Mrs. Cronan’s Evening by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), facing page 18. (December 1854). Steel-engraving. 10.4 cm high by 14.7 cm wide (4 ⅛ by 5 ¾inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, Chapter II, "Kilkieran Bay." Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: A Social Gathering at a Seaside Resort
It was “Mrs. Cronan's Evening” — for the duty of host was taken in rotation — and Mrs. Cronan was one of the leaders of fashion in Oughterard, for she lived on her own private means, at the top of Carraway Street, entertained Father Maher every Sunday at dinner, and took in the Galway Intelligence, which, it is but fair to say, was, from inverted letters and press blunders, about as difficult reading as any elderly lady ever confronted.
Mrs. Cronan was eminently genteel, — that is to say, she spent her life in unceasing lamentations over the absence of certain comforts “she was always used to,” and passed her days in continual reference to some former state of existence, which, to hear her, seemed almost borrowed bodily out of the “Arabian Nights.” Then there was Captain Bodkin, of the Galway Fencibles, — a very fat, asthmatic old gentleman, who came down to the “salt water” every summer for thirty years, fully determined to bathe, but never able to summon courage to go in. He was a kind-hearted, jolly old fellow, who loved strong punch and long whist, and cared very little how the world went on, if these enjoyments were available. [Chapter Two, "Kilkieran Bay," 15]
The success of an evening party is not always proportionate to the means employed to secure it. Very splendid salons, costly furniture, and what newspapers call “all the delicacies of the season,” are occasionally to be found in conjunction with very dull company; while a great deal of enjoyment and much social pleasure are often to be met with where the material resources have been of the fewest and most simple kind. On the present occasion there was a great deal of laughing, and a fair share of love-making; some scolding at whist, and an abundance of scandal, at least of that cut-and-thrust-at character which amuses the speakers themselves, and is never supposed to damage those who are the object of it. All the company who had frequented the port — as Kilkieran was called — during the season were passed in review, and a number of racy anecdotes interchanged about their rank, morals, fortune, and pretensions. A very general impression seemed to prevail that in the several points of climate, scenery, social advantages, and amusements, Kilkieran might stand a favorable comparison with the first watering-places, not alone of England, but the Continent; and after various discursive reasons why its fame had not equalled its deserts, there was an almost unanimous declaration of opinion that the whole fault lay with the Martins; not, indeed, that the speakers were very logical in their arguments, since some were heard to deplore the change from the good old times, when everybody was satisfied to live anywhere and anyhow, when there was no road to the place but a bridle-path, not a loaf of bread to be had within twelve miles, no post-office; while others eloquently expatiated on all that might have been, and yet was not done. [Chapter Two, "Kilkieran Bay," 18]
Commentary: A Study in Contrasts
This group scene for the initial, December 1854 instalment of the novel is radically different from the entirely female, indigent, ill-clothed, and barely subsisting Cro' Martin peasantry who attend Mary Martin's levee in the opening chapter. Here by the end of the season, in September, a mixed-gendered, comfortable, middle-aged, middle-class but reasonably affluent company have gathered to enjoy cards and gossip. And in place of the efficient young estate manager, Mary Martin, Phiz shows a fussy widow entertaining the middle-class notables of the seaside resort of Oughterard at the end of the season.
However, Phiz focuses not upon the hostess seated at the whist table, but the long-headed young man, brilliant but taciturn Trinity College student Joseph Nelligan. Lever's narrator assures us as readers that the youth is worthy of our attention because he will afterwards feature prominently in the narrative. Indeed, aside from the hostess, young Nelligan is the only character in the illustration who stands out, although we may assume that the second female whist-player is the thin-faced Miss Bank.
The fourth hand in the whist-table was usually taken by Mrs. Nelligan, wife of “Pat Nelligan,” the great shopkeeper of Oughterard, and who, though by no means entitled on heraldic grounds to take her place in any such exalted company, was, by the happy accident of fortune, elevated to this proud position. Mrs. Nelligan being unwell, her place was, on the present occasion, supplied by her son; and of him I would fain say a few words, since the reader is destined to bear company with him when the other personages here referred to have been long forgotten.
Joseph Nelligan was a tall, pale young fellow who, though only just passed twenty-two, looked several years older; the serious, thoughtful expression of his face giving the semblance of age. His head was large and massively shaped, and the temples were strong and square, deeply indented at the sides, and throwing the broad, high forehead into greater prominence; dark eyes, shaded by heavy, black eyebrows, lent an almost scowling character to a face which, regular in feature, was singularly calm and impassive-looking. [II, 16]
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Bibliography
Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.
Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Chapter 11: "'Give Me Back the Freshness of the Morning!'"Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. Pp. 108-127.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. With 39 illustrations by Phiz. London: Chapman & Hall, 1856, rpt. London & New York: Routledge, 1873. 2 vols.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. In two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907.
Steig, Michael. Chapter VII, "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 299-316.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter XII, "Aspirant for Preferment, 1854-1856." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell and Russell, 1939; rpt. 1969. Pp. 203-220.
Created 5 September 2022