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Mark drawing a cork
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
steel engraving
12 cm by 9.6 cm (4 ¾ by 3 ⅞ inches), vignetted
July 1845
Charles Lever's The O'Donoghue; A Tale of Ireland Fifty Years Ago, Chapter XXVII, "A Supper Party," facing p. 217.
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The party had scarcely taken their places at the table, when Mark re-entered the room, heated and excited with the chase of the fugitives.
“They're off,” muttered he, angrily, “down the glen, and I only hope they may lose their way in it, and spend the night upon the heather.”
As he spoke, he turned his eyes to the corner of the room, where Kerry, in a state of the most abject fear, was endeavouring to extract a cork from a bottle by means of a very impracticable screw.
“Ah! you there,” cried he, as his eyes flashed fire. “Hold the bottle up — hold it steady, you old fool,” and with a savage grin he drew a pistol from his breast pocket and levelled it at the mark. [Chapter XXVII, "A Supper Party," 217]
After the serious scene in the previous chapter, Good Night, Phiz realizes a comic scene in which Mark O'Donoghue, a crack shot with a pistol, endeavours to shoot the cork off a bottle of wine in the now-familiar O'Donoghue parlour, readily recognizable by its screen and family portraits. Once more, the comic servant Kerry O'Leary (on his knees with the wine bottle held aloft) is the butt of the physical comedy. The O'Donoghue placidly watches the fun from his armchair (left), but Sir Archy (up centre) is trying to persuade Mark not to proceed with the sharp-shooting exercise which, owing to Mark's inebriation, may imperil Kerry's life. Of greater significance is the young man seated at the table: not the uniformed Frederick Travers, but Harry Talbot in a riding habit. Phiz has been somewhat selective in how he has realised Lever's description of the dashing youth, just arrived: "His dress indeed was somewhat different; then, he wore a riding costume — now he was habited in a frock richly braided, and ornamented with a deep border of black fur; a cap of the same skin, from which hung a band of deep gold lace, he also carried in his hand — a costume which at the time would have been called foreign" (216).
Mark, obviously drunk, has just introduced the newcomer among a party of eight or nine revellers who have broken the window to get in since Kerry had failed to answer their summons at the door. Fully in control of himself, the obviously educated Harry Talbot is embarrassed by Mark's condition and behaviour. The party are apparently "college men seeking some days' amusement in the wild mountains of this picturesque district" (217). Fortunaely for Kerry, Mark successfully shoots the neck off the Bourdeaux bottle about half an inch below the cork.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Lever, Charles. The O'Donoghue; A Tale of Ireland Fifty Years Ago. With 26 engravings by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Dublin: William Curry, Jun., 1845.
Lever, Charles. The O'Donoghue; A Tale of Ireland Fifty Years Ago. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. In One Vol. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: May 11, 2010.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter VIII, "Heretic Among Tories, 1844-1845." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 128-145.
Sutherland, John A. "Lever, Charles." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989, rpt. 1990, 372-374.
Created 2 January 2024