Lord Norwood — seventeenth illustration engraved by the Dalziels for the 1852 Chapman and Hall edition of The Daltons, or, Three Roads in Life by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). Chapter XXVII, "A Small Dinner at The Villinoe Zoe" (facing 221). 10.1 cm by 15.4 cm (3 ⅞ by 6 inches) vignetted. This is the third vertically oriented plate in the two-volume novel. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Zoe Ricketts presides over a largely male social gathering
To present oneself in a room where one's appearance is unacceptable is, perhaps, no slight test of tact, manner, and effrontery; to be actually indifferent to the feelings around is to be insensible to the danger; to see the peril, and yet appear not to notice it, constitutes the true line of action. Lord Norwood was perfect in this piece of performance, and there was neither exaggerated cordiality nor any semblance of constraint in his manner as he advanced to Mrs. Ricketts, and taking her hand, pressed it respectfully to his lips.
“This salutation,” said he, gayly, “is a commission from Lord Kennycroft, your old and constant admirer. It was his last word as we parted: 'Kiss Mrs. Ricketts's hand for me, and say I am faithful as ever.'”
“Poor dear Lord! General, here is Lord Norwood come to see us.”
“How good of him — how very kind! Just arrived from the East, my Lord?” said he, shaking Foglass by the hand in mistake.
“No, sir; from Malta.” He wouldn't say England, for reasons. “Miss Ricketts, I am most happy to see you and still occupied with the fine arts? Haggy, how d'ye do? Really it seems to me like yesterday since I sat here last in this delightful arm-chair, and looked about me on all these dear familiar objects. You 've varnished the Correggio, I think?”
“The Vandyk, my Lord.”
“To be sure — the Vandyk. How stupid I am! Indeed, Lady Foxington said that not all your culture would ever make anything of me.”
“How is Charlotte?” asked Mrs. Ricketts — this being the familiar for Lady F.
“Just as you saw her last. Thinner, perhaps, but looking admirably.”
“And the dear Duke — how is he?”
“Gouty — always gouty — but able to be about.”
“I am so glad to hear it. It is so refreshing to talk of old friends.” [Chapter XXVII, "Lord Norwood," 221]
Commentary: Vertical, Dark, and Wash Effect Plates
In The Daltons (1852), Phiz relinquishes dark plates, and his illustrations revert to being easily recognisable. As always, he was sensitive to an author's effort; Lever was dashing off The Daltons with little struggle, so Phiz did the same. [Lester 124]
In other series, by this point the reader would have already encountered a number of vertically mounted plates emulating the stage, and one of these would likely have been a dark plate. Since dark plates require far more preparation time than Phiz had available. Instead of outdoor evening scenes, then, Phiz has generally selected for illustration scenes of group social interaction such as dinners and teas.
Commentary: Viscount Lord Norwood arrives in Florence
Still at Florence in Chapter 27, the Onslows are separating by virtue of what Lady Hester cites as "incompatibility." In fact, she yearns for her independence, and is certain of receiving a generous settlement from Sir Stafford. The family's affairs are the intense subject of discussion and speculation at neighbouring Villino Zoe among the owner, the gossipy Mrs. Zoe Ricketts and her foreign friend, a Polish Count Petrolaffsky, and the English tourists Mr. Purvis, Colonel Haggerstone, and the imperious Mr. Foglass, supposedly an illegitimate descendant of King George IV.
Subsequently, in Chapter 28, Viscount Lord Norwood, an old flame of Lady Hester, goes to call at the Mazzarini Palace, but fails to find his friend George Onslow, who has left the hotel for the evening to dine with the Russian in their circle, Prince Midchekoff. Despite his title, Norwood is far from rich, so circumstances have have forced him into becoming a gambler, hypocrite, imposter, swindler, and poser. He has done very well recently in the Newmarket races, winning large sums from gullible young aristocrats, before quickly decamping for Florence on the day of his losing at the races. Having exhausted those avenues of income, Norwood has but one recourse: marrying a rich heiress, preferably the daughter of a captain of industry, a Lancashire cotton heiress perhaps. But there are simply too many foreign aristocrats of his rank drifting around Europe and bent on pursuing the same design. Thus, his mind turns to a young Miss Dalton, doubtless (he reasons) an English heiress, who is travelling with Lady Hester Onslow. He waits for George in his rooms, but is awakened by the arrival of a mysterious young woman in black lace, who disappears down the corridor before he can pursue her.
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
Browne, John Buchanan. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's, 1978.
Downey, Edmund. Charles Lever: His Life in Letters. 2 vols. london; William Blackwood, 1906.
Fitzpatrick, W. J. The Life of Charles Lever. London: Downey, 1901.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Lever, Charles. The Daltons, or, Three Roads in Life. Illustrated by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1852, rpt. 1872.
Lever, Charles James. The Daltons, or, Three Roads in Life. http://www.gutenberg.org//files/32061/32061-h/32061-h.htm
Skinner, Anne Maria. Charles Lever and Ireland. University of Liverpool. PhD dissertation. May 2019.
Stevenson, Lionel. Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell & Russell, 1939, rpt. 1969.
_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.
Last modified 1 May 2022