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A Drawing-room disunion at Mrs. Fumbally's
Phiz
April 1847 (sixteenth) instalment: second illustration
Steel-engraving
12.5 cm by 11.3 cm (4 ⅞ by 4 ½ inches), vignetted.
Charles Lever's The Knight of Gwynne; A Tale of the Time of the Union (April 1847), originally for Part 16, facing p. 492.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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“I beg you will forgive my daughter and myself,” said Lady Eleanor, with an air of real regret; “our total ignorance —”
“I thought as much, indeed,” muttered she of the shaking head; “there is no other word for it.”
“You are quite correct, ma'am,” said Lady Eleanor, at once addressing her in the most apologetic of voices, — “I cannot but repeat the word; our very great ignorance of the usages observed here is our only excuse, and I beg you to believe us incapable of taking such liberties in future.”
If anything could have disarmed the wrath of this Holy Alliance, the manner in which these words were uttered might have done so. Far from it, however. When the softer sex are deficient in breeding, mercy is scarcely one of their social attributes. Had Lady Eleanor assumed towards them the manner with which in other days she had repelled vulgar attempts at familiarity, they would in all probability have shrunk back, abashed and ashamed; but her yielding suggested boldness, and they advanced, with something like what in Cossack warfare is termed a “Hurra,” an indiscriminate clang of voices being raised in reprobation of every supposed outrage the unhappy strangers had inflicted on the company. Amid this Babel of accusation Lady Eleanor could distinguish nothing, and while, overwhelmed by the torrent, she was preparing to take her daughter's arm and withdraw, the door which led into the dining-room was suddenly thrown open, and the convivial party entered "en masse."
“Here's a shindy — by George!” cried Mr. M'Farland, — "the Pickle, and the wit of the Establishment — “I say, see how the new ones are getting it!” [Chapter LIX, "A Glance at Mrs. Fumbally's," 493]
Paul Dempsey returns to Mrs. Fumbally's with the Darcy ladies as her new guests, replacing Mr. Leonard, who has sailed with Maurice Darcy on the Mediterranean expedition. However, Lady Eleanor Darcy's superior attitude and unreasonable demands (such as having dinner at 6:00 P. M. rather than at the customary 5:00 P. M. sitting) upset the jealous Mrs. Fumbally almost as much as Paul's romantic interest in the twenty-year-old Helen.
The haughty Lady Eleanor has informed Paul that she and her aristocratic daughter are unsuited to the regimen of a middle-class boarding-house; they had been under the impression that he was taking them to an inn, a lodging more suitable to their class and their need for privacy. Helen makes it plain that she and her mother wish to remain aloof from the other guests — in "Quarantine" (487), and even in cognito, so to speak; otherwise, they wish to go to a "more suitable abode," such as a hotel, in spite of the modest terms of a pound a week. Paul's solution? Lady Eleanor should intimidate the other guests by wearing her great neck frill when she comes down to dinner, joining "the other inmates of the 'Establishment'" (488) begrudgingly.
The relentlessly curious boarders consult directories and army lists to discover who these "Gwynnes" are, and they grill Dempsey for two hours about the new guests. Nevertheless, Mrs. Fumbally's boarders are sure that Helen and Lady Eleanor are "quality," and labour over their dress and hair accordingly. Mrs. Fumbally even wears her turban with feathers and spangles, in contrast to the "elegant simplicity" (490) of the style of the Darcy ladies, who (positioned to the left of the crowded composition) look far more attractive than the seven female boarders with distorted, caricatural visages. What Phiz does not quite communicate is the "chilling reserve" (490) of the newcomers.
The present scene occurs after dinner with its stilted table-talk. Helen is amused by the antics of the diners and the distinctly odd nature of the various courses. When the decanters appear at the end of the meal, the Darcys and the seven other ladies adjourn to the drawing-room while Mrs. Fumbally goes to attend to household matters. It is Helen, however, rather than her mother who studies the sheet music on the piano. and then tries a few keys on the badly maintained instrument. Phiz admirably realizes the forms and features of the leading ladies, who simper, look down their noses and express general disapprobation. In particular, Phiz realizes an enormous, overdressed woman in the centre:
“And I, ma'am,” said a fat old lady, waddling over, and wheezing as though she should choke, “I have to express my sorrow that the book-shelf, which you have just ransacked, should not present something worthy of your notice. The volumes are mine.”
“And perhaps, ma'am,” cried a third, a little meagre figure, with a voice like a nutmeg-grater, “you could persuade the old lady, who I presume is your mother, to take her feet off that worked stool. When I made it, I scarcely calculated on the honor it now enjoys!”
Lady Eleanor looked up at this instant, and although unconscious of what was passing, seeing Helen, whose face was now crimson, standing in the midst of a very excited group, she arose hastily, and said, —
“Helen, dearest, is there anything the matter?”
“I should say there was, ma'am,” interposed the very fat lady. . . . [492]
The precise moment realised occurs when, having consumed a suitable quantity of after-dinner sherry, the gentlemen rejoin the ladies.
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. The Knight of Gwynne; A Tale of the Time of the Union. London: Chapman and Hall, serialised January 1846 through July 1847.
Lever, Charles. The Knight of Gwynne. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 28 February 2018.
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. Chapter IX, "Nomadic Patriarch, 1845-1847." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 146-164.
_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.
Created 15 August 2023