Mrs. Nelligan astonishes her Husband by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), facing page 275 in the ninth instalment (August 1855). Steel-engraving. 9.7 cm high by 13.9 cm wide (3 ⅞ by 5 ½ inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, for Chapter XXV, "A Country Auction." [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Mary advocates for the Martins' tenants with Lady Dorothea
Flushed and heated by the scene he had just quitted, and evidently embarrassed by the situation in which he stood, Nelligan bowed repeatedly in reply to Miss Martin's greeting, starting with amazement as he perceived Mrs. Nelligan, who maintained an air of unbroken dignity on the sofa.
“Well you may stare, Dan!” said she. “I'm sure you never expected to see me here!”
“It was a most agreeable surprise for me, at least,” said Mary, motioning to a seat; then, turning to Nelligan, added, “This little note was the occasion of my asking you to step over here. Will you please to read it?”
“How handsome, how candid, Miss Martin!” said Nelligan, as he restored it, after perusing it. “Ah, my dear young lady, why wouldn't your family deal always with us in this fashion and in everything? I beg your forgiveness, but I forgot myself. I'll stick to my offer, miss, — I wouldn't take fifty pounds for my bargain!”
“This, of course, is in confidence between us, sir,” said Mary, as she tore up the note and threw the fragments on the ground.
“I wish I knew how to acknowledge this, Miss Martin; I wish I could show how sensible one in my station could be of generosity from one in yours.”
“You remind me very opportunely that I have a favour to ask, Mr. Nelligan. It is this: My kind friend here, Mrs. Nelligan, has just promised to take pity on my solitude, and occasionally to come and see me. Will you kindly strengthen her in this benevolent intention, and aid her to turn her steps very often towards Cro' Martin?”
Nelligan's face grew deeply red, and an expression of the greatest embarrassment settled down on his features; and it was with much difficulty, and in a voice laboring for utterance, that he said, —
“I don't see how this can be. Your friends would not approve, — your family, I mean, Miss Martin, — would, very naturally, resent the thought of such an intimacy! They look upon me as an enemy, — an open and declared enemy, — and so I am, where politics is concerned; but —” He hesitated, and after a struggle went on: “No matter, it is war between us, and must be till one crushes the other. What I mean is this, young lady: that to encourage such acquaintanceship as you speak of would look like an undue condescension on your part, or something even worse on ours.” [Chapter XXV, "A Country Auction," pp. 275-276]
Commentary: The Martin Establishment has departed for the Continent
Much has now passed since Jack Massingbred, a Protestant but running under the colours of the plebeian-Catholic Liberal Party, became the Member of Parliament for the Borough of Oughterard. In a fit of pique resulting from her political defeat, Lady Dorothea has insisted upon the Martin establishment's quitting the neighbourhood, leaving "Molly" (her niece, Mary) to superintend her costly improvements. The family attorney, Repton, has restricted Mr. Martin to an annual budget of five thousand pounds for their sojourn on the Continent, not including Lady Dorothea's annuity of eight hundred pounds. To effect greater economy in running Cro' Martin, at her uncle's instruction Mary is putting up at auction the castle's "sixteen carriage-horses and stable of hunters" (259), and even her own pack of harriers. The other significant event, which Jack narrates in Chapter XXIV in a letter to his friend Harry, is that he has proposed marriage to the Governess, but that Miss Henderson has coldly declined, terming the MP's marriage proposal a potential "mésalliance" (256).
In the present illustration, set inside the mansion (and therefore out-of-bounds to those attending the auction), Mrs. Nelligan has quite by accident stumbled upon Mary as she prepares to exile herself to the Swiss Cottage for a few days while the auction is in progress. Mary completely charms Mrs. Nelligan, inviting her for a guided tour of the cast le and grounds once the sale of livestock has concluded. Mary flatters Mrs. Nelligan in her most vulnerable spot, her pride in Joe's scholarly accomplishments at Trinity College, Dublin. The handsomely dressed male, as if out for a day's inspection of the stables and grounds, is the wealthy Dan Nelligan, who awkwardly bows to Mary as she agrees to his offer for the carriage-horses. Above Mrs. Nelligan Phiz has placed an oil painting of a hunt in progress, emphasizing the feudal rights and privileges of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy that now appear to be the usages of a by-gone era.
sScanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
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 Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman & Hall, 1856, rpt. 1872.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. In two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907.
Steig, Michael. Chapter VII, "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 299-316.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter XII, "Aspirant for Preferment, 1854-1856." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell and Russell, 1939; rpt. 1969. Pp. 203-220.
Created 24 September 2022