Passage Illustrated: A Family Reunion in the Drawing-room of Castle O'Malley

That my reader may sympathize a little in my distresses, let me present him with the tableau before me. Seated upon the piano-stool was a young-lady of at most eighteen years: her face, had it not been for its expression of exuberant drollery and malicious fun, would have been downright beautiful; her eyes, of the deepest blue, and shaded by long lashes, instead of indulging the character of pensive and thoughtful beauty for which Nature destined them, sparkled with a most animated brightness; her nose, which, rather short, was still beautifully proportioned, gave, with her well-curled upper lip, a look of sauciness to the features quite bewitching; her hair — that brilliant auburn we see in a Carlo Dolci — fell in wild and massive curls upon her shoulders. Her costume was a dark-green riding-habit, not of the newest in its fashion, and displaying more than one rent in its careless folds; her hat, whip, and gloves lay on the floor beside her, and her whole attitude and bearing indicated the most perfect ease and carelessness.

“So you are caught — taken alive!” said she, as she pressed her hands upon her sides in a fresh burst of laughter.

“By Jove! this is a surprise indeed!” said I. “And, pray, into whose fair hands have I fallen a captive?” recovering myself a little, and assuming a half air of gallantry.

“So you don’t know me, don’t you?”

“Upon my life I do not!”

“How good! Why, I’m Baby Blake.”

“Baby Blake?” said I, thinking that a rather strange appellation for one whose well-developed proportions betokened nothing of infancy, — “Baby Blake?”

“To be sure; your cousin Baby.” [Chapter CXII, "A Surprise," 580]

Commentary: Lever's "Best-drawn Female Character" in the Novel?

"Baby Blake," the best-drawn feminine character in the story (though not the heroine), is said to have been taken from a Miss French of of Moneyvoe, near Castle Blakeney. [Stevenson, "Renegade from Physic, 1839-1841," 77]

And to be sure, Phiz distinguishes her from the novel's other young women, La Senhora Inez da Rebiera Rua Nuova and Lucy Dashwood, who amount to little more than romantic stereotypes and extensions of their fathers' social positions and fortunes. However, Lever couples her introduction with her father's financial dealings with the O'Malleys. Her father's coming over to O'Malley Castle to settle a three-thousand-pound mortgage that he holds against the estate of the late Godfrey O'Malley is the initiating incident for Baby Blake's unexpected visit to Castle O'Malley. Aside from her father, she is O'Malley's first visitor since he arrived home to find his uncle's body already in its coffin. Genuinely concerned that her cousin has become a pathetic recluse, she has paid an impromptu call which seems timed to force "Charley" to invite her to lunch after she requests a beer!

Blake had extolled "the fascinations of his fair daughters" (575) as an obvious ploy to marrying one of them off to the wealthy relative returned from the wars. Blake was as transparent to Mickey as to his master: "And faix, it's prouder you'd be av he was your son-in-law" (577), comments the servant of the departing relative. But O'Malley has discharged his uncle's bond for three thousand pounds upon the house and desmesne, and does not have that awkward debt hanging over him when he encounters Baby Blake in the drawing-room. From the perspective of narrative construction, this seems a bit late to be introducing another romantic heroine — after all, O'Malley has now been home a year, and, now beardless, appears for the first time in many instalments in civilian tails rather than a dragoon's regimentals. To indicate that O'Malley has just interrupted her performance on the piano-forte, Phiz has her riding hat and gloves lying on the floor, and has positioned her as still on the music seat as she turns to confront the new master of Castle O'Malley. Carpet, rococo elaboration on the walls, paintings, and a high ceiling all characterize the elegance of the aristocratic setting.

Related Material

• 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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4 April 2023