Robert Seymour (illustrator) - Jane Seymour and Her Anger at Charles Dickens

Jane Seymour and Her Anger At Charles Dickens

The incidents leading up to Seymour’s death showed that 24 hours earlier, Seymour had called at Dickens's family home where they discussed the artwork for the chapter on the dying clown story. They had a few drinks (grog) then argued, after which Seymour left. On the day of his death, Chapman had returned "The Dying Clown" (pictured at right) artwork and arranged to meet Seymour later that evening. Dickens and Edward Chapman's statements of the incident, (albeit without explanation of how they knew) state that Seymour worked on the new plates well into that night and was found shot the next day. Dickens' statement, among others, mentions that he read about the incident in the morning papers.

When Chapman re-issued the, by now best seller, The Pickwick Papers in book form, he included a disclaimer statement from Dickens stating; "Mr. Seymour never originated or suggested an incident, a phrase, or a word to be found in this book. Mr. Seymour died when only twenty-four pages of this book were published, and when assuredly not forty-eight were written;" that "All of the input from the artist was in response to the words that had already been written;" and, in continuation of the a’Beckett smears, "that he took his own life through jealousy, as it was well known that Seymour’s sanity had been questioned."