"The Committee at 'The Full Moon'" — fourteenth illustration by Phiz for Charles Lever's "The Knight of Gwynne," Chapter XXIV (June 1846)

The Committee at 'The Full Moon'

Phiz

June 1846 (sixth) instalment

Steel-engraving

12.2 cm by 11.8 cm (4 ¾ by 4 ⅝ inches), vignetted.

Charles Lever's The Knight of Gwynne; A Tale of the Time of the Union (June 1846), originally for Part 6, facing p. 191.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Daly's man, Sandy, pulls a pistol on the revellers

“Hold!” shouted Sandy, as he drew a double-barrelled pistol from his bosom. “By the saul o' my body the man that drinks that toast shall hae mair in his waim than hot water and whiskey. Maurice Darcy is my maister's friend, and a better gentleman never stepped in leather: who dar say no?”

“Are we to drink it, Paul?”

“As I live by drink,” cried Paul, stretching out both hands, “this is my alter ego, my duplicate self, Sanders M'Grane's, 'revisiting the glimpses of the moon,' post totidem annos!” And a cordial embrace now followed, which at once dispelled the threatened storm.

“Mr. M'Grane's health in three times three, gentlemen;” and, rising, Paul gave the signal for each cheer as he alone could give it.

Sandy had now time to throw a glance around the table, where, however, not one familiar face met his own; that they were of the same calling and order as his quondam associates in the same place he could have little doubt, even had that fact not been proclaimed by the names of various popular journals affixed to their hats, and by whose titles they were themselves addressed. The conversation, too, had the same sprinkling of politics, town gossip, and late calamities he well remembered of yore, interspersed with lively commentaries on public men which, if printed, would have been suggestive of libel. [Chapter XXIV, "A Glance at 'The Full Moon'," 191]

Commentary: Sandy confronts the Rump Parliamentarians of the Dublin Press

In the previous illustration for the June 1846 serial instalment, Sandy M'Grane, Daly's servant, has confronted a mob in the street outside the public house of "The Full Moon," whose sign in Duck Alley shows us that Sandy has arrived at his destination. His mission is to discover for Bagenal Daly and the Knight of Gwynne whether Gleeson paid the seventy thousand pounds for Hickman's bond, and that Gwynne Abbey at least is safe from Darcy's creditors. Beside Sandy (left) is the presiding spirit of the drunken assembly of journalists, "Holy" Paul Donellan (once a Trinity College scholar), wearing the wig of some defunct Chancellor and spouting Latin phrases. The popular denunciation of Maurice Darcy, begun by the mob in the street and reiterated here, proves too much for Sandy, who pulls his pistol on the detractor. The newspaper men recognize Sandy as Daly's man, and welcome him. His introduction complete, Sandy announces his intention to make contact with Jemmy, Freney's "Imp." Although most of the journalists' signs in the picture are illegible, "Free Press" is obvious (centre). Donellan agrees, for a price and some second-hand clothing, to locate the boy, and bring him the evening after next at eight o'clock to Essex Bridge, Capel Street.

Other Illustrations of Bagenal Daly's dour servant, Sandy M'Grane

The Janitor's Cell (facing p. 16) January 1846
Sandy M'Grane expedites the doctor (facing p. 56) February 1846
Rhoudlum (facing p. 188) June 1846

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. The Knight of Gwynne; A Tale of the Time of the Union. London: Chapman and Hall, serialised January 1846 through July 1847.

Lever, Charles. The Knight of Gwynne. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 28 February 2018.

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. Chapter IX, "Nomadic Patriarch, 1845-1847." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 146-164.

_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.

Created 28 July 2023