The Cut Direct by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), facing page 173 in the sixth instalment (May 1855). Steel-engraving. 10 cm high by 16.7 cm wide (3 ¾ by 6 ⅝ inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, for Chapter XVII, "A Country-House." [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Joe Nelligan and Jack Massingbred at Castle Martin
The passage to the dinner-room lay through three spacious and splendid rooms, which now were brilliantly lighted up, and lined with servants in rich liveries, — a degree of state Massingbred was not a little pleased at; partly suspecting that it was intended to do himself honor. As they moved slowly through the last of these, the door suddenly opened, and young Nelligan entered. He had returned late from a long ride, and heard nothing whatever of Massing-bred's arrival. With an exclamation of “Jack — Massingbred!” he bounded forward. But the other showed no recognition of him; and directing Lady Dorothea's attention to the richness of a picture-frame, passed calmly on into the dinner-room.
“You must bring up the rear alone, Nelligan,” said Martin, who had given his arm to Miss Henderson; and Joe followed, almost overwhelmed with mingled shame and amazement. [Chapter XVII, "A Country-House," 173]
Commentary: "Your mother was a Caradoe, Mr. Massingbred."
Lever injects a complication into the planned duel between Repton and Massingbred. Probably tipped off by the town gossip, the barber Hosey, Joe's father in his role as magistrate demands the posting of a peace bond by each of the principals in the duel: Jack, Repton, and Magennis. This considerable security effectively terminates the affair of honour, and Repton apologizes to Massingbred. Nelligan lets Jack depart without disabusing him about Joe's supposed snub in not rushing back home to meet his father's guest.
And now Lever shifts the scene of the action to Castle Martin, to which both Jack Massingbred and Joe Nelligan have been invited — Jack by Repton to get a surety against having to take out a peace bond, and Joe by Mr. Martin. The young college friends now meet for the first time since Jack's arrival in County Galway, on Ireland’s western seaboard. Jack's ignorance of Joe's motivation in failing to see him earlier, however, continues, as nobody has disabused him of the notion that Joe has cut him socially. Here Jack, walking into the splendid dining-room with the doting Lady Dorothea on his arm, passes liveried footmen as Joe, much surprised, enters in formal evening dress. In the second and third illustrations Phiz depicts the exterior of Castle Martin’s entrance and its courtyard, but here he suggests the wealth and privilege of the Anglo-Irish nobility by their liveried footmen, the elegant clothing of the Martins and their guests, and the sheer spaciousness of the ornately furnished salon through which the Martins and their guests now pass.
Phiz suggests Massingbred's hauteur by his nearly closed eyes: he fails to acknowledge Joe, even though Joe appears to be addressing him. Behind Jack and his cousin (for he and Lady Dorothea are related) Mr. Martin turns to share a remark with Miss Henderson, the governess whom he has hired to tutor his niece, Mary Martin; and Mary herself, accompanied by Valentine Repton, brings up the rear. In contradiction of Lever's narration, Joe does not seem to be bounding forward, and Jack and Lady Dorothea are not studying an ornate picture-frame. In Joe's absence from Castle Martin Massingbred has ingratiated himself with Mary's uncle, who knows Jack's father from their youthful days together in the Irish legislature that existed before the Act of Union. The Massingbreds and Lady Dorothea's family, she assures Jack (and the reader), are related through the Caradoes, cementing Jack's cordial welcome by the local gentry and the acutely class-conscious, anti-Irish Lady Dorothea Martin.
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 20 September 2022