Decline And Fall

[poliphilo]

Evelyn Waugh and I went to the same school.  And even though I showed up 40 years after him, the ethos- anglo-catholic, dandyish, decadent-  hadn't changed a great deal.  It shaped him, it shaped me- and when I read him- especially the early books- I feel like he's winking at me- that we're co-conspirators in a plot against teachers, parents, prefects, chaplains and- well-  everything there is.

There's a joke in Decline and Fall which only an Old Lanconian could possibly get.

Decline and Fall is his first novel- also his purest and funniest. His attitudes hadn't hardened, he hadn't been nobbled by the Catholics- the irreverence is broadcast far and wide and no-one escapes. 

Comments

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Please tell about the joke - I'd love to know it next time I read the book!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's a character called Clutterbuck who- it is strongly implied- is Grimes' catamite.

A boy called Clutterbuck features largely in Lancing folklore. He had drowned in the river Adur whilst trying to rescue a friend. In my time- possibly in Waugh's as well- his ghost was supposed (without a shred of evidence) to haunt the school.

An issue of the school magazine in the mid-sixties featured a comical picture of the "ghost of Clutterbuck" on its front cover. This drew letters from aged old boys protesting at a cruel slur on the memory of an heroic individual.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

That's marvellous!
Until now, the name has always meant a visiting Stave who taught Elocution at a well-known girls' school. She was built like an opera star (as in "It isn't over until - ") and her rendering of "Who will guard the briddge with me?" is an abiding memory both of sight and sound to several generations of schoolgirls.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Would that be Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome- "Lars Porsena of Clusium/ By his nine gods he swore" etc? I used to have loads of that off by heart.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Yes! Didn't we all?
I can't do more than a phrase or three now.
"Then out spake brave Horatio .."
"The (something) hordes of Tuscany could scarce forebear to cheer"

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Here we go- from memory...

"And the great Lord of Luna
Reeled at that deadly stroke-
As falls on Mount Avernus
a thunder-smitten oak.
Wide o'er the crashing forest
The mighty arms lie spread
And the pale augurs, muttering low,
Gaze on the blasted head."