A convalescent young woman, painted by German artist Lovis Corinth (1858–1925) in 1890. Mrs Nickleby’s stubborn cold obviously left a deep impression on her. She mentions that it struck in September 1817 and lasted until April 1818. How long ago that had been, Mrs Nickleby does not make entirely clear — her sums tail off at the number nine. Nicholas Nickleby was published in 1838.
Part 1 of 2
‘WE promised Sir Mulberry and Lord Frederick,’ said Pyke, ‘that we’d call this morning and inquire whether you took any cold last night.’
‘Not the least in the world last night, sir,’ replied Mrs Nickleby, ‘with many thanks to his lordship and Sir Mulberry for doing me the honour to inquire; not the least — which is the more singular, as I really am very subject to colds, indeed — very subject. I had a cold once,’ said Mrs Nickleby, ‘I think it was in the year eighteen hundred and seventeen; let me see, four and five are nine, and — yes, eighteen hundred and seventeen, that I thought I never should get rid of; actually and seriously, that I thought I never should get rid of. I was only cured at last by a remedy that I don’t know whether you ever happened to hear of, Mr Pluck.
Précis
In Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby, Mr Pyke and Mr Pluck do Sir Mulberry Hawk’s bidding and visit Kate Nickleby’s mother to inquire solicitously after her health, following the previous night’s party. Touched, Mrs Nickleby favours them with a tale of a stubborn cold suffered many years before, and offers to reveal the remedy. (53 / 60 words)
Part Two
An apothecary dispenses medicine to a customer in this 1825 engraving by Henry Heath (fl. 1820-1840). Mrs Nickleby however attributed her cure not to drugs from the pharmacy but to a salt-and-bran foot bath, a home remedy that she began using on Boxing Day. Dickens implies that time and the natural cycle of the cold virus had rather more to do with it.
‘YOU have a gallon of water as hot as you can possibly bear it, with a pound of salt, and sixpen’orth of the finest bran, and sit with your head in it for twenty minutes every night just before going to bed; at least, I don’t mean your head — your feet. It’s a most extraordinary cure — a most extraordinary cure. I used it for the first time, I recollect, the day after Christmas Day, and by the middle of April following the cold was gone. It seems quite a miracle when you come to think of it, for I had it ever since the beginning of September.’
‘What an afflicting calamity!’ said Mr Pyke.
‘Perfectly horrid!’ exclaimed Mr Pluck.
‘But it’s worth the pain of hearing, only to know that Mrs Nickleby recovered it, isn’t it, Pluck?’ cried Mr Pyke.
‘That is the circumstance which gives it such a thrilling interest,’ replied Mr Pluck.
Précis
Mr Pluck and Mr Pike listen with exaggerated sympathy as Mrs Nickleby prattles on about her cold cure — a home remedy which she credited with her recovery, though the passing of three months and the coming of Spring may have played a part — and then offer their congratulations in an ironic tone which the lady entirely fails to catch. (61 / 60 words)
