literary cheese question

[redrobot]

hello

i remember reading many years ago of a character in 19thC fiction who had been shipwrecked for many years on an island. when he was finally found he was given cheese and was so elated he began hopping about and gibbering. is this all in my imagination or does this characetr exist? if so, what is his name?

[kev67]

I think that was Ben Gum (Gun/Gunn?) from Treasure Island.

[redrobot]

well done. yes, ben gunn. in the film he looks like this:
www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsW/51144.gif

eerily similar to myself tho i don't eat cheese.

[redrobot]

"Marooned three years agone," he continued, "and lived on goats since then, and berries, and oysters. Wherever a man is, says I, a man can do for himself. But, mate, my heart is sore for Christian diet. You mightn't happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now? No? Well, many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese--toasted, mostly--and woke up again, and here I were."