The Story of Uriah

(notes edited by Roberta Baldi)



the poem

[June 5 2004]

Publication

First published in the Civil and Military Gazette, March 3rd, 1886. Collected in Departmental Ditties and Other Verses, 1886, E.V., 1900; I.V., 1919; D.V., 1940; Sussex Edition, Vol. 32, page 14; Burwash Edition, Vol. 25 (ORG entry: nr. 169, page 5109).

Some critical opinions

Harry Ricketts (p. 90) writes:

Occasionally Rud struck a more sardonic note, as in “The Story of Uriah”. He took the title from the episode in 2 Samuel where King David, lusting after Bathsheba, sent her husband, Uriah the Hittite, to his death in the front-line. Rud’s poem presented an Anglo-Indian equivalent, with Jack Barrett being transferred by his wife’s high-placed lover from a safe billet in Simla to die in fever-ridden Quetta. According to Kay Robinson, the poem was a thinly disguised version of a topical scandal and ‘those who had known the real “Jack Barrett”, good fellow that he was, and the vile superior and faithless wife who sent him “on duty” to his death, felt the heat of the spirit which inspired Kipling’s verse in a way that gave those few lines an imperishable force'.



Notes on the text


The lines refer to the whole poem, heading lines included.

[Title] The Story of Uriah As may be recalled, the story of Uriah and his wife Bathsheba is mentioned in the Bible, in particular in 2 Samuel 11, which reports the plot of King David against him. As noted above, the poem shows significant parallelism with the biblical episode. In Kipling 'Uriah' has become ‘Jack Barrett’ and, although neither King David nor Bathsheba are mentioned, the plot “copies” the story of a man who is banned and betrayed by his superior and his own wife (somehow allied against him) and dies abroad.

[Heading] “Now there were two men in one city; the one rich and the other poor” Quoted from the Bible, 2 Samuel 12, 1.

[passim] Quetta Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province. At 5500 feet above sea level it is one of the most important military locations in Pakistan. It was not until 1876 that Quetta came under permanent British control.

[Line 6] Simla See the notes on "Army-Headquarters”.

[Line 7] Screw Slang for “salary, wages” (OED, Screw (n1), entry 20).

[Line 23] Profound Kipling seems here to be sardonically playing with words: “profound” hints in fact at an “unbroken or undisturbed” rest, but also at Barrett’s corpse which is “situated or extending far beneath the surface” (OED, Profound, entries 2b and 1b).

[Line 23] Repose Its ecclesiastical overtone (repose as “death, decease (of a saint)”, OED, Repose, entry 1c) reinforces the biblical echo and the allusion to Jack Barrett’s sacrifice which Kipling seems to expand later on in mentioning the Book of Job(s).

[Line 28] Last great bugle call “Bugle” stands here both for the “military instrument of brass or copper, resembling the trumpet, but smaller; used as the signal-horn for the infantry” (OED , Bugle, entry 2b) which accords with the departmental setting of the poem, and, as “trumpet”, for a further indirect biblical reference, to Judgement Day (which “Last” seems to recall) as the “end of the world was supposed to be announced by angels blowing on trumpets“ [Heraldry Unlimited, Symbols S – Z, Trumpet, http://www.heraldryunlimited.com/Symbolism/symbolism_s_z.htm May 25 2004].

[Line 29] Hurnai Harnai, in the Quetta region.

[Line 31] black Book “A book recording the names of persons who have rendered themselves liable to censure or punishment” (OED, Black Book, entry 4).

[Line 31] (Book of) Jobs Kipling ironically intertwines different semantic elements here. If, in fact, the “black book” might refer to Jack Barrett’s superior, liable to censure for banning him from Simla, the following reference to Job (in “Jobs”) seems to punningly shift the spotlight on Barrett himself, indirectly alluded to by recalling the biblical “story of Job, a righteous man whose motives for being righteous are tested through a series of personal tragedies and sufferings.” [The Anchor Bible Dictionary on CD-ROM, Job, Book of).

It must be noted, moreover, that, Kipling finely inserts ‘Jobs’ instead of simply ‘Job’, undoubtedly to keep his rhyme with ‘throbs’, but also, maybe, to sarcastically hint at the number of backstage departmental machinations, both Barrett and his superior are exposed to.


[R.B.]