Moab Is My Washpot
Moab Is My Washpot (published 1997) is Stephen Fry’s humorous autobiography, covering the first 20 years of his life.
In the book, Fry is candid about his many weaknesses, including stealing, cheating and lying. The book covers some of the same ground as in Fry’s first novel, The Liar, published in 1992. In that work, University of Cambridge student Adrian Healey falls in love with a beautiful young boy called Hugo Cartwright; in the autobiography, 14-year-old Fry becomes besotted with 13-year-old "Matthew Osborne".
Fry also writes about his older brother Roger, Bunce (the innocent new boy at his prep school, Stouts Hill), Jo Wood (his best friend at Uppingham), and Oliver Derwent (a prefect that "seduces" Fry).
Title
 | This article possibly contains original research. (February 2008) |
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 they 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, like God's promise to Moab, eventually amended his behaviour and excelled.
Matthew Osborne
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]