The 'Big Pioche' caught indulging in delicacies (facing p. 293 in the first volume of the 1844 edition, p. 302 in the 1865 edition of the first volume) horizontally-mounted, 8.8 cm high by 13.9 cm wide, (3 ⅜ by 5 ⅜ inches), twenty-first vignetted steel illustration for Charles Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours," Chapter XL, "A Night in the Tuileries Gardens" (tenth instalment, November 1843). [Click on the image to enlarge it; mouse over links.]
Passage Illustrated: A Comic Interlude for Napoleon
“'What's all this here?' cried he, pulling up short, while the barb sniffed the air, just as if he guessed what the meat was. 'Who has stolen this sheep?'
“'It is not a sheep, Général,' said I, stepping forward, and trying to hide the long ladle I was basting with.
“'Not a sheep; then it is an ox, mayhap, or a calf,” said he again, with an angry look.
“'Neither, Général,' said I; 'it was a — a — a beast of our division.'
“'A beast of your division! What does that mean? No trifling, mind! out with it at once. What's this? Where did it come from?' [Chapter XL, "A Night in the Tuileries Gardens," 293 in the 1844 edition; pp. 302-303 in the 1865 edition]
Commentary: A Humorous Anecdote featuring a Younger Napoleon
Piche has just apprehended Tom outside Napoleon's windows in the gardens of Tuileries Palace in Paris, but Tom has been able to give a good account of himself, and has mentioned his commander, Lieutenant-General Auvergne. After the tension of the trial following Tom's lengthy imprisonment in The Temple, the reader welcomes the comic relief which the present illustration affords. Piche confides in Tom that he is a veteran of Napoleon's campaigns at Toulon (1793) and Cairo (1798), and mentions an incident in Egypt (suggested in the illustration by the palm trees) when he was the regimental cook, and rations and fresh meat had run out. Consequently, when the vivandière's ass was shot by the enemy, and buried with full honours, Piche dug it up again, and roasted the carcasse. Just as he and his fellows were seated around the fire, ready to enjoy the repast with Piche's special gravy, Napoleon ("The Petit Caporal") turned up. Oddly, although in his anecdote Piche specifies that Napoleon's mount as "a little dark Arab" (302), the illustrator has made the mount white, perhaps to contrast the ruling that Phiz is using to suggest a night sky in the background. When the commander accused these Alsatian troops of being "Sybarites," Piche responded, "No, mon général — grenadiers of the Fourth — Milhaud's brigade" (303). And the Petit Caporal galloped off, laughing.
Further Information
- Phiz and Lever: A Fascination with Napoleon (1840-43; seven plates)
- Charles Lever's Fourth Novel, Tom Burke of "Ours" (February 1843 — September 1844)
- Instalment-by-instalment Synopsis of the Novel's Plot and Characters: Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours" (February 1843)
- Instalment-by-instalment Synopsis of the Novel's Plot and Characters: Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours" (March 1843)
- Synopsis of the Novel's Plot and Characters for Tom Burke's Adventures in France in Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours" (April 1843 through June 1844)
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 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.]
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. Tom Burke of "Ours." Dublin: William Curry, Jun., 1844. Illustrated by H. K. Browne. London: Chapman and Hall, 1865. Serialised February 1843 through September 1844. 2 vols.
Lever, Charles. Tom Burke of "Ours." Illustrated by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 24 February 2021.
Steig, Michael. Chapter Four: "Dombey and Son: Iconography of Social and Sexual Satire." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 86-112.
Stevenson, Lionel. Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939.
_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.
Created 5 November 2023