jasper, PERE, father of John Jasper and of Mrs. Drood, however handsome, ought not to have deserted Mrs. Jasper. Whether John Jasper, prematurely devoted to opium, became Edwin's guardian at about the age of fifteen, or whether, on attaining his majority, he succeeded to some other guardian, is not very obvious. In short, we cannot guess why the Princess Puffer hated Jasper, a paying client of long standing. We are only certain that Jasper was a bad fellow, and that the Princess Puffer said, "I know him, better than all the Reverend Parsons put together know him." On the other hand, Edwin "seems to know" the opium woman, when he meets her on Christmas Eve, which may be a point in favour of her being his long-lost grandmother.
Jasper was certainly tried and condemned; for Dickens intended "to take Mr. Fildes to a condemned cell in Maidstone, or some other gaol, in order to make a drawing." (6) Possibly Jasper managed to take his own life, in the cell; possibly he was duly hanged.
Jasper, after all, was a failure as a murderer, even if we suppose him to have strangled his nephew successfully. "It is obvious to the most excruciatingly feeble capacity" that, if he meant to get rid of proofs of the identity of Drood's body by means of quicklime, it did not suffice to remove Drood's pin, watch, and chain. Drood would have coins of the realm in his pockets, gold, silver, bronze. Quicklime would not destroy these metallic objects, nor would it destroy keys, which would easily prove Drood's identity. If Jasper knew his business, he would, of course, rifle ALL of Edwin's pockets minutely, and would remove the metallic buttons of his braces, which generally display the maker's name, or the tailor's. On research I find "H. Poole & Co., Savile Row" on my buttons. In this inquiry of his, Jasper would have discovered the ring in Edwin's breast pocket, and would have taken it away. Perhaps Dickens never thought of that little fact: if he did think of it, no doubt he found some mode of accounting for Jasper's unworkmanlike negligence. The trouser-buttons would have led any inquirer straight to Edwin's tailor; I incline to suspect that neither Dickens nor Jasper noticed that circumstance. The conscientious artist in crime cannot afford to neglect the humblest and most obvious details.
CONCLUSION
ACCORDING to my theory, which mainly rests on the unmistakable evidence of the cover drawn by Collins under Dickens's directions, all "ends well." Jasper comes to the grief he deserves: Helena, after her period of mourning for Neville, marries Crisparkle: Rosa weds her mariner. Edwin, at twenty-one, is not heart-broken, but, a greatly improved character, takes, to quote his own words, "a sensible interest in works of engineering skill, especially when they are to change the whole condition of an undeveloped country" - Egypt.
These conclusions are inevitable unless we either suppose Dickens to have arranged a disappointment for his readers in the TABLEAU of Jasper and Drood, in the vault, on the cover, or can persuade ourselves that not Drood, but some other young man, is revealed by the light of Jasper's lantern. Now, the young man is very like Drood, and very unlike the dark fierce Helena Landless: disguised as Drood, this time, not as Datchery. All the difficulty as to why Drood, if he escaped alive, did not at once openly denounce Jasper, is removed when we remember, as Mr. Archer and I have independently pointed out, that Drood, when attacked by Jasper, was (like Durdles in the "unaccountable expedition") stupefied by drugs, and so had no valid evidence against his uncle. Whether science is acquainted with the drugs necessary for such purposes is