British Prose- Unit II- 𝐀 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐢𝐠

                                                 𝐀 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐢𝐠                                                                                                                                               -𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐦𝐛.

 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Charles Lamb, famous under his pseudonym of Elia was born in London in February, 1775. Charles Lamb is entitled to a place as an essayist beside Montaigne, Sir Thomas Browne, Steele and Addison. The work of Charles Lamb took his colour from the personal events of his life. It is inseperable from the circumstances in which it came into being. The first essay in the "Essays of Elia" is called "The south-sea House". 

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐏𝐢𝐠: This essay begins with a Chinese anecdote which describes the orgin of the art of roasting a pig. A swine-herd's cottage accidently caught fire. Being a primitive cottage, made of dry branches of trees, the cottage was completely burnt down. A fine litter of new farrowed pigs, as many as nine in number, perished in the fire. On tasting the "Cracking", he found it delicious. They discovered that the burnt flesh tasted for better than the raw flesh. The father and the son kept the whole incident a secret. But from that time onwards, they allowed their cottage to catch fire now and again and to let the litter of pig to get burnt. The jury and the judge, on tasting the burnt flesh of a pig in the course of the trail found the meat irresistible.

 Humour and Fun: This is an essay with an abundance of humour in it. Indeed, it is full of fun from beginning to end. A fanciful description of the orgin of the art of roasting a pig is most amusingly described. The humour of this part of the essay is almost farcial. When a number of pigs were burnt in the fire, a strange odour assailed the nostrils of the swine-herd's son. "O father, the pig, the pig! Do come and taste how nice the burnt pig eats" "A premonitory moistening" overflavoured his lower lip. When he discovered the truth, he started cramming hand feels of the pig's flesh down his throat. When the swine-herd, on returning home, discovered his son in the unnatural act of eating burnt flesh, he started beating the young fellow with his cudgel. The account of the trial of his father and son is an another example of hilarious fun. The judge himself being tempted by the delicious taste of the burnt flesh and set fire to his house to that his pigs might "accidently" get burnt. The humour of this part of the essay proceeds from the absurdities that are mentioned here. While the story pertains to primitive times, the author introduces a judge, a jury, and a regular which are a feature of modern times. The insurance offices which are a modern development and which were no part of primitive life. An element of humour also in the passage where Lamb says, that while he is willing to share all other animals with his friends, he would not like to share a pig with them, because a Pig is a blessing by sharing which he would feel himself to be guilty of in gratitude to God. He declared roast pig to be the chief of dianties. There is no flavour comparable. He discriminates between an infant pig and grown up pig. Lamb enjoys the right of the beautiful eyes of a pig melting and dropping in the fire. The similies in the sentence which describes the father raining blows upon the young-fellow are noteworthy. Lamb appears to be a kind hearted and merciful type of person but his complete indifference to that agony of a pig in the process of being whipped or roasted is an understandable. Style: The style of this essay is written in a simple and straight-forward style free from high rounding faces and form bombastic vocabulary. The swine-herd carrying a stick with which to punish his son is described as being 'armed with retributory cudgel". The sharp taste of pineapple is thus conveyed to us:"She woundeth and excoriateth the lips that approach her". 

Conclusion: The story from that Chinese manuscript and the anecdot pretaining to Lamb's-school give to the essay in narrative quality. Then narrative quality is an ingredient of many of Lamb's essays.