Hurlothrumbo

“ It represented a revolt against all dramatic conventions and shared a number of qualities with graffiti, including the sense of spontaneity.
Had Johnson’s intention been something as relatively uncomplicated as literary parody he would have achieved some minor fame in a century which could boast any number of geniuses who had specialized in deriding the pretentiousness of the more established literary forms, particularly tragedy, the epic, and the pastoral. But Johnson of Cheshire lacked the aesthetic distance required of sustained irony and had a grander purpose in mind. ”

“ Though an easy cynicism about women’s availability and about the body’s insistently animal functions predominates, there is enough variety in The Merry-Thought to provide something of a picture of eighteenth-century society were any future anthropologist viii to come upon this volume as the sole remnant of that period. He would see a society engaged rather more in animal functions than in intellectual pursuits--a society rather more concerned with drinking, love, and defecation than the picture presented by the polite and intellectual literature of the time allowed. ”

“ Were not Pope and Swift famous for their distinguished miscellanies? What could iv be more amusing than a collection of poems that represented a different poetic ideal--a collection of verse with none of the pretensions to artistic merit claimed by the superstars of the poetic world--the spontaneous productions of nonpoets in moments of idleness or desperation. Apparently some of the inscribers in the bog-houses used excrement as a medium for--as well as a subject of--their inscriptions. ”

“ Bliss unmix’d with any Woe.
The Ambitious when rais’d to the Summit of Power,
In the Midst of their Joy fear that Fortune may lower;
The Miser, who Thousands has heap’d in his Chest,
In the Midst of Riches is never at rest. ”

“ While Fielding might appropriate the title “Scriblerus Secundus” by way of staking out a line of descent for his humor and satire, Hurlothrumbo was so thoroughly connected with Johnson and his play that I can see no reason why he should not be considered the likely editor of such a varied and eccentric collection of verse and prose as The Merry-Thought. That the “Variety” bears no xi resemblance to that of serious art, however, should be as obvious as the difference between a William Blake and a Samuel Johnson of Cheshire. ”

“ Polite taste, of course, is meaningful only if it can define itself by what it excludes, and nothing could be in worse taste than a collection of pieces written on windows, carved in tables, or inscribed on the walls of Britain’s loos. ”

“ If Death doth come as soon as Breath departs;
Then he must often die, who often farts:
And if to die be but to lose one’s Breath;
Then Death’s a Fart, and so a Fart for Death.
The Motto upon a Sign of a Gardiner’s Window, who kept a Publick House in the Road to Cambridge ”

“ Lonsdale is not the only scholar questioning the basis of the canon; indeed, revisionism is fast becoming one of the more ingenious--and useful--parlor games among academics. Modern readers are no longer so squeamish about obscenity nor so uncomfortable with the purely personal lyric as were the editors at the end of the eighteenth century. And we are hardly likely to find poetry written by women objectionable on that score alone. In short, the anthologies we depend upon are out of date. ”

“ Graffiti may, indeed, tell us something about degrees of literacy. One wit remarked that whatever the ability to read or write may have been at the time, almost everyone seemed to have been literate when presented with a bog-house wall: “Since all who come to Bog-house write” (pt. 2, p. 26) . The traditional connection between defecation and writing was another comparison apparent to the commentators. One wrote:
There’s Nothing foul that we commit,
But what we write, and what we sh - t. ”

“ On a Glass at the Devil Tavern, Temple-Bar.
The stubborn Glass no Character receives,
Except the Stamp the piercing Brilliant gives.
A female Heart thus no Impression takes,
But what the Lover tipp’d with Diamond makes.
27 At Launder’s Coffee-House, in the Old Play-House Passage.
Dear Pat, ’tis vain to patch or paint,
Since still a fragrant Breath you want;
For though well furnish’d, yet all Folks
Despise a Room whose Chimney smokes.
White-Hart at Watford. Parody of four Lines of Dryden.
Glass with a Diamond does our Wit betray ”

“ Graffiti is an irreverent form, with strong popular and anti-establishment elements. As actions common to all classes, eating, drinking, defecation, and fornication find their lowly record in graffiti-like form.
On the most basic level, a writer will observe that the excrement of the rich differs in no way from that of the poor. ”

“ Johnson called upon “Variety” as his most important artistic principle, and he developed his ideas on this subject in A Vision of Heaven (1738) , a work which bears a striking resemblance to William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.9 Johnson argues that all surface appearances are merely a form of “Hieroglyphic” concealing a true vision of things (6) . ”

“ A Diamond makes Impression there,
Though on the Finger of an Ass.
On a Person of Quality’s Boghouse.
Good Lord! who could think,
That such fine Folks should stink?
26 On a Window at Bushy-Hall, Hertfordshire.
Love is like Blindman’s Buff, where we pursue,
We know not what we catch, we know not who;
And when we grasp our Wish, what Prize is won?
Our Eyes are open’d, and the Play is done.
Some Love Verses being first written on a Window in Brook-Street, and scratched out, occasioned the following:
Good grave Papa, you hope in vain,
By blotting this to mend her ”

“ From a Bog-House at the George-Inn in Whitchurch.
From costive Stools, and hide-bound Wit,
From Bawdy Rhymes, and Hole besh--t.
From Walls besmear’d with stinking Ordure,
By Swine who nee’r provide Bumfodder
Libera Nos ——
Upon a Pillar at the Royal-Exchange.
This City is a World that’s full of Streets,
And Death’s the Market-Place where Mankind meets;
8
If Life were Merchandize, that Men could buy,
The Rich would only live, the Poor must die. ”

“ Many of the writers identify themselves and the names of the women they love or detest. In short, if these volumes do little else, they do provide a vivid glimpse into the personal life of the time, and to that extent an injection of some of these inscriptions into the anthologies of the period might help in providing a lively and piquant context for the serious artistic production of writers like Gay and Swift.
The announced “publisher” of this olio was one Hurlothrumbo, a character drawn from the theatrical piece of that name by Samuel Johnson of Cheshire (1691-1773) . ”

“ Recent studies of graffiti have often focused on particular modern conflicts between races or nations, on drug problems, and on specific political commentary.3 But such local matters aside, the content of modern graffiti is surprisingly like that of earlier periods: scatological observations, laments of lovers, accusations against women for their sexual promiscuity, the repetition of “trite” poems and sayings, and messages attributed to various men and women suggesting their sexual availability and proficiency. ”

“ In a Bog-House at the Nag’s-Head in Bradmere.
The greatest Monarch, when a fighting,
Looks not so great as I, when sh——ting.
In the same Place. Such Places as these,
Were made for the Ease
Of every Fellow in common;
But a Person who writes
On the Wall as he sh——tes,
Has a Pleasure far greater than Woman.
For he’s eas’d in his Body, and pleas’d in his Mind,
When he leaves both a T——d and some Verses behind.
Underwritten.
You are eas’d in your Body, and pleas’d in your Mind,
That you leave both a T——d and some Verses behind ”