The Two Chesnuts (facing p. 586) — Phiz's fortieth illustration for Charles Lever's Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, November 1841. Steel engraving for Chapter CXII, "A Surprise" (Part 18, October 1841). 9.5 cm high by 15 cm wide (3 ¾ by 4 ⅝ inches), vignetted.
Passage Illustrated: A Opportunity for Phiz to draw galloping horses
By the time that I had costumed my fair friend in my dragoon cloak and a foraging cap, with a gold band around it, which was the extent of muffling my establishment could muster, a distant noise without apprised us that the phaeton was approaching. Certainly, the mode in which that equipage came up to the door might have inspired sentiments of fear in any heart less steeled against danger than my fair cousin’s. The two blood chestnuts (for it was those Mike harnessed, having a groom’s dislike to take a racer out of training) were surrounded by about twenty people: some at their heads; some patting them on the flanks; some spoking the wheels; and a few, the more cautious of the party, standing at a respectable distance and offering advice. The mode of progression was simply a spring, a plunge, a rear, a lounge, and a kick; and considering it was the first time they ever performed together, nothing could be more uniform than their display. Sometimes the pole would be seen to point straight upward, like a lightning conductor, while the infuriated animals appeared sparring with their fore-legs at an imaginary enemy. Sometimes, like the pictures in a school-book on mythology, they would seem in the act of diving, while with their hind-legs they dashed the splash-board into fragments behind them,—their eyes flashing fire, their nostrils distended, their flanks heaving, and every limb trembling with passion and excitement.
“That’s what I call a rare turn-out,” said Baby, who enjoyed the proceeding amazingly.
“Yes; but remember,” said I, “we’re not to have all these running footmen the whole way.”
“I like that near-sider with the white fetlock.”
“You’re right, Miss,” said Mike, who entered at the moment, and felt quite gratified at the criticism, — “you’re right, Miss; it’s himself can do it.”
“Come, Baby, are you ready?”
“All right, sir,” said she, touching her cap knowingly with her forefinger.
“Will the tackle hold, Mike?” said I.
“We’ll take this with us, at any rate,” pointing, as he spoke, to a considerable coil of rope, a hammer, and a basket of nails, he carried on his arm. “It’s the break harness we have, and it ought to be strong enough; but sure if the thunder comes on again, they’d smash a chain cable.”
“Now, Charley,” cried Baby, “keep their heads straight; for when they go that way, they mean going.” [Chapter CXII, "A Surprise," pp. 584-586]
Commentary: The Dashing Heroine "Baby" Blake and Her Thoroughbred Horses
The comic scene of "Baby" Blake's delighting in Charley's young thoroughbreds anticipates later Lever heroines in such "horse-racious" and pugnacious novels as Roland Cashel (1849), The Martins of Cro' Martin (1856), and Barrington (1863). Immediately in her initial appearance she stands out from the other young women of O'Malley by her racy dialogue and challenging attitude. Here, despite the danger, she is chatty and affable. In her first appearance, she taunts the new owner of Castle O'Malley as a self-absorbed recluse who has withdrawn from society: at the piano-forte she had altered Bodkin's song "The Man for Galway" to satirize the retiring military veteran: "To me 'tis clear, / You're not the man for Galway" (580). Phiz has to convey this vivacious voice with a cheeky image and careless ringlets in "Baby Blake" in the first engraving for October, 1841, and with her blithe composure here.
Of all the thoroughbreds in O'Malley's stable, none have really been trained for the saddle or the carriage, but two headstrong young chestnuts, just acquired, might do to get Baby Blake back to her home, Gurtnamorra, in under an hour, on a day plagued with thunderstorms. She has "voted" for them rather than the more tranquil Miss Wildespin and Billy the Bolter. In Phiz's illustration, Mickey Free, seated in the rear, hangs onto his hat as O'Malley concentrates on restraining the curiously out-of-sync horses and Baby Blake gesticulates affably. To the rear of the phaeton are two mounted grooms "to provide against all accidents" (585). Phiz has omitted, however, the groom ("the smallest imaginable bit of boyhood, bringing up the rear") leading his mistress's horse.
Related Material
- Charles Lever's Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon (1840-41)
- Hablot Knight Browne, 1815-1882; A Brief Biography
- Cattermole and Phiz: The First illustrators of Barnaby Rudge: A Team Effort by "The Clock Works" (1841)
- Horses by "Phiz" for Charles Lever's Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon (Nov.-Dec. 1841, rpt., 1873)
- Phiz: 'A Good Hand at a Horse'" — A Gallery and Brief Overview of Phiz's Illustrations of Horses for Defoe, Dickens, Lever, and Ainsworth (1836-64)
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.]
Bibliography
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Lever, Charles. Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Published serially in The Dublin University Magazine from Vol. XV (March 1840) through XVIII (December 1841). Dublin: William Curry, March 1840 through December 1841, 2 vols. London: Samuel Holdsworth, 1842; rpt., Chapman and Hall, 1873.
Lever, Charles. Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon. "Edited by Harry Lorrequer." Dublin: William Curry, Jun. London: W. S. Orr, 1841. 2 vols.
Lever, Charles. Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 2 September 2016.
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.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter V, "Renegade from Physic, 1839-1841." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 73-93.
Created 4 April 2023