Franks visits his Uncle — twenty-eighth 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 XLIII, "A Package of Letters. A Last Scene," facing 379. 9.3 cm by 13.5 cm (3 ¾ by 5 ¼ inches) vignetted. This is the eleventh vertically oriented plate in the two-volume novel (1852), and is one of only eight illustrations reproduced in the P. F. Collier edition (1882). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: The Cadet in a letter describes his visit to a Field-Marshall
“He never spoke a word as I entered, but stared at me steadfastly and sternly for full three or four minutes. Half abashed by this scrutiny, and indignant besides at the reception, I was about to advance towards him , when he called out, as if on parade, 'Hah! What regiment, Cadet?"
“'Franz Carl Infantry, third battalion,' said I, instantly saluting with my hand.
“'Your name?'
“'Frank Dalton.'
“'Your business?'
“'To visit my grand-uncle, the Field-Marshal von Auersberg.'
“'And is it thus, younker,' cried he, rising, and drawing himself up to his full height, 'that you dare to present yourself before a Feldzeugmeister of the Imperial Army? Have they not taught you even the commonest rules of discipline? Have they left you in the native barbarism of your own savage country, that you dare, against my orders, present yourself before me?'
“'I thought the claim of kindred —' began I.
“'What know I of kindred, sirrah? What have kith and kin availed me? I have stood alone in the world. It was not to kindred I owed my life on the field of Rosbach; nor was it a relative stanched my bleeding wounds at Wagram!'
“'The name of Dalton ——' [Chapter XLIII, "A Package of Letters. A Last Scene," 380]
Commentary: A suit of armour: rigid, authoritarian, and antiquated
Two features of the Field-Marshall's office immediately attract the reader's attention: the large German stove, traditional but far more efficient than a fireplace, and an old suit of armour (both in the left quadrant). A typical but elegant Phizzian touch amounting to editorial commentary, a suit of fifteenth-century (not mentioned in the text) contributes much to the ambience of the Field-Marshall’s study. Through this antiquated display piece (for it is surely not intended for combat) Phiz is implying the Field-Marshall’s rather stiff, abrasive demeanour and old-fashioned notions of military decorum. To emphasize the old soldier’s self-identification with all the trappings of the Australian Imperial Army, the illustration shows Frank’s uncle wearing his regimental uniform even in a private moment, and even wearing his bearskin helmet indoors. His smoking an enormous pipe, again not mentioned by Lever, contributes to the reader’s sense of this crusty character who fumes at the deferential youth who suffers the Elizabethan rebuke of "sirrah" with unruffled demeanour in Phiz's illustration.
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. 1859, and 1872. [Two volumes as one, with separate page numbers in the 1859 volume, after I: 362.]
_______. The Daltons and A Day's Ride. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). Vol VI of Lever's Works. New York: P. F. Collier, 1882. [This large-format American edition reproduces only six of the original forthy-eight Phiz illustrations.]
Lever, Charles James. The Daltons, or, Three Roads in Life. Vol. 2. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32062/32062-h/32062-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 9 April 2022