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Passage Illustrated: Investigative Tom and the Stafford-street Beauty

While I revolved these thoughts within myself I heard the merry notes of a girl's voice, singing apparently in the very room with me. I started up and looked about me, and now perceived that what seemed so like a "drop curtain" the night before was nothing more or less than a very large patchwork quilt, suspended on a line across the entire attic, from the other side of which came the sounds in question. It was clear, both from the melody and the voice, that she could not be a servant; and somewhat curious to know more of my fair neighbor, I rose gently, and slipping on my clothes, approached the boundary of my territory with noiseless step.

A kind of whistling noise interrupted every now and then the lady's song, and an occasional outbreak of impatience would burst forth in the middle of the “Arrah, will you marry me, dear Alley Croker?” by some malediction on a “black knot” or a broken string. I peeped over the “drop,” and beheld the figure of a young, plump, and pretty girl, busily engaged in lacing her stays — an occupation which accounted equally for the noise of the rushing staylace and the bit of peevishness I had heard. I quite forgot how inadvisable was the indulgence of my curiosity in my admiration of my fair neighbour, whose buxom figure, not the less attractive for the shortness of her drapery, showed itself to peculiar advantage as she bent to one side and the other in her efforts to fasten the impracticable bodice. A mass of rich brown hair, on which the sun was playing, fell over her neck and on her shoulders, and half concealed her round, well-turned arms as they plied their busy task.

“Well, ain't my heart broke with you, entirely?” exclaimed she, as a stubborn knot stopped all further progress. [Chapter XVII, "Mr. Basset's Dwelling," p. 117 in the 1844 edition; pp. 118-119 in the 1865 edition]

Tom Burke of 'Ours' — The Next Instalment

How, then, has Tom arrived at such a happy circumstance, the serial reader of the May 1843 instalment must have wondered, after Major Barton had carried him off to Newgate as a rebel? Attorney Basset presents the papers of indenture Mr. Cooke at the Castle to effect his release. And so, in Chapter XVII, "Mr. Basset's Dwelling," Tom finds himself under the roof of the ruthless family lawyer, "the man I most dreaded and disliked of all the world" (115). Tom offers Anthony Basset three hundred pounds from his grandfather's legacy of five hundred to burn the papers of indenture and set him free.

Despite Basset's offer of supper in response to Tom's suggestion that the crafty lawyer take the night to ponder the matter, Tom prefers to get some sleep instead. Exhausted, Tom trudges up dark and narrow stairs to the top of the house, to an attic garret lit by a single cobweb-covered window in the roof. Throwing himself on the narrow bed, Tom is awakened from a sound sleep by the sun streaming through the dingy skylight. He hears birds singing, sounds of morning activity swelling up from the street, and the merry notes of an Irish colleen on the other side of the drop-curtain, on which Tom inadvertently leans too hard, bringing it down "with a squash to the floor" (199). In other words, Phiz's illustration describes the scene just before this moment of crisis.

Instead of being angry at being spied upon, the girl seems delighted with Tom's naive admiration as she laughs at her "neighbour." She already knows his name, and identifies herself as Basset's niece as she invites Tom to help her tie the knot in her stays. At this critical point in Tom's flirtation with Nelly, Bubbleton and Basset arrive to complete the scene straight out a romantic comedy, "an undress rehearsal" (120) as the witty Bubbleton describes it.

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.

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Created 1 November 2023