Passage Illustrated: Lever introduces two new characters at the serial's mid-point

. . . now at the window of a splendid apartment in the Place Vendôme, listlessly looking down into the square beneath, stood a young man, every line of whose features conveyed this same expression. He had, although not really above twenty-four or twenty-five, the appearance of one ten years older. On a face of singular regularity, and decidedly handsome, dissipation had left its indelible traces. The eyes were deep sunk, the cheeks colorless, and around the angles of the mouth were those tell-tale circles which betray the action of an oft-tried temper, and the spirit that has gone through many a hard conflict. In figure he was very tall, and seemed more so in the folds of a long dressing-gown of antique brocade, which reached to his feet; a small, dark green skull-cap, with a heavy silver tassel, covered one side of his head, and in his hand he held a handsome meerschaum, which, half mechanically, he placed from time to time to his lips, although its bowl was empty.

At a breakfast-table covered with all that could provoke appetite, sat a figure as much unlike [Captain Harry Martin] as could be. He was under the middle size, and slightly inclined to flesh, with a face which, but for some strange resemblance to what one has seen in pictures by the older artists, would have been unequivocally vulgar. The eyes were small, keen, and furtive; the nose, slightly concave in its outline, expanded beneath into nostrils wide and full; but the mouth, thick-lipped, sensual, and coarse, was more distinctive than all, and showed that Mr. Herman Merl was a gentleman of the Jewish persuasion, — a fact well corroborated by the splendor of a very flashy silk waistcoat, and various studs, gold chain, rings, and trinkets profusely scattered over his costume. And yet there was little of what we commonly recognize as the Jew in the character of his face. The eyes were not dark, the nose not aquiline; the hair, indeed, had the wavy massiveness of the Hebrew race; but Mr. Merl was a “Red Jew,” and the Red Jew, like the red partridge, is a species per se.

There was an ostentatious pretension in the “get up” of this gentleman. His moustache, his beard, his wrist-buttons, his shirt-studs, the camellia in his coat, — all, even to the heels of his boots, had been made studies, either to correct a natural defect, or show off what he fancied a natural advantage. He seemed to have studied colour like a painter, for his dark brown frock was in true keeping with the tint of his skin; and yet, despite these painstaking efforts, the man was indelibly, hopelessly vulgar. Everything about him was imitation, but it was imitation that only displayed its own shortcomings. [Chapter XXX, "Mr. Herman Merl," 315]

Commentary: A Fresh Infusion of Antagonistic Forces — A Dastardly Money-lender

According to Edmund Downey, Charles Lever was upset when a critic in The Literary Weekly labelled his latest effort "a dull novel" (Vol. 1, p. 348). Lever, like Dickens and other serialsing novelists, was acutely conscious of the monthly sales-numbers of his part-publication books as the surest indication of public reception. As always, the point is to hold the reader's interest, to engender suspense at the "curtain" or close of an instalment, and to keep sales steady. After the first numbers, a book is not likely to "go up like a rocket" as Pickwick did in 1837, but the reading public's interest should not suddenly decline. Thus, at the mid-point of The Martins of Cro' Martin, with the Martins abroad, Massingbred elected Member for the Borough, and the over-reaching Scanlan planning to court Mary Martin amidst the general selling up of the Cro' Martin estate's assets, Lever seems to have felt the need for a fresh infusion of "character." We had already heard of Captain Harry Martin of His Majesty's Dragoons, who has decided to give up his Indian commission and return to claim the family's pocket borough in Parliament. Hosey Lynch, the village postmaster, had noted a letter from Harry postmarked South Africa, which suggested he was half-way home. But this other new character, the Jewish financier Herman Merl, is a complete blank. We are totally unprepared for his arrival.

The volume reader already has a clue as to Merl's importance, since a number of the chapter titles for the second half mention him: Chapter 30, "Mr. Herman Merl"; Chapter 31, "Mr. Merl"; Chapter 36, "Mr. Merl's Departure"; Chapter 41, "Mr. Merl 'At Fence'"; Chapter 42, "Mr. Merl's Meditations"; Chapter 48, "Mr. Merl's Experiences ion the West"; and Chapter 49, "Mr. Merl's 'Last' Irish Impression." Merl is the subject of a significant illustration at the climax: No. 39, Mr. Merl comes to Grief in Chapter LXIII (June 1856). Nevertheless, Lever does not introduce Merl to Mary Martin until Chapter XLVII. Even before readers make a closer acquaintance with the unscrupulous money-lender, Lever indicates that he will serve as the novel's chief antagonist and the vehicle for the financial ruin of the Martin estate. Lever's description of him is not without a touch of contemporary anti-semitism.

In this dual character study, Phiz has taken up Lever's contrasting the dissoute and somewhat exotic twenty-five-year-old British military officer in his brocaded dressing-gown with the fashionably dressed, clean-shaven bon vivant at the breakfast table. Listlessly looking out the window at the Paris boulevard, Captain Harry is phlegmatic, hirsute, and despondent, whereas the Jewish merchant appreciates everything about the capital of the beau monde, but especially its elegant cuisine and fine wines. The laden table represents both Merl's chief interest and sophisticated tastes, but these are also reflected in the parlour's elegant furnishings, particularly the neoclassical clock and the ornately framed mirror. The illustrator, aware that his picture must both introduce these characters and pique the reader's interest in them, prompts us to wonder what common interest could possibly have resulted in this unlikely friendship.

The answer is play: the Captain is an inveterate gambler, and Merl is adroit at all games of chance — so much so that, ever since the pair met at the Cape and travelled back together to Europe on the Elphinstone, Harry has been amassing gambling debts with his new-found companion. Now that they are together in Paris, where Harry has met his family, Merl wants Martin to propose him for an exclusive club.

Bibliography

Downey, Lever: His Life in His Letters. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood, 1906. 2 vols.

Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman & Hall, 1856, rpt. 1872.

Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. In two volumes. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907.

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Created 29 September 2022