Den skurkagtigste dværg i verdenslitteraturen

er selvfølgelig Quilp i Charles Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop, der elsker at gøre et forskrækkende nummer ud af sit skurkagtige åsyn:

"Well, mother,’ said Kit, hurrying back into the house, ‘I think my fortune’s about made now.’
‘I should think it was indeed, Kit,’ rejoined his mother. ‘Six pound a year! Only think!’
‘Ah!’ said Kit, trying to maintain the gravity which the consideration of such a sum demanded, but grinning with delight in spite of himself. ‘There’s a property!’
Kit drew a long breath when he had said this, and putting his hands deep into his pockets as if there were one year’s wages at least in each, looked at his mother, as though he saw through her, and down an immense perspective of sovereigns beyond.
‘Please God we’ll make such a lady of you for Sundays, mother! such a scholar of Jacob, such a child of the baby, such a room of the one up stairs! Six pound a year!’
‘Hem!’ croaked a strange voice. ‘What’s that about six pound a year? What about six pound a year?’ And as the voice made this inquiry, Daniel Quilp walked in with Richard Swiveller at his heels.
‘Who said he was to have six pound a year?’ said Quilp, looking sharply round. ‘Did the old man say it, or did little Nell say it? And what’s he to have it for, and where are they, eh!’
The good woman was so much alarmed by the sudden apparition of this unknown piece of ugliness, that she hastily caught the baby from its cradle and retreated into the furthest corner of the room; while little Jacob, sitting upon his stool with his hands on his knees, looked full at him in a species of fascination, roaring lustily all the time. Richard Swiveller took an easy observation of the family over Mr Quilp’s head, and Quilp himself, with his hands in his pockets, smiled in an exquisite enjoyment of the commotion he occasioned.
‘Don’t be frightened, mistress,’ said Quilp, after a pause. ‘Your son knows me; I don’t eat babies; I don’t like ‘em. It will be as well to stop that young screamer though, in case I should be tempted to do him a mischief. Holloa, sir! Will you be quiet?’
Little Jacob stemmed the course of two tears which he was squeezing out of his eyes, and instantly subsided into a silent horror.
‘Mind you don’t break out again, you villain,’ said Quilp, looking sternly at him, ‘or I’ll make faces at you and throw you into fits, I will. Now you sir, why haven’t you been to me as you promised?’"

Den nye kuriøsitetsbutik - The Musical!

(reportagefotografi: Martin Glaz Serup)

Niels Frank holdt en hel traktat som takketale for Kritikerprisen, der opstillede musicalen som det radikale subversive alternativ til realismen og foeslog genrebetegnelsen syngespil til Nellies bog, og selvfølgelig kan den læses på Promenaden, her et klip - og hvor skriver jeg under (uden at skrive under på, at jeg skal overvære  faktiske musicals! jeg foretrækker de metaforiske og principielle musicals; tror jeg, jeg ved det jo ikke!):
 
Når personerne i en musical pludselig bryder ud i sang, opstår der en virkning, der minder om god gammel Verfremdung, en fremmedgørende effekt eller med et bedre ord: en bevidstgørelse. Sangen perverterer helheden, vender den om: hvad der før var alvor er nu ironi, hvad der før var forførelse er nu fremmedgørelse. I fortællingen virkeliggjorde personerne sig, men i sangen fantaserer de, drømmer sig væk eller hen til, ind til, op til, ud til.
Sangen får tiden til at standse, fortællingen går i stå, personerne træder ud af deres roller ved at ’genopføre’ dem i sang, strukturen vender bagsiden udad, det naturlige forekommer pludselig konstrueret. Man ser op under skørterne. På den måde underminerer sangen den realistiske fortælling eller destabiliserer den, og den får fortællingen til at miste autoritet og seriøsitet.
Sangen underløber dermed realismens selvfølgelighed og selvindlysende karakter, den nedgør realismen indefra, som et mytteri, og det gør den ved at nægte at tage sig selv alvorligt og blive taget alvorligt. Alvor tilhører jo realismen, her er sjældent meget at grine over, men når først sangen bryder løs og skråler i vilden sky, bliver alle de ellers så seriøse sociale identiteter hos dens personer forvandlet til roller, alle former for autenticitet bliver forvandlet til iscenesættelse, al lidelse og moral bliver forvandlet til komik, og al ophøjelse bliver forvandlet til ironi, et lille blink med øjet.
Musicalen kan ikke holde masken, når fortællingen bliver tragisk og betragter sig selv med ophøjet alvor. Her er det tragiske ikke knugende eller knusende, musicalen trækker smerten ud af det tragiske, ikke for at underkende tragedien eller overhovedet nægte, at den findes, men for at skabe et rum, hvor det er muligt at holde smerten ud.
Det kunne minde om Oscar Wildes ord om en person hos Charles Dickens: ”One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing” (bemærk i øvrigt navneligheden mellem Nell og Nellie). Den forvandlede, perverterede, tragik er ikke længere bare noget rent destruktivt, den er også noget produktivt, den bliver udtryk for stor menneskelig udfoldelse og opfindsomhed og overlevelsesevne.

Jeg har ikke før tænkt på navneligheden mellem det hyper-uskyldige barn i Dickens måske grovest sentimentale - og musicalagtige! - roman The Old Curiosity Shop og Nellie (og det havde Frank, fortale han mig, heller ikke). Men lige så ægte pur Lille Nell er , lige så kunstfærdigt skabagtig er bogens fabelagtig skurk, Quilp, en dværg, der grimasserer som en gal for st skræmme alt og alle, inklusive sin stakkels kone. Her har Lille Nell afleveret et brev til Quilp - og en nem allegorisk læsning er selvfølgelig forfatteren, der venter på krtikerens dom:

Little Nell stood timidly by, with her eyes raised to the countenance of Mr Quilp as he read the letter, plainly showing by her loos that while she entertained some fear and distrust of the little man, she was much inclined to laugh at his uncouth appearance and grotesque attitude. And yet there was visible on the part of the cild a panful anxiety for his reply, and consciousnees of his power to render it disagreeable or distresseing which was strongly at variance with this impulse and restrained it more effectually than she could possibly have done by any efforts of ther own.

That Mr Quilp was himself perplexed, and that in no small degree, by the contents of the letter, was sufficiently obvious. Before he had got through the first two og three lines he began to open his eyes wide and to frown most horribly, the next two or three caused him to scratch his head in an uncommonly vicious manner, and when he came to the conclusion he gave a long dismal whistle indicative of suprise and dismay. After folding and laying it down beside him, he bit the nails of alle of his ten fingers with extreme voracity; and taking it up sharply, read it again. The second perusal eas to alle appearance as unsatisfactory as the first, and plunged him into a profound reverie from which he awakened to anothe assualt upon his nails and a long stare at the child, who with her eyes turned towards the ground awaited his further pleasure,



Quilp skændes med en hund