'A Reception' at Rome (Vol. XVII, facing page 385) horizontally-mounted, 10.3 cm high by 15.8 cm wide (4 ⅛ by 6 ¼ inches), framed; signed "MEE." in the lower-left corner. Mary Ellen Edwards' eleventh full-page wood-engraving for Charles Lever's The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly in the Cornhill Magazine (April 1868), Chapters XL-XLII ("'A Reception' at Rome" through "A Long Tête-à-Tête.") in Vol. 17: pages 385 through 404 (19 pages including unpaged illustration in instalment). The wood-engraver responsible for this illustration was Joseph Swain (1820-1909), noted for his engravings of Sir John Tenniel's cartoons in Punch. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Passage Illustrated: Countess Balderoni and her sister Augusta entertain the Culduffs
Lord and Lady Culduff moved up the salon as might a prince and princess royal, acknowledging blandly but condescendingly the salutations that met them. Knowing and known to every one, they distributed the little graceful greetings with that graduated benignity great people or would-be great people — for they are more alike than is generally believed — so well understand.
Although Lady Augusta and Lady Culduff had exchanged cards, they had not yet met at Rome, and now, as the proud peer moved along triumphant in the homage rendered to his own claims and to his wife's beauty, Lady Augusta stepped quietly forward, and in a tone familiarly easy said, “Oh, we've met at last, Marion. Pray make me known to Lord Culduff.” In the little act of recognition which now passed between these two people, an acute observer might have detected something almost bordering on freemasonry. They were of the same “order,” and, though the circumstances under which they met left much to explain, there was that between them which plainly said, “We at least play on 'the square' with each other. We are within the pale, and scores of little misunderstandings that might serve to separate or estrange meaner folk, with us can wait for their explanations.” They chatted away pleasantly for some minutes over the Lord Georges and Lady Georginas of their acquaintance, and reminded each other of little traits of this one's health or that one's temper, as though of these was that world they belonged to made up and fashioned. And all this while Marion stood by mute and pale with anger, for she knew well how Lady Augusta was intentionally dwelling on a theme she could have no part in. It was with a marked change of manner, so marked as to imply a sudden rush of consciousness, that Lady Augusta, turning to her, said, —
“And how do you like Rome?”
A faint motion of the eyelids, and a half-gesture with the shoulders, seeming to express something like indifference, was the reply. [Vol. XVII, Chapter XL, "'A Reception' at Rome," 388 in serial; 265 in volume]
Commentary: Count Pracontal's Presence Creates a Potentially Volatale Situation
Such interior group scenes in which the characters are all dressed in the same manner and are positioned along the curtain-line, so to speak, pose a challenge for the illustrator: how may the artist distinguish one figure from another? Certainly the juxtapositions as well as the familiar visages such as Lord Culduff's (right of centre) offer clues, so that the haughty, fashionably dressed young woman looking down to Culduff's right must certainly be his new wife, Marion, and the elegantly dressed middle-aged woman conversing with them is Lady Augusta, Marion's stepmother. In the volume editions (Smith Elder, 1868; and Chapman and Hall, 1872) the reader has no difficulty locating the passage illustrated, for the scene is juxtaposed against the appropriate page. In the serial, however, the effect of the full-page illustration is quite different: juxtaposed against the opening of the instalment, the illustration requires the reader to identify this moment when he or she encounters it in this month's instalmemt. The scene is thus "flagged" as singularly important, inviting the reader to appreciate its realisation and attend carefully to description and dialogue.
The reader of the serial in The Cornhill Magazine has just encountered the French ambassador and his comrade in the French adventure in Egypt when both were young officers, "Count" Pracontal, the pretender to the Bramleighs' fortunes and estates. As yet, however, the Culduffs are unaware of his presence at the Countess Balderoni's reception; the astute reader, therefore, examines the other six male figures in the frame to see if the illustrator has included the suave, plausible Pracontal — is he, for example, the slender aristocrat in evening-clothes immediately to the left of Lady Augusta? Such a telling juxtaposition would be fitting, considering that she has insisted that her sister, the Countess, admit him in the first place, and since she has been charmed by her attentive, sophisticated cousin by marriage.
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Lever, Charles. The Bramleighs of Bishop’s Folly. The Cornhill Magazine 15 (June, 1867): pp. 640-664; 16 (July-December 1867): 1-666; 17 (January-June 1868): 1-663; 18 (July-October 1868): 1-403. Rpt. London: Chapman & Hall, 1872. Illustrated by M. E. Edwards; engraved by Joseph Swain.
Stevenson, Lionel. "Chapter XVI: Exile on the Adriatic, 1867-1872." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 277-296.
Created 9 September 2023