Joan by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), facing page 425. (January 1856). Steel-engraving. 9.3 cm high by 13.3 cm wide (3 ¾ by 5 ¼inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, Chapter XLII, "A Night of Storm." [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Mary commiserates with Joan Landy
These, and many other indications of the festivity then going on within, Mary rapidly noticed; but it was evident, from the increasing eagerness of her gaze, that the object which she sought had not yet met her eye. Suddenly, however, the door of the kitchen opened and a figure entered, on which the young girl bent all her attention. It was Joan Landy, but how different from the half-timid, half-reckless peasant girl that last we saw her! Dressed in a heavy gown of white satin, looped up on either side with wreaths of flowers, and wearing a rich lace cap on her head, she rushed hurriedly in, her face deeply flushed, and her eyes sparkling with excitement. Hastily snatching up a check apron that lay on a chair, she fastened it about her, and drew near the fire. It was plain from her gesture, as she took the ladle from the old woman's hand, that she was angry, and by her manner seemed as if rebuking her. The old crone, however, only crouched lower, and spreading out her wasted fingers towards the blaze, appeared insensible to everything addressed to her. Meanwhile Joan busied herself about the fire with all the zealous activity of one accustomed to the task. Mary watched her intently; she scrutinized with piercing keenness every lineament of that face, now moved by its passing emotions, and she muttered to herself, “Alas, I have come in vain!” Nor was this depressing sentiment less felt as Joan, turning from the fire, approached a fragment of a broken looking-glass that stood against the wall. Drawing herself up to her full height, she stood gazing proudly, delightedly, at her own figure. The humble apron, too, was speedily discarded, and as she trampled it beneath her feet she seemed to spurn the mean condition of which it was the symbol. Mary Martin sighed deeply as she looked, and muttered once more, “In vain!”
Then suddenly starting, with one of those bursts of energy which so often had steeled her heart against peril, she walked to the kitchen-door, raised the latch, and entered. She had made but one step within the door when Joan turned and beheld her; and there they both stood, silently, each surveying the other. Mary felt too intensely the difficulty of the task before her to utter a word without well weighing the consequences. She knew how the merest accident might frustrate all she had in view, and stood hesitating and uncertain, when Joan, who now recognized her, vacillated between her instinctive sense of respect and a feeling of defiance in the consciousness of where she was. Happily for Mary the former sentiment prevailed, and in a tone of kindly anxiety Joan drew near her and said, — “Has anything happened? I trust in God no accident has befell you.”
“Thank God, nothing worse than a wetting,” said Mary, — “some little fatigue; and I'll think but little of either if they have brought me here to a good end. May I speak with you alone, — quite alone?” [Chapter XLII, "A Night of Storm," pp. 429-430]
Commentary: Mary's Mission to Joan Magennis of Barnagheela
The picture brings us to the very moment when Mary discusses with Joan the dire situation she has just witnessed on the shore at Kilkieran. Mary has never visited the home the young wife of the Irish nationalist who lives in a remote, ramshackle farmhouse on a precipice on the Cro' Martin estate. Mary's mission is simple: to summon Mrs. Magennis to the deathbed of her grandfather, Mat Landy, whose other family members have all emigrated to America. Joan initially spurns Mary Martin, for her husband's attorney, Joe Nelligan, has bested Scanlan and Repton in court, and thwarted the Martins' attempt to evict her husband Tom from Barnagheela. Even as Mary consults Joan in the pantry, in the parlour roaring Tom is celebrating his triumph with his cronies: Peter Hayes, Father Rafferty, and the others whom we met earlier, when Dan Nelligan conspired to back Jack Massingbred against the Martins's absentee candidate for Member of Parliament. When Mary begs her to accompany her back to old Mat's hovel on the shore, Joan relents and changes for the journey.
Typhus and Cholera Outbreaks in 19th century Ireland
- Cholera
- Cholera
- Health and Hygiene in the Nineteenth Century
- Bacteriology, c. 1810-c.1917: Chronology of a Victorian Medical Advance
Geographical and Socio-political Associations with Ireland's Poor
- The Landscape of Ireland
- The Geography of Ireland
- Ireland in The Illustrated London News
- Victorian Ireland
- The Land War in Ireland
- The Irish Famine: 1845-49
- “Do something for a poor crathur [with] five starving childher” — Irish poverty in Trollope's Castle Richmond
- Food and Famine in Victorian Literature
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]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. In two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907.
Created 6 October 2022