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- But who is wurs shod, than the shoemakers wyfe, With shops full of newe shapen shoes all hir lyfe? (1546) J. Heywood Dialogue of Proverbs i. xi. E1VJuly 12, 1721 - 9:07 am
My Lords and Gentlemen, The demands upon my time are such that the commencement of my Treatise has again been delayed. That my Treatise is to be published has already caused much grumbling amongst the disaffected adherents of the Cult of Wokery. So much so that a pamphlet is abroad in which an anonymous author […]
“The Scurvy (the only reigning disease in this Kingdom) when it is grown so bad, as to become scandalous, so as many People think it to be the POX”. William Salmon, Collectanea Medica, the Country Physician (London, 1703), p. 4
/in Cleverest Man In England, Foul Pestilence, Hostility to Jewish People, Lord Sumption, Rule of Six, Scoundrels, Social bubbles /by The SomnambulistMy Lords and Gentlemen, In my Treatise, I will explain by giving examples how the Body Politick is infected by Scoundrels no less than the girls in Moll King’s House are infected by the Pox. The days recently past have provided more than one such example. Last week I met Mr Mordecai Benjamin at Bevis […]
“Oft on a plat of rising ground, I hear the far-off curfew sound” Milton, Il Penseroso
/in Bishops, Lockdown, Wales /by The SomnambulistMy Lords and Gentlemen, I pray that you will forgive me but I must again postpone the commencement of my Treatise. This morning, I received a letter from Sir Richard Steele who has been staying at his late wife’s house in Carmarthen. The news contained in this missive is such that I consider it should be […]
“I shall see some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness I’ th’ posture of a whore.” Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, V.ii.215
/in Theatre, Uncategorized /by The SomnambulistThis morning I met Mr John Mottley on the Strand. He was in a black temper. After we had exchanged our good mornings and the intelligence of the day, I asked Mr Mottley why he was so dispirited. He explained that he had lost his contract with the Excise Office and now had to make […]
“Every heire is either a male, a female, or an hermaphrodite, that is both male and female” Sir Edward Coke, Institutes.
/in Sex, Uncategorized, Women /by The SomnambulistAs I related in my last essay, it had been vouched safe to me that a Mob had assembled in Whitehall demanding that My Lady Rowling be burned as a witch because she was heard to mutter in her sleep that God had created Men and Women. I must now relate what followed. After making […]
“Where there are many women, there are many witches” (Malleus Maleficarum, 1486)
/in Rule of Six, Social bubbles, Uncategorized, Witches, Women /by The SomnambulistMy Lords and Gentlemen, I have of late been in downcast mood. I was minded to accompany my Lord Godolphin to the matches at Newmarket. No sooner than my bags were packed and loaded on the stage than his Man deliver’d to me a note written in his Lordship’s own hand. In it his Lordship had […]
“I shall be ambitious to have it said of me, that I have brought Philosophy out of Closets and Libraries,Schools and Colleges, to dwell in Clubs and Assemblies, at Tea-tables, and in Coffee houses.” The Spectator 12th March 1711
/in Foul Pestilence, Philosophy, Uncategorized /by The SomnambulistI am in a hearty mood this evening. On the advice of my Lord Chetwynd I sold my shares in the South Seas Company this very morning yet by noon their price was little more than nihil. In celebration of my good fortune, I partook of a most convivial luncheon at Will’s Coffee House. The conversation […]
Pleas’d with his Idol, he commends, admires,Adores; and last, the Thing ador’d, desires. Dryden, Pygmalion and His Statue
/in Statues /by The SomnambulistAs I was walking home yesterday afternoon after luncheon at Mr Lloyd’s Coffee House (which I vouchsafe has not been of the same quality since the death of Mr Lloyd), I chanced upon Mortdecai Benjamin outside the Synagogue at Bevis Marks. After I had told him of the day’s tittle tattle I fancied that old […]
And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and. cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee. that one of thy members should perish, and not. Matthew 5.30
/in Statues /by The SomnambulistMy Lords and Gentlemen Before commencing my Treatise I will relate to you a matter which is causing me much puzzlement. Last Tuesday evening I enjoyed a fine dinner with Mr Tonson et al.. After we had taken our pipes, Mr Tonson shewed the company a painting of himself daubed by none other than Sir Godfrey […]
… quasi recens cognitis Liviae flagitiis ac non pridem etiam punitis, atroces sententiae dicebantur in effigies quoque ac memoriam eius … Tacitus, Ann. VI.2
/in Statues /by The SomnambulistMy Lords and Gentlemen1s Editor’s note: the quotation from Tacitus may be translated: “as if the offences of Livia were crimes but recently detected, not crimes actually punished long before, stern measures were advocated even against her statues and her memory”, It is with no small measure of regret that I feel compelled to put […]