The Introduction by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), facing page 333 in the eleventh instalment (October 1855). Steel-engraving. 9.7 cm high by 13.3 cm wide (3 ¾ by 5 ¼ inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, for Chapter XXXI, "Mr. Merl." [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Merl tries to use Harry Martin's social connections
“By the way, you don't know my friend here, Mr. Merl, Sir Spencer Cavendish.” And the baronet stuck his glass in his eye, and scanned the stranger as unscrupulously as though he were a hack at Tattersairs.
“Where did he dig him up, Claude?” whispered he, after a second.
“In India, I fancy; or at the Cape.”
“That fellow has something to do with the hell in St. James's Street; I'll swear I know his face.”
“I 've been telling Merl that he 's in rare luck to find such a turn-out as that in the market; that is, if you still are disposed to sell.”
“Oh, yes, I'll sell it; give him the tiger, boots, cockade, and all, — everything except that Skye terrier. You shall have the whole, sir, for two thousand pounds; or, if you prefer it —”
A certain warning look from Lord Claude suddenly arrested his words, and he added, after a moment, — “But I 'd rather sell it off, and think no more of it.”
“Try the nags; Sir Spencer, I'm sure, will have no objection,” said Martin. But the baronet's face looked anything but concurrence with the proposal. [Chapter XXXI, "Mr. Merl," 333]
Commentary: Harry Martin introduces his "banker" to his aristocratic chums
The illustration, situated in Chapter XXXII, actually references Harry Martin's making social introductions in the previous chapter. Deeply in debt to the Jewish financier (left, bowing), Harry (in dressing gown, centre) has no choice but to put on a brave face as he endeavours to persuade the British aristocrats to advocate for his "little Moses of St. James's-street" (324), since the inveterate young gambler has put up the Martin estates in Ireland as surety for "Play matters, play-debts, loans, securities, post-obits, and every other blessed contrivance you can think of to swamp a man's present fortune and future prospects" (328).
The haughty English nobles who are barely prepared to acknowledge Merl's presence in Harry's Place Vendome drawing-room are Lord Claude Willoughby, adjusting his monocle (right of centre), and Sir Spencer Cavendish (seated, right), owner of a splendid equipage which he is prepared to sell Harry's social-climbing friend for an exorbitant price. The scene ends when Merl steps out to have Cavendish's groom drive him around Paris's most fashionable Boulevards, les Champs Elysées, and the Rue Rivoli. The engraving thus firmly establishes the novel's having shifted to Paris from Galway as it follows the Martins abroad. If Harry's agenda is to mollify his financial backer, to whom he owes a thousand pounds, Merl's is certainly to join the exclusive gentleman's club, The Cercle. Since the banker already knows Jack Massingbred, Harry's recent opponent on the hustings, Harry suggests that Merl (dressed exactly as in Mr. Herman Merl) should use that connection instead to gain admission to the elite Club.
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
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]. In two volumes. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907.
Created 30 September 2022