A TOAST TO OUR DICKENS FELLOWSHIP
Lente 2006 no. 56
door Dick Kooiman
The chairman asked me to give a toast to
our Dickens Fellowship and I will gladly
accept his invitation. But I have been
asking myself the last few days, why is it
that we are having the traditional
toasting to our fellowship and to the
immortal memory of Dickens at
Christmas time. Why not at his birthday,
to mention just one obvious alternative?
I think the answer is the close association
between Dickens and Christmas.
His first Christmas story was published in 1836
in Sketches by Boz. What is most striking is the
close resemblance of this story to later ones, like
the more famous Christmas Carol in Prose. I
will quote the opening line, "Christmas time!
That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in
whose breast something like a jovial feeling is
not roused by the recurrence of Christmas."
As if we hear Scrooge's nephew, Fred, speaking!
In this first Christmas story we find the themes
that recur in later descriptions of Christmas
parties, including the controversial relatives
who are welcomed back in the family circle, and
the edifying speeches made after dinner by
elderly uncles. Christmas was Dickens' favourite
celebration. His close association with
Christmas was most clearly expressed by a poor
barrow girl in Covent Garden who on hearing of
Dickens' death exclaimed "Then will father
Christmas die too?"
Now, giving a toast to our fellowship I want to
see our fellowship as one prolonged Christmas
party. There are so many outstanding
similarities between our fellowship and a
Christmas party that you might wonder why
they have escaped our notice for so long.
First of all, there is the gratifying contrast
between the dark and gloomy world outside and
the bright and friendly atmosphere at the
dinner table inside. In the same way,
membership of this fellowship gives us the
pleasant feeling of belonging to a select circle of
happy few, in contradistinction to the mass of
the ignorant who don't know the law and never
enjoy the pleasure of reading Dickens.
Then, there is in some Christmas stories, and
especially in the story of Scrooge and Marley,
reference to a supernatural intervention,
leading to a miraculous and sudden change of
heart, converting Scrooge from a miserable
miser into a generous benefactor. Is it too much
to say that we also, by talking Dickens, feel the
magic touch of his creative genius, and leave our
meetings with much improved feelings of
ourselves and our fellow beings?
Next, the guests at Christmas parties described
by Dickens venerate their link with the past and
show great respect to older generations, as you
will remember from the party with the Wardles
family in Dingly Dell. Remember the old lady at
the fire. In the same way, we cultivate our
fellowship history by now toasting to present
and past members. The origins of our fellowship
are somewhat clouded in mystery and when
speaking about it we like to refer to time
immemorial, but we will proudly celebrate its
fifty years' existence next year.
Finally. The Christmas dinner in Sketches by
Boz is described as - I quote - creating and
sustaining more mutual love, unanimity and
helpfulness than all sermons preached from the
pulpit by learned theologians ever can. In the
same way, proposing this toast, I will honour
the literary friendship and good-comradeship so
strongly present in this Haarlem fellowship.
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