"Mrs. Gamp proposes a Toast."
In this original watercolor drawing by Phiz illustrating a celebrated scene in chapter 49 of Martin Chuzzlewit, Mrs. Gamp (on the right) is about to "propoge" a toast to her dear friend and fellow "nuss" Betsey Prig. The two will shortly have an epochal falling out over Sairey's great--and in fact, completely imaginary--friend, Mrs. Harris, when the following "memorable and tremendous words" are uttered, with the utmost contempt, by Betsey: "I don't believe there's no sich a person!" One of Dickens's greatest comic monsters, Mrs. Gamp--nurse, midwife and metaphysician--has delighted readers from the moment she first waddled into view, reeking of spirits and snuff. The hilarious Mrs. Gamp, the reading Dickens culled from several chapters of the Martin Chuzzlewit, would prove to be one of his most heartily applauded "turns" when he took to the stage professionally in 1858.

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