Tom masters the Maitre d'Armes (facing p. 332 in vol. 1 of the 1844 edition, p. 343 in vol. 1 of the 1865 edition), horizontally-mounted, 9.1 cm high by 12.8 cm wide, (3 ⅝ by 5 inches), vignetted steel illustration for Charles Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours," Chapter XLIV, "The Canteen" (December 1843), in the William Curry, Jun. two-volume edition (Dublin, 1844); Chapter XLIV, the final chapter in the first volume of the Chapman and Hall edition (London, 1865). N. B. The second December 1843 illustration, Murat and Mademoiselle Minette for Chapter XLV, occurs in the second volume of the 1865 Chapman and Hall edition. [Click on the image to enlarge it; mouse over links.]
Passage Illustrated: Tom crosses blades with a Master Fencer
I hastily threw off my coat and waistcoat, when the crowd fell back, and the maitre d'armes advancing into the open space with a light and nimble step, cried out, “En garde, Monsieur!” I stood my ground, and crossed my sword with his.
For a few seconds I contented myself with merely observing my adversary, who handled his weapon not only with all the skill of an accomplished swordsman, but with a dexterity that showed me he was playing off his art before his companions.
As if to measure his distance, he made two or three slight passes over the guard of my sword, and then grating his blade against mine with that peculiar motion which bodes attack, he fixed his eyes on mine, to draw off my attention from his intended thrust. The quickness and facility with which his weapon changed from side to side of mine, the easy motion of his wrist, and the rigid firmness of his arm, all showed me I was no match for him, — although one of the best of my day at the military school, — and I did not venture to proceed beyond mere defence. He saw this, and by many a trick endeavored to induce an attack, — now dropping his point carelessly, to address a monosyllable to a friend near; now throwing open his guard, as if from negligence.
At length, as if tired with waiting, he called out, “Que cela finisse!” and rushed in on me.
The rapidity of the assault, for a second or so, completely overcame me; and though I defended myself mechanically, I could neither follow his weapon with my eye nor anticipate his intended thrust. Twice his point touched my sword-arm above the wrist, and by a slight wound there, saved my lungs from being pierced. At last, after a desperate rally, in which he broke in on my guard, he made a fearful lunge at my chest. I bent forward, and received his blade in the muscles of my back, when, with a wheel round, I smashed the sword in me, and buried my own up to the hilt in his body. He fell bathed in blood; and I, staggering backwards, was caught in Pioche's arms at the moment when all consciousness was fast leaving me. [Chapter XLIV, "The Canteen," pp. 331-332 in vol. 1 of the 1844 edition; p. 343 in vol. 1 of the 1865 edition]
Commentary: Tom embroils himself in "affairs of honour" on the Austrian campaign
Ever ready to defend himself against slights, Tom has already slapped a fellow officer with his glove to defend himself against the imputation that the court ultimately declined to prosecute him for sedition because he acted as a police informant or mouchard with the Chouan insurrectionists. No sooner has Tom struck the insolent Capitaine Amédée Pichot for uttering this stinging taunt than he learns that his adversary is being arrested for duelling. Thus, readers may be surprised when Tom again indulges in challenging a defamer of his honour to a duel at the hastily established canteen of the vivandière Mademoiselle Minette when Corporal Pioche introduces him to the impromptu establishment at the mountain-top village of Elchingen, overlooking the Rhine, shortly after the French victory at Ulm. When an insolent officer pricks him on the arm as he reaches for bread at dinner, Tom breaks the sword of the offender, who, it turns out, is Francois, the mauvaise téte of the regiment and a notorious duellist. Readers may have expected that Tom would either be wounded or die in the encounter with the insolent master swordsman or will himself be arrested for violating the rules against duelling while on active duty. However, readers of the December 1843 serial instalment would have seen this plate at the opening of the monthly number.
As Piche immediately informs Tom, he has just picked a fight with the maître d'armes or Master of Arms of the Fourth. And the vivandière urges Tom not accept the challenge as the diners spill out into the courtyard, from which the soldiers have already removed the straw, picketed the horses in one corner, and made sure that the windows of the upper story are illuminating the field of combat. As Tom removes his frock coat and waistcoat, the crowd of soldiers draws back, as in the illustration, and the maître d'armes cries, "En garde, monsieur." But Phiz takes us at once to Tom's climactic thrust as the protagonist, his enemy's sword already in his back, drives home his own blade up to the hilt into his opponent, then staggers backwards, to be caught from falling by Pioche, who is not appropriately stationed in the exciting scene. Moreover, Phiz has inserted candles into the hands of the spectators, even though Lever has indicated that "a blaze of light from the the lamps and candles of the supper-room showed the ground as clearly as at noonday" (342). The next plate — Minette in attendance on Pioche — inexplicably shows Pioche rather than Tom laid up in the vivandière's bed after duel.
Further Information
- Duelling in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
- 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 7 November 2023