Alfred Jingle is a fictional character who appears in the 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.
He is a strolling actor and an engaging charlatan and trickster noted for his bizarre anecdotes and distinctive mangling of English syntax.
As they leave the Golden Cross Inn at Charing Cross, Jingle holds forth in characteristic mode on the dangers of decapitation as illustrated by low archways and the example of King Charles I, beheaded at nearby Whitehall Palace: "Heads, heads - take care of your heads", cried the loquacious stranger as they came out under the low archway which in those days formed the entrance to the coachyard.
"Terrible place – dangerous work – other day – five children – mother – tall lady, eating sandwiches – forgot the arch – crash – knock – children look round – mother's head off – sandwich in her hand – no mouth to put it in – head of family off – shocking, shocking.
[2] Orson Welles played Mr. Jingle in the Mercury Theatre on the Air production of The Pickwick Papers in 1938.