Mary Martin's Levee by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), facing page 6. (December 1854). Steel-engraving. 10.8 cm high by 17.4 cm wide (4 ¼ by 6 ⅞inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, Chapter I, "Cro' Martin." Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Mary Martin presides over a poverty-stricken peasantry
Nor would a follower of Lavater have argued too favorably of the prosperity of Irish regeneration, in beholding that array of faces, — low-browed, treacherous-looking, and almost savagely cruel, as many of them were in expression. There was not, indeed, as often is to be remarked amongst the peasant class of many countries, a look of stupid, stolid indifference; on the contrary, their faces were intensely, powerfully significant, and there was stamped upon them that strange mixture of malignant drollery and sycophancy that no amount of either good or adverse fortune ever entirely subdues in their complex natures.
The expediency of misery had begotten the expediency of morals, and in all the turnings and windings of their shifty natures you could see the suggestions of that abject destitution which had eaten into their very hearts. It would have puzzled a moralist to analyze these “gnarled natures,” wherein some of the best and some of the worst features of humanity warred and struggled together. Who could dare to call them kind-hearted or malevolent, grateful or ungrateful, free-giving or covetous, faithful or capricious, as a people? Why, they were all these, and fifty other things just as opposite besides, every twenty-four hours of their lives! Their moods of mind ranged from one extreme to the other; nothing had any permanency amongst them but their wretchedness. Of all their qualities, however, that which most obstructed their improvement, ate deepest into their natures, and suggested the worst fears for the future, was suspicion. They trusted nothing, — none, — so that every benefit bestowed on them came alloyed with its own share of doubt; and all the ingenuity of their crafty minds found congenial occupation in ascribing this or that motive to every attempt to better their condition.
Mary Martin knew them — understood them — as well as most people; few, indeed, out of their own actual station of life had seen so much of their domesticity. From her very childhood she had been conversant with their habits and their ways. [Chapter One, "Cro' Martin," pp. 7-8]
Commentary: A bedraggled, wheedling, complaining, and sly set of Irish "characters."
From the moment that Lever introduces her — a young aristocrat on horseback — the reader is impressed by Mary Martin's "take charge" attitude with the indolent servants who have neglected the gardens surrounding the great house in the absence of Mary's uncle. Quickly she gives the servants their marching orders in preparation for the return of the Martin family in a week. Then, she holds a levee in the courtyard with the peasant women of the estate, hearing their complaints and pleas, and distributing small largesse as if she were the heir rather than the niece of the lord who through an accident of birth (coming into the world two minutes ahead of his twin) came into the Martin estate. As Phiz indicates, the Irish peasantry who attend Miss Mary's court are a bedraggled, sly, wheedling, complaining, poverty-stricken group of Irish "characters." The most obvious sign of the fashionable nature of Mary Martin's offices in the older part of Cro' Martin Castle is the fully-glassed French door that she opens in preparation for addressing the throng of Irish peasants assembled in the courtyard. Most of these women have come simply to beg tickets for the local Dispensary. Hence, Phiz depicts several elderly cripples and a number of ragged children.
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
Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.
Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Chapter 11: "'Give Me Back the Freshness of the Morning!'"Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. Pp. 108-127.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. With 39 illustrations by Phiz. London: Chapman & Hall, 1856, rpt. London & New York: Routledge, 1873. 2 vols.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. In two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907.
Steig, Michael. Chapter VII, "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 299-316.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter XII, "Aspirant for Preferment, 1854-1856." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell and Russell, 1939; rpt. 1969. Pp. 203-220.
Created 11 September 2022