Passage Illustrated: Mickey Free channels his inner Sam Weller in Gaelic

As Mike’s melody proceeded, the major’s thorough bass waxed beautifully less, — now and then, it’s true, roused by some momentary strain, it swelled upwards in full chorus, but gradually these passing flights grew rarer, and finally all ceased, save a long, low, droning sound, like the expiring sigh of a wearied bagpipe. His fingers still continued mechanically to beat time upon the table, and still his head nodded sympathetically to the music; his eyelids closed in sleep; and as the last verse concluded, a full-drawn snore announced that Monsoon, if not in the land of dreams, was at least in a happy oblivion of all terrestrial concerns, and caring as little for the woes of green Erin and the altered fortunes of the Free family as any Saxon that ever oppressed them.

There he sat, the finished decanter and empty goblet testifying that his labors had only ceased from the pressure of necessity; but the broken, half-uttered words that fell from his lips evinced that he reposed on the last bottle of the series.

“Oh, thin, he’s a fine ould gentleman!” said Mike, after a pause of some minutes, during which he had been contemplating the major with all the critical acumen Chantrey or Canova would have bestowed upon an antique statue,—“a fine ould gentleman, every inch of him; and it’s the master would like to have him up at the Castle.”

“Quite true, Mike; but let us not forget the road. Look to the cattle, and be ready to start within an hour.”

When he left the room for this purpose I endeavored to shake the major into momentary consciousness ere we parted.

“Major, Major,” said I, “time is up. I must start.”

“Yes, it’s all true, your Excellency: they pillaged a little; and if they did change their facings, there was a great temptation. All the red velvet they found in the churches —”

“Good-by, old fellow, good-by!”

“Stand at ease!”

“Can’t, unfortunately, yet awhile; so farewell. I’ll make a capital report of the Legion to Sir Arthur; shall I add anything particularly from yourself?”

This, and the shake that accompanied it, aroused him. He started up, and looked about him for a few seconds.

“Eh, Charley! You didn’t say Sir Arthur was here, did you?”

“No, Major; don’t be frightened; he’s many a league off. I asked if you had anything to say when I met him?” [Chapter LVI, "The Departure," pp. 294-295]

The Highlights of the Peninsula Campaign: Lengthy Suppers and Comic Songs

Since Mickey Free's song is entirely in Gaelic, the Major gradually drifts off to sleep, unaware of the meaning of Na Guilloch y’ Goulen ("Don't Give up on Goulen"). Since O'Malley is in the act of trying to rouse the Major, Mickey must be coming to the end of his song.

Charles O'Malley and Major Monsoon see more suppers and hear more songs than they do military action in Alvas on the Spanish frontier after the comic rendezvous with Monsoon's cavalry. Thus, Mickey Free's song is an anti-climax to the anticipated confrontation between O'Malley's Dragoons and the French. Monsoon is already contemplating being elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Monsoon of the Tagus, or perhaps Lord Alcantara. Mickey's comic song follows both Monsoon's tale of how he escaped Wellesley's orders that he be hanged for pillaging a convent after the Battle of Vimeira, and a scene in the kitchen of the inn where Mickey entertains a Dominican friar and an eighteen-year-old Spanish beauty with his rendition of the song "St. Patrick was a gentleman." Lever seems to have created Mickey Free as the stereotypical "stage" Irishman in order to introduce such comic songs and Irish dialectal witticisms akin to the Cockney adages of Dickens's Sam Weller, Mr. Pickwick's valet.

Necessary Background

• Charles Lever's Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon (1840-41)

Bibliography

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]. Published serially in The Dublin University Magazine from Vol. XV (March 1840) through XVIII (December 1841). Dublin: William Curry, March 1840 through December 1841. London: Samuel Holdsworth, 1842; rpt., Chapman and Hall, 1873.

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. 24-50.

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

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Created 15 March 2023