[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Phiz (Hablot K. Browne) —> The Knight of Gwynne —> Next]

Passage Illustrated: Helen Darcy's Reaction to O'Halloran's Denigration of her Family

Having sipped and tasted often enough to try the young lady's patience to its last limit, he unfolded the paper, and read aloud:

“'When Counsellor O'Halloran had concluded his eloquent speech in the trial of Darcy v. Hickman, — for a full report of which see our early columns — a young gentleman, pushing his way through the circle of congratulating friends, accosted him with the most insulting and opprobrious epithets, and failing to elicit from the learned gentleman a reciprocity,' — that means, miss, that O'Halloran didn't show fight — 'struck him repeatedly across the shoulders, and even the face, with a horsewhip. He was immediately committed under a bench warrant, but was liberated almost at once. Perhaps our readers may understand these proceedings more clearly when we inform them that Captain Forester, the aggressor in this case, is a near relative of our Irish Secretary, Lord Castlereagh.' That's very neatly put, miss, isn't it?” said Mr. Dempsey, with a sly twinkle of the eye; “it's as much as to say that the Castle chaps may do what they please. But it won't end there, depend upon it, the Counsellor will see it out.”

Helen paid little attention to the observation, for, having taken up the paper as Mr. Dempsey laid it down, she was deeply engaged in the report of the trial and O'Halloran's speech.

“Wasn't that a touching-up the old Knight of Gwynne got?” said Dempsey, as, with his glass to his eye, he peered over her shoulder at the newspaper. “Faith, O'Halloran flayed him alive! He's the boy can do it!”

Helen scarce seemed to breathe, as, with a heart almost bursting with indignant anger, she read the lines before her.

“Strike him!” cried she, at length, unable longer to control the passion that worked within her; “had he trampled him beneath his feet, it had not been too much?”

The little man started, and stared with amazement at the young girl, as, with flashing eyes and flushed cheek, she arose from her seat, and, tearing the paper into fragments, s tamped upon them with her foot. [Chapter XLIII, "An Unlooked-for Promotion," 375]

Commentary: The Action returns to Paul Dempsey and Helen Darcy at Port Ballintrae

Phiz may not have been aware of the existence of an actual seaside resort named "Portballintrae," but Charles Lever almost certainly was since he has located Paul Dempsey fictional village that seasonally becomes a watering-place exactly where the real fishing village is located, in County Antrim, two miles west of the Giant's Causeway, and not far from the town of Coleraine, which Dempsey specifically mentions in conversation with the Knight of Gwynne at their initial meeting on the beach. Its most notable building, Seaport Lodge, built in the 1770s by the Leslie family, may have been the inspiration for Mrs. Fumbally's Boarding-house. The Irish place-name, Port Bhaile an Trà, means the "port of the beach settlement."

In discussing the newspaper coverage of Forester's assault of O'Halloran in the portico of County Mayo's Westport courthouse, the subject of Phiz's previous illustration ("The Counsellor" castigated), Dempsey ironically assumes that the nationalist-leaning Helen will approve of O'Halloran's reported sentiments, little realising that "Miss Gwynne of The Corvy" is in fact "Miss Darcy of Gwynne Abbey." Clearly Dempsey is surprised at her destruction of the newspaper as the rotund, middle-aged bourgeois reaches out, unable to stop her. His panic may well be occasioned by the fact that the newspaper is not his: rather, the postmaster, a Mr. Kennedy, has merely loaned Dempsey the Dublin paper addressed to Lord O'Neil. Unimpressed, Helen collects the fragments and throws the lot into the fire. This comic action has interrupted a letter from Harry Greville, the Prince Regent's Private Secretary, on the War Office letterhead, inviting "Colonel Darcy" to attend the next levee of H. R. H. on the 14th, at which he is likely to receive a commission, as requested.

Bibliography

AONBS/WHS. "Portballintrae — Causeway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty." Accessed 9 August 2023.

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.

---

Victorian
Web

Illustra-
tion

Phiz

Knight
of Gwynne

Next

Created 10 August 2023