Philobiblon

Miss Williams Wynn is back on the subject of Napoleon, having met two relevant officers at public balls, apparently in Hastings – then rather more fashionable than now, I suspect.

She’s also writing on a young officer on the ship taking Napoleon to exile who was related to (I think she means) Sir Wm Sydney Smith, who refused to speak to Napoleon because of the way he perceived his relative had been treated by the emperor.

He was frigate captain at the start of the French Revolutionary War and in 1795 was captured on the coast of France during a cutting-out expedition and imprisoned in Paris until early 1798, largely because the French thought he was also engaged in espionage: at this he was also accomplished, aided by his fluent French.

Her other posts on Napoleon can be found here and here.

Complaints about Christmas are nothing new. The puritan Humphrey Howell in an almanac during the Interregnum complained that the feast derived from the pagan Saturnalia was blasphemous towards Christ in its origin and its conduct “for when in all the year is he more dishonoured. What less pleasing to him than swearing, drunkenness and all manner of villainy.”

Even more of a Scrooge was another almanac compiler, who argued that the time spent on religious festivals should properly be devoted to work, since God had ordained six days of week for that and “here is no room left for holy days”. (p. 152-153)

And I was commenting last night about lawyer jokes. Well the only – that I know of anyway – female almanac compiler of the 17th century, Sarah Jinner, wrote that they:

Have lined their gowns, and made them pistol-proof,
And Magna Carta clad in coat of buff.
And with a bolder confidence can take
A larger fee for Reformation sake” (p. 109)

She also has some comments on useful antiaphrodisiacs – rue “made a man no better than a eunuch”, while for women she prescribed a powder made from “a red bull’s pizzle”. (p. 122)

Pretty bad, but not as bad as Sir Christopher Wren, who claimed to have cured his wife’s thrush “by hanging a bag of live boglice around her neck”. (Anyone know what boglice are?)

And an interesting tie to a recent post of mine on marriage, which attracted some considerable heat on Blogcritics; Nicholas Culpepper on marriage – “We all know that marriage is a civil thing, therefore ought more properly to belong to the civil magistrate than the clergyman; but the clergy get money by it, that’s the key of the business.” (p. 155)

From Astrology and the Popular Press: English Almanacs 1500-1800, Bernard Capp, Faber and Faber, London and Boston, 1979.

While astrologers in general and the almanac writers are now little regarded, the book makes an interesting case that they were important in spreading at least elementary knowledge of science and mathematics to the masses. They spread knowledge of the shape and size of the solar system, of the nature of eclipses and other natural phenomena, and assisted in the replacement of Roman numbers by Arabic. Their lists of weights and measures, ready reckoners and tables of simple interest aided in economic development.

Eugenia is a frustrated woman. Even atom of her body aches to be free of her aged husband, to throw herself, with his money, into the gay life of youth that is hers by right of her birthdate. He, however, is destined to die soon, on a set date, the date that he turns four-score years of age, for that is the decree of an absolute monarch, Duke Evander of Epire. Women get only three score, and those of no further use can be bumped off even earlier, should their relatives so request.

That’s the scenario that guides A New Way to Please You, written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley in about 1618. Then, a scholarly essay in the programme indicates, there were all sorts of issues around conflict over the Common Law; indeed its original subtitle was The Old Law. Now, while that’s all history, the central clash of the play – between young and old – is still fresh, and ensures that this modern dress production seldom seems anachronistic.

The Royal Shakespeare Company production is part of Gunpowder season, marking the anniversary of that monumental plot. Yet this is a play that today is less about politics on the big stage than the personal politics within families. Eugenia – gloriously played by Miranda Colchester in the midst of a typically fine ensemble cast – made her pact with her bank balance in marrying the old man, but thinks she’s paid an adequate price. READ MORE.

In Britain, Australia and the US laws have been brought in to deal with “terrorists”, sweeping away civil liberties in the process. But these were only for terrorists, we were told.

So who’s been caught?

The latest, in Britain, is an an “over-enthusiastic” A-level chemistry student.

In Australia this week, it was entirely innocent, indeed random, bus passengers and car drivers, on routes heading towards Sydney beaches where there have been racist clashes that no one has suggested have anything to do with “terrorism”. Police were confiscating their mobile phones and reading through the text messages. So much for privacy.

And of course there’s is the US, where the situation is even worse, since George Bush is not even bothering to try to get a law or legal backing for wire taps, instead employing the Louis XIV-style of government.

Finally, however, I get the feeling that the pendulum is swinging. It is not just those who pay reasonably close attention to issues such as human rights who are starting to get concerned, but the general public. Of course the problem is that it is a lot harder to get rid of laws than bring them in.

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Elsewhere, while I don’t believe in the death penalty, it is hard not to give a little cheer at the end of a Japanese “groper”, chased by a group of men after his woman victim had the courage to speak up. (He had a heart attack and died in hospital.)

I doubt there’s a woman – at least a woman who’s lived or visited a city – who hasn’t suffered from this sort of assault. It is the sort of thing that makes women feel they are living in perpetually hostile, male, spaces.

And hopefully this event will empower more Japanese women to speak up and protest.

Aspiring writers are usually told “write about what you know”, and that is what first-time playwright Sam Peter Jackson has done in portraying 20-something actors coming to terms with the difficulties of their profession and personal lives. But if he is really writing about what he knows, then all of the stereotypes about self-obsession, ridiculous angst and general luvviness are also true.

These are both the strength and the weakness of his Minor Irritations, on at the White Bear Theatre in Kennington until January 8. The audience is ready to laugh at his characters, and when Jackson gives them a succession of delightful one-liners, to really laugh. But this sits rather oddly with the angst-ridden moments of quarter-life crisis that the characters are apparently suffering. Jackson has a real talent for word-play and the comic scene, but needs to lighten up and keep that mood throughout; perhaps what is needed is just a bit more growing up – something that could definitely be said of his characters.

The author plays the central figure of Minor Irritations, Ben, a “resting” actor who’s working in a call centre, auditioning for a chicken burger commercial and yet to get over his ex-boyfriend, Jay (Luke Evans), who’s living in New York and succeeding. Ben’s best friend/fag hag is Harriet (Dulcie Lewis), who cheerfully hams up her role as an air-headed part-time air hostess and Jewish princess who arrives on stage obsessing about her recent purchase of The Big Issue. She says of her interaction with the vendor “I always want to say, ‘Don’t you have Vogue or Vanity Fair?” READ MORE

No V is up now on Scribbling Woman, and it is another stunning selection, with the added bonus of Christmas cheer – BYO eggnog, however.

You can travel around the world, learn why your Christmas wardrobe doesn’t fit, and have great sex. (Or at least read about it.)

More seriously, don’t miss every post in the “institutionalized violence” category. Something to think about for your activist New Year’s reolutions.

And it’s guaranteed to contain no calories whatsoever. Definitely better than eating that extra mince pie.

Please help to spread the word!

And don’t forget, in the festive haze, that the next carnival will be on Reappropriate on January 4. So if some inspiration strikes amid the festivities, don’t forget to write it and nominate it in time, to jenn AT reappropriate DOT com.

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