Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty

Once Solomon’s story is finished, the stranger asks if there is any more to it before quickly taking his leave, saying he needs to be in London that night. He spurs his horse on quickly and carelessly until he nearly runs into a cart driven by an old man. The stranger can see from the words painted on the cart that the man is Gabriel Varden, a locksmith, and Gabriel demands to know who the stranger is as well. Gabriel gets a good look at the stranger, despite him having shattered Gabriel’s lantern, and determines he does not know him before the stranger rides off again, threatening Gabriel’s life. Without a lantern, Gabriel decides to go by the nearby Maypole to get one, despite having promised his wife, Martha, he would not stop by his usual haunt.

Gabriel is tempted by the comforting atmosphere of the Maypole to stay a while and he compares the stranger he saw with the one who those at the Maypole had seen. Though most of the men wish the stranger would stay away, Joe wants him to come back so he can have vengeance on him, as the man hit him on the head with his whip before leaving. Joe is tired of being treated like a child by his father and his friends and is determined to leave the Maypole shortly, though Gabriel advises him not to.

Gabriel begins heading home to London, but shortly after arriving in the city he sees a bloody man lying on the ground and another man standing above him crying out for help. Gabriel knows the conscious man to be Barnaby Rudge (Jr.), a strangely-attired 23-year-old with an unspecified intellectual disability who lives nearby with his mother. Barnaby is horrified at the sight of the bloody man he saw robbed and stabbed, and says he knows who he is, but Gabriel cannot get a name from him. The two carry the man, whom Gabriel notices is still alive, onto his cart to take him to Mrs. Rudge’s house nearby.

Gabriel only reaches his home in nearby Clerkenwell the following morning, and has breakfast with his beautiful daughter, Dolly, and his vain apprentice—who is obsessed with his own standing as an apprentice but also conceited when it comes to his appearance, and particularly his shapely legs—Simon “Sim” Tappertit.

Dolly asks about what happened the previous night. Gabriel mentions that he had found the man, who turned out to be Edward “Ned” Chester, a man who had been courting Dolly’s friend, Emma Haredale. Edward had meant to meet Emma at a masquerade ball before he was robbed and stabbed, and Gabriel had later gone to the ball to tell Emma of this. He also mentions he had seen Joe Willet that night, which affects Dolly—she excuses herself. Sim is mad as he realizes that Dolly, to whom he is attracted, has feelings for Joe.

At the end of the day, Gabriel goes to check in on Edward, who is recovering at Mary Rudge’s. While the two are discussing Edward and Barnaby’s heroic efforts the night before, someone knocks on the door and Mary goes to answer it alone. Gabriel listens carefully and joins her when he hears an exclamation of terror. He goes outside and sees the stranger he met in the road the night before. Gabriel tries to chase after him, but Mary dissuades him and brings him back inside.

Gabriel tries to ask Mary about the mysterious man and why they are associated, but Mary tells him nothing and says he must keep it a secret. Barnaby comes downstairs once Mary has left and, though Gabriel’s inner monologue highlights what he refers to as Barnaby’s “simplicity,” he also makes it clear that Barnaby can be more clever and cunning than he lets on, as he listens to Gabriel’s conversations with Edward without outwardly appearing to.

Gabriel talks with Edward about the man who robbed him and Edward, who had also been at the Maypole briefly the night before, believes it was the same stranger. The conversation is also listened to by Barnaby’s clever raven, Grip, whom Gabriel believes is up to no good. As he leaves the house, Gabriel wonders again how Mary knows this devious stranger, thinking, “she is poor, the temptation may be great, and we daily hear of things as strange” (77).

Martha Varden is a temperamental woman whose behaviors as a stereotypical nagging wife are abetted by her maid and confidant, Miss Miggs. When Gabriel returns home late after visiting the Rudges, Martha complains of his absence and argues with him for little reason. Once she has gone off to bed, Gabriel goes downstairs to lock the door and heads to bed as well. Sim later unlocks the door with the secret key he has made and leaves the house.

Sim sneaks away to Barbican and enters the house of a blind man named Stagg, who calls him “captain.” The house currently hosts about 20 men playing various games who come to attention when Sim enters the room. Sim calls to order a meeting of the ’Prentice Knights, a group of apprentices who secretly meet to plot against their employers and lament the days gone by in which apprentices had more power.

At the meeting they induct a new “knight” named Mark Gilbert who, like Sim, hates his employer yet is in love with his daughter. Sim gets a wax impression of Mark’s employer’s key, and it is revealed that he has made keys for all of the apprentices’ households. Though all the members of the group praise Sim to his face, Stagg mocks him behind his back once he has left.

Miss Miggs sees Sim, whom she believes is secretly in love with her, leave that night and deduces he has made his own master key. She puts coal dust in the lock so his key will jam when he returns and waits up all night for him. When his key inevitably gets stuck, she helps him come in through a window and knows he is in her debt.

A finely-dressed stranger arrives at the Maypole and asks for a room and for a message to be delivered as quickly as possible to the Warren. John gives the man a room but says the only person he has that can go to the Warren is Barnaby, who is currently visiting and whom John describes “as free of the house as any cat or dog about it” (112).

The man says he met Barnaby yesterday when he was visiting his son and reveals himself to be Mr. Chester, Edward’s father and a man who has a notorious rivalry with Geoffrey Haredale, to whom his message is addressed. The two discuss Barnaby’s ability to handle the task while he is in the room, showing the little faith they have in his mental capacities. Meanwhile, Barnaby describes clothes drying on a line outside and smoke going out of the chimney as if they were dancing and conspiring people, saying “how much better to be silly, than as wise as you!” (115). Barnaby takes a while to return with the message as Geoffrey Haredale was out all day, but he tells Mr. Chester he will be on his way to see him at the Maypole soon.

The usual patrons of the Maypole ask John about Mr. Chester and what he thinks the man is doing at the Maypole, speculating that he has invited Geoffrey Haredale to a duel. Old John does not want to talk about Chester and tries to draw their attention to Hugh, the hostler of the Maypole who is asleep in the corner along with Barnaby, and talks about how he has had a rough life and, thus, John thinks he lives like an animal. Haredale arrives and John shows him to the room in which Chester is waiting, but quickly returns downstairs to his friends, fearing a duel.

The old animosity between Chester and Haredale is apparent when the men meet. Chester tells Haredale that his son, Ned, is attached to Haredale’s niece, Emma, and that much of the town, including Barnaby, has been keeping the secret and facilitating the relationship.

Both men want to end the relationship: Haredale because he loves Emma and does not want her to marry a Chester, and Chester because he wants Edward to marry an heiress. They determine they must do what they can to end things between the couple. When John goes upstairs when Chester rings for him, he fastidiously checks to see if he has been harmed in a duel.

After much of the usual mockery from his father, Joe heads toward London on some errands. First, he goes to the Warren, as he often runs errands for Emma Haredale and he is not aware of the business that occurred between Chester and Haredale at the Maypole.

After doing some business for his father, Joe goes to see the Vardens, particularly Dolly. Dolly, however, is going out to a dance and barely acknowledges Joe. Though Joe prepared for this day for weeks, he leaves convinced that Dolly does not care for him and that he might as well become a soldier and die on the battlefield.

On the way back to Chigwell, Joe runs into Edward and laments about his troubles with Dolly. The two go to the Warren so Edward may see Emma, but as soon as he reaches her, Haredale is there and pulls them apart. Haredale tells them they may not see each other anymore and that he knows of their secrets, but Edward tells him and Emma that he will not stop trying to be with her. On their return to the Maypole, Old John tells Edward that his father is there, and Edward claims to have forgotten something in London before returning there.

Mr. Chester meets Edward in London to discuss the situation at hand, Edward having discovered that Chester went to the Maypole the night before. Edward tells his father how useless he feels having grown up in luxury, promising to do whatever his father wants if he lets him make a name for himself and actually do something with his life.

Chester tells him the full truth of why that is not possible: Though the Chesters move in prominent circles, they have been in debt for nearly 20 years and Chester needs Edward to marry an heiress, just as he did, in order to keep him within the refinements he has become accustomed to. He also mentions that it is impossible for Ned to marry Emma not only because she is not as wealthy as he would like, but because the Haredales are Catholic while the Chesters are Protestant. Chester leaves Edward in a stupor, thinking about everything these revelations mean to him.

Dickens describes the gloomy streets of the London of the previous century, noting the prevalence of robbers and highwaymen, many of whom are scared of the stranger who has been spotted over the last several days. The stranger—the same that was seen at the Maypole and who robbed Edward—stalks Mary Rudge down the streets and follows her inside her home after confirming no one else is there.

The stranger threatens to kill Mary if she does not do what he says, and he takes the little money she has along with some food. Mary correctly assumes that he was the one who robbed Edward, and the stranger admits it was him and that he would have killed Edward had another man (Barnaby) not shown up. Mary hears Barnaby coming and mentions that she does not want her son knowing of the man, so he hides in the closet.

When he enters, Barnaby recounts how he has been looking for the stranger with Hugh, and says that he would know the stranger anywhere. When he notices that Mary is pale and shaking, he asks if it is his birthday, as he knows she always acts like this on his birthday—which was just after Rueben Haredale was killed. When he falls asleep by the fire, the stranger gets a good look at Barnaby, whom he recognizes as the man who stopped him from killing Edward, as he had not known Mary had a son until that moment.