George Grossmith – Biography of a Savoyard
by catherine on May 2, 2009
George Grossmith (1847-1912) is, of course, cherished by the nation for having penned the inimitable The Diary of a Nobody with his younger brother Weedon.
ولد عام 1847
It is less well known that he was a talented entertainer, appearing in a number of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and also touring with his own show. Tony Joseph, in George Grossmith: Biography of a Savoyard, illuminates all areas of his life and career, giving a sense of his inestimable contribution to nineteenth-century culture.
Grossmith’s father, known as George I, was a Bow Street court reporter and also enjoyed giving public performances, particularly readings from Dickens’ novels. It was rumoured that his delivery was even better than that of the novelist himself.

كان والده والذي عرف بأسم جورج الاول حصفيا وممثلا

It is unfortunate that the news was broken to his wife in a rather thoughtless (although comic) manner. The club factotum announced on her doorstep: “I’ve come to tell you your husband’s dead, here’s the sausages we found in his pocket, and would you mind paying sixpence for having the handkerchief laundered one of the members put over his face.” History does not tell us the provenance of the sausages.
ويحكى ان طريقة اخبار زوجته عن موته كانت بالغة القسوة
.
Although that was a sad day for British opera-goers, it was a glorious day for literature, as Grossmith turned his attention to the creation of another comic character:
فشل في التمثيل واتجه نحو الكتابة
Mr Charles Pooter. The Diary of a Nobody was originally serialised in Punch, the first installment appearing in May 1888, and it has delighted readers ever since. The biography lists the events from Grossmith’s own life which influenced the mishaps and solecisms of Mr Pooter.

The oft-quoted “I left the room with silent dignity, but caught my foot in the mat” was inspired by the young Grossmith’s encounter with his father, who had accused him of drinking: “I bowed to my father with stilted politeness. But as I approached the door I most unfortunately caught my foot in the rug and absolutely rolled on the floor…”. He also used the Diary to parody his former partner, Florence Marryat. Her book There is No Death is referred to as There is No Birth by Florence Singleyet. We don’t know what she thought to this egregious pun, but she had already taken a pop at him in her earlier work, Tom Tiddler’s Ground.
This literary success was followed by a return to the comedy circuit. Recent developments in theatre had provided a new wealth of materials, and Grossmith created a piece called The Ibsenite Drama:
The death of his beloved wife in 1905 was another blow.
موت زوجته عام 1905 كان فاجعة اخرى
Ever the professional, he distracted himself by embarking upon a farewell tour which was punctuated by ill health.
عانا من المرض
Although still relatively young, his thousands of performances had caught up with him, and he looked and felt much older than his years.
كان يبدو اكبر من سنه
His last show was to be in Brighton, and the Brighton Gazette reported: “Never in our experience has he been in better form. Never has he displayed a prettier wit or launched his satiric arrows with truer aim.” Perhaps such plaudits made him decide this was a good point at which to bow out.
He retired to Folkestone and devoted his remaining energies to writing his memoirs. He died at 2am on 1st March 1912, anxiously awaiting a telegram to tell him whether George Junior had been accepted by the Beefsteak Club.

His father, also named George (1820–1880), was the chief reporter for The Times and other newspapers at the Bow Street Magistrates' Court and was also a lecturer and entertainer.
مات والده عام 1880 ( عندما كان كروسمث 33 عام )
His mother was Louisa Emmeline Grossmith née Weedon (d. 1882). Over the years, Grossmith's father spent less of his time at Bow Street and more of it touring as a performer.
ماتت امه عام 1882 أي بعد عامين من موت الاب وبينما كان كروسمث في الـ 35
In 1855, he went to boarding school at Massingham House on Haverstock Hill in the district of Hampstead.
في عام 1855 بينما كان في الـ 8 انضم الى مدرسة داخلية
There he studied the piano and began to amuse his friends and teachers with shadow pantomimes, and later by playing the piano by ear.

His family moved to Haverstock Hill when young Grossmith was 10, and he became a day student.
انتقلت العائلة الى هافرستوك هل عندما كان في العاشرة
At the age of 12, he transferred to the North London Collegiate School in Camden Town. He was back in St. Pancras by age 13.
انتقل الى مدرسة داخلية اخرى عندما كان في الـ 12 ثم عاد للاولى مرة اخرى عندما اصبح في الـ 13
Grossmith had hoped to become a barrister. Instead, he worked for many years, beginning in the 1860s, training and then substituting for his father as the Bow Street reporter for The Times, among other publications, when his father was on his lecture tours. Among the cases on which he reported was the Clerkenwell bombing by the Fenians in 1867.

In 1873, Grossmith married Emmeline Rosa Noyce (d. 1905), the daughter of a neighbourhood physician, whom he had met years earlier at a children's party. The couple had four children: George, Sylvia (23 September 1875–1932; married Stuart James Bevan in 1900), Lawrence and Cordelia Rosa (31 March 1879–1943).[6] The family lived initially in Marylebone before moving, about 1885, to 28 Dorset Square nearby.
تزوج عام 1885 وانجب اربعة اطفال وماتت زووجته عام 1905
The actor, famously jittery on opening nights, is depicted both on and off stage in the biographical film, Topsy Turvy. It was reported that he was addicted to morphine,[ and in the film he is shown injecting himself on the opening night of The Mikado.
كان مدمنا على المورفين بسبب خوفه عندما يصعد للمسرح وبسبب المرض
Later years
In 1892, Grossmith collaborated with his brother Weedon Grossmith to expand a series of amusing columns they had written in 1888–89 for Punch. The Diary of a Nobody was published as a novel and has never been out of print since. The book is a sharp analysis of social insecurity, and Charles Pooter of The Laurels, Brickfield Terrace, Holloway, was immediately recognized as one of the great comic characters of English literature>
كان كتابه مذكرات لا احد نقد لاذع لعدم الام الاجتماعي والذي لم تنقطع طباعته من يوم صدوره
Grossmith suffered from depression after the death of his wife of cancer in 1905, and his health began to fail, so that he increasingly missed engagements. He was nevertheless persuaded to continue giving his entertainments, which he did on a less frequent basis, until November 1908.[ The following year, Grossmith retired to Folkestone, Kent, a town that he had visited for many years, where he wrote his second volume of reminiscences, Piano and I (1910).
اصيب بالكآبه بعد موت زوجته عام 1905 وانقطع عن التمثيل الا ما ندر

Grossmith died at his home in Folkstone at the age of 64.
مات عن عمر 64 في عام 1908