Initial letter I: Nina, coming hurriedly into the library, where Walpole was busily engaged with his correspondence by Sir Luke Fildes; engraver, Swain. Twelfth initial-letter vignette for Charles Lever's Lord Kilgobbin, from the September 1871 number of the Cornhill Magazine, p. 257 in Vol. XXIV. 7.5 cm by 5 cm (3 by 2 inches), framed. Part 12, Chapter XLVIII, "How Men in Office Make Love." The wood-engraver responsible for this thumbnail illustration was Joseph Swain (1820-1909), noted for his engravings of Sir John Tenniel's cartoons in Punch. [Click on the image to enlarge it; mouse over links.]
Right: The title-page for Volume XXIV of the Cornhill Magazine (July-December, 1871).
This twelfth vignette is based on the opening of Ch. 48, "How Men in Office Make Love"
"Is it true they have captured Donogan?" said Nina, coming hurriedly into the library, where Walpole was busily engaged with his correspondence, and sat before a table covered not only with official documents, but a number of printed placards and handbills.
He looked up, surprised at her presence, and by the tone of familiarity in her question, for which he was in no way prepared, and for a second or two actually stared at without answering her.
"Can’t you tell me? Are they correct in saying he has been caught?" cried she impatiently. [Cornhill, Vol. XXIV, 257]
Commentary: A Curious Conjunction of Interests re. Daniel Donogan
Although Walpole confides in the privacy of the Kilgobbin library that he has doubled the reward for Donogan's apprehension, he admits that he shares Nina's hope that Donogan may escape from the island. If he leaves Ireland, he will spare the Whig administration the embarrassment of a public trial and an execution since such treatment would merely make the head-centre a martyr to the Fenian cause: "every man who dies for his convictions leaves a thousand disciples who never believed in him before" (274). The initial-vignette underscores the importance of their conversation to the plot as Cecil Walpole seems to make his romantic advances more attractive to her when he explains that he has ordered the police throughout Antrim and Derry should suffer the rebel to escape, providing that he leaves the country:
Here — on this strip of paper — here are the secret instructions: — 'To George Dargan, Chief Constable, Letterkenny District. Private and confidential. — It is, for many reasons, expedient that the convict Donogan, on a proper understanding that he will not return to Ireland, should be suffered to escape. If you are, therefore, in a position to extort a pledge from him to this extent — and it should be explicit and beyond all cavil — you will, taking due care not to compromise your authority in your office, aid him to leave the country, even to the extent of moneyed assistance.' To this are appended directions how he is to proceed to carry out these instructions: what he may, and what he may not do, with whom he may seek for co-operation, and where he is to maintain a guarded and careful secrecy. Now, in telling you all this, Mademoiselle Kostalergi, I have given you the strongest assurance in my power of the unlimited trust I have in you. [274]
For the full-page illustration for this monthly instalment, Nina Kostalergi was busily engaged in pinning up the skirt of her dress (Part 12: September 1871), Fildes shows Nina with Gorman O'Shea in a casual pose on a garden bench to imply her divided romantic interests in this number. The modern reader likely wonders if the cigar is merely an accompaniment to conversation or a phallic symbol.
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
Lever, Charles. Lord Kilgobbin. The Cornhill Magazine. With 18 full-page illustrations and 18 initial-letter vignettes by S. Luke Fildes. Volumes XXII-XXV. October 1870-March 1872.
Lever, Charles. Lord Kilgobbin: A Tale of Ireland in Our Own Time. With 18 Illustrations by Sir Luke Fildes, R. A. London: Smith, Elder, 1872, 3 vols; rpt., Chapman and Hall, 1873.
Lever, Charles. Lord Kilgobbin. Illustrated by Sir Luke Fildes. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vols. I-III. London: Smith, Elder, 1872, Rpt. London: Chapman & Hall, 1873, in a single volume. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 19 August 2010.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter XVI, "Exile on the Adriatic, 1867-1872." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell and Russell, 1939; rpt. 1969. Pp. 277-296.
Sutherland, John A. "Lord Kilgobbin." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989, rpt. 1990, 382.
Created 8 June 2023 Updated 10 June 2023