By ’eck, we had it tough
QUESTION
What are the origins of the Four Yorkshiremen sketch incorrectly attributed to Monty Python? The Four Yorkshiremen became a worldwide hit when the Pythons performed it live at the hollywood Bowl in 1982.
It featured the classic Python line-up of Michael Palin, eric Idle, Graham Chapman and Terry Jones in a skit during which their Yorkshire characters made increasingly hilarious claims about how tough they had it as children.
The sketch was part-written by Pythons John Cleese and Graham Chapman with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman.
It was first performed on the At Last The 1948 Show TV series in 1967 with the authors playing the Yorkshiremen. Barry Cryer played a wine waiter.
It was inspired by a piece by turn- ofthe-century Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock. his comic works were based on the incongruity between appearance and reality in human conduct.
These are best portrayed in his 1912 Sunshine Sketches Of A Little Town, which gently mocked life in the fictional town of Mariposa, Ontario, and 1914’s Arcadian Adventures With The Idle Rich.
his story Self-Made Men appeared in his 1910 collection Literary Lapses, with the same premise as the Four Yorkshiremen.
Two men are in an expensive restaurant: ‘They were both what we commonly call successful businessmen — men with wellfed faces, heavy signet rings on fingers like sausages and broad, comfortable waistcoats, a yard and a half round the equator.’ Conversation drifts to their tough beginnings on the New York streets.
There ensues the familiar game of downupmanship: ‘“No, sir, a fellow accustomed to luxury like you has simply no idea what sleeping out in a tar barrel and all that kind of thing is like.”’
Later we have: ‘ Many’s the time I’ve breakfasted off a little cold porridge that somebody was going to throw away from a back door, or that I’ve gone round to a livery stable and begged a little bran mash that they intended for the pigs.’
The waiter comes to take their order: ‘“Dinner!” said Jones, after a moment of silence. “Dinner! Oh, anything, nothing — I never care what I eat — give me a little cold porridge, if you’ve got it, or a chunk of salt pork — anything you like, it’s all the same to me.”’
The pair quickly change their mind: ‘“here, waiter,” he said with a savage scowl. “I guess I’ll change that order a little. Instead of that cold porridge, I’ll take — um, yes — a little hot partridge. And you might as well bring me an oyster or two on the half-shell and a mouthful of soup (mock turtle, consomme, anything) and perhaps you might fetch along a dab of fish and a little peck of Stilton and a grape or a walnut.”’ Colin Myers, Lincoln.
QUESTION
Is Dante’s Divine Comedy supposed to be funny? DANTe’S Divine Comedy, finished in 1320, described the author’s travels through hell, Purgatory and Paradise or heaven. Allegorically, it represents the soul’s journey towards God.
In Dante’s time, there were two classical forms of drama: tragedy and comedy. Tragedy was the high style, using Latin, the language of the Roman empire and the Catholic Church. It came in the form of epics with a structured progression to a tragic end. Comedy was of the low style, performed in the vernacular. It progressed from sadness into a happy ending.
Dante’s work was a comedy because it had a happy ending, not because it’s funny: the hero reaches heaven and divine love, the great order of the cosmos.
Before the Divine Comedy, it was considered that the vernacular was incapable of articulating high poetic expression. Dante turned the system on its head and defended the use of the Tuscan dialect as a literary language in the late Middle Ages.
Tim Dale, London E13.
QUESTION
Just how much of a threat is the weed Himalayan balsam? hIMALAYAN balsam ( Impatiens
glandulifera) was introduced in Britain in 1839. Its rapid growth and attractive flowers made it a favourite with gardeners and its seeds were shared and traded. It is the tallest annual plant in the UK, and can grow up to 10 ft high.
however, it poses a serious problem. During spring and summer, it blankets river and canal banks, with its dense foliage crowding out native plants.
When it dies back, it leaves large areas of bare ground, with no roots to strengthen the banks, which become susceptible to erosion and crumble into the water. The sediment produced can then suffocate fish-spawning beds.
The weed spreads quickly with up to 800 seeds per plant, which are released explosively from pods. Seeds that land in a stream, river or canal are taken downstream where they will start a new colony.
himalayan balsam can be controlled by pulling it up before the seeds develop. Otherwise it must be controlled chemically or temporarily by strimming.
Dr Ken Bristow, Glasgow.