Christopher Smart: Clown of GodBucknell University Press, 2001 - 342 pages "This new biography of Christopher Smart offers a picture of a multifaceted eighteenth-century wit whose writing has far-reaching social, political, and historical significance. Poet, journalist, theater performer, cross-dresser, and theologian, who was questionably incarcerated for insanity, wherever Smart found himself his approach to life was at once serious and joyful, confirming him as one of God's clowns." "Building on previous biographical, bibliographical, and critical work - as well as on a broad scholarship on the publishing trade, on Grub Street and the position of the professional writer, and on the institutional treatment of madness in eighteenth-century England - Chris Mounsey constructs a version of Smart's life that is radically original. In its intelligent use of legal, parliamentary, and other archives, Mounsey both reappraises the familiar source material and mounts a challenge to earlier accounts of Smart's life and career. New interpretations of Smart's relationship with others (including his father-in-law John Newbery), his life on Grub Street as a political satirist, and his involvement in theological speculations provide a fuller and more engaging picture of the social, political, scientific, and religious context of his life and work."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Contents
| 21 | |
| 33 | |
| 43 | |
The HopGarden 17411752 | 64 |
London 17441756 | 81 |
London 17531759 | 145 |
The Prison Poems 17571763 | 202 |
London 17631771 | 239 |
The Construction of a Mad Poet 17711999 | 273 |
Notes | 285 |
Select Bibliography | 331 |
Index | 337 |
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Common terms and phrases
accusation Anglican Anna Maria appeared argued attack Battie Battie's Betty Rizzo Cambridge Carnan Castle chapter Charles Burney Christopher Smart Church claimed Critical Daily Advertiser debts December divine Dodsley edition essay fact Francis Newbery Garden Gentleman's Magazine georgic Gray Hawes Henry Henry Woodward Hill Hill's Hilliad Hop-Garden Ibid idea incarceration insanity Item John Newbery journal Jubilate Agno Kenrick Latin letter lines London Lord Luke's madhouse Mary Midnight Midwife Newbery's Oratory Oxford Pembroke Hall performance plants poet poet's poetic poetry political Pope praise Pretty Poems printed private madhouses probably Psalms Public Advertiser published Raby Castle reason reference religious Rizzo Samuel Foote satire Seatonian poems Sheeles Sherbo Sherratt Smart wrote Smart's poem Song to David Student Stukeley Stukeley's suggests that Smart Theatre Thomas Thomas Gray tion translation Vane verse William William Stukeley words writing written
Popular passages
Page 214 - The Father is made of none: neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone: not made nor created but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son: neither made nor created, nor begotten,
Page 38 - Deut. V. 29. Oh, that there were such an Heart in them, that they would Fear me, and keep all my Commandments always; that it
Page 69 - While yet the Spring is young, while Earth unbinds Her frozen Bosom to the Western Winds: While Mountain Snows dissolve against the Sun, And streams yet new from Precipices run; Ev'n in this early dawning of the year Produce the plough and yoke the sturdy steer.
Page 294 - several ways of ordering it. Published by Express Order of the Royal Society. Also, KALENDARIUM HORTENSE; Or Gard'ners Almanac; Directing what he is to do Monethly throughout the Year. London, Printed by Jo. Martyn, and Ja. Allestry, Printers to the Royal Society, and are to be sold at their shop at the Bell in S. Paul's Churchyard. MDCLXIV.
Page 101 - That to print or publish any books or libels reflecting upon the proceedings of the House of Commons or of any Member thereof, for or relating to his service therein, is a high violation of the rights and privileges of the House of Commons.
Page 68 - therefore, at once a book of entertainment and of science. This I was told by Miller, the great gardener and botanist, whose expression was, that "there were many books written on the same subject in prose which do not contain
Page 146 - nothing else; they -were to have, I think, a third of the profits of this sixpenny pamphlet; and the contract •was for ninety-nine years. I wish I had thought of giving this to Thurlow, in the cause
Page 147 - more. Every new proposal takes possession of his thoughts, he soon ballances probabilities, engages in the project, brings it almost to completion, and then forsakes it for another, which he catches with some alacrity, urges with the same vehemence, and abandons with the same coldness.
Page 233 - and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and his end shall be a fool.