Passage Illustrated: Norwood found . . . murdered?

“How shall I teach you a lesson of honour, Sir,” cried Norwood, boiling over with rage, “so that you may comprehend, even for a moment, the feeling of a gentleman? You cannot affect ignorance as to who and what is the woman that sat there. You need not drive me to the indignity of calling her my wife! You know it well, and you knew all the disgrace you were heaping on a class who rejected your intimacy. None of this mock surprise, Sir! If you compel me to it, I'll fling open that door, call all your household around you, and before them I'll insult you, so that even your serf-blood will rebel against the outrage.”

“This is madness, —— downright insanity, my Lord,” said Midchekoff, rising and moving towards the bell.

“Not so, Sir,” said Norwood, interposing. “My passion is now mastered. You shall not escape on that pretence. There are my pistols —— only one of them is loaded —— take your choice, for I see that outside of this room I shall seek in vain for satisfaction.”

“This would be a murder.”

“It shall be, by Heaven, if you delay!” cried Norwood. “I have the right and the will to shoot you like a dog. If there be no honour, is there not even some manhood in your heart? Take your weapon —— you hesitate still —— take that, then!” And he struck him with his open hand across the face.

Midchekoff snatched the pistol convulsively, and, placing the muzzle on Norwood's breast, fired. With a wild cry he staggered and fell dead upon the floor. The Prince flung open the door, and rang the bell violently. In a moment the room was filled with servants. “Send Jocasse here,” said Midchekoff; and his chief secretary entered in all haste and trepidation. “This is an affair for the police, Jocasse,” said the Prince, coolly. “Send for the brigadier, and let him come to my room.”

“Suicide shows a great manque de savoir vivre,” said Haggerstone, as the news of the event was circulated through Florence. And the "mot" survived the memory of its victim. [Chapter LXIX, "A Sad Exit," 629]

Commentary: Norwood's Honour or His Life?

Phiz artfully identifies what is probably a murder by the oblique phrase "makes his exit," to allow for the possibility that this will be received as a suicide, as is consistent with the chapter title and Midchekoff's assertion that Norwood has died by his own hand — which in a sense he has, since he brought a brace of duelling pistols with him to Prince Midchekoff's palatial villa, the 'Muskova' at Fiesole, outside Florence, and has demanded that he choose one, noting that only one is loaded. When the Russian Prince in evening dress summons his servants moments later, only one pistol appears in Phiz's climactic illustration. The five uniformed members of the Prince's household are suitably shocked to find the corpse of the English nobleman, but Midchekoff seems completely rational and emotionally detached as he points towards the "suicide" on the floor.

The cause of the quarrel between the Russian prince and the English peer is the consequence of a plot secret that the Abbé D'Esmonde has only recently brought to light, namely that he had married Lola de Seviglia, the ballerina of the Grand Opera at Salamanca, and Viscount Norwood (Gerald Acton as he was in youth), and that therefore Prince Midchekoff has taken as his mistress the woman who is legally still Viscountess Norwood. Norwood and his friend, the French Secretary of the Legation, have driven to the Russian Prince's palace in Count Morlache's carriage to issue a challenge regarding this romantic triangle. The schemer behind this tragic confrontation is the devious Abbé, who has counselled Norwood to recover his honour by challenging Midchekoff to a duel:

What is to be done here?"

"If the marriage admitted of dispute or denial, I should say, disavow it," said the Priest. "It is too late for this."

Go on. What next?"

Then comes the difficulty. To assert your honour, you must begin by a recognition of her [Lola], as your wife. This looks rash, but I see no other course. [Chapter XXVII, "A Secret and a Snare," II: 259]

A Bibliographical Note to the 1859 Cheap Edition

This is one of only eight 1852 engravings of the original forty-eight used in the Cheap Edition. The other seven are as follows:

• the fine vertical frontispiece, A Journey (ii),
• Frank Visits his Uncle (facing 18),
• A Discovery (facing 52),
• Teaching the Old Idea how to shoot (Chapter 51),
• The Benediction (facing 115),
• Abel Narrowly escapes Caning (facing 161),
• Retribution (facing 332).

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.

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Created 1 June 2022