The ____ Sassenachs by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), January 1849. Steel-engraving. 8.9 cm high by 14.1 cm wide (3 ½ by 5 ½ inches), framed, full-page dark plate for Roland Cashel, Chapter XXXI, "The Guests Begin to Arrive," facing p. 280 [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: The Irish Landlady gives the tourists a piece of her mind
As Linton proceeded with his dressing, he overheard the multifarious complaints and lamentations of this town-reared population over the dirt and destitution of their newly adopted land, — criticisms which, as they scrupled not to detail aloud, evoked rejoinders not a whit more complimentary to the Saxon; the hostess of the Goat — being an energetic disciple of that great authority who has pronounced both the land and its people as the paragons of creation — leading the van of the attack, and certainly making up for any deficiencies in her cause by the force of her eloquence.
“Arrah! who wanted ye here at all?” said she, addressing the circle, stunned into silence by her volubility. “Who axed ye? Was it to plaze us, or to fill yer pockets with the goold of ould Ireland, ye kem? Oh, murther! murther! — isn't it the sin and the shame to think how the craytures is eatin' us up! Faix! maybe ye'll be sorry enough for it yet. There's more than one amongst you would like to be safe home again, afore long! A set of lazy thieves, no less. The heavens be my bed, but I never thought I'd see the day they'd be bringing a 'nagger' to Ireland to teach us music!”
This singular apostrophe, which seemed to fill the measure of her woe, so far attracted Linton's curiosity to comprehend it, that he opened the window and looked out, and at once discovered, by the direction of the eyes of the circle, the object of the sarcasm. He was a well-built man, of a dark swarthy complexion and immense beard and moustache, who sat on a stone bench before the door, occupied in arranging the strings of his guitar. The air of unmoved tranquillity showed that he did not suspect himself to be the butt of any sarcasm, and he pursued his task with a composure that vouched for his ignorance of the language. [Chapter XXXI, "The Guests Begin to Arrive," pp. 279-280]
Commentary: Linton makes the acquaintance of dark "Giovanni" at The Goat
Presumably the dash between the two words of the illustration's title signify some swearing or off-colour terms that the landlady applies to these non-Irish visitors (since the term "Sassenach" suggests the disparaging Scots-Irish term for the English). The humorous opening of the chapter as the publican at The Goat in Irish brogue harangues Cashel's urban visitors contrasts with the ensuing scene. Realizing he may need a more ruthless agent than the scheming Mr. Phillis, Linton hires himself a swarthy Italian sailor. Although Lever reports their conversation in English, apparently it occurs in French, in which Linton is fluent. Consequently, nobody else at The Goat is the wiser about Linton's hiring a confidential operative by giving him a golden guinea.
However, Phiz has included neither the scheming Linton nor the "serviceable," dark-skinned guitarist among the recently arrived travellers in the parlour of The Goat. One is not inclined to accept the landlady's judgment of the well-dressed London servants bound for the Tubbermore estate since they hardly look like an assemblage of robbers and murderers in Phiz's comic plate. Moreover, her labelling the swarthy Italian a "nagger" would have held her judgment up to civilised censure, even in Lever's time.
At the left, the irate Irish hostess dresses down the visitors bound for Tubbermore. The fashionably dressed young Londoner nearest her seems shocked by such language. The older woman (perhaps a cook) closes her eyes, and turns away in disgust. The four male travellers are not sure what to make of the verbal assault, but the uniformed post-boy and coachman seem to be vastly entertained by "This singular apostrophe" (280). All Lever tells us about the new arrivals is that they are a "host of cooks, coachmen, grooms, footmen, and scullions, with a due proportion of the other sex, all engaged in London" (279). Phiz has had to please himself as to fashion, reaction, and type, and the four yardbirds flying about the parlour complement the hostess's rambunctious language and pugilistic demeanour.
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. 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 VII, "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and a Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 299-316.
Created 29 December 2022