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Bob Mahon and the 'Widdy'
Phiz
July 1842 instalment
Steel-engraving
14.3 cm by 10.7 cm (5 ¾ by 4 ⅛ inches), vignetted
Thirteenth steel engraving and twenty-second serial illustration for Charles Lever's Jack Hinton, The Guardsman (1843), facing page 218.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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'This was the way of it. Maybe you never remarked — of course you didn't, for you were only up there a couple of times — that opposite Bob's lodgings there was a mighty sweet-looking crayture, a widow-woman; she was dressed in very discreet black, and had a sorrowful look about her that somehow or other, I think, made her even more interesting.
'“I'd like to know that widow,” said Bob; “for now that the fellows have a warrant against me, I could spend my days so pleasantly over there, comforting and consoling her.”
'“Whisht,” said I, “don't you see that she is in grief?”
'“Not so much in grief,” said he, “but she lets down two beautiful braids of her brown hair under her widow's cap; and whenever you see that, Father Tom, take my word for it, the game's not up.”
'I believe there was some reason in what he said, for the last time I went up to see him he had the window open, and he was playing “Planxty Kelly” with all his might on an old fiddle; and the widow would come now and then to the window to draw the little muslin curtain, or she would open it to give a halfpenny to the beggars, or she would hold out her hand to see if it was raining — and a beautiful lily-white hand it was; but all the time, you see, it was only exchanging looks they were. Bob was a little ashamed when he saw me in the room, but he soon recovered.
'While he was ruminating this way, who should he see turn the corner but the widow herself. There she was, coming along in deep weeds, with her maid after her — a fine slashing-looking figure, rather taller than her though, and lustier every way; but it was the first time he saw her in the streets. As she got near to her door, Bob stood up to make a polite bow. Just as he did so, the widow slipped her foot, and fell down on the flags with a loud scream. The maid ran up, endeavouring to assist her, but she couldn't stir; and as she placed her hand on her leg, Bob perceived at once she had sprained her ankle. Without waiting for his hat, he sprang downstairs, and rushed across the street. '“Mrs. Moriarty, my angel!” said Bob, putting his arm round her waist. “Won't you permit me to assist you?”
'She clasped his hand with fervent gratitude, while the maid, putting her hand into her reticule, seemed fumbling for a handkerchief.
'“I am a stranger to you, ma'am,” said Bob; “but if Major Mahon, of the Roscommon ——”
'“The very man we want!” said the maid, pulling a writ out of the reticule; for a devil a thing else they were but two bailiffs from Ennis.
'“The very man we want!” said the bailiffs.
'“I am caught!” said Bob.
'“The devil a doubt of it!”
'At the same moment the window opened overhead, and the beautiful widow looked out to see what was the matter.
'“Good-evening to you, ma'am,” says Bob; “and I 'd like to pay my respects if I wasn't particularly engaged to these ladies here.” And with that he gave an arm to each of them and led them down the street, as if it was his mother and sister.' [Chapter XXXII, "Bob Mahon and the Widow," the fourth chapter in Book Two, pp. 217-218]
Although Jack Hinton has finally recovered enough to leave the inn at Loughrea, and feels confident that Tipperary Joe will be well tended there, Jack and Father Tom Loftus will not be joined on the road by Major Bob Mahon of Roscommon. As the illustration suggests, Bob has been tricked into revealing his identity by a pair of bailiffs from Clare, and has been taken up for debt. While Hinton has been recuperating, Tom has learned that, although he has recovered from the wound he received in the duel, Ulick Burke will probably never ride again; that Lever does not kill him off at this point suggests he will reappear to attempt to take vengeance on the young Englishman.
Phiz delights in realising such comic situations. While the real Widow Moriarity glances down at Bob's predicament from the upper window, the faux widow (a bailiff disguised as the widow) clutches Bob even as the second bailiff, disguised as the widow's maid, produces a writ of arrest, although the reticule is not in evidence. As well he might, Bob looks extremely worried. Whereas Bob is now on his way to Ennis under duress for debt, Hinton and Father Tom are on their way to Murranakilty to deliver a letter from Tom's bishop. Their journey in the priest's gig will take them through a mountain tract with few inhabitants and no tillage.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Lever, Charles. Jack Hinton, The Guardsman. Illustrated by Hablột Knight Browne (Phiz). London: Downey & Co., 1901. [First published serially in The Dublin University Magazine January through December 1842; and subsequently in a single volume, Dublin: William Curry, Jun. December 1842, pp. 396. Illustrated with wood and steel engravings by H. K. Browne: 27 full-page plates. 8vo, 396pp. Boston: Little, Brown, 1894; New York: Croscup, 1894. 2 vols.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter VI, "Editor, 1841-1843." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. 92-107.
Sutherland, John A. "The Dublin University Magazine." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989, rpt. 1990, 200.
Thomson, David Croal. Life and Labours of Hablột Knight Browne, "Phiz". London: Chapman and Hall, 1884.
Created 28 May 2023