Passage Illustrated: Suggesting Roland's Romantic Interest in Maritaña Rica

At a short distance from the table, but sufficiently near to observe the game, stood one on whom nothing short of the passion of play could have prevented every eye being bent. But so it was; she stood alone and unmarked, while all the interest was concentrated upon the game. Dressed in a white tunic, or chemise, fastened round the waist by a gold girdle, stood Maritaña Rica, her large and lustrous black eyes eagerly turned to where two youths were standing intensely occupied by the play. Her neck, arms, and shoulders were bare, in Mexican fashion, and even the mantilla she wore over her head was less as a protection than as a necessary accompaniment of a costume which certainly is of the simplest kind. Except the chemise, she had no other garment, save a jupe of thin lama-wool, beautifully embroidered and studded with precious stones; this terminated below the middle of the leg, displaying an ankle and foot no Grecian statue ever surpassed in beauty.

If the deep brown of her skin almost conveyed the reproach — and such it is — of Indian blood, a passing glance at the delicate outline of her features, and, in particular, of her mouth, at once contradicted the suspicion. The lips were beautifully arched, and, although plump and rounded, had none of the fulness of the degraded race. These were now slightly parted, displaying teeth of surprising whiteness, and imparting in the whole expression a character of speaking animation. Although not yet sixteen, her figure had all the graceful development of womanhood, without having entirely lost a certain air of fawn-like elasticity, which, from time to time, her gestures of impatience displayed. [Chapter I, "Don Pedro's Guests," 6]

Commentary: Maritaña breaks off the Engagement

The beautiful, headstrong Maritaña Rica whom Phiz shows dancing with the novel's protagonist has been engaged to Roland Cashel, but now breaks off the liaison. In the opening chapter, readers encounter Roland Cashel, a young European adventurer (and apparently a skilled huntsman); but rather than dancing with Maritaña he is arguing with her. At the instigation of her wealthy but devious father, a Mexican immigrant to Columbia who is fluent in English, the pair have become engaged. The youth and the young woman likely conduct their entire conversation in English beside the fountain in the woods not far from the Columbian villa's piazza.

Roland is one of those rich young men with whom Don Pedro had become acquainted earlier in the summer, when he visited the Columbian port. Now all the young men, many of them naval officers, with whom he has made friends have returned with him as his guests at his lavish villa on the Pampas. At the game of chance called "Monte," however, Roland has lost a considerable fortune, some eleven thousand gold doublooms. Already a "widowed bride" three times over, and having inherited her elderly fiances' estates, Maritaña has made her father a very wealthy man. Surely, she argues with Roland, her father will release Roland from the engagement now that he has lost his fortune at the gaming table. Coldly, she repudiates him by tearing off her diamond engagement ring, and throwing it into the nearby fountain.

Bibliography

Lever, Charles. Roland Cashel. With 39 illustrations and engraved title-vignette by Phiz. London: Chapman & Hall, 1850.

Lever, Charles. Roland Cashel. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vols. I and II. In two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 19 August 2010.

Steig, Michael. Chapter One, "Illustration, Collaboration, and Iconography." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 1-23.

Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter X, "Onlooker in Florence, 1847-1850." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 165-183

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Created 3 November 2022