April 28, 1874

Karl Kraus (April 28, 1874 to June 12, 1936) was born into a rich Jewish Eastern European family. They moved to Vienna in the 1890s. His name is more honored than uttered in the English world, although the writings of this satirist are reportedly as difficult for his fellow Germans to grasp as they are for the British. 

Jonathan Franzen has translated and annotated Karl Kraus in a new book:The Kraus Project: Essays by Karl Kraus (2013). It may be Franzen can help us glimpse something useful in this topic. 

Let's look at an example. The feuilleton was an 19th century invention. It is a special section of a periodical designed for light entertainment. Kraus saw this development in printing as symptom and perhaps cause of a decline in cultural standards. It is possible the contemporary difficulties in understanding Kraus show the accuracy of Kraus's critique.

Here is Kraus on the topic: “Writing feuilletons means twining curls on a bald head; but these curls please the public better than a lion’s mane of thoughts. Esprit and charm, which presumably were necessary in developing the trick and becoming adept at it, are now passed on by it automatically. With an easy hand, Heine pushed open the door to this dreadful development.”

It sounds to me like Kraus is pointing to the facile linguistic outpouring of modern writings. It means a disinclination to discuss philosophical issues while maintaining  a certain sincere and open minded intent to discover accurately. And behind this is the fact of modern education with little training in languages or critical thought. These things were commonplace in the 19th century. Now though more people are educated, the quality of education of fallen sharply, as should be apparent if we consider the paucity of training in foreign languages. Another recent example would be the fact that the vocabulary section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test will soon be deliberately made simpler as the words chosen now will be picked on the basis of whether the words will be useful to the student. 

Now, if Karl Kraus viewed the feuilleton as the actual cause of this kind of decline in western literacy, I have to wonder if he is not being himself,  too superficial. But I do not know to what he broadly ascribed the developments represented by the feuilleton. 

Another writer says of Kraus that he would have found the language of George Bush agreeable fodder for satire. My view is that what Kraus would find suitable for satire is more complex, in our imaginary game of what would Kraus think now.  We live in a world in which the smartest people (astrophysicists) can say without being embarrassed, well you can't ask what came before the big bang, because time hadn't been created then. 

Clive James is the writer I mention in the last paragraph, and it is in his essay that we read Kraus said: you cannot be satirical about madness.  

April 27, 1824

We have from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, notes on a writer with a military background.  We will quote liberally from their life of Sir Edward Bruce Hamley (April 27, 1824 to 12 August 1893.)  The account below is all written by the Dictionary but I have excerpted it, and even excerpted the ellipses for reasons of appearance. Since I am quoting so much I am also not using italics as much as normally I do. In competent hands such as mine such tricks are defensible. We quote:

 [Edward Bruce Hamley was from an old Cornwall family.]

[Hamby] was early in his military career, commissioned second-lieutenant, Royal Artillery.[He] served a year in Ireland, then nearly four in Canada, devoting himself to reading and field sports. He had a notable love of animals, especially cats. Back in England he served at Tynemouth and Carlisle. He had to live on his pay, and having incurred debts he turned to writing to pay them off. His earliest papers, ‘Snow pictures’ and ‘The peace campaigns of Ensign Faunce’, appeared in Fraser's Magazine (1849–50). He was promoted second-captain on 12 May 1850, and joined his new battery at Gibraltar, where he read much literature—Scott's novels were his favourites—and continued writing. A lady who knew him well there stated:

"He was very thin and angular, and looked much taller than he was … He came to the Rock with the reputation of being very clever, satirical, and given to drawing caricatures. … Most people stood in awe of him, owing to his silent ways and stiff manner, and from his taking but little part in things around him, and never taking the trouble to talk except to a few … He had a most tender heart behind his stiff manner, and many were the kind acts he did to the wives and children of his company. " [A. I. Shand, The life of General Sir Edward Bruce Hamley, 2 vols. (1895) ]

His connection with Blackwood's Magazine, to which his eldest brother, William (a Royal Engineers officer), was already a contributor, began in 1851. His novel, Lady Lee's Widowhood, appeared in 1853, and was soon republished with drawings by himself, showing his artistic talent. A prolific writer, he published many and varied books and articles.

In March 1854 Colonel Richard Dacres, who commanded the artillery at Gibraltar, was given the command of the batteries of the 1st division in the army sent to Turkey. Hamley went with him as adjutant, and served throughout the war in the Crimea. At the Alma his horse was struck by a cannon-shot. At Inkerman his horse was killed, and he narrowly escaped being made prisoner. He was mentioned in dispatches,[and] on 2 November 1855, received a Légion d'honneur (fifth class)  and was belatedly made a CB on 13 March 1867. He sent Blackwood's a series of letters from the Crimea, republished as The Story of the Campaign of Sebastopol (1855), vividly portraying the siege. In this, and in his 1856 Blackwood's article ‘Lessons from the war’, he defended the army against its ‘ill-informed and ill-judging’ civilian critics, alleging that its shortcomings resulted from politicians starving it of money and auxiliary services, and he rejected the accusations of incompetent command in the Crimea.

On his return home he formed many literary friendships: with Aytoun, Warren, Bulwer Lytton, Thackeray, and others. ‘He hated fools, he had no tolerance for presumption, and he could never endure self-complacent bores’  but with men he liked he was a genial companion and brilliant talker. He hated music at dinner because it spoilt conversation.

Early in 1859 Hamley was appointed professor of military history at the new Staff College at Sandhurst, and remained there six years. His task was to explain military campaigns and their lessons. He was a competent lecturer, though a pedant.

From his lectures Hamley wrote his great work The Operations of War Explained and Illustrated (1866). Hamley was primarily concerned with strategy, and believed his subject could be rationally analysed and constant valid principles derived, from which could be deduced lessons for the future. Concentrating largely on Marlburian, Frederician, and Napoleonic warfare, he showed little insight into the significance of tactical development in the most important recent war, the American Civil War: his idea of the modern battle was still essentially Napoleonic. Nevertheless Operations of War was a remarkable success and established Hamley's reputation as Britain's leading authority on military thought. It was adopted as a Staff College textbook, and in 1870 the second edition as a West Point textbook. The book was intended not only for military men. J. F. Maurice claimed that by it Hamley did ‘more than any other Englishman to make known to English officers the value of a methodical treatment of the study of campaigns.’ Five editions were published in his lifetime. However in the 1890s there was a reaction against the book and it was criticized by Spenser Wilkinson and by G. F. R. Henderson, who in 1898 (in the Journal of the Royal United Service Institution) alleged it was schematic and ignored the spirit of war, the commander's intentions, moral forces, and the effects of secrecy, rapidity, and surprise. After Hamley's death, [the] seventh and last [edition] (1923), revised by Sir George Aston, attempted to incorporate the lessons of the First World War. Aston claimed Hamley's book had ‘stood the supreme test of the Great War’. However, the war, as Azar Gat has written, ‘made the Napoleonic strategic model largely irrelevant and marked the final eclipse [of] Hamley.’ 

 In 1869 he was made a member of the Literary Society, a small, select dining club.

From July 1870 to December 1877 Hamley was commandant of the Staff College, probably his happiest period. He gave the college increased distinction and raised its status in the army. He infused a new spirit, making the course more thorough, outdoor, and practical, putting stress on riding, and carrying out extended reconnaissances. He took great care over the students and their work. He could not endure opposition, and expected subordinates and students to accept his views without question. Somewhat reserved, with little sense of humour, he did not suffer fools gladly. He was more prone to blame than praise, but did not stint praise when it was well earned.

A distinguished service pension was granted him on 20 December 1879. He was employed on the Armenian frontier in the summer of 1880, and on the new Greek frontier in the summer of 1881, receiving the thanks of the Foreign Office. The sultan promoted him to the Mejidiye (second class) in 1880, but he had to decline the order of the Saviour, offered by the king of Greece in 1881.

[H]e was widely considered ill-used [by his superiors after a military campaign in Egypt], and Tennyson linked his name with the ‘Charge of the heavy brigade’ in 1883. He was Conservative MP for Birkenhead from 1885 to 1892.  At this time he would have been placed on the retired list in consequence of non-employment, but in deference to public opinion he was specially retained on the active list as a supernumerary until 30 July 1890, when he became general. In 1890 he wrote his masterly one-volume War in the Crimea, essentially repeating the views in his 1855 Blackwood's letters.

After suffering much for several years from bronchial disorder, exacerbated by London smoke and fogs, Hamley died on 12 August 1893, and was buried in Brompton cemetery, London. He had never married, but after the death of his brother Charles in 1863 had virtually adopted the latter's only daughter, Barbara. The Athenaeum obituary claimed he was[:]

A singularly able man, and highly accomplished, with wide knowledge, wide sympathies, and strong opinions of his own, he would probably have attained higher fame if he had been less versatile.  He was an excellent draughtsman; although essentially self-centred, an admirable actor; he was a skilful sportsman, and a man who could defy fatigue, and who seemed to like hardships.

[H]e was probably the most renowned British military writer of the nineteenth century, and among the most influential. 

So I end the quotation of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. They mention but hardly emphasize an article Hamley wrote titled  ‘Our poor relations’ in the May 1870 issue of Blackwoods Magazine. Here we glimpse an exceptional imaginative portrayal of man as part of a larger web of living things. He movingly describes animals all over the world as befits the traveler he was, but nothing can explain his imaginative sympathy.  There cats and other felines are analyzed, certainly, and in a most moving manner,  but let me quote here his own words about a lesser thought of fellow creature.

But there is yet another class of these votaries of science, called Naturalists, to whom no kind of creature that can be classified comes amiss as a victim, from a butterfly to a hippopotamus. Armed sometimes with a rifle, sometimes less expensively with a pin, they go forth into strange lands to collect what they call the "fauna." Millions of moths, before they have fluttered out half their brief existence in the sunshine, are secured by these sportsmen, and impaled in boxes. ....

Indeed. The point is not the necessity for such, but the casual cruel ignorance that accompanies it. 

April 26, 121 AD

We read from a 19th century reprint of the writings of Marcus Aurelius, (April 26, 121 AD to March 17, 180 AD)  a Roman emperor and philosopher of repute, some lovely things. The Golden Book of Marcus Aurelius (1908) starts with a brief introduction to stoicism, a much misunderstood approach:

The Stoics regarded speculation as a means to an end; and that end was,...to live consistently...[that is], to live in conformity with nature.... This conforming of the life to nature was the Stoic idea of Virtue. .... In order to live in accord with nature, it is necessary to know what nature is; and to this end a threefold division of philosophy is made—into Physics, dealing with the universe and its laws, the problems of divine government and teleology; Logic, which trains the mind to discern true from false; and Ethics, which applies the knowledge thus gained and tested to practical life.

You can open to any page and read something sensible, like:

Is it not a cruel thing to forbid men to affect those things, which they conceive to agree best with their own natures, and to tend most to their own proper good and behoof? But thou after a sort deniest them this liberty, as often as thou art angry with them for their sins. For surely they are led unto those sins whatsoever they be, [thinking they are]... their proper good .... But it is not so (thou wilt object perchance). Thou therefore teach them better, and make it appear unto them: but be not thou angry with them.

Or

Do all things as becometh the disciple of ...[a real teacher]. Remember his resolute constancy in things that were done by him according to reason, his equability in all things, his sanctity; the cheerfulness of his countenance, his sweetness, and how free he was from all vainglory; how careful to come to the true and exact knowledge of matters in hand,.... how he would never be over-hasty in anything, nor give ear to slanders and false accusations, but examine and observe with best diligence the several actions and dispositions of men. Again, how he was no backbiter, nor easily frightened, nor suspicious, and in his language free from all affectation... and how easily he would content himself with few things ..... [H]is uniformity and constancy in matter of friendship. How he would bear with them that with all boldness and liberty opposed his opinions; and even rejoice if any man could better advise him: and lastly, how religious he was without superstition. All these things of him remember, that whensoever thy last hour shall come upon thee, it may find thee, as it did him, ready for it in the possession of a good conscience.

And:

Stir up thy mind, and recall thy wits again from thy natural dreams, and visions, and when thou art perfectly awoken, and canst perceive that they were but dreams that troubled thee, as one newly awakened out of another kind of sleep look upon these worldly things with the same mind as thou didst upon those, that thou sawest in thy sleep.

Perhaps:

Dost thou not see, how even those that profess mechanic arts, though in some respect they be no better than mere idiots, yet they stick close to the course of their trade, neither can they find in their heart to decline from it: and is it not a grievous thing that an architect, or a physician shall respect the course and mysteries of their profession, more than a man the proper course and condition of his own nature, reason, which is common to him and to the Gods?

Even:

Asia, Europe; what are they, but as corners of the whole world; of which the whole sea, is but as one drop; and the great Mount Athos, but as a clod, as all present time is but as one point of eternity. All, petty things; all things that are soon altered, soon perished. And all things come from one beginning; either all severally and particularly deliberated and resolved upon, by the general ruler and governor of all; or all by necessary consequence. So that the dreadful hiatus of a gaping lion, and all poison, and all hurtful things, are but (as the thorn and the mire) the necessary consequences of goodly fair things. Think not of these therefore, as things contrary to those which thou dost much honour, and respect; but consider in thy mind the true fountain of all.

And astoundingly:

He that seeth the things that are now, hath seen all that either was ever, or ever shall be, for all things are of one kind; and all like one unto another. Meditate often upon the connection of all things in the world; and upon the mutual relation that they have one unto another. For all things are after a sort folded and involved one within another, and by these means all agree well together. For one thing is consequent unto another, by local motion, by natural conspiration and agreement, and by substantial union, or, reduction of all substances into one.

April 25, 1690

David Teniers the Younger, (baptised December 15, 1610 to April 25, 1690) the Flemish artist, inherited talent, and married more. His father was David Teniers the Elder and his wife was the granddaughter of Pieter Bruegel (the elder), perhaps the greatest painter of the Renaissance.

One consequence of such genius and entree was that David Teniers was also a great curator (assuming there is a difference between curator and artist, which actually there is not.) Here is what the Courtauld has to say:

David Teniers the Younger (1610-90) was already a successful painter when in 1651 he was appointed court artist to the Governor of the Southern Netherlands (comprising most of modern Belgium). His new patron was the Hapsburg Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, cousin of King Philip IV of Spain. During the single decade of his governorship (1646-56) Leopold Wilhelm formed one of the greatest art collections of his age, and Teniers effectively became its curator. Leopold Wilhelm’s collection came to number approximately 1,300 works, including paintings by Holbein, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Van Eyck, Raphael, Giorgione, Veronese and more than 15 works by Titian. This exceptional accumulation of masterpieces now forms the heart of Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum


The picture below is " Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Picture Gallery in Brussels" (1651) and we see here the artist boasting about himself and complimenting his patron. We read that the picture below could also serve as a inventory, and shows both the Archduke and Teniers.




Confidence in one's talent and the appreciation of others meant that one could tease, and here we have a jest on the part of the David Teniers the Younger.

In  a biography of this artist we learn of shadows in his last years:

.... Vlieghe goes on to clarify how Teniers rose to become court painter to the Habsburg governors in Brussels, and the means used by the artist to achieve greater social recognition, which included extensive self-representation and considerable conspicuous consumption. Teniers’s later years were marred by difficulties, brought on by his diminishing success as an artist and by financial difficulties with his children. Vlieghe shows how these circumstances led to Teniers dying in rather deplorable circumstances.

I am not sure what this means.

April 21, 1814

Angela Burdett-Coutts (April 21, 1814 to December 30, 1906) inherited two fortunes and was a major benefactor for Victorian philanthropies. She consulted Charles Dickens to make sure her money was wisely distributed in her attempts to help prostitutes change their lives. She supported scientific endeavors. The picture below, showing her wearing a crown that originally belonged to French queen Marie-Antoinette, was supplied in a Royal Society blog post discussing her support for science.



Of course she was involved in projects to improve the lives of poor children. And in 1870 she was made president of the newly formed RSPCA's Ladies Committee. But her life was not all earnest do-gooding. She married for the first time at the age of 66 -- her librarian. He was much younger and after her death he continued to support  her charitable interests.

April 20, 1743

Alexandre-François Desportes (February 24, 1661 to April 20 1743) was a painter attached to the court of Louis XIV and then his successor Louis XV. His specialty was painting animals and this genre was an aspect of the 18th century upper class life. Some biographical details about Desportes will highlight this vanished section of cultural history. The summary below quotes an art blog.

... Desportes continued his artistic training at the Académie Royale where he was able to learn about traditional classical drawing but was also able to continue with his favoured painting method – en plein air. Desportes had to fund his schooling, as well as buy food and pay for his lodgings, and to do this he earned money by designing stage scenery, gained portrait commissions and commissions to paint decorations in Paris hotels...


During the 1680’s he assisted the French painter Claude Auran III in supplying paintings for Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Duc de Vendôme’s Chateau d’Anet.....

Desportes ... despite his financial hardship, Alexandre-François Desportes married Eléonore-Angélique Baudet. His wife was a linen and lace maker and through her occupation she was able to support her husband and allow him to search out commissions and carry on with his studies...

Desportes['] luck changed when in 1695 he received an invitation from the French ambassador to Poland to come to the court of the Polish king John III Sobieski who was also the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Desportes was commissioned to paint portraits of the king, his wife Maria Kasimiera and some of the palace courtiers. His stay at the royal court lasted less than a year as the Polish king died in June 1696. Desportes was summoned to return to France by Louis XIV.... [H]e ... decided to revert back to the training he received from Nicasius Bernaerts – the depiction of animals and still life painting and as a twist to this he would incorporate the two in his artistry. In August 1699 Desportes was received into the Académie Royale as an animal painter ...

Louis XIV had started to have his palace at Versailles built in 1664 and he decided to incorporate a menagerie within the palace’s park. The design of his menagerie was in line with other Baroque menageries of the time with its circular layout, in the centre of which was a magnificent pavilion. People were able to walk along the paths which surrounded this central building, and alongside them were the cages which housed the wild animals. The king had been very impressed with the animal paintings of Desportes and commissioned him to complete five works of art which depicted animals and hunting scenes for the menagerie pavilion. Desportes, ... often went on hunting trips with Louis XIV .... During the hunt he would carry with him a small notebook in which he would make on-site sketches of the hunt “trophies” – the dead animals, which could then be used later for still-life depictions of the game that resulted from the day’s hunt, Louis XIV would then choose the best sketches and Desportes would go off and complete an oil on canvas painting of the king’s chosen subject. ....

Louis XIV was so pleased with these paintings that in 1702, he commissioned Desportes to paint six works, portraying the portraits of the hunting dogs which were his personal favourites. In one such work entitled Bonne, Nonne and Ponne [above]  we see the king’s three favourite hunting dogs chasing and flushing out pheasants and partridges from the long grass. The king was so pleased with the work Desportes produced for him [again above] that he awarded him a pension and two years later he made Desportes a councillor of the Académie Royale.

Desportes reputation as an artist spread outside of France and soon he was in high demand. In 1712 he visited London and stayed for six months working on commissions. When Louis XIV died in 1715, Desportes carried on working for the Regent of France, Philippe, Duc d’Orleans, who was ruling for the infant Louis XV, the grandson of Louis XIV and over time provided many paintings for the royal residences at Versailles, Marly, Meudon, Compiègne and Choisy. It was not just hunting scenes that Desportes had mastered for he also spent time painting still-life works featuring the dead “trophies” brought back from the hunt cleverly arranged alongside floral displays or displays of vegetables lying on a table or even in landscape settings. ... 

Below is an example, titled "Dog with Flowers and Dead Game" by Alexandre-François Desportes (1715).





Below is another work by Desportes, "Still Life with Silver" dated to c.1720.






Our blogger says of the art above: 

This is what one might have seen as a centrepiece on the table if we had attended a royal banquet. At the centre we can see the dragon-handled tureen and vermeil salvers both of which are in the Régence style of 1715-23.

And here is a work along these lines but with a feline twist, for the painting below is also by
Alexandre-Francois Desportes.

April 19, 1782

On April 19, 1782 the Dutch parliament recognised John Adams as an official representative and diplomat of the United States, then of course, a fledgling republic. The revolt against Great Britain was by no means concluded.. What would become the United States was grateful for the honor and power such attention provided. And even now, this event is recalled as Dutch American friendship day: April 19.

And so we remember great Dutch cats on this anniversary. The etching below is the work of Cornelis Visscher. We don't know much about this Dutch artist. Perhaps because he died young: his dates are 1629 to 1658. Perhaps because his contemporaries Vermeer and Rembrandt are towering figures in art history. During his lifetime Visscher was well regarded. He came from a family of artists. The humor and genius of Visscher are apparent in this portrayal of a cat, dated to 1657.

April 18, 1984

The cinematic version of The Bad Seed was released on September 12, 1956.  The theme, the exploration, of the extent to which environment can affect destiny was obviously one of interest to the American public. The original novel, William March's book of the same name was released in 1954 and immediately very successful. The book, play, and movie testify to the extent to which the argument that good parenting produced good children, was both a cliche, and uneasy sentiment in the minds of consumers of public culture mid 20th century. 

Dramatically the issue is presented in a narrative wherein a woman who does not know she herself is the daughter of a murderer, has a child who could be a psychopathic killer. The fact this assumption might NOT be accurate, that bad children only result from bad parenting,  that the scientists might be wrong, is portrayed in The Bad Seed, as a terrifying prospect.

John Lee Mahin (August 23, 1902 to April 18, 1984) made the trek from heartland America (Illinois) to west coast paradise (Santa Monica) , so common a scenario in the United States, in his own life story. He wrote the screenplay version of The Bad Seed. Mahin, a loud supporter of the HUAC's work, made certain that the kid does not escape a just death. In the original the child triumphs over attempted murder, to emerge at the side of her unsuspecting father. In the original version the child exemplifying the triumph of heredity, murders first an old lady by first tempting her out onto an icy stairwell by saying there was a kitten crying outside. Mahin keeps this scenario but places it in Wichita. That might seem an odd choice for locale, but perhaps the choice shows some ambivalence on the writer's part, about his own heartland homeland. assuming of course, environment is a potent force in character.

The motif of a woman who is so helpless without her husband (away on government during most of the movie)  that she must murder their daughter and kill herself is probably an accidental glimpse of the 1950s.

Some of Mahin earlier writing credits are obscure, such as:

Small Town Girl (1936)
Wife vs. Secretary (1936)
The Beast of the City (1932)

The Bad Seed, was not certainly not Mahin's only hit. He is credited as a writer for 

No Time for Sergeants and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, and other memorable films. The Bad Seed was nominated for four academy awards.

Mahin was one of the founders of the Screenwriter's Guild in 1933. This organisation later honored him with a Laurel Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1957.

April 17, 1586

John Ford (April 17, 1586 to probably, 1639 ) was a 17th century English dramatist. Were he not stepping in the shadows of the Elizabethan geniuses he would be better known today. (his play Tis Pity She's a Whore is still recalled). Whereas Shakespeare was concerned with historical psychic realities, Ford seeks to sort out the realities behind human agency in a world beginning to value human rationality in itself as a guide for behavior. The play we quote from was presented at the English court in 1621, and deals with current events, for the play concerns a woman really executed months before, for witchcraft. and John Ford presents her in a sympathetic light. 

Abstractly you could situate Ford's views someplace between thinking that witchcraft is a real threat, and the position on that subject that women accused of this crime must be falsely accused because such a crime was absurd. Actually though, the King was James I and he did believe in witchcraft, so the playwright had to be careful dealing with an event so recent. What Ford did was say the woman practised witchcraft but only after she was falsely accused of using it, so the old woman figured she might as well invoke the devil's help to get revenge. Ford knew that people couldn't really get the devil to hurt other people. Our text below is a dialogue between a simpleton, a saint really, and a dog that is a devil. It is a humorous exchange.In the world of the play, Cuddy, the innocent one, is the only character who cannot be affected by the devil's power. Tom is the name of the dog. Tom is invisible to everyone except the old woman [actually and in Ford's play also, named Elizabeth Sawyer] and Cuddy.

My source for the dialogue below is the play The Witch of Edmonton (1621) available now many places but I used the copy in Volume 3 of The Works of John Ford (1895.)


Dog. Ha, ha, ha, ha!
Let not the world witches or devils condemn;
They follow us, and then we follow them.

....Cuddy Banks.

Cud. I would fain meet with ...[the dog once more] he has had a claw amongst 'em.... A kind cur where he takes, but where he takes not, a dogged rascal; ....[Dog barks.] No! art thou there? [Seeing the Dog] that's Tom's voice, but 'tis not he; this is a dog of another hair, this. Bark, and not speak to me? not Tom, then;there's as much difference betwixt Tom and this as betwixt white and black.

Dog. Hast thou forgot me?

Cud. That's Tom again.... is thy name Tom?

Dog. Whilst I served my old Dame Sawyer 'twas; I'm gone from her now.

Cud. Gone? away with the witch, then, too ! she'll never thrive if thou leavest her; she knows no more how to kill a cow, or a horse, or a sow, without thee, than she does to kill a goose.

Dog. No, she has done killing now, but must be killed for what she has done; she's shortly to be hanged.

Cud. Is she? in my conscience, if she be, 'tis thou hast brought her to the gallows, Tom.

Dog. Right; I served her to that purpose; 'twas part of my wages.

Cud. This was no honest servant's part, by your leave, Tom. This remember, I pray you, between you and I; I entertained you ever as a dog, not as a devil.

Dog. True;

And so I us'd thee doggedly, not devilishly;
I have deluded thee for sport to laugh at:
The wench thou seek'st after thou never spak'st with,
But a spirit in her form, habit, and likeness.
Ha, ha!

Cud. I do not, then, wonder at the change of your garments, if you can enter into shapes of women too.

Dog. Any shape, to blind such silly eyes as thine; but chiefly those coarse creatures, dog or cat, hare, ferret, frog, toad.

Cud. Louse or flea?

Dog. Any poor vermin.
.....

Ford here carries out the logical implications of witchcraft to point to its absurdity. In broader terms Ford is asking us to consider whether anyone is responsible for their own actions, or if free will is a phantasm. Ford may have been aware of the real medieval view of witchcraft. Until Aquinas, in the 13th century, talk of witchcraft was a cause for pity at the deluded speaker. The medieval logic was that god created everything, and that to suggest a devil could affect events was to doubt the deity's power. My own view is that we cannot assume the question of free will versus determinism has been settled by modern thinkers.

And THAT is the question deviling our dramatist here. If there is no free will, how can anyone be condemned for their actions. 

John Ford typically worked in collaboration on his dramas and that was the case with The Witch of Edmonton. The main theme of this story may be sex and real estate. You'll have to read the play to find out why I say that. 

April 15, 1755

April 15, 1755 marks the publication of a dictionary considered a hallmark in lexographical history: The Dictionary of the English Language. The creative and quixotic and monumental work of Samuel Johnson, is one reason this literary giant received in 1762 a pension from the King.

Before the definitions of  "Catagmatick"(the quality of consolidating the parts) and "Catapasm" (medicinal powders) and "Cataphonicks" (the doctrine of reflected sounds), and after, "casual'"(accidental) we find

"cat": "a domestic animal, reckoned by naturalists as the lowest order of the leonine species."

Samuel Johnson was a famous cat lover. Is this reflected in his definition? Flipping over some pages we find the entry for lion defines the leonine reference as to:" the fiercest and most magnanimous of four-footed beasts." When Johnson references the leonine dimension of the domestic cat he may be expressing the objective reality of felines. 

The difference between the definitions of Johnson and Noah Webster, discussed yesterday,  is more than a difference of centuries or continents. It is a difference of hearts.

April 14, 1828

Cat
1. A name applied to certain species of carnivorous quadrupeds, of the genus Felis. The domestic cat needs no description. It is a deceitful animal, and when enraged, extremely spiteful. It is kept in houses, chiefly for the purpose of catching rats and mice. The wild cat is much larger than the domestic cat. It is a strong, ferocious animal, living in the forest, and very destructive to poultry and lambs.
The wild cat of Europe is of the same species with the domestic cat; the catamount, of North America, is much larger and a distinct species.

The above is the full and exact entry under the 1st meaning of "cat" in the 1828,  in the first edition of  the now famous,  A Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster, copyrighted on April 14, 1828. Actually I used a reprint from 1832, but a reprint would not have changed. 

I dream of a time when driverless cars are very common, that we could stop all use of pesticides, and rely on cats again for their age-old job.  

Cat  A name applied to certain species of carnivorous quadrupeds, of the genus Felis. 

The domestic cat needs no description. 

It is a deceitful animal, and when enraged, extremely spiteful. 

It is kept in houses, chiefly for the purpose of catching rats and mice.

I wonder how many other words in Webster's first dictionary include in their definition "needs no description."

April 13, 1695

Jean de la Fontaine (July 8,  1621 to April 13, 1695) wrote stories based on originals which were sometimes far away in time and place. It was the manner of his telling which has secured his fame. His Fables are classics of French literature, and some of his most famous stories feature cats.

The author himself was an interesting sort. He and his wife lived apart and seemed the happier for it. Here are biographical bits about La Fontaine from The British Cyclopedia of Biography: Containing the Lives of Distinguished Men of All Ages and Countries, with Portraits, Residences, Autographs, and Monuments, (1837), edited by Charles Frederick Partington

...Though his disposition was exceedingly averse to confinement or restraint of any kind, yet, to oblige his parents, he consented to marry;-...[Later the] duchess of Bouillon, .... niece to Cardinal Mazarine, being banished to Chateau-Thierry, Fontaine was presented to her, and he followed...[the duchess] when she was recalled to Paris...[He] soon procured... a pension, which he enjoyed in great comfort without troubling himself at all about his wife, or, perhaps, even reflecting that he had one... [Later] he was admitted as a gentleman usher to Henrietta of England; but the death of this princess put an end to all his court hopes. After this, among other favours from the most illustrious persons in the kingdom, the generous and witty Madame de la Sabliere furnished him with an apartment and all necessaries in her house; [Madame de la Sabliere] ... one day, ....declared that she then kept but three animals in her house, which were her dog, her cat, and La Fontaine.....

April 12, 1916

Beverly Cleary (April 12, 1916), the noted children's author, has written multiple memoirs, of which we mention "My Own Two Feet: A Memoir" (1996).  Cleary, trained as a librarian, has had a book made into a movie. Her story. Ramona and Her Mother won the 1981 National Book Award, in the category of Children's Book, Paperback Fiction. 

From  her website we learn

Beverly Cleary was named a "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress. This witty and warm author is truly an international favorite. Mrs. Cleary's books appear in over twenty countries in fourteen languages and her characters, including Henry Huggins, Ellen Tebbits, Otis Spofford, and Beezus and Ramona Quimby, as well as Ribsy, Socks, and Ralph S. Mouse, have delighted children for generations. 

Here is our author with a cat which may well have inspired her book Socks (1973.) Note also below that,  another picture we include, which is certainly, a portrayal of the eponymous Socks.

We note Cleary's librarianly talents served her well. Her husband died in 2004. Cleary lives now in Carmel.

April 11, 172

The poem for which we remember Christopher Smart (April 11, 1722 to May 21. 1771)  was not made public during his lifetime, not public until 1939, so almost two hundred years. During his lifetime Smart was a well-known figure in English literary life. Samuel Johnson, hearing complaints about how Smart asked strangers in the city streets to stop and pray with him, said he would as soon have Smart's company as that of anyone else. Here are some of the verses of "Jubilate Agno":

...

For by stroking of him I have found out electricity.
For I perceived God’s light about him both wax and fire.
For the Electrical fire is the spiritual substance, which God sends from heaven to sustain the bodies both of man and beast.
For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.
For, tho he cannot fly, he is an excellent clamberer.
For his motions upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadruped.
For he can tread to all the measures upon the music.
For he can swim for life.
For he can creep.

Thus Christopher Smart details his amazing cat Jeffrey. I should like to clamber intellectually as well as Smart does. 

April 9, 1821

Charles Baudelaire (April 9, 1821 to August 31, 1867) the symbolist poet, was typically French in his adoration of cats and of women. But his ardor was not just metaphorical: he saw the unique beauty of the feline.

Here are several English translations of the first stanza of his poem "Le Chat." First, the original:

Le Chat

Viens, mon beau chat, sur mon coeur amoureux;
Retiens les griffes de ta patte,
Et laisse-moi plonger dans tes beaux 
Mêlés de métal et d'agate.Roy Campbell, in Poems of Baudelaire (1952) put it this way

The CatCome, superb cat, to my amorous heart;
Hold back the talons of your paws,
Let me gaze into your beautiful eyes
Of metal and agate.And translated into English by William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (1954)

The Cat

Come, my fine cat, against my loving heart;
Sheathe your sharp claws, and settle.
And let my eyes into your pupils dart
Where agate sparks with metal.

And as translated by Geoffrey Wagner, Selected Poems of Charles Baudelaire (1974)

The Cat

My beautiful cat, come onto my heart full of love;
Hold back the claws of your paw,
And let me plunge into your adorable eyes
Mixed with metal and agate.

The association of cats and women is quite ancient, and Baudelaire made it fresh, again, by focusing on the feline.

April 8, 1913

In another post I mentioned R(obert) C(harles) Zaehner: The dates for R. C. Zaehner are April 8 1913 to November 24, 1974. From 1952 to 1974 he was Spalding Professorship of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford University. His earlier career in espionage was linked to his theological studies through his exceptional command of Asiatic and middle eastern languages.

Another cat reference from the writings of this prodigious and talented scholar occurs in a book known in the US as Zen, Drugs, and Mysticism, (1972) (also known as Drugs, Mysticism and Make-believe in some editions) Here he writes of

... a fascinating case involving what Jung called 'individuation' in which psychedelic visions, - not mystical experiences - take the place of dreams in what seems to be a classical Jungian analysis. In this particular case God does appear --as a lion! -
while the subject himself is transformed into a tiger. Now, with all respect to the authors, in the literature of religious mysticism God simply does not appear as a lion of however 'awesome [a] stature and beauty', nor is the mystic himself turned ....[a tiger].

I am not aware of Zaehner mentioning anywhere about the jungle that is academic politics, but I did think of C. S. Lewis's Narnia when I read the above.  Not that a fairy tale makes the same claims of a mystic vision. My association is frivolous.

April 7, 1997

Here is an excerpt from "Madrigal For A Dead Cat Named Julia" ,written by Frank O'Hara about the cat of his friend, George Montgomery. Montgomery who died April 7, 1997,  had had to rush the pet to an animal hospital, (sometime in the 1950s) and apparently the pet did not come home.

O, this is no medicine to
drive away fear or ennui my cat
you have typhus and must die!
You are not just guilty of the castle rats' deaths
but you ate them afterwards my sick one.

O'Hara's lines are similar to a bawdy poem Montgomery himself wrote, about a cat. It might have been Julia. Here is an excerpt from Montgomery's poem, published in Moonblood: Poems (1967)

...
Cat, you said you ate at Pound's nuts

...
Oh cat, you are six nights nuts in an Oriental Orgy!!

Presumably those were happier days for Julia. Not that I know, I have to leave some puzzles for future scholars.

George Montgomery was an museum curator as well as poet. According to the title of his New York Times obituary, he was  a "Poet, Photographer And Curator," who died at the age of  73.   Montgomery, according to the obit was 

"A witty, vividly perceptive poet...," Mr. Montgomery collaborated with Mr. Wagoner,[his partner]  a choreographer and performer, on many of his dances, sometimes performing with Mr. Wagoner's company as a narrator. ....

Born in Berlin, Conn., Mr. Montgomery entered Harvard University at 15 and graduated, after service in the Coast Guard, with a degree in philosophy....

...[H]is [photographic] work was exhibited in Boston galleries. He also designed posters for Paul Taylor and his dance company.

He worked with the Poet's Theater in New York City in the mid-1950's and acted in several productions at the theater, among them Frank O'Hara's ''Change Your Bedding'' and John Ashbery's ''Compromise.'' He was an active member of the group of Abstract Expressionist artists, writers and film makers who met regularly at the Cedar Tavern in Greenwich Village.

An authority on early American art and antiques, Mr. Montgomery was a director of the Museum of American Folk Art and the Asia House Gallery and a curator for the Museum of Modern Art. ....

There are many people of the same name in history. Little though, has been written about our George Montgomery, and so I thought the detail warranted.

April 6 , 1943

Brian P. Levack, (born April 6 1943) graduated with a Ph.D from Yale in 1970. He taught (teaches) subsequently at the University of Texas (Austin) history department. He married Nancy Buecker (1966) and their two sons are now grown: Christopher is a sculptor; and Andrew is a public health professional. 

The information in this post came from the UT website and Burnt Orange Britannia: Adventures in History and the Arts, edited by William Roger Louis (2006). The latter volume notes that Levack was raised a Catholic and now describes himself as agnostic.

Levack has been quoted as saying about his background, that he "grew up in a family of teachers in the New York metropolitan area. From his father, a professor of French history, he acquired a love for studying the past, and he knew from an early age that he too would become a historian."

Here is his bibliography, starting with the books he wrote:

The Civil Lawyers in England, 1603-1641: A Political Study. (1973)

The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. (1987,  3rd ed. 2006)

The Formation of the British State: England, Scotland and the Union, 1603-1707. (1987)

Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (with Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra and Roy Porter). [The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, vol. 5. Edited by Stuart Clark and Bengt Ankarloo.] (1999)

Gender and Witchcraft. (2001).
The West: Encounters and Transformations (with Edward Muir, Michael Maas, and Meredith Veldman).  (2004)

Witch-Hunting in Scotland: Law, Politics and Religion. (2008)

That is most of the books he wrote, and here are those he edited:

The Jacobean Union: Six Tracts of 1604. Co-edited with Bruce Galloway. (1985)

Articles on Witchcraft, Magic and Demonology: A Twelve-Volume Anthology of Scholarly Articles. (1992)

New Perspectives on Witchcraft, Magic and Demonology: A Six-Volume Anthology of Articles.  (2001)

The Witchcraft Sourcebook. (2004)

In the latest book he authored, The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism in the Christian West (2013), he wrote  that "accusations of witchcraft gradually devolved onto illiterate women who were viewed as sexual slaves of the Devil...." Later, that "Sometimes the possessing demons were ...identified as animals as when four of the five demons that inhabited the young French demoniac Loyse Maillat were identified as Wolf, Cat, Dog and Griffon." Loyse was an 8 year old when she came to the attention of authorities in 1598. 

Another recent book he wrote, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (2013) is said to be about "the great age of witch-hunting in Europe (and also in colonial America), between 1450 and 1750."  I mention this because it is so rare for scholars to appreciate that witchcraft, as we view it today, is a modern phenomenon, not medieval.  I don't know if Levack focuses on this curious mislabeling. 

April 5, 2005

Saul Bellow (June 10, 1915 to April 5, 2005) had a network of friends which included much of the 20th century literary firmament. And, many corners now considered obscure: he admired and visited Owen Barfield. It was Barfield who introduced Bellow to anthroposophy, the name for Rudolf Steiner's ideas. Barfield had been a member of the Inklings, that cozy Oxford pub meeting crew that included C. S. Lewis and Tolkein. Bellow's public life then, made a glamorous and complex, thought-provoking network.This is clear from the book Saul Bellow: Letters, edited by Benjamin Taylor (2010).

And that book is the source of our conclusion that Bellow's messy private life rarely included cats. He said "if I led a settled life I'd acquire cats and dogs, but Alexandra and I knock about so much that I have to limit myself to houseplants." Somebody needs to make an infographic of Bellow and his friends.

April 4, 2013

It hardly seems possible Roger Ebert (June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) has been gone a year. Siskel missed the whole cat internet thing. Would he have given Ebert's choice a thumbs up though? The "Henri" cat video people are saying that you should 

See Why Roger Ebert Called This The Best Cat Video Ever Made! We quote:

If you haven’t seenHenri 2, Paw de Deux yet, this video won a Golden Kitty Award! What’s that? It’s only the top prize for “Best Cat Video on the Internet” at the Internet Cat Video Film Festival (a real thing.)  What’s Henri up to now? Just more existential thoughts, his utter disgust at those who live with him, and an ending that’s completely unexpected. 

April 3, 1953

Sandra Boynton (born April 3, 1953) is a successful artist most famous for her children's books (The Going to Bed Book, now with its companion app on a NookColor tablet) and music albums. (Philadelphia Chickens,) and it is easy to forget her coffee cup cats. In her words, quoted in a New York Times article on her, September 14, 2013 :"People tend to identify me with my cats, but all of my animal characters look good-natured and bewildered — and that’s a self-portrait of me."

Her dad taught English, she majored in English at Yale, and that might explain the facility with which she found commercial success without losing an artistic purity. I am suggesting a certain confidence and stability behind her choices is an important aspect of her career. Kind of guessing about this, but I find her art and life both unique.

April 2, 1827

The biographical note below comes from an article on the Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (April 2, 1827 to September 7, 1910) . 

                                                             

Hunt, [was]... the son of a warehouse manager. Throughout his life he was a devout Christian. He was also serious minded, & lacking in a sense of humour. Hunt joined the Royal Academy Schools in 1844, where he met Millais & Rossetti, &, in fact brought them together. In 1854 Hunt decided to visit the Holy Land, to see for himself the genuine background for the religious pictures he intended to paint. The first tangible results of this journey were two paintings, “The Scapegoat,’ & ( ‘ The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple,’ which was exhibited nationally to great acclaim in 1860, & sold for the sum of 5,500 guineas, Hunt was advised on the price by Charles Dickens.) This sale, which included the copyright established the painter both financially, & artisticly. Hunt’s famous picture ‘The Light of the World,’ was one of the greatest Christian images of the 19th & early 20th centuries. Hunt worked at night on this picture, in an unheated shelter in a wood near Ewell in Surrey. ... In his last years Hunt became the patriach of Victorian painting. He was awarded the Order of Merit by King Edward VII in 1905. Hunt married firstly Fanny Waugh, & after her death in childbirth her younger sister Edith. He was also a far more attractive personality than is generally supposed, with a wide range of interests, which included horse racing & boxing. He died in 1910.

Pre-Raphaelitism is an abstractly interesting response to modernity. Rather than intellectually confront the issues raised by the success of modern science, these artists chose to immerse themselves in a former historical period. The poor quality of much of this art perhaps reflects this lack of intellectual rigor.  In its time the art was well received, And I certainly cannot fault Hunt's study below, titled "study of a sleeping cat."

April 1, 1961

Pebbles is a Turkish Van cat. That breed is fluffy and mainly but not completely, white. Pebbles sometimes has to board because her family travels. The last time we know this happened Pebbles stayed in London with a family of two other cats and resident old lady, and dined on her regular expensive diet of fish and chicken. Here is a picture of Pebbles:

Her mom is Susan Boyle, (born April 1, 1961) whose sudden fame made for a rocky time but things seem to be much improved. At first Boyle didn't think she could tour because it would mean leaving her cat. Now Boyle on stage can crack jokes about Pebbles. Both of them continue to astound.