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Saladin danceth a lively measure
Phiz
April 1843 (third) instalment
Steel-engraving
14 cm by 11 cm (5 ½ by 4 ¼ inches), vignetted.
Tom Burke of "Ours", facing p. 90 in the 1844 and 1865 editions.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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By the stir in the chamber, these arrangements, or something equivalent to them, seemed to have taken place; when again I heard, — “Dance a lively measure, Saladin; my soul is heavy.”
Here a most vile tinkling of a guitar was heard, to which, by the sounds of the feet, I could perceive Saladin was moving in a species of dance.
“Let the child go to bed, and don't be making a fool of yourself,” said the lady, in a voice of bursting passion.
“Thank Heaven!” said I, half aloud, “she isn't mad.”
“Tink, tink, a-tink-a-tink, tink-a-tink-a-dido!” thrummed out her companion. “I say, Saladin, heat me a little porter, with an egg and some sugar.” [Chapter XII, "A Stranger," 90 in both the 1844 and 1865 edition]
in Chapter XI, "Too Late," De Meudon dies, possibly of complications of consumption (tuberculosis). Ironically, no sooner has he breathed his last than a party of British regulars arrives with a warrant for the arrest of Captain de Moeudon. Barton orders the Sergeant to arrest Tom as De Meudon's accomplice. Fortunately for Tom, Darby falls in with the soldiers on the road. With the loan of the piper's clasp-knife, Tom cuts his bonds and makes his escape. Darby's insulting the British "Grenadiers" for taking to their heels in the Rising of Ninety-eight when the French landed to support the Irish nationalists so infuriates the English troops that they attack him, and Darby defends himself, creating a distraction so that Tom can escape unobserved. In Chapter XI, having arrived in Dublin, Tom joins a fractious mob protesting the Act of Union (January 1801), and is caught up in a fray. He is trampled by the escaping mob, and struck on the head by a soldier's musket butt.
Tom awakes from his coma in a narrow bed, against which is a table covered with "phials and small flasks" (89) of medication, evident in the second plate, Tom receives a strange Visitor. Tom's speculations about where he has been deposited for recovery are answered by a male and female visitor, who call for "Peter Dodd," apparently their servant-boy whom they derisively call "Saladin." The picture does not merely accompany the letterpress; it explains it. The woman, Anna Maria (Bubbleton's practical sister), has placed cold feet on the fender of the fireplace. The boy in livery dancing a jig as he holds his master's boots and topcoat is Peter Dodd (alias Saladin). And the jolly figure in the dressing-gown, strumming a diminutive guitar, is an old friend of Tom's father, Tom's "old coach companion" (92), Captain George Frederic Augustus Bubbleton of the 45th Regiment, whom we encountered in the opening pages of the book.
" The Irish Rebellion — Propaganda as Art." Art.com. Cruikshank..
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. Tom Burke of "Ours." Dublin: William Curry, Jun., 1844. Illustrated by H. K. Browne. London: Chapman and Hall, 1865. Serialised February 1843 through September 1844. 2 vols.
Lever, Charles. Tom Burke of "Ours." Illustrated by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 24 February 2021.
Steig, Michael. Chapter Four: "Dombey and Son: Iconography of Social and Sexual Satire." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 86-112.
Stevenson, Lionel. Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939.
_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.
Created 1 November 2023