"Forester's warm reception at the 'Corvy'" — fifteenth illustration by Phiz for Charles Lever's "The Knight of Gwynne," Chapter XXIV (July 1846)

Forester's warm reception at the "Corvy"

Phiz

July 1846 (seventh) instalment

Steel-engraving

14.5 cm by 11.0 cm (5 ¾ by 4 ¼ inches), vignetted.

Charles Lever's The Knight of Gwynne; A Tale of the Time of the Union (July 1846), originally for Part 7, facing p. 209.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Forester arrives at the Darcy family's refuge in Antrim

The wicket, as it was termed, was in reality a strong oak gate, garnished at top with a row of very formidable iron spikes, and as it was hung between two jagged and abrupt masses of rock, formed a very sufficient outwork, though a very needless one, since the slightest turn to either side would have led to the cottage without any intervening barrier to pass. This fact it was which now increased Dan Nelligan's terrors, as he reasoned that nobody but a ghost or evil spirit would be bothering himself at the wicket, when there was a neat footpath close by.

“Who's there?” cried Dan, with a voice that all his efforts could not render steady.

“Come out and open the gate,” shouted a deep voice in return.

“Not till you tell me where you come from, and who you are, if you are 'lucky.'”

“That I'm not,” cried the other, with something very like a deep groan; “if I were, I'd scarce be here now.”

“That's honest? anyhow,” muttered Dan, who interpreted the phrase in its popular acceptation among the southern peasantry. “And what are you come back for, alanah?” continued he, in a most conciliating tone.

“Open the gate, and don't keep me here answering your stupid questions.”

Though these words were uttered with a round, strong intonation that sounded very like the present world, Dan made no other reply than an endeavour to repeat a Latin prayer against evil spirits, when suddenly, and with a loud malediction on his obstinacy, Dan saw “the thing,” as he afterwards described it, take a flying leap over the gate, at least ten feet high, and come with a bang on the grass, not far from where he stood. To fire off his blunderbuss straight at the drifting clouds over his head, and to take to flight was Dan's only impulse, screaming out, “the Captain's come! he's come!” at the very top of his lungs. [Chapter XXVI, "'The Corvy'," 209]

Commentary: Forester's Adventures in the Remote Northern Coastal Region of Ireland

“The Corvy” was a strange specimen of architecture, and scarcely capable of being classified in any of the existing orders. Originally, the hut was formed of the stern of the corvette, which, built of timbers of great size and strength, alone of all the vessel resisted the waves. This, being placed keel uppermost, as most consisting with terrestrial notions of building, and accommodated with a door and two windows, the latter being filled with two ship-lenses, comprised the entire edifice. Rude and uncouth as it unquestionably was, it was regarded with mingled feelings of envy and admiration by all the fishermen for miles round. . . . [Chapter XXVI, "'The Corvy'," 202]

In the previous month's illustration, Sandy M'Grane, Daly's servant, had confronted a mob in the street outside the Dublin public house of "The Full Moon." Now Lever transports readers to a remote location on Ireland's northern coast, where the Darceys will be taking refuge in a modified "boathouse" converted into a proper cottage by Bagenal Daly, and inhabited by his sister, Miss Molly Daly. Nearby is a renowned geological wonder, the Giant's Causeway.

The comic situation that Phiz has realised involves the butler Dan Nelligan, "a stout representative of southern Ireland" (205). His oversized blunderbuss contrasts his diminutive stature, for he is scarcely four feet in height. Despite his entreating the Protestant cook, Mrs. Nancy McKerrigan, to accompany him to see who's knocking, she pleads "rheumatiz" as an excuse for not venturing forth into the stormy darkness, where Dan is convinced he will encounter "sperits and ghaists" (208) rather than a late guest who is clanking the bell and knocking. Outside, at the stout wicket gate of oak garnished with a row of iron spikes, Dan hears a voice demanding entrance; having discharged the blunderbuss, he staggers back to the kitchen-door — and faints! Thus, Molly must confront the traveller, who of course is Captain Forester, who bears a note for her from her brother about the impending arrival of the Darcys. Phiz's realisation even includes the "two jagged and abrupt masses of rock" (208), which the illustrator has almost animated with rough faces which seem to smile at the antics of the cowardly butler in uniform. Forester recognizes that his throwing his carpet bag over the gate may have provoked so warm a welcome.

The concept of a boat converted into a cottage, then, seems to have originated with Charles Lever in The Knight of Gwynne (1846-47) rather than Charles Dickens in David Copperfield (1849-50), even though Phiz's images of the Peggottys' home at Yarmouth such as Mrs. Gummidge casts a damp on our departure in Copperfield (August 1849) more amply demonstrate the notion of a boat converted into a house.

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 31 July 2023