William Maginn and the British Press by Latané David E.;

Author:Latané, David E.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2013-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Fig. 10.1 “A Story Without a Tail,” from The Cyclopædia of Wit and Humor. Ed. W. Burton. New York: Appleton, 1859. 494.

Maginn’s numerous variations on the pleasures and follies of the table frequently take into account the moments of oblivion and confusions of meaningfulness that accompany conviviality and entering a state of “civilation.” The fuller one gets with food and drink, the greater chance there is of an emptying out of cares—and a moment of befuddlement in what might be termed a gustatory aporia. “A Story Without a Tail” (BM Apr. 1834: 453–8) concerns a simple dinner party in the Temple in London (Figure 10.1). From the beginning there is a metafictional quality as the narrator enumerates each participant’s contributions: Jack Ginger “provided room, fire, candles, tables, chairs, tablecloth, napkins—no, not napkins; on second thoughts we did not bother ourselves with napkins—plates, dishes,” and so on. The meal, like the many described in the Noctes, boggles the modern mind: bread, butter, cheese, radishes, potatoes, a cod’s head and shoulders, and oysters to match, a leg of pork, a sirloin of beef roast, a gallon of half-and-half, and four bottles of whiskey (potteen), half a dozen bottles of port, provided by Antony Harrison, “he having tick to that extent at some unfortunate wine-merchant’s,” cigars, and a bottle of rum (453). The story is thus simple: six men eat and drink themselves to oblivion, debating and dividing over nonparliamentary questions such as jug? or bowl? (457). At 11 pm one of them, the habitually silent Humpy Harlow, a hanger-on welcomed for his ready money, unexpectedly tells a story beginning “Humphries told me . . .” differentiated seriously as “Chap. IV. How Humpy Harlow Broke Silence at Jack Ginger’s” (458). The next day, however, the others find themselves unable to recollect more than these words, and two of them arrange to meet Harlow again. He repeats his story, but they are too far gone in drink to remember more than “Humphries told me . . .” The third night, as a less inebriated group prompts the man to tell it again, a hiccup occurs: Humpy “flares up” and refuses to continue. The narrator soberly concludes that the purpose of the “Story Without a Tail” is to “impress upon the minds of my readers the perishable nature of mundane affairs” (458). Throughout the tone is alternately mock-heroic (an epic list of victuals is read), mock-scientific (a diagram is drawn showing the geometry of the angles of the slice made out of the round of cheese), and solemnly legal: “Chairs being made to be sat upon, it is sufficient to say that they answer their purposes; and whether they had backs or not—whether they were cane-bottomed, or hair-bottomed, or rush-bottomed, is nothing to the present inquiry” (454). George Saintsbury claimed to have read this story “literally scores of times and never without fresh enjoyment” (299) and it does perfectly capture the mood of a group of legal students and bohemians enjoying a potluck feast—and their dependence on “tick.

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