Passage Illustrated: Lorrequer's Further Romantic Adventures in England

Without stopping to consider where I was going, I opened the door of the breakfast-parlour, and found myself in one plunge among a room full of people. My first impulse was to retreat again; but so shocked was I, at the very first thing that met my sight, that I was perfectly powerless to do any thing. Among a considerable number of people who stood in small groups round the breakfast-table, I discerned Jack Waller, habited in a very accurate black frock and dark trowsers, supporting upon his arm — shall I confess — no less a person than Mary Kamworth, who leaned on him with the familiarity of an old acquaintance, and chatted gaily with him. The buzz of conversation which filled the apartment when I entered, ceased for a second of deep silence; and then followed a peal of laughter so long and so vociferous, that in my momentary anger I prayed some one might burst a blood-vessel, and frighten the rest. I put on a look of indescribable indignation, and cast a glance of what I intended should be most withering scorn on the assembly; but alas! my infernal harlequin costume ruined the effect; and confound me, if they did not laugh the louder. I turned from one to the other with the air of a man who marks out victims for his future wrath; but with no better success; at last, amid the continued mirth of the party, I made my way towards where Waller stood absolutely suffocated with laughter, and scarcely able to stand without support.

"Waller," said I, in a voice half tremulous with rage and shame together; "Waller, if this rascally trick be yours, rest assured no former term of intimacy between us shall ——"

Before I could conclude the sentence, a bustle at the door of the room, called every attention in that direction; I turned and beheld Colonel Kamworth, followed by a strong posse comitatus of constables, tipstaffs, &c., armed to the teeth, and evidently prepared for vigorous battle. Before I was able to point out my woes to my kind host, he burst out with —

"So you scoundrel, you impostor, you damned young villain, pretending to be a gentleman, you get admission into a man's house and dine at his table, when your proper place had been behind his chair. — How far he might have gone, heaven can tell, if that excellent young gentleman, his master, had not traced him here this morning — but you'll pay dearly for it, you young rascal, that you shall."

"Colonel Kamworth," said I, drawing myself proudly up, (and I confess exciting new bursts of laughter,) "Colonel Kamworth, for the expressions you have just applied to me, a heavy reckoning awaits you; not, however, before another individual now present shall atone for the insult he has dared to pass upon me." Colonel Kamworth's passion at this declaration knew no bounds; he cursed and swore absolutely like a madman, and vowed that transportation for life would be a mild sentence for such iniquity.

Waller at length wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes, interposed between the colonel and his victim, and begged that I might be forgiven; "for indeed my dear sir," said he, "the poor fellow is of rather respectable parentage, and such is his taste for good society that he'd run any risk to be among his betters, although, as in the present case the exposure brings a rather heavy retribution, however, let me deal with him. Come, Henry," said he, with an air of insufferable superiority, "take my tilbury into town, and wait for me at the George, I shall endeavour to make your peace with my excellent friend, Colonel Kamworth; and the best mode you can contribute to that object, is to let us have no more of your society."

I cannot attempt to picture my rage at these words; however, escape from this diabolical predicament was my only present object; and I rushed from the room . . . . [Chapter XI, "Cheltenham — Matrimonial Adventure — Showing How to Make Love for a Friend," pp. 84-85]

Commentary: Harry the victim of practical joker Jack Waller

Injured in a carriage accident almost as soon as he arrives in Liverpool, Lorrequer is in hospital two months before he is well enough to pursue his plan to court Lady Jane Callonby. But from his uncle Harry learns that his wealthy cousin Guy has proposed and been accepted by the daughter of his uncle's boyhood friend at Eton. While mulling over the injustice of fate in the taproom of The Plough at Cheltenham, Harry runs into a fellow officer from the Penisular campaign, Jack Waller of the —th light dragoons. Jack makes Harry a proposition involving the courtship of the only daughter of a fabulously wealthy East India Company colonel who has retired to Hyderabad Cottage in the neighbourhood. Jack will be a wealthy gentleman who has fallen ill on the road, Harry his valet. Harry's counter-proposal is that they visit Colonel Kamworth in reverse characters, with Harry as a gentleman military historian and Jack as his valet. If in four weeks Harry has failed in his courtship, they are to change places. In the Phiz illustration of the scene in the breakfast-parlour, the centre of attention, Harry, in an elaborate servant's livery, points menacingly at Colonel Kamworth as Jack laughs vigorously at the situation he has engineered.

In the moment realised, Harry has lost his role as gentleman, and now must appear as Jack's valet to the Kamworth family at breakfast. Overnight, Jack has absconded with Harry's clothes, leaving only a vest and breeches of yellow plush, an elaborate servant's livery coat with standing collar, huge cuffs, worked button-holes, and large buttons. He now appears in the family dining room in his new character, hooted at and derided by the servants. The Colonel is furious at Harry's imposture, and Harry is equally indignant at Jack's trick. Laughing uproariously, Jack promises to make peace with the Colonel if Harry will depart at once for the George in town in Jack's tillbury, waiting at the door. The upshot is that Jack runs away with the heiress, and the couple live happily ever afterward on the Continent with an allowance provided by her father.

Bibliography

Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.

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

Lever, Charles. The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Dublin: William Curry, Jun. London: W. S. Orr, 1839.

Steig, Michael. Chapter Two: "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 24-85.

Steig, Michael. Chapter Seven: "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and a Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 299-316.

Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter V, "Renegade from Physic, 1839-1841." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 73-93.

_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.

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13 April 2023