Passage Illustrated: Sophomoric Humour

Short as was the interspace from the door without to the room within, it was still ample enough to effect a very thorough and remarkable change in the whole external appearance of Mr. Frank Webber; for scarcely had the oaken panel shut out the doctor, when he appeared no longer the shy, timid, and silvery-toned gentleman of five minutes before, but dashing boldly forward, he seized a key-bugle that lay hid beneath a sofa-cushion and blew a tremendous blast.

“Come forth, ye demons of the lower world,” said he, drawing a cloth from a large table, and discovering the figures of three young men coiled up beneath. “Come forth, and fear not, most timorous freshmen that ye are,” said he, unlocking a pantry, and liberating two others. “Gentlemen, let me introduce to your acquaintance Mr. O’Malley. My chum, gentlemen. Mr. O’Malley, that is Harry Nesbitt, who has been in college since the days of old Perpendicular, and numbers more cautions than any man who ever had his name on the books. Here is my particular friend, Cecil Cavendish, the only man who could ever devil kidneys. Captain Power, Mr. O’Malley, a dashing dragoon, as you see; aide-de-camp to his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, and love-maker-general to Merrion Square West. These,” said he, pointing to the late denizens of the pantry, “are jibs whose names are neither known to the proctor nor the police-office; but with due regard to their education and morals, we don’t despair.” [Chapter XIV, "Dublin," pp. 74-75]

Commentary: Nice Verbal Irony Explored Visually

In this delightfully over-the-top depiction of the dissolute lives of undergraduates Phiz is being facetious in his suggesting that Frank Webber, the "bad boy" of Trinity College, Dublin, is at all studious. As soon as the Vice-Provost, Dr. Mooney, leaves newly arrived student Charles O'Malley to settle in with the mischievous Weber in his rooms, the rapscallion reveals his true colours. The wondering new student, at the breakfast table (right rear) seems bemused as the ebullient Webber, still in his silk dressing gown, blows his key-bugle to summon his confederates, who have been in hiding. As if he is a demonic conjurer, he summons three fellow students from their hiding places in the parlour, and introduces them to the newcomer. The dashing dragoon just emerging from under the tablecloth is Captain Power; the small student across the table is Harry Nesbit; and the furtive violinist at the left is presumably Cecil Cavendish, although Lever later identifies Moore as the company's fiddler. Underneath the open geography text (supposedly a folio atlas of maps) on the coffee table are the hands that the three have been playing whist. Phiz appears to have combined Harry Nesbit with Moore, "a little dapper, jovial looking personage" (75) who has been in the kitchen preparing spatch-cock. Through Power O'Malley learns that his friend from the out-of-town adventures, Captain Hammersley has just sailed for Portsmouth with the rest of the 11th, presumably preparing for a campaign on the continent. The students' principal room, the parlour, is crammed with furniture, its floor strewn with books to suggest that Weber hardly pays much attention to his studies as he treats textbooks with obvious disregard.

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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5 March 2023