Tuppy Glossop

Hildebrand "Tuppy" Glossop is a fictional character appearing in some of P. G. Wodehouse Jeeves books. He is a member of the Drones Club and a good friend of Bertie Wooster. In Right Ho, Jeeves, we learn that Tuppy is of Scottish origin.

Relationships

Tuppy is engaged to Bertie's favourite cousin, Angela Travers. Jeeves has ruined Tuppy's relationships with the opera singer Cora Bellinger and the dog lover Miss Dalgleish in order to keep Tuppy with Angela, usually upon the request of Angela's mother (Bertie's Aunt Dahlia). In Right Ho, Jeeves, Angela breaks the engagement because Tuppy disparages a shark that had attacked her while she was aquaplaning in Cannes. Bertie makes an attempt to restore the status quo with disastrous results, causing Jeeves to step in and restore their engagement with his normal brilliance.

Tuppy's uncle is Bertie's nemesis (and later good friend) Sir Roderick Glossop and his cousin is Bertie's ex-fiancée Honoria Glossop.

In the book Much Obliged, Jeeves, Angela and Tuppy haven't married after being two years engaged due to a lack of funds on Tuppy's part. Angela's mother Dahlia takes it upon herself to do something about Tuppy's financial woes. She decides that L.P Runkle of Runkle Enterprises owes Tuppy money for Tuppy's late father's invention, a hangover remedy which allowed Runkle to rake in millions, while Tuppy's father did not make any profit on the invention. She subsequently attempts to extort the money from Runkle by pinching his porringer, although that had proved to be a bust. With Jeeves's brilliance and the Junior Ganymede Club book she manages to make Runkle cough up the money.

Bertie reminisces quite frequently about a practical joke Tuppy played on him where one evening at the Drones Club, Tuppy dared Bertie to swing across the club swimming pool by means of the exercise rings. Bertie made quick work of the challenge only to discover that Tuppy had looped the last ring back, necessitating a fall into the water in full evening dress. Despite this recollection being fresh in his mind, Bertie unfailingly helps Tuppy out of several sticky situations, especially those involving his cousin Angela.

Character

Tuppy has a rather vengeful nature as shown in Right Ho, Jeeves when he dismisses a shark that attacked Angela as a flatfish that wanted to play because Angela had previously commented that he was getting fat. Besides this, he has a jealous side as he chases Bertie, threatening to turn him inside out and make him swallow himself, when he was under the misapprehension that Bertie stole Angela's affection from him while at Cannes. He also has shown a lack of tact, once remarking to Angela that her new hat made her look like a raccoon peering out from underneath a flowerpot. He was also known to remark that a different hat made Miss Travers resemble a Pekingese.

Television Portrayal

In the ITV series Jeeves and Wooster, Tuppy is played by Robert Daws.^[1]

References