"The last Night in Trinity" by "Phiz" — Tenth illustration for Charles Lever's "Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon" (July 1840)

The last Night in Trinity

Phiz

Dalziel

July 1840

Steel-engraving

12.3 cm high by 11 cm wide (5 by 4 ⅜ inches), vignetted, in Chapter XX, "The Last Night in Trinity," facing p. 117.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Source: Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: A Reflection of Lever's Own Uproarious University Days

At this instant some of the combustibles disposed among the rejected habiliments of my late vocation caught fire, and squibs, crackers, and detonating shots went off on all sides. The bursar, who had not been deaf to several hints and friendly suggestions about setting fire to him, blowing him up, etc., with one vigorous spring burst from his antagonists, and clearing the table at a bound, reached the floor. Before he could be seized, he had gained the door, opened it, and was away. We gave chase, yelling like so many devils. But wine and punch, songs and speeches, had done their work, and more than one among the pursuers measured his length upon the pavement; while the terrified bursar, with the speed of terror, held on his way, and gained his chambers by about twenty yards in advance of Power and Melville, whose pursuit only ended when the oaken panel of the door shut them out from their victim. One loud cheer beneath his window served for our farewell to our friend, and we returned to my rooms. By this time a regiment of those classic functionaries ycleped porters had assembled around the door, and seemed bent upon giving battle in honor of their maltreated ruler; but Power explained to them, in a neat speech replete with Latin quotations, that their cause was a weak one, that we were more than their match, and finally proposed to them to finish the punch-bowl, to which we were really incompetent,—a motion that met immediate acceptance; and old Duncan, with his helmet in one hand and a goblet in the other, wished me many happy days and every luck in this life as I stepped from the massive archway, and took my last farewell of Old Trinity. [Chapter XX, "The Last Night in Trinity," 117]

Commentary: O'Malley departs his studies with a bang, not a whimper

Through Sir George Dashwood's good offices, Charles O'Malley has received the thoroughly welcome offer of a cornetcy in the 14th Irish Dragoons, even though the rank was the most junior among the commissioned officers of British light cavalry units. With a rank equal to second lieutenant, O'Malley the law student is suddenly transformed as he prepares to ship off for the Peninsular Campaign in Portugal. He, his comical servant, Mickey Free, and his new found officer-friends stage an impromptu farewell dinner in Frank Weber's rooms in Trinity, rounding off the evening with a great deal of merriment, singing, and drinking. Suddenly the university's Bursar interrupts the boisterous party well past midnight, demanding to be admitted.

Power had brought the welcome news of his commission after O'Malley sees Lucy Dashwood receive from Colonel Cameron what he takes to be a love-letter from Hammersley. He is present with the inebriated young Mansfield as O'Malley creates on his hearth a mock funeral pile of classics signalling the death of his identity as a student at Trinity. Mickey and Curtis have tried to no avail to keep the Bursar out. "The Doctor" is, in Phiz's plate, uncomfortably perched on a chair on the top of the dining table as rockets and fireworks suddenly discharge beneath him, planted in the midst of the academical funeral pyre. Phiz depicts him surrounded by five military officers (Power, Saunders, Melville, Telford, Lechmere, and the inebriated young Curtis) and two not yet in uniform: O'Malley is likely the young man in civilian clothes at the top, and Mickey Free is the figure at the bottom of the table being knocked backwards by the force of the explosion. The indignant Bursar is not in his academic gown, and his mortarboard is being blown off his head — despite the fact that the soldiers have already relieved him of it, and have (according to Lever) placed a foraging cap on his head instead.

Necessary Background

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

Bibliography

Lever, Charles. Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon. "Edited by Harry Lorrequer." Dublin: William Curry, Jun. London: W. S. Orr, 1841. 2 vols.

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. London: Samuel Holdsworth, 1842; 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.

Created 6 March 2023