Moab Is My Washpot
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Moab Is My Washpot (published 1997) is Stephen Fry’s humorous autobiography, covering the first 20 years of his life.
The book covers some of the same ground as in Fry’s first novel, The Liar, published in 1992. In The Liar, University student Adrian Healey falls in love with a beautiful young boy called Hugo Cartwright and in the autobiography, 14-year-old Fry becomes besotted with 13-year-old "Matthew Osborne".
Apart from the wondrous Matthew Osborne (Matteo), Fry introduces us to other boys, including his older brother Roger; the innocent new boy Bunce at his prep school Stouts Hill; Jo Wood, his best friend at Uppingham and Oliver Derwent, a prefect who seduces Fry.
Fry, an avid reader, mentions some of the better-known novels and autobiographies that have homosexuality as their predominant theme:
- The Flannelled Fool, by T. C. Worsley;
- Sandel by Angus Stewart;
- Lord Dismiss Us by Michael Campbell;
- Escape From The Shadows by Robin Maugham;
- Autobiography of an Englishman by "Y";
- The World, The Flesh and Myself by Michael Davidson;
- The Fourth of June by David Benedictus;
- Special Friendships by Roger Peyrefitte,
- Book Twelve of the Greek Anthology;
- The Quest For Corvo by A. J. A. Symons;
- the novels of Simon Raven and the works of Jean Genet, Oscar Wilde and Edward Carpenter.
He also refers to works in other media with a homosexual theme, such as Lindsay Anderson’s film If... and the paintings of Thomas Eakins and Henry Scott Tuke.
Fry is candid about his many weaknesses including stealing, cheating and lying.
The title, never referenced in the text of the book, is taken from Psalm 60, verse 8. [1]. Old Testament Jews were extremely concerned with cleanliness. Wearing sandals in the hot and dusty environment, their feet would become filthy and upon entering a home, would be washed. In their cleansing and purification rituals they used poured water. They would not put their feet into the bowl, but instead hold their feet over the bowl and pour clean water over them, and the bowl would be used to catch the filthy water. The washpot was therefore a symbol of disgusting filthiness. The phrase "Moab is my washpot" alludes to God's contempt for the enemies of Israel. The nation of Moab, as we learn from Jeremiah, found displeasure with God because of "her overweening pride and conceit, her pride and arrogance and the haughtiness of her heart." God brought Moab low because of her futile insolence, yet He promised to "restore the fortunes of Moab in the days to come." So young Stephen Fry considered that he was a disgustingly filthy, proud, conceited and arrogant young man who, rather like God's promise to Moab, eventually amended his behaviour and excelled.
In an interview with the Evening Standard, Fry relates that he was reunited with "Osborne" after the publication of the book.
- "I ask if the pseudonymous Matthew, with whom he eventually achieved some form of splendour in the long grass, had been in touch since the book came out in 1997. He had.
- How did he take it? 'Very well. He is very happily married with children.
- A wonderful chap and hugely successful as it happens,' Fry chuckles, incredulous. 'I think his wife knows because she is extremely friendly to me in a way that suggests to me she knows all about it and is very happy with it. I see him a couple of times a year, I suppose.'" [2]
