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The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
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Humphry Clinker Week 3: Begin Volume 2, starting with a letter to Dr Lewis from Matt. Bramble (London, June 8), to page 179, the end of a letter from J Melford to Sir Watkin Phillips (Scarborough, July 1).
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Last section, I commented that basically I was beginning to be bored with the book. Well, I became much more interested in the book during this section. I thought the action really picked up right after the author dinner and kept up a good pace all through the entire section. I enjoyed the scenes of Clinker preaching and his legal difficulties, especially the prison preaching. I thought the depiction of the romantic triangle with Tabby, Mr. Barton and Lydia, and Lady Griskin's involvement was quite humorous. The highwaymen scenes, including Clinker's false accusation, Martin's assistance of Clinker and the group on the way to Harrigate and the deMelville's rescue by apothecary Grieve/Count Fathom, provided much needed excitement to the story. I found the Count Fathom appearance interesting as he was the subject of a previous Smollett novel The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom.
I could go on to the actions of Tabby's 'beau' and Humphrey with Winifred during the fire- there were just so many better described, more interesting and more humorous incidents than in the previous sections. Just in time to re-spark my interest in this novel.
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The idea of thief takers framing innocent people was apparently a real thing at times, also the prevalence of highwaymen - and the somewhat mixed feelings about a polite or gentlemanly robber.
Bramble is supposed to be a crank but was way ahead of his time in praising the "farm-to-table" method of providing food and even free-range animals. Not to mention air and water pollution.
I haven’t finished the section yet but I can say that the various adulterations of food described were real, not fictional exaggerations. I was researching food and drink in 1800 recently for a blog post and many of the same disgusting practices were still common. Adding tainted water to milk was know as “milk of the black cow” because of the iron pump used to collect the water. I can add one more hideous food grossness that Smollett would not have been aware of. Most of the tea drunk in England till about 1850 was green tea from China. The Chinese, believing that the English wanted their tea to be a particular shade of green, treated it with cyanide and gypsum in processing! It was when this practice was revealed by an exploring botanist named Fortune that the whole nation converted to drinking black tea. I always laugh when people tell me earnestly how much healthier green tea is!
Robin P. wrote:Bramble is supposed to be a crank but was way ahead of his time in praising the "farm-to-table" method of providing food and even free-range animals. Not to mention air and water pollution."Absolutely, he is a lone prophet, vainly protesting the drive towards urban sprawl and industrialisation. These days I think you'd find him sitting on the M25 with Extinction Rebellion.
Abigail wrote:I haven’t finished the section yet but I can say that the various adulterations of food described were real, not fictional exaggerations. I was researching food and drink in 1800 recently for a blog post and many of the same disgusting practices were still common.
Yes, unfortunately it would take an avoidable tragedy for Parliament to finally address the adulteration of food. In 1858, after a Bradford confectioner accidentally used arsenic to make mint humbugs, 20 people died and 200 fell seriously ill. Legislation to regulate both ingredients and poisons followed.
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK...
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I felt the same way-in this section I've done numerous underlinings of humorous anecdotes or great lines, and to some extent just relaxing and enjoying the journey seems to be the way to treat this novel.
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Good point, and certainly when you think about what would be involved in getting milk or meat or fish to London houses you do wonder about how anything could be kept fresh or clean, and pity the poor livestock that were raised in London itself.
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I have to agree that the author chapter really dragged but the rest of this section is entertaining.
The descriptions of the food were a little too realistic for me-Yuck!
That was indeed an excellent description of the bathing machines! I wish I’d read this book before writing a short story that involved them. 😁 The contrasting descriptions of Vauxhall Gardens in the last section were terrific too. I must stay I’m not enjoying all the physical comedy, though.
Abigail wrote: " I must stay I’m not enjoying all the physical comedy, ..."Smollett seems to be employing a thick layer of slapstick and what I would call ‘toilet’ humour to get the laughs…….. and he succeeds. Some of the antics reminded me of the Carry On films of the 60s and 70s, and of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
I also laughed at the proposed head drilling but not without a chilling fear that for someone with less authority than Squire Burdock it might actually have taken place.
I have a book entitled ‘The High Street’ a spin off from a BBC series. There is a section on adulterated bread. All sorts of additives from sawdust to chalk were put in to bulk up the bread mixture, with the cheapest bread having the least amount of wheat. Then a scientist found out that large amounts of alum were being used to bulk up the bread mixture, which probably hastened the disease of rickets in those that ate it. There was an ‘Adulteration of Food, Drink and Drugs act’ in 1872 when inspectors were first appointed but even then they were not compulsory and additives could still be used to bulk up the bread as long as they were declared.
As for Matthew’s declarations about ‘Harrigate’ water, I have tasted some from the tap outside the Pump Room there.
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...
I have to agree with Matthew that it is disgusting. The smell of rotten eggs hits your nose before your lips get to the water. I took a sip and the horrible taste lingered all day, unfortunately.
Humphry Clinker is certainly an extraordinary individual, both a priest and personal bodyguard, handy with his fists and his tongue, even the fashionable Lady Griskin is a convert. He also seems to be able to extricate himself from the worst kind of predicaments, probably with the assistance of divine providence.
I am not sure about Martin’s miraculous conversion to honesty and his wish to be subservient. I feel that both Matthew and Jery might regret their judgement of him in the future.
I'm still not finished with this section, but am enjoying it. The story is now picking up and there is considerable action. Tabitha, Liddy, and Barton entanglement was hilarious. Humphrey is turning to be a character of interest. I was feeling a bit lazy to pick this up since I didn't enjoy Volume 1, but now I'm intrigued. :)I'm confused with one point. In my Oxford edition, Tabitha Bramble is referred to as Mrs. Tabitha Bramble. Is it a general way of addressing at that time? I thought she was an unmarried lady and not a widow.
It was conventional in those days to refer to a mature or middle-aged woman as “Mrs.” even if not married—an honor (I suppose) accorded to her years rather than her status. Though I’ve seen it more often used for upper servants than for gentry.I suspect Smollett does it because he’s having so much fun making jokes at the expense of her singleness and desperation to be settled as a wife. (Not amusing to me.) I noticed that her desperation to be married increased manyfold as soon as her brother threatened to boot her out of his establishment if she didn’t stop being such a pest. I know personally what it feels like to live in a household on sufferance, where the right of the householder to eject you at will is held over your head as a means of control. To me it’s one of those unthinking cruelties of the privileged, and a source of pathos not humor.
When reading about Matthew’s complaints about the state of the roads (once he had set off from London towards the North) I had to laugh at the similarities between Smollett’s wit and that of Ben Elton’s historical sitcom, ‘Upstart Crow.’https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07b...
In Upstart Crow, every time William Shakespeare travels between Stratford-upon-Avon and London, he complains about the the journey, usually satirising a contemporary British transport problem. It made me realise that writers of comedy through the ages have been targeting similar topics and satirising them in similar ways.
Abigail wrote: "It was conventional in those days to refer to a mature or middle-aged woman as “Mrs.” even if not married—an honor (I suppose) accorded to her years rather than her status. Though I’ve seen it more..."Thank you, Abigail, for the explanation. It makes sense.
Yes, as Abigail says, Mrs was used for single women in the 18th century. The usage seems to have died out in the 19th century with the exception of cooks and housekeepers, who were often single but were given the courtesy title of Mrs to honour their age, experience and important role in the household.Only Tabby has the sense to insist that they don't set off again in a jolting carriage with all the guns still loaded. Good call Mrs Tabby! It's a shame Matthew doesn't like Harrogate - I've always liked it and feel sure he would enjoy a visit to Betty's Cafe for afternoon tea. I've never tried the water though!
I agree with others that the novel has become more interesting. Brumble‘s observations are mostly pretty valid, if somewhat one-sided. He lives in an era of change. And he sees things from a perspective of privileged class. We see the beginning of rapid urbanization growth. The migration from the rural areas has something to due with opportunities not found any longer in rural areas. An urban middle class developed, rapidly rising profits from foreign trade helped with that. But a lot of this was only benefitting the wealthy living in London. New opportunities developed for the urban population, also due to the beginning of industrialization. Brumble puts his finger on a lot of problems occurring due to this new era. He misses the vanishing lifestyle of prior generations.Clinker appears to be the naive guy, not sure where this is going? He is the character of the title, but so far there is not much to justify this. A bit of Don Quixote. His sermons are certainly very interesting to the „ladies“ ( female characters in this novel certainly are not portrayed in a sympathetic way). Let’s see where this goes.
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I'm surprised we haven't heard more about/from Liddy, who would have been the sympathetic female character I assume-even her "romance" was much more focussed on Tabitha!
(Matthew)’ Now, mark the contrast at London—I am pent up in frowzy lodgings, where there is not room enough to swing a cat; and I breathe the steams of endless putrefaction; and these would, undoubtedly, produce a pestilence, if they were not qualified by the gross acid of sea-coal, which is itself a pernicious nuisance to lungs of any delicacy of texture: but even this boasted corrector cannot prevent those languid, sallow looks, that distinguish the inhabitants of London from those ruddy swains that lead a country-life—’…………
Not a bad description of a ‘cheap’ room in London where even this year there have been successful court actions relating to the effects of air pollution on children’s health.
I wonder if Sheriden had read ‘The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker’ before writing his play, ‘The Rivals’ in 1775? His famous character, Mrs Malaprop, seems to have been upstaged somewhat by Smollett’s Winifred.
(Winifred)
’.. is life but a veil of affliction? O Mary! the whole family have been in such a constipation!—Mr Clinker has been in trouble, but the gates of hell have not been able to prevail again him. His virtue is like poor gould, seven times tried in the fire. He was tuck up for a rubbery, and had before gustass Busshard, who made his mittamouse; and the pore youth was sent to prison upon the false oaf of a willian, that wanted to sware his life away for the looker of cain.’
Her description of ‘Habeas Corpus’ will not be forgotten for a long time.
The malapropisms are hilarious in this book! The word malaprop, derived from the French mal à propos, does indeed date to after Sheridan’s play, but the practice in English goes back at least to Shakespeare (maybe Chaucer?) and was used in French theater as well in the eighteenth century. Before it was called malapropism, it was known as dogberryism, after the Shakespearean character of Dogberry in Much Ado about Nothing.
I can’t claim to have known this going in, your comment sparked my interest so I looked it up!
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In the last few letters, there were a lot of new characters and I had a lot of trouble following who was who and how they were linked to our main family, but I guess it doesn't matter much.
We continue to hear complaints on all manner of English life from Matthew Bramble, presumably speaking what Smollett feels, with a contrasting view from his younger nephew and niece. We start with a truly disgusting discussion of the foods supplied in London, and then in the second letter, written by Jery, my notes tell me that the author S_______, with whom he is taken to dine, is in fact Smollett himself, which is quite an amusing self-portrait if so (although I suppose if painters can do this, why not authors?)
What did you make of the developments in Humphry Clinker's situation-both his preaching, his legal difficulties, and his ultimate rescue by the family, who I imagine could simply have left him to fend for himself and carried on without him?
We meet a handful of other new characters-Lady Griskin, Ralph Barton, Mr Mead, Squire Burdock and his wife and son, the Count and Countess and the Apothecary Grieve, Mr Pimpernel, Mr Micklewhimmen, and it is unclear if any of them will reappear at a later time. Do you have a favourite anecdote or tale about any of them?
I particularly enjoyed the incident of Squire Burdock's head injury, and the plan to have him trepanned-a hole burred into his skull to let the bad humours or blood out, particularly that it was his wife and son that were so keen to proceed. Fortunately the Squire leapt out of bed at the last minute to prevent further injury.
Please share your thoughts on this next section, including any favourite anecdotes or lines.