Joan with the Joyces by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), May 1856. Steel-engraving. 10.5 cm high by 17.6 cm wide (4 ¼ by 7 inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, Chapter LX, "The Brannock Islands," facing p. 563. [Click on the image to enlarge it; mouse over links.]
Passage Illustrated: Joan reunited with Mary Martin at the Brannocks
It was at the close of a day in June that the Joyces sat in front of the little cabin, repairing their nets, and getting their tackle in readiness for the sea. For some time previous the weather had been broken and unfavorable. Strong west winds and heavy seas — far from infrequent in these regions, even in midsummer — had rendered fishing impracticable; but now the aspect of a new moon, rising full an hour before sunset, gave promise of better, and old Joyce had got the launch drawn up on shore to refit, and sails were spread out upon the rocks to dry, and coils of rope, and anchors, and loose spars littered the little space before the door. The scene was a busy and not an unpicturesque one. There was every age, from the oldest to very infancy, all active, all employed. Some were calking the seams of the boat, others overhauled sails and cordage; some were preparing the nets, attaching cork floats or sinkers; and two chubby urchins, mere infants, laughing, fed the fire that blazed beneath a large pitch-pot, the light blue smoke rising calmly into the air, and telling those far away that the lone rock was not without inhabitants. To all seeming, these signs of life and habitation bad attracted notice; for a small boat which had quitted Innishmore for the mainland some time before, now altered her course, and was seen slowly bearing up towards the Brannocks. Though the sea was calm and waveless, the wind was only sufficient to waft her along at the slowest rate; a twinkling flash of the sea at intervals showed, however, that her crew were rowing, and at length the measured beat of the oars could be distinctly heard.
Many were the speculations of those who watched her course. [Chapter LX, "The Brannock Islands," pp. 562-563]
Commentary: Mary Martin is about to arrive in search of Joan Landy
The previous illustration has already established that Kate Henderson, assisted by Mr. Clinch in the revenue cutter, is pursuing Mary Martin to the outer isles to report the news of Godfrey Martin's death in Germany. Mary, in turn, had taken a stout boat and crew in search of Joan Landy, who two months ago fled from the house of her common-law husband, Tom Magennis, the rowdy radical of Barnagheela on the Cro' Martin estate. The reader naturally wonders which of the two boats carrying which of the two heroines is about to arrive.
Although Lever describes the topography of the Brannock Islands, northwest of the island of Innishmore off Ireland's west coast, Phiz does not utilize the unique crocus of "Brannock-buoy" (the only distinctive piece of vegetation on the Brannocks, which do not even have trees). He faithfully realizes the Joyces' shore operations, but does not depict Owen Joyce's cabin, a tiny circular building with a chimney in the middle: "the rude structure resembled some wigwam of the Prairies rather than the home of civilised beings" (560). And Phiz's depiction of the bustling activity of the commercial fishers hardly suggests "poverty and privation" (560). Geographically isolated, the Joyces all physically resemble one another, as Phiz implies by the identical profiles that his figures share, as well as their somewhat Portuguese or Spanish features: they are indeed "all wonderfully alike" (561), having black hair, dark eyes, and swarthy complexions. In the centre of the composition, seated and looking left, towards the landing place, is the patriarch. But seated on the ground before him is a young woman almost certainly Joan Landy: "her fresh, bright features [bear] the traces of a different blood" (561), and her clothing and coiffure are those with which we are already familiar from previous illustrations of Cro' Martin and vicinity. Joan had taken passage to New York from Galway (not Dublin, as Lever had previously suggested), but then had regretted leaving Ireland, and so the immigrant ship dropped her with one of Joyce's sons on the rocky shores of the chief Brannock Island. Despite her continuing to love the rough and ready Tom Magennis, Joan seems to have abandoned him as a result of some sort of entreaty by her dying grandfather, Mat. Here, possessing domestic skills unknown to the islanders, Joan has settled into a new life with a folk that speak only Gaelic.
In the picturesque illustration, Phiz has the various figures engaged in the repair and maintenance of fishing equipment, exactly as in the text. He has not, however, included the boat that is making for the island. Since Lever indicates that it is not a revenue-cutter, this must be the bark bearing Mary Martin rather than Kate Henderson. Sure enough, by Joan's reaction alone we may judge that the young girl who sprang onto the shore is Mary, who has tracked her down from the immigrant vessel's passenger-list. Joan agrees to return with Mary to Oughterard, and throughout their return journey they are followed by the revenue-cutter. When the locals at the harbour intimate that Mary is about to receive bad news, she guesses that he uncle has died abroad — and collapses at the close of the chapter, before Kate can deliver the distressing news in person.
Note: Lever among the Tuscarrora
In his second chapter, "Wandering Scholar (1827-1830)" biographer Lionel Stevenson notes that, after spending some time in Quebec as a ship's surgeon, Lever had pushed on through the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain, visiting New England. He subsequently stayed with the indigenous people of the Tuscarrora district, and was "formally initiated . . . into membership" (17) in the tribe, and lived in a native wigwam of the type which he recalls in this chapter.
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
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. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 28 February 2018.
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 14 October 2002