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History of John Bull By: John Arbuthnot (1667-1735) |
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By John Arbuthnot, M.D.
INTRODUCTION BY HENRY MORLEY. This is the book which fixed the name and character of John Bull on
the English people. Though in one part of the story he is thin and long
nosed, as a result of trouble, generally he is suggested to us as "ruddy
and plump, with a pair of cheeks like a trumpeter," an honest tradesman,
simple and straightforward, easily cheated; but when he takes his
affairs into his own hands, acting with good plain sense, knowing very
well what he wants done, and doing it. The book was begun in the year 1712, and published in four successive
groups of chapters that dealt playfully, from the Tory point of view,
with public affairs leading up to the Peace of Utrecht. The Peace urged
and made by the Tories was in these light papers recommended to the
public. The last touches in the parable refer to the beginning of the
year 1713, when the Duke of Ormond separated his troops from those of
the Allies and went to receive Dunkirk as the stipulated condition of
cessation of arms. After the withdrawal of the British troops, Prince
Eugene was defeated by Marshal Villars at Denain, and other reverses
followed. The Peace of Utrecht was signed on the 31st of March. Some chapters in this book deal in like manner, from the point of view
of a good natured Tory of Queen Anne's time, with the feuds of the
day between Church and Dissent. Other chapters unite with this topic
a playful account of another chief political event of the time the
negotiation leading to the Act of Union between England and Scotland,
which received the Royal Assent on the 6th of March, 1707; John Bull
then consented to receive his "Sister Peg" into his house. The Church,
of course, is John Bull's mother; his first wife is a Whig Parliament,
his second wife a Tory Parliament, which first met in November, 1710. This "History of John Bull" began with the first of its four parts
entitled "Law is a Bottomless Pit, exemplified in the case of Lord
Strutt, John Bull, Nicholas Frog, and Lewis Baboon, who spent all they
had in a Law suit." For Law put War the War of the Spanish Succession;
for lawyers, soldiers; for sessions, campaigns; for verdicts, battles
won; for Humphry Hocus the attorney, Marlborough the general; for law
expenses, war expenses; and for aim of the whole, to aid the Tory policy
of peace with France. A second part followed, entitled "John Bull in his
Senses;" the third part was called "John Bull still in his Senses;" and
the fourth part, "Lewis Baboon turned Honest, and John Bull Politician."
The four parts were afterwards arranged into two, as they are here
reprinted, and published together as "The History of John Bull," with a
few notes by the author which sufficiently explain its drift. The author was John Arbuthnot, a physician, familiar friend of Pope and
Swift, whom Pope addressed as "Friend to my life, which did not you prolong,
The world had wanted many an idle song;" and of whom Swift said, that "he has more wit than we all have, and his
humanity is equal to his wit." "If there were a dozen Arbuthnots in the
world," said Swift, "I would burn 'Gulliver's Travels.'" Arbuthnot was of Swift's age, born in 1667, son of a Scotch Episcopal
clergyman, who lost his living at the Revolution. His sons all trained
in High Church principles left Scotland to seek their fortunes; John
came to London and taught mathematics. He took his degree of Doctor
of Medicine at St. Andrews in 1696; found use for mathematics in his
studies of medicine; became a Fellow of the Royal Society; and being by
chance at Epsom when Queen Anne's husband was taken ill, prescribed for
him so successfully that he was made in 1705 Physician Extraordinary,
and upon the occurrence of a vacancy in 1709 Physician in Ordinary,
to the Queen. Swift calls him her favourite physician. In 1710 he was
admitted Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. That was Arbuthnot's
position in 1712 13 when, at the age of forty five, he wrote this
"History of John Bull... Continue reading book >>
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Literature |
Politics |
Satire |
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