The Press SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1934. F. Anstey

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21116, 17 March 1934, Page 12

The Press SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1934. F. Anstey

F. Anstey, author of Vice Versa and one of the most popular humorists of his time, died this -k; but the news possibly attracted slight attention, because Anstey was known to few by his real name, Thomas Anstey Guthrie, which was used in the cable message, but more particularly because the generation which created his fame has begun to pass. Anstey. besides, conjured his fun out of the conventions and antics of his- own time. Still, some of his work, in particular Vice Versa, a prime favourite yet among schoolboys and sympathetic parents, has lasting J worth; and the part Anstey played I as a builder of " Punch " will help to j keep his name alive in the story of nineteenth century letters. Anstey was a true Victorian. He was born at Kensington in 1856 and educated at King's College School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he took his ! degree in 1879. He was called to the j bar in 1880 but very soon after dis- ! covered that he could make a j happier living with his pen. This was on the publication of Vice Versa. ior A Lesson to Fathers, a novel which achieved immediate success. To the pleasant plot of a magical change-about of bodies and egos, certainly not the newest under the sun, Anstey's cheerful pen gave an entirely original and spontaneous appeal. Thousands of consciencesmitten fathers and smarting sons thrilled to the story of Paul Bultitude, Esq., of Mincing Lane, Colonial Produce Merchant, who was forced by the spirit of the " Pagoda stone " to creep into the skin of his son Dick and spend an uncomfortable term at Dr. Grimstone's; and they eagerly welcomed further essays in the same manner, such as The | Giant's Robe, The Black Poodle, and j The Tinted Venus. It was the success of these books, of course, that qualified Anstey for "Punch," in which his first contribution appeared on November 4, 1885. "Fourteen " months later," says Mr Hameiton, "he took his seat at the historic " table, around which some of the " greatest of English wits have " gathered." Hardly an issue appeared after that without something from his pen; and it is not very long since he wrote his last contribution. This was a connexion which entitled him to be named, if not ranked, with Jerrold, Thackeroy, Gilbert a Beckett, Gilbert, Jerome K. Jerome, Jacobs, Pett Ridge, Barry Pain, Burnand, and Seaman. Many of his best contributions were collected in the volumes Voces Populi. Mr Punch's Model Music Hall, and Mr Punch's Young Reciter, of the last of which one critic said: "No one " with a sense cf humour who has " read that series can now stand up " and recite a poem of a sentimen- " tal or heroic nature from the pen " of Mr Clement Scott or Mr G. R. " Sims without genius to back " him." And it has been remarked that if anything killed the sentimental music-hall ballad, it was Mr Punch's Model Music Hall, which contained among other devastating things the famous "So Shy!"— sung, of course, by a lady "of a " mature age and inclined to a com"fortable embonpoint": i

I'm a dynety little dysy of the dingle, So retiring and so timid and so coy— If you ask me why so Jong I have lived single, I will tell you—'tis because I am so shoy! But though he was labouring so mightily for "Punch/' Anstey did not neglect his first public; and he produced, for instance, the celebrated book, A Bayard from Bengal. The title page describes its contents: " Being Some Account of the Mag- " nifkent and Sparkling Career of " Chunder Bindabun Bhosh, Esq., '' 8.A., Cambridge. By Harry "Bungsho Jabberjee, 8.A., Cal- " cutta University. Author of Jot- " tings and Tittlings, etc. To which ,: is appended the Parables and " Proverbs of Pilgosh, freely trans- " lated from the Original Styptic •' by another Hand, with Introduc- '' tion, Notes, and Appendix by the " above Harry Bungsho Jabberjee, " B.A."' Moreover he turned his skill in light dialogue to use on the stage, where The Brass Bottle, a revival of his old magic, succeeded best. In recent years, of course—he was 78 at his death—Anstey rarely came before the public, which had new themes to amuse it and humorists better qualified to exploit them. But readers whom he once delighted, deeply and again and again, will remember him with a peculiar affection.