Passage Illustrated: O'Malley overhears Mickey's interview with Editor Meekins

. . . slipping a crown into the waiter’s hand, I proceeded cautiously towards the door, and opened it stealthily. My caution was, however, needless; for a large screen was drawn across this part of the room, completely concealing the door, closing which behind me, I took my place beneath the shelter of this ambuscade, determined on no account to be perceived by the parties.

Seated in a large arm-chair, a smoking tumbler of mulled port before him, sat my friend Mike, dressed in my full regimentals, even to the helmet, which, unfortunately however for the effect, he had put on back foremost; a short “dudeen” graced his lip, and the trumpet so frequently alluded to lay near him.

Opposite him sat a short, puny, round-faced little gentleman with rolling eyes and a turned up nose. Numerous sheets of paper, pens, etc., lay scattered about; and he evinced, by his air and gesture, the most marked and eager attention to Mr. Free’s narrative, whose frequent interruptions, caused by the drink and the oysters, were viewed with no small impatience by the anxious editor.

“You must remember, Captain, time’s passing; the placards are all out. Must be at press before one o’clock to-night, — the morning edition is everything with us. You were at the first parallel, I think.”

“Devil a one o’ me knows. Just ring that bell near you. Them’s elegant oysters; and you’re not taking your drop of liquor. Here’s a toast for you: ‘May —’ Whoop! raal Carlingford’s, upon my conscience! See now, if I won’t hit the little black chap up there the first shot.”

Scarcely were the words spoken, when a little painted bust of Shakespeare fell in fragments on the floor, as an oyster-shell laid him low.

A faint effort at a laugh at the eccentricities of his friend was all the poor editor could accomplish, while Mike’s triumph knew no bounds. [Chapter CVII, "The Bell at Bristol," 550]

Passage Illustrated: Mickey Free poses as an Officer and War Hero

Although placed opposite p. 560 in Chapter CVIII, "Ireland," clearly the illustration belongs with Mickey Free's interview with the newspaper editor of The Bristol Telegraph, in Chapter CVII, "The Bell at Bristol." O'Malley first becomes aware of Mickey's self-promotion to Captain (in O'Malley's dress uniform) when a waiter assists a man from the newspaper in posting the following poster in the taproom: "Fall of of Ciudad Rodrigo: with a full and detailed account of the storming of the great breach, capture of the enemy’s cannon, etc., by Michael Free, fourteenth Light Dragoons” (549). Thus, by the time that the reader encounters the illustration that reader has encountered it in the letterpress fully ten pages earlier.

Phiz has supplied all the comic elements: the flustered journalist, taking notes (right); Mickey, left, luxuriating in a hot alcoholic beverage, his pipe, and well-padded easy-chair (still holding the French trumpet, and wearing O'Malley's regimental helmet backward); the shattered bust of Shakespeare ("the little black chap"); and O'Malley himself peeping out from behind the screen which conveniently blocks the entrance from Mickey's line of sight. Phiz makes the scene smack of the theatrical as the true-witted master of eighteenth-century comedy discovers what his rascally servant has been up to, in this case, impersonating his master, "the Captain." Mickey's reference to Carligford's Irish Whiskey remind us that, when Lever wrote this novel, his homeland boasted some eighty-eighty licensed distillers, more than contemporary Scotland. The four Dublin distilleries dominated the trade, producing over five million gallons annually.

In showing Mike's grasping the trumpet, the illustration seems to anticipate Meekins' sudden departure when Mike fails to provide him with useful information about the raising of the siege:

“But, my dear sir,” interposed Mr. Meekins, “pray do remember this is somewhat irrelevant. In fifteen minutes it will be twelve o’clock.”

“I know it, ould boy, I know it. I see what you’re at. You were going to observe how much better we’d be for a broiled bone.”

“Nothing of the kind, I assure you. For Heaven’s sake, no more eating and drinking!”

“No more eating nor drinking! Why not? You’ve a nice notion of a convivial evening. Faith, we’ll have the broiled bone sure enough, and, what’s more, a half gallon of the strongest punch they can make us; an’ I hope that, grave as you are, you’ll favour the company with a song.”

“Really, Mr. Free —”

“Arrah, none of your blarney! Don’t be misthering me! Call me Mickey, or Mickey Free, if you like better.”

“I protest,” said the editor, with dismay, “that here we are two hours at work, and we haven’t got to the foot of the great breach.”

“And wasn’t the army three months and a half in just getting that far, with a battering train and mortars and the finest troops ever were seen? And there you sit, a little fat creature, with your pen in your hand, grumbling that you can’t do more than the whole British army. Take care you don’t provoke me to beat you; for I am quiet till I’m roused. But, by the Rock o’ Cashel — ”Here he grasped the brass trumpet with an energy that made the editor spring from his chair. [pp. 551-552]

Necessary Background

• Charles Lever's Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon (1840-41)

Bibliography

Lever, Charles. Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Published serially in The Dublin University Magazine from Vol. XV (March 1840) through XVIII (December 1841). Dublin: William Curry, March 1840 through December 1841, 2 vols. London: Samuel Holdsworth, 1840; rpt., Chapman and Hall, 1873.

Lever, Charles. Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 2 September 2016.

Steig, Michael. Chapter Two: "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 24-50.

Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter V, "Renegade from Physic, 1839-1841." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 73-93.

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3 April 2023