Charles Mangin

“ But it was now twenty years since the Mangans had been established at Number Six, The Mall, Cluhir; the Doctor had come in for his father's money as well as his practice, and was respected as "a warm man"; the disagreeable ones had grown old, and people who are both old and disagreeable cannot expect to command a large audience. Mrs. Mangan, on the contrary, was neither the one nor the other, being, at this time, but little over forty, and as kindly, lazy, and handsome a creature as ever lived down spiteful gossip by good-nature. ”

“ Maurice Mangan laughed.
"No, no, Linn, my boy; thank you all the same, I say," he{32} continued, as he took up his hat and stick, seeing that Lionel was about ready to go, "do you ever hear from Miss Francie Wright, or have you forgotten her among all your fine friends?"
"Oh, I hear from Francie sometimes," he answered, carelessly, "or about her, anyway, whenever I get a letter from home. She's very well. Boarding out pauper sick children is her new fad; and I believe she's very busy and very happy over it. Come along, Maurice ”

“ H., A Farce in Two Acts;” produced at Drury Lane, in 1806, with the great Elliston in the title-rôle. Yet he had written to Manning in boyish glee: “All China shall ring with it—by and by.” In the same{73} letter, he made fanciful designs for the orders he was to give for admission, elate with anticipation of the long run his piece was to have. He sat on the opening night with Mary and Crabb Robinson in the front of the pit (his favourite place) , and joined with the audience in applauding his really witty prologue. ”

“ Mangan?" his companion asked, rather wonderingly.
"In every way. People are fond of him; he wins affection without trying for it; as I say, it all comes to him as if by natural right."
"Yes, they say he is very popular in London, among those fine folk," observed Miss Francie, quite good-naturedly.
"Oh, I wasn't thinking of his fashionable friends," Mangan rejoined. "Being made much of by those people doesn't seem to me one of the great gifts of fortune. And yet I wonder it hasn't spoiled him. He doesn't seem the least bit spoiled, does he?" ”

“ A few years previously Mangèlè’s mother, who had been afflicted with leprosy for many years, died miserably. Mangèlè, when little more than a boy, had quarrelled with his father and run away from home, meaning to return no more. He wandered far and near—sometimes working at the docks at Cape Town or East London—sometimes at the gold or diamond mines. The love of home is always very deep in the Kaffir, and Mangèlè came to find the longing to return to his father’s kraal so strong, that he could no longer withstand it. ”

“ When Maurice Mangan, according to appointment, called at Lionel's rooms on the evening of Lady Adela Cunyngham's dinner-party, he was surprised to find his friend seated in front of the fire, wrapped up in a dressing-gown.
"Linn, what's the matter with you?" he exclaimed, looking at him. "Are you ill? What have you been doing to yourself?" ”

“ Dr. Mangan sat in a very large armchair in front of a big fire of logs, in the hall, and smoked meditatively, and was seemingly quite unaware of the couples who moved past him between the dances, passing out through the open hall-door into the moon-lit May night. He did not even raise an eyelid when his daughter sailed by him, as she did many times, with the ostentation of the young lady who is aware that her prowess is the subject of comment, in company, alternately, with the two captives of her bow and spear who had offered so feeble a resistance to those weapons. ”

“ It is funny to see her bridling up her neck, which is native to F.K.; but there is no setting another's manners upon one's shoulders any more than their head. I am glad you esteem Manning, though you see but his husk or shrine. He discloses not, save to select worshippers, and will leave the world without any one hardly but me knowing how stupendous a creature he is. I am perfecting myself in the "Ode to Eton College" against Thursday, that I may not appear unclassic. ”

“ Jeanne, Madame Mangin, having died, was succeeded by a second wife, née Anne Henriette d’Aulnis de la Lande. Harriette, daughter of Paul Mangin, was married to Samuel Louis Crommelin, junior (see chapter xx.) . Captain Mangin spent his latter years in Dublin. ”

“ You should be able, if anybody could, to make allowance for my position; but you were as merciless as Skinadre, and I had not the soft word that turneth away wrath, but was as angry as yourself. Well, well, with all our mutual sins, neither of us will find easily a man who likes him as well, and has been as ready to proclaim it in the face of friends or foes, as the man he was angry with last week.—Always yours,
"C. G. D." Clarence Mangan was a man of as undoubted genius as William Carleton, and paid the same penalty. ”

“ Mangan's suppers were as generous as her own contours, and were noted for their excellence. She herself was not so much to the priest's taste. He was celibate by nature as well as by profession. Women were antagonistic to him, and Mrs. Mangan, godly matron though she was, seemed to him to symbolize a very different ordering of life to that which he approved; but the Big Doctor was an asset of the Church who must be simpered upon, and for whose sake a little social boredom must be unrepiningly endured. ”

“ Lord Rockminster said, in his usual impassive way. "You remember I had the pleasure of meeting you at my sister's. What is the matter with your friend Mr. Moore?—I see by the evening paper he is not to appear to-night."
"He is far from well—a chill followed by a fever," Mangan answered. "I have just come from him, with a message for you."
"Oh, really," said the young nobleman. "Ah, I dare say I know; but I assure you it is quite unnecessary. Tell him not to mind. When a fellow's ill, why should he be troubled?"
Maurice had taken out his pocket-book, and was searching for the lilac slip. ”

“ I don’t care who he is or what he’s like. Pa says I’m a roughneck, and I’ll at least show him he’s right about that. I’m going to get stuck—as you so vulgarly put it—on the helper of Mangan’s cook. They call him a flunky, Mr. Mangan said. Now you keep that under your hat, will you?”
[54] “Sure,” Mart promised, still taking his kidney treatment.
Then suddenly he stopped in his tracks and pointed across the darkening desert toward Opaco. “What’s that big dust cloud?” he wondered. “Can’t be a whirlwind—she’s too big. Say, Nita! That’s Mangan’s outfit a-comin’. What’ll ye bet?” ”

“ He conducted a general merchandise business for a long period of years, but at present is engaged in the drug business with his son Mr. Geo. T. Mankin, under the firm name of George T. Mankin & Co. Mr. Mankin has established as high reputation as a business man and citizen as had his brother Mr. Charles Mankin, the well known dry goods merchant, but recently deceased.
Mr. Nathan Banks
Mr. Wm. M. Ellison, whose father was one of the early northern settlers in this community, is a successful lawyer and real estate [Pg 20] broker. Mr. ”

“ His servant watched him closely, and upon receiving a sign from his master, he too put on his official costume, which consisted of a velvet robe and a helmet. The servant then struck up a tune on the richly-toned organ which always formed a part of Mangin’s outfit. The grotesque appearance of these individuals, and the music, soon drew together an admiring crowd. ”

“ He has no tail, like the wombat. His coat is a bluish-gray fur, very thick and extremely soft, darkest on the back, and very pale under the throat and belly. An elongated nose looks as if it were tipped with black leather. The eyes are round and dark; the ears almost hidden in the plenitude of fur. By day he is a drowsy and, sooth to say, a stupid animal; but at night he wakes up into a more active state. He feeds upon the fresh young tops of trees, selecting their blossoms and young shoots; and though in appearance resembling the Phalanga, in habits seems closely allied to the Sloth. ”

“ The natives assail the quarreling party with stones, a proceeding which incites the monkeys to revenge themselves by a discharge of nuts. By this means the Indians load their boats without trouble, and the monkeys are left to make a fresh foray.”
In his forest wanderings, Mr. Bates was especially attracted by the colossal trees. He says that, on the whole, they had not remarkably thick stems; the great and uniform height to which they grow without throwing off a branch is a much more noticeable feature than their thickness ”

“ H. D’Abzac, late Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin; and by that lady he has four sons and two daughters still living. We should here observe, that the Mangin and D’Abzac families are both of French origin, and that the grandfathers of Captain and Mrs. Mangin left France at the same time, in consequence of the religious persecution that followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantz.
Agents.– Messrs. Cooke, Halford, and Son.
↑ See Vol. I. note at p. 169 et seq. ↑ See Vol. I. p. 171, et seq. ↑ The St. Fiorenzo went to India with despatches, in 1802. ”

“ Miss Letitia Mangan was far from considering herself a little girl. She was sixteen and a half, and conceived herself to be of combatant rank, even though her thick, dark hair banged on her back in a ponderous pigtail, and her education at the Cluhir Convent School was still uncompleted. The fat, piebald pony that she was riding would have a sore back before she got home. Christian, perched wren-like on her ancient steed (but a wren placed with mathematical accuracy of directness with relation to the steed's ears) , noted with disfavour the crooked seat, the heavy hand on the curb. ”

“ The copy of
Dyer's Poems annotated by Lamb and Stoddart I have not seen.
"So, you don't think there's a Word's-worth..." Manning had written, on February 24, 1801, of the second volume of Lyrical Ballads: "I think 'tis utterly absurd from one end to the other. You tell me 'tis good poetry—if you mean that there is nothing puerile, nothing bombast or conceited, everything else that is so often found to disfigure poetry, I agree, but will you read it over and over again? Answer me that, Master Lamb." The three letters containing the northern castigation are unhappily lost. ”

“ While it is not the case, as sometimes averred, that Mangan was, or is, to Ireland what Burns is to Scotland, it is indisputable that the claim may be made for him rather than for any other Irish poet of the Early Victorian period. In fire and energy his faculty is unsurpassed by any of his poetic countrymen, though we may dispute Sir Charles Gavan Duffy’s assertion that Mangan “has not, and perhaps never had, any rival in mastery of the metrical and rhythmical resources of the English tongue.” Mangan was the child of a small tradesman of Dublin, where, in 1803, he was born. ”

“ Manning, in which Lamb remarks that his goddess is Pecunia.
In another letter to Manning belonging to the same period, Lamb returns to the subject of poverty:—"You dropt a word whether in jest or earnest, as if you would join me in some work, such as a review or series of papers, essays, or anything.—Were you serious? I want home occupation, & I more want money. Had you any scheme, or was it, as G. Dyer says, en passant? If I don't have a Legacy left me shortly I must get into pay with some newspaper for small gains. Mutton is twelvepence a pound." ”

“ Writing to Robert Lloyd twenty-five years earlier Lamb had said of Manning: "A man of great Power—an enchanter almost.—Far beyond Coleridge or any man in power of impressing —when he gets you alone he can act the wonders of Egypt. Only he is lazy, and does not always put forth all his strength ”

“ Their women are hideous in face and deformed in body; as they grow old they grow stout, and a truly monstrous embonpoint invades the posterior part of their person. Morally, they are in an abject condition, which must be attributed rather to their sloth and wretchedness than to any lack of intelligence. Their sole garment is the carross, a kind of sheepskin mantle. They live in such low huts that they can only enter them by crawling. Some Hottentot tribes cultivate the soil, or depasture herds of cattle; such are the Bayéyés, established on the banks of Lake Ngami ”

“ Miss Mangan's skill was not limited to the prosaic lighting of material fires only. With the two most distinguished young men of the party at her feet, she rose to the height of all her various powers. The fire roared and crackled, the kettle bubbled, and Tishy's grey and gleaming glances through the smoke were like a succession of boxes of matches, cast upon the responsive fires of Larry's and Georgy's holiday hearts.
The young May moon has often been a factor in affairs of the heart whose importance cannot be ignored. ”

“ Undoubtedly, what is most obviously striking in the history of Manning's career is the persistent strength of his innate characteristics. Through all the changes of his fortunes the powerful spirit of the man worked on undismayed. It was as if the Fates had laid a wager that they would daunt him; and in the end they lost their bet.
His father was a rich West India merchant, a governor of the Bank of England, a Member of Parliament, who drove into town every day from his country seat in a coach and four, and was content with nothing short of a bishop for the christening of his children. ”

“ Everybody likes Mangan—half-rebellious prisoners and soldering details and grasping civilians and grouchy division quartermasters. For “he has a way wid him.” At bottom it is humor and justness, with appreciation of the other fellow’s difficulties and states of mind. With his fairness and balance, he carries such an atmosphere of [Pg 33] geniality and joy of life that everybody begins to feel a new interest in the game and a new willingness to play a decent part in it. ”