Friday, April 8, 2016

Proud-pied April: Waiting in a hot tureen

It’s not possible to have National Poetry Month without something from Lewis Carroll. Every time you think poets are going to disappear into their self-importance, Carroll keeps it real.

This year’s entry is from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, brought to us by the Mock Turtle. In case you, like Alice, don’t even know what a Mock Turtle is, here’s the illustration by John Tenniel:


Because the Mock Turtle is “the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from,” as the Queen informs us. The Mock Turtle's a rather melancholy creature, having once been a real turtle (although we’re never told how he transmogrified). Also, he’s a complete mish-mash of the animals that end up in the eponymous Victorian soup.

If you’ve got a strong stomach, here’s a recipe for it from a Mrs. Fowle (and I didn’t make that name up):

“Take a large calf's head. Scald off the hair. Boil it until the horn is tender, then cut it into slices about the size of your finger, with as little lean as possible. Have ready three pints of good mutton or veal broth, put in it half a pint of Madeira wine, half a teaspoonful of thyme, pepper, a large onion, and the peel of a lemon chop't very small. A ¼ of a pint of oysters chop't very small, and their liquor; a little salt, the juice of two large onions, some sweet herbs, and the brains chop't. Stand all these together for about an hour, and send it up to the table with the forcemeat balls made small and the yolks of hard eggs.”

(As an aside, a few years ago I was enjoying The Swamp in the California Academy of Science. You know—the one with Claude, the albino alligator. CalAcademy has a number of volunteer docents—mostly retired-looking folks—who really know their onions. Or, in this case, their reptiles. I was chatting with one of them and he told me that the terrapins there were rescue sea turtles: many years before, the fish and wildlife folks had got a tip about a shipment of sea turtles coming into SFO, apparently headed for a very upscale dinner party. It’s illegal to import them, so the feds scooped up the turtles and they ended up in The Swamp. Maybe the diners got mock turtle soup instead. It would serve them right.)

Anyway, back to Wonderland. The Mock Turtle, the Gryphon and Alice have one of those wonderlandish conversations, and there are a couple of musical interludes. “Beautiful Soup” is apparently Carroll’s parody of the popular song “Star of the Evening”. I find it slightly creepily charming that the Mock Turtle, presumably destined for the tureen himself, sings so eloquently about soup. But that’s Wonderland for you.

"Beautiful Soup"

BEAUTIFUL Soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

Beau- ootiful Soo-oop!
Beau- ootiful Soo-oop!
Soo- oop of the e- e- evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!

Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish,
Game, or any other dish?
Who would not give all else for two
Pennyworth only of Beautiful Soup?
Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup?

Beau- ootiful Soo-oop!
Beau- ootiful Soo-oop!
Soo- oop of the e- e- evening,
Beautiful, beauti- FUL SOUP!



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