The Major is All “Attention” — Phiz's twenty-second illustration for Charles Lever's "Barrington" (December 1862)

The Major is All “Attention”

Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)

December 1862

steel engraving

12.6 cm high by 9.2 cm wide (5 by 3 ¾ inches), vignetted.

Twenty-second serial illustration for Charles Lever's Barrington (Chapter XLIII, facing p. 352)

[Click on the image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]

Scanned image & 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 person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Realised: Phiz's Pun on McCormick's “Attention” in the Caption

“May I ask for the name of my fortunate rival?”

“I don't think it is very fair, perhaps not altogether delicate of you; and the more since he has not proposed, nor possibly ever may. But no matter, you shall hear his name. It was Major McCormick.”

“McCormick! You mean this for an insult to me, Miss Dill?”

“Well, it certainly is open to that objection,” said she, with a very slight closure of her eyes, and a look of steady, resolute defiance.

“And in this way,” continued he, “to throw ridicule over the offer I have made you?”

“Scarcely that; the proposition was in itself too ridiculous to require any such aid from me.”

For a moment Stapylton lost his self-possession, and he turned on her with a look of savage malignity.

“An insult, and an intentional insult!” said he; “a bold thing to avow.”

“I don't think so, Major Stapylton. We have been playing a very rough game with each other, and it is not very wonderful if each of us should have to complain of hard treatment.”

“Could not so very clever a person as Miss Dill perceive that I was only jesting?” said he, with a cutting insolence in his tone.

“I assure you that I did not,” said she, calmly; “had I known or even suspected it was a jest, I never should have been angry. That the distinguished Major Stapylton should mock and quiz — or whatever be the name for it — the doctor's daughter, however questionable the good taste, was, after all, only a passing slight. The thought of asking her to marry him was different, — that was an outrage!”

“You shall pay for this one day, perhaps,” said he, biting his lip.

“No, Major Stapylton,” said she, laughing; “this is not a debt of honor; you can afford to ignore it.”

“I tell you again, you shall pay for it.”

“Till then, sir!” said she, with a courtesy; and without giving him time for another word, she turned and re-entered the house.

Scarcely had Stapylton gained the road when he was joined by McCormick. “Faith, you didn't get the best of that brush, anyhow,” said he, with a grin.

“What do you mean, sir?” replied Stapylton, savagely. [Chapter XLIII, “Cross Purposes,” 352]

Commentary: An Obviously “Overheard” Conversation in the Garden behind the House

Again, Phiz cannot resist a pun: one might expect a military man to be "at attention," but in the case of the busybody M'Cormick "all attention" is more pertinent. While Stapylton now attempts to win the hand of the "ready-witted" Polly Dill, beyond the fence in the Barringtons' garden M'Cormick overhears the conversation, in which the young woman whimsically names the old major himself as Stapylton's "fortunate rival" (352) for her affections. Undeterred by Stapylton's threats, Polly turns and self-confidently re-enters the house. The infuriated schemer, learning of M'Cormick's having overheard this gross "insult," swears that, but for M'Cormick's rheumatism, he would throw him into the river. In Phiz's composition, readers overhear the conversation between Stapylton and Polly Dill from the perspective of Major M'Cormick in the foreground.

Related Material

Bibliography

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

Lever, Charles. Barrington; Tales of the Trains. Illustrated by 'Phiz'. London: Chapman and Hall, 1863.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978.

Sutherland, John A. "Barrington." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989, rpt. 1990, pp. 48-49.

Created 11 November 2007

Last updated 11 October 2026