Aristophanes - "The Frogs"

Paul Heyse - "Beatrice"

James Whitcomb Riley - "A Child World"

John Lewis Burckhardt - "Travels In Arabia"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Edward FitzGerald and Posh

J >> James Blyth >> Edward FitzGerald and Posh







CHAPTER XVIII
UNTO THIS LAST


Posh does not remember the last occasion on which he spoke to his old
"guv'nor," but he says that whenever he did see him he, FitzGerald, would
take him by the blue woollen jersey and pinch him, and say, "Oh dear, oh
dear, Posh! To think it should ha' come to this." Well, this may
possibly have been the case. There is no doubt that FitzGerald resumed
friendly relations with the fisherman, for on August 29th, 1875, he wrote
from Woodbridge to his former partner:--

"WOODBRIDGE, _August_ 29.

"DEAR POSH,

"I have posted you a Lowestoft Paper telling you something of the
Regatta there. But as you say you like to hear from me also, I write
to supply what the Paper does not tell: though I wonder you can care
to hear of such things in the midst of your Fishing.

"I, and every one else, made sure that the little _Sapphire_ would do
well when it came on to blow on Thursday: she went to her moorings as
none of the others did except the _Red Rover_. But, directly the Gun
fired, the _Otter_ (an awkward thing) drove down upon, and broke up
her Chain-plates, or stenctions [_sic_], to which the wire rigging
holds: so she could not sail at all: and the _Red Rover_ got the
Prize, after going only _two_ rounds instead of _three_: which is odd
work, I think. Major Leathes' mast went over in the first round, as
it did a year ago. At Evening, the _Otter_ grounded as she lay by the
South Pier: and would have knocked her bottom out had not Ablett
Pasifull gone off to her and made them hoist their main-sail.

"Ablett and Jack got more and more uncomfortable with their new Owner,
who is a Fool as well as a Screw. At last Ablett told him that he
himself and Jack had almost been on the point of leaving him, and
_that_, I think, will bring him to his senses, if anything can.

"On Friday we saw _Mushell_ coming in deeply laden, and we heard how
he had just missed putting three lasts on board of you. I sent off a
Telegram to you that same evening, as Mushell knew you would be
anxious to know that he had come in safe through the wind and Sea of
Thursday night. He was to have started away again on Sunday: but one
of his men who had gone home had not returned by one o'clock, when I
came away. _This_, I always say, is one of the Dangers of coming
home, but, as Things were, _Mushell_ could scarce help it, though he
had better have gone to Yarmouth to sell his Fish. He seems a good
Fellow.

"All these mishaps--I wonder any man can carry on the trade! I think
I would rather be in my own little Punt again. But, while you will go
on, you know I will stand by you. Your mare is well, and the sore on
her Shoulder nearly gone. Mr. and Mrs. Howe send their Regards.
Cowell is gone off to Devonshire instead of coming to meet me at
Lowestoft: but I dare say I shall run over there again before long.

"Yours always,
"E. FG."

{Boulge church: p201.jpg}

The "little _Sapphire_" I cannot identify. One gentleman has been kind
enough to try to help me, and thinks that she was the _Scandal_. But
this cannot be so, for the _Scandal_ was built for FitzGerald at Wyvenhoe
in 1863, was first called the _Shamrock_ and then the _Scandal_.
Personally, I remember the names of a good many of the yachts of the
Norfolk and Suffolk coast of the period, but I can't identify the
_Sapphire_. The _Red Rover_ was a river craft, a cutter, with the one
big jib of our river craft instead of jib and foresail, belonging to the
late Mr. Sam Nightingale, of Lacon's Brewery. She was originally about
twelve tons, but by improvements and additions, when Mr. Nightingale died
in the eighties, was eighteen tons. For many years she was the fastest
yacht in the Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club, and though she was
occasionally beaten on fluky days she never lost possession of the
challenge cup for long. Fred Baldry, who steered her with extraordinary
skill, is, I believe, still alive, and lives on Cobholm Island, Yarmouth.

The _Red Rover_ was not only successful on the rivers and Broads, but in
the Yarmouth Roads. I was on her when she was beating the famous Thames
twenty-tonner _Vanessa_, when the _Red Rover_ carried away her bowsprit
(a new stick) as she was beating on the sands to dodge the tide, and I
remember how we were hooted all the way up Gorleston Harbour when Mr.
William Hall's steam launch towed us in.

I believe that when the little ten-ton _Buttercup_ (unbeaten at her best)
came down and gave the poor old _Red Rover_ the worst dressing down she
had ever experienced it broke Mr. Nightingale's heart. He died soon
after, and he left a direction in his will that the _Red Rover_ should be
broken up and burnt. It would, I think, have been a kinder and better
direction to have left the yacht to Fred Baldry, who had steered her to
victory so often.

Although I have described her as a river yacht, she was purely a racing
machine, and used to be accompanied (in the home waters at all events) by
a wherry, with all spare spars and sails, on which everything unnecessary
for sailing was stowed before the starting gun was fired.

Once a year she carried a picnic party over Breydon Water, on which
occasion, I believe, Mrs. Nightingale was invariably seasick going over
to Breydon. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Nightingale ever used her for pleasure
except on that one annual excursion up to Reedham.

Well, well! There are no _Red Rovers_ now, and no Fred Baldrys coming
on. But there are plenty of stinking black tugs and filthy coal barges
embellishing the lovely Norfolk waters. I do not wonder that Colonel
Leathes, mentioned in the last quoted letter, has taken his yacht _off_
the public waters and confined her to the beautiful wooded reaches of
Fritton Mere.

The _Otter_ was a rival of the _Red Rover_ in the early days of the
latter yacht, and was a clumsy, rather ugly, ketch-rigged craft belonging
to Sir Arthur Preston. Major Leathes' (now Colonel Leathes) boat was a
yawl named the _Waveney Queen_, and the Colonel tells me that he carried
away his mast twice, each time because he would "carry on" too long.

I can't ascertain who was the "new owner" of Ablett Percival and Jack--and
if I could I suppose it wouldn't do to name him, in view of FitzGerald's
stringent criticism of him. Subsequently Jack Newson went on the _Mars_,
the sea-going craft belonging to the late J. J. Colman, M.P., but this
was later than 1875.

"Mushell" was the nickname of Joe Butcher, the former skipper of the
_Henrietta_, under Posh, as owner.

I must admit that this letter is hard to fit in with the year 1875, when
the _Meum and Tuum_ and the _Henrietta_ had been sold, and the separation
between Posh and his "guv'nor" final, so far as herring fishing was
concerned. The last paragraph, in which FitzGerald writes that so long
as Posh goes on he will stand by him, seems in flat contradiction to what
happened in 1874. But Colonel Leathes puts the date as 1875, and Dr.
Aldis Wright has been kind enough to look up old almanacs in his
possession and corroborates this view. It speaks with extraordinary
eloquence of FitzGerald's affection for Posh, of his patience with the
man, that after the want of recognition of his kindness shown in 1874 he
should have written to him in such a manner in 1875.

"Mr. and Mrs. Howe" were, as I have stated before, the caretakers at
Little Grange. "Cowell" was, no doubt, Professor Cowell, though it seems
strange that FitzGerald should have mentioned him to Posh without any
prefix to his name.

That is the last letter in which I can find any reference to Posh, and
the last letter in Posh's possession which was written to him. I dare
say there were later letters, but if so they have been destroyed.

FitzGerald had tried a new experiment, and it was ended.

Myself, when young, did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same door wherein I went.

He had found a new love, a new interest, and believed that he had found a
new trustworthiness. But he returned through the same door by which he
entered; and he was an old man for disillusionment.

Posh was, no doubt, rude, harsh, overbearing with the old gentleman, but
his eyes grow moist now when he speaks of him. I think he would
surrender a good deal of his boasted independence if only he could have
FitzGerald for his friend again.

The last time he was with me I read him

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

"Well tha'ss a rum un!" said Posh.

THE END

WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD.
PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH




Footnotes:


{184} In East Anglia "boat" is pronounced to rhyme with "foot."

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