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The Paper
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
steel engraving
13 cm by 11 cm (5 by 4 ⅜ inches), vignetted
September 1845
Charles Lever's The O'Donoghue; A Tale of Ireland Fifty Years Ago, Chapter XXXIII, "The St. Patrick's Ball," facing p. 276.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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“Stand back, sir,” cried the constable, half raising his arm to enforce the command.
“Lay but a finger on me,” said Mark, scornfully, “and I'll dash your head against the wall.”
The insolence of this threat might have been followed by ill consequences, had not Lanty sprung hastily forward, and, catching the constable by the arm, cried out —
“It is the O'Donoghue of Glenflesk, a young gentleman of rank and fortune.”
“What do we care for his rank or fortune,” said the other, passionately. “If he obstructs the King's warrant for the arrest of a traitor or a felon, I value him no more than the meanest beggar in the street. Those papers there, for all I know, might throw light on the whole plot.” [Chapter XXXIII, "The St. Patrick's Ball," 276]
The scene in the seedy Dublin hotelroom that Harry Talbot and Mark O'Donoghue are sharing brings to light Talbot's history of impersonations and a criminal past in no way associated with his current role as emissary from the French revolutionary government to the Irish nationalists:
we want the man who calls himself Harvey Middleton in Herts, Godfrey Middleton in Surrey, the Chevalier Duchatel in France, Harry Talbot in Ireland, but who is better known in the police sheet;” and here he opened a printed paper, and pointing to the words, — “full description of John Barrington, convicted at the Maidstone assizes, and sentenced to fifteen years transportation.” [275]
Talbot informs Mark that he has embroiled himself in a duel the next morning with Frederick Travers, and that he has the legal paperwork to restore the O'Donoghue estates to him free of any debts, including those to Hemsworth. However, suddenly the sound of voices below, notably the publican's and the bailiff's, interrupts this conversation, and Talbot has just enough time to slip out a secret passage as Mark begins to burn some confidential papers that his friend left behind in the desk.
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 5 January 2024