Tom and Jerry

As the current coronavirus situation remains precarious, and lockdown likely to continue for weeks to come, today’s cartoon in ‘The New Yorker’ reminded me of the need for ‘comfort experiences’ in troubling times.

During the pandemic ‘The Conversation’ has published a series ‘Art for Trying Times‘ in which various Australian university academics have written about songs, television programs, paintings and books that have provided solace. This week Judith Armstrong, from the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Melbourne, wrote about how Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’ provided her with, not only a vicarious escape, but also a two century-old reference point for managing social isolation.

In 2017, on the bicentenary of her death, there was an ‘explosion’ of writing about Jane Austen. In his article, ‘Jane Austen is Everything’, for the September issue of ‘The Atlantic’, Nicolas Dames, Professor of Humanities at Columbia University, looked at her ongoing appeal and concluded: ‘No one has made spiritedness more compelling, and no one has taken more care to hedge it with such perfect control. At different historical moments, one side or the other … has been emphasized—sometimes the ironic wit keeping characters under surveillance, sometimes the spirited relish with which those characters defend their rights—but the equipoise has demonstrated remarkable durability. The balance between self and society is the core dream of a liberal world: a place where individuals might be both sufficient unto themselves and possessed of rights accordingly, but also bound to one another in a pact of mutual correction. Call it civil society, as both a joy and a duty.’ His article can be read at: http://: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/jane-austen-is-everything/534186/

Not surprisingly, Jane Austen’s novels and cinematic adaptations feature prominently on ‘comfort reading and viewing lists’. Rachel Givney, author of the playful novel ‘Jane in Love’ published early this year, imagines Jane Austen time-travelling to modern-day England and falling in love. Written in pre-COVID times, Givney has recently speculated on how Ms Austen would manage during the pandemic in ‘Characters in the Time of Coronavirus’. She believes that Jane’s penchant for social distancing and her interest in watching interactions from afar would have made her feel quite at home with virtual social experiences. She might even have penned ‘Zoom with a View‘. See: https://www.penguin.com.au/articles/2670-characters-in-the-time-of-coronavirus

Austen is one of the writers who has re-appeared in my coronavirus world and I have often imaginatively joined Miss Bingley and Miss Bennett to ‘take a turn around the room’ to refresh myself ‘after sitting so long in one attitude’. I eavesdrop on their conversations and admire and enjoy their observations but…. I am left with the nagging feeling that their sheltered world precluded them from really observing men.

An answer to this thought is suggested by Joan Freilich in her article from ‘Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal’ vol. 24, 2002: ‘Pierce Egan’s Life in London, or is this what Jane’s gentlemen were up to when their author wasn’t looking?’.

Pierce Egan was a British journalist, sportswriter and writer on popular culture who was a contemporary of Jane Austen. Born in 1772 (three years before her birth), and outliving her by 27 years, he published works that give us a picture of the ‘world of men’ during the first decades of the 19^th century. While much of his writing is about boxing – he wrote four  volumes on ‘Boxiana; or Sketches of Ancient and Modern Pugilism’ – his most successful and acclaimed endeavour was the monthly journal ‘Life in London’ with illustrations by George and Isaac Robert Cruikshank which first appeared in July 1821.

The complete title is: ‘Life in London or, the Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, esq., and his elegant friend, Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their rambles and sprees through the Metropolis’ and it follows the adventures of (primarily) Tom and Jerry through the city of London. Described as a ‘faithful Portraiture of High & Low Life’ from the West End to the East End, and dedicated to King George IV, Egan’s comical monthly publication was one of the popular sensations of its day due to its graphic accuracy, racy slang and the lively impression it gave of the vitality of life during the Regency period.

The central characters are well-heeled young men about town, keen to see ‘a bit of life’ in all that London has to offer. We meet Tom, who is affluent, confident and tasteful; Jerry, his cousin – the son of a wealthy country squire; and Bob, a friend of Tom’s from Oxford – who was more in search of a good time than an education. Their escapades and misadventures are said to be largely autobiographical and drawn from the lives of Egan and his illustrators, the Cruikshank brothers.

The National Gallery of Victoria has 20 hand-coloured etchings and acquatints from the 1821 edition of ‘Life in London’. On the title page we see our three inebriated ‘lads’ centrally placed as they toast their forthcoming adventures. This image encapsulates the hierarchical world of London with the King and court as the ‘Corinthian Capital’ above the upper echelon of nobles and ‘respectables’, the lower ‘ins’ (incarcerated) and ‘outs’ (carousing), and the suffering ‘base’.

Jerry Hawthorn leaves his country life to experience the pleasures of the city with Corinthian Tom. To begin his ‘education’ he needs to be ‘kitted out as a swell’ and we see Jerry being measured up for the adventures while a nattily dressed Tom looks on approvingly. Tom is an orphan with ‘plenty of money and no one to control his inclinations’.

It is important to be able to handle oneself in the city and some knowledge of self-defence is an invaluable asset. Suitably ‘armed’, and with Bob Logic, they visit balls, the opera, exhibitions and society events …

…  as well as sporting competitions,

 and the Vauxhall Gardens (the outdoor illuminated ‘pleasure’ gardens which provided popular entertainment during the Regency period).

Tiring of fashionable society, the ‘lads’ decide to explore the underbelly of London life and head to the East End.

One of the key achievements of Egan’s Life in London was using contemporary slang as the basis of its style. An East End pub is described as follows: ‘Every cove that put in an appearance was quite welcome, colour or country considered no obstacle … The group was motley indeed – Lascars, blacks, jack-tars, coal-heavers, dustmen, women of colour, old and young, and a sprinkling of the remnants of once fine girls, and all jigging together’.

The carousers even visit the Condemned Yard at Newgate Prison where they watch the irons being knocked off the legs of a convict who is about to be hanged.

Inevitably, their exploits land them in trouble. Bob is arrested at his lodgings for being heavily in debt and taken to the ‘Whistling Shop on Board the Fleet’ (the Fleet Street Debtor’s Prison) …

… and Jerry becomes ill from his exposure to the elements and is advised by Dr. Please’em the society physician to return to the country to recuperate.

The series sold for a shilling an episode and spawned many imitations, translations and even several plays. It was described as being an accurate celebration of the possibilities of life in the city. In 1829, Egan wrote the last volume, but the series continued to be printed for a further fifty years showing how enduring his characters were. As a result of the success of Life in London, the names Tom and Jerry became proverbial for young men causing disorder. (Even though the series was extremely popular in 19^th century America, there is no solid evidence to suggest that it influenced the creation of the cartoon cat and mouse duo of same name).

As Freilich points out, Austen writes from a feminine perspective while Egan’s viewpoint is entirely masculine. And as Austen explores the world of rural estates, country villages and recreational centres like Bath, Egan provides an insight into ‘lads on the loose’ in the big city. (For despite having female companions, all the activities the friends engage in and all the places they frequent, they do so unaccompanied by their ladies). It is likely that Austen was not aware of this world or, if she happened to know of it, preferred to look away.

In re-reading and re-watching Austen’s stories, Egan’s characters add another fascinating and invaluable dimension to the male protagonists in Austen’s world. One can only wonder what Mr Darcy might have been up to in London when Miss Bennett was not around!