Darby exchanges Compliments with a 'Sodger' (facing p. 131 in the 1844 edition, p. 133 in the 1865 edition) horizontally-mounted, 9.3 cm high by 14.3 cm wide (3 ¾ by 5 ¼ inches), vignetted steel engraving for Charles Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours," Chapter XIX, "The Quarrel" (June 1843). [Click on the image to enlarge it; mouse over links.]
Passage Illustrated: The Novel's First of Nine Equestrian Realisation
“There's a mark on this one,” said I, still gazing on the paper in my hand; “it looks like blood.”
“If it is, it's mine, then,” said Darby, doggedly. And after a pause, he continued, “the soldier galloped up the very minute I was stooping for the papers. He called out to me to give them up; but I pretended not to hear, and took a long look round to see what way I could escape where his horse couldn't follow me; but he saw what I was at; and the same instant his sabre was in my shoulder, and the blood running hot down my arm. I fell on my knees; but, if I did, I took this from my breast” — here he drew forth a long- barrelled rusty pistol — “and shot him through the neck.” [Chapter XIX, "The Quarrel," pp. 130-131 in the 1844 edition; p. 133 in the 1865 edition]
Comment: The Agressive Aspect of the Heretofore Genial Bag-Piper
Although he is devious and capable of punching a soldier to start a donnybrook to enable Tom to escape custody, this is our first indication that the jolly piper could readily kill a man, albeit in self-defence. In this scene, Phiz demonstrates his capability in drawing horses and effecting a dramatic confrontation in a panoramic illustration. Whereas the previous plates have tended to realise episodes from late in the monthly instalment, Darby exchanges Compliments with a 'Sodger' occurs in a flashback that Darby delivers in the opening chapter of the June 1843 instalment. The sabre with which his assailant has just attacked Darby still hangs in the air as the terrified horse twists his head to look back at the ragged shooter, but already the dragoon has lost consciousness. Fittingly, this dramatic scene is the last in which Darby The Blast appears in Phiz's narrative-pictorial series.
Providentially, then, Darby has in his possession the very papers of De Meudon that Tom needs if he is to enter the military academy, the Ecole Polytechnique, that his French friend had recommended. Here Darby, having thrown aside his disguise when momentarily alone with Tom in the George's-street Barracks, explains how he found the packet containing the French officer's papers at the side of the road after Tom had escaped from captivity in the countryside. The mark that Tom notes on one of the papers leads into Darby's inset narrative about how he had to defend himself from attack to retain De Meudon's correspondence, presumably from a soldier dispatched by Major Barton to retrieve the packet he had dropped. The sudden arrival of Bubbleton and his fellow officers cuts Darby's narrative short, and forces him to resume his disguise as old Kitty Cole, the Dublin street-singer.
Related Material: Phiz's Other Illustrations Involving Horses
- Phiz: 'A Good Hand at a Horse'" — A Gallery and Brief Overview of Phiz's Illustrations of Horses for Defoe, Dickens, Lever, and Ainsworth (1836-64)
- Horses by "Phiz" for Charles Lever's Tom Burke of 'Ours' (February 1843 — September 1844)
Further Information
- Charles Lever's Fourth Novel, Tom Burke of "Ours" (February 1843 — September 1844)
- Instalment-by-instalment Synopsis of the Novel's Plot and Characters: Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours" (February 1843)
- Instalment-by-instalment Synopsis of the Novel's Plot and Characters: Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours" (March 1843)
- Synopsis of the Novel's Plot and Characters for Tom Burke's Adventures in France in Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours" (April 1843 through June 1844)
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. Tom Burke of "Ours." Dublin: William Curry, Jun., 1844. Illustrated by H. K. Browne. London: Chapman and Hall, 1865. Serialised February 1843 through September 1844. 2 vols.
Lever, Charles. Tom Burke of "Ours." Illustrated by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 24 February 2021.
Steig, Michael. Chapter Four: "Dombey and Son: Iconography of Social and Sexual Satire." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 86-112.
Stevenson, Lionel. Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939.
_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.
Created 2 November 2023