George Gissing: A Fan's Commonplace Blog

Commonplace 23     George & Gabrielle - Happy Birthdays Yous Twos!

                Gabrielle was born on November 21st; George on November 22nd.

George always remembered birthdays, though he didn't much mark his own except in a doomy sort of way.



'You want a 'Full English' as a birthday treat? Is that a euphemism for bum sex?' she ejaculated.

'Not in Wakefield, it isn't, madam!' came the indignant reply. 

Famously, George moaned about the food Gabrielle served up in France (and such small portions!). Did he never think to cook his own viands?? Or was what he wanted unavailable in the shops? What he wanted was the Roast Beef of Old England, by Hogarth:

This is Hogarth's comment on his second visit to France in the summer of 1748, when he was arrested as a spy while sketching the arms of England on the old city gate at Calais. The contemporary diarist George Vertue records in August 1748 that Hogarth and Francis Hayman were 'attempting to draw some Views of Fortifications &c. were surprized & clapt into the Bastile. from whence they were soon glad to return to England' ('Vertue Note Books III', Walpole Society, vol.22, Oxford 1934, p.142). Hogarth took his revenge with this painting. The title was taken from a popular tune of the day, which extolled roast beef as the symbol of Britain's wealth and power.

Numerous xenophobic references indicate Hogarth's low opinion of the French. The huge side of British beef at the exact centre of the picture, destined for the English inn at Calais, is neatly balanced by the scrawny French soldier at the other side of the drawbridge. A fat friar, the only well-nourished Frenchman in the picture, covetously pokes the beef. In the right foreground, a starving Jacobite sits with his pathetic meal of an onion and a piece of bread, his overturned cup beside him. The Jacobites, the Scotsmen who fled to France after the unsuccessful Scottish rebellion of 1745, are further symbolised by the black crow which perches atop the stone cross above the drawbridge. In the tableau framed by the gate, a white dove hangs on an inn sign above the cross - a satirisation of the Catholic Church. The fish-wives in the left foreground ridicule a skate whose unpleasantly human features resemble their own. To the left of the gate, framed by vegetables, sits Hogarth himself. As he sketches the drawbridge, the arresting officer's hand clasps his shoulder. (Tate Gallery online catalogue)

This is Douglas Adams - he would have made George smile, and he would have made him realise the Interconnectedness of absolutely everything. 'The Roast Beef of Old England' was a song written in 1731 by Henry Fielding for 'The Grub Street Opera'. See? The Interconnectedness of everything.

When mighty Roast Beef was the Englishman's food,

It ennobled our brains and enriched our blood.

Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers were good

Oh! the Roast Beef of old England,

And old English Roast Beef!

But since we have learnt from all-vapouring France

To eat their ragouts as well as to dance,

We're fed up with nothing but vain complaisance

Oh! the Roast Beef of Old England,

And old English Roast Beef!

Our fathers of old were robust, stout, and strong,

And kept open house, with good cheer all day long,

Which made their plump tenants rejoice in this song--

Oh! The Roast Beef of old England,

And old English Roast Beef!

But now we are dwindled to, what shall I name?

A sneaking poor race, half-begotten and tame,

Who sully the honours that once shone in fame.

Oh! the Roast Beef of Old England,

And old English Roast Beef!

When good Queen Elizabeth sat on the throne,

Ere coffee, or tea, or such slip-slops were known,

The world was in terror if e'er she did frown.

Oh! The Roast Beef of old England,

And old English Roast Beef!

In those days, if Fleets did presume on the Main,

They seldom, or never, return'd back again,

As witness, the Vaunting Armada of Spain.

Oh! The Roast Beef of Old England,

And old English Roast Beef!

Oh then we had stomachs to eat and to fight

And when wrongs were cooking to do ourselves right.

But now we're a . . . I could, but goodnight!

Oh! the Roast Beef of Old England,

And old English Roast Beef!

HG Wells said (rather ungallantly for a such an old flirt) Gabrielle had a 'letterbox' mouth:

A bit harsh, HG

The Kiss by Rodin. A lesser-known version.

 

Members of the Portsmouth Branch of the George Gissing Appreciation Society at the annual meeting to commemorate the birth of their hero, November 2014. 'A Fan' is seated far left.