The Vagabond, marked a huge leap forward. It was a well-turned miniature drama, in which Charlie’s adoption of a friendless girl anticipated The Circus, Modern Times, City Lights and Limelight. Gag comedy is skilfully juxtaposed with a subtler comedy of character and with a sentimental theme which, though it may seem a trifle heavy to modern tastes, is handled with a delicacy and judgement superior to most dramatic cinema of the period. Charlie is a street musician and we are able to see, if not to hear, his accomplishment as a left-handed violinist. Out in the country, he rescues a little blonde drudge from villainous gypsies. Their life together in a stolen caravan is a (very chaste) idyll until a handsome young artist chances along and wins the heart of the girl. The artist’s portrait of her is exhibited and recognized (thanks to the inevitable birthmark) by her long-lost mother. The girl is whisked off to a new life, leaving Charlie alone and disconsolate, unable even to manage the usual recuperative flip of his heels. (…) Chaplin’s sentiment was invariably saved from mawkishness by comedy and the belligerence underlying his despair. His jealousy as he watches the girl dancing with the artist is not entirely impotent the maliciously flicks a fly in the man’s direction, and later manages to drop an egg on his shoes.

David Robinson, Chaplin: His Life and Art, Penguin, London 2001