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"Bad scran t'ye, Peter, but living or dead, ye had always a sting in ye.'____"
Phiz
July 1844 (eighteenth) instalment
Steel-engraving
13.2 cm by 11 cm (5 ⅛ by 4 ¼ inches), vignetted.
Charles Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours", Chapter LXXXIX, "A Character of 'Old Dublin'" (July 1844), facing p. 222 in the 1844 edition, and 270 in the 1869 edition.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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“Take a 'Saunders,' yer honor, and I'll tell you.”
“Here, then, here's fippence; and now for the explanation.”
“Molly Crownahon, yer honour, was, like us poor craytures, always grateful and contented wid the Lord's goodness to us, even in taking away our chief comfort and blessing — the darling up there on the horse! Ah, 'tis an elegant sate ye have; without stirrups! And she went one day to say a handful of prayers oyer his grave — the husband's, ye mind — and sure if she did, when she knelt down on the grass, she sprung up again as quick as she went down, for the nettles was all over the place entirely. 'Bad scran to ye, Peter!' says she, as she rubbed her legs — 'bad scran to ye — living or dead, there was always a sting in ye.'” [Chapter LXXXIX, "A Character of 'Old Dublin'," 221 in the 1844 edition, vol. 2; 270 in the 1869 edition, vol. 2]
The illustration merely adds local colour to Tom's return to Ireland, and contributes nothing to plot or character development. But the anecdote establishes that Tom is indeed home, in front of Miley's Hotel, adjacent to the statue of King William of Orange, and amidst a crowd of typically Irish characters. The foremost of these, at least in terms of volubility, is Terry Regan, the news-vendor with the shaggy appearance and piercing eyes who pronounces on Tom's foreign beard and clothing. A well-dressed, well-spoken, and respectable-looking gentleman intervenes, and, parting the crowd, enables Tom to enter the hotel. But Terry, the loquacious vendor, gets one last shot at the French-looking stranger in their midst as being the image of Molly Crownahon's deceased husband. And thus Terry wins himself the chance to narrate (for a fippence) the humorous, typically Irish anecdote realized by the second July 1844 plate, set in a ruined cemetery.
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.
Created 27 November 2023