Perhaps the most significant pronouncement made by Charles Dickens on the subject of drinking appears in the rollicking story of the Baron of Grogzwig in Nicholas Nickleby. The Baron asked the Genius of Despair and Suicide:
"Do you drink?"
"Nine times out of ten," came the reply, "and then very hard."
"Don't you ever drink in moderation?"
"No," replied the dread spirit with a shudder, "that breeds cheerfulness."
The spirit of tonight's gathering is moderation and cheerfulness -- qualities at the core of Dickens art!
Mr. Micawber
Mr. Micawber must rank first among the convivial drinkers in Dickens. He loved the ceremony of compounding a glass of gin punch of an evening. However depressed, punch always enabled him to forget his troubles, except on one occassion, when the cares of the world had really borne him down even the lemons and other applicances he used in making punch failed to take his mind of his desperate plight, and, David watched him
putting the lemon-peel into the kettle, the sugar into the snuffer-tray, the spirit into the empty jug, and confidently attempting to pour boiling water out of a candlestick.
And then the crisis came:
He clattered all his means and implements together, rose from his chair, pulled out his pocket-handkerchief and burst into tears.
"My dear Copperfield" from behind his handkerchief, "this is an occupation, of all others, requiring an untroubled mind, and self-respect. I cannot perform it. It is out of the question!"
But that was the only time in his troubled life. Mostly he compounded the perfect drink.
"Punch, my dear Copperfield, like time and tide, waits for no man. Ah! it is at the present moment in high flavoour. My love, (to Mrs. Micawber, who never did leave him) will you give me your opinion?"
Take for instance this brilliant reponse by Mr. Micawber when his water had been cut off due to nonpayment.
To divert his thoughts from this melancholy subject, I informed Mr. Micawber that I relied upon him for a bowl of punch, and led him to the lemons. His recent despondency, not to say despair, was gone in a moment. I never saw a man so thoroughly enjoy himself amid the fragrance of lemon-peel and sugar, the odour of burning spirit, and the steam of boiling water, as Mr. Micawber did that afternoon. It was wonderful to see his face shining at us out of a thin cloud of these delicate fumes, as he stirred, and mixed, and tasted, and looked as if he were making, instead of punch, a fortune for his family down to the latest posterity.
Micawber's Punch
- Juice 1/2 lemon
- pinch ground cinnamon
- 1 clove
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 large measure sweet dark Madiera
- 1 large measure dry gin
- grated nutmeg
Into a warm tumbler put the juice of half a lemon, the cinnamon and clove, and the sugar and honey. Threequarters fill the glass with boiling water, add the madeira and gin and stir with a stick of cinnamon. Grate nutmeg thereon and drink quickly.
Mrs. Crupp
She was David Copperfield's landlady, and was a martyr to a curious disorder called "the spazzums", which was generally accompanied with inflammation of the nose, and required to be constantly treated with peppermint. Not only did she suffer from "spazzums" but was a woman of penetration: she knew immediately that David was in love because he crammed his feet into the smallest shoes.
She came up to me one evening, when I was very low, to ask if I could oblige her with a little tincture of cardamums mixed with rhubarb, and flavoured with seven drops of the essense of cloves, which was the best remedy for her complaint; - or, if I had not such a thing by me, with a little brandy, which was the next best. it was not, she remarked, so palatable to her, but it was the next best.
Mrs. Crupp's Brandy Toddy
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon honey
- juice of 1/2 a lemon
- a large measure of brandy
Put the brown sugar and honey into a warmed tumbler. Add juice of half a lemon. Pour on boiling water and stir. Top up with a large measure of brandy (extra large if you are suffering from "the spazzums."
Joseph Sedley
No more famous drinking scene exists than Thackeray's Vanity Fair, thanks to Jos Sedley and his Rack Punch. Jos makes love to Becky Sharp, calling her his "diddle diddle darling." Tiger Sedley becomes much roused when the crowd begins to laugh at his drunkeness. Only the good Captain Dobbin can see him out of this scrape.
The young ladies did not drink it; Osborne did not like it; and the consequence was, the Jos, the fat gourmand drank up the whole contents of the bowl; and the consequence of his drinking up the whole content of the bowl was, a liveliness which at first was astonishing, and then became almost painful...
Tiger Sedley's Rack Punch:
Rack punch should be made heated, ideally in earthenware.
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