TOAST TO "THE IMMORTAL MEMORY"
DICKENS FELLOWSHIP CONFERENCE DINNER
THE HAGUE, MAY 2oth, 1967
By H. A. M. T. Kolfschoten,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I must confess that the task of making a speech before such an
audience of experts on the subject of our mutual admiration,
Charles Dickens, has for some time given me a feeling of loneliness
similar to that induced by having to climb an Alpine peak, not
only without adequately mastering the technique of mountaineer
ing,; but also without having the requisite-attributes for it.
Win fact, two problems, like mountain massifs, have risen up
before me: one was the realisation that my knowledge of Dickens
was limited to what I had read of him and about him, and what I
could possibly still read from his works; and the second was that I
am- afflicted with the vice of not being an Englishman. To wish to
say something substantial about the figure who has always im
pressed me as being the most English of all 'English writers, with
out having lived on the very soil from which he drew inspiration,
seemed to me like trying to solve chess problems without even
knowing the rules of the game.
-A realised all too well that to estimate Dickens at his true value
I lacked both the experience of being well-read and. the feeling of
life and language which are jointly so essential to make the reading
of Dickens that refined and exclusive pleasure it is for English
people.
However, after gazing for some time at my immovable Alpine
mountain, I finally realised that I would have to make the ascent
by guile. What would be easier, I thought, than to go to the
nearest airportmodern literatureand charter a helicopter
which would bear me over the mountain range so that I could
absorb part of the panoramic vista unrolling before my eyes
Having got so far, I was happy to make a small discovery. The
word panoramic written without any deep intention
suddenly appeared to contain an unexpected germ of encouraging
thought which might help me in my situation. Would it,
wondered, be possible in general to draft, a century after Dickens,
a picture of that writer which would not give the impression of
having been taken from a certain height or distance For, after
all, these one hundred years have passed unnoticed no more by
the reader of novels than by human society as a whole. If it is true
that reading consists not only of passively undergoing emotions
aroused in the reader by the written word but also in their inter
pretation, then it is also undeniable that the modern reader is
confronted with the problem of not only having to interpret the
work of Dickens but also to incorporate in it the whole develop
ment of the novel since his time..
This theme can possibly be clarified by an example from the art
of painting. It is well known that Breughel the Elder was regarded
as a simple Primitive until well into the nineteenth century and
Burgomaster of the Hague
