1 5 8 GENEROSITY

Generosity

Other philanthropes (such as Maecenas) are included at the theme

Wealth. • See also Miserliness.

Lady Bountiful Lady Bountiful is a wealthy character in Farquar's comedy The Beaux' Stratagem (1707). Her name can be used to describe a woman whose generosity is coupled with a certain degree of condescension.

Approaching, he heard her say in her kindly Lady Bountiful manner, 'You must come and have dinner with us one day. I've got a lot of books that might interest you! GRAHAM CREENE The Heart of the Matter, 1948

Lindsay arrived back with refreshments for everyone—Lord Bountiful dispensing alms to the poor, Fizz thought ungratefully—and whistled in the rest of the Am Bealach contingent to partake.

JOYCE HELM Foreign Body, 1997

Father Christmas • See SANTA CLAUS.

Robin Hood The legend of Robin Hood probably began in the 12th or 13th century and was well established by the 14th. According to the stories, he was the leader of a band of outlaws living in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire who robbed the rich (most notably the Sheriff of Nottingham) and gave the spoils to the poor.

I sit by the River Shannon near the dry docks sipping Mrs. Finucane's sherry. Aunt Aggie's name is in the ledger. She owes nine pounds. It might have been the money she spent on my clothes a long time ago but now she'll never have to pay it because I heave the ledger into the river. I'm sorry I'll never be able to tell Aunt Aggie I saved her nine pounds. . . . I wish I could tell them, I'm your Robin Hood.

FRANK MCCOURT Angela's Ashes, 1997

Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller (1839-1937) was an American oil magnate who founded the Standard Oil Company. He later used his money for philanthropic projects, giving money for medical research and educational institutions and establishing the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913 'to promote the well-being of mankind'.

No worthy charity ever knocked and found him absent. In his limited way, having only half a million at his disposal instead of the customary millions, he was as much of a philanthropist as Rockefeller. He gave substantially to the Community Fund, aside from which he donated his time and services to many civic enterprises.

CHESTER HIMES A Modern Fable, 1939

Santa Claus In the modern tradition, Santa Claus (or Father Christmas, as he is usually called in Britain) lives at or near the North Pole, where he is aided by elves in making presents for children. He is represented as wearing a red robe and having a long white beard. On the night of Christmas Eve, he sets forth in

1 6 0 GESTURE

Uriah Heep Uriah Heep is the dishonest clerk in Dickens's novel David Copperfield (1850) who gains complete control over the lawyer Mr Wickfield. Feigning humility, he describes himself as 'so very 'umble', while repeatedly wringing his hands. Eventually his crimes of forgery and theft are exposed and he is imprisoned.

He has these annoying mannerisms—he wrings his hands, just like Uriah Heep! KATE CHARLES A Dead Man Out of Mind, 1994

Ithuriel In Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), Ithuriel is one of the Cherubim, 'a strong and subtle spirit', who is sent by Gabriel to search for Satan in the Garden of Eden. Touched by IthuriePs spear, which 'no falsehood can endure', Satan starts up in his own shape and is ejected.

Rainbarrow had again become blended with night when Wildeve ascended the long acclivity at its base. On his reaching the top a shape grew up from the earth immediately behind him. It was that of Eustacia's emissary. He slapped Wildeve on the shoulder. The feverish young innkeeper and engineer started like Satan at the touch of Ithuriel's spear.

THOMAS HARDY The Return of the Native, 1880

Lady Macbeth In Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth (1623), Lady Macbeth spurs her husband on to murder King Duncan and assume the crown. The first murder is followed by others and eventually Lady Macbeth loses her wits and is observed sleepwalking and rubbing her hands in an attempt to remove the spots of blood that she imagines to be on them. Finally, she commits suicide.

Whatever else the years give me cause to forgive him for I shall never forgive him for wrecking my party and making a fool of Claude. Why am I clutching this orange, she wondered. She stared down at her hand, like lady Macbeth. What, in our house? When she returned to her guests—the perfumed blood under her nails—the performance was over.

HILARY MANTEL A Place of Greater Safety, 1992

He wasn't listening. His eyes had swivelled away from me, drawn back to the house. I looked, too, and saw that his wife had emerged. She'd upped the melodrama, wringing her hands Lady Macbeth style.

GILLIAN SLOvo Close Call, 1995

Now he was rubbing his hands like Lady Macbeth on speed.

PAUL JOHNSTON Body Politic, 1996

Pontius Pilate Pontius Pilate was the Roman procurator of Judaea before whom accusations against Jesus were brought. The Jews, under the direction of the high priest, Caiaphas, wanted Jesus executed, which required him to be tried under Roman rather than Jewish law. After questioning Jesus, Pilate could find no basis for a charge against him. The Jews were insistent that Jesus be crucified and eventually Pilate gave in to them: 'When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it' (Matt. 27: 24). This gave rise to the phrase 'to wash your hands of something'. • See special entry n JESUS on p. 223.

Chief Ranger Hull crossed the clearing, wiping his hands carefully on a clean white pocket hanky.... Hull never looked up from his hands while he talked, but continued to rub meticulously between each finger with the square of cotton. . . . Finally Norman Hull pocketed the handkerchief and Anna breathed a sigh of relief. Till it

GLUTTONY 1 6 1

stopped she'd not realized how much his Pontius Pilate routine was getting on her nerves.

NEVADA BARR Endangered Species, 1997

Gluttony

The entries below express the ideas of eating too much and having an enormous appetite. • See also Food and Drink.

Sir Toby Belch Sir Toby Belch is the uncle of Olivia in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1623), known for his love of good food and drink, for 'cakes and ale'.

At present I share Bafliol with one . . . man . . . who rather repels me at meals by his

. . . habit of shewing satisfaction with the food: Sir Toby Belch was not in it. ALDOUS HUXLEY The Letters of Aldous Huxley, 1915

Billy Bunter Billy Bunter is the rotund schoolboy hero of a series of stories by Frank Richards set in a boys' public school called Greyfriars. The stories were first published in the Magnet comic in 1908, and later in book form. Known as 'the Fat Owl of the Remove' on account of his large, round spectacles, Bunter has an obsessive love of 'tuck' and is willing to do anything, even steal from his friends, in order to obtain it.

In 1953, the Tory government of Mr Churchill lifted the wartime rationing on sweets. That day I was violently sick. But not before consuming a quantity of toffee, chocolate, sherbet and gobstoppers with a Bunter-like passion.

TRISTAN CAREL-JONES in The Observer, 1996

Gargantua Gargantua (whose name means 'gullet') is a prince of gigantic proportions and prodigious appetite in Rabelais's satire Gargantua (1534). He is the father of Pantagruel. A gargantuan appetite or meal is an extremely large one.

Then the baking would begin, and in a few days there would be a party, consisting chiefly of a Gargantuan feed, with Mrs. Call the heart and soul of it.

ROBERTSON DAviEs A Mixture of Frailties, 1951

Broadway followed, and marriage the same year, at the age of 19. The birth of a daughter in this first, as in his two subsequent marriages, in no way slowed down his gargantuan promiscuity.

BRENDA MADDOX in The Observer, 1996

Pantagruel Pantagruel (whose name means 'all-thirsty') is the son of Gargantua in Rabelais's satire Pantagruel (1532). A giant like his father, Pantagruel has a similarly enormous appetite, especially for wine.

Don Emmanuel, with his rufous beard, his impressive belly, and his flair for ribaldry, made pantagruelian quantities of guarapo, involving hundreds of pineapple skins, which he served with a gourd and his usual good humour.

LOUIS DE BERNIÈRES Sehor Vivo and the Coca Lord, 1991