A TOAST TO THE IMMORTAL MEMORY OF
"Tms is an unforgettable night for me, Mr President, because of the honour you conferred upon me in
inviting me. I am intensely proud to give you this toast, the proudest toast for any Dickensian to
propose. This toast, you know, has been proposed in many places throughout the world. But to be
asked to propose it here in Haarlem, at a gathering of the Haarlem Branch of the Dickens Fellowship,
that body which has done more than any other not just to promote Charles Dickens, but to preserve
this vital part of Britain's heritage, then that is surely one of the greatest honours that can be conferred
upon any speaker. In addition, I am very conscious of that honour and I shall always be grateful for it.
So fill your glasses to the brim, and raise them high!"
Mr. President, I found this first toast on the Internet. It was a toast to Robert Bums, the famous
Scottish peet. I only altered the names. It seems that both Bums and Dickens possess a monopoly on
Immortal Memories. It also seems that only XIX Century English writers have been subject to
Immortal Memories. Immortal Memories therefore seem to grow somewhat outdated.
Mr. President, Immortal Memories not only seem to have become outdated, in my opinion they also
dwell upon the wrong subject. Dickens and his so-called Immortal Memory both proved to be very
mortal. They both died in 1870. As we all know, nobody is immortal. To propose a toast on Charles
Dickens' Immortal Memory therefore actually means proposing toasts on his characters. Dickens is
dead, as dead as a doornail, but his characters are alive and kicking. They dó deserve many Immortal
Memories. As a matter of fact, what do we remember of Dickens? The man? The husband? The lover
of young actresses? No! We do remember Pickwick, Micawber, Little Dorrit, and all fictional
characters which are really alive. They are immortal because they never really existed and therefore
could not be mortal at all. So, Mr. President, Dear Dickensians, raise your glasses high as I give you
the greatest toast of them all, to the Immortal Memory to all of Dickens's characters.
I believe, not less than a thousand characters exist. Each individual character should be worthy of a
serious toast. Would not every Dickensian agree to this happy proposal? In order not to forget any of
these characters, we should memorise them in alphabetical order.
Speaking about not wanting to forget, take the character of Mrs Clemnan. She is a living memory. The
embodiment of remembering. She exists of memories only. Do Not Forget is her life long motto, her
life long sentence. Hers' is Elvis Presley's famous song, entitled: I FORGET TO REMEMBER TO
FORGET. I believe she is still among us, sitting in the room of her antique house, or even better, in the
room next to us, looking to the precise spot on the small table, which has been and will always be
occupied by the watch with the sentence D.N.F. engraved upon it. Remembering remembered.
I would be surprised if Dickens entered this room. However, I would not be surprised at all, if one of
his characters entered. To express it more strongly: I am convinced that these characters are already
present in this same room. Or, is it not true that Mr. Pieter de Groot incorporates the secretary of the
Pickwick Club, a secretary whose minutes are so beautifully presented in the first Chapter of the
Pickwick Papers? Or, do we not know, deep in our hearts, that the countenance of Mr. Micawber has
been embodied slowly, very slowly in the mighty figure of Mr. Jan Lokin? In addition, shouldn't we
be surprised to recognise an elderly Little Dorrit in the amiable presence of Mrs Marian Andriessen?
So, a Toast to the Immortal Memory of the Memory of Mrs Clemnan. However, above and for all: a
Toast to the Immortal Memory of us all!
Jan Kabel
13 December 2003
