"Paul discovers a "pose plastique" — Phiz's thirty-second engraving for Charles Lever's "The Knight of Gwynne" (March 1847)

Paul discovers a "pose plastique"

Phiz

March 1847 (fourteenth) instalment: second illustration

Steel-engraving

12.4 cm by 11.3 cm (4 ⅞ by 4 ½ inches), vignetted.

Charles Lever's The Knight of Gwynne; A Tale of the Time of the Union (March 1847), originally for Part 15, facing p. 466.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Inquisitive Dempsey spies on the Darcys

Paul raised the candle, to take a better view of the apartment. Perhaps any one save himself would have returned on discovering it was a bedroom. A large old-fashioned bed, with a deep and massive curtain closely drawn, stood against one wall; beside it, on the table, was a night-lamp, from which the faint glimmer he had first noticed proceeded. Some well-stuffed arm-chairs were disposed here and there, and on the tables lay articles of female dress. Mr. Dempsey stood for a few seconds, and perhaps some secret suspicion crept over him that this visit might be thought intrusive. It might be Lady Eleanor's, or perhaps Miss Darcy's chamber. Who was to say she was not actually that instant in bed asleep? Were the fact even so, Mr. Dempsey only calculated on a momentary shock of surprise at his appearance, well assured that his explanation would be admitted as perfectly satisfactory. Thus wrapped in his good intentions, and shrouding the light with one hand, he drew the curtain with the other. The bed was empty, the coverings were smooth, the pillows unpressed. The occupant, whoever it might be, had not yet taken possession. Mr. Dempsey's fatigue was only second to his hunger, and having failed to discover the larder, it is more than probable he would have contented himself with the gratification of a sleep, had he not just at that instant perceived a light flickering beside and beneath the folds of a heavy curtain which hung over a doorway at the farthest end of the room. His spirit of research once more encouraged, he moved towards it, and drawing it very gently, admitted his eye in the interspace. A glass door intervened between him and a small chamber, but permitted him to see without being heard by those within. Flattening his features on the glass, he stared at the scene; and truly one less inspired by the spirit of inquiry might have felt shocked at being thus placed. Lady Eleanor sat in her dressing-gown on a sofa, while, half kneeling, half lying at her feet, was Helen, her head concealed in her mother's lap, and her long hair loosely flowing over her neck and shoulders. Lady Eleanor was pale as death, and the marks of recent tears were ou her cheeks; but still her features wore the expression of deep tenderness and pity, rather than of selfish sorrow. Helen's face was hidden; but her attitude, and the low sobbing sounds that at intervals broke the stillness, told how her heart was suffering.

“My dear, dear child,” said Lady Eleanor, as she laid her hand upon the young girl's head, “be comforted. Rest assured that in making me the partner in your sorrow, I will be the happier participator in your joy, whenever its day may come. Yes, Helen, and it will come.” [Chapter LVI, "Mr. Dempsey behind the Scenes," pp. 466-467]

Commentary: Dempsey surreptitiously removes Maurice Darcy from danger of prosecution

Having destroyed a number of attorney Anthony Nickie's warrants while the lawyer and his subordinates sleep in the curiosity room in Mr. Dempsey catches a Lawyer asleep, and having pocketed the portrait of the Knight of the Gwynne that Nickie intended to appropriate, the wandering Dempsey searches the premises. In Helen's bedroom, he overhears Lady Eleanor attempting to comfort her daughter, whom the legal trio have upset. He is looking for something to eat and somewhere to sleep until the storm subsides, and he can make his escape. Eavesdropping on the ladies, Paul wrongly imagines that Helen is smitten with him, but has confused himself in her conversation with the gallant Captain Forester, whose rough chastisement of the malignant lawyer O'Halleran as reported in the papers both she and her mother admire.

Other Comic Illustrations Featuring Paul Dempsey and Mrs. Fumbally

22. Mr. Paul Dempsey does the honours of Ballintray (facing p. 312) October 1846
23. Mr. Dempsey's visit to the Corvy (facing p. 325) November 1846
24. Dodd and Dempsey at the Review (facing p. 337) November 1846
26. Mr. Dempsey's Newspaper creates a sensation (facing p. 375) December 1846
27. A Commotion in Miss Fumbally's establishment (facing p. 396) January 1847
29. Mr. Dempsey finds out "something to his advantage" (facing p. 422) February 1847
32. Mr. Dempsey catches a Lawyer asleep (facing p. 465) March 1847
33. Mr. Paul tastes Mrs. Fumbally's "you know — you know" (facing p. 484) April 1847
34. A Drawing-room disunion at Mrs. Fumbally's (facing p. 492) April 1847
37. Mr. Dempsey in My Lady's Boudoir (facing p. 557) June 1847
39. Mr. Dempsey's last appearance and last request (facing p. 607) July 1847

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 14 August 2023