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A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts and some necessities, in order to hoard money or other possessions.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=miser - definition of miser in English from the Oxford dictionary )〕 Although the word is sometimes used loosely to characterise anyone who is mean with their money, if such behaviour is not accompanied by taking delight in what is saved, it is not properly miserly. Misers as a type have been a perennial object of popular fascination and a fruitful source for writers and artists in many cultures. ==Accounting for misers== One attempt to account for miserly behaviour was Sigmund Freud's theory of anal retentiveness, attributing the development of miserly behaviour to toilet training in childhood, although that has since been challenged. In the Christian West the attitude to those whose interest centred on gathering money has been coloured by the teachings of the Church. From its point of view, both the miser and the usurer were guilty of the cardinal sin of avarice and the two were often confounded.〔Richard Newhauser, The Early History of Greed: The Sin of Avarice in Early Medieval Thought and Literature, Cambridge 2000〕 According to the parable of the Elm and the Vine in the quasi-Biblical Shepherd of Hermas, the rich and the poor should be in a relationship of mutual support. Those with wealth are in need of the prayers of the poor for their salvation and can only earn them by acts of charity.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: THE PASTOR OF HERMAS: Similitude Second. As the Vine is Supported by the Elm, So is the Rich Man Helped by the Prayer of the Poor. )〕 A typical late example of Christian doctrine on the subject is the Reverend Erskine Neale's ''The Riches that Bring No Sorrow'' (1852), a moralising work based on a succession of biographies contrasting philanthropists and misers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Riches that Bring No Sorrow )〕 Running parallel has been a disposition, inherited from Classical times, to class miserly behaviour as a type of eccentricity. Accounts of misers were included in such 19th century works as G. H. Wilson's four-volume compendium of short biographies, ''The Eccentric Mirror'' (1807).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Eccentric Mirror:: Reflecting a Faithful and Interesting Delineation of ... )〕 Such books were put to comic use by Charles Dickens in ''Our Mutual Friend'' (serialised 1864/5), with its cutting analysis of Victorian capitalism. In the third section of that novel, Mr Boffin decides to cure his ward Bella Wilfer of her obsession with wealth and position by appearing to become a miser. Taking her with him on a round of the bookshops, :Mr Boffin would say, 'Now, look well all round, my dear, for a Life of a Miser, or any book of that sort; any Lives of odd characters who may have been Misers.' .... The moment she pointed out any book as being entitled Lives of eccentric personages, Anecdotes of strange characters, Records of remarkable individuals, or anything to that purpose, Mr Boffin's countenance would light up, and he would instantly dart in and buy it.'〔Chapter 5 (Gutenberg site )〕 In the following chapter, Mr Boffin brings a coachload of the books to his premises and readers are introduced to a selection of typical titles and to the names of several of the misers treated in them. Among the books appear James Caulfield's ''Portraits, Memoirs, and Characters of Remarkable Persons'' (1794-5);〔Various volumes appear in (Google Books )〕 ''Kirby's Wonderful Museum of Remarkable Characters'' (1803);〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Kirby's Wonderful and Scientific Museum )〕 Henry Wilson's ''Wonderful Characters'' (1821);〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Wonderful Characters: )〕 and F. Somner Merryweather's ''Lives and Anecdotes of Misers or The Passion of Avarice displayed in the parsimonious habits, unaccountable lives and remarkable deaths of the most notorious misers of all ages'' (1850).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Lives and anecdotes of misers )〕 The majority of the misers are 18th century characters, with John Elwes and Daniel Dancer at their head. The first account of Elwes' life was Edward Topham's ''The Life of the Late John Elwes: Esquire'' (1790), which was initially published in his paper ''The World''. The popularity of such accounts is attested by the seven editions printed in the book's first year and the many later reprintings under various titles.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Life of the Late John Elwes )〕 Biographies of Dancer followed soon after, at first in periodicals such as the ''Edinburgh Magazine''〔"Anecdotes of the late Daniel Dancer Esq", (1794, pp.399-40 )〕 and the ''Sporting Magazine'',〔"Anecdotes of the Late Daniel Dancer" (1795 )〕 then in the compendiums ''Biographical Curiosities'' (which also included Elwes)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Biographical Curiosities; or, Various pictures of human nature. Containing ... )〕 and ''The Strange and Unaccountable Life of Daniel Dancer, Esq. ... with singular anecdotes of the famous Jemmy Taylor, the Southwark usurer'' (1797), which was often to be reissued under various titles.〔Roy Bearden-White, ''How the Wind Sits; Or, The History of Henry and Ann Lemoine, Chapbook Writers and Publishers of the Late Eighteenth Century'', Southern Illinois University 2007 (pp.55-7 )〕 Jemmy Taylor's name also appears in the list of notable misers that Mr Boffin ennumerates. He is coupled with the banker Jemmy Wood of Gloucester, a more recent miser about whom Dickens later wrote an article in his magazine All The Year Round.〔April 10, 1869 (pp.454-6 )〕 Others include John Little (who appears in Merryweather), Reverend Mr Jones of Blewbury (also in Merryweather) and Dick Jarrel, whose surname was really Jarrett and an account of whom appeared in the Annual Register for 1806.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Annual Register )〕 The many volumes of this publication also figured among Mr Boffin's purchases. Two more of the misers mentioned made their way into other literary works. John Hopkins, known as Vulture Hopkins, was the subject of a scornful couplet in the third of Alexander Pope's Moral Essays, "Of the Use of Riches": ::When Hopkins dies, a thousand lights attend 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「miser」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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