Cousin Teresa by Saki (H H Monro)
From the short-story collection Beasts and Superbeasts,
published 1914
It was the Eurovision Song Contest last night – a major
fixture in the calendars of the UK and many other countries. You might think
that the revered early 20th Century writer Saki would be hard to
link with such an event, but bear with me…
We start with a memory from
the early days of the blog: Possibly my all-time favourite Saki story (and it
is a difficult decision) is Cousin Teresa. If you don’t remember, or have
never read, the story, you might expect Teresa to be a typical Saki character: a family
member, a difficult older lady perhaps, or a feisty young flapper. But far from
it. Cousin Teresa is the subject of a music-hall song.
Cousin
Teresa takes out Caesar
Fido
Jock and the big Borzoi
The very idea that I might
have to look up this quote, or check the wording, is risible: this song has
been stuck in my head since I first read the story, I knew exactly the tune it
should be sung to, and it used to be roared out by my family when the children
were young – we made up many extra verses about friends and family, so it
enlivened long car rides. “All the time everyone singing like mad”.
The slight but clever story
still makes me laugh to think of it, with the cheery but dim Lucas describing
how it will pan out – with the singer coming on and off stage with more and
more dogs, dogs on wheels, and a big bang of the drum on Big Borzoi – “There’ll
be a lot of applause there.”
And so: I would say this would make
an absolutely wonderful Eurovision entry, and the staging is ideally suited to
the big arenas. I long to see it.
I blogged on it
in 2012 – I remember clearly that I LOVED the picture I had found,
but also was slightly concerned because there was no description of Cousin
Teresa in the story – was I breaking the wholly self-imposed rules of the blog?
This wouldn’t cost me a moment’s thought now, but then I felt I had standards.
(Soon dropped them.)
While I was looking for early
20th century riding clothes for the recent Flambards
post, I came across the picture at the top, which immediately shouted
Cousin Teresa to me: ‘Milady fares forth in a chic riding habit, and one of her
borzois is begging to go along’. With some rearrangement it could be a verse
from the song.
If you haven’t read Saki, or
even just this story, I envy you because you could have such pleasure ahead of you. There are a couple more of his stories on the
blog: Morlvera
the bad doll is here, and The Dreamer here,
and I am very happy with the photos I found for those posts too. The Chief Guest
Blogger once described Saki stories as intensely-plotted
and emotionally draining.
I think both Cousin Teresa
pictures are excellent, no need to say one is better than the other…
The top one is from one of
the collections at the NYPL,
The other Cousin Teresa is
actually visiting a dog show - the image comes from Wikimedia Commons.
Eurovision has featured on the blog before, and yet again, I believe you would never guess why. In 2014 a drag queen, Conchita Wurst, won the competition for Austria. The following year her autobiography appeared in England, and I was called on by the translators to help with fashion descriptions. As I said then 'Clothes in Books can’t speak a word of German, but we do know about glitter-bespeckled tulle and we can understand a fishtail hem.'
Thank you, Moira, for that wonderful mental picture of you and your family singing that song! I can just imagine it! And thank you for mentioning this story. Saki wrote some terrific stories, and now you're making me want to return to his work. As soon as I get that song out of my mind...
ReplyDeleteIt is a real earworm Margot! although of course it's possible that other people have a different tune than I have...
DeleteAnother song by Saki - attributed to Septimus Brope who says "I daresay I know more about memorial brasses than anyone living, in fact I hope one day to publish a monograph on the subject," but subsidises his scholarship by writing music hall lyrics:
ReplyDelete"How you bore me, Florrie,
With those eyes of vacant blue;
You'll be very sorry, Florrie,
If I marry you.
Though I'm easy-goin', Florrie,
This I swear is true,
I'll throw you down a quarry, Florrie,
If I marry you."
Given Saki's knowledge and loathing of the subject, I wonder if H.H. Munro had a secret life...
It's an interesting prospect isn't it?
DeleteI wonder did he make much money from his stories? - I don't really know if he was monied, successful, private means etc... Music hall must have been very rewarding.
No - or very little - private income. Lived off his pen and his wits. He began as a journalist in Russia. I'd love to see a collection of his journalism.
DeleteYou can just imagine him cant you, living off his wits. Is there a biography of him? I love the stories so much, but I also often think about The Unbearable Bassington, such an incredibly sad book, such a recognizable type, but such a melancholy story.
DeleteThe character of Bassington would fit well in Succession.
There is a biography - can't remember the author - which gives evidence he was homosexual. On the other hand, Saki's sister mentions an engagement - though the one doesn't preclude the other.
DeleteMunro himself was invalided out of the Burmese police with malaria, so I think the end of Bassington was probably autobiographical.
I will try to get hold of the biography. That ending always makes me go cold whenever I think of it.
DeleteAbout the Eurovision: Did you know that a large number of people travel to wherever the contest is being held every year to help out as volunteers? They take a couple of weeks off from their ordinary jobs to do this, and they see it as the highlight of the year. I only know because a secretary at the place I used to work did this. She said the same people did it year after year and they all knew each other, though they were from all over Europe. I found this snippet of information fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mean to be anonymous; I'm Birgitta.
DeleteNo I did not know that, and agree that it is fascinating! What a nice thought.
DeleteHave you seen this interesting site: https://www.annotated-saki.info/
DeleteOh my goodness, I could waste so much time on that site! Thanks, hadn't seen it before.
DeleteI'm reminded of the scene in 'Peter's Room' where the Marlow children are amazed to see their mother in a riding habit ready to ride side saddle. They're impressed but also prepared to be embarrassed if she looks different to everyone else at the hunt. Perhaps Tessa the Afghan hound could stand in for the Borzoi. They were / are both 'fashionable' breeds of dog amongst the well off. (It also occurs to me that Christine from Flambards could have been a contemporary of Pam Marlow in the earliest Marlow timelines. Perhaps they met out hunting?!)
ReplyDeleteOh lovely cross-pollination there, love the idea of Pam and Christine!
DeleteAnd actually, when I was reading those final Flambard scenes at the Hunt Ball, I was thinking about Pam Marlow - do you remember in Ready-Made Family she tells the story that 'your father announced our engagement and the date of the wedding at the Hunt Ball' to get round the mean old grandmother. And Lawrie visualizes the Hunt Ball 'on rather the same scale as the court ball in the film of The Prisoner ofZenda with her grandmother scowling like Black Michael.' Absolutely would fit in with Flambards.