Murat and Mademoiselle Minette (facing p. 337 in vol. 2 of the 1844 edition, p. 3 in vol. 2 of the 1865 edition), horizontally-mounted, 8.7 cm high by 14.7 cm wide, (3 ⅜ by 5 ¾ inches), vignetted steel illustration for Charles Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours,", Chapter LXV, "The 'Vivandière of the Fourth'" (December 1843), in the William Curry, Jun. two-volume edition (Dublin, 1844); Chapter I in the second volume of the Chapman and Hall edition (London, 1869), facing page 3. [Click on the image to enlarge it; mouse over links.]
Passage Illustrated: A Battlefield Reminiscence
“Ah!” cried she, passionately, “if I had been a man, I should like to be such a one as Murat there. See how his black eyes sparkle, and his proud lip curls, when the roll of artillery or the clattering of a platoon is heard! how his whole soul is in the fight! I remember once — it was at the Iser — his brigade was stationed beneath the hill, and had no orders to move forward for several hours. He used to get off his horse and walk about, and endeavor, by pushing the smoke away, thus, with his hand, and almost kneeling to the ground, to catch a view of the battle; and then he would spring into the saddle, and for sheer passion dash the spurs into his horse's flank, till he reared and plunged again. I watched him thus for hours. I loved to look on him, chafing and fretting like his own mettled charger, he was so handsome!
“'A drink, Minette! Something to cool my lips, for Heaven's sake,' said he, at last, as he saw me standing near him. I filled the little cup you see here with wine, and handed it to him. Scarcely had he raised it to his lips, when an aide-decamp galloped up, and whispered some words in haste.
“'Ha, ha!' cried he, with a shout of joy; 'they want us, then! The squadrons will advance by sections, and charge! — charge!' And with that he flung the goblet from him to the ground; and when I took it up I found that with the grasp of his strong fingers he had crushed it nearly together: see here! I never would let it be changed; it is just as at the time he clasped it, and I kept it as a souvenir of the prince.”
She took from a little shelf the cup, as she spoke, and held it up before me with the devoted admiration with which some worshipper would regard a holy relic. [Chapter LXV, "The 'Vivandière of the Fourth'," 337 in vol. 1 of the 1844 edition; Chapter XLV, pp. 2-3, in vol. 2 of the 1869 edition]
Comment: Joachim Murat in One of Minette's Military Flashbacks
"For three entire weeks" (1) Tom recuperates from the sword-thrust of the maître d'armesof the Fourth in Minette's room above the soldiers' canteen in the mountain-top village of Elchingen. The irrepressible vivandière of the Fourth rarely leaves Tom's bedside, keeping him acquainted with the latest troop movements and battle as the French armies occupy Austrian territory. She also entertains him with personal anecdotes of her own adventures with the regiment. In this Phiz illustration, she recounts when she received the crushed metal wine-cup on her souvenir shelf from the dashing young King of Naples, Prince and General Murat, just before he received Napoleon's order to charge at the Battle of Ellero (although Minette cites the river as the "Iser").
For their 1865 and 1869 reprints Chapman and Hall have made this the first regular illustration of the second volume, although it had in fact been the last the 1844 volume, whose final chapter was entitled "The 'Vivandière of the Fourth'." Phiz has bracketed the rearing charger and ebullient rider with the more staid figures of the aide-de-camp (mounted, right) and the deferential Minette in uniform (left), gesturing as if trying to catch both Murat's words and the crushed goblet, now flying through the air. Napoleon granted his dashing brother-in-law the title "First Horseman of Europe" in May 1804. The incident pictured in the Italian campaign in 1796 showcases Lever's love of military anecdotes and Phiz's love of horses.
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.]
Comment
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; rpt. 1869. 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 7 November 2023