english 6175 - victorian literature @ east carolina u.

Drinking with Dickens - David Copperfield Edition

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:

• Juice of 8 sweet oranges
• 1 bottle of Whiskey
• 1 Pint of Sherry
• 1 Quartern of Brandy
• 1.5 pints of china tea
• Nutmeg to cover
• Load sugar to sweeten
• Rind of lemon
• Cinnamon if desired.

Rack punch should be made heated, ideally in earthenware.

Mini-lecture 24: "The Victorian Legacy"

Mini-lecture 24: "The Victorian Legacy"

Scope: This course has moved chronologically through the reign of Queen Victoria. pausing frequently to study such themes as ideas about men and women, servants, leisure, music, art, and architecture. In this final lecture, I will offer a quick overview of the whole period: single out some of its most striking, contradictory, and paradoxical elements, and end with a few general conclusions about the nature of historical study in general and the study of Victorian Britain in particular.

Britain gradually became more of a democracy as it extended the franchise to previously excluded groups by a succession of acts of Parliament. In doing so. it retained its monarchy. whose reputation Queen Victoria herself did much to restore. More striking. Britain managed to forestall revolutionary upheavals, which were common throughout the rest of the developing world. Women were still excluded from the political nation at the century’s end, but the working class’s own party. Labour, had laid the foundations of its massive role in twentieth-century Britain. The empire grew throughout the Victorian era, especially in the 1880s and 1890s. It was widely admired from abroad and gave Britain the appearance of ever-greater power but actually disguised several crucial weaknesses. The worst of these weaknesses, never adequately corrected, was the fact that industry and commerce were low-status occupations compared to the leisured life of the aristocracy. Britain. accordingly, lost its industrial lead to Germany and America and failed to keep pace with accelerating technical changes. As Victoria’s reign ended, Britain faced an unstable world and the prospect of decline.

Click here for a printable, PDF version of the following outline.

Outline

I. Britain gradually moved toward political democracy.

A. Impediments to voting and sitting in Parliament were removed piecemeal.

1. The three Reform Acts of 1832, 1867, and 1884 expanded the franchise.

2. The secret ballot (1872) and the Corrupt Practices Act (1883) diminished opportunities for bribery and intimidation.

3. The political rights gained by Catholics after 1829 and Jews after1858 ended the principle of religious exclusion.

4. After 1888, atheists were also included.

5. Thus, the special privileges attaching to members of the Church of England were gradually dismantled.

B. Democracy faced serious critics, who claimed that popularly elected politicians must pander to their constituencies and are often mediocrities and demagogues.

1. In practice, political life was not debased.

2. Parliament continued to be an arena in which exceptional politicians were far more common than mediocrities.

3. Politicians of lower social origins, now able to sit in Parliament, proved to have minds every bit as brilliant as those of their aristocratic colleagues.

C. Britain, unlike most of the European nations, did not undergo a nineteenth-century revolution or civil war.

D. Queen Victoria restored the monarchy’s reputation and assured it a continued role in the constitution in an age when many European monarchies were coming to an end.

E. By 1901, the Labour Party was joining the political nation, but in a nonrevolutionary way.

1. It, too, was, in many respects, conservative: Labour MPs respected the monarchy as much as anyone else and continued to do so through the twentieth century.

2. Throughout the twentieth century. the Labour Party was ambivalent about its own commitment to socialism; the Trades Union Congress and many Labour MPs had less interest in overthrowing capitalism than in getting a better deal out of it.

F. Politics remained a prestigious and honorable career.

II. The British Empire grew throughout the Victorian era.

A. It was the model for other ambitious nations’ empires.

B. It was comparatively well governed.

1. Despite some brutal military actions, the British colonial administration, once having established power, was relatively fair minded and humane.

2. Victorian British idealism was more than just a cover for comniercial rapacity.

3. The British ended slavery and provided education, sanitation. medicine, and other public health benefits for their colonies.

4. The Indian Congress Party itself depended on Victorian values.

C. The British Empire disguised Britain’s gradual loss of economic leadership.

III. Victorian Britain never overcame crucial weaknesses.

A. It did not sufficiently honor tile businessmen on whose work British greatness was founded.

1. High status required family pedigree and leisure.

2. Social snobbery was persistent and disabling, a recurrent theme in Victorian literature throughout the period.

B. Most people in Britain were poor.

1. Living standards rose very slowly, but from an extremely low starting point.

2. For most people throughout the Victorian period, life was a matter of chronic anxiety.

3. There was no “rags to riches” mythology -- no idealism about class mobility: the poor had no idea that they might aspire to a better life.

4. Trade unions were designed to make the best of the economic status quo by fighting for their working-class members’ pensions. job security, and job safety.

5. Trade unions also impaired British competitiveness by designing rigid demarcation rules and fostering an environment of mutual distrust between workers and management.

C. Britain was unable to use its influence to create international stability: late Victorian rivalry with Gennany was an early portent of the First World War.

IV. History in general, and Victorian history in particular, presents great opportunities and challenges.

A. History requires an imaginative engagement with people whose ideas are distinct from our own.

B. History ought not to be a mere recital of facts.

C. Victorian Britain did, in fact, produce many superb and imaginative historians, such as Thomas Carlyle and Thomas Macaulay.

D. The abundance of materials from the Victorian era is an asset to historians but can also be a problem.

E. Victorian vestiges, literary and material, give everyone the opportunity to delve more deeply into this subject.

Essential Reading:
Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria and Eminent Viciorians.
Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, the Heroic, and Hero-worship.

Supplementary Reading:
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Henry James, The Princess Casamassima.

Questions to ConsIder:
1. Could Britain have acted more wisely to protect its best interests in the nineteenth century?
2. Which of Britain’s many achievements in the Victorian era was the most remarkable?

This Week in English 4170, Week 16 (05 - 09 Dec.)

Week 16
(05 - 09 Dec.)

Mon. 05 • Documented Paper Conference

Wed. 07 • Semester Review; Classes End

• Mini-lecture 24: "The Victorian Legacy"

Fri. 09 • Documented Paper Due

Due: Assignment 12: Documented Paper Due (150 pts) by 4:30 PM, Erwin 221

Vanity Fair Part 6, Scene 6 "The Amelia Story Climax"

Dobbin finally looks into his own cracked looking glass, and Rebecca makes her heroic contribution to the book.

Vanity Fair Part 6, Scene 4 "Two Years Later"

Georgie meets Rebecca, and Rebecca returns. It is the return of the repressed, as she again bring Jos to heel.

Vanity Fair Part 6, Scene 3 "Amelia and Dobbin Courtship"

Amelia begins her rise out of poverty, again thanks to Major Dobbin. Dobbin continues his suit.