Passage Illustrated: Culminating Misappropriation of Character in the Strasbourg Theatre

Scarcely was my my resolve taken, when a new burst of voices arose from the pit — the words "l'Auteur," "l'Auteur," mingling with loud cries for "Meerberger," "Meerberger," to appear. So, thought I, it seems the great composer is here. Oh, by Jove! I must have a peep at him before I go. So, leaning over the front rail of the box, I looked anxiously about to catch one hasty glimpse of one of the great men of his day and country. What was my surprise, however, to perceive that about two thousand eyes were firmly rivetted upon the box I was seated in; while about half the number of tongues called out unceasingly, "Mr. Meerberger — vive Meerberger — vive l'Auteur des Franc Macons — vive Franc Macons," &c. Before I could turn to look for the hero of the scene, my legs were taken from under me, and I felt myself lifted by several strong men and held out in front of the box, while the whole audience, rising en masse, saluted me — yes, me, Harry Lorrequer — with a cheer that shook the building. Fearful of precipitating myself into the pit beneath, if I made the least effort, and half wild with terror and amazement, I stared about like a maniac, while a beautiful young woman tripped along the edge of the box, supported by her companion's hand, and placed lightly upon my brow a chaplet of roses and laurel. Here the applause was like an earthquake.

"May the devil fly away with half of ye," was my grateful response, to as full a cheer of applause as ever the walls of the house re-echoed to.

"On the stage — on the stage!" shouted that portion of the audience who, occupying the same side of the house as myself, preferred having a better view of me; and to the stage I was accordingly hurried, down a narrow stair, through a side scene, and over half the corps de ballet who were waiting for their entrée. Kicking, plunging, buffetting like a madman, they carried me to the "flats," when the manager led me forward to the foot-lights, my wreath of flowers contrasting rather ruefully with my bruised cheeks and torn habiliments. Human beings, God be praised, are only capable of certain efforts — so that one-half the audience were coughing their sides out, while the other were hoarse as bull-frogs from their enthusiasm in less than five minutes. [Chapter XLVIII, "A Night in Strasbourg," pp. 302-303]

Commentary: Lorrequer mistaken for the Composer of the Opera

Although Harry is purportedly the author of The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, he is hardly the composer of an opera. The plate dramatizes the audience's error and its thunderous reception of "l'Auteur" Harry, but only a scrutiny of the letterpress will explain how the Strasbourg theatre audience has made so egregious an error. As it turns out, on the road an official has mixed up Harry's passport with that of the opera composer Meerberger, whose composition Les Franc Maçons has now just concluded triumphantly. The mistake has indeed been fortunate for Harry since the French authorities have sent a party of gens d'armes to apprehend the second ringleader of the "Polish plot," having already arrested O'Leary (supposedly "le Compte O'Lieuki") in Paris. Harry is very near his goal, as Strasbourg, the chief city of the Alsace region, is only four kilometres from the Rhine, the German frontier. The scene of Herr Meerberger's triumphant opera about the Free Masons (implying some sort of homage to Mozart's The Magic Flute, which premiered in Vienna on 30 September 1791) is likely the Théâtre Municipal or Strasbourg Opera House, which in 1821 replaced an earlier building that had burned down in 1804. Harry's courier mentions in passing that Meerberger's favourite opera is known to be Die Zauberflöte. Lever may here be adapting the name of Italian composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, who produced the grand opera Robert le diable in 1831.

The musicians in the orchestra section immediately below the perilously positioned Harry seem delighted as they applaud the supposed composer, who in all likelihood is still back in Nancy as Harry has hired a courier to get him to the frontier in order to avoid arrest. In the next chapter, Harry overhears a conversation at an inn, and learns that Meerberger was arrested carrying Harry's passport, and never arrived in Strasbourg. Phiz has realized that this opera house makes a suitable finalé to Harry's autobiography as the beautiful native of Strasbourg places on his head a chaplet of laurel and roses to signify his artistic achievement, although the reader ironically sees this fuss as ridiculous and Harry as an impostor.

One further plate completes Harry escape from France to rejoin the Callonbys in Munich, but Phiz decided to use Arrival of the Chargé d'Affaires (Frontispiece, facing engraved title) for Chapter LII, "Inn at Munich," to set the keynote for the bumbling protagonist's misadventures, first in Ireland and England, and then in continental Europe.

Bibliography

Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.

Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.

Lever, Charles. The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer. With twenty-two illustrations by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Dublin: William Curry, Jun. London: W. S. Orr, 1839.

Steig, Michael. Chapter Two: "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 24-85.

Steig, Michael. Chapter Seven: "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and a Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 299-316.

Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter V, "Renegade from Physic, 1839-1841." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 73-93.

_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.

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Created 4 May 2023