B

Bachelor, the (OCS) A ‘little old gentleman’, who had been a college friend of the clergyman of the village where Little Nell and her Grandfather finally found refuge and who had lived with him ever since the clergyman’s wife had died. He was ‘the active spirit of the place, the adjuster of all differences, the promoter of all merry-makings, the dispenser of his friend’s bounty, and of no small charity of his own besides; the universal mediator, comforter, and friend’. He was always called the Bachelor, perhaps because of college honours or because he was unmarried. His letter to Mr Garland, his brother, leads to the journey to the village undertaken by Mr Garland, the Single Gentleman, and Kit Nubbles, and to their sad discoveries of Nell’s death and her broken-hearted Grandfather. (52-55, 68, 69, 73)

Badger, Bayham (BH) A medical practitioner, ‘who had a good practice in Chelsea, and attended a large public Institution besides’ and who was a cousin of Mr Kenge, the solicitor. Thanks to the latter’s recommendation, he supervises Richard Carstone’s short-lived medical studies. He was ‘a pink, fresh-faced, crisp-looking gentleman, with a weak voice, white teeth, light hair, and surprised eyes’. He admires his wife exceedingly, ‘but principally, and to begin with, on the curious ground . . . of her having had three husbands’. Coincidentally or not, Mr Badger’s Christian name is also the name of the London street where the Dickens family lived (at No. 16) in 1822-

3 on moving from Chatham. (13, 17, 30, 50)

Badger, Mrs Bayham (BH) The wife of the medical practitioner described above. ‘She was a lady of about fifty . . . youthfully dressed, and of a very fine complexion’, who used rouge a little. Her two previous husbands were Captain Swosser, RN and Professor Dingo. Because of her habits of observation formed during those marriages, she soon detected Richard Carstone’s lack of commitment to his medical studies, as she revealed to Esther Summerson and Ada Clare. (13, 17)

Bagman, the (PP) A ‘stout, hale personage of about forty, with only one eye – a very bright black eye, which twinkled with a roguish expression of fun and good humour’. He appears twice in the novel, first at the Peacock, Eatanswill and then at the Bush Inn, Bristol, telling a story on each occasion: ‘The Bagman’s Story’ and ‘The Bagman’s Uncle’. (14, 48, 49)

Bagnet, Matthew (BH) ‘An exartilleryman, tall and upright, with shaggy eyebrows, and whiskers like the fibres of a cocoa-nut, not a hair upon his head, and a torrid complexion. His voice, short, deep, and resonant, is not at all unlike the tones of the instrument to which he is devoted’ (i.e., the bassoon). He keeps a musician’s shop at the Elephant and Castle and is a trusted friend and adviser of Mr George. He implicitly follows his wife’s advice on all matters, although he never owns to his obedience

in front of her, for the sake of discipline. In fact, his advice is: ‘Whatever the old girl says, do – do it!’ She often calls her husband ‘Lignum’, ‘on account, as it is supposed, of Lignum Vitae having been his old regimental nickname when they first became acquainted, in compliment to the extreme hardness and toughness of his physiognomy’. (Lignum Vitae is the hard wood of a tropical American tree). His devotion to his wife is humorously and affectionately shown in the importance he gives to organising her birthday dinner. They have named their children Woolwich, Quebec and Malta after the army stations where they were born. (27, 34, 49, 52, 66)

Bagnet, Mrs (BH) The ‘soldierlylooking’, tough, resourceful but affectionate wife of Matthew Bagnet, She was ‘rather large-boned, a little coarse in the grain, and freckled by the sun and wind, which have tanned her hair upon the forehead; but healthy, wholesome, and bright-eyed. A strong, busy, active, honest-faced woman of from forty-five to fifty.’ One of her constant occupations is washing greens. She is greatly admired by her husband, who unquestioningly accepts her judgement in everything: ‘She is Colour-Serjeant of the Nonpareil battalion’, in his words. It is through her that Mrs Rouncewell and her long-lost son, George, are brought together – in fact, she travels to Lincolnshire to fetch Mrs Rouncewell to London. John Butt and Kathleen Tillotson point out in Dickens at Work that ‘a brief note in Household Words on 6 September 1851 [only a few months before the serialisation of Bleak House began] had drawn attention to the difficult conditions in which soldiers’ wives were living’, and that these were the conditions in which ‘Mrs Bagnet had learned to practise her virtues’ (1957: 198-9). (27, 34, 49, 53, 55, 66)

Bagstock, Major Joseph (DS) The apo-

plectic, ‘wooden-featured, blue-faced Major’, who has retired from service in India and is attended by ‘a dark servant’ (see Native, the). He has arrived at ‘what is called in polite literature, the grand meridian of life [i.e., the age of fifty]’. He constantly boastfully refers to himself in the third person as a tough and artful fellow: ‘he’s hard-hearted, Sir, is Joe – he’s tough, Sir, tough, and de-vilish sly!’ Annoyed at his neighbour Miss Tox’s rejection of his various forms of ‘Platonic dalliance’ because she has hopes of ensnaring the newly widowed Mr Dombey, he cultivates Dombey’s acquaintance and warns him against her. Having become Dombey’s close companion, he accompanies him to Leamington Spa, where he introduces him to Edith Granger, the widowed daughter of Mrs Skewton, who is one of the Major’s old flames. With the support of Mrs Skewton, he contrives the marriage between Dombey and Edith. But he is quick to desert Dombey at his downfall, angrily asserting that ‘Joe had been deceived, Sir, taken in, hoodwinked, blindfolded.’ Nevertheless, the Major nearly chokes himself to death with laughter when his servant, the Native, reports Miss Tox’s continued fidelity to Mr Dombey. (7, 10, 20, 21, 26, 27, 29, 31, 36, 40, 51, 58, 59)

Bailey, Captain (DC) An army officer, who makes David Copperfield jealous by dancing with the eldest Miss Larkins. (18)

Bailey, Young (MC) The lively, impudent ‘small boy with a large red head, and no nose to speak of’, who was the boot-boy and ‘youthful porter’ at Mrs Todgers’s Commercial Boarding House (known simply as Todgers’s). ‘Benjamin was supposed to be the real name of this young retainer, but he was known by a great variety of names . . . . At the period of which we write, he was generally known among the gentlemen [who lodged at Todgers’s] as Bailey junior; a

name bestowed upon him in contradistinction, perhaps, to Old Bailey; and possibly as involving the recollection of an unfortunate lady of the same name, who perished by her own hand early in life, and has been immortalised in a ballad.’ (The ballad is ‘Unfortunate Miss Bailey’, which tells of her seduction and her hanging herself in her garters). He is later employed as a groom by Montague Tigg and much fancies himself as a knowing man-about-town. ‘There’s nothin’ he don’t know; that’s my opinion,’ observed Mrs Gamp. ‘All the wickedness of the world is Print to him.’ After being seriously injured in the accident to the carriage taking Jonas Chuzzlewit and Montague Tigg to Salisbury, Bailey makes a surprising recovery, to the delight of his friend and admirer, Poll Sweedlepipe: ‘ “What a boy he is!” cried the tender-hearted Poll, actually sobbing over him. “I never see sech a boy! It’s all his fun. He’s full of it. He shall go into the business along with me. I am determined he shall. We’ll make it Sweedlepipe and Bailey. He shall have the sporting branch (what a one he’ll be for the matches!) and me the shavin”. ’ (8, 9, 11, 26-29, 32, 38, 41, 42, 49, 52)

Balderstone, Thomas (SB) Mrs Gattleton’s rich brother (‘Uncle Tom’), who has a remarkable knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays. (‘Tales: Mrs Joseph Porter’)

Balim, Mr (SYG) He was renowned as ‘the young ladies’ young gentleman’.