The Absent-Minded Beggar is an 1899 poem by Rudyard Kipling, famously set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan. The song was written as part of an appeal by the Daily Mail to raise money for soldiers fighting in the South African War (sometimes known as the Boer War) and their families. The fund was the first such charitable effort for a war.
The chorus of the song exhorted its audience to "pass the hat for your credit's sake, and pay— pay— pay!" The patriotic poem and song caused a sensation and was constantly performed throughout the war and beyond. Kipling was offered a knighthood shortly after publication of the poem but declined the honour. Vast numbers of copies of the poem and sheet music were published, and large quantities of merchandise were sold to aid the charity. The "Absent Minded Beggar Fund" raised a total of about £250,000.
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History
In September 1899, it was clear that the crisis in South Africa was likely to turn into war. By 2 October, all military leave had been cancelled, and urgent preparations were under way to send a large expeditionary force to the Cape, with horses and supplies being requisitioned and mobilised.[1] On 7 October, a proclamation was issued calling out the Army Reserve; of 65,000 liable men, around 25,000 were intended to be called up for service.[2]
Many, if not all, of the men thus mobilised were ex-soldiers in permanent employment; returning to military duty meant a significant cut in their income. In addition, there was no contemporary legislation of the time protecting the permanent employment of reservists; employers could – and often would – replace them with other workers with no guarantee that if the soldier returned he would be able to take back his job.[3] As a result, a large number of families were quickly plunged into poverty – a lifestyle comfortably maintained on a workman's wage of twenty shillings could not be kept up on the infantryman's "shilling a day." As if this were not enough, there was no guarantee that the husband would have a job to return to, even without the prospect of injury or death. A number of charitable funds existed to support these individuals, most notably the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association, but a number of private appeals were also made.[4]
Simultaneously, a wave of patriotism was sweeping the country, catered to by jingoist newspapers such as the Daily Mail. Many of these newspapers were also involved in the charitable fundraising efforts to benefit the reservists and their dependents. The Mail's proprietor, Alfred Harmsworth, hit upon the idea of commissioning Rudyard Kipling, the foremost popular poet of the day, to write a patriotic poem for the newspaper's charitable fund. Harmsworth, a pioneer motorist, visited Kipling at his home and took the poet for a ride in his new motor car.[5] Kipling readily agreed to write the piece and produced "The Absent-Minded Beggar" on 16 October 1899.[6]
Kipling's poem was first published in The Daily Mail on 31 October 1899. The poem was an immediate success. Maud Tree, the wife of actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, recited it at the Palace Theatre every night before the show for fourteen months, and other performers recited it at music halls and elsewhere. Artist Richard Caton Woodville provided an illustration, titled "A Gentleman in Kharki",[7] showing a wounded but defiant British Tommy in battle. The country's premier composer, Sir Arthur Sullivan, was asked to set the poem to music. Sullivan had written some 20 operas, including fourteen comic operas with W. S. Gilbert, and a large volume of songs, orchestral pieces and other music. Although he was in the middle of composing his next opera, The Rose of Persia (which was to be his last completed opera), Sullivan agreed.[8] Both Kipling and Sullivan declined proffered fees for creating the song.[5]
In 1897, Sullivan had agreed to compose music for Rudyard Kipling's poem Recessional. However, Sullivan never completed the song. Now Sullivan set to work on the new song, but he found Kipling's verses so difficult to set to music that he told his diary, "if it wasn't for charity's sake, I could never have undertaken the task".[8] Still, the experienced composer completed the music in four days, on 5 November 1899. The first public performance was sung by John Coates, under Sullivan's baton, at the Alhambra Music Hall on 13 November 1899.[8]
Reception
Sullivan's music captured Britain's jingoistic mood, and Sullivan's diary entry notes, "Wild enthusiasm. All sang chorus! I stood on the stage and conducted the encore – funny sight!"[8] With characteristic grace, the composer wrote to Kipling, "Your splendid words went with a swing and enthusiasm which even my music cannot stifle".[8] Kipling, on the other hand, described the music as "a tune guaranteed to pull teeth out of barrel-organs".[9]
The Daily Chronicle wrote that "It has not been often that the greatest of English writers and the greatest of English musicians have joined inspiring words and stirring melody in a song which expresses the heart feelings of the entire nation".[8] Sullivan's manuscript was later auctioned for £500 towards the fund.[10] Critic Fuller Maitland disapproved of the composition in The Times, but Sullivan himself asked a friend, "Did the idiot expect the words to be set in cantata form, or as a developed composition with symphonic introduction, contrapuntal treatment, etc.?"[11]
The popularity of the poem was such that allusions to it were common. Mark Twain wrote that "The clarion-peal of its lines thrilled the world".[8] By 18 November, a month after publication, "a new patriotic play" planned to open the next week was titled The Absent Minded Beggar, or, For Queen and Country.[12] The same month, the Charity Organisation Society called "The Absent-Minded Beggar" the "most prominent figure on the charitable horizon at present."[6] Even a critical book on the conduct of the war published in 1900 was titled An absent-minded war. Kipling was offered a knighthood within a few weeks of publication of the song but declined, as he declined all offers of State honours.[5]
The poem, song and piano music sold in extraordinary numbers, as did all kinds of household items, postcards, memorabilia and other merchandise emblazoned, woven or engraved with the "Gentleman in Kharki" figure, the poem itself, the sheet music, or humorous illustrations. Some of these items were very expensive. Alternative arrangements of the song were published, such as "The Absent-Minded Beggar March".[13] The Mail's charitable fund was eventually titled the "Absent Minded Beggar Relief Corps" or the "Absent Minded Beggar Fund," providing small comforts to the soldiers themselves as well as supporting their families. It raised a total of about £250,000.[6] The money was not raised solely by the Mail; the poem was publicly available, with anyone permitted to perform or print it in any way, so long as the copyright royalties went to the fund.[9] The fund was the first such charitable effort for a war and has been referred to as the origin of the welfare state.[8]
A performance of the song on 21 July 1900 at The Crystal Palace was Sullivan's last public appearance, and the composer died four months later.[5] "The Absent-Minded Beggar" remained popular for years after the war ended, and became a part of popular culture of the time, with its title becoming a popular phrase and cartoons, postcards and other humorous representations of the character of the absent-minded beggar becoming popular. The song is performed in John Osborne's 1957 play The Entertainer.[14] Today the song is still heard on re-issues of early recordings and on post World War II recordings by Donald Adams and others.[8][15]
Lyrics
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When you've shouted "Rule Britannia": when you've sung "God Save the Queen"[16] There are girls he married secret, asking no permission to, There are families by the thousands, far too proud to beg or speak: Let us manage so as later we can look him in the face, |
References
- ^ "The Transvaal Crisis", The Times, 2 October 1899
- ^ "The Transvaal Crisis", The Times, 9 October 1899
- ^ Letter dated 9 October 1899 from "Acta non Verba", The Times, 19 October 1899
- ^ Letter dated 31 October 1899 from Lansdowne and Wolseley, The Times, 1 November 1899
- ^ a b c d Cannon, John. "A Little-Heralded Sullivan Centenary", Gilbert and Sullivan News, Autumn/Winter 1999, Vol. 11, No. 16, p. 18, The Gilbert and Sullivan Society, London
- ^ a b c Fowler, Simon. "The Absent-Minded Beggar": an introduction, Fowler History site, 2001, accessed 23 June 2009
- ^ The more common spelling is "khaki", as used in the poem; loanwords from such as this hindi word often had multiple forms in English. The spelling "Kharki" is given as a "vulgar" form in the Hobson-Jobson dictionary.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Cannon, John. "The Absent-Minded Beggar", Gilbert and Sullivan News, March 1987, Vol. 11, No. 8, pp. 16–17, The Gilbert and Sullivan Society, London
- ^ a b Kipling, Rudyard. Something of Myself, chapter 6
- ^ "The Absent-Minded Beggar" at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
- ^ Jacobs, Arthur (1992). Arthur Sullivan – A Victorian Musician (Second Edition ed.). Portland, OR: Amadeus Press. p. 396.
- ^ Advertisement in The Times, 18 November 1899
- ^ MIDI files and sheet music cover to "The Absent-Minded Beggar March" (1899), at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive (2004). The arrangement includes additional material not found in the song.
- ^ Osborne, John (1957), The Entertainer, Faber and Faber, London, pp. 64–65
- ^ Woolf, Jonathan. Review of When the Empire Calls , a 2002 re-issue of early Kipling and Boer War recordings, MusicWeb-International
- ^ Queen Victoria died during the war. The next British monarch was Edward VII
External links
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Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
- Text and music
- Text of "The Absent-Minded Beggar" at Newcastle University
- Facsimile of Sullivan's 1899 manuscript available from the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society
- "The Absent-Minded Beggar", notes with a midi file of the Sullivan music and pdf of the score
- Musical Score of a version of "The Absent-Minded Beggar" with music composed by Esther M. Lewin. State Library of Queensland, Australia
- Memorabilia and illustrations
- Examples of memorabilia associated with the war and the song
- Framed illustration and information about Kipling and the poem
- Illustrations and information about the poem and song
- Figurine of "A Gentleman in Karki" near the bottom of the page
- Souvenir copy of poem and music
- Another example of a match striker with the illustration and verse of the song
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