Passage Illustrated: Hans Incongruously Recuperates in his Toyshop

“Hush! Hans is awaking,” said Ellen, as on tiptoe she crossed the room noiselessly, and opened the door of the chamber where the dwarf lay. Lady Hester and Kate now drew near and peeped in. On a low settle over which an old scarlet saddle-cloth, fringed with tarnished lace, was spread as a quilt lay Hans Roeckle, his wounded arm supported by a pillow at his side; his dark eyes glistened with the bright glare of fever, and his cheeks were flushed and burning, as his lips moved unceasingly, with a low muttering, which he continued, regardless of the presence of those who now approached his bedside.

“What is it he is saying? Does he complain of pain?” asked Lady Hester. [Chapter IX, "A Fine Lady's Blandishments," 63]

Commentary

The shot rang out clear and sharp; with it arose a shrill cry of agony, and straight before them, at the foot of the pillar, lay something which looked like a roll of clothes, only that by its panting motion it indicated life. Haggerstone sprang forward, and to his horror discovered the dwarf, Hans Roeckle, who, with his arm broken, lay actually bathed in blood. With his remaining hand he clasped the little statue to his bosom, while he muttered to himself the words “Gerettet! saved! saved!” [Chapter VII, "A Lesson in Pistol-Shooting," 52]

In Chapter Seven, Phiz had illustrated a part of the action which Lever had not described, Hans's racing forward to rescue the hand-carved statue of Goethe's Marguerite. In the text, Peter Dalton's friend, Colonel Haggerstone, had inadvertently shot the toymaker in the arm in the hotel garden at Baden. Lady Hester, the Colonel's shooting partner, may be feeling guilty about poor Hans's condition as she had distracted Haggerstone with her depreciation of his pistols just as he was preparing to fire on the target. We now jump ahead two chapters to Lady Onslow's visiting the recuperating patient in his bed, incongruously situated in the middle of his toy-shop, adjacent to the Daltons' rented house near the castle at Baden.

"To make her visit to the dwarf sufficient of an adventure, it must be done in secret; nobody should know it but Celestine, [Lady Hester's maid], who should accompany her" (Chapter VIII, "The Night Excursion," 53). Utterly embarrassed by the "sad accident" to which she has contributed, the banker's wife goes to visit the patient without informing her family. She now stands at the foot of Hans's bed: "On a low settle over which an old scarlet saddle-cloth, fringed with tarnished lace, was spread as a quilt lay Hans Roeckle, his wounded arm supported by a pillow at his side; his dark eyes glistened with the bright glare of fever, and his cheeks were flushed and burning, as his lips moved unceasingly, with a low muttering, which he continued, regardless of the presence of those who now approached his bedside" (63).

On the little bedside table, beside a bottle of pain medication, Phiz has placed the statuette that Hans nearly died rescuing. The Dalton sisters, who have been nursing the dwarf, are now joined by Lady Hester, right. Phiz undercuts the severity of Hans's condition which sounds so serious in the text by the enormous nightcap (which obscures his feverish face and glistening eyes) and the overwhelming presence of so many toys. The reader thus finds it difficult to take Hans's lamentable condition seriously. Nor do the legion of toys surrounding the recuperating patient induce the reader to take the outlandish scene itself seriously:

“How wild his looks are!” said Lady Hester. “See how his eyes glance along the walls, as if some objects were moving before them!” And so in reality was it. Hanserl's looks were riveted upon the strange and incongruous assemblage of toys which, either suspended from nails or ranged on shelves, decorated the sides of the chamber. “Ay,” said he at last, with a melancholy smile, “thou 'lt have to put off all this bravery soon, my pretty damsels, and don the black veil and the hood, for thy master Hans is dying!”

“He is talking to the wax figures,” whispered Kate. [64]

Bibliography

Browne, John Buchanan. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's, 1978.

Downey, Edmund. Charles Lever: His Life in Letters. 2 vols. London: William Blackwood, 1906.

Fitzpatrick, W. J. The Life of Charles Lever. London: Downey, 1901.

Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.

Lever, Charles. The Daltons, or, Three Roads in Life. Illustrated by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1852, rpt. 1872.

Lever, Charles James. The Daltons, or, Three Roads in Life. http://www.gutenberg.org//files/32061/32061-h/32061-h.htm

Skinner, Anne Maria. Charles Lever and Ireland. University of Liverpool. PhD dissertation. May 2019.

Stevenson, Lionel. Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell & Russell, 1939, rpt. 1969.

_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.

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Last modified 5 April 2022