The Oughterard Figaro by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), facing page 163 in the sixth instalment (May 1855). Steel-engraving. 10 cm high by 13.2 cm wide (4 by 5 ¼ inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, for Chapter XVI, "A Challenge." [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Jack Massingbred will challenge Valentine Repton
The small den in which he performed his functions occupied the corner of the street, giving a view in two directions, so that Hosey, while cutting and curling, never was obliged to lose sight of that world without, in whose doings he felt so strong an interest. In the one easy-chair of this sanctum was Magennis now disposed, waiting for Mr. Lynch, who had just stepped down to “the pound,” to liberate the priest's pig. Nor had he long to wait, for Hosey soon made his appearance, and slipping on a very greasy-looking jean-jacket, proceeded to serve him.
“The top of the morning to you, Captain,” — he always styled him by the title, — “it's a rare pleasure to see you so early in town; but it will be a bad market to-day — cut and curled, Captain?”
“No; shaved!” said Magennis, bluntly.
“And shaved you shall be, Captain, — and beautifully shaved, too, for I have got an excellent case from Lamprey's; they came yesterday, — came with the writ against Jones Creegan.” [Chapter XVI, "A Challenge," 162]
Commentary: Magennis finds Repton "spoke like a Trump" in accepting the challenge
Consuming more neat whiskey than punch, Tom Magennis, Jack's host, proposes that they betake themselves to town the next morning to deliver the challenge to the Dublin attorney Valentine Reston over the matter of his having struck Jack with his riding crop the previous day. Jack had been out hunting for partridges and had crossed from the precincts of Magennis's dilapidated cottage into those of Castle Martin, where the noble family's lawyer had mistaken Jack for a poacher. Tom Magennis insists that Jack should demand "satisfaction" of the elderly Repton as he eagerly anticipates arranging a pistol duel between the lawyer and his newfound friend.
At the inn, Magennis learns from Peter the waiter carrying a tray of chops that the attorney from Dublin and his friend "the Major" are breakfasting in room No. 10. However, instead of delivering the challenge, in need of a shave Magennis slips the back stairs and goes in search of his barber, Hosey Lynch, the Oughterard Figaro, whom Phiz depicts much as Lever describes him:
He was a short, decrepit old fellow, with an enormous head of curly black hair, which he seemed to cultivate with all the address of his craft; probably intending it as a kind of advertisement of his skill, displaying as it did all the resources of his handiwork. But even above this passion was his ardor for news,—news political, social, legal, or literary; whatever might be the topic, it always interested him, and it was his especial pride to have the initiative of every event that stirred the hearts of the Oughterard public.
The small den in which he performed his functions occupied the corner of the street, giving a view in two directions, so that Hosey, while cutting and curling, never was obliged to lose sight of that world without, in whose doings he felt so strong an interest. [162]
As Hosey shaves Tom he replies to all and sundry who come to his open door for their mail as he is not only a barber but the manager of the pound and the postmaster. Having had a rapid shave from the loquacious Hosey, "Captain" Magennis (shown in this particular illustration as rather hairy and unkempt) strides out of the Figaro and back to the inn. He has missed Repton, but learns that the Dublin Counsellor may be found at Major Froude's quarters. In the subsequent interview, the Major, a Scot, hopes to resolve the quarrel amicably, without the necessity of arranging a duel. Magennis demurs, and Repton returns to accept.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
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. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman & Hall, 1856, rpt. 1872.
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 16 September 2022